"Don't get comfortable. We aren't staying long," Riley snapped, her voice tight with an edge of desperation. "We need to figure out where you found this thing before we do anything else."
I set the Scald-Stalker down on the cold stone floor. As soon as its feet touched the ground, its body shimmered back into view, the translucent glass-like skin turning back into solid, downy fur.
"Like I told you, I went to find food by the garden and—"
Riley slammed her fist onto the table. The inkwell rattled, and her quill rolled off the edge, splashing dark spots onto the floor. She didn't say a word, just muttered a string of curses under her breath as she snatched a rolled parchment from a basket nearby. She smoothed it out over the war table with a violent flick of her wrists.
Her finger stabbed down on a town marked with a jagged black skull. The Fence of Beguard.
"The people there are sick to the core, Flyn. If this beast came from them, you haven't just found a pet—you've started a war." She looked at me, her eyes hard and demanding. "You'd better pray King Leon never finds out about this, or your head will be on a pike before sunset."
Sweat pricked at my hairline. My mind drifted back to the conversation that had started all of this—the words my father had whispered before I left.
"Find a hairy beast and bring it back home. If anyone stops you, tell them you were sent by me."
* * *
[Earlier that day]
The house smelled of baking bread and searing Bigor-steak—meat from horned cows twice the size of a man and quadruple the price of a normal meal. My mother was at the hearth, her shoulders slumped with the weight of our finances.
"When are you going to find a job, Flyn?" she asked, her hands rhythmic as she stirred the batter. "The war is over. Surely there's work in the city."
"Mom, I told you," I sighed, the frustration bubbling up for the hundredth time that week. "I want to be a Beast Tamer. They haven't even finished rebuilding the training grounds yet."
She cut me a sharp glare from the corner of her eye.
"Do not raise your tone with your mother, boy."
The deep, resonant voice belonged to my father. He had been a brilliant scientist before the war, but King Leon hadn't taken kindly to his refusal to participate in the biological weapon programs. Leon had stripped him of his title, his lab, and his dignity. Now, we lived on the edge of poverty, supported entirely by my mother's grueling shifts.
My mother softened, walking over to press a kiss to my father's cheek. "No, honey, it's fine. I know I've been nagging him, but he should be allowed to follow his dream."
I watched them, realizing that despite the hardship and the lost status, they only seemed to lean on each other more.
My father stepped toward me, his hand heavy on my shoulder. "Our problems will be solved if you can find the beast I told you about. It's deep in the forest, beyond the reach of the Ubigor Tree. Go."
I didn't argue. I grabbed the beast and the gloves, pressed the crystal against the cracked stone wall she pointed to, and felt the world dissolve into a shimmering yellow portal. A moment later, I was standing in the village square, the Great Tree of Ubigor towering above me in the moonlight.