The day the hunt was on, Sarenya’s uniform was delivered. The king liked it, the tailor had done good work. The garb was mostly red, a large, bright sun, the Solarian banner, embedded in the chest. It was easy to tell that Sarenya was still not fond of it, but she tried it on, and it fit her. The king would go as far as to say; she looked good in it. Accompanied by Sarenya, Marius and a small escort, the king rode to the nearby forest. The hounds were released to track some wild. Quickly, the hounds found two deers. Marius and Elsurion threw glimpses at each other and aimed their bows. The two had an established understanding of aiming, looking at each other, and forming “one” with their mouths. They turned back at the target, counted to two in their heads and let the arrow fly on three. Marius’ hit the neck, Elsurion’s arrow only grazed the other deer’s back. It naturally panicked and ran away.

“Curses!”

Marius laughed and slapped the king on the back.

“I always was the better shot than you.”

Had Elsurion’s gaze been an arrow, Marius would have had it stuck in his head now. At the same time, however, the king was glad that Marius humoured him again.

“Well, great start. Let us continue.”

After some time, the group was able to spot a boar and corner it with the hounds. Elsurion, as the king, got to finish the animal off. The king grabbed it and slit his throat. Squealing, it bled out and died. Elsurion looked over to Sarenya. “The next one is yours.” Sarenya nodded. And, before long, until another boar was cornered. Sarenya, however, did not slit the animal’s throat, but grabbed it, and snapped his neck.

“What are you doing Sarenya?”, the king asked.

“What?”

”That is not how we kill a boar at the end of the hunting-game, Sarenya.”

The woman tilted her head, then stated: “I don’t see why it is necessary to make it suffer when it’s going to die anyway.”

Feeling awkward, Elsurion simply instructed her to put the prey on horseback and keep going. The king did not want a scene out here in the woods but decided to not let Sarenya have another finisher. The king was very curious about her skills with a bow still. It felt like hours to the king until the next target, but another deer was found eventually. Sarenya came forth, took her aim and landed a clean hit through the neck. Marius whistled impressed. The king added a mental note: “Bow: Check.”

It was then when the group heard a loud animal scream not too far away.

“What was that?”, Marius asked.

“No idea…sounded an awful lot like a bear”, Elsurion responded.

“Hunts aside from ours are called off today, so we’re not interrupted.”, Marius explained.

“That is exactly what concerns me. Bears have no natural predators besides us.”

“Except form other bears, that is…”, Marius intervened.

Another bear scream could be heard.

“We have to check it out, Marius. I won’t tolerate someone spoiling our game. If it’s another bear, we will hunt it down!”

“Alright. We brought spears.”

“Excellent! Let us go.”

The group went off in the direction the scream came from, quietly. But the king soon enough found his hopes crushed: He heard voices in the distance. The king put a finger on his lips to signal it to the others. All nodded. The party approached carefully to get a look at the people talking. They spotted a group of men, standing around an obviously dead bear.

“Poachers”, Elsurion stated.

“Seems like it, my lord”, one of the soldiers commented.

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“This is an impudence!”, the king hissed. “They will suffer consequences for that!”

Elsurion stood up and yelled at them: “You! How dare you hunt here in the royal forest of Solaria! I, king Elsurion of Solaria order you to step away from that bear at once!”

The king heard the others drawing their weapons as well.

“You are under arrest, poachers”, Marius said.

The men, caught, froze in place. Slowly, they turned around, facing the king’s group.

“Hands away from your weapons. Soldiers, arrest them.”

The men, remaining silent, gave each other quick glances, then drew their swords as well.

“No disrespect, ‘king Elsurion of Solaria’, but…”, the man speaking took a step forward. “I count five of you. You see, me and my men, we make a total of ten. I think we both know how this is going to end.”

Five? The king looked behind him. Five. Indeed. Sarenya was missing. Why was she missing? She wouldn’t have, would she?

Elsurion’s mind was racing, he felt his pulse increasing. He cursed his temper, why did he not wait? On the outside, however, he kept his cool:

“You dare to threaten the king of Solaria? The sentence for assaulting the king is death, poacher.”

