The next few hours went by without any major incidents save for a few patches of poison that needed to be burned away. They had even struck up a quiet conversation when they hit an empty stretch of road about how they’d handle setting up a watch rotation for the evening, since they weren’t sure they’d make it to the rest station by sundown and no one was keen to travel very far in the dark. By Priscilla’s rough estimates, they were only an hour and a half away if nothing went wrong (she sent an off-hand prayer/threat to the god of cowards to not fuck with them), but there was no telling what the state of the road would be near the inn. Maybe the workers would have created a sort of barrier to repel the beasts, hunkered down to wait it out, or maybe they abandoned it all together.

  But there was no time to contemplate any longer when the sharp crack of wood splintering rang through the air.

  They all halted, scanning the area but Asha’s senses weren't needed to pinpoint what was crashing through the trees ahead of them as it grew steadily closer.

  But instead of it being a glob of poison that greeted them upon entering the cleared pathway, it was a pair of large mossy antlers peppered with pink flowers that shattered branches as the beast ran forward.

  The antlers were nearly six feet in length and attached to a green furred moose that was braying loudly, its hooves trampling the bushes as it barreled right towards them.

  Priscilla barely had time to mutter, “What the fuck,” and start pulling back on the reins when the moose had come close enough to see the whites of its bloodshot eyes.

  “Shit,” Sulaiman muttered, reaching for his sword.

  But before he could draw it from its sheath, a twang went through the air and a crossbow bolt sank into the beast’s shoulder, a shocked Kavil holding the crossbow with eyes wide with disbelief.

  The moose let out a low pitched whine of pain as its legs buckled beneath it, though the momentum carried the huge body forward dangerously. Priscilla jerked her horse back just in time so the antlers didn’t ram into the horse’s delicate legs.

  The moose thrashed for a few seconds more, attempting to stand but failing to put weight on its legs. Its voice was deep and broken as it started to convulse. Dimly, Priscilla realized this had to be a Moss Moose, a large and hardy but normally asocial creature that preferred to rest amongst vegetation near the edge of rivers. A majestic beast brought down by pain, but clearly still struggling to cling to life.

  But Priscilla could now see that it was only a matter of time before the moose would die. The back and rear half of the moose was peppered with purple poison that had corroded through fur and flesh so much that the spinal cord was exposed to air. The back legs were pure exposed muscle with blood running down in a steady stream, mixing with the poison as it neared the hooves.

  Priscilla’s stomach turned looking at it.

  The beast must have been running on pure adrenaline after encountering the toads and getting only a glancing blow but even that was enough to be a death sentence.

  It was possible that Kavil could heal the beast of the curse and wash away the poison, but encouraging that much flesh to regenerate would waste too much magic and time when they still had to find a place to sleep and may encounter the toads themselves. It was a callous thought, but Priscilla knew the moose had to die before Kavil’s bleeding heart insisted he try to heal it.

  “Sulaiman,” was all Priscilla had to say before he was dismounting from his horse to approach the moose with his weapon raised.

  The beast let out a faint whimper as Sulaiman drew close but it didn’t have the energy left to fight as Sulaiman knelt next to it. The sound of its ragged breathing stopped when Sulaiman slit the moose’s throat in one sharp motion.

  Sulaiman wiped his sword clean as Priscilla finally turned towards Kavil.

  Kavil looked shell shocked at what had just happened, a slightly vacant gleam to his gaze as he stared at the moose who was steadily bleeding out in front of him. The blood pooled beneath it started to sluggishly ooze across the ground towards the horses. His hands flexed against the crossbow, though his fingers stayed far from the trigger.

  “Hey,” Priscilla said, drawing closer to Kavil, “that was some reflexes you had there.”

  Kavil blinked a few times, a little life coming back to him as he looked up.

  “I hadn’t meant to shoot it,” Kavil said softly. “I was just startled and I was holding this and…”

  He swallowed, his hands shaking as he looked down at the weapon. Priscilla reached over to gently squeeze his shoulder to comfort him, and when Kavil glanced up, his eyes were shiny with the beginning of tears.

  “I didn’t mean to kill it,” Kavil whispered with a hitch in his voice.

  “And you didn’t,” Sulaiman said in a firm voice that demanded attention. Sulaiman had just pulled the crossbow bolt out of the beast and wiped it clean, and was now staring at Kavil like the other man had just said something stupid. “You may have struck it but I’m the one who slit its throat. Even if we hadn’t encountered it, the beast would have died within the next three days from the poison, infection, or it’d be hunted down in its weakened state by a predator. What you did was offer it mercy by helping end its suffering sooner.”

