Chapter 166: Wendigo’s Keep (I).

『"Some monsters aren’t born. They’re simply made from bad choices."』

It had been two days since a transport aircraft lifted off from the Institute’s underground hangar, carrying seven Awakeners toward a small town where something hungry waited in the woods.

The town was exactly as advertised. A handful of buildings clustered around a main street that looked like it hadn’t changed since the 1970s.

Gas stations still had analog pumps, general stores were covered in hand-painted signage, and the sheriff’s office also doubled as the post office, judging by the dual signs.

Beyond the town’s edge was nothing but forest. Dense, old-growth forest that stretched in every direction like a green ocean swallowing civilization’s small footprint.

Two days of questioning locals had yielded frustratingly little. Most of the townsfolk either refused to talk or insisted the missing hikers had simply wandered too deep into the woods.

"I swear," Amara muttered, stepping over a fallen log, "every other person kept asking if my hair was naturally white."

Raj snorted. "At least they didn’t spend five minutes calling you Big Curry."

Hiro laughed from behind them. "Man... I’m glad Meredith had me organizing the reports instead. You guys can keep the small-town hospitality."

Raj sighed dramatically. "You have no idea how many old ladies asked if I ran the gas station."

As the conversation continued, Amara noticed Sophia walking several steps ahead, unusually quiet.

"You good?" Amara asked quietly.

"Precognition’s a little fuzzy," Sophia replied. "It either catches me by surprise in the shower, or only works when I’m actively in a life-or-death situation."

Amara sighed. "Believe me, I can relate." She stared at her hands as they continued walking. "I’ve been trying really hard to make use of the white flames..."

"And?" Sophia prompted.

Amara snapped her fingers, and a small spark ignited at the center of her palm. "It’s a work in progress."

Ahead of them, Ishigami pulled strings from his fingertips, sending them scattering through the forest as thin lines that would serve as perimeter sensors and tracking aids.

His expression remained blank, but his movements carried a level of competence that made Amara revise her opinion of him slightly upward from "creepy weirdo" to "creepy weirdo who knows his job."

"The cave is three klicks north-northeast," Meredith said, pulling up a map on her device. "Sheriff’s reports indicated the last two missing persons were hunting in this area."

"We found their camp two days ago," Hiro added. "Tents intact. Supplies untouched. No bodies. Just blood."

"How much blood?" Ethan asked.

"Enough to confirm they’re not coming back," Meredith replied. "But not enough to account for two adult males. Which means the wendigo most likely dragged them back to its cave."

Ishigami held his chin. "An enclosed space to store its food..."

"Food," Hiro repeated. "You mean corpses, right?"

"He means food," Meredith said. "Wendigos don’t think like humans anymore, even if they used to be human. They’re pure hunger, and we’re all just food to it. So don’t anthropomorphize it..."

Hiro swallowed as Meredith continued, "...don’t assume it has motivations beyond eating, and don’t hesitate if it comes at you."

The deeper they went, the more the forest closed around them.

Trees that must have been hundreds of years old created a canopy so thick that the afternoon sun became fragmented, painting everything in shifting green-gold light.

Navigation only became more difficult as they reached underbrush so dense it slowed their progress.

Roots and fallen logs created natural obstacles that would’ve been merely annoying in training but felt ominous here, where every sound could signal a threat, prey, or nothing at all.

"So what exactly are we looking for?" Hiro asked, his voice pitched low despite the silence around them. "Besides the obvious seven-foot cannibalistic creature?"

"Signs of habitation," Ishigami replied, his strings returning periodically to report findings only he could interpret. "Wendigos are territorial. They mark their hunting grounds."

"You mean like this?" Amara stopped in front of a tree that had claw marks carved into it, just a smidge above her eye level.

Ishigami stopped as well to take a look. "Yeah. That, or gnawed bones left as warnings."

Meredith ran her fingers across the mark, then looked ahead. "Sometimes they’ll arrange kills in patterns. Unclear if it’s intelligence or instinct, but the effect is the same."

"And what’s that?" Raj asked.

"Fear..." Ishigami’s dark eyes scanned the treeline. "It makes the meat taste better, apparently. Stress hormones or something. I don’t know, biology was never my strongest subject."

They walked in silence for another twenty minutes, and Amara felt her awareness heightening with each step.

"There," Meredith said, stopping so abruptly that Hiro almost ran into her.

She pointed toward a massive oak fifteen feet ahead. Its trunk was enormous. And carved into the bark, clearly visible even from this distance, were marks that definitely weren’t natural.

They approached carefully.

The claw marks were deep, gouged into the wood with enough force to splinter the oak’s interior.

Four thick parallel lines, dragged downward in a deliberate pattern. And near the base of the tree, scattered in the grass like discarded trash, were bones. Human bones.

As difficult as it was to do, Amara kept her cool.

Femurs cracked open to access marrow. Ribs with tooth marks. A skull split open at the crown, cracked wide to get at what was inside.

"I think I’m gonna..." Hiro lifted his hand over his mouth.

"Seven confirmed missing," Meredith said, crouching beside the remains without visible discomfort. "I’m counting remains from at least four individuals here."

"Three are still unaccounted for," Amara whispered.

Meredith looked at her. "Either they escaped, or the wendigo has them stored somewhere else."

"The caves," Sophia said, her voice strained. "It’s keeping them in the caves. I can feel it... psychic residue, death echoes. A lot of fear coming in that direction."

She pointed northeast, exactly where Meredith’s map indicated the cave was.

"How much farther?" Amara asked.

"Close." Sophia’s helmet let out a thin, warning whine Amara didn’t like. "Whatever’s there, it’s old. Not just the wendigo, the place itself. Something about those caves feels wrong."

Meredith stood, brushing dirt from her knees. "Then that’s where we’re going. But understand something first—"

She turned to address all five of them, her expression serious in a way that made Amara straighten unconsciously.

"Wendigos get stronger the more they consume." Meredith resumed walking. "And they do not just feed physically."

"They don’t?" Raj asked.

Meredith broke a branch in her path as she moved. "They don’t just consume flesh."

The Five exchanged uneasy glances before looking back at Meredith.

Meredith kept her eyes on the trail ahead. "They consume spiritual essence. A person’s life force. Their soul, if you believe in that. Whatever name you give it, they drain it."

Ethan’s expression darkened. "And every victim it consumes makes it stronger?"

Meredith nodded. "Stronger." She stepped over a root. "Faster." She took another step. "Harder to kill."