Cyrus opened his eyes to the sight of sharp barbed thorny teeth approaching his jugular. “Jesus!”

  His palm snapped up, cracking into the monster’s snout and driving its teeth into its vinelike tongue with a *Yelp!*

  He spun across the ground and leapt to his feet, putting much needed distance between them.

  The hideous monster, roughly the size and weight of a mastiff, growled and pawed at its mouth with forepaws the size of saucers. It was made of grass, and sap, and nightmares.

  “You were fighting this thing, kid?!” Cyrus gasped. “Are you crazy?”

  It was one thing for Cyrus to be cheering Song on from within his mirror-world, ranting and swearing like he was an obnoxious parent at a kid's hockey game… and another to be facing off against the monster himself!

  When Song had first fallen from the horse, Cyrus had been terrified for him, but that terror had quickly turned to shouts of encouragement as Song started to take the beast apart.

  The little guy could fight!

  But then Song had fallen again, and suddenly he, Cyrus, was back in charge.

  Cyrus's head ached, and fear tugged at his mind, but he banished it with an, “Oorah!”

  “You’re just a big defender with really bad teeth,” Cyrus muttered to the wolf as it shook itself then slowly circled him at a set distance. It was limping, and water dripped from its shoulder and mouth. “Who’s trying to kill and eat me. So no worse than a Junior A from Saskatoon.”

  The wolf monster feinted a lunge, and Cyrus laughed. “Pathetic. Gotta do better than that, buddy.”

  As the wolf continued circling, Cyrus bent down and picked up the two pieces of bow and held them up in a double-stick stance. He had vague memories of his sensei swearing up and down that only an idiot would assume his staff wouldn’t get broken in battle. He wasn’t very good at them but –

  The wolf charged, and Cyrus’s body moved to dodge the strike. He almost absentmindedly swung the sticks around to nail the wolf in the flank as it sped past.

  Cyrus stared at the sticks with wide eyes and squealed, “I know kung-fu!”

  He circled his arms and held one stick over his head and the other low to the ground. “Come at me you – holy sheep!” He swung one stick in a downward motion and blocked with the other, simultaneously stopping the wolf’s leap, and dealing it a blow to the head. The thick mass of thorns that now made up its jaw caught on one of the sticks and yanked it from his hand.

  The grasswolf backed slowly away, growling and shaking its head to throw the stick loose. When the annoyance finally clattered to the ground, the beast stalked forward once more, this time looking extra irritated.

  In the meantime, Cyrus took the opportunity to look for and retrieve a large round stone. He took up the ready stance of an attacker preparing a side shot, or a batter lining up a swing. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he called, “Heeeey batter, batter.”

  When Cyrus could feel that the wolf was committed to leap, he tossed the stone into the air while shouting, “Fetch!”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The wolf’s attention was briefly diverted by the motion, just long enough for Cyrus to whip the stick around and expertly hit the stone. It rocketed across the space and into the wolf’s forehead, causing it to drop with a yelp.

  “Bullseye!” Cyrus ran forward, stick in hand and fell upon the grasswolf, battering and beating at it until it stopped moving completely. When everything was done, he stood there, panting and gasping for breath.

  Then he dropped the stick.

  “Holy sheep, I just killed something.” Cyrus looked at his shaking hands, his voice tinged with madness. “Sheep, sheep, sheep. But it was self defense! It was trying to kill me! Or kill Song, or whatever!”

  The pounding of hooves caught Cyrus’s attention, and he looked up in time to see four horses approaching at a rapid pace from the direction of the village. At the front was a man Cyrus knew as Seojoon. Behind him were Wook, Juwon, and a man Cyrus didn’t recognize.

  “Hey bro – Big brothers,” Cyrus shouted, barely catching himself. “Um, you’re a bit late!”

  Seojoon arrived first and jumped expertly off his horse before it’d even stopped moving. His medium length hair streamed around his chiseled face and long curled horns as he landed, looking briefly like a super-hero or something. Seojoon examined the corpse for a short moment, then his foot glowed green with ethereal light as he expertly pounded on its neck. Once, and twice. When he was sure the wolf was dead, he turned to Cyrus. “Well done, Song.”

  “Uh, thank you… Cousin Seojoon,” Cyrus replied hesitantly, trying to match Song’s speech patterns as best he could. From what he’d seen and heard, they’d be in a world of trouble if anyone figured out he wasn’t Song. The fact that he wasn’t an Inner Demon be damned.

  “Brother!” Wook’s shout was the only warning Cyrus had before he was swept up in a brotherly embrace. Juwon arrived a moment later, awkwardly trying to join the hug before simply ruffling Cyrus’s hair.

  Seojoon approached demurely, his eyes downcast. “I don’t know how much you heard, cousin Song, but I apologize.” He bowed at the waist. “I shouldn’t be so quick to judge family.”

  Cyrus wanted to make a face at the stuffed shirt, but kept himself to a generous, “You’re only worried about what’s best for the Lee family.”

  “He’s only worried about what’s best for him,” Juwon nearly snarled. “Song, what were you thinking! You could’ve been killed!”

  Seojoon frowned, but didn’t speak any further, stepping away to deal with the grasswolf’s corpse and letting the brothers duly chastise their youngest.

  “He - I wasn’t trying to fight it,” Cyrus explained. “Just draw it off. Then I got thrown from Bongbong and had no choice.”

  At the sound of his name, Bongbong demurely joined their circle of horses, nudging at Cyrus’s hair. Juwon noted the red line of blood running down the horse’s neck. “Did you try shooting your bow on horseback without practice? That’s a good way to get a kick in the teeth.”

  “So I’ve learned.” Cyrus said, rubbing the lump on the back of his head. Song was going to feel that tomorrow.

  Seojoon finished binding the grasswolf to his own horse, and returned to the trio. “Where there’s one grasswolf, there’s often many. This one’s thin, so it could’ve been driven away from its pack. But it could also be a scout. I knew I saw grasswolf signs.”

  “I spotted something similar last week and mentioned it to Father,” Juwon added. “The Jos should’ve been twice as cautious. I’m going to kill whoever was slacking off! It was probably that idiot Jo Doyoon. He’s worse than Tae!”

  The fourth man, a stranger to Cyrus, had stayed on horseback, surveying the surrounding area while frowning. “I'll bring word to the hunters. We’ll need to get all the herds in until they've swept the area.”

  “Let’s go speak to the Council about this,” Wook said, then patted Cyrus on the shoulder. “And tell everyone that the Lee Family’s Song managed to kill a grasswolf with just sticks and stones! Hah! That’ll shut them up!”

  The four Lees gathered what arrows they could, then bundled up onto their horses and returned to the city. The entire while, Cyrus desperately tried to drop into meditation, but failed.

  Soong!! Wake uuuup!!!