Aedin had been hesitant to believe that Breka had actually stumbled upon a visera’s kill. There were rarely any reports of them being spotted in the Somnare forests, and they generally preferred to hunt in the colder wilds of Norhaven. Even when they did travel south, they generally avoided towns and settlements, as people were really their only natural predators. So, to think that one would be casually having a meal behind Breka’s shop, in a decently sized Somnare town, was unlikely, to say the least.

Breka wasn’t particularly fond of his doubts, considering she had already examined the evidence herself, but she also understood how unlikely of an event even seeing a visera was, so she decided it was better not to contest. “You’ll see it for yourself,” was all she muttered as Aedin shared his concerns.

As they came into town, it was filled with its usual scene: dozens of Somnare people, farmers, butchers, and other merchants loudly bartering over their goods as their patrons filled ration bags with assortments of cured meats, salted fish, fermented vegetables, jarred fruit jams and jellies, satchels of grains, and other stable goods that would last through the winter. Summer in Somnare was a time for sweet breads, fresh meat, and flowing wine, but autumn was another matter entirely; a time when everyone stocked their cupboards and pantries with the necessities to get through the long frost, a months-long stretch of constant snow cover that covered the everything from Somnare to the western borders of Isilmeria.

Like most market towns in Somnare’s borders, the buildings were made from cobble and moss found easily in the forest. The paths between the shops were made mostly of the same cobble found on the buildings, and the front door of each establishment pointed toward the town square. Despite having entire storefronts dedicated to their goods and services, most transactions happened in the square, with all the bustle of the town happening around them.

Breka was well acquainted with, well, everyone. As the pair of them walked through the town square, Aedin did his best to give friendly nods and waves to those he locked gazes with, but he always felt a little smaller in social situations when he was next to Breka, mainly because of the sheer number of people that gravitated toward her. Shop owners, patrons, kids who had escaped their parents’ clutches—they all greeted her with boisterous enthusiasm as they paced through the center of the square to Breka’s closed shop.

As they neared her door, a familiar voice erupted from behind them. “Are you opening up your shop at any point today, or are you going to spend another day kicking your feet up with this slacker?”

Aedin turned to see a young man named Talis that stood an inch or so shorter than himself. His long silver hair was wrapped tightly in a knot behind his head, and he wore clothes that were teetering on being too worn, but his face and features were soft, approachable.

“The only slacking around here is you,” Breka shot back, smiling as she threw her arms around him in a tight embrace. “I’ve heard grand tales of the lazy woodworker a few towns over!”

The three of them let out a heavy laugh as they closed the rest of the distance between them.

“Don’t mind her, she’s been in a mood all day,” Aedin jabbed as he and the man grabbed each other’s forearms. “It’s good to see you, Talis.”

Talis was an old friend to both Breka and Aedin. They had grown up alongside one another, up until two years ago when his family decided to move themselves over a few settlements to hopefully find better opportunities for their woodworking trade. It was Talis’ family who had supplied the Verdantian lumber for his staff. The boisterous man could have stayed and opened up a shop of his own, but ultimately decided against leaving his parents alone since he was their only child and they were getting up in age.

“Good to see you emerge from the forests, Aedin,” Talis said. “I came by twice in the last few weeks to visit and you were nowhere to be found. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to give up on people altogether and finally join the moss dryads.”

“Well, you know I’ve always preferred trees to people, especially you two.”

“I don’t know that they’d take you,” Breka laughed, bumping Aedin’s chest with her fist. “Dryads track better than you do, and they live entirely off bark fungi, so that’s saying something.”

“You can just call them mushrooms,” Aedin said, shooting an exhausted face at Breka.

“No, I am still with Breka on this one,” said Taris, wrapping his finger and thumb around his chin. “They taste like dirt and they don’t deserve to be anywhere near our palette. More for you though, if you insist, Aedin.”

He rolled his eyes and squeezed Taris and Breka’s shoulder as the three laughed. “As much as I’d love to stick around and have the mushroom argument again, we unfortunately have some game to hunt. Are you going to be in town for long?”

“Nah, just ‘til tonight, I’m afraid,” Taris said. “But if you get back early enough I’ll make sure to swing by your place. I am sure your mom is missing her favorite son.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Aedin sighed. Unlike Breka, who kept a healthy distance away from his mother, Taris was always quick to throw any lingering reticence to the wind and always greeted her with an abundance of enthusiasm that really only Taris could get away with.

