Fowlhunter [GL]

Two shapes streaked above a forest. One crimson-red and one rose-pink. They hurtled past over Fenlin, the kingdom south of Mount Casca.

“Keep up,” Amanita said calmly over the communication charm that linked their minds, impervious to being drowned out by the rushing wind.

“Why couldn’t we just take the skiff with the others? Or the train?” Ennanis complained. The rest of her comrades were boarding a skiff from Wataron to Archizoun, passing through the forested Fenlin. Meanwhile, she was sweating rivers, panting deeply, shoulderblades aching as the two of them made the trip on wing alone.

“You told me you wanted a challenge, did you not?” Amanita flapped her wings leisurely, gliding along the wind at breakneck pace. Ennanis was trying to ramp up her speed using Soleki enhancement, but it flickered in and out as the wind kept breaking her concentration. “You’re focusing on using Soleki too much,” her mentor said. “Use the wind to your advantage. You need to angle your wings to catch the breeze. See, I’m not even breaking a sweat.” Amanita flipped on her back and cruised along, folding her arms behind her head.

“......” Ennanis went silent, her eyebrows knit tightly together as she did her best.

“You still have a long way to go, Golden Girl. I haven’t even made you fly through the forest.”

Now officially mentor and disciple, Amanita was determined to nurture Ennanis’ talent—in her own unique way. Precisely because Ennanis had gotten through her life relying on her Soleki talent to brute-force through everything, she wanted to train her other aspects too.

“Why would I ever need to do that?”

“Your opponents can use the forest as cover from angels,” Amanita said. “There will come a time when you may need to get down through the trees to catch them.”

“We’re not required to give chase if targets escape into a forest,” Ennanis said. Flying fast through trees was considerably dangerous for an avian as large as an angel. Furthermore, a thick tree canopy obscured the penetration of sunlight, meaning less Soleki available to use. If such a thing happened an angel usually filed a report that the criminal had escaped capture.

“So you just let them get away?” Amanita asked.

“……”

Amanita paused, glancing downwards. “Follow me.” Then she turned and dove sideways for the tree canopy.

“Eh? I thought you said we weren’t flying through the forest?”

“Just follow!”

Left without choice, Ennanis angled her wings and nosedived after her mentor.

With a great rustle, like a pair of swooping hawks, the two angels broke through the canopy, landing on their feet in a thicket of unmarked, wild undergrowth. A cloud of gnats dispersed as their boots tromped through the grasses, the sound of their buzzing blending in with the incessant racket of cicadas. Amanita walked for a while, Ennanis following behind her. Ennanis readjusted the clasp of her ponytail that had loosened over their flight, combing her fingers through her sweat-drenched hair. Meanwhile, Amanita’s hair was worn down, long and red, but it didn’t look remotely windswept.

“How do you keep your hair so neat?” Ennanis asked as she tidied her ponytail.

Amanita glanced back and smiled. “Because I’m naturally amazing.”

Ennanis huffed and rolled her eyes.

Amanita kept on walking. “Ah, here it is,” she said, suddenly stopping to squat down in the grasses.

Ennanis bent down to look as Amanita pushed aside a shrub of leaves to reveal a cluster of mushrooms growing out between the bed of half-decomposed leaves. Each was entirely white in colour, from their long stalks to the flat, gilled caps, like soft cotton. The elder angel pulled one of the mushrooms out from the dark soil.

“You know what mushroom this is?” Amanita asked. Ennanis shook her head. “The Amanita virosa. Pure-white like a cloud. Very beautiful. If you were to ingest this, it would dissolve your organs from the inside-out, quite literally. Wouldn’t kill us, of course, but still an incredibly painful way to succumb. It’s also commonly called the 'Destroying Angel'.”

Ennanis stared at her for a moment, and at the dainty stalk of mushroom. “...Certainly an auspicious choice of name,” she eventually muttered.

Amanita laughed. “Oh, silly, I wasn’t named after the mushroom. Some angel simply thought it was a beautiful name.” She turned the mushroom around in her hands. “Besides, not all mushrooms of the genus are poisonous. There are some edible species of Amanita. Quite popular in undercloud cuisine too, in some parts.”

“Why are you telling me all this?” Ennanis shifted.

Amanita dangled the mushroom upside-down in front of her, twirling it by its stalk. “Do you know what my specialty as a Warden is, Ennanis?” Every Warden was scarily competent at anything they did, but they often had something that they were especially good at, and often assigned to do by the Marshal.

