Short Stories from the Fire Hunter Universe
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The ominous and unmistakable scent of a rotting body made Ran shudder. The forest was home to many living creatures, but it typically smelled like death.
It was dangerous to be in the forest alone, even for Ran. She hated the smell of the forest. She didn’t think that anyone could possibly like it, but she had a special dislike for that smell. She felt nauseous if she stayed in the forest for too long. She had to walk around the edges with Isana until her nerves calmed down so that she could hunt properly.
Ran wasn’t really suited for this kind of work. Her colleagues agreed, but the world could never have enough Fire Hunters. If there was no one else available to do a mission in the forest, Ran would have to go. Isana, her hunting dog, helped to steady her and keep her safe as they went after Fire Fiends and harvested their blood.
This morning, Ran had lost sight of Isana. She had no idea what she was supposed to do. She was not at the fringes of the forest, so she was lost. She didn’t know what kinds of Fire Fiends stalked these woods or their habits.
There were other Fire Hunters on this expedition with her, but she didn’t know where they were, either, or if they were safe now. Her lingering fear turned to numb fatigue as the hours passed. She pressed her back against the trunk of a tree and then climbed it to get off the ground, away from the larger Fire Fiends. She sighed.
Four Fire Hunters plus Ran had joined this hunt from different villages. Those four were all experienced Fire Hunters. Fire Hunters from villages within walking distance of one another often headed south together to hunt in the forest that bordered the sea. This hunt helped new Fire Hunters hone their skills and built comradery between the Fire Hunters who lived in the area. Other expeditions to far-flung places throughout the year also included members of this team.
It was highly unusual for someone as inexperienced as Ran to participate in this training expedition, which required advanced skills and the ability to work together.
Ran hadn’t been greeted warmly by the other Fire Hunters.
“You’re just a kid. Go back to the village and babysit. We don’t need you here.”
That was what they’d said to her face; she didn’t want to think about what they would say behind her back. She’d expected such a reaction to her presence, though, so she ignored all insults and disparagements flung her way. It was obvious that she was the youngest Fire Hunter on this expedition. She’d made it this far because she wanted to learn. Without a Fire Hunter to protect it and provide fire fuel, her village would suffer.
Ran had gotten separated from the others when they’d been attacked by a group of Fire Fiends. They’d been wolf-shaped monsters. Some of them were probably still lurking in the forest, tracking her and the other Fire Hunters.
Whenever Fire Hunters got separated from their companions, they were supposed to signal each other with a whistle or mark tree trunks to let each other know of their presence. But the Fire Fiends might still be nearby, so sending signals would be dangerous now. Ran raised her knife to mark a tree’s bark, but then she hesitated.
She’d wandered around this area for quite a while before climbing this tree. She’d searched for Isana first, but her hunting dog had vanished without a trace. She worried that the other Fire Hunters were dead. She hadn’t found any blood or any weapons or belongings left behind in the forest. She’d found only one dead Fire Fiend so far. Its throat had been slit open.
The more Ran thought about it, the more she believed that the other Fire Hunters had left her behind on purpose. She was just a burden. When their camp had been surrounded by Fire Fiends, she’d done little to help. Her eyes had adjusted to the forest’s low light, so she’d managed to shoot the Fire Fiend directly in front of her with an arrow. But that was only one Fire Fiend. She hadn’t had the presence of mind to check on the other Fire Hunters. There had been ten or maybe fifteen Fire Fiends. She’d heard screams and shouts and dogs barking. Sickles slashed throats.
Ran had fled before the battle was over, terrified. She’d lost track of everyone, including her hunting dog. Even if a Fire Fiend didn’t find her and kill her, she would die of dehydration or exposure before too long. She didn’t know where the nearest Tree People settlement was. The other Fire Fiends had probably packed up and moved their camp by now if they were still alive. She wondered if they were better off without her. They probably were. No one had wanted a fourteen-year-old to join the expedition. They had called her a child who got drunk on forest air. They’d made fun of her scrawny arms and legs. There’d been no end to their mockery.
No one else in Ran’s village wanted to be a Fire Hunter. The village couldn’t get all the fire fuel they needed from trading with the black carts, so someone needed to go out into the forest and get fire fuel.
If only it hadn’t been such a gruesome death, Ran thought grimly.
The last Fire Hunter in her village had died in such a horrible way that no one had wanted to take his place. Everyone feared death. Ran feared it, too, but she knew that someone needed to be a Fire Hunter for the sake of the village. The only adult dog in the village was Isana, who’d always been close to Ran, so it had made sense to Ran to try her hand at being a Fire Hunter.
