A SCREAM pierced through her peaceful dreams of a home long lost. Against her will, she plunged into discarded memories better forgotten. Deeper than she wished to go, so deep that she felt as though she were suffocating on the images presented before her.

Fire burned out of control in a city far away. The city was on the edge of a giant ocean and yet the city burned forever. Screams echoed through the discord of the crackling fires. A wind wafted the searing smoke in all directions, clouding out the stars and moon. It was an eternal darkness. An interminable pit of fire. The ultimate punishment.

Somewhere in that disaster, her family huddled together. They were in danger. They were dying. But there was nothing she could do. Instead of helping her family escape, she was being pulled along by a graying old man who had no right to make her follow. He was too old and hobbled along on a cane but he still managed to scuffle faster than her own legs could manage.

She pulled at his hand and for a moment managed to slip away. But he was too fast for her. With surprising speed he caught her up in his arms, hugging her tight to him. She beat against him, screaming for him to let her go, screaming for someone to help her. But everyone was busy with their own problems. They’d rather tend to surviving the night than help a little girl struggle against her supposed grandfather.

Past familiar shops and homes she was smuggled, past burning buildings and dying people. Through the smoldering docks and up to a dark boat with its canvas stretched in the wind, struggling to remain tied where it belonged. The boat tossed and screamed on the ocean, echoing the cries of the dying people everywhere. A storm was coming in.

But she hardly noticed these things as she was carried up onto the deck of the ship. Her family was dying and still she lived struggling against a stranger.

He grunted as she hit him on the head but he held her firmly, refusing to let her go.

“Go!” He shouted to a man watching them. “Get this damned ship away from the fires! Go before we all burn at the bottom of the sea!”

The man jumped to the stranger’s orders, yelling commands to the sailors who gaped at the disaster just a few feet away. A burning ember fell on the deck, alerting them to their own peril if they remained, and the sailors jumped to extinguish the resulting flame.

The stranger now carried her along across the deck and reached a door. He kicked it open and placed her awkwardly on the bed.

“Be a good girl,” he muttered. Something crashed on deck and he cursed. He turned away from her, walking back to the door. “Stay in here until I get back. You’ll be safe here.” The door slammed shut and someone screamed.

The scream was much louder than the other screams had been. Her ears rang with it.

“What is that,” someone yelled, distressed. “Is that- is that what I think it is?”

Emiely opened her tightly shut eyes, her head pounding with a headache. She realized the ship was not what was causing the swaying motion. She was inside the carriage.

Another yell. “I think it wants to eat us!”

“Be quiet and let me think!” Miak.

That silly boy and his sister.

Emiely’s headache began to crush her as she remembered who she was with. If only they weren’t so stupid. Already they’d panicked when they’d seen a beaver. What was it now?

She groaned and sat up, rubbing her temples hoping that might relieve the pain.

Yet another scream pierced her ears.

“Stop that screaming,” she hissed at Tareia. “You’ve given me a headache.”

“I think she’s got a good reason to scream.” Miak continued to stare out the window despite speaking.

“What is it?” Emiely tried to keep her voice calm, but it was hard to do with the morons who shared such a small space with her.

“Beasts.” Tareia said. “Strange beasts like from fairy tales. GIANT pigs! But they’re different! Do they have a name?”

Emiely’s heart jumped. Boares. Somehow they’d found her and followed. She rushed to the window. A mere glimpse confirmed her fears. The Boares were back.

THE DRIVER didn’t notice the creatures until he heard the screams of one of the passengers. Even after he began to watch the beasts’ descent on the vehicle he didn’t quite realize what was happening. Sure, he’d heard of such creatures before but this was different. Now that the Boares were nearly snapping at his feet it was hard to ignore the threat. Everything he’d ever done that might be misconstrued as treason ran through his mind. The fact that he’d fled the barbaric Epania for the more civilized Saibluai didn’t help either. He’d flourished in Saibluai! Who could blame him for staying? He was working for one of the richest and most influential families of the country and was earning a salary more substantial than bankers. The risk had been well worth the money – until now.

“Driver,” an unfamiliar voice called from inside the carriage. “Ford across a body of water. Put the water between the Boares and us.”

His reflexes took over, no longer giving him the freedom to think. This was what he’d been trained to do: to follow orders and he’d do it. Even if it meant his death.

His eyes scanned the horizon and spotted a large stream. That would have to do. Body of water and across. There would be safety.

But the carriage was too slow. The three horses could not pull it across the rough terrain without slowing down. The Boares discovered no problem catching up.

The driver heard something land on the roof of the carriage. He couldn’t help looking back.

Eye to eye they stared at each other, man and mythological beast. Its eyes were determined, examining the prey before it. There was its horrible snout; half pig, half man, sniffing at him. And there, the mouth. The lips were raised in a vicious snarl, revealing hundreds of sharpened, gleaming teeth. Those were what would tear him apart.

That was when the driver went mad.

END PART ONE.