“What do you mean, ‘a horse has gone missing’.”

  Since we weren’t in much of a hurry, we had stopped by a small pond to let the two horses pulling the carriage drink.

  The very moment we turned our backs, however, one of them vanished. The other just kept munching on grass like nothing had happened.

  The missing horse hadn’t run off, it had quite literally disappeared.

  We searched the area, but there was no trace of it.

  So much for ‘nothing to worry about,’ I thought, furtively shooting at Johannes an accusatory glare.

  The others were convinced it had been stolen, but that didn’t sit well with me.

  Who would steal a horse in the middle of a forest? And it’s not like this was a place famed for bandits lurking in wait.

  With each passing moment it seemed more and more likely that the horse had just evaporated on his own.

  “Um, excuse me… There are hoof prints over here,” Lelya called out, staring at the ground a few yards from the carriage.

  Weren’t I being busy fighting back the urge to start cursing aloud, I would have found the situation hilarious: Lelya had to continuously steer the remaining horse away with one hand. The poor thing seemed to have taken a liking of her hair.

  After an hour of searching, we’d found nothing, yet it took Lelya one minute to spot an actual clue.

  Mother had spent the last few minutes laughing at us. Not that she’d even left the carriage. She’d claimed to be feeling “a little unwell” and opted out of the horse search, keeping Lelya by her side until the very last minute.

  Now, Baryon and I had been tasked with following the tracks, while Father and Johannes would be staying behind to avoid ending up with two missing horses instead of just one.

  The Dragon Grove wasn’t particularly dense, and the underbrush was sparse, making it easy to follow the trail.

  Hope Johannes chose his routes well, I thought as I scanned distrustfully my surroundings on the lookout for magical beasts.

  “The tracks end here,” Baryon said, halting a few steps before the last hoof print.

  “So… back to square one?”

  “Not quite,” he said, pointing at the treetops. And there, perched on a thick tree branch, was our missing horse, unnaturally still in that odd location.

  “Master, are you seeing what I’m seeing, or am I just hallucinating? Is it really up on a tree?”

  Squinting, I spotted something. There was a thin, almost invisible thread wrapped around the horse, securing it to the tree.

  “Nope, you’re perfectly sane,” Baryon confirmed. “Though I’m afraid this may be the work of—”

  A loud crash cut him off.

  Something had just fallen nearby, snapping several branches on its way down. It hit the ground with a loud thud, and a giant, slimy, horrifying spider rose from the broken branches.

  That thing was nearly the size of our carriage, and easily bigger than the horse.

  Baryon pointed at it. “Yeah, exactly one of those.”

  The creature recovered from the fall, its many legs twitching as it steadied itself. Then it started moving, straight toward the tree where our horse was trapped.

  “What… is that?” I whispered.

  “It’s a spider. A big one, to be precise,” my master replied, utterly unhelpful.

  Son of a— I swallowed down hard the curses growing in my throat. Then, more composedly, I asked, “Yes, but what kind of spider? It doesn’t look like your average basement dweller.”

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  “Ah, that’s what you meant,” he nodded. “It’s a Stealth spider. Not man's best friend, if I may say so.”

  Stealth spider. Never heard of it. But I kinda expected it.

  Since my parents had never wanted me to become an adventurer, I’d never been instructed in recognizing magical beasts.

  “Is it dangerous?” I asked, probing the elephant in the room.

  “For us? Nah,” Baryon shook his head, “but it could be quite the nuisance for an inexperienced adventurer. Its bite is paralyzing, and its webs are incredibly strong. But the real problem is—”

  The spider vanished. Right in front of our eyes.

  “Yeah, this is the problem.”

  “You’re telling me that a Stealth Spider can turn invisible?” I asked, immediately feeling stupid for my dumb question.

  What did you expect from a monster with "Stealth" in the name?

  “How can we find it?” Baryon began, putting on his best lecturing voice.

  There was probably a way to see invisible creatures, but I didn’t know it.

  Baryon likely did, but judging by his expression, he had something else in mind.

  “There are many ways, and some are unnecessarily complicated given the matter at hand,” he continued, not waiting for my answer. “We just need to break its focus or distract it. Any ideas, before it decides to make a meal out of us?”

  My mind had already started racing.

  This thing was probably like a dumb animal. No matter how big, terrifying, or monstrous it looked, it’d still follow the most fundamental rule of all life.

  Hunt, or be hunted.

  If you weren’t strong enough to be a predator, you were a prey for something else.

  Time to remind this spider who’s in charge, I thought, glancing at Baryon, who gave me a small nod in understanding.

  Mana soon coursed through me. I flexed my fingers, adjusting to the numbing sensation.

  I imagined my mana exploding outward from me, saturating the air. Slowly, the atmosphere turned heavy and cold, much like Father had done with the Order’s priests.

  I wasn’t affected, but I guessed it wouldn’t be pleasant for anyone else. It wasn’t strong enough to cause real harm, but it was enough to send a clear message. I was there. And I was a threat.

  Baryon remained unfazed by the pressure I exuded. Completely impassive. If anything, he almost looked… impressed?

  My target took the bait. The Stealth Spider reappeared, charging straight at us at full speed.

  “Uh, master? The spider is coming right at us,” I stated the obvious.

  “You truly are a never-ending source of surprises, Arda!” Baryon exclaimed, completely unbothered by the quickly-approaching threat.

  “I didn’t expect you to learn how to project mana so quickly! And more than that—not intuitively, at least.”

  Sounding genuinely intrigued, he continued. “The intensity left something to be desired, and yet…”

  Sometimes I seriously wonder if Baryon ignores pressing problems on purpose.

  “Master?” I interrupted, pointing at the spider and snapping him back into the moment.

  Lashing his staff, almost dismissively, Baryon completed his spell. “Entangle.”

  Roots and branches immediately came to life to obey his command, twisting and coiling around the spider’s legs, stopping it dead in its tracks.

  “What are we doing with it?” he asked.

  I hesitated. Killing it feels… wrong. After all, it has done no real harm. If anything, we were the ones who disturbed it.

  Just because it’d stolen our horse didn’t mean it deserved to die. We found the poor thing alive and well after all.

  Leaving it hungry for lunch would be enough for a punishment.

  It took us some time, but we managed to cut the horse loose and wake it up. It was groggy at first, but after a short walk, it had recovered enough to trot in a straight line. Once we freed the horse, we also let the spider go. It didn’t waste a second before scurrying off into the woods.

  “You found it!” Johannes was the first to spot us and immediately ran over.

  “A Stealth Spider? Are you sure?” Father looked astonished as he turned to me for confirmation.

  I nodded.

  “Incredible,” he murmured. “It’s been decades since magical beasts like the Stealth Spider have shown up around here.”

  He shortly explained that Stealth Spiders mostly lived underground, and sightings of them on the surface were rare events.

  Their presence, especially in groups, was no trivial problem, particularly for livestock farmers, who could suddenly find themselves in danger.

  Baryon, however, was quick to calm everyone down. “A single Stealth spider coming to the surface doesn’t mean much on its own. It might have just gotten lost.

  “Now, if, on the other hand, there were an entire colony of them, that would be a problem. But for now, let’s not jump to conclusions.”

  Father nodded, deep in thought. “Maybe you’re right,” he said. “But we’ll need to inform the right people once we reach Ardelar.”

  With our lost horse finally back, we set off one last time.