Priscilla was thankful when Kavil woke her up for the last watch shift. Nightmares had started to creep into her dreams of reunifying with Illnyea, darkening the edges while Illnyea’s eyes glowed unsettlingly, but they hadn’t had enough time to take full control.

  She took the opportunity of the boys being asleep to get herself ready for the day ahead of them, changing her shirt and donning her armor. She tied her hair back into a ponytail, double knotting the ribbon so the ends wouldn’t get caught by branches. The compass around her neck was the last thing Priscilla donned so they wouldn’t get as lost while they were traveling. The whistle was still on it too, but mostly because Priscilla hadn't gotten around to taking it off yet, rather than thinking she might need it.

  The weight of the dagger and bat at her side was comforting as Priscilla settled back down to keep an eye on their surroundings.

  Funnily enough, the fens really were beautiful at sunrise, so the mayor hadn’t been lying about that. Sunlight trickled through the branches, hitting the light fog that had built in the air in a way that made everything seem magical.

  Priscilla had just woken up the boys and was appreciating the view before her, hands tucked behind her head. For a place called the Heinlein Fens, it looked far closer to a swamp with how dense the cluster of trees were and the small ponds that dotted the landscape, or maybe it was a bog or a marsh. She knew there were differences between all of them, but Priscilla couldn’t quite remember what they were off the top of her head.

  Lost in thoughts in the different classifications of wetlands and wondering which one this could be, Priscilla didn’t notice the flock until it was almost too late. A flutter of the leaves above her drew her idle attention.

  Just in time to see the Razor Beaked Crows dive-bombing on a direct course for her head.

  “Fuck me,” Priscilla whispered.

  The birds descended upon Priscilla with a cacophony of caws as she raised her arms to protect her face, drowning out her attempt to warn the boys.

  The beaks lived up to their name as they tore through her shirt and pierced her flesh. Priscilla winced but ignored the pain as she fumbled for her bat while she crouched, trying to minimize the available targets for the crows.

  Priscilla swung the weapon above her blindly as she heard Sulaiman swear and stand. There was a thwack as she connected with one of the little shits, and there was a riot of furious caws and a renewed attack. A crow attacked her hand, but Asha hardened and the beak slid off, sinking into her forearm instead and Priscilla hissed, waving her bat once more.

  A prickle of pain in her arms and then the scent of burning feathers filled the air.

  The flock cawed angrily and there was the intense sound of wings flapping above her, but Priscilla didn’t expose her precious eyes to see if they had left.

  Something caught her bat, stopping it cold, and Priscilla dared to peek to see what was happening.

  “You can stop waving that around now,” Sulaiman said, staring down at her with a bemused expression. The amusement faded when his gaze went to her arms, and he barked, “Kavil, Priscilla needs healing.”

  Priscilla let the bat fall down with a long sigh of relief.

  “What a great start to the day,” Priscilla grumbled as Kavil knelt next to her.

  Kavil’s frown deepened as he gently poured water onto her wounds before he carefully applied healing magic. It was strange to watch flesh reknit itself unnaturally for the next two minutes until only a faint pink line was left on Priscilla’s skin underneath the torn fabric.

  “If you get any more open wounds, try not to get it dirty,” Kavil warned, “because I don’t want to find out what sort of diseases live here.”

  “Aye-aye doc,” Priscilla said with a lazy salute, “I will resist the urge to jump into a pond next time the crows come at me.”

  Kavil gave her a flat look that mirrored Sulaiman’s, who was standing just behind Kavil with his arms crossed. It was obvious where Kavil had picked up the expression from, though his features didn’t lend themselves as well to the natural severity that Sulaiman’s did, so the disapproval was far less pointed.

  Priscilla literally bit her lip to keep from smiling or pointing out the similarities because she didn’t think either of them would appreciate that at this moment.

  Kavil’s eyes narrowed, like he sensed her thoughts were unserious, as he said, “I don’t know why, but your body is harder to heal than most – on anyone else, I would have had those shallow gashes healed up like that.” Kavil snapped, not looking away from Priscilla for a moment. “So you better take good care of yourself out here because I really don’t want to find out if your body won’t let me heal infections, got it?”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  That was a good point.

  While Priscilla’s first response to being injured was to drop a flippant attitude so others wouldn’t worry about her, she could recognize that probably came across as her truly being uncaring about her own health.

  “I got it,” Priscilla said, meeting both Kavil and Sulaiman’s eyes briefly. “I will try to be careful while we’re in the fens.”

  It seemed she convinced them both that she was serious and got two nods of approval in near unison.

  “I’m holding you to that,” Kavil said, wagging his finger in Priscilla’s face before he stood up.

  It didn’t take long for them to finish getting ready now that the crows were gone, eating a quick breakfast.

  “Watch out for shallow water,” Priscilla warned before they took off, “you don’t know where Carnifex Crabs might be hiding.”

