'and a bite for luck', a story in three acts

Overture: The Rise and Fall of Awsten Knight

Awsten Knight was born and raised in the Hunters Training Academy, the son of the Head Warden and a world-renowned Troll Hunter. He has been training under the tutelage of the finest Academy alumni since he could walk and hold a weapon at the same time, toddling into the communal kitchen at almost-two brandishing a silver spoon. After a breach in the security systems, Awsten went down as the first person in Academy history to kill a shapeshifter without hesitating or crying first, despite the image of his then-best friend staring back at him; and then he became the only person to ever take out an entire nest of faeries with a single bolt from a crossbow and a blunt machete. In fact, they still argue about how he pulled that one off. Just lucky, perhaps?

Graduating from the Advanced Training Program at fourteen after helping to track down a wendigo terrorising a local campsite (and finding its snack cupboard), Awsten became a fulltime Hunter at sixteen, finally allowed to legally carry weapons, and specialising in land predators and malevolent spirits. All in all, life in the HTA was looking pretty good for Awsten Knight.

Until he got his first partner.

Jawn still hasn't woken up yet. The banshee scream he heard, full force, on their fourth hunt together left him in a state of sleeping death, the HTA medical technology not advanced enough to revive him.

Awsten's second partner, Josh, all lean muscles and magically imbued tattoos, ended up in a flock of will-o'-the-wisps two days into hunting down a rogue centaur. He hasn't been seen since. Then there was Austin, partnered with Awsten because the Academy thought it was hilarious watching them introduce themselves - Tall Austin and Tiny Awsten – was lost at the bottom of a lake, either living with the merfolk, or as kelpie chow. Depended on who you asked.

None of it was Awsten's fault. He had a knack for getting out of sticky situations just in time. But, still, he had refused to take on another partner. Awsten became one of the rare Academy graduates who worked alone, basking in his fame with the students and alumni alike; a living legend and cautionary tale combined. He gets assigned to an elite team of Hunters, both solo and partnered, headed by Geoff Wigingotn, the Academy's poster boy for clean hunting, professionalism, and diplomacy with the small sects of peaceful fey.

By the time Awsten turns nineteen, he is the highest-ranking Land Hunter on staff, armed with his signature crossbow, glittering smile, and ever-changing hair colour. And then the werewolf boy shows up. Well, he's not actually a werewolf, but he killed two of them. With a pair of drumsticks, if the rumours are to be believed. Awsten is furious. This boy, who hasn't had any training, just waltzes into the Academy like he owns the fucking place, Geoff singing his praises even though the werewolf boy had made a hole in Geoff's precious car. The car that he doesn't even let Awsten ride in after Awsten had accidentally scratched the paint job on a high-speed goblin chase a few months before.

Everyone thinks the werewolf boy is brilliant. 'Natural talent,' they call him. 'The new generation of Hunters'. And the worst, to Awsten's ears: 'He'll do great things'.

Awsten was supposed to do great things. Even after outliving four partners, they still said that Awsten would do great things. They stopped saying that when the werewolf boy showed up. The new boy, who couldn't even hold a crossbow, never mind loading and shooting one. Who doesn't know the difference between a nixie and a mermaid, who thinks he can kill a vampire with a clove of garlic, who doesn't know that 'Big Foot' is politically incorrect terminology, and who has stolen all of Awsten's glory just because he was stupid to be scared and just lucky enough to have a usable weapon at hand. Any other person, at any other time, would have been werewolf food in thirty seconds flat.