Caidoz

Chapter 45

~Procyon

If Ursa Minor had been nervous before he had stepped into the room, nothing could compare to how he looked once he was informed of our new position. "Achird?! Here?!"
"Yes, Minor. Achird is just outside the protections of White Pine Haven," Ursa Major said, walking to a nearby cupboard that reached up into the very ceiling, its doors long and tall. She opened it to reveal columns of shelves of scattered tools, wrenches, pens, and steam keys. My eyes scanned the tall shelves, but many  were placed too high for me to see.
"Muscida, explain to me why you aren't doing anything about him being there!" Minor said, glaring at her back. "Why don't you just blow them up with a cannon or something?!"
I shook my head. "We can't, Minor. Achird tailed us here with a pretty large group of severials. If we missed, several things would happen." I crossed them off my fingers as I talked. "One, any severial that got away would return to town and bring backup. They wouldn't abandon the mission because they were ordered to capture Cancer by Achird himself."
"Wouldn't it be better if I just surrendered and went where they wanted?" Cancer asked. "They said they wanted me alive, and it seems like it would save us a lot of trouble."
"NO!" The scream came from all of us, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and myself.
"Sorry, sorry," She said, holding her hands up in defense.
"Hm," I said, sneaking a small glare at her. "Two." I looked at Ursa Minor again. "Though our position may not be compromised, the blast would reveal that people are in this forest, and they may be hiding the princess."

Minor pulled out an arrow from his quiver and began to fiddle with it, throwing it up in the air and catching it in his weaker right hand.
"So, you're telling me we're just going to wait until they discover the secret to coming in?!"
A loud rumble suddenly diverted our attention to the cupboard, where all over the shelves were rotating downwards in an easy motion. I noticed Ursa Major's finger was pressed upon a small button of the cabinet, and she released after a few moments of the shelves moving down to her level. Eight columns of five stacked brown boxes awaited her reach, and she grabbed one.
"What's inside those boxes, Ursa Major?" Cancer asked, pointing at the one in her hand.
Ursa Major turned to us, opening the lid. Cancer and I crept forward for a better look. Strange bullet-shaped small objects rested inside. The tip was small like a needle, the end attacked to purple, white-speckled feathers.
"Muscida, are those...!?" Ursa Minor had only glanced at the contents before his eyes had widened.
She nodded at him. "Yes, Minor. My specialty dart-bullets."
"Yeah, but those bullets don't kill," Ursa Minor said, his eyes narrowed. "From what I get, you want them to come in, and then you don't want to kill them. Muscida, these severials aren't travelers; we can't just let them leave after we knock them out and place their unconscious bodies near the road outside the forest, there's too many of them!"
Her eyes became harsh. "Minor," she said, her tone turning colder than ice. "We. Do not. Kill. Cassiopeia wants us to kill, so she can use our sins against us. And she would have the right to do so. But if we leave every single enemy alive when we could have given them a few casualties, how does that make us look in the eyes of the public?"

Ursa Minor glared, regarding the woman with a raised brow. "Why should the public thought matter? Aren't our lives more important at the moment? I do not think we should particularly worry about killing. It is entirely self-defense! Besides," He dropped his gaze. "Humans think we're monsters anyway." His tone shook slightly. "Wouldn't surprise them much."
I felt my stomach turn slightly, my mind turning to the poster I carried in my satchel. Lycan hunters...
"She's thinking ahead," Cancer whispered, and I looked at her, surprised. She looked Major in the eyes. "You're thinking about what will happen afterwards, if we survive, right, Ursa Major?"
Ursa Major nodded, with a smile. "You're a sharp one." She reached into the box and withdrew a dart-bullet. "These bullets greatly drowsy the target and erases about five minutes of their previous memory."
"Why weren't you loaded with these when we first encountered you?" I asked.
"I had been hunting. It's too cruel to let something die in its sleep, while it's still alive. I rather give it an honorable and swift death. But let's focus on the matter at hand," She said. She opened her mouth but was interrupted by a shout.
"Is that my old bow?!" Ursa Minor exclaimed, walking over to the right side of the room. I turned to follow his gaze. A white recurve bow was hung high upon the wall, its slender form easily missed by those not looking for it. Small gears rested on either end, the bowstring oddly tangled in the wheels. A green ribbon was tied around its handle and arrow notch, thick and strong. Ursa Minor easily reached it off its high perch, looking it over with experienced eyes. "What in Simeh did you do to it? It doesn't even look like a recurve anymore."
"Yes, Minor. I improved the handle so it wouldn't splinter again, and your finger guard on the string is slender for easier usage. It's called a compound bow. You can pull the drawstring back without worrying about the weight, that's what the gears are for." She moved the shelves downward again with another press of the button. This time, quivers came into view. Ursa Major carefully took one off the shelf and held it out to Ursa Minor. He took it from her, frowning slightly as he withdrew an arrow. My heart jumped in my chest violently. There was a small needle point where the arrow head belonged, the arrow's feathers speckled with purple.