2

You jog to keep up with Nin, who lopes through the autumn woods, following the trilling tweet of Whippoorwill. The Child of Gaia edges around Melodie's barrows, back into the woods to a dense copse of trees like where you first met Whippoorwill.

Nin hesitates at the edge of the copse. She retreats, prancing like a nervous pony, and circles around the slope. Something set her off—and Whippoorwill has stopped calling. You step around a tree and see the defiled deer.

"You again," the deer says. The skin of its face and neck is peeled back, its flanks marked with spiral runes. Small flayed arms, child-sized, dangle from its neck, forming a kind of beard. The little red fists open and close. You recognize the voice, because the horse spoke in that voice after you killed the rider, back in New York. "You're the one who did all this. Who ruined David Banicki's great project. Who has angered the Answering Tiger. You must be very proud. But I cannot die, fool. Destroy my host body and I return to the Umbra stronger."

I draw my machete. "Then it's time to send you back again."

"You've defiled this land as you sought to defile my old home. I can't allow that."

Great, another fight. I back off a little; where the hell is Nin?

"Do you work for the Answering Tiger?" I still need more information about that Bane.

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