‘Finally, a good bit of stew,’ said Laras after he’d ordered for both himself and Yara. They’d stopped at an inn on the road to take a quick break from travelling and to catch their breath.

  ‘Can’t remember the last time I had this,’ said Yara, ‘I usually get something simpler.’

  ‘How come?’ asked Laras, ‘you should eat as best you can, you need it.’

  ‘I usually can’t afford it.’

  ‘Oh, right, about that,’ Laras scratched behind his ear, ‘I’m not sure how we’ll pay.’

  ‘Didn’t we get anything from previous contracts?’

  ‘Not much, Yilgrans are stingy with payments.’

  Yara sighed, ‘well, we’re fortunate we only have to pay after we’ve eaten.’

  Their dinner was served rather quickly. Laras looked at it with hungry eyes, holding his spoon and ready to dig in. He’d ordered them both freshly made rabbit stew. It was due to this excitement that his disappointment became immeasurable when he began to eat. Laras nearly immediately spat out what he’d put in his mouth.

  ‘What is this?’ he asked in a bewildered tone.

  ‘It’s stew, isn’t it?’ asked Yara as she continued to eat without complaining.

  ‘If this is stew then I’m the crown prince of Anglavar,’ he poked at the weirdly shaped chunks floating in the goopy brown liquid, ‘is this even rabbit?’

  Yara stopped eating to inspect her own serving, ‘it seems fine to me,’ she said. Laras got up, his bowl in hand, and walked towards the counter. Yara averted her eyes in slight embarrassment. She could hear him talk to the serving girl about what he’d been given and how disappointed he was by it. None of what he said was motivated by anger, even if it occasionally came across as such. The innkeep chose to intervene.

  ‘What’s wrong here?’ he asked, ‘a dissatisfied customer?’

  Laras pointed at his bowl, ‘there’s no rabbit in this rabbit stew.’

  ‘Ah, our apologies for that, our local trappers failed to catch anything as of late.’

  Now his eyes narrowed, not out of suspicion but curiosity instead, ‘how come?’ he asked, his interests piqued, ‘did they give you any reason why?’

  The innkeep, slightly confused by the questions posed, nodded to answer his guest.

  ‘Can you tell us anything about this?’ Laras gestured to Yara, ‘sit with us if you’d like, we’d like to hear what you have to say.’

  ‘Uhm, of course,’ he said as he sat down, ‘there’s not much else to tell however.’

  ‘Did they report anything unusual about their traps?’

  ‘Some had been snapped and destroyed, by what they didn’t say.’

  ‘None of them brought back anything?’

  ‘Well, one of them did,’ said the innkeep, ‘it wasn’t useful for anything other than stock however.’

  ‘Do you still have that?’

  ‘No, but the hunter that brought it back should.’

  Laras looked at Yara, who’d almost finished her food. Her eyes made contact with his.

  ‘We should ask him,’ she suggested, almost as if she’d read Laras’ mind, ‘he might still have it,’

  ‘His name is Vikar, a right arsehole he is too,’ said the innkeep, ‘lives on the outer edge of town.

  Yara stood up and began to fiddle with a coin pouch she had with her. She pulled out a few pyrite coins and handed them to the innkeep.

  ‘I don’t have much more, but I hope this can cover the food.’

  ‘It’ll do,’ said the innkeep, ‘good luck speaking to that rube of a hunter, maybe you can get something out of him.’

  Vikar’s hut was an unkempt shed surrounded by bramble and tall bushes. Fowl ran rampant on the property. Laras approached and knocked on the door. It shook in its hinges and made quite the racket as he hit the door repeatedly. From inside a voice called.

  ‘GIVE ME A MINUTE,’ shouted Vikar. He rushed to the door and opened it. His short dirty blonde hair was a mess and a dried-up splotch of mud covered one of his cheeks. Vikar took one look at Laras before snorting.

  ‘Fuck do you want?’ he asked in a groggy voice as he stepped out from behind the door. He was shirtless and clearly had just woken up.

  ‘We had questions concerning something you may have found when checking your snares.’

  Vikar hadn’t listened to a word Laras had just said, instead he’d been leering over his shoulder and at Yara. She stood with her side towards him and her head facing away. To her the scenery was far more interesting than the half-naked ranger that stared at her.

  ‘What’d you say?’ he asked, still not looking at Laras.

  ‘We want to see the scavenged goods you brought back when you went to check your snares.’

  Still Vikar continued to stare, in order to stop it from going on for much longer Laras stepped between them.

  ‘Sure, you can see it, not sure what use you’ll get out of it,’ he said, ‘come on in, I’ll show you.’

  Laras looked at Yara, who’d turned her head. She nodded and followed both him and Vikar into the house.

  ‘Whatever’s been doing this I’m really not sure, but I don’t like it,’ he said as he led them both to the back of the hut, ‘same can’t be said for what you’ve brought with you though.’

  Yara ignored his remarks and instead chose to draw attention to what she actually wanted to know about, ‘what exactly did it kill?’

