A bizarre creature stood in the middle of the street, one unlike anything I’d seen while exploring the woods with Janine. Its body looked like a decaying tree, upturned such that its many twisted branches formed legs that crawled along the ground like a gigantic wooden spider. While not as tall as the pines just outside the city, it still stood at triple the height of the average person.

  This monster was no ordinary being—it bristled with magic, a purple energy orbiting its gnarled limbs and trunk. I couldn’t feel touch like a living being, but I could feel this magic radiating outward like a steady heat. From two knotholes near where its magic was most concentrated, piercing white eyes darted back and forth, scanning the street and buildings. It was looking for something—for anything that might prevent it from advancing further into the town.

  Janine gasped when she looked up from the book, dropping it to the floor. She wrapped her arms tightly around Evelyn and staggered backwards until she bumped into a shelf, causing its contents to ctter and jingle. “It’s a Py’riel”, Janine said, barely above a whisper. “Don’t talk, don’t move.”

  The Py’riel. Tobias had mentioned them before—earlier that day, even. Found throughout the Berin Mountains, they were the creatures responsible for the total destruction of multiple cities along the pass routes, though Py’riel were rarely sighted this far west. The Quinn’s Peak unit of Passguards—protectors of the towns and travelers throughout the mountains—st fought the Py’riel over ten years ago, nearly annihiting both Py’riel and Passguards alike. The sacrifice of the Passguards, including Janine’s father, brought years of stability to the mountains. The Py’riel faded from nascent threat to distant memory back then.

  And yet, one stood before us that day, while anyone who might be able to do something about it had gone to the mayor’s town hall—possibly to discuss a sighting of this very thing.

  The tree monster’s limbs creaked and groaned as it dragged itself through the snow, maniputed to warp and bend beyond their natural limit by the magic contained inside. The creature lumbered to the buildings across the street, facing the bakery. It examined the building, running a knotted branch along the siding of neatly-trimmed wooden pnks and logs. What in all of Terra was it doing?

  Janine and Evelyn stayed as still as they could, more like a tree than the beast that roamed outside. “Please, just go,” Janine whispered with a trembling voice, over and over. “Just turn around and go.” Evelyn squirmed under Janine’s tight grip; she didn’t understand the fuss about this strange tree creature like her older cousin. While I knew the dangers posed by the Py’riel, I didn’t truly understand either until the Py’riel revealed its frightening power.

  Along the branch that touched the bakery’s wall, motes of purple light gathered and swirled, spiraling forward along the monster’s limb until they collided with the side of the building. Upon contact, the violet energy burrowed into the wood until the bakery’s wall burst into a purple fme unlike anything I’d seen before. I’d spent enough time in the Denholms’ magic shop to think I understood magic, but the raw, primal power behind that fire as it spread at incredible speed to consume the front facade of the bakery overshadowed any other magic I’d witnessed up to that point. Even when it came to whatever magic slept within me, I’d never imagined a power anything close to this.

  This Py’riel must have pnned for this. It had chosen the perfect opportunity to destroy the town, unopposed, while its citizens were distracted.

  Evelyn’s eyes widened at the violet fme grew higher along the building. No longer enthralled by the strange sight of a walking tree, she did what any little girl would do in her situation—she screamed as loud as she could. Janine covered Evelyn’s mouth to muffle the sound, but the damage was done. The Py’riel spun around with frightening agility, its strange white eyes fixating on the girls in the window.

  A sense of dread washed over me as the Py’riel inched closer. This monstrous creature threatened to take away my home and those I cared about with a simple touch.

  Run, girls! You can’t just stay here! My silent warnings fell on deaf ears. Could I really do nothing in this moment? Janine and Evelyn needed my help, nobody else was coming to their aid.

  It had to be me. I had to find something deep inside. And as more and more Py’riel’s eyes shone in the distance down the road, I knew it had to be now.