A sharp cry echoed in the forest ahead of her. She couldn’t identify the sound. Isana was better at knowing her way around the forest. Ran knew that if she stayed put, her food would run out, so she had to keep moving. She didn’t want to die of starvation or from a Fire Fiend attack. She needed to find Isana no matter what.
Moving silently as her inadequate training allowed, Ran climbed down the slimy tree and started walking. She hoped that someone would take care of her mother if she never returned home.
***
The sky was almost invisible, covered by black branches and leaves. It was already night. The unending rows of trees cast deep shadows. Ran breathed in the darkness.
It had been almost a full day since the Fire Hunters’ camp had been attacked. Ran moved through the forest in a widening circle, searching for signs of life. She was hoping to find Isana or some trace of the other Fire Hunters.
Isana had a head start. She might be so far away now that Ran would never catch up. It was possible that Isana had fled in a panic. The dog shared Ran’s temperament and could be easily frightened.
Ran felt pathetic. She was wasting time, but she didn’t have any better ideas for where to look for her dog. The terrain in this part of the forest was much more rugged than the gentle sloping hills around her village. She climbed over rocky areas and up cliffs, crawling forward on her hands and knees as often as not. The undergrowth was dense here. Walking at a sedate pace in such an environment wore her out quickly.
The sea should be nearby. Ran didn’t think she’d traveled so far that it was out of range, but she couldn’t catch a glimpse of it in any direction. She hadn’t seen the sea up close before, so maybe she just didn’t know enough about what it looked like to search for it successfully. She ate only one of her portable meals—dried figs. She wasn’t very hungry because she was so nervous, but she knew that she had to eat something.
Her mother had told Ran that she had a good nose, just like a dog’s. That was why she got dizzy so easily in the forest. She’d encouraged Ran to take Isana and try to become a Fire Hunter. Her mother still worried, of course. She was as afraid of the forest as anyone. In the past, villagers had bought all of their fire fuel from black carts that the capital sent out once a year, but now the black carts didn’t carry enough fire fuel for everyone’s needs. The villagers needed to provide at least some of their own fire fuel.
Ran heard insects and lizards crawling. Night birds chirped. If she didn’t return, would her mother be blamed for encouraging her? She could imagine their neighbors saying things like, “How could such a young girl possibly handle being a Fire Hunter?” or “That’s why I told you not to let her go.”
No, Ran thought. If I stay gone, they’ll be relieved. Her death would mean that the village didn’t have to try to produce its own Fire Hunter anymore. They could send a petition to the capital and get a new Fire Hunter assigned to the village.
It made Ran angry to think like that. She couldn’t forgive herself for not being good enough. She’d taken a risk because someone had to. The village couldn’t survive without a Fire Hunter. Someone had to wield the sickle. She didn’t want to see another gruesome death like the Fire Hunter’s, and she didn’t want to see the people in her village suffer.
Some people in Ran’s village grumbled about this way of doing things. Villages had to collect some of their own fire fuel because the King of the Fire Hunters said so. The King of the Fire Hunters loved hunting, so she forced people to hunt Fire Fiends in the forest.
Ran fell several times as the twisted roots of the trees tripped her. It was the beginning of autumn. The air in the sunless forest was chilly during the day and cold at night. Her straw sandals were damaged by the rough terrain and her falls.
It was dark now. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness somewhat, but she needed at least a little bit of light to see. Her other senses were unreliable. Isana’s senses were much better than hers. Surviving alone in the forest at night was unthinkable.
Twigs snapped under Ran’s feet. She was making far too much noise. Fire Fiends would find her if she kept this up. Her heart was in her throat. She was out of breath and sweating. She found her footing in the space between two roots and stood very still. She hoped the Fire Fiends couldn’t smell her fear. They might already know where she was.
When Ran moved again, she did it slower and more quietly. She couldn’t stop moving completely until she found Isana.
The next stick that snapped in the stillness was not broken by Ran, but something else. Her whole body tingled with alarm. She heard breathing—panting. She looked around herself with her fingers wrapped around the handle of her sickle.
The Fire Fiend locked eyes with Ran in the dark. There was more than one. They were shaped like wolves, the same kind of Fire Fiends that had made her run away from the Fire Hunters’ camp. More sets of eyes found her in the dark: two, three, four.
Ran unsheathed her sickle. She was going to die here, but she would fight. She was surrounded. She’d never had any chance of surviving in this forest alone.
There was no blood on any of the Fire Fiends that she could see or smell. Maybe that meant that the other Fire Hunters weren’t injured. She hoped that was the case. She wanted Isana and the others to escape. The Fire Fiends should kill her; she was the weakest and least experienced. The others should be fine.
