VII
Ashton awoke with a start to what felt like a kick in the back. A shaft of light was filtering into the cave.
“Awake? When you’re ready, we’re leaving.”
“Good morning...” Yawning, Ashton stood up, causing the green cloak to slip from his shoulders. Stacia picked it up without a word and put it on with the ease of habit.
“I, um, thank you.”
“Nothing to it. You’re my goose with the golden eggs.” Without looking at him, she began to carefully inspect the tension of her bowstring. Realizing that the night had been and gone without incident, Ashton felt a belated rush of relief.
They set off for the road once more, Ashton with a spring in his step. Thanks to the salve Stacia had given him, his body hardly pained him at all now, but more significant was that he had gotten a good night’s sleep. Alone, he would have stayed up all night on guard, too scared of a potential beast attack to sleep. Stacia might only have been in it for the gold, but Ashton felt another upswell of gratitude to her for choosing to stay with him in spite of the danger.
“Right, I meant to ask,” Stacia said all of a sudden. “What’s your rank, anyway?”
“You mean my military rank?”
“You don’t have another one, do you?” Stacia replied, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings. Ashton didn’t know what to make of this, but he wasn’t trying to hide anything, so he answered her directly.
“I’m a major.”
“A major... Hold it, you’re a major?!” Stacia came to an abrupt halt and Ashton almost walked right into her back. She turned to look at him, a look of open shock on her face.
It’s an understandable reaction, he thought. Even I think it’s absurd they made me a major. Even Ashton’s parents, to whom he sent the occasional letter to keep them abreast of recent occurrences, remained dubious of the idea of him as an officer with many soldiers under his command.
Ashton couldn’t help a self-deprecating smile, at which Stacia’s expression quickly turned hard.
“Are you pulling my leg?” she demanded.
“No, I’m not.”
“Then what’s with the grin?”
“I just can’t believe it myself,” he said, with a friendly shrug. The flint went out of Stacia’s eyes.
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” she said. “Honestly, I thought you’d be a captain at best. Who’d have guessed you’re a field officer...”
“Are you familiar with military ranks, then?” Ashton inquired. Stacia screwed up her face.
“My grandpa on my ma’s side was in th army. He was a major, like you, and never let anyone forget how important he was—not just his soldiers, but us too. Didn’t like him much, to tell the truth.”
“I see.”
Stacia set off walking again, cutting roughly through the vegetation. Feeling that this wasn’t a subject either of them wanted to dwell on, Ashton moved on to another topic.
“By the way, if we do make it out alive, how much do you want me to pay you?”
Ashton received a fair allowance as a professional soldier, and at present, he primarily spent it on buying the tasty treats Olivia begged him for. So long as Stacia didn’t demand an extraordinary sum, he thought he should be able to pay it without any hardship.
Without looking his way, Stacia held up five fingers. “Five gold pieces in exchange for your life. For the record, I intend to come out on top here.”
“Understood.” At Ashton’s prompt reply, Stacia stopped short again and turned to him with a look of even greater incredulity than before.
“Just to check, you do know how much five gold pieces are worth, right?”
“Don’t insult my intelligence. I’m the son of a distinguished merchant family,” Ashton retorted. “Let’s see... With five gold pieces, you should be able to get by without working for about two years, I think.”
“E-Exactly!” Stacia said, nodding fervently. “That’s the sort of money we’re talking about.”
“I guarantee you’ll be paid,” Ashton said firmly. Stacia responded with painful awkwardness, then set off once more at a snail’s pace.
The sun had almost reached its zenith. Stacia and Ashton stood at a fork in the path that stretched away left and right. The trees grew in a tangled thicket on both sides, their trunks surrounded by dense undergrowth. Whichever way they chose, it didn’t seem as though there would be much difference.
“Which do you think is closer to the road?”
Ashton considered. “The left, I think. But that’s only a hunch.”
“Okay. We’ll take the right, then,” Stacia said automatically. Ashton felt uneasy about this, but he followed her quietly. After they had walked a little while in silence, he heard the sound of thunder in the distance. He looked up and realized that at some point the whole sky had closed over with black clouds.
“Looks like we’re in for rain,” he said. Stacia didn’t reply. “Stacia? Did you hear me?”
“Yeah...” she croaked, her eyes fixed ahead. “I hear you.” She swiftly nocked an arrow to her bow. Ashton, not wanting to believe it, looked forward as well. Dimly, he made out a reddish-black shadow. That was all he needed to see.
“You were right, it didn’t give up.” There was no convenient river for them this time, but Stacia sounded unexpectedly calm. Ashton was too preoccupied to deliberate on whether this was because she thought they could get away, or if she had given up. What was clear was that he was staring certain death in the face.
