Fowlhunter [GL]

The water was warm. It smelt of fire and flowers.

Ennanis laid on her back, loamy soil beneath her wings. This part of the lake, this close to the grassy bank, was shallower than in the middle. She could feel the prickle of lotus petals and leaves by her sides. The odd paper lantern bobbed past her vision, casting interesting shadows across the scene. And there was the unnaturally warm water, too. Indeed, as Garnet had described, Soleki heated the palace lake, even through winter.

All that, however, was not the point of her focus.

A face hovered above hers. It was a human woman, as far as she could tell. The woman knelt over her, hands on either side of her head. Her fingers were curled around Ennanis’ armbraces in a vice-grip. Loose curly hair spilled down her scalp, framing her pale face as she breathed heavily. Its colour was dull and light at the same time; in the glow of the paper lanterns that floated around them, it looked metallic, like tarnished gold.

In contrast, her eyes were vibrant—like jewels, violet and deep and dark, like amethyne. Eyes that should’ve not belonged on a normal human.

A sunblood?

Ennanis was so surprised that she hardly registered the punch to her jaw. A bolt of pain shot up her skull.

“Pick on someone your own size!”

The woman’s snarl shocked her back into reality. By instinct, Ennanis struck out with her arm, flinging the new attacker off her. She pulled herself to her feet, shaking the water off her wings. She could see the previous makara-girl she had threatened scrambling away from the confrontation.

Well, no time to go after her. She turned her attention on the gold-haired woman that she’d just flung into the water. The other had dragged herself upright, standing knee-deep in the water, the line of her shoulders moving up and down in heaving breaths. She wore a brown cloak, now thoroughly drenched-black by the lake. A scarf’s red tail flew out from behind her, whipping in the night wind.

“And you are…?” Ennanis found herself asking for the second time that evening.

