Jacqueline stood at the edge of the ruin, overlooking the mud road. Loid and Jackie weren’t far, the former holding one of his javelins at the ready as he carefully listened to his surroundings, the latter standing beside him and scanning their surroundings with earnest determination.

Jacqueline: “Damn him, running off like that…” She grumbled, one hand on the hilt of a dagger on her belt.

Jackie glanced at their mother, then turned a curious gaze up to Loid. “Are we gonna have to run?”

Loid: “If it’s dangerous. Al will be back soon.”

Jackie: “But Al said it smelt like it was dead. Isn’t that good?”

Loid: “A dead monster means something worse killed it. If it’s too much for us to handle, we’ll have to turn around.”

The child nodded in understanding. A moment later they raised their head to pose another question, but Loid held out a hand, silencing them.

Loid: “Sh. Heard something.” He spoke in a half-whisper, just loud enough for Jacqueline to hear, then gestured toward the collapsed structure that made up the brunt of the ruin in which they resided.

The three of them stood in tense silence. Jacqueline slowly stepped backwards to the others, flipping her eyes between the ruin and the road.

After a few moments, the sound came again, and they all heard it this time—a faint shuffling. It was followed by a series of quick clicks, the sound of nails scratching at stone.

Loid stepped sideways to take cover behind a pillar, grabbing Jackie by the shoulder to pull them along with him, pressing them close against his legs. Seeing this, Jacqueline quickly followed suit, bounding behind another pillar with quickened, quiet steps.

Loid held his breath as the scratching continued for a few moments more. When it finally came to an end, he carefully peeked around the edge of the pillar.

The creature stood atop the ruins. It was no more than two feet tall, its skin a pale, patchy brown. Its torso was plump, its head large and bug-eyed with huge, floppy ears falling down either side and a few strands of hair protruding from the top. Its limbs were thin and wiry, appearing far too small to hold up its rounded body. Its fingers bore jagged nails, and its toes were long, making its feet almost indistinguishable from its hands. A ragged, stained loincloth hung loosely around its hips.

The Krimling cast its gaze across the stone porch of the ruin, letting out a few dissatisfied clicks and scratching its elliptic head. Its eyes eventually fixated on the remains of the group’s campfire, and its mouth contorted into a twisted grin.

It looked over its shoulder, glancing a few times between the world behind it and the fire. Its smile quickly fell to a frown, and it let out a long, frustrated squeal, vigorously scratching its head with both hands, its nails drawing a few drops of blood. The pain seemed to grant it decisiveness, and it leapt forward, tumbling off the collapsed roof of the ruin.

The Krimling hit the pavement with a pained grunt, rolling over a few times until its body was left splayed out flat on the ground. It hopped up to its feet, teetering on one foot for a moment before whirling around and scampering over to the fire, muttering excitedly as it examined the scene.

Its chattering was cut short as a javelin slammed through its head, whisking its small body along as the end of the spear embedded into a stone wall. The creature fell limp, dead on the spot, its blood splattered across the ground and the wall.

Three Humans let out instinctual sighs of relief, and Loid hastily ran to the creature’s corpse to pry his javelin free from the wall.

Jackie: “Are we safe..?” They turned over to Jacqueline, their soft voice shaky, unsure. “It seemed… really weak.”

Footsteps sounded out behind them. The both of them swung around with a start, but it was Alistair that emerged from the fallen pillar crevice, sweat dripping off his grim expression. He turned to them with alarm, opening his mouth to speak, but his eyes drifted to the side, to Loid and the dead Krimling.

Alistair: “...we need to go.” He grit his teeth.

Loid: “The pack is nearby.” Returning to the others with a bloodied spear in hand, Loid’s eyes were obscured behind the sun’s glare in his glasses. “Based on the way this one was acting, it was meant to report back to the others. It got greedy.”

Having finished his report, Loid turned to Alistair. As the old man began to speak, Jacqueline hurried past the pillars, collecting as much of their campsite as she could shove in a rucksack.

Alistair: “Dead Jiyagi—three of ‘em. They’ve probably already multiplied.”

Jacqueline: “Then we better leave before we find out how big the group is.”

Briefly returning to the others, Jacqueline shoved a sack into Loid’s hands before returning to collect a few more things. He nodded, slinging it over his back.

As the three of them spoke, Jackie glanced between them. “Why’re you so worried..?”

Alistair turned to them, and his eyes were wide and sharp for a moment. He quickly shook the frightening expression away and stepped over to Jackie, calmly ruffling their hair and gesturing for them to follow him as he continued past them, making for the road.

