Even as Dawn stormed towards the men, sword drawn, rage distorting her face, they were laughing. How could a young, obviously inexperienced girl of slight build be a danger to them? And she might not have been, without her friends.
The man she had attacked shrugged off her sword with laughable ease and scoffed. “Fancy yourself some kind of fighter, do you? Now dovey, you don’t even know how to hold a sword.” With a flick of his hand he slid his sword under hers and a moment later Dawn had been disarmed. The other two men surrounded her and grabbed her from behind. They twisted her arms behind her back painfully and she was trapped, immobilized between them. The pain cut through her blind rage and with a sickening lurch, she was becoming aware of her situation.
Ankou and Kharma had been caught totally unprepared by Dawn’s rage and her madcap attack. They were stunned for a long moment. Belatedly, they now entered the fight, the lynx taking advantage of the men’s preoccupation with Dawn. Like the ghost cat Dawn had named him, Ankou slinked around the men and attacked the first one from behind. His extended claws opened up the man’s back and he screamed. Kharma was scrambling to ready his bow in the meantime. His first shot was jittery and went wide. Cursing silently he readied another arrow and managed to shoot the second man in the shoulder.
The men had let Dawn go, when their comrade had been wounded by Ankou. Whirling around, one of them drew his sword, the other one retrieved his bow from the ground where it had fallen when he had grabbed Dawn. Dawn, thinking rationally once more, cast her lightning spell on him. It struck him squarely on the head, his eyes rolled backwards, the whites showing, then he collapsed slowly. The man Ankou had wounded was fixed on the cat, who was a more agile fighter than him, especially now that he was wounded. Ankou sprang in, swept his claws over his thigh and was gone again before the man’s sword could reach him.
The hunter Kharma had shot in the shoulder turned his sword on Dawn. He wasn’t laughing anymore. “Attack us, will you?” His sword started to pierce her chest but grazed along her ribs. It hurt ferociously. Dawn could only manage a pained gasp. She doubled over breathlessly and protected her chest with her arms. He raised his sword to finish her off, but Kharma had taken a running leap onto his back and held unto him with claws and teeth biting into his flesh. The man couldn’t reach the Kharlin with his sword without risking to hurt himself in the process. He frantically tried to get the Kharlin off his back, turning in place and yelping in pain.
Dawn finally managed to straighten herself and raised her sword slowly. She struck at the distracted man’s unprotected stomach and the blade slipped in diagonally. With a broken cry, he fell down to his knees, dark blood gushing from the wound. Dawn raised the sword once more and slowly pierced his throat and killed him. Afterwards she sank to her knees, feeling very tired all of a sudden.
Ankou had won his war of attrition against the first hunter, who bled freely from many deep scratch wounds and was only moving feebly now. He didn’t have the strength to raise his sword anymore and Ankou ended it with a last decisive bite on his neck. Afterwards he paused for a moment and then investigated the man Dawn had knocked out with her lightning, biting and breaking his neck too.
It was very quiet thereafter. Only the panting breaths of Dawn broke the silence for a while. At last, Kharma looked at Dawn seriously and said. “Stupid attack. Not good idea. Lucky not dead.”
Dawn half laughed half sobbed. “I know Kharma, I know. I don’t know how it happened, but when he talked about wearing your pelt I simply lost my mind.” Ankou sat himself down a short distance apart and sent her a reproachful glance, ears pressed flat down to his head.
“The only reason I’m still alive is that they underestimated me and didn’t notice Ankou at first. They thought I was no threat, and they weren’t wrong. They disarmed and caught me within seconds. Without you and Ankou, that would have been the end.” Dawn sat down on the ground hard. What had she done? She had blindly attacked the three men, obviously experienced hunters, on her own. No matter what they had said or what kind of men they had been, she had attacked them first and now she had killed them. What kind of person did that make her? A killer. That wasn’t what she wanted to be. And she had endangered her friends as well, Ankou and Kharma, who had been drawn into her rash attack.
“I’m sorry. I know it’s not worth much, but I didn’t mean to do that. I acted crazily and I put you in danger. This isn’t how it was meant to be. I wanted to have my path, build myself a shelter in the valley and spend my time collecting herbs and preparing medicines. And now? I’m a killer now, not a healer.”
Kharma sighed. “Life hard, always unexpected thing comes. Were not good humans, wanted to hunt Kharma and others of tribe. Am not sad they dead.”
Dawn needed a long time to calm down. She still felt sick and it wasn’t caused by her injury. She didn’t like what she saw when she looked at herself. It was one thing to kill beasts who attacked her first, and a totally different matter to attack and kill humans in a blind rage. She never even knew she had such a temper before today. Shakily, Dawn stood up. She couldn’t change what had happened. Maybe she could learn from it. From now on she would focus on becoming a wise woman again, she would be healer, not a killer. Resolute now, she took the time to cast Nurture on herself. Ankou and Kharma had come out of the fight with not more than scratches, but she healed them as well just to be safe.
It had started to rain now and the sky was darkening, a thunderstorm seemed imminent. As she saw the dead bodies of the hunters, sickness flooded over her once again. She was hard pressed not to throw up. Taking a deep breath she said: “We need to get rid of the bodies, I don’t want to share the campsite with the dead.”
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Kharma, not as squeamish as Dawn, inspected the corpses and relieved the dead men of their weapons and the contents of their pockets. Together, they dragged the bodies one after another around the bend of the path and rolled them down into a ravine. Dawn felt guilty, treating them so irreverently, but they had no shovels to dig graves and it would have taken hours of effort even if they had had one.
It was very quiet afterwards as they sat around the fire. Dawn was cooking a thick stew out of the bear meat she had left and some beans. Kharma, always nosy, was inspecting the packs of the hunters. He found some dried provisions, jerky, beans, oats and flour in addition to a pan and a kettle. But the best find were two small tents, that would provide them with shelter from rain and wind in the nights. He had also found money and some papers.