  ‘My wolfdog Kaner,’ said Vikar as he pulled a sheet off of the animal’s corpse to show his visitors, ‘grew up with that dog.’

  ‘My condolences,’ said Laras as he inspected the corpse.

  ‘Heard him yelp and rushed over, thing that did it was gone and my dog lay dead on the ground,’ Vikar walked past Yara before trying to subtly put a hand on her lower back. She responded by standing slightly closer to Laras, who was inspecting the dog’s head. Its skull had been crushed to bits somehow, something that was repeated several times on different parts of the body.

  ‘Do you remember seeing or hearing anything?’

  ‘Other than my dog dying?’ said Vikar, ‘no, not really,’ he tried to grip Yara’s waist and her response was to elbow him hard in the stomach. She gave him an angry glare. It didn’t seem likely that Vikar got the hint however. Laras caught onto what was happening and stepped between them.

  ‘Was this all you had to show us?’ he asked, looking Vikar in the eyes. A sly smirk grew on his face.

  ‘Well I h-.’

  ‘Thank you for the information,’ Yara cut him off, ‘we’ll be able to manage from here,’ she said before rushing out of the building. Laras followed her after throwing Vikar a glare.

  ‘I think I see why the innkeep called him an ass,’ said Laras as he caught up to Yara.

  ‘I hated every second of that,’ she said, ‘I needed to get out of there.’

  ‘We still need bait for the creature.’

  ‘What do you propose we do then? Take his dead dog?’

  ‘No, but he does have a good number of chickens running around.’

  Yara looked at him, a tiny hint of a smirk appeared on her face, ‘fine, but you’re catching it,’ she said. The fact that watching him run after a chicken would amuse her to no end did not escape her.

  Following a chase where Yara watched Laras dive head-first into a muddy puddle several times to catch a chicken, they were on their way to the nearest forest. Vikar had run them off of his property after he discovered what they’d been doing. Now they walked below the canopy of trees with a rooster in hand. It stayed quiet for the most part, though occasionally it would shriek loudly.

  ‘What’re your ideas on what’s doing it?’ asked Laras as he paid careful attention to the bird in his hands.

  ‘Doing what?’ Yara had lost herself in thought a bit.

  ‘The killing?’

  ‘Oh right, I didn’t really get a good look at the dog’s corpse,’ she said, ‘when I tried I’d get grabbed by our very gracious host.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Laras, the rooster crowed in his hands, ‘you want my two cents?’

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Yara looked at him and nodded.

  ‘Crushed bones all over the body, but the head beaten to a pulp, kick marks all over the body, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what it might be.’

  ‘So what do you think?’

  ‘A Cockatrice,’ he said, ‘I don’t know of anything else that attacks like this.’

  ‘It makes sense, it was probably spooked by the dog and retaliated immediately.’

  ‘Almost makes you feel bad for him.’

  ‘Definitely for the dog.’

  They stumbled upon one of the snares set up by another hunter. The trap had been sprung at one point. Though they expected to find a dead rabbit caught in the snare all they saw was the severed hind leg of one, surrounded by a blood splatter and small pieces of bone scattered across the ground.

  ‘It’s fresh,’ said Yara as she crouched down, ‘which means it’s nearby.’

  The rooster crowed, likely spooked by the sight before it.

  ‘Then it’s best we set our own trap soon,’ said Laras, ‘the rest of the snare is still intact, right?’

  Yara nodded.

  ‘Good, then pick it up and let’s move.’

  After setting up the trap and making sure the rooster they used for bait wouldn’t shut up they chose to hide in the nearby shrubs. The bait continuously called out for help. At first nothing happened. Outside of the sound of crickets chirping and the rooster’s incessant cackling there was nothing new. Both Yara and Laras listened carefully for any change.

  ‘I can hear something,’ said Yara, she propped herself up on her elbows to look out over the clearing they’d picked as their trap. The sound she’d heard was that of something running incredibly quickly over the grass. It trampled leaves and branches that broke under its weight until eventually the creature came into full view.

  The monster they saw was much like a chicken, except much taller. Its small head atop a tall, flexible neck, its legs were long and perfect for running great distances. Attached to its hind was a slender, scale-covered tail that ended in a spiked club.

  ‘A female…’ muttered Laras to himself. His assessment was correct. Male cockatrices went marked by long, sharp spurs attached to their heels, as opposed to the females, which had the flail they saw on this very cockatrice.

  It approached the rooster, which had now stopped crowing. The bird tilted its head and looked at the dragon, letting out one last curious caw before the cockatrice mercilessly stomped its foot down on its tiny head. The rooster’s head and neck were crushed instantly by the sheer force of the kick. Once the cockatrice was certain that its prey was dead it leaned down its head, pecking at the remains.

  Yara got up from her position and darted forward, forgetting in her eagerness to fight to put on her helmet. The cockatrice spotted her with one eye and raised its head. Its first instinct was to open its feathered and membranous wings and loudly shriek in an attempt to intimidate. Yara stopped running and waited for Laras. He carried his shield in one hand and his sword in the other.

