When a bear, driven by rage, or scarcity, or territorial decline, is forced to prey not on its harmless fare of nuts, and berries, and scavenged meat, but on humans, it becomes a barghest. A creature of unceasing hunger and rage, its existence reduced only to the insane pursuit of those two drives.
"Jorge." Jorge shifted in his hammock, exhaled fitfully. He wrapped a hand round his sleeping head, hunched his shoulders, dozed on. Beside, the speaker, a short sailor in cornrows, moaned. "Jorge, get up. There's something wrong." She seized the hand, yanked on it. Jorge sputtered awake. He blinked torpidly, sniffed. "Margot," he mumbled, sniffed again. He shuddered, […]
Iron creaked. Rust flaked from hinges stiff from age and wrapping ivy. Small hands pushed into the pitted bars, shoved. There was a huff, an exasperated kick. "Heike," grumbled Karl, turning from the stuck gate. Green light dappled him, shone through thick oaks. "Help. It's all stuck." Some ways back, Heike looked up. A red […]