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She chokes on the ss and pushes her way toward Filipa’s rooh it does little good to shield her face froh the space and just as Aramei passes the threshold andthe roof co the entire back section of the cottage

There is no other way out now except through thein Filipa’s bedroos burning "Filipa! It’s on fire!"

She pushes Filipa out of the bed and Filipa lands on the floor with a thud But Ara-rabs her by her long, brown hair and drags her across the bedroom floor toward the open here smoke billows out thickly

Filipa screa too quickly for her to protest Aramei pulls her sister fro her to stand on her own "Hurry!" she shouts over the roar of the fla closer every second

Filipa doesn’t hesitate and still dressed in her nightgown, she cliround below

Aramei crawls out next and drops to her feet next to Filipa who now takes the lead and grabs a hold of Ara cottage

"Father!" Aramei screams "We have to save Father!"

"He’s dead!" Filipa says, pulling her along, "The house is gone!"

They run out into the village square to find that they aren’t the only ones out in their night clothes and bare feet, nor is their cottage the only one on fire The entire village has gone up in flah the dirt-covered street screa out to lost loved ones

Arae and toward the people

"My son!" one woman cries her face blackened by soot "Where is rab the woman and pull her aith her and Filipa, her son coe carrying a s he had saved froing her aith him "They’re here! The Black Beasts!" he shouts to Filipa "Get your sister out of here! Now!"

Aramei looks at Filipa with panic in her eyes Filipa, equally panicked, grabs Ara towards the forest Only seconds in and they find the teeth They stop so abruptly that Aramei crashes into Filipa’s back and they both fall over Filipa scrambles for Ararasp onto She can’t take her eyes off the beasts standing before the that her entire body tres Filipa with her, pushing her behind her as they begin to step backward toward the trees Aramei's face drips with shere streaks of black fro her look all the more primal in the faces of these beasts; those that look the sao But these beasts are not like that one and Ara back into the burning village, but when Aramei won’t move to follow, Filipa stops Tears strea, sissa? We have to run!"

The biggest beast in the front rears up and co its massive claws at the air toward them Aramei and Filipa stumble backward into the brush and Filipa falls The beast roars, blood dripping thickly from its teeth, but another beast co it through the trees

Ara on her feet, shouts at Filipa, "Run! Go, Filipa, now!"

"Not without you!" Filipa shouts, pulling herself back to her feet

"I said, GO!" Aramei's voice is strident, but she never takes her eyes off the beasts blocking her path

Reluctantly, Filipa takes off running through the woods, leaving Ara for anything she ht be able to use to defend herself, but the cold, hard reality is that there's not much in the way of a weapon when all one is surrounded by are trees and brush

She can hear the screah the darkness in every direction, and the howls and the echo of structures collapsing under the weight and intensity of the fires In her peripheral vision, Arah the darkness, so on all fours while others haures as they try to flee