  It took a moment for the words to sink in and Kavil finally looked at the moose’s body. Realization slowly dawned in his eyes as he took in the state of it rather than be blinded by his emotions.

  “Oh,” Kavil said quietly.

  Priscilla dropped her hand from Kavil’s shoulder to look him straight on. Priscilla knew this topic should be discussed sooner rather than later and she didn’t know how to phrase it delicately but she'd try her best, even if the words didn't come out perfectly.

  “Encountering death and being the cause of it is inevitable in the course I’ve set for myself," Prisicilla began, recalling Frean’s pyre and her realization that if she truly set herself against the cult meant she'd leave a trail of bodies behind her. "Adventuring isn’t all rescuing damsels and being a hero – when you put your life on the line, your enemies will do the same and often only one of you will end up walking away from the battle. You need overwhelming strength to fight without killing your opponents in situations like that, and that’s not something you get without putting a lot of fucking effort.”

  Kavil was staring intently as she spoke like he hung off her every word and she felt like a fraud, though she didn’t let those feelings show on her face. Priscilla sure talked a big game for someone who wasn’t actually an adventurer and was drawing on experiences she had only read about. She wondered what Mr. –– may think of her now that she was a murderer and was trying to convince someone that they might have to become one as well.

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  Priscilla pushed away that sudden intrusive thought and the shame pulsed through her.

  “If you think that's something you can't live with if your hand is forced, then when we get to Meadowyar,” Priscilla continued, forcing the words out of her mouth because she knew it was the right thing to do and Kavil deserved to make a fully-informed choice, “I can try to figure out some way to get you back to your village if you’d like or help you figure out a path that’ll make you happier. I'm sure any bishop would love to have you as their apprentice.”

  She could see emotions rippling across Kavil’s face too quickly to identify before he shook his head emphatically.

  “No, I’m staying with you,” Kavil said, glancing towards Sulaiman as well. “Both of you. I’ll… I’ll get over my reluctance towards killing eventually, just give me some time.”

  “You shouldn't lose that reluctance,” Sulaiman said, stepping forward. His black eyes flicked towards Priscilla for a moment before resettling on Kavil. “Being averse to harming others isn’t something to be ashamed of. Priscilla’s right that sometimes it’s inevitable, but your place on the battlefield is to be the healer, not the executioner. It’s our job to handle the killing, so–” Sulaiman held his hand out towards Kavil, just inches from the crossbow, “–you don’t have to dirty your hands. You can leave it to us.”

  Kavil’s adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard, his conflicted emotions clear in the furrow of his brow and the trembling of his lips. Sulaiman said nothing, his face was non judgemental as his hand didn’t waver.

  Priscilla kept quiet, regret slowly building in her gut as she realized that she had caused this dilemma by forcing him to use the crossbow. It had seemed like a great idea at the time but because of that shitty, impulsive decision, she had caused Kavil to feel like he had to disregard a core part of himself to follow in her footsteps. She had pushed on the topic because she thought it’d be better to address it without considering how it’d make Kavil feel and she was why he looked like he was teetering on the verge of tears again.

  Damn, after spouting all that nonsense about giving him a choice, Priscilla didn’t really leave him much of one. Either become a killer or be abandoned to try to navigate an unfamiliar and hostile world by yourself.

  Great going disphit, Priscilla thought to herself, unable to watch Kavil struggle and looking away, at least make yourself useful by keeping watch. She looked past him towards the forest and ignored the comfort that Asha was trying to push through the bond. She deserved to sit and stew in her emotions after a fuck up.

  “I’ll keep it,” Kavil said after a few more seconds. Priscilla risked a glance towards him. He didn’t seem set on the decision based on his expression but he kept the crossbow firmly in his grip. Sulaiman watched him for another long second before nodding and then handing over the bolt he had retrieved. Kavil put it away with steady hands as Sulaiman remounted his horse.

  “We should get going then,” Sulaiman said, “and keep your eyes peeled for the toads. The beast must have encountered some recently, and we’ll be traveling towards where it came from.”

  Priscilla nodded mutely and kept her eyes ahead of her.

  The sound of raindrops hitting the canopy came only moments before water began to hit them as well, a fat drop falling right onto Priscilla’s eyelashes.

  Fucking fantastic.

  When they hit the next patch of poison, they were close to the rest station and everything from the waist down on Priscilla was soaking wet, despite having pulled out a cloak to cover herself. The worst of it was her wet socks – which were wet because her pants were soaked and the water trickled down her leg not because her shoes weren’t waterproof.

