Elder Yefim has cornered my family and me: if I don't come up with a whole gold piece within a week, my mother will be sent to do hard labor.

There's no way I can make that kind of money in the safe zone. I have no choice but to venture deeper into the forest, where death lurks behind every tree and under every piece of brush. The creatures that live there are endowed with a frightening intelligence. With my trusty Athena and Handsome the scout by my side, my experience gives me just a glimmer of a chance to catch the creature I'm after: the extremely elusive elemental animal, the wind lynx.

I thought I knew a thing or two about hunting. But here, the freakish victim-specimens of the Druids' insane experiments abide alongside predators that turn the tables on their hunters. I'm going to have to rethink my own rules. It's my gamekeeping expertise against the forest creatures' cunning.

The clock is ticking.