"She won't be alone," my husband hugged me as we left the temple.

I wanted to believe his words, but grief didn't let me.

My little girl was gone. The fever had taken her from us. How could I believe she wouldn't be alone inside the dark thomb?

"The great beast will guard her," my husband insisted. "It will carry her to a brighter land."

Folktales, nothing more... that's what I thought of the great beast.

Too many tears cluded my eyes. I couldn't see the road and I fell to my knees.

I slapped my hands on the dirt, angry at my daughter's fate.

Then I felt it, a three-toe footprint.

My husband was right.

She would never be alone.

Xi-rhinoceros,

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