4338.209 · July 28, 2018 AD
What the Dust Can't Hide
Dragging consequences across ochre dust, Beatrix encounters Paul—and truths neither expected. Joel's alive. The Shadow Panther attacked here too. Paul heard her scream. As they crest the ridge, Luke storms past, face wet with grief, refusing to meet her eyes. Paul's hand holds her back. Then they enter camp, and Beatrix sees it: the panther's carcass sprawled beside the fire. Gutted. Dead. And someone's missing.
The red kayak scrapes through Clivilius dust, matching Beatrix's ruined dress like a cruel joke. When Paul appears, relief turns to revelation: Joel survived. Glenda stitched his throat. The Shadow Panther hunted the camp too. Paul heard Beatrix scream last night. Cody's name drifts between them like smoke.
Cresting the ridge, they see Luke—storming past, wiping furiously at his face, grief and rage carved into every movement. Beatrix calls his name. Paul's grip stops her. "Wait."
Entering camp, the silence hits first. That brittle, breath-held quality of a place wounded. Then Beatrix sees it: the Shadow Panther's carcass sprawled beside the fire pit, belly opened in a surgical gash, blood corrupting the ochre earth. Dead. Finally dead.
But the victory feels hollow.
Something's missing. Someone.
The camp holds its breath. Paul stops walking, unable to go further. Jamie's name escapes Beatrix's lips—a question, a dread.
"Probably still near the river," Paul says, voice soft, weighted with something unnamed.
And in that terrible absence beside the monster's corpse, one question echoes:
Who's dead?
