Leona’s foot came down softly on the dry leaves, and she did her best to ease her weight onto it to minimize the crunch as she stepped forward. A short half-mile walk had brought her to the woods she’d seen from the road, and there were rabbit tracks leading into it.

The past four years had taught Leona much. Nights without food unless she caught it herself had instilled in her an appreciation for the subtlety of her own movement that she had never considered when practicing competitive archery. Being part of a group that expected her to return with game taught her the discipline of unhurried movements, and to calm herself when the excitement of the hunt threatened to give her position away.

The tracks at her feet were fresh, perhaps only minutes old. She nocked an arrow in her bow, then inched forward to brace herself against a tree. As concealed as she could be, given the lack of brush around her, she leaned to peek beyond the trunk.

Two rabbits were digging at something in the small clearing.

Slowly now, breathe. Leona raised her bow and pulled back on the string. She breathed silently in and held the air inside to steady her aim.

A crash of twigs and leaves behind her startled her and she let loose the arrow only to watch it fly well clear of its target. The rabbits bolted.

Shite!

Leona turned around in time to see a wolf leave its crouch to lunge at her.

Without thinking she raised her bow in front of her as the wolf jumped, and managed to shove it between the beast’s jaws. White and purple foam splashed from the beast’s mouth as it connected, and she twisted with the bow to push the wolf off to the side while it was still in the air. She slammed its body into the trunk of the tree she’d been leaning against and it released the bow from its jaws as it fell to the forest floor.

The wolf was larger than a normal one, but didn’t have the blackened eyes of a dire beast.

“What are you, simply rabid?” Leona said frantically as she backed up. She reached for another arrow as she did, but her fingers wouldn’t cooperate.

The wolf regained its footing and growled, stalking forward as more foam dripped from its jaws. Its eyes were focused where a rabid beast’s were wild.

Work, damn you! She shouted silently at her fingers, willing them to grab the arrow, but they fumbled once more.

The wolf leapt.

She ducked and rolled to the right, coming to her feet at the same time the wolf turned toward her after landing. Leona threw her bow to the ground and pulled her shortsword from the sheath at her side.

“Come on then, you mangy mutt,” she muttered angrily. Without giving it a chance to regain the initiative, she shot forward on one leg and thrust out with her blade. The wolf leapt to the side, deftly avoiding her strike, and nipped at her.

The leather forearm bracer she wore protected her, but she knew if it had been a real bite, the beast’s teeth would have penetrated deep.

With a yell that was part fearful scream and part rage-filled roar, Leona pushed her forearm further, hard against the wolf’s mouth, causing it to lose its footing. As its legs scrambled to maintain contact with the ground behind it, she shoved her blade between its ribs.

A yelp followed by a whimper, and the wolf’s jaw slackened. She freed her arm from its teeth as the body slumped to the forest floor. The blood on her sword as she wiped it on the grass looked darker than usual.

|||||||||||||||||

“Brash has a story for each one of those scars, actually,” Rel said.

“Will you tell us one?” Colm asked, looking across the campfire at Brash as Rel worked to build the flames. The sun was beginning to set and hints of shadow played across the man’s lined face.

“Some other time, perhaps. It looks like our dinner has arrived,” Brash replied.

They turned where Brash was looking to see Leona pulling a large carcass behind her as what looked to be two rabbits tied to her belt bounced against her hip with each step.

“This big guy attacked me in the woods unprovoked,” Leona announced as she reached the edge of their makeshift camp. “Something is wrong with it.”

She dropped the legs and they landed with a thud in the short grass. “Foaming at the mouth, he was, but not normal. It was white and purple, not white and yellow like a rabid animal would have.”

Durnst walked over and then crouched next to the wolf’s body. Using the tip of his dagger he peeled back the beast’s lips to reveal purpled gums and larger than usual teeth.

“It’s not a dire beast, either,” Leona continued. “Its eyes were clear, focused. It seemed rabid but… not, at the same time. Its blood is too dark.”

“Some unknown disease, then? We’d best burn the body. Rel, would you mind setting a pyre over there?” Durnst asked as he pointed between the tree line and their camp. Rel rose without protest, taking some of the firewood with him.

“I’ll bring the body, then,” Brash said as he heaved himself to his feet.

“What about you, Leona?” Colm asked her as she pulled the rabbits from her belt. “Do you have any stories like Brash?”

Leona smiled slightly as she sat down and set the rabbits before her, then pulled out her knife to begin skinning them. “I led a boring life in a boring city with boring people. My story would be boring.”

Colm sat down next to her, and pulled out his own knife to help. “I’d listen, anyway.”

“Gods above, you are far too sweet a kid to be hanging around us,” she replied, and reached a hand up to ruffle his hair.

“I can’t be that much younger than you,” he replied with a smile, but didn’t squirm out of the way. Outside of training, none of the Diremen ever touched him in a way that hurt, and he found himself growing to like human contact.

“Perhaps, perhaps not,” she said mysteriously. “But the years you’re about to experience are going to completely change who you were, to form the basis of who you will be. These particular years mean more than others, especially when comparing age.”

Colm didn’t understand but didn’t want to appear dimwitted in front of his friend, and so he simply nodded and continued skinning the rabbit.

The stew was boiling by the time Rel and Brash returned, smoke rising from behind them.

“I’m telling you man, the ladies in Cantford are going to be exotic! It’s the closest city to the Yareswen border and a port town, after all. It must be a melting pot of cultures. I can’t wait to see what they’re like! Spend a few nights in town, a different bed each night…” Rel trailed off as they each grabbed a bowl from Leona.

Brash snorted as Leona rolled her eyes.

Durnst had pulled dried vegetables from the back of the wagon to add to the pot, but had otherwise sat silently staring at the fire until dinner was ready. Life seemed to return to him as he accepted a bowl from Leona and spooned a portion of the stew into it.

They continued to make small talk about Cantford while they ate, though none but Durnst had ever visited the town. Colm wondered about the ocean, as he chewed. They’d passed a river on their journey, and he had a visual concept for a lake, but water as far as the eye could see? The sky was the only thing he could think of that could be blue in every direction.

Sighing contentedly as he finished his stew, Colm looked up to see Durnst grab Leona’s arm as she reached to set her bowl down. The man stared at her bracer intently. Colm followed his gaze.

“You’re sure the bite pierced no skin?” Durnst asked.

Colm saw Leona nod out of the corner of his eye.

The indentations from the wolf’s teeth in the leather of Leona’s bracer had stained the leather around it the same purple as the foam she’d described spilling from its mouth.