Chapter Seven

The park was empty. I came here thinking that I needed time to think the hurry and bustle of the city made that difficult. Here though, it wasn’t so different from the forest surrounding his home. Han'gallon, I had to remind himself of the name. I hadn't need to think or say it in forever. Alway made the village, if that, no it was home. A home I was almost definitely never going to see again, despite what I said to Anna.

Thought I had made my peace with that night on the hill. But as the trees swayed gently in the breeze, the sound of rustling leaves and bird calls drowned out the city's noise, I felt a slight yearning for home. With the city silent, I could almost believe I was back there.

I've never been so sure, I thought. So confident that I could protect Anna, first from Lantos, then after that first few hours of travel, and when Lantos didn't express any untoward interest in my newfound sister, I thought perhaps if a Beast came, I could stop it. I’ve been on a hunt before, I thought. They’re dumb and slow and- still dangerous. Elder Richard stressed that a Beast is always dangerous, no matter how bound or trapped, hurt, or stupid.

The villa- Han’gallon planned its hunts carefully. Traps laid in the sun, hidden and disguised for nightfall outside the boundary. Someone hidden inside the boundary acts both as bait and lookout and, finally, overwhelming force once it’s trapped.

No one was hurt whenever I was there. It went as close to perfect as Zefra would allow. But it happened. The best you could hope for is just a light maiming. The worst… I guess it doesn't matter how the body looks when you burn the dead, it still feels bad when the family can’t look at them.

I was lucky back then and now, but the last week has pushed that to its limit. It’ll break soon. The gods don’t like to be cheated. I don’t regret that luck. Yesterday was a good enough reason to be favored by Lo’on. I just would have liked to have arrived earlier. Maybe I could have helped a little more.

The image of the knight crushed under the hoof of the Beast flashed as I recalled the previous day how its hollow eyes turned to face me. It stared through me. Blood and flesh pushed up through the gaps in the knight’s armor as his chest collapsed into itself. I could hear the final wheezing breath as the Beast forced the air from his chest. I can still almost see something pink and bloody trying to push up through his visor. The wetness of it. The way the red stood out on the bone-white-.

I shake the image out of my head. Maybe if I got there sooner, I would be dead, but someone else might have lived, which would be worth it. Possibly the knight thought the same; only Zefra knows now. My only regret would be not being able to fulfill my promise to Anna. And not seeing my family again, and not having a pet hyena-dog and maybe a girlfriend.

Okay, maybe not the only thing, but they would understand why it was right. I’m sure of it.

But I was so sure before, now though… sighing, I get up. If I stay here, I’m just going to spiral. What to do? Noone would let some random kid work their forge. Maybe I could go running. I’ve been doing that a lot lately. No, running it is then. Looking around as I walk out of the park, the city's sound growing with every step, I put on a light smile. Pretend good enough, and I’ll feel better, eventually.

Taking a deep breath, the air tastes foul. I prepare to take a step back onto the city's wide streets. I've got an entire afternoon to find something to do. It's a big place. There is always something going on. There has to be. I just need to find it: light steps, right side, heavy dragging.

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"Excuse me, sir," turning to face the voice, the face of a heavily scared Vinna woman looking down at me. That's unusual. Usually, it's the opposite. "Are you busy?" She had an unusually soft voice for a Vinna.

"Not at the moment. Do you need help carrying something?" I say, peeking around her to see what she's dragging.

It was a body, a fresh one. Either that or he's alive somehow with a dagger hilt deep in his chest. How didn’t I smell the blood before now?

"He needs a healer, sir. Can you help?" She said calmly, almost like she was bored. Bloody cold touched Vinn- no. Focus. I rush over and pick the man's legs. This close, I can hear him breathe. Shallow, rasping, there's gurgling. Blood must be flooding into his lungs, which explains why I can’t smell it—still no scent of rot, that good at least. Focus on the good.

"Where do you need him?" In a rush, we began to carry the man down the winding streets to where the scarred woman claims to be a healer.

I had to set the pace,

It was a blur. Too focused on the man's deteriorating health. Every breath he took was shallower than the last. His skin grew clammy, every jostle caused the dagger to bite a little more, staining his tunic red around the wound. He might make it. Might will have to do.

Suddenly I was in a building laying the man on a bed. Healers shoo me away as they begin to work on him.

"I'm sorry about the inconvenience." The scarred woman says from behind me. She moves far too quiet for someone that size. I barely heard her footsteps.

Turning around, I say, "Not a problem, always happy to help. What happened to him anyway?" Now that I could get a more detailed look at her, she was almost stereotypical Vinna. She has long braided hair, tribe markings on her neck, dark earthy skin, and their distinct lilac eyes. Deep scars ran across her face starting just under the left side of her chin and racing across to her right eye. Good fortune, whatever caused it, didn’t take her eye with it.

“He was stabbed,” she said simply.

“ I could see that and that horrible, but do you know why he was?”

“Don’t know, sir. I wasn’t there.”

“There has to be some reason, right? People don’t just stab each other in the street here, do they?’

“Of course not, sir,” the lightness of smilies came upon her face, “ he was in an alley.” Of course, he was.

I leaned back against the wall of the Healers. I was about to ask another question when the injured man let out a pained scream. Looking, he was thrashing, trying to break out of the leather straps the healers put him in before they started to open up his chest. I’d scream, too, if I woke up to that.

Turning back to the Vinna, I say, “Perhaps we should leave. Give the man a little dignity.”

She tilts her head in thought, “ Yes, I need to go inform the guard about this attempted murder. They would most likely wish to know about this.”

The Guard? “Aren't they busy repairing the boundary and making sure no more Beasts get in?”

She waited until we both left the building and began to walk to answer, “No, sir, we’re taking care of any Beasts that may show. And even if we weren't, there are many guardsmen and women to ensure the lawful will of the Magrivine throughout the city’s territory.”

“We?”

She stops “ Apologies. I didn’t properly introduce myself. I am Tellock Lemire, Knight of the order tempest. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir.”

She’s a Knight!