Elsewhere Sarahi and Milo were on a hunt in the woods surrounding Aius. The woods were an area specifically reserved for sport, specifically the royal family's. Certainly if everyone was allowed to hunt there all of the animals would die off or run away, and then no one would be able to hunt. It was, however, customary for the King to throw a banquet for whomever in the capital could attend during a time of famine, serving them the meat of whatever animals he could kill.

At the time there was no famine, Sarahi and Milo were merely hunting for sport. Since all of the guards were suspect in the demon conjuring from the other day Sarahi and Milo had an excuse to be on their own, minus the hunting hounds. The two of them rode on horseback, crossbows in their free hands, following the barking dogs as they chased a stag. They'd been following the dogs for a while, wondering what it was they'd smelled, and discovered that they were after a stag with magnificent antlers and a broad chest. It was a hard chase, as the stag constantly changed directions and easily bounded over fallen trees and overgrown roots. Sarahi and Milo had to really push their horses to keep up with the stag.

“Don't worry, if you fall behind I'll catch it!” Milo yelled with a cocky smirk on his face, egging Sarahi on.

Sarahi laughed. “You? Please, you're not here because you can hunt.”

“Ooh!” Milo laughed. He raised his crossbow, struggling to balance his aim while riding the horse. When he was sure his aim was dead-on he took the shot, but the stag changed directions and the bolt hit a nearby tree.

“See?” Sarahi laughed.

“You're gonna look real silly if you can't hit him either,” Milo pointed out.

“If,” Sarahi replied, urging her horse onward. Milo was quickly falling behind. At this point Sarahi was the only one of the two of them who had a chance at making the shot. She watched the stag as it passed through the trees, trying to predict where it would soon be, and she adjusted her aim as such, ready to fire directly ahead of him so that he'd leap right into the path of the crossbow bolt. As soon as she was sure she had the stag she fired the bolt, but to her dismay the stag changed directions again and the bolt missed. “Damn!”

Milo rode up, smiling, but not laughing. “he got away?”

“Yeah,” Sarahi shrugged. “Oh well.”

“Let's head back,” Milo said. The two of them rode side by side, their horses very close to one another, at a slow trot. When they'd been riding a few minutes Milo began to snicker, barely able to contain his laughter any longer. Sarahi gave him a playful push. Milo gave a playful push back, laughing a little louder. Sarahi started laughing too, but she tried to contain it, and pushed him a little harder. Milo toppled off his horse onto the ground and dust flew up around him.

“Milo! I'm sorry!” Sarahi stopped her horse, as well as Milo's, and jumped down to see if he was alright. As soon as she'd walked over to him, though, she saw him rubbing his head and smiling up at her, no longer laughing out loud, but still in good spirits. Sarahi smiled and shook her head, then started to turn and walk back to her horse. Milo reached up and pulled her onto the ground with him. He pulled her down on top of him and gazed into her eyes, longingly, with that loving smile he'd stopped hiding from her the morning after her wedding. Sarahi felt her heart jump and flutter, like a baby bird trying to fly away to no avail. Milo placed a hand gently on her cheek, his other arm wrapped around her waist, and started leaning up towards her, his eyes closed. Sarahi trembled at the thought of it, but soon gave in to the moment. She closed her eyes as well and closed the distance between their lips. This was their first kiss, and by the time it finally happened it felt like it had been a long time coming. Here in the woods, outside the walls of the castle and the city, they knew their secret was safe. No suspicious eyes would watch them, only the eyes of the animals and the trees themselves, which would know this attraction to be only natural, and right, in spite of the laws of mankind.

Of course, just because their secret was safe didn't mean that they were safe. As they were on the ground, kissing, and sharing a beautiful moment, they heard a loud snort from nearby. When they both broke the kiss and looked up they saw a very large boar, with tusks like saber blades, nearby, looking surly and ready to charge them. Sarahi pushed herself off of Milo and shouted to him, “Quick, get on the horse!” as she jumped onto her own horse. Milo struggled to climb onto his, but just as he got one foot in the stirrups the boar began to charge and the horse ran, dragging Milo along the ground. Milo knew that if he didn't act quickly he would surely be dragged to death in a very short time, so he drew his hunting knife and cut the stirrup to get his foot free and allow the horse to leave him behind. Milo was hurt, but not so much that he couldn't stand up. The boar had missed him during its first charge, and charged him again. Milo stood with a wide stance, his hunting knife in his hand, ready to dodge out of the way at the last moment when this huge beast got close.

What Milo knew about boars that separated them from many of the other dangerous animals one encountered in the wild was that while most predators had a certain instinct that caused them to stop hunting after they had wasted more energy to acquire food than they would get from eating it boars had no such instinct. This boar would keep after Milo and Sarahi until it was dead, they were, or it had completely lost track of them, and without his horse Milo didn't have that third option anymore.