As her nausea threatened to overwhelm her, Ran found her courage. “Come at me, you failed dogs!” she snarled. Then she spun and counted the eyes on her.
There were at least ten wolf-shaped Fire Fiends surrounding Ran. She gripped her sickle tightly. Killing ten was out of the question, but she could start by killing one. Maybe she would be lucky.
Before the monsters could charge at Ran, she saw a sudden flash of golden light. A sickle had cut down a Fire Fiend.
The other Fire Fiends barked and tensed up as they sensed another threat.
Light like thorns or brambles ran along the earth, blowing away several Fire Fiends. The Fire Fiends shrieked in dismay as another of their number dropped lifeless to the ground.
Ran looked around at the circle of wolf-shaped Fire Fiends and noticed far fewer eyes than before. She let go of her sickle and picked up her bow. She saw Fire Fiends moving toward their killer in the dark and managed to shoot one through the eye before it could leap on her rescuer. She had another arrow nocked before the Fire Fiend hit the ground.
Five Fire Fiends left—at least that she could see. Someone was killing them all with a sickle. She didn’t think about who it was. She shot as many Fire Fiends as she could, using the glowing blood of the fallen Fire Fiends to find the ones that were still moving. She kept sending her arrows flying toward red eyes in the darkness as golden arcs of Fire Fiend blood lit her surroundings.
“Behind you!” a voice called out.
Ran turned and caught sight of a Fire Fiend leaping down from above. It was too close. She couldn’t bring it down with an arrow. She let go of her bow and fumbled for her sickle. It got stuck when she tried to draw it out of its sheath. She should have gone for her dagger instead.
The Fire Fiend lunged for her leg.
Ran closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her leg might be done for, but she could still use her hands. She tried to free her sickle from its sheath again. When she opened her eyes, her vision flickered chaotically. She was in a panic and forgot how to move. Golden fire fuel lit her surroundings somewhat. Her sickle tore free of the sheath and slashed down.
Ran’s aim was poor—she’d barely bothered to aim at all—so the tip of the sickle merely slashed the Fire Fiend’s forehead. The tip remained lodged in the head, just barely missing a vital spot.
The Fire Fiend thrashed violently once, shaking its head. It pulled Ran down to the ground. Ran kept her sickle in the wound as the Fire Fiend continued to convulse. It died slowly with both of them on the ground.
Ran collapsed on her elbows and vomited. The smell of the forest made her even sicker than normal. She felt like she was about to pass out. But she couldn’t do that. She had to stand up and fight or she would die. Her whole body was numb and wouldn’t obey her.
“It’s all right now,” the voice from before said. “The Fire Fiends are all dead.”
Ran heard straw sandals whispering over leaves on the ground.
***
“How reckless.” A woman reached out to Ran and offered her a bamboo flask.
Ran accepted the flask silently and drank all of the water inside. She was so dizzy and sick, but water helped. She traveled with the woman through the forest until dawn. The woman seemed to know her way around. They stopped in a clearing for a short rest. The woman produced a lantern so that they could have a little more light.
“Is it really okay to light that here?” Ran asked quietly.
The woman was also a Fire Hunter. A sickle hung from her waist. She sat cross-legged across from her lantern. “It’s fine,” she said. “I have a scent pouch I bought from the Tree People. Fire Fiends will avoid us for awhile. You need to rest and eat something. Sit down.”
In the light of the lantern, Ran saw that the woman’s hair was completely white. She wore typical Fire Hunter armor that was in good repair. Her posture was perfectly straight. Both men and women could be Fire Hunters, but it was rare for women to take on the occupation. Ran had never met a woman Fire Hunter who was this old before. She was certainly older than forty. She might be older than fifty. Wrinkles lined the corners of her eyes and her skin was as dry as cracked wood. It was hard to believe that she’d slaughtered a dozen or more Fire Fiends by herself.
“Are you a wandering Fire Hunter?” the woman asked. “Why were you alone in the place like that? This part of the forest is dangerous.”
“I was part of a team,” Ran said. “We were on a training expedition, but I got separated from everyone else after our camp was attacked by Fire Fiends.”
The woman nodded in understanding. She placed a large pouch down beside her that was full of fire fuel. She must have harvested some of her kills earlier, though Ran didn’t remember that. She hadn’t even thought about gathering fire fuel for herself.
“Where’s your dog?” the woman asked.
Ran buried her face in her knees. She’d feared that the Fire Fiend that had attacked her would gore her legs, but she was uninjured. Collapsing to her elbows after the battle had bruised her arms slightly, but that was all. She slowly shook her head.
