“Why didn’t you tell us sooner? That’s excellent news!” Her friend hopped from foot to foot. She’d never really understood Vi’s plight. Ellene had manifested early, was Awoken quickly, and moreover had an ancient power in her that was said to have descended right from the Goddess herself. The Northerners called her a Child of Yargen.
“Like I said, it’s been weird and I’d rather not test it,” Vi said firmly. But, unsurprisingly, Ellene missed it.
“Why? You should—”
“If you think it’s for the best,” Jayme interrupted Ellene.
“The best would be for us to move more quietly so we don’t scare away any jungle fowl.”
At the suggestion, they moved through the forest silently and Vi appreciated that her play for a reprieve from the conversation worked.
Ellene made almost no noise, the ground curling around her feet with pulses of power to muffle her steps. Vi was the next most quiet, her steps in the jungle confident from a lifetime of venturing through it. Jayme… she tried her best. But she clearly wasn’t accustomed to the shrub brushes, dangling vines, or gnarled roots that reached up to trip an unwary traveler.
The first day yielded nothing. They broke for camp, and all agreed that the next morning they’d find their luck. After a few hours of walking, their optimism was rewarded. Vi held up her hand, stopping her companions.
Movement in the distance caught her eye. Vi squinted, looking through the shifting shafts of light that were determined to make their path through the thick canopy. She crouched low, hearing the others following her lead.
There was another flash of green, the light hitting a rainbow of colored feathers. Vi slowly pointed, making sure they both saw it. She brought her finger to each of them, pointed at the ground, and then mouthed the words, “You stay here.”
Ellene and Jayme nodded. Ellene soundlessly ascended into the trees above and Vi began her slow crawl through the brush. She pushed aside large fronds, using them to half-keep her concealed as she approached the unsuspecting beast. Vi ignored the branches sticking to the messy braids of her hair as she found a good vantage.
Slowly, she slid an arrow from her quiver, notching it and drawing back. Sweat cut through the grime that coated her like a second skin after spending days in the jungle, raining into her eyes off her brow. It stung, but she ignored the haze of dirt and salt just as she ignored the ache in her legs from pressing into the roots and rock underneath her.
There was nothing in the world beyond the sound of her heart, and the tall-necked and long-legged bird that pecked the ground before her.
Vi took in a deep breath through her nose, holding it as she stretched every last bit of tension from her bow. The creature raised its head suddenly, looking through the forest. Whatever had startled it, Vi couldn’t sense.
This was it. One clean shot.
The bird swiveled its head back around. The feathers of its flightless wings puffed outward. Vi could see it squat slightly, loading power in its nimble legs before it would bolt once more into the dense underbelly of the jungle. Her eyes widened slightly and fingers relaxed.
Vi’s arrow shot straight, narrowly missing its mark. It whizzed past the head of the bird, her prediction of its movements off by a mere hair.
“Ellene!” Vi leapt from her vantage, sliding down the leafy forest floor. She would give chase, wouldn’t let this one go.
Above her, trees groaned and shifted. Their canopies arced and swayed in unnatural ways. She heard the crackling and groaning of wood as branches and vines alike came to life at the behest of her magical friend sprinting across them.
“Head left!” Ellene shouted above.
Just as she finished speaking, a wall of stone jutted from the earth, causing the sprinting bird to track left. Vi notched another arrow, drew, took a breath, loosed. Once more, it whizzed past, missing by the smallest of margins.
“Again!” Vi shouted, pumping her legs against the forest floor, struggling to keep her balance and keep up with the creature. She was determined. This wouldn’t get the best of her. She wouldn’t let it win.
“Right!” Another curved wall of stone; the bird course corrected.
With flaps of its tiny wings, it launched itself up in a long leap onto a low branch. Every feather stood on end, tail upright and fanned like a rainbow as the bird gave an indignant squawk at her.
Vi was breathless, but from running, not from fear. If it tried to attack her with its long claws, it’d be dead. Either by her arrow, or Ellene’s magic dropping a tree branch or rock on it. She was hunting for sport. But all sport would be gone if it actually became a threat to her.
She watched its motions, calming her breathing as much as possible as her legs continued to propel her forward. Her arm strained from holding her bow drawn as she made her calculations. It would try to use the height to its advantage and leap to attack. But that also made its movements relatively predictable, as its options were severely limited.
Wanting to keep her advantage, Vi dashed forward, forcing the creature to act. She tracked the tip of her arrow over the face of the animal as she watched its eyes—almost in slow motion—shifting to the left.There, it would go there, everything in Vi’s body screamed.
Pushing her heels into the ground, Vi skidded, leaning back to get a better angle and bracing herself to come to a stop as her feet would eventually catch rock or root. The bird leaped just as she’d predicted. Her heart raced right before the kill.
“Vi, look out!” Ellene’s shrill cry barely registered.
Where she’d expected her feet to meet something solid, there was only air. Her stomach shot up and out through her mouth in a scream, as the world was plunged into darkness.
