The Hunter of Hawk and Wolf

County of Anse. Labyrinth Forest.

A lad was cleaning his hunting gear, grumbling, “What a damn pain.”

His hair was ash-gray.

His eyes, golden. His face, fair.

The lad wore leather armor and a green scarf around his neck.

This was Sevha, eighteen years old.

“What sin did I commit to deserve this life...?” Sevha grumbled again.

Yet for all his complaining, he skillfully sheathed the cleaned knife and handaxe on his left and right hips. He meticulously checked his arrows, then fixed the quiver to the back of his belt.

Finally, Sevha pulled on his leather gloves, nocked an arrow, and slowly drew the bowstring.

Creeak...

As the bowstring grew taut, Sevha’s expression sharpened.

Creeeeak...

When his expression sharpened past focus into a cold mask—the face of a hunter—he released the string.

Thwung—

The sound of the string and arrow slicing through the early winter air confirmed the bow’s integrity.

Then, his hunter’s face still in place, Sevha rose to his feet.

Before him stood a dense wall of trees.

Whoooo...

As Sevha entered the forest, the same sight greeted him.

He went deeper, and again, the same sight.

Whoooooo...

Sevha walked in silence, listening to the wind that moaned like a weeping woman.

He sharpened his senses, ready to react in an instant, but his stride betrayed nothing.

Whoooooooo...

The forest was a landscape painting cursed by a witch. Sevha was a ghost walking within its frame, waiting for the moment to leap out.

A moment later, that time came.

Caw!

The instant he heard the crow’s cry, which sounded like a woman’s scream, Sevha’s hand flew to an arrow and he whipped his head to the side.

Through a break in the trees, a flock of crows was gathered on the roof of a log cabin.

The Hunter’s Rest Stop… why are those birds…?

As Sevha moved through the trees, the cabin came into clearer view, and the cawing of the crows grew just as dense.

When he reached the cabin’s yard, the entire flock took flight, cawing wildly.

Caw... caw... caw...

An ominous silence followed the ominous cries.

And then, a sight more ominous still.

The dim, tree-ringed yard was smeared with bloody handprints.

The cabin’s door was smashed in.

With his hand on his axe, Sevha entered.

The scene inside was even bloodier.

Bear claws had gouged the broken furniture.

And on the floor lay the corpse of a man dressed just like him.

The work of a bear.

The corpse’s face was mangled beyond recognition.

Sevha touched the wound without hesitation. It was still warm.

He untied the green scarf from the corpse and saw a name embroidered on it.

Jerome? Wasn’t he searching for the Brown Queen’s lair?

Realizing the dead man was a colleague, Sevha scolded the corpse.

“A Hunter of Anse getting hunted... You’re an embarrassment, fool.”

But contrary to his harsh words, Sevha gently covered the dead man’s face with the scarf.

The only bear mad enough to attack a cabin with a Hunter inside would be the Brown Queen.

The Brown Queen. A massive brown bear that had recently devoured several people in the County of Anse.

The body is warm. The beast’s trail must still be fresh.

Sevha would make the Brown Queen pay for his colleague’s life. He looked out the window. The sky was overcast.

It’ll snow soon. The tracks will disappear.

He hurried out to the yard and examined the bloodstains.

The other hunter… Della. Did the damn thing drag her off?

Then Sevha saw a bloody handprint on a tree just outside the yard.

As he approached it, he found the hind paw prints of a bear near a bed of rock.

Climbing onto the rocks, he found blood-soaked leaves a short distance away.

And so, Sevha followed the Brown Queen’s trail, sign after bloody sign.

The farther he went, the darker the sky became.

The darker the sky became, the colder the forest air grew.

The colder the air grew, the whiter Sevha’s breath became.

And when frost began to silver the tips of his hair…

“Haah…”

Snow began to fall, and the forest vanished behind a white curtain.

She couldn’t have gone much farther…

Sevha stood in the falling snow and listened.

The sound of the driving snow.

The sound of snapping branches.

Crunch... chomp... smack...

And the sound of flesh and bone being chewed.

Sevha drew an arrow. He recalled the first of his father’s three lessons.

Do not take your first chance from a distance. Take it in your prey’s face.

The snow was blowing from the direction of the sound, toward him.

His form and scent masked by the swirling snow, Sevha moved toward the sound.

