Each prisoner was made to sit behind a desk. Two hunters stood behind each of them, while the rest lined up along the walls. Dan glanced around: he couldn't believe there were so many fanatics willing to kill animal people for fun.

There was a document on the desk in front of him: a series of questions in the blocky Arissian script, with enough space for answers beneath. Tagu was sitting two desks to his right, facing a platter of lettuce. She didn't even try to hide her disgust. Durnis had a book instead, thin enough that it was probably easy to read if one wasn’t shivering from cold and fear.

"Write," one of the hunters behind Dan hissed.

He forced himself to pick up the graphite. After the fight, lack of sleep, hunger, thirst, the jump through the fire and the cold shower, the words swam in front of his eyes. Kaspuru had taught him a bit. Not enough to deal with a test like that one.

"Arissian isn't my first language," he said.

"And which one is it, then?" the other hunter asked. The lower part of her weapon, something Autur had called a 'bow', was so close it touched the desk.

"I don't know what you call it."

The huntress’s eyes narrowed. Dan retracted a bit, then a blow to the head made him rock forward. He kept his forehead on the table, arms wrapped around the pulsating pain on the back of his skull. Words had left his mouth, but he didn't know which language they were in, because the hunters' laughs had covered them.

"That wasn't Arissian, I'll give you that," one of them commented.

"Leave him alone!"

Dan felt a chill down his spine. He turned to look at Tagu: she was half-standing, fighting against the hand of a hunter trying to press her back down. Dan forced himself to smile.

"It's fine. I'm good. Focus on the test."

She slowly sat down. She sniffed the salad again, then approached it with a hand. Dan held his breath, but she stopped in time and picked up a fork instead. Her movements were mechanical and her teeth were not made to chew that kind of food, but she was doing well. Better than him, at least.

He felt a hand grab his hair, exactly in the spot that had been hit. The hunter forced him to look at the sheet of paper.

"You can speak well enough. Read."

Dan felt tears welling up from pain and fear. They froze when something metallic touched the base of his neck.

"Read. This is your last chance to prove you're human."

Dan obeyed. He stumbled and slurred his words, and every single time his heart stopped beating for an instant to see what would happen next. When he finally reached the last question and the hand released him, he felt so dizzy he wasn't sure he was still awake.

"What do you think?" the hunter asked his partner.

"I've seen four-year-olds read better."

Dan gulped while they laughed. He could still see the blade pressing against his neck at the edge of his vision, every shudder of the hunter's shoulder pressing it lightly against his skin. He hoped it wouldn't pierce it. He didn't have scales there.

"What do we do with him?" the other hunter said.

"If it was for me, I'd kill him now. But you know how the boss is. We need to be certain and shit."

"I'll get some food."

Dan became slowly aware of the room again. Someone was protesting.

"I can read, I swear," Durnis said. "I was just tense."

"And who taught you?" A hunter said, pressing the tip of a blade against his chest. "Your grandpa?"

He retracted.

"I was wrong about him.”

"Oh, really? Make sure you comfort him properly, once you meet him again."

The hunter grabbed the back of his shirt, as if to drag him away. Dan cried out something unintelligible. He felt a dagger around his neck as well.

“It doesn’t mean anything if he can’t read well,” he said, talking fast. "I had friends back home who couldn't. These tests don't make sense.”

For a moment, he thought he'd gone too far. A hand had returned to keep his head in place, and it wasn't for reading this time.

"Which friends?" A voice behind him said. "The ones you ate?"

The hunters nearby laughed. The one who was holding Durnis pushed him back against the desk.

“You’re going first.” They pointed at Dan. “You, second.”

Two people were dragged out of the room: a parrot woman who had tried to eat the meat in her plate by pecking it with her beak, and a dog girl who had completely refused to speak. Dan observed their faces until they were out of the room.

In the end, the man with the weird hat announced it was time to start the third trial. They were forced to stand and escorted out. Durnis was in front of the line.

“Why me?” he protested.

“Because you’re on thin ice. One mistake and you’re dead.”

He started to tremble. He looked back at Dan while they dragged him away. There was nothing he could do, especially since he was being pushed out immediately after him. He fought against the hunter holding his arm to look behind himself: the rest of the prisoners were being carried out in order. There were two people between him and Tagu, and one of them was the weasel.

They advanced in the dark, the sound of water becoming stronger the more they drew near. The wooden structures in that area weren't buildings, but ramps and narrow bridges, pillars and nets suspended over a liquid surface.

The man with the weird hat was waiting next to the pool. He tapped the round end of a spear against his boots.

"Your task will be to cross to the other side without falling into the water. If you touch the pool, we’ll kill you. I suggest you don’t try to escape or deceive us in any way.”

The hunters who weren’t keeping a prisoner in place stood at the edges of the pool, holding lit lanterns. The lights didn’t reach too far, but it was impossible to leave the water without someone noticing.

Someone emerged from the woods and crossed the small clearing toward the camp. Some hunters raised the alarm, but soon they recognized her as one of theirs. She approached the man with the weird hat and started a low conversation with him. Dan glanced at Tagu, hoping that she could hear what they were saying, but she shook her head.

