LIRO || completed

• 8.1 •

Even as she jumped from foot to foot, Liro couldn't dispel the energy coursing through her veins. Sick or no, she was standing with the rest of the hunters, awaiting her assignment. Her fingers were filled with a tingling that she had never experienced in a human body before, and all it did was remind her to stay focused.

Her eagerness to make Kier pay couldn't override her sense of logic.

It was plain as day that Kier was to be her partner for the assignment. The Queen must have thought her terribly foolish for her to think the plot would go undiscovered. And the subtle, unreadable glances that Kier kept throwing her way did nothing to quiet her suspicions.

One of them would be wounded tonight. If things escalated too quickly, one would be cold as the ground beneath her boots.

There was no heavy weight in her stomach, or queasiness lurking in every breath she took. Simply a quiet anticipation. Liro knew what was coming. She would be on her guard, and harder to take down.

Impossible to take down, if all of her training paid off.

And the tip about the weapons that Kier had given her the day before? It only aided her in his demise.

Bow and arrow. Throwing knives.

Both were long range weapons, meant to be used in nearly any situation other than close combat. But her knives were sharpened, and Liro had taken some time to practice her hand to hand techniques.

If Kier tried to attack her in close quarters, he wouldn't be prepared for the fury that she threw his way.

"Each group will be hunting a particular game, each one found in a different part of the forest. As suspected, not all of you will be needed," Kier said stonily, his eyes roving over the collection of hunters. A grumble rose up from the crowd. "Though the time that you put in preparing will be noted for next time."

Liro snorted. 

Knowing Kier, chances were that it wouldn't be. Knowing the Queen ... she would use no one but the best, nor anyone that she didn't want terminated effectively. 

Kier listed off pairs of two and three, assigning each group a particular animal. Elk, rabbit, lynx. Liro cringed visibly at the poor hunters who had fallen out of favour; they had not-so-gently been told that they would spend the day sitting by a creek, fishing.

"And Liro and I will be hunting wood bison," Kier finished. A small smirk twisted the edges of his mouth as he found Liro's gaze and held it.

Her heart hammered in her chest. Wood bison?

Forget Kier killing her. That animal would do it for him. Wood bison were strong, a large, powerful animal covered in dark brown fur. Nine hundred kilograms of hardened, dense muscle. She could picture the horns curving back from its forehead breaking her ribs and crushing her bones into fine dust.

"Try and be back by the beginning of nightfall tomorrow. If anyone exceeds Friday, we will presume you dead," Kier said, stepping down from his perch above them all. "Collect your materials and head off as soon as possible. Those hunting larger animals will have access to horses." 

The group burst into action, and Liro took long, powerful strides towards Kier. 

"So you decided that this was the animal you wanted to hunt?" she snarled, folding her arms and staring up at him. She hated that she was tinier than him. She was by no means a short human, and yet still, he seemed to tower over her.

"This was the animal that Her Highness requested," Kier bit back. "Specifically."

"And Her Highness can't eat bread and cheese like the rest of us?"