“You don’t have a dog, either,” Ran said. “Do you?”
The woman laughed. “You’re cheeky. And your eyes are poor. I do have a dog; I just didn’t bring her with me.”
“You can be a Fire Hunter without a dog?” Ran asked.
“Sure,” the woman said. “It’s harder, but not impossible.” She slid some arrows over to Ran. They’d been cleaned. She must have retrieved the arrows from the Fire Fiends she’d shot.
“I used to have two hunting dogs,” the woman said. “That was an interesting time. But they died, and I never brought another dog with me. Did you lose your dog, or do you think it’s with your team?”
Ran accepted the arrows. She almost glared at the Fire Hunter, but that would be extremely rude. Her tawny eyes glimmered in the faint light.
“I don’t know, but I don’t think she would go with those assholes. Not unless they dragged her along on a leash. I have to bring her back. She’s related to my mom’s beloved dog, so I can’t just leave her.”
“Is your mother a Fire Hunter, too?”
Ran shook her head. Her battered elbows burned. “No way. It’s really hard to be a Fire Hunter. Our village’s last one had his face eaten off by Fire Fiends. It was summer, so by the time someone found his body and brought him back to the village he was rotting and covered in maggots. They cleaned him up before they buried him, but he barely even looked like a person anymore. People said he’d been possessed by the Fire Fiends. They said he’d been cursed. Who would want something so awful to happen to them?”
Agitated and angry, Ran stood up.
The woman smiled. “But you chose to be a Fire Hunter anyway.” Her sharp eyes settled on Ran. They were curious, not angry.
Ran bit her lip. She wrapped one hand around the bundle of retrieved arrows and squeezed. The woman felt powerful. Overwhelmingly so.
“You’ve got some talent with the bow,” the woman said. “Most Fire Hunters don’t have that skill. I’ll have a good story to bring back home.” She asked Ran to sit down again. “You need to rest and recover your strength. I’m sure your dog is looking for you. You don’t want to collapse while you’re searching for her.”
The woman offered some dried meat to Ran.
Ran sat down again and ate.
“In the bad old days, the only weapon Fire Hunters got was the sickle,” the woman said. “One of the Guardian Gods, Princess Tokohana, forged all the Fire Hunters’ sickles in her heart’s blood. She killed herself to give us these weapons. The one you have isn’t one of hers, though. I can tell. The newer sickles are forged with lightning fuel in the capital. That happened when we needed to increase the number of Fire Hunters drastically. Fire Hunters started being encouraged to use other weapons then, too. Arrowheads made of the right kind of metal and forged the right way can kill Fire Fiends just as well as a sickle’s edge. I used to hunt with just a sickle myself, but my old bones can’t handle that anymore. I blew up a few of those Fire Fiends with one of my tools. It also uses lightning fuel to function.”
The woman took a silver sphere from her pocket.
Ran wondered if that was lightning fuel. She’d seen plenty of fire fuel, but lightning fuel was even more powerful and volatile. She’d never thought she’d see the real thing.
“Was the Fire Hunter who died your father?” the woman asked.
Ran couldn’t stand the pity in her eyes. She scoffed. “Of course not. But that doesn’t mean anything. He was still a person that the village needed. A lot of people cared about him. It doesn’t matter that we weren’t related by blood.”
The woman chuckled. “You’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry. You’re so touchy.”
Ran pouted and then looked down. “I’m sorry, too. Mom struggles to talk a lot, and she can barely see. If I don’t speak up for her, no one notices her. She just sits quietly in a corner.” Ran shrugged.
“What does your village make?” the woman asked.
“Paper.”
The dark forest around them felt more oppressive all of a sudden. The woman was staring at her, silent, surprised.
“Your mother. Is Touko her name?” the woman asked. Her light-colored eyes glimmered in the dim forest.
Ran frowned. How would this woman know her mother? That seemed impossible. She hadn’t introduced herself, and neither had the woman.
The woman looked up and muttered a few words to herself. Then she laughed.
Ran was dumbfounded.
The woman turned her amber eyes on Ran. “So Isana is one of Kanata’s pups or grandpups?”
“How do you know that?” Ran asked.
Kanata had been her mother’s dog. Three generations of dogs had passed since his time. He’d been a Fire Hunter’s dog, but he’d retired from that work after his Fire Hunter died. Touko, Ran’s mother, was not a Fire Hunter, but Kanata had never left her side. After Ran had been born, Kanata had watched over her for a time, and then his pups had some the same. Isana had inherited Kanata’s pointed ears, gray fur, and deep brown eyes.
