Fowlhunter [GL]

The forest was dead-quiet at night.

A black steed’s jagged horn lit a path of swirling silver in the thick woods. Asha’s steed was remarkably well-trained. He was obedient, and the moment he set hoof into the forest, he knew where to go. Despite the steep incline of the hilly Kancha terrain, his walk was swift, steady and grounding. Leaning on his broad neck and shoulder, Jemi could’ve almost fallen asleep; listening to the cool wind stirring the tassels of her scarf, to the quiet nickering from the horse’s muzzle, and to the silence where a great heartbeat might’ve once lived, under the charcoal coat and rippling muscle.

They reached their destination soon enough. Jemi dismounted. As she waited, she stroked his mane, coarse milky-grey running through her fingers like wet sand. Again, the Beast nickered.

“You know, you’re just as talkative as Sophie,” Jemi reflected. “It’s just that nobody speaks your language.”

At her feet, the Moon was dazzling, white as a porcelain dish. It was in a different place tonight—as it was every night—but its appearance never changed, watery-still and shadowless.

Jemi rummaged around in her pockets for something for the horse to snack on. Her first attempt produced a wrapped rectangle. The ration bar that the angel commander had tossed at her. The label on the packaging confirmed that it was the angel’s favourite flavour, nectar.

For some reason, staring down at it in her hand, a ridiculous smile worked its way onto her lips. She couldn’t help herself; she started to giggle, her shoulders quivering. And because there was no one around to hear her, she let it erupt: loud, rattling laughter. Then she was laughing at herself, for being so deeply amused by a thing this inane.

Coalhoof swung his furred muzzle towards her, curious. Jemi batted him away lightly, still giggling.

“That’s not for you, sweetheart,” she gasped. She dug around further in her pockets and found a carrot. As Coalhoof munched away on his snack, Jemi had the ration bar for herself. It was hard as rocks, and overly sweet, but it quelled the growling of her stomach.

At last, a ripple in the corner of her eye alerted her to a presence. Jemi gazed up at the ethereal presence risen from the centre of the lake. Her knees met the wilted grassbank.

“My Queen.”

“Rise, Cockatrice,” Medusa acknowledged. “Why have you summoned me? Have you any news?”

“Yes. I’ve located the Kraken. It had found itself stuck in Kanch,” Jemi wasted no time. She explained the the lava chamber below Amethyne Mountain, the specialised grates keeping the Kraken under it, and the man behind it all. “If we are to mount our next attack on Mount Casca we will eventually need to free it. I convinced Ennanis into aiding this endeavour.”

“No matter how strong these grates are, I’m sure you and her combined are well and capable of finding a way to break them,” Medusa said. “What is your real issue, little bird?”

Jemi gave pause. Eventually, she revealed, “I need advice on how to release the Kraken without devastating the surrounding area.”

“Hm? Whose idea is this?”

“...What do you mean?”

“Nothing. You simply don’t usually ask about things like that,” Medusa noted idly.

Indeed it was strange. Jemi Garen, the Cockatrice, was the same Beast who had ransacked innocent towns during droughts, frozen battalions’ worth of angels, murdering countless in cold blood. There were few living mortals with hands stained darker than hers.

“Fine. It was the angel’s idea.”

“You would go through all this just because she told you to?”

“No,” Jemi said flatly. She stared into the shining drink. “It was the only way she would agree to help. And… I mean, if there’s a way to achieve the same goal with less trouble… it makes sense to try it, doesn’t it?”

“Interesting,” Medusa said. “Well. Did you have a plan in mind?”

Jemi raised a brow. “You're going to let me?”

“Whatever you think is best, child.”

Jemi was startled, and a little disbelieving, at Medusa’s swift acquiescence. But she supposed that the Queen of the Moon had only become more passive over the years. Once upon a time, when Emperor Prometheus had refused Medusa the throne he had promised her, the angel had turned her sword against her own father. After she failed to kill him, she had jumped down from Mount Casca, shorn off her own wings, and created the moon all on her own. She raised an entire army from scratch. The Medusa of the old days was hardcore. In comparison, the Medusa of today was docile. Distant. She sequestered herself in her moon, only directing others what to do, or telling the Cockatrice what to do. But it was like she had forgotten the reason behind her cause, no longer felt the wrath of vengeance, and was merely allowing this war to continue for the sake of it. Because it was all that she knew how to do. She had gone soft.

Then again, Jemi thought to herself, look at me. I’ve gone soft too. One thing was different, however. Jemi remembered her anger, her pain. She might not remember it a thousand years later, but she was no immortal. A thousand years later she would be dead. She would simply have to be angry for the rest of her life.

Carefully, she explained her plan.

