Luke stepped into the stable, instantly hit by the scent of hay mixed with a strange musk he wasn't used to. Instead of the usual horses, cows, or goats, he might have expected, his eyes settled on creatures far more imposing. Bears with rounded, blunt teeth, wolves lacking the sharp fangs he'd normally associate with predators, and even tigers—lazily sprawled in their stalls, none of them with the carnivorous features that should have made them dangerous. Instead, these animals were part of a peculiar balance of this world, herbivores in nature, and with it, a reminder that this place operated on laws that defied everything he thought he knew.
It brought back a memory of the stable back in Purewood, now a ruin after the monster attack. The animals there had been strange to him too, but nothing like this. He couldn't help but wonder how different life might be if he'd stayed behind in Purewood—but the thought quickly faded as he focused on the present task.