As he pushed through the flurries, the chewing of flesh and bone grew louder, until it was right in front of him.

Sevha hid behind a rock and peered out.

In front of a cave, a large brown bear was eating in the snow.

It was eating so ravenously that blood, bone fragments, and tatters of a green scarf tumbled from its maw.

Della…

Sevha bared his canines in a silent snarl.

But only for a moment.

He nocked an arrow to his bowstring.

Too large to kill with one shot. I’ll need three in a vital point.

Sevha took a few calming breaths.

He let out a whistle like a bird’s call. The bear raised its head.

In the same instant, Sevha held his breath, rose from cover, and loosed the arrow.

One.

For a fleeting moment, the glinting arrowhead filled the bear’s vision.

The arrow struck it between the eyes.

The impact of the arrowhead sinking into its skull threw the bear off balance, and it staggered.

Two.

Sevha sent another arrow flying, planting it again between the bear’s eyes.

Its front legs gave out, and its jaw slammed into the ground.

Three.

Sevha shot a third arrow, lodging it once more between the bear’s eyes.

Its hind legs buckled, and it collapsed in a heap, moving no more.

The bear was dead. Sevha released the breath he’d been holding.

“Whew—”

But before he could fully exhale, the wind shifted. The scent of the dead bear’s blood drifted into the cave.

Immediately.

Grrrrowl…!

Like a smothered fire roaring back to life, a growl billowed from the cave.

Hearing a bear charging out, Sevha immediately fired an arrow into the cave’s darkness.

But the sound of the charge did not stop.

Sevha turned and ran.

He ran like a creature of the forest, skillfully navigating between trees and over rocks.

But the bear chasing him was a true beast of the woods.

Snap, snap, snap, snap.

The sound of the bear breaking branches grew closer and closer.

Snap-snap-snap-snap.

As the sound neared, Sevha’s heart pounded faster. The conviction grew stronger that if he glanced back for even a moment, his spine would end up snapped like a twig.

CRACK!

Hearing a branch splinter right behind him, Sevha threw himself to the side.

An instant later, the bear thundered past.

Brown fur, a body larger than any bear Sevha had ever seen, and bloody chunks of flesh stuck between its teeth.

This was the true Brown Queen.

So I killed her cub.

Her charge having missed, the Brown Queen let out a great roar.

GRAAAAH!

Startled birds burst from the trees.

Sevha bolted again.

The Brown Queen pursued him ferociously.

When Sevha scaled a rock face in a few steps, the Brown Queen bounded over it in one.

When Sevha dodged a branch, the Brown Queen simply smashed through it.

Knowing she had no intention of letting him go, Sevha recalled his father’s second lesson.

Do not wait for a second chance. Create the first one again.

Immediately, Sevha deliberately rolled down the steep hill beside him.

Tumbling was faster than the Brown Queen’s charge, and for a moment, he was out of her sight.

Sevha used that opening to sprint with all his might. Suddenly, his view opened up, and a half-frozen lake appeared.

Sevha untied his scarf, tossed it on the shore, and plunged into the water.

SPLASH!

Icy water enveloped him. A pain like his bones twisting and his organs knotting seized him.

But Sevha clenched his teeth, swallowed the pain, and submerged himself.

A few seconds later, the Brown Queen, having followed his scent, appeared at the water’s edge.

She lumbered to the scarf, the only thing that carried his scent, and buried her nose in it.

Seeing her unguarded, Sevha quietly swam beneath an ice floe near her.

Then, from under the ice floe, he aimed an arrow at the Brown Queen and drew the bowstring.

Shhhk...

As the ice floe drifted aside, it revealed the Brown Queen.

Sevha released the string.

The arrow shot from the water and buried itself in her right eye.

As a jet of blood erupted from the socket, the Brown Queen threw her head back and roared in agony.

But she roared only once.

She cut it off and turned her head toward the lake, her one good eye coldly demanding he show himself.

My hands are frozen. I couldn’t draw the string properly.

Unable to hold his breath any longer, Sevha burst from the water at the lake’s edge.

He recalled his father’s third lesson, tossed his bow aside, and drew his handaxe.

If you find yourself in a situation where you must recall the third lesson… Sevha. Stake your life on that hunt.

Sevha gripped his axe and faced the Brown Queen.

Through the falling snow, she stared only at him with her left eye.