“Oh, I am sure I do,” Taris joked. “What are you two tracking today anyway? Another fearsome pack of peragrue?”

Aedin and Breka looked at each other briefly and smiled. “Hey, those birds are shifty, and their beaks are razor fucking sharp,” Breka chuckled. “But no, something a little more... exotic.”

Taris raised an eyebrow. “Exotic? Well go on, don’t be shy. You know I hate suspense.”

The pair of them waited for a moment, letting the anticipation build just a little more before finally relieving Talis. They muttered, in unison. “Visera.”

“You’re shitting me?” Taris said. “Here?”

“Right behind my shop,” Breka answered.

“Are you sure?” Taris questioned. “A visera coming this far south...”

“Apparently, I need to start punching you both like I did when we were kids,” Breka shot. “Because if either of you questions my judgement one more time...”

“Sorry, sorry,” Taris said, waving his open hands in front of his chest. “It’s just... unlikely, that’s all.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Aedin said. “But their eating pattern is pretty unique, even Breka couldn’t mistake it.” He saw the back of her hand swing toward his chest as he finished his sentence, but he was fast enough to step out of the way before Breka made contact.

“I can’t wait for you idiots to see it for yourselves,” Breka said. “Won’t be the first time I’ve said I told you so.”

As they stood and debated the likelihood of a visera straying this far into the Somnare, an older man called out for Taris from the square.

“Looks like you’ll have to settle this debate without me,” Taris said, beginning to pace slowly away from both of them toward the old man. “Either way, be careful you two. Whether it's a visera or something else, it's going to be tougher to handle than your usual hunt. I expect to see you both tonight in one piece. I’ll meet you both here after sunset. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“Deal.”

“Listen, Aedin,” Taris said with a much more somber tone. “Promise me you’ll be smart about the approach and that you’ll work together when you find it. Don’t get cocky and attack on your own again. Breka told me all about what happened...”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’ve never done that,” he fibbed, smirking back at him. “What has she been telling you?”

“Just promise me.”

“Again, no idea what you are talking about,” he yelled out sarcastically. “But, if it makes you feel better, yes, I promise I’ll take it slow.”

Aedin could tell from his face that he wasn’t convinced, but the old man beckoned again, saving him from any further explanation.

As Taris left, the two of them agreed to make their way behind her shop, where hopefully no one else had discovered the corpse that lay in the dirt. Despite his doubts, as he turned the corner, any reservations Aedin had were immediately quelled when he took in the carnage with his own eyes.

There was no mistaking what laid before him: a stag of notable size had been ripped wide open at the abdomen—providing the predator with easy access to its intestines, liver, and heart. A visera is the only creature in Somnare that would leave the rest of the carcass untouched, not that there weren’t plenty of other scavengers lurking about to finish the job. Breka had to scare off a pack of den hounds twice the morning she found the carcass.

“I guess you were right,” Aedin said, still leaning over the remains. “This is definitely the work of a visera, but why is it so far south?”

“Not sure why you’d ever question me to begin with,” Breka responded, giving him a light shove toward the stag. “But yeah, definitely a visera’s work. It’s not unheard of, especially during the winter, when a lot of their food likes to go in hiding. Makes me a little uneasy that it was in town, though. Plenty of children still walk around after sunset, we will need to make sure everyone knows about it after we kill it.”

“That’s a good idea,” Aedin said, shuddering at the idea that this carcass could easily have been the corpse of a child from Somnare. “It probably followed the stag from deeper in the forest, I doubt it was doing any hunting this close to town.”

After another minute of examination the pair of them decided to move. Breka locked up her shop and threw the key into a planter filled with small white weeping lilies next to her window. Aedin had scolded her for years for the laxity toward her shop’s security, but it never did any good, so he didn’t see much use in bringing it up now. He was too impatient about starting to track anyway, and he didn’t want to get locked in a tiff with Breka that would hold them up even longer.

They ran at a full sprint as they followed the trail. As it always did, the weight of his troubles lifted as he tracked through the forests.

