[crow]

"What... What is this thing?"

Henry stared wide-eyed at the creature that stood staring at them. At least, he thought it might have been staring. It was hard to be sure, since it didn't have eyes.

Ling had fallen sick, sort of--- it was hard to tell if 'sick' was the right word for it, since this pace was so strange. Maybe the rules weren't the same. Callum said it wasn't an ailment of the body, but a sign that there was some kind of anomaly within her Realm.

[crow]

They couldn't send her, since she was sick, and maybe being in her own Realm would make it worse if it were the source. And so they'd sent Annette... and Henry.

They hadn't wanted to send Henry, of course. But he had an Alter, even if it wasn't very good for fighting. And Callum knew the most, and James hadn't wanted to leave Ling, and Annette didn't want to go with Rory point blank. There was a girl named Mallory, but she still wasn't back yet.

So now it was the two of them, and this thing.

[crow]

Not that the Mallory issue wasn't pressing too--- Henry wondered what Callum intended to do about that one--- but Ling's deterioration had been pretty quick and pretty awful to watch. And James had been real upset about it. So Henry didn't exactly blame Callum for prioritizing this.

He just wasn't sure what to do now that he was here. He had one of Tyr's books in hand, but he didn't have the first idea of what to do with it if the creature attacked.

[crow]

It wasn't attacking, but Annette didn't have any of Henry's hesitation. Kiel's armor manifested around her, and she sprang at it.

"Wait!" said Henry, reaching out a hand--- as though that could possibly stop anyone, let alone Annette. "You don't know what it is!"

"Don't know... Don't care!" With a cry, Annette slammed her spear into the place where the strange black creature had been just a moment ago. She was fast--- blindingly fast, almost too fast for Henry's eyes to follow, let alone his brain.

[crow]

His brain, which was used to problems on a page, and a more measured amount of time for him to solve them. Not anything like this, live and furiously paced and awful.

But still, she wasn't fast enough.

The creature reappeared somewhere to their left. Annette wheeled before Henry had even registered it. "You," she snarled, and swung her spear a second time. The creature leaped over it. Silent as a wraith, it seemed to disappear for a moment, setting Annette to seeking for it.

[crow]

She found him--- she swung--- the creature dodged again. It was like a dance, watching her jab and swipe and swing and sweep, the creature evading her every move with a grace and efficiency of movement that even Henry could notice.

His hands felt clammy with sweat. He gripped his book a little tighter. He had to do something--- anything--- but he was afraid that if he took his eyes off the fight for even a moment---

"Don't just stand there, you useless nerd!"

[crow]

Henry startled as Annette barked at him. She spared a glance in his direction, and he felt her gaze as though it were cutting through him like her spear. "Do something!" she shouted. Punctuating her words was another sharp jab of the spear, which sank into a tree as it missed its target.

"B-But---"

"I'm keeping it busy, so use that stupid book of yours! God, I should've just taken Rory," Annette muttered under her breath, wrenching the spear free with a sharp tug.

[crow]

Henry swallowed against the lump in his throat. She was right, she was keeping him busy. He just hadn't realized that was what she was intending to do. Annette was a good fighter--- he believed that. He believed she could do that much, at least.

He did have to do something.

Flipping open the book, he flipped through it frantically, though he couldn't stop himself from glancing up every so often at the strange black creature and Annette. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, it really wasn't...

[crow]

And even if he saw it coming for him, what could he do? But still, he was nervous, his hands trembling as he flipped over page after page of indecipherable text.

Still so much he couldn't do. Wasn't there anything he could do?

"Hey!" said Annette. She must have been losing her patience. Maybe she was losing her strength too. Just how long could she keep that up for anyway?

"I-I'm trying!" said Henry, voice edged with panic. "I don't have any---"

[crow]

And then he happened upon a page that he could read. Words. Words that made sense. He didn't even register what they said, only that he could read them--- and then he was reading them out loud, muttering under his breath, almost stumbling over the twisted syllables but somehow managing to plow through.

"Bind! Bind, bind, bind..." The words left his lips, and he knew that it was done, but he couldn't help repeating it like a prayer.

He looked up, and found that the creature had frozen.

Annette had frozen too.

[Wild Pet Found]

[crow]

Well, most of her had frozen, anyway. Her body--- Her body was what had frozen in place. But the way she was glaring at him made it all too apparent that she was still aware and conscious in there. A chill ran down Henry's spine that had nothing to do with the temperature of Ling's realm.

He could almost hear it. 'Get me out of here, you stupid little twerp, or I'm going to make you wish you'd never been born.'

[crow]

"Um! Uh! Release!" said Henry, scrambling so that he stepped between Annette and the creature, facing Annette only before he uttered the words. He hoped this would limit the scope of the word to her; if not, then he was about to get a nasty surprise from behind, one that he wasn't sure he would survive. Annette might have fought monsters before, but Henry never had, and he still didn't know what he was doing. As he had so helpfully just demonstrated.

[crow]

Annette collapsed forward, the remnants of her original momentum having mostly abandoned her. Henry waited, grimacing and trying not to close his eyes. If he closed his eyes, he wouldn't be able to see anything, but it wasn't like he really wanted to see his doom coming for him...

But the pain he half expected didn't come. Annette wasn't reacting to anything either, and if the monster had recovered too, he felt like she would go after it again... wouldn't she?

[crow]

Annette glanced in his direction, then rolled her eyes. "You can relax, four-eyes. It's still frozen."

"Oh! That's good," said Henry, sagging with relief.

"I guess you've got your uses, even if you did screw up at first," said Annette, walking around him to where the creature stood, still seized in the same position that it had been in when Henry bound it. Henry didn't know if she was just brave to the point of foolhardiness, or if she had more faith in him than she sounded like she did.

[crow]

If he had been in her shoes, he wouldn't have wanted to get anywhere near it, but there she was, inspecting it up close as if it was nothing. Giving it an experimental little kick, even.

"D-Don't!" he said, then covered his mouth as she glanced at him again. "I-I mean, please don't, I don't know if touching it will..."

"It's still stuck," said Annette, apparently unperturbed by either what she had done or Henry's own panicking. "So now you know."