The trees were as green as a hydra's eyes once. Now they're a sickly yellow.

Disease sweeps the land, killing everything it touches. With famine reigning, the monsters hunt new prey.

Us.

That's why I'm running through the forest at the edge of dusk, hunting a beast I've studied but never seen.

New creatures emerge every hour. Some are thought to exist only in the imagination. Some are feared beasts forced into the open by the famine. Either way, we fight them.

I swerve left at a splintered tree. I must reach Mendelheim before the roc does. The villagers have weapons, but they're foragers and lumberjacks. They don't know how to stop the enormous bird from carrying their children off to feed hers.

But I do.

The trees whizz by, a smudge of bleached leaves and peeling bark. As I swivel about a trunk, a scream tears through the woods.

I freeze.

I've led People Against Monsters long enough to know what causes such terrified screams.

Monsters.

A bellow somewhere between a roar and a mewl shakes the trees, confirming my fears.

Dread sinks like a rock in my belly. I resist its weight and change direction.

I duck a low branch before breaking into a sprint.

Mendelheim can wait. There's something nearer, maybe even more dangerous than the roc.

The screams grow louder. So close are the roars that they blow the loose strands of my dark hair away from my face.

I crouch beside a familiar figure hiding behind a bush.

"Daleyza! Just who I was waiting for."

Jack's blue eyes, usually sparkling with mischief, are tight with fear.

I glare at him.

He's supposed to be on the west side of the forest, subduing the troll that had risen from the mud this morning. I should yell at him for not only disobeying my orders but cowering in the shrubbery and leaving everyone else to fight.

But that would waste time. The roc won't delay her children's dinner for our argument, nor will the troll await our arrival before he discovers his strength.

I follow Jack's frightened gaze.

A huge beast stands in front of a cave. Its catlike eyes dart between the spears aimed at it. Its pointed ears prick up. Its lithe body dances beyond the blades surrounding it. It looks like something my four-year-old son imagined up, but I've seen stranger monsters. Its fluffy tail reminds me of a lemur until it sweeps a warrior off her feet with a force those small creatures didn't possess. The woman smacks into a tree trunk and falls to the ground too limply to be alive.

My throat goes dry.

The monster has killed a warrior and injured many others, yet they still fight. A man cradles his arm while holding his spear ready with the other. A limping woman advances, her sword raised.

"What are we looking at?" I ask Jack, my voice scratchy.

"We think it's a Su monster."

As if hearing its name, the monster roars, baring its stout, sharp teeth. It rears on its hind legs, reaching tree branches I could touch if I was twice my height.

I frown.

"Su monsters aren't usually this aggressive."

Jack shakes his head. "At least three fighters are dead."

I look around for the bodies. I only see that of the woman I saw die.

"It threw the bodies back into the cave," says Jack, his voice heavy with defeat.

My warriors will be too injured or exhausted to keep fighting soon, then they'll meet the same fate. If they were dead, there'd be nobody to keep the monsters from invading our towns.

I must end this.

"Distract it while I go for the kill."

Without waiting for Jack's affirmation, I push through the bush and run into battle.

An arrow glances off the Su monster's eyebrow ridge. Its glare falls behind me.

"Daleyza, go!" yells Jack, firing another arrow that skims the monster's furry ear.

I swing into the lowest branches of a tree behind the monster. I pull myself up while my teeth grit against the strain. I've been fighting since sunrise. Despite the agonising fatigue, I can't stop now. There's nobody to hold the beasts off but us.

I climb until I'm at the monster's level. It hasn't seen me yet.

I unsheathe my sword. I have one chance. The slightest miscalculation can ruin everything.

I jump.

I land on the Su's back. Its roar deafens me. Before the Su can shake me off, I plunge my blade into its neck. Blood spurts from the wound, covering my hand and leaking down my sleeve.

It's sickeningly warm.

The Su topples forward onto the ground. It doesn't move again.

I stand as a cheer erupts around me.

My warriors embrace. Tears run clear over their bloody, dirty cheeks. Words can't express the euphoria that comes with surviving to fight another battle, despite the underlying apprehension of it.

Jack slaps me on the shoulder. Looking back at the corpse lying face-first in the dirt, I see what the Su was defending so ferociously.

Five tiny versions of the monster burst from the cave. They scurry up her back, squeaking with joy. When she doesn't respond, they nip at her fur. She stays still, and their cries turn mournful.

My heart sinks.

My son's sobs over my dead body would sound the same.

That's why the Su was unusually aggressive. She was defending her young as I defended mine.

For months I have slashed down monsters as quickly as they arose. I never considered why they attacked; that they, like us, have families to protect.

Everyone celebrates around me, but my stomach heaves in revulsion.

Every day, I fear leaving my son an orphan, but I have doomed these little ones to that fate. They won't last a week in the forest without their mother.

Tears blur my view of the corpse.

She was a mother like me.

A monster like me.