Leon's gaze moved from the crystal to Zoe's determined face.
Zoe stepped forward without hesitating. "I'll create a distraction over there." She glanced back at Leon as she moved. "Grab the crystal when the beast awakens."
'I should do what?' Leon screamed in his head, blinking at her.
A short laugh left him. "You said what?"
"Grab the crystal while I keep the beast busy once it stirs," Zoe said in a voice that floated after her like a joke without a punchline.
Leon's heart hammered against his chest as he watched how dust bounced upward from the speed Zoe was already moving with.
"No," he said in a voice that needed no argument, then rushed ahead and blocked her path. "Grab the crystal while I distract the beast."
Zoe looked at him, then smiled. "Sure. But I'll still make sure your family gets some token after I walk out of here."
The words sat in Leon's head for a moment. When the meaning landed, his face went foolish.
'What will I even use to create that disturbance?' He stared at her smile. 'For once, I have to put all fears aside and do it.'
"Are you done deciding?" Zoe asked mid-chuckle.
"Yeah." Leon lowered his gaze to his palms, then raised it. "I'll grab the crystal. Just distract the thing."
"Better." Zoe tapped his shoulder and turned toward a pile of broken stones and trees.
The moment she glanced back at Leon, Leon shifted his gaze and headed straight for the beast's nest.
'What have I even gotten myself into?' He said in his head the moment he stopped next to the nest.
He closed his eyes and breathed once. "Please let it work," he said low.
Just as Leon pressed his palms together like a monk at prayer, Zoe's were already raised.
When Zoe flicked her finger once, a faint pink light splashed then disappeared. After the second flick she turned toward Leon with a sharp gaze. "NOW!"
The pink light transformed into a sphere as Zoe hurled it against the raised stone. In a flash, a brilliant white light exploded and tore through the silent valley with an ear-splitting roar.
The stone scattered around, then began hitting the ground like rain.
The colossal beast's eyes cracked open. Its eight legs straightened as it rose.
An ear-splitting shriek tore out of its wide mouth.
"Grab it now!" Zoe screamed when she saw the crystal untouched in the nest.
Dust bounced off Leon's boots as he ran.
A strange relief washed over Leon as he grabbed the crystal and saw his reflection in it. Just as his fingers tightened around its edges, a faint golden light splashed into it and transformed the blue glow to gold for a split second.
Zoe stopped running for just a second and shifted glances from the crystal in Leon's hands to his face. Behind her eyes, her expression changed like a door being carefully shut.
Then the ground began shaking, and the relief vanished.
The beast was already close. Though Zoe had fooled it with the destruction, it wasn't stupid.
In its many eyes, it found the human with the glowing pink light, dismissed her, and charged straight at the one holding the crystal.
Leon clutched the crystal to his chest like a second heart as he ran. But no matter how fast he was, the beast kept closing in.
He stumbled and hid behind a giant dead tree. The thought of escape barely formed before the beast sliced it in half above him.
Slime splashed across his face as the beast screamed at him. Leon pushed himself up and doubled his steps. Somewhere behind him, Zoe drew the beast's attention with another blast.
'I'm going to make it.' Thoughts loomed in his head as he moved in a zigzag.
When he reached a collapsed wall and ducked behind it, he let out a sharp breath. "I've finally escaped it."
For a split second nothing was heard. But the moment a hot, foul breath struck the back of his neck, his world slowed.
Leon stumbled and fell to the ground like a sack of stones, blinking hastily.
'I will not die here.' He screamed it in his head, then tried to push himself up. The beast slammed him back down with one of its front legs.
When both its legs raised above him, Leon threw his left arm up in a useless attempt to protect himself. It saved his heart from the jagged leg, but did not save the bones in his arm.
The beast's two front legs slashed beside his head and drove into the earth as he scrambled backward across the ground with a fast-pounding heart.
When it attacked again, Leon shifted the crystal to his left arm, then blocked with the rusted rod in his right.
On the second strike, the rod shattered into two pieces.
Leon loosened his grip on the remaining rod and covered his face as the beast lunged a third time.
As soon as its legs grazed Leon's hair, the golden light erupted from his chest and blasted against the beast's.
The force sent it crashing into its own nest.
Leon scrambled to his feet and ran as if it were his last day to live. No one crossed his mind, not even Zoe. He just ran.
When he finally slowed, no longer hearing the beast's cries, he bent down and gasped. When he turned, Zoe was walking toward him calmly, like someone with nothing to lose.
"You have a strong and strange power," Zoe said when she reached Leon's side. She watched him for a moment, then bypassed him, brushing a finger across his shoulder.
'I almost died and you're saying I have strong power?' Leon screamed in his head as he watched her drift past him. 'Aren't you human enough to have sympathy?'
In his head, he had already beaten Zoe senselessly.
When Zoe noticed his silence, she turned and laughed heartily.
Leon took a slow breath before following her. Even as they left the valley behind, his mind kept replaying the beast's spider-like head with many eyes.
He said nothing nor even glanced at Zoe. The only sounds that echoed between them were those of their boots hitting the ground, the leaves rustling overhead, and the air that swept past every few minutes.
After a few miles, they stumbled upon a cave that had the shape of a giant petrified skull. Zoe went left. Leon went right. They scanned it in silence.
When they met back at the entrance, they had the same posture, the same hands, the same walk. Neither of them said a word about it.
Leon sat at the entrance while Zoe went inside. He stared at the swirling glow in the crystal, the way it moved like something alive.
He raised it and let the moonlight pass through. 'Is something living in this thing?' He lowered it slowly.
He set it on his lap and checked his arms. Then tiny whispers drifted out from inside the cave.
Leon got to his feet and went in, the crystal clutched at his side.
He stopped when he saw Zoe sitting on the ground, lips moving, forming silent words as if someone stood right in front of her.
'Ah, why did I even come in? I thought it was one of those beasts.' He let out a low breath and sat against the wall a fair distance from her.
After a long while, Zoe stood and came toward him.
"That light," she said, shifting her eyes between his arms and his face. "What bloodline are you from?"
Leon didn't answer at once. He simply sat there with a blank face, almost inhuman. Then, when the words echoed again in his head, he looked at her. "I'm from a human bloodline. Why ask?"
Zoe stared at him, then giggled. "Dummy, we're all from the human bloodline. What specific family are you from?"
"I heard my dad speak of that once," Leon said and squinted at the floor. "But I never got the chance to ask more about it."
When he lifted his gaze to Zoe's, he saw genuine pity settle in her eyes.
"Sorry," Zoe said softly. "But your power. It's raw. Almost like something that had been long abandoned."
Before Leon could ask about what she meant, a high-pitched wail tore through the air.
When they turned and watched outside the cave, they saw a wolf beast rushing toward them.
As it got closer, chills ran down Leon's spine. It was the same lead wolf Zoe had already killed.