It was a Glimmer-Maw. A serpentine thing made of fractured light and obsidian scales, coiled around the largest tusk-boar I'd ever seen. The boar was frozen, its crystalline tusks chattering in terror. The Glimmer-Maw was feeding—not on flesh, but on its potential . The future memories of the boar, its dreams of rooting for truffles, its plans for the winter. The air shimmered as ribbons of silver smoke drifted from the boar's ears into the Maw's gaping, toothless mouth.
It was ten feet away. Five. Everkyun leaped.
The Glimmer-Maw shrieked on a frequency that made my nose bleed. It thrashed, dissolving at the edges, and then—with a final, wet pop —it imploded into a single, perfect, teardrop-shaped pearl. Everkyun landed in a heap of fur, panting. -my hunting adventure time everkyun-
The Glimmer-Maw's head, a featureless shard of obsidian, turned toward us. It had no eyes, but I felt its attention like a weight. It tasted our futures. It saw me missing the shot. It saw Everkyun running away. It saw us both as nothing.
The air in the Whispering Woods had that sharp, electric taste that only came right before a total Myto Eclipse. Everkyun, my fluffy-eared, perpetually anxious hunting partner, tugged at the hem of my leather jerkin with a shivering paw. "Kyuuu," he whimpered, his large, opalescent eyes scanning the purple gloom of the overgrowth. "Bad hum. The sparkle-boars are hiding." It was a Glimmer-Maw
He weakly licked my chin. "Kyuuuu," he sighed, which I'm pretty sure translates to "I told you the hum was bad."
Everkyun went absolutely rigid. Then he did something he'd never done before. He stepped in front of me. The Glimmer-Maw was feeding—not on flesh, but on
I raised Grudge-Holder and fired. The sleep bolt passed right through its shimmering body and thunked into a tree. Useless.