Running feet slapped against stone, marking time to a shrill, anguishing scream. A tiny yellow-skinned figure rushed toward him, The flesh or its back held in a searing and blistering grip of flame. It’s scream swelled and swelled and swelled until its sound became no more than a gagging sputter. The body collapsed in a heap. Skael’s head swam in a flood of images. He looked at the delicate body with the large, oddly shaped head. It did not move.

The crushing vine of fear took root in his heart. Slowly his fingers unclenched and the cold crystal dropped to the ground with a soundless thud. It lay there quietly in the brown grass as dead and as useless as the creature it killed. The thin skin round Skael’s mouth tensed exposing his gums in a grinding grimace.