***

They had been on the hunt for seven or eight hours, by Aedin’s estimation of the sun. Following the trail was easy enough for the first three or four; a liberal trail of rotting blood gave way to the general direction the visera had traveled and, after that, the beast must have had its fill of stag because he had never seen tracks so clear. Its movements were sluggish, heavy, and they got more prominent as their prize catch seemed to tire. They both made easy work of the scuffed ground, broken shrubbery, and claw marks from the fully satiated visera’s clumsy attempt to climb over fallen trees and rock. For a brief moment, he shuddered at the size of the claws responsible for making such marks on hard stone. He didn’t let the thought linger.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

As the momentary flash of discomfort dissipated, Aedin couldn’t help but grin about his sudden change of luck. Visera was high-value game; the tail alone could be parsed out to the Althalite medical corps and Somnare alchemists for enough coin to pay for an entire semester of Lyceum. Everything else they could salvage from its body would be another handsome payday, definitely enough to weather his family comfortably through the winter. He thought of the possibility of hearty stews boiling in the main room, their warmth and smell filling the house. He’d pick a few sprigs of honeythistle on one of his trips to town to season the stew with. He then turned his thoughts to his brothers, a scene of them laughing, arguing about nothing other than whose turn it was to get firewood from a snow-covered pile outside.

“Don’t get too giddy yet,” Breka said, running just slightly behind. “We still haven’t laid eyes on this monster, and you look like you are losing focus.”

Her rash words snapped the scene from his mind, and suddenly, Aedin was acutely aware of the ground beneath him. A few paces later, he spotted a small smear of blood on a boulder that went up to his shoulder and came to a quick stop. Breka moved forward, sliding her finger across the stone and rubbing the residue between two fingers.

“What do you think?” Aedin asked. “Are we closing in on it?”

“Take your spear out,” she answered, worry straining her voice. “I think we are clo—”

Aedin saw only a flash. The creature’s light leathery skin sped toward them and, before he could fully process the ambush, Breka had been slammed against the very boulder she was examining moments prior. Her chest hit the stone hard, knocking the wind from her lungs and forcing her to her knees as she gasped for breath. Her longsword fell hard to the ground on her side, and from the looks of it, the bow she kept on her back was split in half, held together only by the bowstring.

She was hurt, badly, but Aedin saw no blood, which meant she hadn’t been maimed in the attack. She just needed a second to get back to her feet. His spear lifted itself from his side, instinctively, as he watched Breka cough up a few trickles of blood into the dirt. A cold, raspy shriek escaped from the visera’s mouth as he turned his gaze.

Aedin felt the familiar rush of the hunt as he stared into the visera’s glowing red eyes, a sign that it had recently fed. He felt his connection to the Tether open, and the power gifted to his people—the power of the Vael’Strix—surged through every nerve he had. His stance tightened, and the weight of his own body disappeared. Every muscle he had flexed itself, bracing for a fight to come. But, above more than anything else, he felt the change overwhelm his eyes as he became instantly more focused on the scene around him. Shadows and dark spots in his forest became illuminated, shapes became easier to makeout in the treelines and thicket, and small details like the texture of the visera’s skin or the roughness of the soil below, became nothing more than easily-processed details to use to his advantage.

Aedin loved this feeling.

He stared down the visera, taking stock of its round skull, decorated with short, pointed ears and a flat nose that tucked tightly into its skull. As it wailed, its jaw opened to twice the size of its own head, revealing a set of razor sharp teeth designed to quickly rip and ravage its prey. Its claws were disproportionately large for its body, with the largest measuring to about the size of his own forearm.

The visera let out another shriek as it stood on its hind legs, twice as tall as Aedin and probably three times as heavy, made of nothing but thick hide and a hyper-defined musculature. He dropped to a lower stance as Breka managed to pull herself back to her feet.

“Wait, Aedin, don’t engage yet,” Breka said. “Let’s do it together—”

He didn’t wait. He charged the goading creature, staying low to the ground and letting the spear trail behind him. The visera answered in kind, though not nearly as fast. It’s devastating size large enough to shake the branches of the trees around it as it ran. Just before they came into contact, the monster took a final dive toward him, swinging a large claw at his chest. It came within inches of his leather tunic, but Aedin was ready for its maneuver. Just before the swing, he threw all of his momentum to the ground, sliding between its legs as it dove toward him. As he lifted himself up from the slide, he slashed at its back leg muscle with a whirling spear.

