"Be care -- aaaaand she's gone," Alistair finishes with a sigh, watching Nepeta's lantern bob away into a pinprick of light. "All right then."

He swings his own lantern higher, squinting at the path ahead for any sign of human life. No luck: while there are a couple fresh tracks, they don't look anything like human. He's not completely sure what they look like, though. They're clustered oddly, and the way the whatever-it-is dragged its legs through the snow doesn't look quite --

Something creaks further up ahead.

Alistair pauses.