Norfesses are intelligent. There’s no way we’ll catch it with the same attack again.
While Stacia prepared to leap valiantly into battle, Ashton’s eyes raced over their surroundings. There, he saw it—a narrow path leading away into the trees.
“We can run that way!” he cried, gesturing for her to go first. Just as he bounded after her, the Norfess let out an earth-rattling roar. He didn’t look back, just ran straight on. Here and there, he felt sharp pain as another branch clawed at his face, but he couldn’t afford to pay that any mind. He nearly stumbled on the uneven ground over and over again, the sound of his heart roaring in his ears as though it were about to burst. Finally, just as the forest opened up, Ashton stopped running. More accurately, he had no choice but to skid to a halt. Stacia, who had drawn up short beside him, broke into a wheezing laugh.
“Looks like this is it then,” she said. Before them, the ground dropped away in a cliff. The sight of it was like a blow to the face. Ashton, despairing at the cruel irony, peered over the edge of the cliff, only to be greeted by jagged rocks.
Fall down there and this time it really will mean certain death. Still, if only it would rain, there might still be some hope...
Stacia, her face now set, nocked another arrow and drew her bow to face behind them. Ashton’s ears picked up the cry he had heard back when he was attacked the first time.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I might as well have led us into this...”
“You might as well say if we’d taken the left fork, we might’ve avoided meeting our friend here again. No point in dwelling on what-ifs.”
“Yes, you’re right.” Ashton drew the knife from his belt. A flicker of a smile passed over Stacia’s face.
“Planning on going toe to toe with the legendary Norfess with that, are we?”
“I don’t have any illusions about that. Still, it’s better than nothing.”
“Who’d have thought you were such a bonehead?”
“Well, that’s what I am.”
Stacia chuckled. “Well, there’s worse things to be—here it comes!”
With a roar, the Norfess appeared. The birds in the trees all shrieked and took flight. It spread its claws as if to show them off as it stalked cautiously toward Ashton and Stacia. Ashton didn’t need to look twice to see that it was wary of Stacia and her bow. But there was something else.
“Something’s off about it,” Stacia said.
“Yes.” As they watched, the Norfess’s gait grew slower until it came to a complete stop. Then, it began to snort, inexplicably turning away from Ashton as it moaned lowly. At the same moment, Ashton heard a voice he’d been missing.
“Just in the nick of time, huh? You really are lucky, Ashton.”
“Olivia!” Ashton cried out without thinking. There stood Olivia, waving cheerfully at him. Ashton felt all the energy drain out of him, and he crumpled to the ground.
Stacia, glancing quickly between the two of them, hissed, “I can see from the uniform she’s with you, but is she touched in the head? What’s she doing exposing herself to the Norfess like that? Sorry to say it, but she’s dead meat.”
“Don’t worry. We’re safe now.”
“Safe...?” Stacia repeated, incredulous. She didn’t lower her bow for a moment. “Have you finally lost it? Nothing’s going to change just because some girl showed up.”
She couldn’t have known that Olivia wasn’t even close to just being “some girl.”
“Just watch,” he said. If Olivia was the one who had killed the Norfess’s mate, the scent that lingered on Ashton couldn’t compare to the strength of the scent on her. It was safe to assume the Norfess would turn its full attention to her.
“Graaagh!” The Norfess moved first. With a howl that ripped the air asunder, it charged at Olivia, all deadly force. The arrow Stacia had shot through its knee didn’t seem to hamper its speed at all. But Olivia moved even faster. She shot past it and the Norfess screamed, its left arm flying off. Without hesitating, Olivia twisted to one side, crouched low, and leapt up into the sky. The Norfess roared again, thrusting up with its remaining claws, but Olivia flipped around in midair and brought her blade down to meet it. In the moment they crossed, there came a flash of white light that blotted out all else as a bolt of levin came crackling down the length of a great tree. Splinters flew in all directions while the Norfess, sliced clean in two, crumpled into a sea of blood. Ashton realized Stacia had joined him on the ground, her eyes staring emptily into space.
You really are something else... Ashton thought as Olivia sheathed her sword, then came over to them. She stopped in front of Ashton and, with a toothy smile, held out a hand.
“You really would die straightaway without me,” she said.
“That’s right. If you ever leave me, I’m done for.”
The heavens opened, and the rain poured down like a waterfall. Taking Olivia’s lily-white hand in his, Ashton stood up. As she stood there drenched in the rain, hers was a beauty beyond compare.
Ashton’s flight that had begun with the assault of the legendary Norfess would soon be at an end.
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