Howls echoed through the woods and the mountainside. They have picked up my tracks. Maybe fire kept them at bay, till sunrise. That was what I needed. Time and light. Icy gusts tore at the firs around me. Trees crack and snap in the dark of midnight. Something enormous moved down the slope. Sunlight would save me. Eventually.
Any light was better than the shadows. I shuffled as close as possible to the campfire, my back against the snowy fir trunk. Twigs sizzled, as they caught fire, and puffed smoke. The books! I needed to destroy them. They were the source of this evil. All my formulas, my calculations would go. At least, I wasn’t wrong, not all alchemists could say that. Of course, not all would be able to summon this abomination.
The pages curled as the light ate it, the ink brightened as it singed the paper. Words faded, diagrams and sigils withered to ash. For a moment, the ciphers glow goldenly. It must keep burning, or the creatures would get me.
THE STORY HIVE 