“Oh, me?” sneered the woman. She unslung a longbow from her back and aimed it at her. “I’m really pissed!”

~~~

Jemi aimed her bow-and-arrow at the angel commander.

On the sight, the angel stiffened. Jemi wondered at it; was she… scared of arrows? Well, it was true that Ennanis Zoleil had nearly succumbed to one.

But she hadn’t died, Jemi thought, annoyed. She’d been spiked by at least twenty arrows, and still didn’t die. In fact, for someone who had nearly died two weeks ago, duelled a fellow angel, took on a Runt by herself, and then gotten hard-tackled into the lake, Ennanis Zoleil didn’t even look like she’d broken a sweat.

Jemi sized up her opponent. Except that she didn’t have to; she already knew her like the back of her own hand. She knew that, in her current state, she could never match the angel in strength, in speed, in senses. And now, she couldn’t even use magic.

Panting, Jemi clenched her teeth together. She hadn’t prepared for the eventuality that Ennanis would reject Ying’s offer. She had been so sure it would’ve worked. Ennanis wasn’t the kind of person that turned down help by virtue of who was providing that help.

As her thoughts raced, she released arrow after arrow at Ennanis. Of course, the angel dodged them easily. Jemi didn’t expect to be able to hurt the commander right now, masquerading as a human and protecting three others in the same breath. But she needed some time to think of a better idea.

Finally, Ennanis seemed to tire of dodging her arrows, and began to fly. Yet another advantage she had over Jemi. The angel rose up into the air in an arc, rose hair flipping like a curling curtain, then dove down at her.

Jemi barely managed to spin out of the way. Desperately, the human lashed out with her knee, slamming the angel in the gut as hard as she could with the stiff collar of her boot. That knocked her back some, but Ennanis grabbed ahold of one end of Jemi’s longbow and wrenched it out of her loosened grasp.

The angel then used the bow to club Jemi in the chest. WHAM! Jemi’s bow was no ordinary longbow; it was made of sturdy stuff, meant to double-up as a melee weapon. And so Jemi stumbled back from the blow, vision blurred, fighting to regain the breath in her lungs.

It was at that moment that a russet blur swooped at Ennanis’ back, great wings and extended claws. Ying!

Ying roared in the angel’s face, ready to headbutt her with her two forehead-horns.

But Ennanis didn’t even turn around; she tossed Jemi’s bow over her back. The bow spun, glowing with a sheen of Soleki, and slammed like a gold bar across Ying’s face. With a pained howl, the pixiu fell back, dazed.

Next came Asha and Lochlan, springing out from the water in a surprise attack. Asha with crocodile jaws wide, Lochlan with parang slicing. Ennanis was ready too, with her spear of Lienna recalled to her hands, blazing to life. The speed with which she dispatched both of them was beyond comprehension. Soon they were left crouching in the water, groaning and whimpering.

“Stop!” Jemi yelled. “Everyone else, back down! I’ll deal with her myself.”

Although they seemed reluctant, the three of them obeyed. And the Commander looked away from them, turning her slit-gold eyes on her.

Looked like it was really down to them two, then.

Jemi knew that if they went on like this, she was going to die. But she wasn’t ready to die; Medusa’s sakes, she’d already died a week ago, and that was more than enough for a lifetime.

Instead, she focused on what she did know. Ennanis.

Growling, Jemi freed her dagger from her belt just as Ennanis raised Lienna at her. Moving as fast as she could in the water, Jemi closed the gap between them and lunged. Ennanis caught the blade in the fork of her spear easily, twisting to disarm her. But Jemi had prepared for this.

Angels’ wings created blindspots in their peripheral vision, and the Graveyard Commander’s vision in particular was further hampered by the long pink hair that fluttered by her sides. In Jemi’s other hand, she had drawn a second knife. Precise timing allowed her to deliver a savage slice to the angel’s midsection, clipping a few secondary feathers with it, shearing through the satin of her cheongsam. Blood spread from the rip, dyeing the crimson fabric black.

Jemi smirked in satisfaction, but it only lasted a second. For just then, a hand clamped tightly around her wrist.

It was warm at first. And then it was burning, scalding hot. Tears instantly sprang to Jemi’s eyes, and she was forced to drop her dagger, splashing into the lake below. Ennanis’ hand blazed alight with Soleki, for the first time since their fight had begun. Thinking about it now—that had been odd. Up till now, that had been way too easy a fight. It couldn’t have been that the angel had run out of Soleki; she had used it just fine against the other three. Ennanis could have ended their fight at any time. So why…? Had she been going easy on her because she was a human?

In a surge of sunlit strength, Ennanis all but knocked Jemi into the water. Next, the angel commander climbed over her, trapping her in a reverse of their earlier position. Her rose-pink hair was drenched, dribbling lakewater over her. She locked the prongs of Lienna around Jemi’s left wrist to stop her from reaching for anything, while her other hand wrapped around Jemi’s scarf-covered throat. That hand was still alight with magical fire, but still it didn’t blaze quite as hard as the angel commander’s eyes, twin molten supernovae.

“Who are you?” the angel rasped.

Jemi could smell the smoke wafting off her scarf. She felt her throat constricting under the pressure.

“I-” she managed to shout. “I didn’t want to fight!”

Ennanis looked so bewildered, she backed off a little, her grip loosening. “Then what were you doing?”

What was she doing, indeed.

Jemi, herself, was confused. For she shouldn’t have been fighting. Initially, she had attacked Ennanis on the spur of the moment, in the blind rage of seeing the angel target her friends. But ultimately, they were supposed to be here to befriend the angel commander; Jemi should’ve been calming her down, negotiating with her—not fighting.

Jemi supposed that it had become an instinct. For eight years, whenever she saw Ennanis on a night-darkened mountain, she would fight her, no questions asked. In the same way, the moment she had come face-to-face with Ennanis today, her body had leapt into action.

But tonight she wasn’t supposed to be the Beast Princess. In front of Ennanis, she had to be regular old Jemi, a sympathiser with the lunar rebellion.

Staring up at Ennanis’ searching eyes, Jemi said the only thing that came to mind. The truth.

“...Sorry. I couldn’t let you hurt my friends,” she whispered.

At this, Ennanis stilled.

With a snap, the spear disappeared, returning to its owner as a ring. The gold light flickered out of existence, and the burn on Jemi’s neck ceased. Ennanis rolled off her, allowing Jemi to push herself to her knees. It was like this they both sat, in the dark, rippling, sun-warmed water.

“You’re a human, aren’t you?” Ennanis’ gaze was on her. “Even if you work together with Beasts… you would call them your friends, too?”

It was not inexplicable to find a human mingling within a squad of Beasts. So long as two parties shared a common interest, anyone could be allies. The same logic applied to humans and Beasts. But Jemi supposed it appeared strange to the angel that one might go so far as to call a Beast a friend.

“Yes. Because they are,” Jemi said simply. She met Ennanis’ eyes. “And we were hoping today to extend you our alliance. We can help you stop the World-Ender Kraken.”

“You can stop it?” Ennanis asked.

“Not yet,” Jemi said. “Together we have a better chance of finding a way. I know that you’re the Graveyard Commander—of course you’d be wary of Beasts.” Then, pushing every ounce of sincerity she could muster into her words, she said, “If you won’t take words from a Beast, then take mine. I trust these Beasts with my life. And if you can trust me, you can trust them. Please.”

Ennanis studied her for an uncomfortably long moment.

Then, against all reason, all logic—she said, quietly:

“Fine. I’ll trust you.”