Prince of Fire

Chapter One ~ A Day To Hunt

     The snow had begun melting weeks ago, and I still found a way to bury myself in it. I had been walking along a ridge in pursuit of a wounded elk when the rock beneath me gave way to open air, dropping me into a pile of snow. Above me, the sun gleamed through the hole I had punched through the mound, illuminating the slanting ramp I was digging for myself. I had learned the hard way, over the past seven years of winter, that the only way to dig out of snow was with patience. That elk was long gone by now, taking my arrow with it. Pity, it was a nice arrow.
     At last I poked my head out from the snow pile, shaking some of the powder from my hair. The sun had only moved a little, so I hadn't been in there too long. At least twenty feet above me, I could see where the ledge I had been on had given out. The blood from the elk had since dried to the rock face, and I cursed. An arrow gone, and an excuse to get out of the house again tomorrow. I wasn't sure how to think about the situation.
     I knew part of me was excited and grateful to have to come back out here. Caspian's family had invited mine to come and stay with them, and soon after, by some miracle, my mother had recovered. Then the news had come. Cas had been moved from a border war camp into enemy territory. That was almost five years ago. I had received his last, brief letter less than six months after. Our families had assumed the worst. The house, once full of hope with that bright green door, was now quiet and cold, everyone mourning and sulking for a boy they knew would never come back. The green paint had long since chipped away, leaving a washed-out brown color behind. Fitting.
     A crack off in the distance brought me back from my revere, and I snapped my head up to look around. Off a little ways, a singe doe walked, brushing her nose against tree trunks and against the snow. She was hungry. So was I. I wiggled free and slid down the side of the mound, landing heavily on cold, unsteady feet. I prayed she hadn't heard me and I notched an arrow. I couldn't afford to miss again.
     I slid through the snow and rock, eventually coming free and stepping into the snowy glade. The doe had already meandered to the other side, winding through the trees carelessly. She hadn't noticed my presence yet. I ducked through the trees, skirting through the edge of the cold clearing, making constant note of where the wind was coming from.
     I eventually reached a vantage point I could kill her from. A small rise above her, upwind and ideal. I made my first shot with practiced ease and the arrow pierced her throat, going in smoothly and out grotesquely. she stumbled, ran a little ways, then fell, her body convulsing in the snow. I quickly made my second shot to the base of her skull, putting her out of her misery as quickly as possible. I hunted for food; out of necessity. I didn't want to watch an animal suffer by my hand.
I worked quickly to field dress her body and wrapped her hide around the carcass to help minimize my trail out. With a grunt, I hoisted the doe to my shoulders and stared back the way I had come. I sighed, and began carving my way through the snow. I cut across the glade I had first spotted her in, opting for a straight, uncovered route rather than winding through the trees. As I neared the other side, the doe began to slip, and I quickly rolled her off and into the fluffy powder. I winced and rubbed the shoulder she had slipped from.
Inhaling, I took a quick glance around me. I was back on the more coniferous side of the meadow, where the trees grew tall and pointed. Before me, an old pine loomed up into the sky, it's tip gleaming in the sunlight, still wet from melted snow. I peered up at the pine, then narrowed my eyes. At the top of that tree, glinting in the sun, was the body of an elk, a grey fletched arrow sticking from its contorted chest. I sucked in a sharp breath, looking around me for any sign of what could've possibly done such a thing. I saw and heard nothing, but in the middle of nowhere, that didn't mean anything.
I leaned down and hoisted the does carcass back to my shoulders and started the long trudge back to town with renewed haste. I didn't want to be anywhere near here if whatever dragged a full grown elk into a thirty foot pine came back for its meal. The sun began to set, alighting the sky in shades of orange and purple and pink. Behind me, the elk hung in the tree, blood glittering atop the tree.

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The house was still when I nudged the brown door open with my hip. The doe had cold and stiff long ago, and my shoulders cramped under the weight. The body landed with a dull thud on the scarred kitchen table, and I winced. My mother, a short, stout older woman appeared from her and Cas's mothers room and smiled at me. She glanced down at the deer, then back up at me, her expression going somber. "I wish you didn't have to do this, Kya."
I sighed, preparing myself for the conversation ahead. "Mother, we've been over this countless times. Who else will do it? Doran is too busy with his apprenticeship, and Fernin is too young and too sweet to go into the woods and kill something. You can't, Cas's mother can't, and Jeherin is too young."
"And you shouldn't have to take care of all of us."
"Who else will?" I didn't mean to snap. "We don't have the money to survive off things from town. There is no one else who can take care of us."
"Cas's mother found work for the both of us today, with a traveling merchant who decided he would stay a while." I paused at that. "The only problem is that it isn't enough to care for everyone. Your brother, Doran, is set to leave town and apprentice under a man north of here, so that helps, but..."
"It's still not enough." I finished for her, and she nodded grimly. "So I keep hunting. Maybe less, but it will still be a necessity."
"I want you to go south, Kyamere. Spend a summer in the capitol! Act how a girl your age is supposed to act! You won't have to hunt, won't have to take care of two frail women, a little girl, and a little boy. You-"
"Don't finish that sentence. Don't say another word. You would ship me across the continent so the rest of you can live in comfort, without the guilt of letting me risk my arse trying to keep you all fed. Thats what I'm hearing." I narrowed my eyes and stared my mother down. "What will become of Dalia when she grows? What of Jeherin, when he gets big and starts eating you out of a house? Will you ship them away too, like livestock at market?"
I spun and clambered up the ladder to the loft, ignoring my mothers frantic words. After a while, she went silent, and the house was quiet once more. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream and beat my fists against the ground until they were bloody and bruised. I wanted to show something of what I felt, anything. But I didn't let myself, opting to shove it down and master my emotions. She wanted me to go south? Fine.
I shoved my few possessions into a sack, a change of clothes, my hunting knife, a small purse of money I had saved through the years. I took the string from my bow and shoved both into the bag, knowing I wouldn't need them for a while, but opting to take them anyways. I would leave tomorrow, use my money to buy a seat on a train headed for the glimmering seaside capitol of Runethea, one of many provinces in the continent of Nevaria. Tomorrow, I would be gone when they woke. And I vowed that I would never come back to this hovel. Let them all live with their choices. I've made mine.

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I tossed and turned until the moon rose, and I decided I wouldn't be able to sleep. I quickly redressed and slipped from the house and shot towards the woods. Without my hunting gear, and without a deer on my shoulders, the run to the glade was quick. I glanced into the pine tree from earlier that day to find the elk gone. The top third of the tree had also disappeared, splintered as if ripped apart forcefully. I shuddered and stuck close to the tree line.
The snow glimmered in the moonlight, shining white and pale. The sudden urge to cry overcame me as I realized this was quite possibly the last time I would ever see anything like this. As far south as Runethea was, it would never snow. Not like this. I let the quiet sobs escape into the night. Here, alone, I would let myself cry. Only here, under a pale moon, the snow piled around my feet and the cold kissing my skin.
When the sobs slowed to shuddering breaths, I took one last look out into the field. I committed the night to memory, savoring every detail. I would not let myself forget this in the crushing heat of the south. I would come back one day, just for this. To see this once again, and go back. I steered myself against my feelings once again, and started the hike back to the house. I would be leaving for the warmth of the south soon enough.