tail swings behind it, like that of a lizard, but it curves with great flexibility as though it is a fifth limb that could protect it from behind. Of all the terrifying imaginations I had had of what lurked in the marshes, nothing could compare to what just flashed before us on its scramble to the surface.
“So you’ve come to join the hunt,” a deep, peculiarly accented voice resonates softly from behind us.
I turn stunned and discover a man of Wade’s height and stature gazing at us, presumably Yori. His outfit matches Wade’s in style, though it has been dirtied and tattered beyond repair, Yori’s skin revealed in many places where the fabric is torn and ripped. But only in attire are he and Wade alike.
The two of them share no other resemblances, eliminating the possibility that they are somehow related. Wade’s curly locks look even lighter against Yori’s dark, long hair and full, scraggly beard. He appears altogether much older than Wade, meaning he had to have started off with a good number of years under his belt since rangers supposedly don’t age much.
They stare at each other for a moment not saying anything. This is hardly the reunion I would have expected between two old friends. Then again, they probably share a history I couldn’t even begin to appreciate, so I decide to stay silent and not interrupt. Wade eventually speaks after the long pause.
“What makes you think I would come all this way for sport?”
“Well, you brought the bait,” he says, looking over at me with a small grin formed on the corner of his mouth.
I smile back.
“I wouldn’t take it as humor, Kaela,” Wade warns. “Yori has always been a little mad.”
Yori steps toward me speaking quickly, fervently.
“You wouldn’t be in any danger, I promise. Not with Wade helping me. You’d just sit there and—”
“Slow down,” I hush him. “I don’t understand.”
“The creature you saw, the draeg, needs to be put down. I’ve worked too long to see it all come apart now.”
“What have you been doing here?” Wade cuts in sternly, grabbing Yori by the shoulder and pulling him away from me.
“I started tracking and hunting the predators here to try and make this place safe. I thought, maybe if I can change the balance of things, people won’t have to fear the marshes. They’d have somewhere safe to go other than the tyranny of Sanctuary. I’ve been preying on them for years, the beasts that ravage the grasslands, but I’ve only made things worst.
“See, the greatest monsters, like the draeg who lives in this hole, shared my prey, so when their food started to disappear, they needed something else to feed on. Now they venture further into the grasslands than ever before. Oh, I’ve created quite the mess, but you can help me make things right.”
“We don’t have time for it, Yori,” Wade interrupts. “There is something else at work that is much more important.”
“Not from where I stand. If you want the shelter of my home, then you will help me. That is the price of admission.”
Wade sighs deeply.
“We don’t need your shelter. We need you to accompany us south.”
“Then the cost is all the same,” Yori replies pointedly. “Just this draeg that has vexed me for far too long, that’s all I ask. Once the beast is dead, you can have my services for however long you require them.”
Wade looks at me but doesn’t say anything, and I think I know why. Whatever Yori has planned, it seems that I will be the one in the greatest of danger, not Wade, so he isn’t going to say yes on my behalf.
At first I am scared by the thought, but I can’t let myself be. I can’t let myself revert back to who I was before I came to the plains, a girl who might have had the courage to do some things, but not enough to do something like what is being asked of me now. No, I need her to die. I need to be willing to stand up to fear and doubt again and again until the good I’m supposed to accomplish is finished. I need to be brave enough to give Yori the answer he seeks, and so I do.
“Let the hunt begin.”
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