Alistair: “Krimling aren’t strong on their own. But if we aren’t careful, we could be attacked by hundreds of ‘em.”

Jackie followed close behind him, quickly joined by Loid and Jacqueline.

Jackie: “What about our camp?”

Alistair: “Would take too long to clean up—especially with a body. The pack will find it either way; we’ll get as far away as we can until then. If we’re lucky, we can make some distance and start covering our tracks, lose them down a split path.”

Jacqueline: “The last split was an hour back, at least.”

Alistair: “Then we’ll walk for two.” His voice came out hoarse.

The group went silent for a moment, trudging their way down the road.

Jackie: “Shouldn’t we run?”

Alistair: “No. Save your stamina for when… if they see us.” He hastily corrected himself, internally cursing at the mistake.

He closed his eyes, and the world around him came to a stop.

His nerves were getting to him, and he was acting uncharacteristically sloppy and agitated. Now more than ever, he needed a break to sort out his thoughts. The others needed him to be cool and collected.

He almost “laughed” at his own excuse. Jacqueline and Loid were fine—hell, even Jackie remained calm. The only one losing their composure was him. Or, at the very least, nobody else was far enough gone to let it show.

For all their sake, he needed to be at top performance.

After all these years, had he become overly reliant on Recess to keep his emotions in check? He didn’t want to believe that was the case, and he could think of a much better reason, besides.

If it came down to it, he could probably use Recess to take on around a dozen Krimling at once. If he was carrying Jackie, however, his ability to maneuver around their attacks would plummet.

And what of the others? Jacqueline and Loid were both skilled fighters, but without a tool like Recess, they were bound to make mistakes eventually. Against an endless onslaught of Krimling, small mistakes and minor wounds would build up quickly.

Krimling were a terrible match-up for them, besides. Their small size would make it difficult for Jacqueline to land clean hits with her daggers, and their sheer numbers would make Loid throwing either of his javelins futile. Alistair himself was the only one properly equipped for such a foe.

He “shook” his “head”. There was only so much he could accomplish worrying about it now. He’d face the problems as they came, and he’d do whatever it took to keep everyone safe.

He wouldn’t let these vile creatures take anyone else from him.

His eyes opened as the flow of time resumed around him.

Alistair: “No matter what happens, stay close to one of us, got it, kid? Don’t ever leave our arms’ reach.”

Jackie nodded seriously, and the four of them continued on down the mud path, walking with a hurried pace. They managed to escape without the Krimling noticing them, reaching their destination without encountering a single one—obviously, such an outcome was far too much to hope for.

Not one of them was lucky enough for that.

Alistair eyed the brush to their left. Though his vision was obscured by trash piles, ferns, and the occasional tree, he could hear faint rustling in the grass beyond them—multiple bodies moving alongside them. He quietly tapped the sheath at his hip a few times, signaling Loid and Jacqueline to lean in close.

Alistair: “They’re on us. A group to our left. Soon as they jump out, grab Jackie and run. I’ll kill them and catch up.”

Alistair whispered hastily, and the two nodded, Jacqueline moving to Jackie’s side. They resumed their march as if nothing had changed, but Alistair rested a hand on the hilt of his blade, a drop of sweat running down his face as he awaited the monsters’ attack.

With brief stops in Recess, he scanned the edge of the path for signs of movement, checking ahead and behind them as well. Again and again his eyes caught nothing, nothing, nothing nothing nothing nothing—until finally, the grotesque head of a Krimling emerged from the shrubbery, its bulging eyes wide, its toothy mouth open with a slobbering grin.

Alistair: “Now!” He barked, sliding to a stop and assuming a low stance, gripping his sword in both hands and drawing it in a wide arc. The first Krimling had leapt toward him, and his blade cleanly bisected the creature, putting an instant end to its short, miserable life.

At his command, Jacqueline scooped Jackie up into her arms, and she and Loid broke into a sprint. Two more Krimling emerged from the brush, their skin red and patchy—they were no more resistant to poison than Humans were, and they’d just plunged themselves into the toxic overgrowth that should have confined them to the path.

The poison was a fast-acting one, and against victims as small as Krimling, its effects would begin to show after just a few minutes. They would be dead within the hour, but the Krimling did not care. To them, death was just as natural a part of life as eating. They were a species born to die en masse in pursuit of their prey.

Alistair: ‘Damn straight. I’ll take a thousand of ya down if I have to.’