When they finished, the man looked a bit tenser than before.

“I need to go now. If there are any problems, listen to your supervisors.”

Dan watched him disappear after the huntress into the woods. There had to be something out there, and not too far away, for him to leave like that without even carrying a torch. Either a village or another camp, maybe the place where they'd brought Kaspuru and the others.

A push forward reminded him it wasn't time to think about that. Worrying too much about other people was what had brought him there in the first place. Tagu was passing all of the trials without his help, she certainly wouldn't have failed that one. He, on the other hand...

Durnis was forced to step onto the first ramp. He stood there, trembling in the wind, looking down the edge. He seemed to be considering ending the trial immediately. In the end, he took a short run and jumped toward the next structure, a platform rising from the water. He stumbled and grabbed the end of a beam, the only bridge to the next platform. It was only possible to cross by putting a foot in front of the other. He climbed so slowly that a hunter shot a dart in the air as a warning.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The bridge ended on top of a pillar that wasn’t connected to anything else. There was another one in front of it, taller, with a half-open net hanging from it. It was the only way of reaching the top without touching the water.

Durnis leaped. He fell most of the way down before he managed to grab the net, but the weight of his body falling into the water dragged him down until he was screaming bubbles. Dan fought against the hunter restraining him to jump after him. The hunters at the sides of the pool were just looking down at the water, weapons ready. They didn't move to help him. Maybe they considered swimming a human trait too.

Finally, Durnis emerged. He hugged a pillar, panting for his life. The hunters moved to intercept him, but he retreated to the center of the pool, weaving between the constructions.

"I'm sorry," he yelled. "I made a mistake. Humans make mistakes! If you give me another chance, I'm sure..."

A net was shot toward him. Durnis tried to swim away as it unfurled in the air, but he wasn't quick enough. The hunters dragged him to the border, then heaved him onto the surface. It was too far to see what was happening, and the tears threatening to swell out of Dan's eyes didn't help. Durnis yelled and pleaded as he was dragged away, then became suddenly quiet.

The hunters gave Dan only an instant to process what had happened, then they pushed him onto the first ramp. He looked down from the edge, much like Durnis had: the water could be his way out, if it came down to it.

He ran and jumped onto the platform, climbed the bridge up to the pillar and gauged his distance from the net. He managed to grab it while he fell. There was another bridge at the top that descended to a platform. His legs trembled so much that he had to crouch until he was touching the wood with both hands. It made all of the pain from Autur’s training flare again. He heard the hunters talk to each other and even if he didn’t understand the words, he knew what they wanted.

At the end of the bridge, there was a wall with holds of different sizes jutting out at irregular intervals that led to another platform up above. He kicked away his shoes, leaving only the half-wet woolen socks, and grabbed the holds with both hands. He stood for a few instants gathering the courage to detach his feet from the platform. He realized the hunters were being strangely silent.

He pushed himself up, hesitated, grabbed the next hold. He pushed further, even if his arms and legs all trembled from the effort. He was reaching over to the top, when his leg twitched painfully. He tried to move his weight to the other one, but the foot wasn't as steady. He slipped, hit his chin on a hold and fell backward.

The water felt amazing against his scales. He swam deeper, lungs full of air, legs burning but feeling better. Something fell in the pool where he'd been a moment before. He swam around a pilaster, looking up at the lights around the edge. He needed to avoid them, but he wouldn't be as fast on land as he was in the water.

He took a half-empty jar of meat from his pocket and threw it out to the right, then kicked the water to move away. Once the lights followed the movement, crowding on one side of the pool, he grabbed the edge and heaved himself up. He started running, clothes weighing him down. The hunters couldn't see in the dark as he did, their very torches blinded them.

"He's running. There!"

Dan turned to see who it was and immediately stumbled on his own feet. The weasel was pointing at him, guiding the hunters in his direction. He swore and accelerated, but it was too late: a net was already falling from above.

He rolled down, tangling himself further every time his shoulders hit the earth. Hands stopped him. He thrashed, screaming much like Durnis had. They pinned down his limbs, uncovered his head enough to push a gag in between his teeth.

"Shut up," a hunter whispered so close to his ear it hurt like a shout. "You’re human. You're alive. Congratulations."

Dan was so confused he stopped fighting. The woman pulled him to his feet and pushed him forward, away from the trials.

"I don't understand," Dan tried to say, but his lips moved uselessly against the gag.

"We're releasing you. If you don't scream."

Dan looked over his shoulder at the next person starting the trial. He couldn't see who they were, but he remembered Tagu being three spots behind him. She would succeed, he was sure. And the hunters were waiting on the other side of the pool, ready to kill her.

The trial was meant to be impossible for a human.

"Wait," he tried to say, "I want to stay here. I changed my mind."

His words were unintelligible, and he knew the hunters would have ignored them anyway. Both his arms were in their clutch and he didn't have a weapon on him.

He remembered Autur's words. He wasn’t a useless human anymore. He could swim, he had scales on the back of his hands. Sleek and sharp.