“...And in order to do that, I need power. The power to quench the lava that erupts when we free the Kraken.”

The Queen listened. Then she said, “That is no concern. Your plan will work. You have the power.”

“Are you sure?”

The Queen confirmed, “I swear by the stars above. You can have another drink of moonwater, if you like, but it will work even without.”

Jemi was sceptical, but she drank, just to be sure. When she was done, she stood up straighter, wiping her lips. Then she folded her arms.

“So I have the power to stop a volcano—a straight-up miracle—but I still don’t have the power to kill Ennanis Zoleil, a single angel.”

Medusa swirled in the moonwater. Instead of answering, she asked, “Is that what you really want?”

“What do you mean?” Violet eyes narrowed. “I know better than to get attached, your Majesty. I’ve been doing these kinds of jobs for a long time. I know the work. I’m only taking this long because I want her transition to be smooth. For her to accept the Beasts, and for the Beasts to accept her.”

“Hm,” mused the Queen. Her eyes were closed, as they always were. Below her heavy white lashes, Medusa’s expression was difficult to decipher. “I take it, then, that the angel has been cooperating with you so far.”

“Yeah. It’s going well.” Jemi didn’t want to tell her that it was going too well. She didn’t want to talk about the angel’s endless gazes, her words that poked and probed like a hot needle, shoving Jemi over the careful fences she built around herself and out into open sea.

The fact that, despite it all, Ennanis still followed in her steps, clasped her hand and told her that she would trust her. It unsettled Jemi in a way nothing ever had.

Perhaps she was being paranoid. Or perhaps… maybe… she wasn’t being paranoid enough.

“Prometheus’ Wardens have already tried to hunt her,” Jemi pushed the feeling aside and went on. “It is only a matter of time before the angel realises whose side she should be on. And if she doesn’t come to terms, I’ll finish her off.”

Queen Medusa stared at her for a long moment. Then she said, rather delicately, “Your emotions cloud you, Cockatrice. I do not think you know yourself. You have done jobs like this before, yes… but this is different. She is different, to you.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter.” Jemi’s voice was dismissive.

Medusa studied her. “Once upon a time, I ordered you to slay the Graveyard Commander. Now, I ask of you to convert her. Do you know why that is the case?”

“Because you have no need for me anymore,” Jemi said bluntly. “You want her to replace me.”

“No,” Medusa paused. “No, that’s not it.”

“Then what?” Jemi demanded. “What else could there be? Look, I know… that I’m not as strong as I used to be.” Her gaze was dead-set on the grass at her feet. A gnash of teeth, “But so what? That doesn’t mean I’m not still useful. I brought you the World-Ender itself. Is that not enough for you?”

“This is not about me. This is about you,” Medusa insisted. “Because if you go on like this, you will destroy yourself.”

“Remember what I said to you on the first night I came to see you?” Jemi interrupted. “I said I would be your strongest warrior. I said I would bring you the sun—not that I expected to live to see the day. ”

“Jemi,” Queen Medusa said, “look at me.”

Obediently, the woman jerked her head up.

Medusa’s hair moved with her. Sometimes, the locks seemed to arch and twist, sinuous as if they were living; or, rather, as if they once lived. And now, her eyelids were finally retracted.

Her right eye lived within her skull, pearl-white, like that of her father Prometheus’, but this bore the slitted pupil of an angel. Her left eyesocket, however, was empty; a deep black hole where its organ was once housed.

Medusa’s left eye was not gone. Jemi knew exactly where it was. Lying in her cloakpocket, spinning and pulsing. What she had told the others was a piece of the Kraken. But whenever she transformed into the Cockatrice, it was the same thing which came to life within her own orbit.

The Death-darting Eye.

“You are not just my subordinate or a tool,” said Medusa, “you are my eyes. A part of me, as much as my own flesh.”

On her own, Jemi Garen was never supposed to survive the moon. She was not strong, she was not smart, or even special. The only reason that she survived was because of Queen Medusa. A god’s pity. Jemi had been given a piece of her just so she would live. This was a secret known only between them.

“A man can still live well, putting an arm or two away,” Jemi returned. Medusa’s face twisted, but Jemi ignored it. “Don’t worry. I will bring her to you, no matter what it takes. And if it really comes down to it…”

She breathed. Her heart thudded slow and steady below her ribcage. She breathed out, tasting the beat on her tongue, where it mixed with the residual sparkle of moonwater.

“I’ll do what has to be done,” she finished. “I wouldn’t let anyone else.”

Mutely, the Queen studied her. “Take care of yourself,” she said eventually.

“With all due respect, my Queen, you should be the last person telling me that,” Jemi laughed in her face.

Taking Coalhoof, she rode away into the woods. Queen Medusa watched her go.