Glint's Arc

Chapter 2 of 5

Glint kept the crossbow raised. The green eyes had not moved in a long minute. He took one slow step back toward the firelit peaks. His boot found a root. He crouched, pointed, and waited for the thing to charge. It did not charge from the front. Something hit him from the side. He flew off his feet and landed in cold mud. The crossbow bolt shot wide into the trees. A heavy shape pinned his chest. He smelled wet fur and moss. A warm tongue dragged across his face. "Ye dinnae think ye were gettin awa' wi'out sayin goodbye, did ye?" The voice came inside his head, not his ears. Glint stopped struggling. He knew it. He knew the mossy green fur, the brown legs, the blue spiral marks that glowed along her side. It was Anu, the wolf spirit who had watched over the Grove his whole life. His aunt in all but blood. "Anu!" He shoved at her shoulder, half laughing, half shaking. "Those eyes were you? I nearly shot you!" She climbed off and sat. The glyphs on her fur dimmed to a soft blue. She looked at the spent crossbow on his arm, then at his face. "Nearly," she said. "That's the trouble, laddie. Ye let a thing follow ye half a day. Ye heard me behind ye. Ye kent I was there." Her ears flattened. "And still ye let me close enough to knock ye flat. In this swamp, close is dead." Glint's cheeks went hot. He wiped mud from his goggles. "I didn't want to waste a bolt on a frog." "A frog does not stalk a goblin for miles." She nosed his muddy chest, gentler now. "Bramble told ye. Speed, not cleverness. Ye stood still and thought. A faster beast would have had yer throat." He lowered his eyes. She was right, and it stung worse than the fall. Anu's voice softened. "Dinnae sulk. Ye're learnin. That's why I came." She looked toward the peaks, far off and burning. "Mother Kajra bid me see ye safe to Scraptown. After that the road is yours." Relief washed over him. He had thought he walked alone. He threw his arms around her thick neck and buried his face in the warm fur. "The light's going," Anu said. "We rest. Ye walk sharper tomorrow." They found a dry patch beneath a vast old tree. Its roots splayed out like the legs of some sleeping giant. Glint curled against Anu's side. Her breathing was slow and even. The blue marks pulsed like a low fire. "Sleep, wee one," she said. "I'll watch the dark." Glint closed his eyes. For the first time since the Grove, he was not afraid. He slept, and Anu watched, her yellow gaze fixed on the trees where nothing moved yet.