“Dealing with Beasts,” Ennanis said. Amanita Zoleil’s reputation preceded her. Rooting out Beast hideouts, commandeering the platoons of the Graveyard Division from above, and planning strategy was her job.

“Exactly,” Amanita said. She dropped the mushroom. It plopped to the ground, giving a wobbly spin like an upturned parasol. “When you become a Warden, what do you want to specialise in?”

For Ennanis it was a ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ she became a Warden. Having already given the subject much thought on her own, she had an answer immediately.

“Probably something along the same lines,” Ennanis declared. “I’ve always been strong in Soleki and in fighting. Usually angels like that end up fighting the Beasts, as only they can match their Lunaki, animalistic strength and boldness.”

“An interesting choice. And not just because of my influence?”

“...Maybe partly so,” Ennanis admitted.

“Well I’ll tell you one thing,” Amanita mused. “An angel can’t capture a Beast as they are. You must think like a hunter.”

“A… hunter?”

“It makes sense, doesn’t it? They are creatures, not man, in the end. To slay a Beast, you have to hunt it down, as human hunters do. It requires a great deal more finesse than you think. No matter if you eventually become a Beast-slayer or something else, there is much to learn from hunters. One of these is curiosity. To learn about anything you can. Even things as insignificant as fungi.

“And, Ennanis—” she added with a meaningful look at her. “One does not need to live out the meaning of their name. You alone choose whether you will be a poison, or if you will make some Prometheus-damn good stew. It is not a curse.”

Ennanis Zoleil, thirteen and still quite sane yet, hadn’t the faintest clue what her mentor was blathering on about. Thus she just nodded along.

Amanita then turned towards her, yellow eyes asparkle, as if an idea had come upon her.

Following that, she lifted into the air with a rustle of wings. Lurching her body forward, she flew between the two trunks ahead of them.

“I thought you said we weren’t going through the trees today!” Frantically, Ennanis wobbled into the air. She hit a low-hanging branch on the way and yelped, wincing.

“A hunter must learn to adapt on the fly! Literally!”