The group started to laugh. “Alright boys, let’s kill them. And then we haul ass outta here before someone else comes along.”

“How dare you?”, Elsurion was angry now. The odds were not good, true, but what these peasants were unaware of, was that Elsurion was able to burn them where they stood. If they really attacked them, he would have no choice but to use magic. Problem was, he would blow his cover to the three soldiers brought along. A small price for his life, but a problem, nonetheless. He would have to deal with it later. He prepared to let the heat in his body rise and slowly let the energy flow into his hands. A voice interrupted the king’s focus:

“I count eight.”

The group turned around. There she stood: Sarenya. The men in the back row fell, holding their throats. Nobody reacted for a couple of seconds.

“Who the…?”, one of the men said.

Elsurion used the distraction and yelled: “Take them down!”

Marius and the three soldiers engaged from one, Sarenya from the other side. Thinking about it in hindsight, ‘engaged’ was not the right word to describe what Sarenya did: She lunged at the next best target and cut that man’s throat as well. Seven. Elsurion swung his sword, which his opponent, a man visibly older than him, tried to block. Elsurion shifted his weight towards the man to force him into countering with his own weight. The king, however, took a sidestep and let his enemy stumble forward. Elsurion’s blade hit the man’s the back. Six. He took a glance at the others. Sarenya just cut off the sword hand of another one and incapacitated him. Five. One of the royal soldiers was stabbed in the guts and went to the ground. The attacker was cut down by Marius. Four. A sword strike came at the king, which he parried. At this point, the king was sure that these men were pretty bad fighters. Another problem arose, however: Two of the men made it to a pile of spears laying a few steps back. They must have brought them specifically to deal with bears. Marius cut another one down. Three left.

“Stand back!” the two spearmen yelled. “Don’t come near!” The third, unharmed man hid behind them and grabbed a spear as well. Elsurion knew they did not have the range to deal with spears like this and they left the horses carrying the equipment behind to stay low. The men were surrounded, they had nowhere to go, it was a fool’s errand. Still, the king could not retreat, the poachers would use this opportunity to run.

“Surrender”, the king ordered them.

“Stand back!”, one of them screamed again and stabbed at Elsurion. The king was too far away to be hit, it was supposed to be intimidating, he suspected. They were terrified, not expecting to be beaten like this.

“You cannot hold us like this forever. Surrender”, Elsurion repeated.

Their eyes showed fear. The fourth man was sitting on the ground holding the stomp where his hand used to be.

“I’ll kill you!” one of the spearmen screamed and ran at Elsurion in a frenzy.

Sarenya threw one of her daggers at his leg and incapacitated him. The attacker fell flat on his face, to the king’s feet. Elsurion pressed him down. Sarenya, not losing any time, threw her second dagger. It hit one of the two remaining spearmen in the neck. Gargling blood, he fell, while Sarenya grabbed the spear of the incapacitated man at Elsurion’s feet. Threatening, she aimed the weapon at the men. Being the only armed of the group left, the last spearman fell on his knees and let go off the spear.

“Please, Lord, spare us, we didn’t mean to…”

Marius kicked the man in the face and broke his jaw.

“Pathetic hound”, he said. We don’t want to hear what a disgusting creature has to say.

“The hunt is over. Imprison them. Tomorrow, they will be publicly executed”, the king stated.

This was not what Elsurion had in mind when he went on the hunt. Not at all. Later, Marius suggested questioning the survivors what they were up to in the woods. Elsurion dismissed this, however. To him, they were poachers that assaulted the king, nothing more. The poachers, or what was left of them, were tied up and escorted back to the palace. Additionally, the king was keen on bringing the fallen soldier back and giving him a proper, public burial. Elsurion would honour him personally. This would surely bring acceptance and stability to the folk. The execution would follow suit and show his subjects what happens to those that assault him: Two birds with one stone. But, most importantly (to him, that is): Sarenya’s display of loyalty. The king knew, that, had she wanted to backstab him, she would have teamed up with those peasants on the spot. But she did not. For Elsurion, she had proven her allegiance to him and the kingdom once more. Or, at least, not being a danger to him. He wondered if Marius would trust her as well now. The king wanted to publicly introduce his guard. Now was a good opportunity.