Aela Marshwalker's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Aela worked the forge through the night. She had two fangs and no hide for armor. So she chose the weapon over the shield. She heated one fang until its root glowed, then hammered a slit for a shaft. She bound it to a long pole with wet cord and iron rings. By dawn she held a glaive taller than herself. The blade curved white and cruel, blackened at the tip. Mina slipped through the window and landed on the anvil. The little fairy had guided Aela since she was a child, and she scouted the marsh while Aela slept. Her leaf dress was streaked with mud. "They're coming," she said. "Four of them. Following your smell up the trunk." She looked at the bare skin under Aela's loincloth. "You made no armor." "I made this," Aela said. She spun the glaive once. The blade sang through the air. Mina frowned. "One bite ends you." "Then I won't let them bite." The first Maw hit the platform outside. Wood cracked. Its claws tore the railing. Aela met it in the doorway and drove the glaive into its open jaws. The blade punched through the roof of its mouth. The beast dropped, twitching. She ripped the weapon free. The second came over the fallen first. Aela swung low and opened its throat. Black blood sprayed the boards. It slid off the edge and crashed through branches below. Two left. They split, one high on the branches, one low at the ladder. Aela backed to the wall. The low one lunged. She sidestepped and its jaws snapped shut on empty air. She brought the glaive down on its neck. Bone gave way. The last Maw leapt from the branches above. Aela had no time to turn the blade. She dropped flat. The beast sailed over her and slammed into the forge. Coals scattered across the floor. The Maw howled as fire caught its hide. Aela rolled up. She set her feet and thrust the glaive through its ribs while it thrashed. She leaned her weight in until the blade found its heart. The creature shuddered once, then went still. Smoke filled the room. Aela kicked the loose coals off the wood before the fire spread. Four beasts lay dead around her. Her hands shook. A shallow cut ran along her thigh, but the skin held. Mina hovered over the bodies, silent for once. "You killed the whole pack," she finally said. "With no armor." Aela wiped the blade clean on a hide scrap. The glaive had held. She had proven it worked. She looked at the largest Maw, its jaws full of fangs longer than the two she had taken from the first beast. "These were the small ones," Mina said. "The one that leads them still sleeps in the deep water. Twice this size." She met Aela's eyes. "And now every Maw in the swamp knows what killed its pack."