Chapter Fifteen

  The Final Test

  Cailean was strapping his chain mail on after a solid night’s sleep. The small huts hearth had gone out the night before and the mark of the cold winter’s morning came with every exhale of steam coming from Cailean’s breath as he prepared for the hunt. He Got in his boots and strapped his buckler to his arm as Gwen stirred awake. Cailean looked over and saw her coming too as she bunched herself in the light covers of the bed.

  “You’re already up?” She said, pushing herself up.

  “You heard Duncan, we have a hunt to go on,” Cailean walked across the small room and retrieved his sword, “Are you going to be okay here alone, might be gone a while, at least till mid-day,” Cailean’s voice was low, changed. He had been training for over a month under Duncan. He seemed changed, in the way he walked, drank, and ate. How he carried his shoulders a bit higher and walked around with his backbone a bit straighter. Gwendolyn was noticing many changed things about Cailean lately.

  She got up from the bed and followed him as he left the room, reaching up to put her hand on his shoulder, “Did you get enough rest? Duncan really worked you over yesterday, are you sure you’re up to form?”

  “Winter doesn’t wait for us to rest, we rest while we can,” Cailean reached up and rested his hand on Gwen’s, turning to face her, holding her hand in his. “I’ll be fine, I’m hunting with the great Duncan Hightower,” he smiled. Gwen paused for a second, thinking at the moment that this was the widest she had seen him smile in their time together. Seeing him smile made a smile come across her own lips, “Stay safe, Winter Hunter,” she raised her eyebrows

  “Till the spring is found,” Cailean took her other hand, running his thumbs over her fingers. They felt so warm in his hands. He didn’t know if it was because of her fabled Sun Blood, or simply because it was Gwen.

  She smiled, leaned up, and gave him a gentle peck on the cheek.

  “Gwen, I,” Cailean searched for the words as he looked into her eyes.

  She raised a finger to his mouth and smiled, “Later, after the spring comes,” she said. Cailean looked into her eyes, those beautiful auburn eyes, not brown like grain or barley but a shade complete and unique in its own way. She caressed Cailean's cheek, “After the spring comes,” Cailean nodded in agreement.

  “Enough comforts and finding your own warmth in this dread winter for now young Winter Hunter,” Duncan interrupted the two of them. He was clad in his grey and dingy cloak. His bronze long sword hanging on his belt.

  “Yes, master,” Cailean bowed his head, left Gwen, and followed Duncan out of the hovel. The night had seen the most snowfall of the season. The white powder crunched under Cailean’s boots as he followed the legendary hunter away from his home and into the woods. “Just a morning hunt, young Winter Hunter,” he said, “There's been an Ursaling Matriarch stalking me these past three winters, can’t wander too far from the homestead less she smells me,” he said, leading Cailean deeper into the woods.

  “A Matriarch, the largest breed of that species, foot-long snout, arms like tree trunks, can run a length in a second, jump three if it needs to,” Cailean rambled off every fact he knew about this monster that he hoped to never have to face.

  “What’d I tell you about relying too much on your book learning?” Duncan said as he took a knee and wiped away some snow, “See here boy, tracks, we’re in her territory,” he got back up and drew his sword, the blade ringing as he pulled it out, and Cailean’s ringing just the same as he followed suit. “Is it close?” Cailean asked, looking around, through the faint falling snow, the steam of his breath, and the white trunks of the birch trees.

  “You tell me,” Duncan said, stepping back to Cailean, “Stop looking for it, close your eyes, use your senses, your training,” he ordered.

  Cailean took a slow breath, let his eyelids fall, and concentrated, he reached his free hand out, the hairs on his neck stood, and his ears piqued. “I, think I can sense it,” he focused, used his training, his senses, and in a flash in his mind he saw the great creature. Larger than any bear by at least one and a half times. A foot-long snout with teeth as sharp as newly forged steel daggers. Cailean’s eyes shot open, “It’s big, it’s bigger than any Ursaling I’ve ever even read about,” he turned to Duncan, “Are you sure we can kill it?”

  “We?” Duncan laughed, “We aren’t going to do anything, this is your hunt boy, you take the lead, you get the kill, and that will be the end of your training,” Duncan smiled.

  “You’re not going to help, sir, I appreciate all the training and I feel my skills have come a long way, they really have, but before I met you I only had one monster kill under my belt. Maybe I could take a fledgling Ursaling, even a grown one if I had a troupe with me, but you’re going to help, right? We’re going to kill it together, right? You’ve guided me, you’ve taught me, if I’m worthy of being a Winter Hunter I’m only that way thanks to you,” Cailean looked to Duncan, and the old master just laughed.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “What kind of Winter Hunter do you think yourself boy? You would go on a hunt and ask an old crippled man, with his old bones and his worn muscles for help?” Duncan approached Cailean standing over him, he was so tall, just as tall as the legends said he was. He rested his hand on his student’s shoulder, “Focus, use what I have taught you, use your training, for the spring,” he said, “For your sun-kissed Gwendolyn, prove you’re the Winter Hunter she needs, the one she can rely on. Now, are you man enough to find the spring or not?” he asked.

