4338.209 · July 28, 2018 AD
Hunting Ground
The Portal ignites whilst Luke stands beside Paul — someone else can use it. Someone else is here. Then Kain screams, his leg torn open by something with teeth. A woman emerges from the darkness with a bloody arrow and an accent older than modern Scotland, claiming she means no harm. Following her feels like madness. Staying means facing whatever's circling beyond the light. And the creature she killed? That's not what murdered one of their own.
Peace in Clivilius is measured in the space between Joel's last note and the moment Lois starts to growl. When the Portal flares to life whilst Luke stands right beside him, Paul's blood runs cold with the impossible realisation — someone else can use it. Then comes the shriek, inhuman and wrong, and Lois bolts into darkness. Paul runs after her without thinking, chasing sounds he can't identify toward dangers he can't see.
Kain's scream stops him cold. Something with teeth has torn his leg open, blood soaking into the dust faster than Paul can process. They shelter at the Drop Zone, shirtless and terrified, until a woman named Charity appears with a bloody arrow and knowledge she shouldn't possess. The choice is impossible: trust the armed stranger or face whatever's growling just beyond the light.
She leads them home through darkness. But relief evaporates when Paul sees the shadow panther's corpse — massive, black-eyed, nightmare made flesh. That creature didn't kill Duke. Something worse did. Charity's warning, delivered in an accent centuries old, introduces a threat that transforms survival into something far more complicated: a Portal pirate is stalking their camp. And these bastards are far more dangerous than any beast.