The Fire Hunter laughed again. “Your mother gave me her throne. That’s how I know.”
“Your throne?” Ran asked, puzzled.
There was only one throne worth mentioning: the King of the Fire Hunters’ throne. The King of the Fire Hunters lived in the capital and ruled over all the people. The position had real weight to it, but it was also ceremonial—no one could be everywhere at once. Most business done in the King of the Fire Hunters’ name was conducted by representatives and intermediaries.
Was this old woman the King of the Fire Hunters? No way.
Ignoring Ran’s astonishment, the woman wiped away tears of laughter with her fingers. “Technically, I’m still doing my job. If someone dies, it’s my responsibility. But then, how am I supposed to atone for that? No matter how many lives I save, it would never be enough to make up for a single death. It’s been a long time, but I still can’t guarantee people’s safety. I’m like a dog—I can only think about what’s right in front of me, so I’ve decided to do whatever I can while I’m still alive. Coming here is part of my work, too. I heard a big one might show up around here.”
“A big one?” Ran asked. She wasn’t able to follow everything the old woman was saying. She hadn’t heard anything about a particularly dangerous Fire Fiend from the other Fire Hunters on the expedition with her, either. The woman sitting across from Ran seemed friendly, but Ran still didn’t totally trust her. She was powerful and knew things that others didn’t.
“I’ve heard that there’s a mutated Fire Fiend around here. If we don’t hunt it, it could cause a lot of trouble.”
***
There were still a few hours before dawn. Ran followed the woman through the forest, following her lead as if she were really the King of the Fire Hunters. They weren’t using a lantern now. Ran’s eyes gradually adjusted to the forest around them. She could smell the Fire Hunter and the oily slick scent of the trees.
The woman had introduced herself at last: her name was Akira. If she was really the King of the Fire Hunters, then she must have come from the capital. The capital was an industrial hub full of factories. The King of the Fire Hunters had deposed the Guardian Gods who’d once ruled over everything. To become the King of the Fire Hunters, Akira would have needed to hunt the Millennium Comet, which held natural fire within its core. Before the King of the Fire Hunters came to power, all of the barriers around the city and the villages had been powered by Guardian Gods. The King of the Fire Hunters had replaced those power sources with new ones that relied on lightning fuel.
It was hard for Ran to believe that Akira was really the King of the Fire Hunters. Shouldn’t the King of the Fire Hunters be in the capital? This was the middle of nowhere. The fact that Akira didn’t have a dog with her made Ran suspicious.
The forest was dark even in the daytime. They kept moving. Akira wanted to hunt “the big one,” whatever it was. She’d told Ran to accompany her on this hunt. After they dealt with the Fire Fiend, Akira would help Ran find her dog.
“You make too much noise when you walk,” Akira whispered. “Step more lightly.” She walked ahead, never looking back. She walked much faster than Ran despite her age.
Ran had never learned to step lightly. She was only fourteen and short for her age, so she usually moved fairly quietly. That wouldn’t be true as she grew, though. She did her best to copy Akira’s movements as they started climbing up a hill. Water trickled down an exposed rock face that appeared immediately to their right, like a wall.
“Why didn’t my mom become a Fire Hunter?” Ran whispered as she erased her tracks with cool mud. Kanata had been a Fire Hunter’s dog. Ran knew that her mother owed a debt to the Fire Hunter, but she didn’t know much more.
Akira shrugged. “In the old days, villagers were never Fire Hunters. But Touko still wielded a sickle a fair few times. She even brought down a Fallen Beast once.”
Ran’s jaw dropped. “Really? A Fallen Beast?” Was Akira messing with her? Fallen Beasts were flying Fire Fiends that lived in the mountains north of the capital. Even the most skilled Fire Hunters struggled to bring them down. How had her mother killed one? She could barely see and often went days without saying a single word.
“I became the King of the Fire Hunters because Touko didn’t want to be,” Akira said. “Sometimes I wonder if she made the right choice. I’ve failed as much as I’ve succeeded. I thought I might go insane many times. I thought only people as eccentric as the Guardian Gods could handle this job.” She smiled faintly. She spoke slowly and deliberately like she was remembering something.
“I still prefer the forest. Every time I come out here, I’m afraid to go back to the capital. I’m an idiot, but I’m not always stupid. I know that a lot of lives are depending on me. In the old days, there was always one hunting dog with a bad leg waiting for me in the capital. That dog kept me tied to this work until the end of her life.”
Ran remembered that Akira had told her she’d had two hunting dogs, but both were dead now.
