Bathala's Forsaken Daughter
"Half li northeast. The canopy closes there — old growth, tight root systems, bad ground for group movement."
"Can Tino's leg handle it at speed."
Tino answered before Bayang could. "Yes."
I looked at him. He met my gaze without flinching, which told me the answer was probably not yes but was close enough that arguing about it would cost more than accepting it.
"Move," I said. "Now. Northeast. Bayang leads. Kael, stay behind Tino."
We were thirty seconds into moving when the first tracker beast screamed.
Not a scream exactly — a cultivation beast's distress call sounds like something between a hawk's cry and a blade being dragged across stone, high and directional and designed to signal to i