The Duchess Cannot Sleep || ONC 2021

4 | The Archer

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The Borderland Forest
Two hours later
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"Duck-billed wuller." Stasen let the broken twig hang limp again. "That or the shadow man, but judging by the fur caught on the sap, it's a wuller."

"Despite what you might think, I'm not fourteen." Reide tsked as he waded past Stasen in the foliage. "The scariest thing for people my age is losing their jobs, not running into the shadow man."

The two of them ducked under a low-hanging branch and followed the trail of their prey. Stasen slipped in front again, being the one who actually knew how to track.

"And speaking of shadows"—Reide lowered his voice as they neared where they guessed the wuller to be—"if you want to be home for your wife's special dinner, we've got to catch it before dark."

"Good thing I told her to blame you if I'm late."

Stasen wasn't looking to see Reide's glare. "It's no wonder she hates me, then—"

Stasen flicked up his hand and Reide cut off. The crickets had started up, a chorus of other bugs soon to follow as the semi-light of dusk dipped further into night. Once it got dark, their job would be just about impossible and they risked demotion. If, on the other hand, they caught the wuller before dark, they wouldn't have to camp out to catch it at first light, and they wouldn't have to explain to the captain why they took longer than every other hunting team in the branch to meet their quota.

Reide unslung his bow the instant a rustle sounded to their right and the men exchanged a series of hand signals before they crept away from one another. Stasen would spook it, Reide would shoot. The hardest part now would be to hit in this lighting, with everything in its monochrome state just after sunset. Good thing Reide was an excellent shot.

He'd lost sight of Stasen somewhere to his left and crouched behind the cover of a waist-high bush. From what he could tell, the wuller was somewhere to the right of where Stasen would be in a few seconds, and when Stasen jumped out, it would dart where Reide could get it, and both he and Stasen would sleep in warm beds tonight.

Stasen jumped from the underbrush with a shout and Reide nocked an arrow as a wuller almost the size of either man came bulling out of the woods.

In entirely the wrong direction.

Reide released a frantic shot with wildly wrong trajectory before swinging his bow over his shoulder and leaping from his position as Stasen did the same, sprinting after it. "We were too far off—catch it by the river!"

It was a desperate move, but Stasen broke left from ahead of him to set a trap and Reide mustered the speed to gain on their prey. Stasen was a beast for fifty, but chasing a wuller was a lot to ask.

Reide swung around trees and jumped bushes, catching on branches and scratching his heavy jacket as he did. Luckily, wullers were three hundred pounds and couldn't run quietly, but all things considered, they could run fast. Reide shifted right to herd it before it reached the water and took out his bow again, slowing as the gurgle of the river grew nearer.

The beast let out a puff of steam and reared when it came to the river. Reide shot his best arrow over the hopeless distance and succeeded in scaring it toward Stasen's trap, but as soon as he started forward to continue his pursuit, he tripped on a jutting root and crashed to the ground.

Reide swiveled immediately to free his foot, hissing when his ankle protested, and pulled himself back up into a limping run. "Stasen, you better have that trap—Nak Jagrida!"