Her leg still burned.


    The Pages had called burning an ‘affliction’. She hadn’t understood how something could be too hot to touch. If you couldn’t touch it, it couldn’t be hot, since hot was how it felt, right?


    She understood it now. The place the moose monster had brushed with its hand felt as if the rest of her body was cold. She was afraid to touch the spot, afraid that it would burn her. She didn’t know what kind of powerful magics the moose monster had been attempting, but she was glad she had run.


    At the time she had felt weak. Felt as though her courage had crumbled away at facing the monster head on. It had taken her time to gather that courage, time to push herself to face the monster as it sat, watching the words.


    She had even succeeded in getting close.


    It was likely helped along by the part of her that wished to feel the tingles again, but she had done it all the same. She even thought she had done well in learning the monster’s words. It had spoken the same word many times, almost as if it was teaching her. She knew better now. Whatever it had been doing, the magic had built stronger than anything she had yet to experience, save the tingles.


    Her ears had felt it, her neck had felt it after she tried repeating the words to the monster, the magic leaving her sore. As it had reached out with its hand, she had watched it closely. Her body wanted to feel the tingles again, wanted the monster to reach her.


    In the end it was her mind that panicked.


    She had managed to force her body to obey and turned to run. Too late she realized, as its hand brushing her leg left a burning trail of magic. She shuddered to think what might have happened had she stayed. Resisting a magic that powerful was beyond anything she could hope to achieve right now.


    Maybe she hadn’t lost her courage after all. Maybe it had been her mind warning her of the coming danger. It felt better if she thought that. Thought that and ignored her leg and all it implied.


    She wasn’t sure if this had been a good thing for her plan or not though. She had learned a word. She had also managed to get close to the monster. It wasn’t bad for a first attempt, but it was marred by the increased magic she now had to deal with.


    Did it shorten her time?


    Would she not be fast enough to escape next time or would she simply fail to notice any danger at all?


    Did it matter in the end?


    She knew she needed to go back and face the monster again. She had hoped that a sleep would set things back to where they had been, but it took four sleeps before the burning faded and she felt she could face the monster again.


    Something she very much didn’t want to do when she found it sat watching the words near the rain room.


    She could see no way in which this was not a trap. She didn’t see how though. The moose monster was unstoppable and could easily move her where it wanted, but it never had. For all its strength, it seemed more inclined to face her with its mind and magic rather than its body.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    She could maybe understand a little. Why waste strength when she fell so easily to its cunning instead, but the choice still baffled her in how patient the monster was. If she was as strong as the monster, she would not wait so long to get what she wanted.


    Trap or not, her body still pushed her on. Her mind, not wanting to feel like it had failed again, let her body guide her movement for now as it tried to find the trap. She concluded that it must be a magic trap as the monster began its rumbling once more as she got close. Instead of one word this time, the rumbling went on for some time as many words were spoken. The monster looked at her and moved its hands in a gesture. She felt herself compelled to crouch near the monster.


    By the time her mind had worked through the bewilderment of doing as the monster seemed to want, it was already too late. As she had feared, she didn’t even see the trap spring closed this time.


    She wasn’t sure that she cared right now though, the monster’s fingers sending intense tingles through her head and down her back. She barely noticed as something familiar appeared in her hand, but the sensation was enough for her body to reach up to grab the treat.


    As the first bite of the treat began to clear the fog from her mind, she realized how badly she had been caught. The monster was already standing and had moved a step away. The panic helped to clear her mind completely and she spun to get ready to run while watching the monster’s movements.


    Everything came crashing to a halt though when she realized what was in the monster’s hand. She quickly looked down to make sure, but it seemed the trinket that the monster held was real. The shivers raced through her body.


    She had never even noticed it leave her hands.


    Her trinket had always been something she guarded closely and only ever let go of when she was in her home or using it to push away the darkness in a large room. For the monster to take it without any notice from her was terrifying.


    Worse yet, it seemed the monster was taunting her with it. A step out of her reach, it seemed the monster wanted her to follow it. She looked around frantically, but the darkness had already crept back in while she had been under the spell.


    With nowhere to escape without her trinket and thoroughly incapable of taking it back from the monster, she was completely out of options. The monster’s trap had been complete. It had left her no options and it didn’t even have to wait for its magic to finish.


    Utterly defeated, she reluctantly followed the monster, trying to guess where it was leading her. She truly wished for anything else, but everything was looking like it was leading her to the rain room.


    Her mind raced, trying to figure out if it was better to be eaten by this monster or to be eaten by the darkness and whatever else it hid. The only thing that she could come up with was that she knew what this monster liked. She knew nothing about the darkness or the other monsters it hid.


    She would need to be very careful of how she went about it, but it was possible that she could surprise the moose monster with a word. If she did it right, she might be able to get the monster to drop her trinket and grab it before she could be stopped. Despite everything, she was still confident that she could outrun the monster.


    She nearly panicked and ruined all her planning when the monster made it rain. She knew the rain place could make water, but she had only seen the full downpour of the monster’s magic from afar. Being in the downpour itself was…


    an experience.


    One she would have preferred to have without the monster looming over her, causing her to worry about everything.


    Unfortunately, she realized it was her end when the rain started to blur her eyes.


    She stopped caring about the slight sting in her eyes when the warmth embraced her entire body all at once, the magic finishing its work.


    She knew why the moose monster wanted to live in the rain room now, what she learned from the Pages clearer than ever.


    When the tingles began once more, she forgot all about escaping and stopped knowing anything at all.