“It’s about time for me to retire,” Akira said. “My successor is capable enough, after all. I’d like to end my career by hunting a few more dangerous Fire Fiends.” As she spoke, she unsheathed her sickle.
Ran saw a low cliff ahead. She and Akira were walking along the top of another cliff. It seemed that their prey was lurking below them.
Akira signaled to Ran to look down.
Ran looked.
For a moment, she thought she was looking at shadows cast by the trees. The blackness was too vast to be a creature. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as she noticed the eyes, the mouth, the enormous head. The beast had four legs and bristly black fur. Its long tail curled behind it, kept close to its body so that it wouldn’t get tangled in the trees.
Was it a mountain lion, or perhaps a monkey-shaped Fire Fiend? Ran couldn’t tell. The beast was massive. She’d never seen a Fire Fiend so huge. She wondered if the Fire Fiend could sense their presence. If Fallen Beasts were bigger than this creature, she didn’t ever want to see one in person. Her instincts screamed at her to run.
What had Akira said about this Fire Fiend? That it was a mutant of some kind? Cold sweat broke out on Ran’s forehead.
Akira poked Ran’s shoulder, pointed at the bow, and then gestured to the ground at their feet. She was telling Ran to stay here and shoot the Fire Fiend with arrows.
Ran shook her head. Her arrows were small. She couldn’t bring down such a creature with only arrows.
Akira leaned close to Ran and smiled in the darkness. “Cover me,” she whispered. Then she threw a silver sphere from her pocket down to the ground and scrambled over the edge of the cliff.
Before Akira landed, the sphere exploded in a flash of light. The Fire Fiend groaned in agitation and covered its eyes.
The groan changed to a roar that shook Ran’s courage.
Akira landed right in front of the Fire Fiend, cushioning the impact of the fall by bending her knees. As she stood up, the enormity of the Fire Fiend standing before her was all the more striking. Akira readied her sickle and charged at the monster.
Ran nocked an arrow, but her hands were sweating too much for her to fire accurately. She held her breath and tried to calm herself. She knew what she was looking at, but a Fire Fiend this size should not be real. If she messed up here, she would die. Akira would die. That much, she understood.
The Fire Fiend lumbered forward, its movements disturbing the forest air. It twisted its body to dodge Akira’s sickle and stretched out one foreleg in an attempt to trip the two-legged intruder. Even from the top of the cliff, Ran had no trouble seeing the claws at the ends of its paws.
Akira rolled. The claws missed her. Akira sprang up and tossed another silver sphere at the Fire Fiend. Light exploded at the Fire Fiend’s feet, provoking another earth-shattering roar. Akira hauled herself up by the Fire Fiend’s fur and climbed onto its back. She intended to drive her sickle into the monster’s spine.
Ran could do nothing to help her from here. She only watched. Sweat made her palms wet. Soon this hunt would be over. She swallowed heavily.
Before Akira could make the finishing blow, the Fire Fiend uncurled its tail and used it to swipe Akira off its back. The Fire Fiend’s eyes searched the cliff and found Ran.
Ran froze. Akira must be in the forest nearby. She needed to buy time. She shot an arrow in between the eyes of the huge Fire Fiend. The beast swerved and the arrow grazed its ear.
“Over here, come over here!” Ran shouted.
The Fire Fiend was irritated by Ran’s shouting. It bared its fangs at her and growled.
Ran reached for her next arrow with her right hand as the Fire Fiend sprang up, running into the trees for cover. Dead leaves and clods of earth scattered everywhere.
Then the Fire Fiend jumped.
Ran ran along the edge of the cliff as fast as she could go.
When the Fire Fiend landed, it was right where Ran would have been if she’d stayed still. Fear choked her. Now that she could see the Fire Fiend clearly, she could tell that it was a monstrously huge mutated mountain lion. Its hide stretched over its frame with difficulty. Ran saw many cracks and bumps on its skin.
Beneath the fissures on the surface of its skin, the Fire Fiend’s body glowed red. That was not blood. Fire fuel was golden.
Red meant fire.
Ran wasn’t sure if she was looking at wounds that Akira had inflicted. This might be a side effect of the Fire Fiend’s mutation, for all she knew. She didn’t have time to understand what she was seeing right now. She kept running, pausing briefly to turn back and fire another arrow. She was out of range. That was good. She ran faster.
As she reached a place where the cliff curved, Ran turned back and shot another arrow at the Fire Fiend’s eye. She hadn’t seen Akira in awhile. The older woman might be injured. She couldn’t leave Akira behind. She was terrified for herself, but she knew that she’d never give up on saving someone else.
