My Name Is Adela Kirigan (A Shadow and Bone Season 1 Fanfiction)

Chapter 31: Morozova's Stag

Deep in the woods... 

Alina and Mal sat together on a log, huddled together against the cold. Then she spoke. 

'Mal, when we find the Stag, I need to be the one to kill it.' He frowned at his childhood friend from where she lay against his chest, her raven black hair spotted with flecks of snowflakes. 

'You're a terrible shot. They made you a cartographer for a reason.' Now it was her turn to frown. When she realised the joke, she laughed. 'Of course. I'll line it up for you, you take the shot.' There was a moment of silence. Then he spoke again. 'It's just... do you really wear its bones?' She nodded. 

'Yeah. At least, that's how it's been done.' Just then faint rustling sounded in the distance, and Mal looked up, having heard it. He stood from the log they were sitting on as Alina attempted to warm her hands. He stepped forward, hearing an animal, or what seemed like a very large animal, grunting nearby. 

'That way,' he said, grabbing his things, slinging his bow over his shoulder and directing Alina towards the direction that he'd heard the rustling. They walked a ways before they entered a clearing and saw the Stag there, mighty and beautiful. It turned and looked at her, almost as if it knew her presence. Mal handed her the gun and she lined up the shot, looking through the tiny scope. Overwhelmed by images from her past, of her younger self drawing the image of the Stag that had led to where they were now, and the dream image of the Stag leaning over her, breathing into her face, as she lay in the hay after her incident at the combat arena with Zoya... 

She lowered the gun. 

'Hang on,' she said. 

'What are you doing?' Mal asked. 

'I need to get closer to it.' 

'If we keep it alive, how do we...' 

'I don't know.' She handed the gun back to Mal. 'Kirigan didn't want me to have an amplifier. So he didn't teach me about this. Maybe there's another way to do this.' She took a few tentative steps forward towards the Stag. The Stag came to meet her and the two met in the middle of the snowy forest. She extended her hand towards the animal, and it almost leaned into her touch as her body flooded with white light, surrounding them in a ball of calming white light. She gasped at the inflow of power as the living amplifier's power seeped into her. The Stag stood there, patient. That was, until an arrow flew into its side, breaking the power link and making the Stag give a cry of pain. The animal collapsed. Mal stood, firing his gun into the chest of the man that had shot the Stag. He collapsed and then he turned, dropping his gun to fire an arrow, but Zoya, the Squaller, easily blocked it, sending the arrow flying. 

'That animal's not meant for you,' she snarled. Alina used the power she had gained to fend off Zoya and the other two men that had hurt both Mal and the Stag. Just then an arrow flew into Mal's back, making Alina scream. 

'Mal!' The man behind Mal moved his hands, making the arrow dig deeper into Mal's flesh until the tip was sticking out of his chest. He groaned, on his knees from the pain, blood spilling from his mouth. She ran to him and snapped off the arrow in the front, then pulled it out from the back, making Mal scream. Just then the light in the forest all but vanished, or what little light was left. General Kirigan walked into the clearing, his hands raised. He began to form the Cut, aiming it at the Stag. 'No!' she shouted, and ran towards the Stag, collapsing over it, forming a protective bubble as Kirigan thrust the Cut at them. Now her, Mal, and the Stag were surrounded by the white light. 

'You can't save them, Alina,' Kirigan said. Alina met eyes with the Stag. It whimpered briefly, but gazed at her with trusting eyes. 'You may have the power of light, but not the power to heal. I know the tracker is important to you. Give me the Stag, and I'll have my Healer save him.' 

'No,' Mal groaned, blood spilling from his lips as he shoved a dagger towards her, rather weakly. 

'Stay still,' she said, shedding tears. 'You've lost too much blood.' He kept crawling as best as he could, slowly shuffling forwards, further moving the dagger towards her. 

'You have to kill it,' he rasped. 'You have to.' She let the bubble down and darted towards Mal, but then the soldiers came and pulled them apart. 

'No! No! No! No!' she screamed as they were pulled apart. 'No! You said you wouldn't hurt him!' It was too late. There was the sickening crunch of bones and flesh being cut in two, and she couldn't bear to look. When she did, she saw the Stag's head separated from its body and suddenly... she felt irrevocably guilty. 

'Bring me its antlers,' General Kirigan said to David, callously. 

'Yes, sir.' The young man darted forwards and knelt at the head of the dead Morozova's Stag. 

'You murderer!' Alina screamed within the grip of the soldier. 'You stupid fool!' 

'And the otkazat'sya, sir?' one of the other soldiers asked. 

'I am a man of my word,' Kirigan said softly. 'Heal him. He was only protecting Miss Starkov.' 

Somewhere in East Ravka... 

Adela slipped out of the barn that her and the three Crows were residing in for the night. She trailed towards Kaz, who, by his body language, seemed as though he'd just been in a conversation with someone. Probably Inej. It seemed lately as if the two of them had had conflicting interests, especially regarding the heist into the Little Palace to kidnap the Sun Summoner. She had no idea where Alina was now, or who she was with. Best to hope she was out of her brother's clutches. She hoped she could stay out of her brother's clutches for a while too. She slipped silently onto the log next to Kaz. 

'I definitely took you for someone who doesn't believe in the Saints,' she commented, stoking the fire slightly with a stick. 'Someone like you, who's been lonely for all of his life, doesn't easily trust something like that.' 

'What do you want?' he said. His tone was not unkind, but it wasn't very nice, either. 

'I'd rather you not speak to me that way,' she replied back, just as cold. 'And I haven't come to gloat or anything. I'm clearly making an observation.' 

'Why did you want to come with us?' Kaz asked her. 

'I needed something fresh. New. I was tired of living under the King's control, and my brother's. My brother... he was good to me, but he wasn't really there. And neither was my mother. I didn't really have anyone. Anyone to share problems with, or to seek comfort from, or to talk to. I was alone. Much like you. I think we're similar in that way.' 

'We are not alike. You should have just gone back to your Grisha palace. You would have been happier there.'

'And risk my brother's wrath? No thanks. I wanted out. Alina Starkov wanted out. I didn't even know I wanted out until it was too late. I'd been suppressing my desire for adventure, a new start, and people that I could call friends, perhaps even family. Maybe if you opened up a little, looked around, you'd see that there was some semblance of family with your Crows.' She stood from the log, across from Kaz. 'Belief in my powers, or Alina's for that matter, may be entirely foreign to you, let alone love or any other positive emotion, but believe me, nothing is impossible. I didn't believe that I could be free - until I met you. And your weird, dysfunctional little crew. For what it's worth, thank you, Kaz Brekker.' She walked away, not in the direction of the barn again, but to where her horse that she'd ridden was. Mounting on it, she rode away, the memory of her still imprinted into his mind.