are being punished. I should have seen it coming, I suppose; the other elders tried to convince me that I was in error for quite some time. The Sheruna still believe we should be able to live without being hampered by the idea of right and wrong, but considering this curse, once we manage to lift it, I think I will stop speaking of it to the members of other packs.” “You’ll still end up answering for what you’ve done.” “Hah! How do you mean?” “You’re a slave to the evil you’ve lived by. It may not feel like that now, but it will when the consequences start reaching you. Even if whatever you’re planning to do with me works, it won’t free you from being held accountable.”

Suddenly, the entire pack went silent, staring at one of members. Balto turned to look and saw that it was an older wolf, walking toward the well with a shuffling gait. His eyes were quite sunken, and he looked extremely ill. “What’s going on?” Balto asked. Rodama sighed. “He is dying. The Hushed Well is claiming another of us.” The old wolf climbed up on the side of the well, facing down at the water. He waited only a moment before leaning forward, falling into the black water face first, sliding silently beneath the surface without so much as a splash. He didn’t come up again. Balto kept staring at the well, expecting something else to happen, but there was nothing. “That is all,” said Rodama. “It calls to them, they slip in, and we never see them again.” “They just…vanish?” “So it seems. As I said, I do not know the how.” Balto nodded. “Are you ready to tell me what I’m doing here yet?” Rodama smiled. “I will say one thing only. You are here…to help us break the curse. That is all for now.” He walked away, and Balto shook his head. “Great. So my role is to help some morality-hating wolf pack get rid of their punishment? Gee, I can hardly wait.” Balto certainly wasn’t relishing the thought of an entire pack suffering for the rest of their lives only to disappear into a strange well, but didn’t exactly want to provide them with a means to return to their previous lifestyle, either. He decided to try to forget ideas of what they might be planning to do to him and instead thought of Jenna. “I wonder where you are, babe?” he said softly aloud, looking up at the stars. “I know you’re coming after me. I know it.”

It was shocking how quickly the scene had changed. Before she knew it, Jenna was out of the pleasant forest, led by Avantar for the rest of the night until dawn through an area where the trees rapidly vanished, leaving bare snow that turned to bare rock. Next, the rock turned to black “soil” that was actually made of tiny black mineral crystals that felt cold and hard under Jenna’s feet. As they came to the crest of a hill, Avantar stopped and nodded ahead. “There is your way, Jenna.” Straight ahead, beyond a short expanse of rocky plain, there was a massive, dismal forest that looked dead, standing dark and ominous. “You must go through there. Do you see past the forest? The mountain?” Jenna looked on and saw twin peaks in the distance, rising up in a saddle formation, partially shrouded by glowing black clouds. These same clouds hung over most of the forest, obscuring it from the sun, which was shining through only weakly at their current location anyway. She nodded, and Avantar continued. “You must go between them. On the other side, the forest ends, and that’s where you’ll find the one who can help you. I don’t know exactly where he is, so you might want to find someone to help you. Be careful who you ask, though; many creatures there would take pleasure in harming you. From what I know of the curse, it can only be broken at the full moon, so if they are going to use your husband somehow, it will likely be then. You have what is left of today, this upcoming night, and tomorrow. Hurry on; the journey through the forest is long.” “Thank you for helping me, Avantar. I’d be at a dead end if it weren’t for you.” “I only wish I could guide you longer, but this forest isn’t a fitting place for an old fox like me. Go quickly now, Jenna.”