Dawn was ill at ease and didn’t know how to talk with her friends after all that had happened. To distract herself she inspected the papers Kharma had found. These mostly consisted of letters between people she didn’t know. But one of them gave her pause. The letter in question offered a bounty for Kharlin pelts, and that alone would have been sufficient to draw her attention to it. That it bore the signature of Frederick Trakam of merchant house Trakam was enough to make her gasp.
Kharma pricked his ears and turned to her: “Dawn, what is matter?” She swallowed: “It’s a letter granting a bounty for any Kharlin pelts delivered to merchant house Trakam. It’s a big one, too. One gold per pelt.” Kharma said: “What is bounty?” Dawn replied: “They’re paying money especially for the pelts of your people, Kharma. It’s atrocious. Why would they do that?” The Kharlin flattened his ears and growled: “Bad humans.” Dawn covered her face with her hands: “And the worst is, someone from house Trakam offered it. My father was a Trakam. It has to be one of my relatives on my father’s side.”
That information was enough to kill all conversation for a while. An uncomfortable silence lingered among the three friends. In the end, Kharma approached Dawn and patted her on the back: “Bad relative is not you.” “No, but I feel awful about it all the same. And I don’t understand it at all. They can hunt animals and beasts enough here in the wilderness, why would they especially ask for the pelts of Kharlin’s?” The Kharlin shrugged: “Kharma not know. Noone of tribe understand humans.” The ate their bear stew in silence afterwards and called it a night.
After the rain in the night the next morning dawned bright and clear. They packed quickly and followed the path higher into the mountains, over a ridge and down again. Dawn was still self-conscious after all that had happened the day before. Finally she asked Kharma: “Kharma, you told me that the food situation of your tribe has gotten problematic. You said it was because of the demons.” Kharma nodded: “Is true.” “So when did the problems start?” He pondered a while. “Maybe year, maybe two years. Before all good.” “So something must have changed with the demons a year or two ago. Maybe their numbers have grown? Or did they not hunt in that area before?”
Kharma said: “Demons hunt near tribe for long time. But tribe knows not go in some areas because demons hunt there.” Dawn retorted, “So, if they have always hunted near your tribe, there have to be more demons now, or there would not be a problem with your food.” He nodded thoughtfully: ”Must be true.”
Suddenly, Dawn noticed movement on the rocks in the distance. “What was that?” she asked. Kharma just looked at her questioningly. “Was what?”
“I saw something moving on the rocks over there.” She gestured in the direction. Kharma studied the rocks for a long moment. “See nothing.” Maybe I’m seeing ghosts, thought Dawn. The movement had reminded her of the demons. But probably it was just their talk that had her seeing monstrous spiders around every corner.
A few minutes later Kharma brightened. “Know that rock. Can find tribe from here.” And indeed, one of the rocks in front of them looked like the head of a giant eagle. “Wonderful,” she exclaimed. “Truthfully, I was afraid we would have to wander around for weeks to find your tribe. How long will it take us to get there?” Kharma grinned: “Will find late tomorrow.” He had perked up visibly at the prospect of returning to his tribe. Dawn smiled, happy for him, but at the same time a little sad to loose him as a companion soon. But she still had Ankou. And only yesterday she had sworn to herself, she would concentrate on her goal of training as a wise woman and healer from now on. That was what she wanted to be. Not a fighter, not a killer, but a wise woman and healer. Though fights might find her as long as she stayed in the wilderness, she would not be the one to seek them out.
They walked the rest of the day and camped without any further beast attacks. They kept up their training in the evening and Dawn felt a bit more confident with her sword, though she was still far from competent. ‘Every little bit helps’, she thought.
When they set off the next day, Kharma was brimming over with excitement and clearly couldn’t wait to reach his village. Dawn commented laughingly: “Slow down, Kharma. You’re going to break a leg if you keep running headlong over the rocks, and then where will you be.” But her warning didn’t impress him in the least.
They were travelling now through a region with bizarre rock formations and a lot of natural caves in the cliffs. Trees and shrubbery were scarce here. In spite of Kharma’s carefree demeanor, Dawn felt a growing unease. For a while she couldn’t really pinpoint the cause, but then it struck her. It was quiet around them. Too quiet. No birds singing, no insects chirping. A deathly silence hung over the area. “Ankou, Kharma, stop!” she said very quietly. Her friends looked at her, Kharma very impatiently. “Something is very wrong, here. The silence is unnatural.” Kharma shrugged, “Is quiet, happens sometimes.” He dashed forwards once more eagerly, thoughts of returning home obviously overriding all caution. Dawn followed willy-nilly, she wouldn’t let him run into danger alone.
A short while later, Kharma suddenly vanished behind some rock. When they arrived at the spot they found a well hidden entrance to the underground. They entered a narrow earthen passage. Dawn felt uncomfortably reminded of her last sojourn underground. The passage widened into a cave with several dwellings made from wood and clay. In front of every hut, work-places for crafting or meal preparation were situated. In the middle of the area lay a great open fire pit with grouped wooden benches and tables around it. Small openings overhead let sunlight into the area and it wasn’t the gloomy underground place Dawn had expected. But the whole village lay quiet and silent. No Kharlin was greeting Kharma or the strangers he brought with him. They could see no movement in the village. Everything was quiet. Tools were scattered around and meal preparations had clearly been interrupted halfway, half-filled bowls of vegetables waiting for someone to finish the dish. Kharma entered the little houses one after another but he didn’t find anyone. He looked bewildered and unhappy. “No one here.” He said finally, sounding broken-hearted. “Tribe gone.”