The strike hit, and blood was drawn, but it didn’t have the crippling effect that Aedin had hoped. It didn’t even acknowledge the wound. Instead, it considered its new position: centered exactly between himself and a still recovering Breka.

“Shit, Breka, watch out!” Aedin yelled as he sprinted as fast as he could toward them both. The visera launched itself in the same way it had attacked before, and panic settled deep in his body. It was moving too fast for him to catch, and with the power it was using, he wasn’t sure Breka would survive another direct hit.

Luckily, the few moments of warning was all Breka needed to compose herself. As the beast dove toward her, she dodged to her right a moment before impact, sweeping up her blade and removing herself from its reach in one graceful movement. Her attacker smashed head first into the boulder, letting out a breathy cry as it picked itself up from the ground, dazed.

“Happy to repay the favor,” Breka winced under her breath, grabbing at her lower abdomen. “Pretty sure this bastard just broke my rib...” She staggered as she moved herself toward Aedin. “...and you. Didn’t I tell you to fucking wait until we could attack together? Honestly Aedin you pull this shit every single...”

He didn’t have time to apologize, it had shaken off its collision and was now readying itself for another attack.

“Yell at me later,” he said, gesturing over at the visera. “You go high, I go low?”

“You want me to go high... with a broken rib?” Breka looked at him, brandishing a razor sharp face that had imbecile written all over it.

“Right, nevermind,” Aedin smirked. “I’ll go high, you go low.”

“Not sure that’s any better, but fine. Try not to miss your mark this time,” Breka teased as she pulled herself up. “I don’t want another peragrue situation on our hands.”

“You worry about not getting slammed into another rock,” Aedin said as he adjusted his spear in his hand. “I’ll worry about my aim.”

Breka scoffed as they hurled themselves forward. The visera was now also sprinting toward them at full speed, teeth bared. A few paces before they were within reach of one another, Breka brought her sword horizontal, bracing it against her should. Then, ignoring the wrenching pain coming from her rib, Aedin jumped into it, and she launched him high into the air.

The visera lost focus of the split targets, adjusting its aim at the last minute toward Aedin, who was flying quickly overhead. The swing went wide, and as Aedinw as airborne, he spun around and thrusted the spear into its thick neck muscle, ripping it back out in one fluid motion. Breka used the opportunity to rend the wound on his leg even deeper, causing the bleeding to worsen just a bit. Aedin landed right by Breka’s side as it immediately turned to attack again, ignoring their assault completely.

“Damn, this thing is tough,” Aedin said as it shook its body, flinging specks of blood in all directions. “Any ideas?”

“One jumping maneuver and you’re giving up?” Breka joked. “Let’s keep chipping away at that hind leg. We have to be close to hitting something there.”

The visera didn’t give them the chance to finish planning. It charged straight at Aedin, but this time, it didn’t leap at him or even bother running at full speed. Instead, it ran at him at a careful pace, closing the distance between them. It wants a close range fight, Aedin thought to himself.

A series of swipes ensued, most of which Aedin was able to dodge or parry. But a few swings in, and Aedin quickly realized he had focused too heavily on its claws, forgetting entirely about its teeth, which it drove deep into his shoulder, piercing the thickest part of his hide armor like wet paper. The pain shot through his body as he let out a blistering shout of pain.

A moment later, Breka was next to them, sliding to its right side and slashing at its face. Her aim was precise, and it released its hold on Aedin as its left eye began to pour blood on its leathery skin. Just before pulling away, it used its thick tail to knock Breka back a few paces, creating a safe distance for itself.

The visera wasn’t the only one facing blood loss. Aeris’ own wounds were flowing steadily, covering his leathers and onto the ground. “Shit, Aedin, your shoulder—”

“Stay focused,” Aedin shot at her, ripping a cloth from his shirt and packing the wounds as well as he could. “I’m fine, it will clot soon enough. Don’t let your guard down, we can’t afford any mistakes here.”

It wasn’t hard for Breka both to read him: he was worried this fight was no longer in their favor... if it ever had been in the first place, that is.