The ground shook with each beat of the boar's cloven hooves upon the ground as it closed the distance between itself and Milo. Just as it drew close a crossbow bolt hit the boar's neck. Sarahi had fired it in an attempt to save Milo. The bolt didn't pierce the boar's hide deep enough to kill it, but it did slow the beast down enough to allow Milo to jump out of the way and give the boar a quick stab in the side with his hunting knife. The knife also did not completely pierce the beast's hide. Unfortunately, the boar was able to tell where the bolt came from, and turned its attention to Sarahi. It snorted loudly and charged at her. Sarahi's horse reared back, throwing her onto the ground, before it galloped away. Sarahi aimed and fired another bolt. This bolt the boar in the nose, but missed the nostril, which could have taken the bolt straight to the pig's brain. Its charge was only barely slowed.

Seeing Sarahi in danger gave Milo strength he didn't even know he was capable of, and he leaped at the boar. He dropped his knife, landed on its back, and grabbed it by the tusks. Sarahi got out of the way as the boar crashed into the ground where she had just seconds ago been lying, and Milo twisted the boar's head to the side. There was a loud snap as the boar's neck broke, and the boar's body went limp on the ground. Milo collapsed on its back, the adrenaline in his blood soon calming again.

Sarahi walked over and helped pull Milo to his feet. Both of them breathed heavily and gasped for air. Both of them had so much that they wanted to say but they were unable to remember any words. After a few moments of staring and gasping they both began to smile, and nervously laugh, shaking their heads. “Well,” Milo said, “The deer got away, but we got pork.”

Sarahi laughed out loud, throwing her head back. “Yeah! We won't be coming back empty handed, that's for sure.”

“Of course, without the horses it'll be a long trip.” Milo picked up the boar and carried it on both of his shoulders. Its body was resting on his back, behind his head so both of his shoulders could share the weight. “Come on, let's go.”

. . .

Back at the castle, the guards were in an uproar when Milo and Sarahi's horses returned but Milo and Sarahi were not with them. When King Hadar was informed he immediately sent out search parties into the forest, desperately hoping his friends were alright. He waited by the front gates of Aius as the common folk walked by and murmured about why the King was waiting at the gates. Over the next few hours he heard every kind of rumor from the peasantry as the story kept evolving. Queen Sarahi had been kidnapped by Nihilus spies. Queen Sarahi had been kidnapped by bandits. Queen Sarahi and her bodyguard had run off together. Queen Sarahi and her bodyguard were attacked by demons. All rumors that were baseless, but the commoners were all so sure that each of these stories were true. Hadar deeply hoped none of them were, and prayed constantly for Sarahi and Milo's safe return.

After about three hours of waiting he finally saw the two of them, riding on horseback, a little scratched up but otherwise fine. There was a dead boar on the back of the horse Milo rode, and guards walked beside the horses. Sarahi and Milo both waved to Hadar with smiles on their faces and Hadar grinned and waved back, shaking his head as he laughed in relief.

“That boar was tougher than most demons!” Milo said as they drew close.

“I can see that. Are you wounded?”

“Miraculously, no,” Sarahi said. “You wouldn't believe how brave he was! he jumped on the boar's back and killed it with his bare hands!”

“Tell me the boar was coming after you first...” Hadar said. “Tell me you didn't provoke it...”

“Well, yeah!” Milo chuckled. “I don't just go around trying to get myself killed!”

“Good! Come in! We'll get you both cleaned up and have physicians look you over.”

“Your Majesty, really, I'm fine,” Milo said, touching Hadar's shoulder. “Don't worry so much.”

Some of the city's guards looked over the boar's body as all of them walked through the streets, “No blood...is...is its neck broken?” One of them turned to Milo with a look of shock and awe on his face. “Did you snap this thing's neck with your hands?”

“Well, the knife wouldn't cut deep enough,” Milo said with a shrug.

All of the guards were in total shock. They'd heard of such a thing being possible, but it would be a tremendous feat of strength to do such a thing. Milo was obviously a strong man, this was not news, anyone who looked at him knew that, but they had no idea he was that strong. From that moment on, Milo had the respect of all the guards in Aius, even if that respect was more out of fear than love. Stories spread of Milo's might, peasants making him out to sound outright superhuman.

It was only a few weeks before these stories reached the ear of Milo's father, Isu, grossly exaggerated by then. The way Isu heard it Milo beat a demon-possessed boar to death with his fists while it was rampaging in Aius. He saved defenseless women and children from its wrath, and ripped off its hide with his fingers so he could cook its meat to feed the poor of Aius. Isu figured this story was likely an exaggeration, but in any case he knew that his son had grown up to do great things, become a hero, and earn the respect of people born of noble families, a tremendous feat for one born of poverty. It was beautiful, Isu thought, that a young man born in a terrible blizzard, who lost his mother the day he was born, could rise to such heights. For the time, Isu could not be more proud than he was of his son, though a day would come, much later, that he would be even more proud of him still.