Aela Marshwalker had killed rats and snakes, but no beast worth a legend. She crouched at the swamp's edge with only a loincloth on her skin and a chipped bone knife in her hand. She wanted a weapon the tribe would remember, forged from fangs no one else dared to take. Tonight she had no such fangs. She had no spear, no armor, nothing but mud and mosquitoes and her own two hands. A point of light darted past her ear. Mina landed on a reed, her leaf dress catching the moonlight. The little fairy had guided Aela through the marsh since she was a child, and she never softened bad news. "You're going to die out here naked," Mina said. "But if you must be foolish, be foolish with a plan. There's a beast that sleeps by day. A Harvest Maw. Big as three men, fangs like sickles." Aela leaned closer. "Fangs I could forge into a blade." "Fangs that could gut you first," Mina said. "It only sleeps deep after it feeds. Wait until then. Move slow. One wrong step and it wakes." Aela found the creature past a sunken log, its scaled sides rising and falling. The stink of rot came off its hide. Yellow drool hung from its jaws. Its fangs curved out, pale at the root, black at the tip, longer than her forearm. She crept close. Her bare feet found the soft mud and pressed down slow. Mina hovered above, silent for once. Aela set the bone knife against the base of the first fang and sawed. The tooth cracked free. The beast twitched. She froze, then worked the second fang loose. It came away wet in her grip. The Maw's eye snapped open. Aela ran. The beast lunged, jaws slamming shut where her leg had been. She hurled herself over the log and sprinted through black water. Behind her, claws tore the mud. The creature was fast, but slowed by its full belly. She reached the tangled roots and climbed, fangs clenched in her teeth, until the Maw could not follow. She did not stop until she reached her home in the high canopy. Inside, she dropped both fangs on the workbench beside the forge. Coals still glowed orange. She pumped the bellows and the fire woke. Mina slipped through the window and sat on the tanning rack. "You got them," she said. "You also got noticed." Aela turned a fang in the firelight. "Noticed how?" "That Maw won't forget your smell. And it wasn't alone out there. I saw others in the deep water." Mina folded her arms. "You have fangs for one blade. But you have no hide for armor, and now a pack that knows your scent." Aela pressed the fang to the anvil. The forge roared. She had her weapon at last. She would need armor before she used it.

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."