The beast charged again, this time, at Breka. She made her best attempt to dive away from its charge, but she couldn’t put enough distance between them, and it tore deep cuts into her face and upper arm as she attempted to block too late. The sheer force of the blow pushed Breka hard into a tree just a few feet behind her, and Aedin saw her head crack the bark on impact. It charged her, looking to finish the kill while Breka was dazed.

He darted, as quickly as his body would allow, ripping open the wounds in his shoulder even deeper as he pushed forward every muscle possible, ignoring the searing pain radiating throughout his entire upper body. Aedin thrusted his spear forward, closing the gap between him and the visera that was just a breath away from ripping into Breka. The spear shred through its cheek, ripping open the flesh on both sides of its face. Blood poured into its mouth, and the visera jumped away from the pair of them.

Then, it let out a deafening cry. It wasn’t the same one it had been giving when struck. This one felt different. It was a howl, reverberating deep through the forest. Aedin took the moment to lift Breka up back to a sitting position, stopping her from choking on her own blood. whose entire face was covered in blood from the slash in her cheek. The image of her, soaked in crimson and unconscious, infuriated him. His friend—his best friend—wasn’t going to die today. Not on a hunt. Not while he could still fight.

He tightened his grip on his spear, lowered his stance, and pointed the blade toward the visera. Half of its right eye was hanging just above the gash in its cheek, and the beast kept wincing as it pawed at its missing eye. Stay on the right side, he thought, charging before it could gather itself, keeping in its blind side as much as possible. He landed another cut to its hind leg and one to its abdomen before spinning out of range again, his speed momentarily confusing the beast. But before he could secure his footing as he rolled out of the maneuver, the visera threw caution to the wind, and leapt right on top of him.

Its claw had gauged straight into his shoulder again, but in a stroke of luck, Aedin managed to ram the spear through its shoulder when it had jumped. He just needed to make sure its position was enough to fend off a lethal blow, but no matter how much strength he willed to come, he simply could not push the leathery creature off him.

Aedin watched in horrifying detail as the visera opened its hyper-extended jaw and began to look for an opening, meat, fur, and sinew from the stag rotting in its teeth. He did everything he could to keep the creature on his spear and not its piercing teeth find his neck. Eventually, as he felt the strength in his arms begin to wane, the sharp detail of the forest around him softened, and the shadows of the trees once again began to conceal the scenes beneath them. He felt the excruciating weight of his own body and the visera as his connection to his Tether began to fade.

As he waited for the inevitable bite to come down, Aedin felt something else, something... new. It was the ground beneath him, several feet beneath the soil he laid on. Somehow, he knew there was a large, jagged rock a foot beneath the service. Not ideal, but a nice makeshift weapon nonetheless. Before he could even consider what he was feeling, the pointed stone ripped through the earth and into his palm, and he put all of his power into shoving the sharp side through the visera’s damaged eye, screaming as he wedged it into the socket.

The monster lashed out in pain in a deafening howl, and squirmed so wildly that it lost awareness and ran right into a tree, driving the spear even further through its shoulder. The awareness of the ground beneath him left as quickly as it came, and Aedin began to feel lightheaded from the blood loss. As he picked himself up and quickly noted the dozen or so bleeding gashes throughout his body. He considered his next attack.

As he prepared to run forward again, Aedin moved to pull the spear from the visera, but stopped his momentum after just a few steps when something else came from the treeline. A second visera pounced from the treeline, positioning itself directly in front of the first, who was still writhing against the bark of a rather large Magdus tree. He laughed as he planted his feet, delirious, either from the blood loss or the unlikelihood of encountering a mated visera couple. He wasn’t sure which.

Just my luck, he thought as he sized up the new contender. It was smaller than the first, but still of an intimidating stature. It was crouched, which Aedin knew a precursor to an attack. He looked over to Breka, bleeding out and unconscious on the ground, just several feet away from both visera. He did everything he could to prepare himself, to steady his body for the fight to come, but as he tensed, the light around him dimmed, and he felt his body drift backward.

The last thing Aedin saw before fainting was the second set of massive, bared teeth lunging toward him... then, an even larger set of talons driving themselves straight into the visera’s ribs. As his head smacked into the ground beneath him, he held consciousness just long enough to lock eyes with the feathered creature and see its glowing white eyes, staring directly into his gaze.

Vael’Strix, he thought. And the whole world went black.