He closed his hands into fists and scraped them against the back of the huntress’s arms. He felt resistance when they cut skin. She screamed, her grip becoming weak enough that he could push her away and kick her knee. He ran past her, toward the trees. He ran until the other hunters stopped following him, squinting at the light of the lanterns. He traced a wide circle before returning to the hunters’ camp.

He saw the weasel jump down from the last pillar onto the edge of the pool. A dart caught them in the chest. Dan shuddered and ran forward, averting his eyes.

It was Tagu on the ramp now. It took her only one instant to caliber the first jump, then she was on the platform. She walked on the bridge as if taking a stroll. She was going faster than anticipated, so Dan changed direction, aiming straight at the pool. There was nowhere to hide, but the hunters that weren’t looking for him in the woods were all observing Tagu’s trial.

He slid between two pairs of legs and found himself in the water before anyone could stop him. He swam deeper, toward the end of the circuit, far enough from the pool's edges not to be immediately captured. He emerged under a pillar and waited, only his face emerging from the surface, hoping the worst hadn't already happened.

A shadow flew between two obstacles.

"Tagu," he whispered, hoping she could hear him.

He waited with his heart going crazy with fear. Finally, her head leaned down from the platform.

"You're alive!" she said.

"There's someone in there," one of the hunters yelled.

Dan pressed himself against the pillar.

"Come here," he told her.

"No. I'm going to win!"

"They will kill you if you get to the end.”

“That’s not what they said.”

“It’s because you’re scared of the water, right?”

“They’ll kill me if I try to escape.”

“I fell and I’m still alive.” He couldn’t read her expression in the dark. “You’re just scared.”

"I'm not!"

"Then jump."

She retracted. One instant later, Dan heard a splash.

"She's trying to escape,” the hunters yelled. "She's a beast!"

Dan saw they were crowding around the border of the pool. He had no idea how they were supposed to get out without being killed.

Tagu reemerged next to him and grabbed the pillar with her claws. Dan swam upright beside her, trying to decide what to do. He felt a faint smell of ink coming up from the pool.

The pattern, he realized, digging it out of his pocket. The paper was completely moist, but still thick enough to hold together while he opened it. The ink was dripping down from the page, changing the pattern completely. He remembered the sea snakes' words about not damaging it in any way. He felt guilty about having wasted such a valuable gift.

He raised it above his head and swam toward the nearest hunters.

"Let us go," he yelled. "Or I’ll kill everyone except for us.”

He once again regretted not knowing more about magic. If the hunters could tell that the pattern didn’t have the effect he was declaring…

"He has a damaged pattern," someone yelled.

The whole line of hunters in front of Dan tensed, some already stepping back. It wasn’t what he had expected, but he could use it.

"Let's go, Tagu."

She left the pillar to swim with him toward the pool’s edge. He kept one arm out of the water, the hunters retreating from him. Tagu jumped out first and dragged him up by the back of his shirt. They started running toward the woods.

"Follow them!" someone shouted.

A few darts flew around Dan. One hit the paper he was still holding and pinned it to a tree trunk, destroying the pattern for good. That gave the other hunters enough courage to start shooting. They had lanterns and they were many, and Dan was exhausted. Tagu didn’t seem too tired, but she wasn’t capable of running for too long.

Something gigantic ran past them. Dan was so tired he could only think about avoiding it. It was only when Tagu tugged at his sleeve that he realized who it was.

"Autur!" they greeted her.

She answered by raising her weapon, then swung it at the first line of hunters. Three of them dropped down, wounded or killed.

Dan ran until his legs gave out, then dropped down at the base of a tree. Tagu climbed it to hide in the lower branches.

Autur moved more circumspectly around the hunters, at least compared to the ambush. She avoided darts and cut the nets before they could open completely. When the hunters started crowding at the edge of the woods, she retreated among the trees. They were many, enough to overpower her, but none of them dared to step forward first.

In the end, she walked back to the tree where Dan was waiting.

"Everything alright?"

He nodded and smiled. Tagu dropped down from the tree onto her back and hugged her from behind.

"I was so scared," she whined.

Autur reached over with an arm to pat her head.

"Don't worry, we're all still alive. For now."

She extended a hand, and Dan let her help him to his feet. They walked away from the camp, even if he kept watching over his shoulder.

"They captured a lot of people."

"I know, but I can't think about everyone. Sibras has been under interrogation for at least an hour now. From what I can gauge, he's giving them information about Mayvaru, and some lies about us."

"Where?" Tagu asked, dropping down from her shoulders.

"They have another camp, east of here," she said, pointing.

"Are we going to save them now?"

"No. You two are going to rest, I'll keep watching the situation. There are many hunters there, a lot more than you saw at this camp. It's not a place for kids."

“Let’s make a plan!” Tagu said. "I'll ambush them. Dan can..."

She looked at him, ears lowered as she thought hard about what he could do.

“Just think about resting,” Autur said.

They entered a small clearing with a sleeping sack of leather sewn together. Tagu reached it first and laid down on top. There was enough space for two more people, so Dan sat down next to her.

"Sleep," Autur said, leaning against a nearby tree with the blade in her hands. "I'll watch over you."

Dan slowly lay down. Tagu was already purring in her sleep.

"Thank you for protecting her," he heard Autur murmur before drifting off.