The bow felt smooth in my hand, smoother than it was yesterday, and the orange arrows were straighter. But the otter was shoving me out the cave, and I didn’t have time to look at them more deeply. I did manage a glance towards my tools and weapons. The spear, the knife, and the brown arrows were all missing.

“Hey, I’m still naked!”

I swung around to at least grab my clothes and armor. I wrapped the bowstring in the bundle and rushed outside, the otter steering me towards the exit closest to the forest’s edge. I burst through the waterfall but didn’t see anything. The otter followed and pushed me into the greenery.

The little sucker was strong, and I went stumbling into the woods, every little thing flapping in the wind. (I was eight years old. Of course it’d be little.)

The two of us hiked up the hill twenty, thirty yards before Ikfael stopped and looked back toward the glen. I used the time to dress, put on my armor, and string my bow. Ugh, there’d be some uncomfortable scratches to deal with later.

Ikfael started off again, this time heading towards the top of the cliff, where the Devil Vines lived. I pulled her back to warn her about the danger. I wasn’t sure how we’d handle them without my spear.

She pulled the magic dagger from her pocket and wriggled her brows at me.

One, that was adorable. And two, the little sneaker must’ve grabbed it first thing after waking up from the spirit dream.

I stared at her. Really?

She stared back. Really.

I shrugged. Okay, then it’s your job to protect us.

Ikfael’s eyes sparkled. Just watch me.

She led the way up the hill, the dagger held between her paws. It looked clumsy, but she’d never let me down before.

The top of the falls was as minty as last time. The only movement was the stream, and the only noise, the roar of the falls. I watched carefully, and noticed a tuck here and a retreat there. The pink flowers were slowly disappearing into the tops of the trees.

Ikfael raised the dagger high and chirp chirped. Any of the vines that were too slow to withdraw, suddenly pulled away and disappeared.

She looked back at me, pleased with herself. See, told you so.

I bowed. How could I have doubted you?

She gestured to my bow and pointed me to the cliff’s edge. Now it’s your turn.

I licked my lips and crept to the edge. Mist clung to the water below, and the glen glowed with dawn light. From downstream, a white-tailed buck approached, sniffing at the ground as if it was tracking something.

He was enormous, easily 400 pounds, with a single point emerging from his head instead of the usual rack. It wasn’t very long yet, as it was still early summer, but the air fogged around it. When the buck stretched his neck to lick at one of the low-hanging branches, the leaves turned pale with ice.

The buck pawed the forest floor to scrape a patch of the surface clear. He urinated on it to mark his territory and claim the glen as his own.

Ikfael gnashed her teeth and hit me in the shoulder with the dagger’s pommel. Go on, go on, get rid of him.

I bit my lip, thinking. He was at least sixty yards away, and I wouldn’t trust a 30 pound draw to take down an animal of that size at that distance. Gravity would help, but I wasn’t sure how much. I’d also have to make sure I shot him in profile. A deer’s spine runs along the top of the body. Worse, I needed to target the upper thorax to hit the heart or lungs. That was the only way to be sure of a kill.

The buck sniffed around the glen, and I realized he was lingering in the places where I sat and worked. He was tracking me. Probably from downstream where I hung out by the beaver dam. Maybe from even earlier than that… from the thicket I’d found. Suddenly, I was very glad I didn’t run into him earlier.

At this point, he was underneath us, peering at the entrance I normally used to enter the cave. It was a terrible shot, all skull and spine, and the arrow was bound to deflect off his bones. Even Ikfael seemed to realize it, and she stopped hitting me with the pommel.

The buck disappeared. He’d lept through the water to enter the cave. Dang it. That meant he was on my trail and would come out the other side to follow us up the hill. I should’ve taken the shot earlier when he was still approaching the cave. It wasn’t perfect, but it would’ve been better than facing him head on.

We needed to move from this position and fast. Follow me, I gestured and forded into the stream, my bow held high above me. The current was fast this close to the falls, but I pushed against it.

Go slow to go fast, I told myself. Don’t rush. Be steady and sure.

Needless to say, Ikfael was at home in the water, and she made the far bank well before me. Her head quirked. Okay, we’re here. Now what?

I was drenched from the chest down, my armor dripping. It jingled as I ran upstream along the bank. I touched the ground as I ran to leave a scent trail for the buck to follow. Ikfael followed behind and chirped in confusion when I forded the river again after thirty yards.

The current was a little easier here, but not much. I tried to move as fast as I could, as safely as I could. I didn’t know how much time we had until the buck crested the top of the cliff.

There was a section of the bank covered in bushes. I nestled between them and readied to draw my bow. My heart was beating hard, and I felt the tip of danger poking me in the side.

Oh wait, that was Ikfael, careless of the dagger. I moved the blade aside and focused on melding my heart with the land. I could feel Meliune’s Blessing threatening to engage, but I shrugged it off. I would do this my way, fully aware of what I did.

The time felt endless, but I was calm above the storm of my emotions. Ready.

I heard the sound of ice cracking. The buck didn’t ford the stream like we did. He pointed his antler onto the water and froze the surface, so that he could walk across. My plan was to shoot him as he followed our trail along the far bank, and then again as he emerged from the water. But here he was, already in profile and in a precarious position.

I rose from my crouch, drew the bow, found my target, and released. It all happened in the space of four heartbeats. The arrow flew just as the buck stepped, his foreleg moving out of the way for the arrow to strike his upper thorax.

The buck lost his footing and slipped from the path of ice. He went tumbling into the water and over the cliff’s edge.