The monster was also dead, or very near it and would be soon, lying in a rapidly growing pool of blood.
I’d lost my way out.
I’d lost my protector, too.
Somewhere in this realm, the Lord Master was hunting me, tracking me by a mystical brand he’d etched on my skull.
Somewhere in this realm was an IFP that contained a dolmen that would take me back to Ireland. Unfortunately, I had no idea which one it was, or in which direction, or how many there were to choose from on this world.
My pouch of stones was still attached to the monster’s horns, and the tatters of my sweater were still tied by its sleeves to a leg. When it was dead, I would reclaim the stones. That was a plus of sorts in the ledger of my life, assuming I overlooked that they were really nothing more than a slow boat to hell.
The monster gurgled wetly and seemed to deflate.
I waited a few moments, picked up a stick, took a cautious step forward, and poked it.
There was no reaction. I poked harder, then nudged it with my foot.
I tested the spear in its back, jostling its wound. Again, there was no reaction.
It was definitely dead.
I crouched beside it and had begun to untie my pouch when suddenly its horns softened and melted into a river that flowed past its head, puddling like an oil slick on blood.
I snatched my pouch from its matted hair.
The shape of its head began to change.
Webs and talons vanished.
Matted locks became hair.
I stumbled backward, shaking my head. “No,” I said.
It continued to change. Slate-gray skin lightened.
“No,” I insisted.
My denial had no effect. It continued to transform. Height diminished. Mass decreased. It became what it was.
What it had been all along.
I began to hyperventilate. Squatting, I rocked back and forth in a posture of grief as old as time.
“No!” I screamed.
I’d thought I’d lost everything.
I hadn’t.
I stared at the person who lay dead on the floor of the forest.
The person I’d helped kill.
Now I’d lost everything.