Her arrow flew straight and true, but the Fire Fiend’s tail flicked it out of the air. The Fire Fiend’s tail was like a giant serpent. It snaked its tail around Ran’s leg and lifted her up.
Ran was upside-down in midair. Her vision blurred. She saw the Fire Fiend’s jaws open wide. She should shoot an arrow into its mouth, but that was hard to figure out while she was upside-down and moving. Fear paralyzed her. Her hands might be broken.
She was going to be eaten.
Ran didn’t close her eyes. She watched the Fire Fiend’s fangs and tongue get closer and closer to her. Just before the Fire Fiend’s jaws closed on her, the Fire Fiend snapped at something else.
A dog.
With a ground-shaking growl, the Fire Fiend wrinkled its snout and turned its hostility toward the dog. The tail let go of Ran; she fell and rolled.
Isana had sunk her teeth into the huge Fire Fiend’s neck. The Fire Fiend writhed and thrashed, but Isana wouldn’t let go.
Ran’s bow was below her on the ground. She picked it up and got to her feet. The Fire Fiend’s tail swished over her head, making her duck.
“Don’t move!” Akira called out. She leaped toward Ran from above, carrying her sickle directly in front of her. “Stand back, Isana!” she commanded Ran’s dog.
Isana obeyed.
Akira’s sickle traced a perfect arc as it slammed into the back of the Fire Fiend’s skull. Golden liquid scattered in all directions.
The Fire Fiend stubbornly refused to die. It glared ferociously at Ran and stood up on its hind legs. Akira held on tight, smiling in triumph.
Ran was almost as scared of Akira as she was of the Fire Fiend. Akira seemed to be enjoying this battle. She was too familiar with Fire Fiends and the forest. It was almost like she was a Fire Fiend wearing human skin.
Akira swung her sickle at the giant Fire Fiend again, but the Fire Fiend’s rampage made it difficult for her to cut the beast deeply.
Isana had retreated to a safe distance. Ran made sure that the dog was out of the way as she dodged the Fire Fiend’s tail and nocked another arrow. She released the arrow in haste, but she was lucky this time. The tip of the arrow struck the enraged Fire Fiend’s forehead.
The Fire Fiend collapsed with a pained cry. It clawed at the earth with all four legs, stirring up decayed leaves and sticky gray earth. With one last gasp, the huge Fire Fiend finally died.
Ran gulped. Usually the deaths of Fire Fiends were quick unless someone inexperienced like her missed hitting a vital spot. She’d never seen a Fire Fiend die an agonized death like this before.
Isana licked her cheeks. Ran had fallen over without realizing it. Isana wasn’t much older than a puppy. She was very excited to see Ran again.
“Good dog. Just like Kanata,” Akira said. Her bag of harvested fire fuel was full almost to bursting.
Ran remembered to breathe. She bowed her head and wiped away tears.
***
Waves lapped against the shore. The sound was soothing and repetitive.
Ran and Akira had reached the edge of the Black Forest. They rested by the shore of the sea. Smooth gray rocks were lined up along the shoreline. Ran had never seen the sea before. The expanse of water left her speechless. It wasn’t like a river or a fountain at all. Waves came in and tickled her feet, but the surface of the water appeared almost perfectly smooth like polished glass.
“Is this your first time seeing this?” Akira asked.
Ran nodded.
Isana wasn’t injured. She wagged her tail happily whenever Akira or Ran came closer to her. When Ran gave her dried meat to eat, she devoured it without chewing. Isana had been searching for her from the moment they’d gotten separated. She had gray fur like Kanata, but her curly tail was more like her mother’s.
Ran petted Isana as much as the dog wanted, which was a lot. Her fur was filthy from her solo travels through the forest.
Neither Ran nor Akira had any serious injuries. They were as filthy as the dog and thoroughly disheveled, but they were all right. Akira had patted Ran on the head and given her praise, and then she’d done the same thing to Isana.
After that, Akira had given Ran a flask of water. She’d helped her wash her face and tie her hair back neatly. Now they were resting on the shore of the sea. She forgot to thank Akira for taking care of her because the sea was stunning and she was still terrified from the battle with the giant Fire Fiend.
“Why is the world like this?” Ran asked as she chewed on a ration. The ocean breeze made it easier to breathe.
Akira frowned slightly.
“We almost died,” Ran said. “We kill and we kill because otherwise the Fire Fiends will kill us. Is this what life is going to be like from now on? Why?”
Maybe the rumors that Ran had heard about the King of the Fire Hunters were correct. The King of the Fire Hunters loved hunting, so she wanted other people to do it, too. Was that why every village needed at least one of its own Fire Hunters now?
