Embers lifted gently off of the fire and drifted in the wind. The breeze that blew them broke against the trees at the edge of the jungle. The trees grew up into the sky with leaves so dense the sun barely broke through the top layer, and was trapped and jailed by the branches and wood by the time it reached the midlayer of the growth. The floor of the jungle mixed with the moisture from a nearby coast, and as such the cold air at the base of the trees was clouded with fog. Sight could enter the jungle but was quickly turned by the ever increasing fog the deeper into the trees it went. This capture of light and sight turned the edge of the trees into a wall and the interior into a prison. Within the dusk and fog were monsters and dark jailed and kept out of sight, enshrouded from the rest of the good world. Still, that's where the task laid.

  Upwind of the fire Rowan stood, reaching for a shovel and throwing a layer of dirt onto the coals. The embers and warmth would wait under the dirt for a return until around the next sunrise. With a breath to prepare and the morning sun at her back Rowan stepped forward into the trees. She was tall, especially for a tallman, causing her to duck under branches as she breached the wall and delved into the jungle. She kept her auburn hair tied back into a bun in order to keep it from catching on branches, and held a scabbard with a sword in her right hand rather than hanging from her waist for the same reason. The scabbard was intricate, with designs and art telling the story of her home and house down the side, with the hilt of the longsword bearing the symbol of an eagle. Her armor was simple, a gambeson bearing her house’s colors overlaid with mail. She had chosen to forgo a fabric overcoat and left the mail shirt exposed as a top layer.

  As she stepped over a root wider than a dwarf was tall, Rowan paused a moment, seeing a mark in the wood. Putting her hand to it, she breathed a soft breath and pushed her intent out. As she did the mark began to glow slightly before a small ripple and then line appeared, wisting further into the growth and fog. Rowan checked the mark again to confirm it was her mark before chasing after a different unknown darkness the trees shielded. It was a large mark, showing where claws had dug into the wood in order to help give the beast purchase. Rowan looked above her head. Tree limbs some twenty feet high were broken, with the broken branches scattered ahead on the path her magic had marked. The beast shouldn’t have been that large, not yet at least. Rowan knew that the beast would grow, and then continue to grow so long as it could find prey to sustain it. Left untended, the beast would grow to consume the entire jungle. Rowan doubted it would actually breach the walls of its jail, but a creature that large would push the other monsters and darkness out of the jungle and into the surrounding settled and civilized areas as they looked for food or territory for themselves. Rowan sighed. If it was big enough to break trees that high it was either her mark or something equally worthy of felling. Rowan followed her magic trail.

  As she marched the sun faded and the fog grew to the point that Rowan could barely see her own hand. Still, she trusted her magic and followed, listening to the jungle around her. Whispers entered from the jungle, tempting her to leave the path. An offer of rest, a call of a past love wanting to reunite, family begging for her. Rowan held her sword to her tighter, keeping it close to her body. Eventually, the wist of her magic ended. Rowan raised, closed, and then opened her hand with a snap, summoning a small storm wind around herself to dispel the fog as well as a spark of thunder to illuminate the dusk. In the spark of light revealed a clearing, a nest, full of twisted roots and bones, of decaying meats stinking with rot. Rowan coughed and covered her mouth and nose with a hand before looking up. In front of her laid a great beast, a panther. Its fur was even darker than the jungle around. Where the jungle seemed to trap light above and deny its passage, the beast’s fur seemed to consume it in its entirety. Its eyes however, shown a bright emerald green so deep that they seemed to take Rowan in entirely as they scanned her. The beast’s lips curled, almost smiled as it raised itself up, slowly, shaking and ratting the towering trees it leaned against as it did. Rowan’s eyes drifted up and up and up until she stumbled back to keep her footing, almost losing it on the twisted bramble. It was even larger than the breaks in the trees suggested. Rowan drew her sword, holding it in her left hand high and close on her chest and found her footing by stepping forward with her right foot and bending her legs into a small crouch.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “So the time has come for my meals to start delivering themselves to me. Sooner than usual, you are the first to do so in this life.” The beast began forward, slowly, calmly. “Small though, barely more than a snack.” It sniffed, raising its head slightly before letting out a small noise of interest. “Plenty of force and energy though. Perhaps you will state my hunger, if only for a moment. What do they call you, Meal?” The panther let its teeth and claws show. Its claws would have dwarfed many swords. Its maw dripped blood and death.

  Rowan stayed in her stance, answering. “I am Rowan Noctil, firstborn of my house and it’s named heir. I am called the Bringer of the Storm and the Steel. I am called the feller of beasts and the breaker of the night. I am the Tempest. I am the Galeforce.” Rowan allowed a small smile. “Soon, I will wear the pelt of the Eater of All and claim the titles that befits me as well.”

  The beast lifted its head and roared a laugh that shook the trees. “So many titles for such a small Meal.” The Eater of All gazed down. “You are Food. All but me are. I will consume you like the rest and grow larger for it.” The panther snorted. “I would vastly prefer if we could skip to that part. You see, I’ve already started a meal.” The panther turned, revealing behind it the shape of an adolescent Dracoling, half ripped to shreds and sinew. “And I do get ever so tired after a meal of that size. Perhaps you can be a side dish?” Rowan stayed motionless. The beast shrugged. “Can’t blame a cat for trying.”

  In the span of a blink the panther lunged forward. Rowan jumped, summoning a squall to push her into the air and away and landed on a branch in the lowest layer of the trees. How something so big moved so fast Rowan couldn’t know. The maw of the panther followed. Rowan lept again, out of the maw of the beast. She summoned and pushed the tempest out, and a surge of lighting struck forward in resounding thunder. The beast roared as it connected to a shoulder and then followed, pouncing off of a tree onto Rowan as she landed on the root floor. Rowan raised her blade, pushing back against a paw full of claws and pulling the blade as the pad connected with the edge.. The beast roared as black blood emptied out of the wound. Still, it lunged again. Rowan kept her sword high, point out, using it to push and pull strikes and claws and teeth. Still, the force sent her back to regather her footing after each blow. The Eater of All stretched up, raising both paws and striking down like nightfall. Rowan dropped her blade, pushing up with both hands. The squall erupted, crackling with thunder. Nothing but the pressure of wind and storm kept the midnight from crashing down. The beast roared. Rowan matched its cry. The claws began to press in more, growing closer. Rowan let out a cry before pulling the squall back and then out again as pure tempest and thunder causing an explosion that sent both man and beast flying backwards.

  The beast growled and snarled as it clawed itself back up. “Why do this, Food? Strike me down, deny me my meal, it doesn’t even matter. I’ve lived thousands of lives before this and I’ll live thousands after! All you do by killing me is ensuring that you’ll have to do it again in my next life!”

  Rowan pushed herself back to her feet and found her stance again, both hands on her sword. “And then I’ll have a second panther cloak to match the first.” The beast roared and charged forward again. Rowan stood, waiting. The panther lunged forward hungry and desperate. Rowan waited. Then, once the beast had fully extended, Rowan pushed forward. Blade out, tip forward, Rowan stepped in past the claws and pushed up. Her blade found true. Pushed by the beast’s own force and weight it sunk in and then pierced through the skull. The Eater of All continued forward still, throwing Rowan back. She scrambled to her feet, but before her lay nothing more than a motionless panther with a point of steel sticking up from it’s head like a metal horn.