Meeting his gaze, the Brown Queen opened her maw wide, baring every tooth. She opened it so wide that blood gushed from her ruined socket.

She charged, spraying blood and cutting through the snow.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

As soon as she reached him, the Brown Queen swung her right forepaw.

Sevha threw himself aside to dodge, and her paw shattered the pebbles at the water’s edge.

CRUNCH!

Scrambling to his feet, Sevha buried his axe in the Brown Queen’s right hind leg.

Blood burst forth, but she paid it no mind. She spun, the axe still lodged in her leg, and swung her left forepaw at him.

Sevha dodged hastily, but her claws tore through the chest of his leather armor.

RRRIP!

As Sevha fell backward, the Brown Queen opened her maw and charged, aiming to tear out his throat.

He rolled toward the lake to evade her, and she smashed her head into a tree.

CRACK!

As the tree broke, Sevha stood up at the edge of the lake, gasping for breath.

One brief exchange, and he was already a wreck.

I can’t beat a beast by fighting like a beast.

In the instant Sevha pondered how to win, his gaze fell on the arrow in the Brown Queen’s eye, then to her remaining eye, and finally to the shards of ice floating on the lake.

Immediately, he drew his knife and bared his teeth like an animal.

As Sevha’s face twisted into a mask of wildness, the Brown Queen rose to the provocation, baring her own teeth in response.

Then, roaring as if to signal the end, she kicked powerfully off the ground.

ROOOAR!

The Brown Queen reached Sevha in an instant and swung her forepaw.

He ducked under the swing and plunged his knife into her left arm.

But her muscles were so tough that when she swung her arm, the blade snapped. Sevha, still holding the hilt, was sent flying backward.

SPLASH!

Losing all his weapons, Sevha fell into the lake.

Knowing the weakness of a beast that has lost its fangs, the Brown Queen charged at him, letting her guard down.

As she closed in, Sevha grabbed a sharp shard of ice from the water’s surface. He threw his body to her side, dodging the charge by a hair’s breadth.

In that moment, the Brown Queen saw Sevha’s face as he brushed past her.

The beastly wildness was gone. In its place was the cold calculation of a hunter.

But the Brown Queen saw it for only an instant.

Sevha drove the shard of ice into her one remaining eye.

ROOOAR!

The moment he hit the water, Sevha submerged himself and watched the surface.

Half-submerged, the Brown Queen roared and flailed her forepaws wildly.

But with his scent and sound gone, and with both eyes lost, her paws only tore at empty air and thrashed the surface of the water.

Even as waves crashed and her claws ripped through the space right beside him, Sevha remained as still as a stone, watching.

Just as his skin turned blue in the icy water and his lungs began to burn, the Brown Queen, seemingly exhausted, climbed onto the shore.

As she showed her back, Sevha burst out of the water.

He rushed her, pulled the axe from her hind leg, and leaped.

He landed on her back and brought the axe down on the crown of her head.

ROOOAAAR!

As blood gushed, the Brown Queen roared and thrashed to throw him off.

Sevha gripped her fur so tightly the skin of his palms tore inside his gloves, and he struck the crown of her head with the axe again.

ROOOOAAAR!

Lost in darkness and pain, she thrashed about and slammed her body hard against a tree.

Splinters of bark flew off and cut Sevha’s face, but he paid them no mind and struck the crown of her head again.

ROOOOOAAAR!

The Brown Queen’s desperate struggle continued. But Sevha endured more desperately, striking her again and again.

Once, twice, three times, four.

When Sevha’s face was stained crimson with her blood, she abruptly stopped thrashing and slowly raised her head toward the sky.

Roooaar....

Then, unable to finish her death cry, she collapsed onto her side.

Sevha pulled the axe from her skull and raised his head.

He let out all his held breath and unleashed a raw shout, thick with the euphoria of the hunt.

But it was only for a moment. Completely drained, he rolled off her back and fell to the ground.

He lay sprawled, panting, then slowly wiped his face with his scarf, which had fallen nearby.

He did this a few times, then let his hand fall limply, as if even that was too much effort.

Gone was the face of a hunter.

It was the face of a lad lamenting his own wretched fate.

“Why was I born a noble in this godforsaken backwater, only to suffer like this...?”

Embroidered on his scarf were the words: Sevha dan Anse.

The embroidery marked him as the younger brother of the Count who ruled the County of Anse.