  The cockatrice began to circle them, stepping on its own fresh kill in order to get a good angle. It shrieked again before jumping forward. It didn’t make contact, but instead attempted to scare the two hunters away.

  ‘Take it from the right,’ said Laras to Yara, ‘I’ll try to keep its attention.

  ’Yara obliged and ran to the other side, but the creature followed her instead of Laras. He tried to gain its attention again by yelling and banging his shield with his sword, though unfortunately that was to no avail. Instead the cockatrice swung its flail at him out of annoyance, causing the spikes to get stuck in the shield. Laras pulled on it and brought the cockatrice off-balance. It cried out before wildly flapping its membranous wings to regain the balance it’d lost. Yara charged now that it was completely distracted.

  The cockatrice managed to free its tail before it swiped it around wildly. Yara tried to parry it with a swing of her sword. The edge of her blade made contact with the hard avian scales covering its tail and cut through them. Its tail hung on only by a tiny sliver of skin, which snapped when the creature continued to swing its tail wildly. The club fell on the ground and spasmed uncontrollably while the cockatrice it was once attached to appeared completely unaware of what had just transpired. Laras then jumped onto the creature as it was distracted. The combined weight of both himself and his armour forced the animal to the ground where it shrieked loudly. He looked at Yara, who ended the Cockatrice’s life quickly by impaling its chest with Skycleave. The creature let out a last caw before it quietly bled out.

  ‘Another job well done,’ said Laras as he got up and cleared his hands, ‘we should head back.’

  ‘Wait,’ said Yara, she got down on her haunches and began to carefully cut the creature’s head off. Laras looked at her with his head cocked, not entirely sure about what exactly she was doing.

  ‘Least we can do is give that hunter the head.’

  ‘Why?’ asked Laras, ‘he wasn’t exactly a good host.’

  ‘That doesn’t mean his dog deserved it,’ said Yara as she lifted up the head with both hands, ‘okay, now we can go.’

  ‘Came crawling back, did you?’ said Vikar as he leaned on his doorframe, ‘I could’ve bet you’d miss me,’ he hadn’t yet seen why Yara had returned to his dilapidated hut. His tone changed when the head of a dead cockatrice was thrown at his feet. It bounced slightly as it hit the ground with a muffled thud.

  ‘That’s… something,’ he looked down at it. One of its dead eyes stared right through him, ‘what am I supposed to do with this?’

  ‘As revenge for your dog,’ said Yara, ‘he didn’t die for nothing, thanks to him this place is now a lot safer.’

  ‘Feels like hollow justice,’ he looked at Yara again, his expression turned from a little sombre back to the same filthy smirk he’d had on his face before. Yara turned around and walked away, intentionally blocking out anything he said. She wasn’t going to pay him any further mind.

  Yara lay awake at night. Laras and her had left the town behind after getting paid by the local ealdorman, choosing instead to spend the night outside under the stars. She couldn’t sleep. Something had been gnawing at her all evening and she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. Yara rolled onto her side and looked at Laras, who slept as peacefully as he could on a bedroll. She felt both nervous and happy when she looked at him, and it was almost hard for her to remember a time when she didn’t feel that way.

  In a moment of perhaps somewhat poor judgment Yara called out his name to wake him up. To her own surprise it actually worked, he turned his head and looked at her with his eyes half-open.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, ‘did something happen?’

  ‘I… I can’t sleep,’ she almost felt silly for having woken him up about something so trivial, ‘it’s probably nothing, sorry fo-.’

  Laras sat up, ‘it’s okay,’ he said, ‘you can always wake me up when there’s something wrong.’

  ‘I don’t know why I can’t sleep,’ said Yara as Laras sat up.

  ‘Do you need me to be closer?’

  ‘A hug would be nice,’ she answered, sitting up as well. Laras scooted over to her and gave her a careful hug. Her nervosity melted away a bit.

  ‘Do you remember what I said in Miseré?’ she said as he let go. Immediately she felt that nervosity come back when she realised what she’d let slip.

  ‘When you were..?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘I realise it might be a little late to say it now after we… you know,’ she avoided looking him in the eyes, ‘but I wanted to say that I meant it.’

  ‘I know you did, and I do too.’

  Yara felt a quick wave of anxiety wash over her before it was replaced by a feeling of elation. Like a heavy weight had been lifted off of her. She smiled and hugged him tightly. Laras returned the hug. He looked her in the eyes when they let go of each other.

  ‘I hope that felt as relieving for you as it did for me,’ he asked, Yara nodded.

  ‘It did,’ she said.

  ‘Do you think you can sleep now?’ he asked, ‘we’ve got a lot of ground to cover tomorrow and I don’t want you to be exhausted.’

  ‘I think so,’ said Yara as she hugged him again. She let go and laid back down while Laras moved his sleeping bag closer to hers. Both bid each other good night, able to rest easier without a secret weighing either of them down.