She nodded and trotted off down the hill. Although she didn’t show it, the idea of walking into this forest was causing her great fear. Certainly, everything was worth it for Balto’s sake, but even so…she wasn’t sure if she would ever leave the forest if she entered. “There’s got to be some other…” Her thoughts were cut short as she heard a screech from her left. She jumped, whipping her head in that direction. A spout of pebbles flew up from the soil, and a two-foot-long, centipede-like creature burst out of the ground. It looked straight at Jenna and made a gargling noise, flashing two pairs of hooked mandibles, and without warning, suddenly charged. Jenna turned, her mind now made up about going through the forest, and sprinted for the tree line, praying that the creature couldn’t outrun her; there was nothing but open space until the trees. Jenna could hear the insect running behind her, its exoskeleton making scratching sounds against the rocks as it scuttled rapidly. Suddenly, she heard more screeches, and soon after, more scuttling. It soon became impossible to guess how many were behind her, but Jenna didn’t dare look back. She forced her legs to work harder, her lungs feeling on the verge of explosion as she neared the trees. The scuttling was very close now; Jenna expected that any second, one of them would clamp onto one of her hind legs and bring her down. She panted hard, refusing to let herself slow down. Just ahead, she saw a large boulder lying lopsided, the low end nearest her. She knew that climbing on it would do no good, but just past it, there was a relatively small tree, the branches of which spread out like a basket. It would be dreadfully close… Gambling that she had enough strength left, she made one last effort, sprinting up the rock. She heard the scuttling legs hit the stone an instant after hers, and now could hear their hissing. As she reached the front of the rock, she lifted her front legs into the air, pushing off with her hind legs in an adrenaline-charged leap. She flew through the air, closing her eyes, feeling the jaws of one of the insects nick her right hind leg. Suddenly, she felt a branch knock into her chest, and several twigs brushing and poking her body. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes, and saw that she had made it. Now, she was resting in the bowl-shaped web of branches. Looking down quickly, she saw that there were six of the creatures, standing in a tight circle around the tree, looking up at her. She let out a heavy sigh of relief, breathing hard. “Thank goodness they can’t…”

A scratching sound came from the tree trunk.

“Climb…”

Jenna looked down with horror to see that one of the creatures was making its way up the tree. It was clumsy at it, but it was succeeding. “Oh, no…no…” Jenna was shaking with fear, knowing what would happen if it managed to reach her and make her fall. The hideous insect reached the largest branch of the ones that were holding Jenna up, and gaining a better footing, began advancing toward her. Jenna tried to move away from it, but there was only so far she could go. It moved slowly along the branch, hissing and drooling, its compound eyes a fiery orange.

Then, as Jenna stared into those eyes, fury suddenly built up inside her. “I’m not going to just sit here and be a meal. Not when Balto is counting on me!” The insect screeched, preparing to leap at Jenna, but before it got the chance, she lunged toward it, catching the middle of its body in her mouth. She bit down hard, whipping it back and forth like a rag doll. Its exoskeleton cracked, and she tasted its blood. A couple of its legs snapped and severed, flying off to the side, and she finally released it, letting its corpse splatter against the ground. The other insects looked at it for a moment, then back at her…before scuttling away, back to the plain. Jenna looked on after them to make sure they were gone, and then curled up into a ball, gasping and shaking violently. If they had attacked as a team, they would have killed her, she knew, but fortunately, it seemed they weren’t smart enough to do so. She jumped down from the tree and leaned against its trunk, thinking how lucky she was to be alive. It had been so close…she could almost feel them biting her. Shortly, her terror and adrenaline subsided, and she took a couple of deep breaths. “I can’t stand around like this,” she thought. “The full moon won’t wait.” She gathered her courage and ran straight into the forest, wondering if what waited within would be worse that what she had already seen.

No trees Jenna had ever seen looked quite like these; every single one was gray and bleak, looking almost as if they had been burned out by a great forest fire and not recovered. Not one had leaves or a spot of green or brown color. There was no canopy, but merely an endless web of thin, tangled branches above. Keeping track of time was not possible because of the black clouds that floated high, forming a sheet that prevented most of the light from getting through, so Jenna simply ran as quickly as she could, slowing down periodically to rest. The farther she went, however, the more she felt she was running late. “This can’t be taking as long as it feels,” she thought, hoping that if she were late, it was still possible to make up the time. In terms of help, she hadn’t seen any living creature since the insects. However, for some time, she’d had a vague notion that something was following her. Once in a while, she had heard soft noises, never from the same direction, that made her wonder if she was being stalked. Though she could see nothing, she nonetheless became wary, looking around constantly to make sure nothing would surprise her. She became terribly hungry, enough that she decided she must have missed at least two meals by then, which meant the first day would soon be over. She was tempted to rest, but not knowing for certain how much time she