  The forest was filled with a hazy gray light, though if that was due to the sun setting or the rain, Priscilla had no fucking clue, but they could still see a little bit so on they had marched.

  The poison on the road looked to be diluted, though it covered the ground in a more even spread as rain steadily poured down to leave ripples against the purple surface. There was no getting around it.

  “Can you even burn it away with this weather?” Priscilla asked, glaring at the rain.

  Sulaiman frowned and the sharp line of his hood made the expression more intense than usual. He raised his hand and the edge of the poisoned puddle turned to steam, but it was quickly replaced with more of the dirty water.

  Sulaiman sighed and pursed his lips.

  “I can try to make a small wall out of earth and then burn the water,” Sulaiman said, “but I’d have to travel on foot because my connection with that element isn’t as strong.”

  “Let me try,” Kavil said. “We’ll be stopping soon either way, so don’t tell me I need to save my magic for today.”

  Priscilla closed her mouth from where she was going to say just that.

  Kavil took in a long, deep breath and Priscilla was surprised to feel a small prickle of pain ripple across her body as the puddle trembled and then slowly parted like thick theater curtains being painstakingly pulled open by weak stagehands.

  Kavil was frowning with clear concentration but the effect steadily moved to spread the entire length of the eight foot puddle leaving a clear stretch of earth in the middle.

  “Hurry now,” Kavil said, urging his horse while barely moving his body. Sulaiman and Priscilla fell in line without protest.

  Their progress was slower this way, but they paused when they could when there were parts of the path that weren't as covered with poison and Sulaiman burned a small perimeter around them. It was hard to see if Kavil was sweating from the strain of it with the rain that rolled down his cheeks beneath his determined gaze. He didn’t seem to be faltering, but Priscilla kept a watchful eye on his profile anyway.

  It took nearly twenty minutes of this stilted movement before they came around the bend to see the rest station.

  “Fuck me,” Priscilla whispered as she stared the devastation in front her illuminated by the light of the early risen moon. Kavil muttered a quick prayer to Gaelea.

  What had formerly been a modestly sized but serviceable inn and large stable was now a wreckage. It looked as if a large creature had barreled through the walls of the inn like it was a sport, the logs that had formerly seemed cozy snapped in half with jagged edges. Poison coated the ground in large mounds, barely diluted by the rain because of how much had been built up. The stable was half caved in but still standing, though Priscilla wasn’t sure how much she’d trust its structural integrity.

  Death clung to the rest station like a persistent musk. There was some evidence of people who tried to flee at the edge of the clearing, packs that had been half-dissolved and covered in a thick layer of mucus. But near that were large webbed footprints next to what Priscilla recognized as the polished gleam of a bone with all the flesh burned clean off. She was sure that if they glanced inside the inn that it’d be even worse.

  It was difficult to tell how long it had been destroyed and it was shocking to see how much this rest station had changed since they last saw it. It had to have been the toads, but why? That question more than any other echoed in Priscilla's head, because she thought that Gorelock Toads didn't target human settlements often as they preferred easy prey that weren't prone to attacking back. And to crash through the inn's walls seemed strange considering their hunting patterns as well. If the inn's occupants had stayed inside and were quiet, the toads shouldn't have been able to figure out that people there because, frankly, they were real fucking dumb.

  Something wasn't right about this situation and it made her brain itch because Priscilla knew she was missing something but was left with no easy avenue to get the information she wanted as the only witnesses were clearly dead.

  “Well,” Sulaiman said plainly, “looks like our options are the stables if we want a possibility of being dry while we sleep or we can risk setting up under a tree.”

  His words pierced through the silence and contemplation Priscilla had fallen into.

  “The stable looks like it’d fall on us if we blew on it,” Priscilla said, though she didn’t have a great alternative option and she really did not want to sleep on the wet ground.

  “We’ll never know unless we investigate it,” Sulaiman said, kicking his horse lightly to start navigating around the edge of the clearing to avoid the worst of the muck.

  With a sigh, Priscilla followed with Kavil close behind.

  “After we figure out if we can sleep in the stable,” Kavil piped up, “we should check for the wreckage for survivors.”

  Priscilla bit her lip hard to keep mouth shut. There was zero chance there’d be any, but she was not going to be the one to dim his optimism when she already rattled Kavil's conscience.

  “We can check the perimeter then as well,” Sulaiman said, his voice approving.

  Priscilla resigned herself to spending even more time in the rain because it was the least she could do in repentance and sighed quietly, the sound drowned out by the rain. If she was lucky, maybe she’d get some answers to what happened while they were searching.