2: Mercy

Their arrows whispered through the air.

Leiyn watched hers arc, judging where the arrow fell even as she reached down for a second. Leiyn’s and Isla’s missed the mark, but Acalan's found the beast's shoulder. Even at a hundred paces away, its pained roar thundered through the vale.

But the arrow didn’t slow it; if anything, its stride lengthened.

Each archer began to loose on their own rhythm. Drawing, Leiyn adjusted her aim to compensate for the closing distance, then released. This one flew true, knocking against the creature's brow above its eye before ricocheting away. Isla still missed, while Acalan hit again, this time in the same arm as its injured shoulder.

Once more, they loosed, but all the while, the snow ape came closer. Leiyn's stomach knotted as she drew what would be her last arrow. They’d marked it half a dozen times, yet the Wilds beast refused to fall. Even a thorned lion wasn’t so resilient. Its lifeforce showed only the slightest signs of faltering.

Unless she hit its eye, it would reach them. And she doubted they could survive that.

The battle thrill coursed through her veins, making her limbs tremble, yet Leiyn knew she must be steady; a shot could be thrown off even by the beat of her heart. The others shouted and cursed around her, but she blocked them out. As she drew and took aim, the world narrowed to her and her target, coming quickly nearer with every lumbering stride. The ape's malice seemed to radiate toward her as their eyes met.

She loosed.

The arrow flew, but a gust whipped up out of nowhere. Even before it hit, Leiyn was cursing and throwing down her bow to draw her knives. 

Then the ape's head rocked back with a shriek, and she paused, baffled.

The errant arrow hadn’t hit its mark—it had hit the other eye instead. The snow ape thrashed, shaking its head back and forth. Leiyn retreated, vaguely aware of Acalan and Isla doing the same. She gripped her knives tightly, waiting for the beast to fall.

But it didn’t. Impossibly, she felt its esse burn stubbornly on. The snow ape seemed to master its agony, for its movements slowed and its gaze leveled.

It roared as it charged.

"Isla!" Leiyn heard Batu yell from behind. She didn’t turn to see why. From the beast’s trajectory, it was headed toward Leiyn, like it meant to repay her for the grievous wound she'd dealt it. Her knives suddenly felt little better than nails, her body frail as sticks.

She stood her ground, even as the ape barreled toward her, and reached into her mahia. Pulling at her reserves of strength, she invigorated her muscles with a surplus of energy, then screamed in defiance.

The beast struck faster than she could hope to dodge.

Leiyn dove to one side, slashing wildly as she did, but its hand caught her ribs. Fire exploded through her as she crashed to the ground, all the air knocked from her lungs. Leiyn gasped even as she found her feet again. Without her mahia, such a blow might have killed her. As it was, she'd be lucky if she only suffered a few broken ribs.

The ape had turned from its assault, however, distracted by her companions' attacks. On one side, Isla stabbed at its joints with her spear, its length allowing her to remain out of reach. Acalan came in closer, the Gast chieftain a blur of motion as he chopped with macua and knife at the beast's flank. 

The ape was faster. It caught Acalan in the shoulder with its elbow, then spun to lunge at Isla. She managed to anchor her spear against the ground, and the ape impaled itself upon it.

But even then, it raged on. The ape reached out and seized hold of Isla, its hands still possessing the power to tear her apart.

Leiyn charged. Fear and fury crowded out her pain as she threw herself onto the snow ape's back. Her knives flashed forward, burying into the sides of its neck. But even as the beast’s movements faltered, Leiyn didn’t relent. She struck at it with weapons unseen.

Its esse leaked with encroaching death, and she seized the opening to pull its lifeforce into herself. Fire blossomed within, knitting her bones together and revitalizing her strength. The ape began to sag beneath her, but she didn’t stop. Isla wasn’t safe; none of her companions were. She drew out her knives to stab them in, again and again, searching for arteries and the spine. Hot liquid sprayed over her arms and hands, and she drank at the life spilling with them.

Abruptly, she halted. The body beneath had grown dark, its esse dissipated.

The snow ape was finally dead.

"Leiyn."

Leiyn withdrew her knives from the blood-soaked fur and leaped off. After a fight, she usually felt dizzy and tired, but with the ape's esse filling her, she felt she could run the night through. She practically twitched with all the energy coursing through her veins and found it hard to meet Isla's eyes.

What she saw in them finally snapped her back to reality.

Leiyn looked down at herself. Blood soaked her coat, her pants, her boots. Her gloves were entirely saturated, her face sticky with it. Its stench hung thick in her nostrils.

As she looked up and saw Isla's worry again, she knew how it must appear. And though her fellow ranger had never condemned her magic, Leiyn always feared a day might come that it would push past even her tolerance.

She pried herself free of her roiling thoughts. "You alright?" she asked Isla, looking her up and down. Her clothes were smeared with mud, but she showed no sign of injury.

"I'm fine. Acalan, too." Her friend's expression didn’t soften as her eyes flickered to the fallen ape. "You?"

Leiyn touched a hand to her side. The pain had faded to an ache. In the rush of magic, she’d once more healed herself. But her mind flitted to a different thought.

"It was starving, Isla. It wouldn't have lasted the winter." She didn’t look at the slain creature, its blood-soaked fur, its mangled neck. The damage she’d done to it. "It didn't have a choice."

Her friend drew near, but she didn’t reach out. Isla knew from their years together Leiyn didn’t like being touched after violence. 

"Neither did we," Isla murmured. "It wasn't anyone's fault, Leiyn. Just the circumstances."

Leiyn nodded, averting her gaze. It had been a majestic animal in its peculiar, harsh way. She wondered how many remained. Or had she killed the last of their kind?

“Your spirit touches mine,” she muttered. But just then, the Ranger’s Lament rang hollow in her ears.

Leiyn shook her head, rallying herself. "I hope there's a stream nearby. I could use a wash."

Isla gave her a small smile, while Acalan answered. "A creek lies not far ahead. We can reach it before nightfall."

"That’ll have to do." Leiyn glanced at the chieftain before looking away. Even Acalan's gaze was hard to meet just then, though the Gast had no qualms with mahia that she knew of.

Batu still stood at a distance, his hands full keeping hold of the horses. Feral in particular fought to win free of him, her head whipping back and forth, her eyes wide as she stared at the ape. Leiyn had to smile at that. As likely as not, the mare had been itching to get into the fight herself. The former plainsrider met her eyes for a moment. She looked away first.

Leiyn wondered if her friends could see beneath the blood, or if she seemed a monster to them as well.

Acalan kneeled next to the snow ape's corpse. "The pelt is salvageable. Rinse the blood, and we can leave the rest to my people. They will be through within a day or two. The meat may be preserved by the cold. For us, we cannot afford further delay."

Leiyn swallowed down her revulsion at the task, then chided herself for her weakness. How many times had she skinned a deer or hare in her years in the Titan Wilds? Yet the reawakening of her mahia seemed to have softened her in ways she hadn’t anticipated.

She couldn’t afford to be soft. Not for her sake, nor for any of them.

Leiyn touched the pouch that held Tadeo’s fox figurine, then went to Feral to retrieve her waterskins. She would honor the lodgemaster's philosophy. She would do what she must.

She only wondered how deeply duty would cut this time.

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