  Cailean was taking paced breaths, steam coming from his nose. “I am a Winter Hunter,” Cailean said, tilting his chin to look his tutor in the eye, “I have sword and shield against threats so old, against threats without names,” Duncan joined him, reciting the ancient oath together with his student, “I defend those with nothing and those with even less, whether those threats be a one or a thousand,” Cailean fought the voice in his head, fought his own reservations, “I will see the spring is found.” Duncan gave the boy’s shoulder a squeeze, “Aye,” he grinned, “You’re ready, Winter Hunter,” he turned and led Cailean deeper into the woods.

  “I can feel it, it’s close, look for a cave,” Cailean drew his blade, “Wait,” he stopped, took a knee and shoved his hand through the mat of snow, and touched the damp earth under it. “Forty lengths, west,” Cailean said, his senses so tuned he could feel the vibrations in the ground under him.

  “Lead the way,” Duncan stayed a pace and a half behind Cailean, watching the young Hunter’s every move, his every step. Watching the way his head scanned the area, looking for the threat, he watched, and the Hunter hunted.

  Cailean surveyed the land, keeping his sword up and at the ready, “It’s close,” Cailean looked through the seemingly endless woods. It was as if the snow, fettering down after a night of hard winds and heavy clouds, paused in the air as Cailean felt connected to nature and one with the Winter. Duncan faded from his view and he focused on the thickening brush of trees before him. He could see every detail, sense every footprint the monster had left in its territorial walks along the woods. He could see the path to the beast, and when he looked up, for a fleeting second, he saw the Red Lady leaning against a tree, she looked up to Cailean and smiled before he blinked and she was removed from his sight as the snow continued to fall.

  “What do you see, Winter Hunter?” Duncan asked.

  “Everything,” Cailean whispered, holding his sword at the ready, he looked back up, to the tree the Red Lady was leaning against. And out of the darkness of the brush behind it, a great black-furred trunk of a leg came out. Shifting between the brush, taking heavy, powerful steps. The Ursaling Matriarch emerged.

  Cailean raised his sword, over his shield taking a defensive position, readying himself for the charge of the monster as the Ursaling growled, taking another step forward, he could see the beast’s snout sniffing the air, knowing its prey was close.

  Duncan took a step back, and rested his hand on his hilt, “Steady boy, don’t be foolish,” he said in a low voice as Cailean took a careful step to prepare for the inevitable charge of the giant black-furred creature of winter.

  Cailean felt the earth beneath him shake as the monster reared up on its hind legs, jumping forward and slamming into the ground as it threw itself in Cailean’s path. Cailean planted his feet on the ground, prepared for the beast. There was no cower or fear in him, this wasn’t like before.

  “Guard!” Duncan commanded.

  Cailean raised his shield as the beast swung a claw at him, slamming into the well-crafted wood and sliding Cailean’s feet across the ground.

  “There’s your opening, slash!”

  Cailean pushed with all his strength to turn the creature’s claw to the side, throwing its large body off balance as he swung his sword up, the sacred bronze metal of his sword slicing the cut of the creature as it fell over in pain, rolling on the ground and back to its feet.

  The Ursaling stumbled and threw one leg in front of the other, its wide jaw open, teeth gleaming and wet with drool for its prey. Cailean leaped back as it made a bite for him, he swung his shield arm and bashed the great creature in the side of its skull, as his hand swung back down, he caught it just under the eye with the sharpened edge of his shield, leaving a gash across its face, the monster partly blinded.

  “Parry!” Duncan said, his hand clenching, wanting nothing more than to draw a blade and show that a one-armed cripple could still be something in a fight, but no, he stayed his blade. This was Cailean’s battle

  Cailean flipped his hilt in his hand and brought his blade up and across in front of him as the beast made another bite, catching the blade in his mouth and trying to fight the bronze by swinging its head side to side as Cailean held true to his sword. He ripped the monster’s mouth open and slid his blade through the mounters jaw.

  “Lunge! Finish it!” Duncan said, beaming with pride for the expert show of huntsmanship his student was displaying. Cailean rippled his blade across the monster’s mouth and turned his elbow just enough to point his sword forward, and with all his strength, he jammed the blade straight down the monster’s throat, the bronze edge of his blade slicing its innards as Cailean brought his shield up and with a clean blow, embedded the sharpened edge of his buckler into the Ursaling’s forehead, cracking its skull and finally dropping the beast to the ground. Cailean put his boot on the Usaling’s shoulder, and the monster let out a death rattle as Cailean slowly pulled the bloody blade from its insides. Cailean stood over the beast as it lay there, dead.

  Duncan walked up next to his student, he gave the beast a tap with his foot, and no motion came, no sound, just a lump of fur and muscle bleeding out onto the messed snowy ground.

  “Killed her and killed her good,” Duncan put his hand on Cailean’s shoulder, “Good show, Winter Hunter,” he smiled.

  “Thank you,” Cailean sheathed his sword and turned to his master, “Thank you for-”

  “Think nothing of it boy,” Duncan smiled, reaching down to lift the arm of the beast, “I’ve food for weeks, we’re to have a feast tonight, help me drag it back, the little sun-kissed girl has quite a meal to prepare for us,” he said as Cailean took the other arm of the monster, and they began to drag the great fallen animal through the woods, and back home.