Shaking her head, an exasperated Ennanis flew after her, weaving her way slowly and clumsily through the vegetation.

~~~

Three Years Later

Foliage rustled, throwing scattered sunlight over the grass. A tranquil breeze waffled through the untrodden blades, and the puffs of tiny wildflowers growing in patches. Curious, a fluffy rabbit hopped through the bite-sized blossoms, digging around in the soil with its hind legs, sniffing through the grasses for its latest edibles.

And then, suddenly—a thump shook the branches, causing one of the trees to lurch, leaves bristling in frenzy at the sudden disturbance. Panicked, the rabbit tossed its head up to look at the commotion.

Reflected in its quivering black eyes was a monkey, crouching on top of the branch with curled feet. But not just any old baboon or chimpanzee. It was in fact half man from the belly down, black fuzz mottling the pinkish flesh of hairy legs. A heavy-looking knapsack was looped around his shoulders. He grinned crookedly down at the rabbit, two rows of brackish teeth with unnaturally long canines. He gave a little handwave.

The rabbit stared at the monkey, nose twitching. Either it was studying him back, or it was simply too frightened to move.

Just then, several more thumps graced the canopy, shaking leaves free of the branches, fluttering to the undergrowth like a storm. Thump! Thump-thumpthump! The rabbit’s ears went straight to the sky, fur standing on end—moments before a stake flew out from the trees, skewering the creature clean through the heart.

Snickering, a second monkey landed in the clearing to reel in his catch. He pulled the stake out from the bloodied wildflower patch.

“Hey, I thought it was cute,” the monkey-man on the tree frowned.

“No one cares what you think, Rafel,” said the other, turning his stake around to appraise his prey. The point and shaft of the wooden stake was dyed scarlet with the rabbit’s blood, but there was an odd silver sparkle about the tip, as if it had been doused in glittered water: Lunaki poison, a finely handcrafted spell that anointed most of the Beasts’ weapons.

Nodding to himself, he peeled the rabbit off the stake. “No reason not to add to a sweet haul.”

More monkeys were climbing out of the trees. All had bags on them, mostly thick burlap sacks tied onto poles to balance on their shoulders, each looking a rich, hefty weight.

“I’ve got some potatoes to cook with that later,” another monkey said, grinning as he adjusted the sack on his back. Others chimed in gleefully. Everyone was in a good mood; they had just come back from looting a wealthy farm’s plot. Food and equipment to last them for months; the woodland rabbit was a welcome bonus. Not to mention that having broken into such a well-gated place would’ve no doubt boosted the Beasts’ terrifying reputation in the area.

“We escaped a full platoon of angels no less,” chortled one hanging from a branch. The large-scale burglary hadn’t exactly gone unnoticed. “It’s a good thing they never follow us into the trees. Bunch of wimps.”

“Are you sure?” Rafel asked.

“Of course,” he said. “Why so skittish? This isn’t your first run-in with angels.”

His eyes darted around nervously. “I dunno. I just have a bad feeling.”

His words had barely finished when an arrow came whizzing out from the forest. It planted itself squarely in the shoulder of the monkey holding the rabbit. The game fell from his hand as he sank to his knees in shock.

“Where did that come from?” he hissed.

“Maybe there’s humans around,” Rafel jumped up, grabbing a pistol from his knapsack and glancing around. The rest of the group also readied their weapons, looking around furtively and aiming, but there was nothing to aim at.

Just then, another arrow thwipped through the air. This time it was from the opposite direction of the first arrow. Followed by an arrow from the east, south, west, north…

“Are we surrounded? How many of them are there?” one of the monkeys said shrilly.

“There!” someone pointed.

A shadow darted between the trees. It was like a swift, its movement like a whisper among the bristling leaves.

“Where are the others?” shouted someone.

“Uh, I don’t think there’s any others,” Rafel said, mystified. “It’s just… the one.” It was flying in circles around them, loosing arrows at them from every direction.

Everyone started firing blindly into the forest, hoping to graze their ambusher, even if no one could see where it was; it was moving too fast. Some of the monkeys also leapt out into the forest to try and locate them.

Eventually, under the onslaught of the monkeys’ weapons, the attacker was drawn out into the clearing.

Rose-pink hair in an messy ponytail. Molten-gold slits for eyes, sparking against honey-brown skin. And white wings like a dove’s, light snow in the middle of the tropical forest. She was wearing a blue uniform, an azure ribbon looped through the collar.

“It’s a damn angel,” the rabbit-killer swore. “And a fucking kid, too! What’s it doing all the way out here?”

“Get her! I’m not giving up a single one of these tubers!”

Ennanis Zoleil rolled to her feet, pulling another arrow from her quiver—a customised thing slung between her shoulderblades, out of her wings’ way. She nocked her bow just in time to drive off the shrieking monkey launching itself at her. Several more came rushing at her, but she was prepared. She dashed up into the air, plunging a few more arrows downward.

However, she didn’t get far before something sharp and rock-hard slammed into her shoulder, the impact ringing through her. Baffled, she looked to see a kettle tumbling away to the forest floor. Next, two more struck her waist and shin, a milking bucket and garden hoe respectively. The monkeys had opened their sacks and begun pelting her with stolen farm equipment.

On instinct, Ennanis whipped up the bow in her hand to deflect the projectiles with. But after tanking three or four hits, the bow broke apart. Gritting her teeth, Ennanis spun around and dove back into the forest. Bric-a-brac slammed into the tree trunks around her, giving her a few precious seconds to draw her shortsword in time to defend herself against the monkeys rushing her from the branches.

She managed to cut down a few, but she was both outnumbered and outclassed in the terrain. It didn’t take long before she was forced into a corner, surrounded by enemies. Golden eyes darted around helplessly as the teenage angel grasped at what she could still do. The lead monkey wasted no time, pouncing at her with claws blazing—

—before an arrow pierced its sternum.

With a wail, its eyes rolled back into its skull, and it collapsed. Then, more whistles ensued through the air as Soleki beams rained through the forest, shooting down the Beasts one after the other.

Ennanis glanced up to see the platoon of angels soaring in the patch of sky above, in V-formation, aiming an assorted variety of luminarial gold weapons. At the very front, an angel with long, fiery hair gazed down at her, before swooping down to the forest floor.

“What’s up, my disciple?” Amanita quipped. Unlike the angels behind her she was the only one carrying a bow and quiver. She was the one who had shot that first arrow. “Find yourself in a pinch?”

“...I had it handled.”

“Whatever, whatever,” Amanita said, clapping Ennanis on the back. The other angels descended below the canopy after her, beginning to pack up the stolen loot to return to their owners, and cuffing the fallen culprits. “You did well today. Let’s go somewhere else, shall we?”

“To train?”

Amanita huffed through her nostrils. “No, you silly pink goose. To take a break.”