  The boys both nodded seriously and Kavil eyed a nearby pond suspiciously. A stick of monster repelling incense had been lit and stuck to the back of Sulaiman’s pack, as he was taking the lead. It smelled oddly like citronella, a vaguely lemony herbal scent, but a stronger version of it. Priscilla snickered as she thought of monsters as overly zealous mosquitoes.

  Sulaiman held the tracking marble in his hand on his shield arm and they started to follow the direction by cutting as direct of a path they could. Kavil did ask them to keep an eye out for the speckled stones the villagers were supposed to follow to see if they could find any sign of Ulric’s daughter. To be honest, Priscilla didn’t even know what she was looking for, but she promised to try, eyeing every stone that they passed for things that could pass for speckles.

  Maybe it was callous of her, but while saving Ulric’s daughter was something that Priscilla did want to happen because no one deserved to die, especially not someone so young, and it would also fuck with The Starving One’s plans, if it came down to picking between Illnyea or Holly surviving…

  Well, Priscilla has never claimed to be an altruistic person.

  She was selfish, plain and simple, always had been and probably always would be. She tried to be a good person, but it was more of a conscious choice rather than her having an innate goodness. She did care about the people she claimed as her own, which in turn spread to the things they cared about. But it took way more effort for Priscilla to spare emotions for strangers.

  Kavil’s village may have been saved, but that was only because Priscilla had wanted to save Kavil – they were an afterthought, someone to save because their death would cause Kavil pain. Priscilla didn’t think she’d ever regret saving anyone, especially not the villagers after they had welcomed her with open arms, but she had to be honest with herself about her motivations.

  Illnyea’s safety mattered far more to Priscilla than a random girl’s did, no matter how much Kavil clearly wanted to save Holly.

  It grew hotter and muggier as a light drizzle started to fall, a last hurrah of summer. The light fog had grown denser as they trekked through the damp earth, avoiding ponds and ducking beneath tree branches best they could.

  The fog grew so thick that it became harder to see anything around them. They walked slower, with Priscilla keeping a hand on the back of Sulaiman’s pack while Kavil held onto hers.

  The only warning they had was Asha squeezing Priscilla’s hand, tugging her hand to the right.

  “Guys–” was all Priscilla got out as she stopped walking, tugging on Sulaiman’s pack to stop him as well, before a torrent of flame came through the fog.

  Sulaiman pivoted, putting his shield in between them and the fire, the flames licking around the edge but curling back as if they were dancing. The fire abruptly stopped and they stood in an uneasy triangle as they stood back to back. Priscilla flexed her fingers to adjust her grip on her bat.

  “It’s the wolves,” Priscilla said, eyes scanning the fog for some sort of sign of the creatures. “Kavil, do you think you can clear some of this fog?”

  “I’ll try,” Kavil said and Priscilla shifted to put him in between her and Sulaiman.

  Which was a good thing because a black wolf darted forward out of the fog. It had red fur around its muzzle and dark eyes that were locked onto Kavil’s leg, jaw widening to expose sharp teeth.

  Priscilla swung her bat into the wolf’s path, hitting it in the jaw with a metallic thud and a crack of bone. The wolf stumbled, clearly dazed but not dead so Priscilla took the opportunity to swing her bat to do a homerun with its head.

  The wolf went spinning and hit the ground. It didn’t twitch, but Priscilla didn’t have the time to appreciate that as a ball of fire hit her upper arm.

  “Shit,” Priscilla hissed, patting the burning clothes with Asha, and her wonderful artifact smothered the flames near instantly. But near instantly didn’t mean that Priscilla’s arm didn’t ache now – she pushed away the pain because there was no time to focus on that and tightened her grip. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Sulaiman had stepped away.

  Sulaiman was fighting two wolves by himself, turning their fireballs back towards them with a flick of his fingers. The wolves were clearly confused as the fire hit their hides, yelping in surprise. But they just rolled in the damp ground, and the fire in their fur went out as they slipped back into the fog.

  Kavil let out a sharp breath and then fog in a five foot radius abruptly turned into solid water and splashed to the ground. A flash of a dark tail was all they saw of the wolves as the pack slipped back into the fog to hide themselves.

  “Sorry I can’t do more,” Kavil started, breathing a little heavily.

  “Nonsense,” Priscilla said, cutting him off, eyes darting around. “It’s far better than nothing.”

  Kavil’s eyes narrowed as he saw Priscilla’s arm. “Let me–”

  His healing hands had just brushed against Priscilla when she noticed that a wolf was trying to take advantage of Kavil’s turned back to launch an attack at Sulaiman’s blindspot.

  Priscilla was slightly too far away to hit with the bat, and decided to use ol’ reliable, shifting slightly away from Kavil so she didn’t bump into him.

  Letting her grip on the bat loosen, Priscilla grabbed her dagger and threw it forward, trusting Asha to adjust her grip. The dagger sank into the wolf’s neck and it dropped, choking on blood.

  Sulaiman glanced back sharply and his eyes widened.

  “Behind–”

  Sharp pain exploded in Priscilla’s calf as something sharp sank into her flesh just above the edge of her boot, shutting close like a bear trap.