Isana whined because Ran looked unhappy.
“There’s no other way right now,” Akira said. “There was a way of curing the human spontaneous combustion pathogen, but it wouldn’t have saved everyone. And the pathogen spreads too quickly.” Akira sounded calm.
Ran had never stopped being scared of Akira.
“The Guardian Gods weren’t working towards a cure or a change. All I did was wrest power away from them. All I’ve done since then is make sure that humans keep what I’ve gained. If the King of the Fire Hunters had been someone else, or if the Guardian Gods still ruled, the world would be different. Better or worse, it’s hard to say. But the Black Forest was not a human creation. The Guardian Gods made it and created many of the systems we use. A Black Forest maintained by humans is always going to be imperfect. It’s chaotic.”
Waves lapped against the gray stones. Wind blew over the forest’s decaying trees.
“My successor is not a human or a Guardian God,” Akira said. “He’s a Spider. His people were immune to the spontaneous combustion pathogen—all except him. He’s learned a lot in the capital and the Black Forest. He knows more than I do. I hope he’ll do better than I have.”
Isana tensed and then looked out at the sea.
Ran saw white bubbles blooming like flowers on the water. The bubbles increased in number, drawing spirals as they went. Several whirlpools danced on the sea’s surface. It was almost sunrise, the gray water changing to gold along the horizon line.
Ran leaned forward as something black emerged from the water. The bubbles popped and did not reappear.
Isana barked vigorously and wagged her tail.
The first black creature was followed by another and then another. Dozens of the creatures rose above the sea’s surface before diving back down. Ran didn’t think they were fish. They were far too large, and they didn’t have fish eyes. Their eyes didn’t burn like those of Fire Fiends, either.
Smooth, wing-shaped fins struck the water loudly, scattering a spray of tiny droplets on the shore. The creatures’ movements made the waves rise higher.
Akira’s hair blew loose in the wind. It was almost completely white, but a few strands of red shone in the morning sun.
“Those are whales,” Akira said as the whirlpools that the creatures had created spun into the waves. “We’re hunting here, but they’re migrating away for the season.” She sounded like an excited child.
Ran forgot that she was afraid of Akira for a moment. “Whales?” she asked. “What are they? They don’t look like Fire Fiends.”
“They’re not.”
Sea spray landed on Ran’s face as the whales flapped their fins.
Isana barked at the whirlpools and spun in place, delighted. Maybe Isana was speaking to the whales. She didn’t seem scared at all.
“Whales are creatures from the old world,” Akira said. “They haven’t changed much since then.”
Ran took a step closer to Isana. The whales had already disappeared underwater, and countless white flowers of foam bloomed on the surface, drawing innumerable whirlpools.
“Whales aren’t the only creatures who survived from the old world,” Akira said. “There are places beyond the Black Forest where many kinds of life survived. The Black Forest is not all there is in this world.”
Isana licked her own nose, stuck out her tongue, and then turned to face Ran. She gave Ran a puppyish smile.
“The world changes,” Akira said. “Maybe someday, no one will need Fire Hunters anymore. Or maybe people will always need them. It’s hard to say. The only constant is change.”
Akira slung two full pouches over her shoulder and then stood up. “Shall we go?”
Ran blinked at the cheerful Fire Hunter. “W-where to?”
“We found the dog, but you got separated from your companions, right? A mark on a tree near where we hunted the big one pointed this way. That’s why we came here, but it looks like they’ve already moved on. We’ll find the others, and after that, we’ll go to your village.”
Ran opened her eyes even wider. She hadn’t noticed the mark on the tree at all. She’d just assumed that the other Fire Hunters on the expedition had abandoned her.
Isana wagged her tail as she passed between the two Fire Hunters.
“To the village… for what?” Ran asked.
Akira laughed lightly. “I owe Touko a visit. I also need to apologize to her for putting you in danger.” She walked into the Black Forest with a spring in her step. Seeing her so nonchalant and cheerful in this place of darkness and death made Ran feel frustrated.
“You don’t need to apologize,” Ran grumbled. “We were just doing our jobs. My mom doesn’t say much, but she’s scary when she’s angry.”
“I know,” Akira said. She sounded wistful.
Isana barked once at Ran, who had frozen to the spot. The dog wanted to go home. They should go. Ran nodded at her, gripped her bow tight and then followed after Akira.
The whales of the sea sang behind her as she left.
Ran and Isana walked side-by-side through the warped Black Forest. She looked back at the sea once and said a little prayer for the whales’ safety. Like them, she was a traveler and a hunter. She asked the stars to guide them home.
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