The four got into position without a word.
Darik in front, hands loose. Marcus to his right with his sword half-drawn. Alesandra to his left with her good arm free and her bad one pressed against her body. Eryndra behind, still, her eyes on the trees.
The footsteps were approaching.
Many. Too many to be an animal. The sound was irregular, that of several people moving without coordination, branches breaking and mud giving way under the weight of different boots.
"Do we stay or run?" Alesandra said in a low voice.
"If they're animals, we run," Marcus said. "If they're people, it depends."
"Depends on what?"
"On how many there are and what expression they wear."
Darik said nothing. He watched the spot between the trees where the sound came from, his hand gripping and releasing the hilt of his sword without fully deciding.
'If there are more than four, this gets complicated.'
Six came out.
They arrived from the left side pushing branches, their faces dirty and their clothes soaked with mud up to their knees. One had a cut on his knee that had been bleeding for a while without closing. Another walked with his weight slightly shifted to one side. The one who came ahead, with dark hair plastered to his forehead, carried a spear he held with too much ease for the situation.
The six stopped when they saw Darik's group.
No one spoke for a moment. Eyes moved from one group to the other summing up numbers, evaluating weapons, searching for the detail that would tip something in any direction. Neither group had hunted anything. That was clear without needing to ask.
Then the gazes of the six shifted.
It wasn't simultaneous but it was inevitable. First one, then another, until most of the six had their eyes on Alesandra and Eryndra with that kind of attention that had nothing to do with the forest or the Pumareth.
Darik noticed it.
Since arriving at the Sector, Alesandra and Eryndra had been that kind of constant problem. It wasn't something anyone said out loud but it was in the atmosphere of every space they crossed, in the way the other recruits interrupted what they were doing when they passed, in the comments that were cut short when Darik or Marcus appeared. Here, in the forest, with death circulating since dawn, those kinds of things didn't disappear. They came out unfiltered.
Alesandra had noticed it too. Darik saw it in her clenched jaw, in her fingers moving next to her thigh.
"Did you hunt anything?" the dark-haired one said, with the voice of someone who already knows the answer but needs the opening to what comes next.
"No," Darik said.
"Neither did we." The boy vaguely gestured toward the forest. "You've been alone for a long time. Together we'd have more options."
"We're fine as we are."
"The forest is big."
"We know."
"And there's little time left." He smiled. It was not a pleasant smile. "Ten search more than four."
"You already have your answer," Marcus said.
The boy looked at Marcus. Then at Alesandra. Then he returned to Darik as if Marcus hadn't spoken.
"It doesn't have to be right now. We can walk in the same direction while we think about it."
Darik looked at the group. At the dark-haired one. At the two with their hands near their weapons. At the one who had been watching Alesandra for a while. He looked at Alesandra.
"No," Darik said. "We're leaving. Good luck."
He turned around. The other three followed him.
Behind, the six also started walking.
In the same direction.
"They're following us," Alesandra said.
"I know."
"Until when?"
"Until we have something better."
Marcus walked in silence to his right. Darik knew him well enough to know that silence had something working inside that he wouldn't announce until it was finished.
Eryndra moved to his side.
"There's a clearing ahead," she said in a low voice. "The light between the trees changes. If the animal is there, everyone sees it at the same time. No one can attack us from behind without also being exposed to the Pumareth."
Darik looked ahead. He saw no difference.
"And does that work for them too?"
"Yes. But in open ground the bow works better and they don't know how skilled each of us is."
Darik thought for an instant and then gave a short nod.
"Then we go there."
They said nothing more. The footsteps of the six maintained a constant distance behind them, neither approaching nor moving away, the sound of someone who knows that time is working in their favor.
Marcus approached Darik.
"At some point, something's going to have to be done about them."
"Do you have any idea how?"
"If we find the animal before them, the conversation is different."
"And if we don't get it first?"
"Then we have a bigger problem than the Pumareth."
Alesandra slipped between the two.
"We could join forces," she said in a low voice. "In number we are ten against one Pumareth."
"They didn't come to hunt with us," Marcus said. "They came following us. It's not the same."
"They are still ten."
"They are six waiting for the moment when the situation suits them more than us. As soon as we have something, they are a bigger problem than now."
Alesandra looked behind her out of the corner of her eye.
"The one carrying the spear has been looking at me since they came out of the trees."
"I know," Darik said, taking a step closer. "Don't separate from me."
Alesandra didn't reply. But her good arm loosened a little, closer to her body, ready.
The clearing appeared when the trees abruptly opened. The ground was firmer, with fewer roots, and the light entered fully from above. In the center was a fallen trunk covered in moss, with its roots raised to one side like a natural wall.
And at the opposite end, with its back to them, its head low over something on the ground, was the Pumareth.
The four stopped at the edge of the trees.
The animal was larger than Darik had calculated. Its golden and brown fur gleamed under the direct light. Its head was low, occupied, with that complete concentration animals have when they eat.
"It's now," Marcus said.
"The six are twenty meters away," Darik said.
"Exactly."
"If the animal hears us before we're positioned—"
"If we wait for the ones behind to arrive, chaos does the animal's job for it."
"Give me ten seconds."
"Darik..."
"Ten seconds, Marcus."
Marcus closed his mouth.
Darik looked at the clearing. The trunk in the center. The flanks. The escape lines. The time they needed to position themselves against the time remaining for the six to reach the edge.
"Alesandra, right flank close to the trunk. Eryndra, left between those two trees. Marcus, behind the trunk when..."
"It's time!" a voice from behind said, too loud.
The Pumareth raised its head.
The animal's eyes scanned the clearing. Twelve people at the edge of the trees distributed in two groups. Its head turned from side to side, and then the Pumareth stood up and began to retreat toward the opposite end.
"It's leaving!" someone from the six shouted.
Darik ran before he decided to. The others ran. The six also ran. Twelve people chasing the Pumareth between the trees, branches whipping faces, mud yielding underfoot, the animal ahead moving with that speed that did not match its size and that made the distance never quite close completely.
"To the left, cut it off!"
"Don't lose sight of it!"
"I can't reach it!"
"To the right flank!"
Darik ran with his lungs working and his eyes fixed on the golden fur that appeared and disappeared between the trunks. Next to him was Marcus two steps back. Behind he heard Alesandra, her breathing more forced because of her arm but her steps firm. Eryndra without noise but present.
The animal continued in a straight line.
It didn't zigzag. It didn't seek cover. It ran forward with the efficiency of those who don't need to think about the next step, and the twelve gradually lost ground, the slower ones falling behind, the faster ones not closing the distance.
One of the six tried to cut it off from the left and the Pumareth turned slightly without losing speed and the boy ended up running in the wrong direction and took several seconds to reorient himself.
Darik felt his legs. He also felt the time, running alongside the animal in the same direction they were all chasing without catching.
'We're not going to catch it.'
Then the hammer passed.
The big one appeared from the right flank as if he had been waiting exactly there, with the hammer raised and the Aether igniting around him, and when the Pumareth crossed in front of him he delivered the first blow.
The animal's skull sounded between the trees.
The Pumareth fell sideways.
Everyone stopped.
The big one approached the animal that was still moving, its paws seeking support they no longer found, and raised the hammer again. The second blow was short and precise.
The Pumareth stopped moving.
Silence.
The twelve looked at the big one standing over the animal. Darik looked at his hands, the hammer, the Aether slowly fading. His posture, his shoulders, the way his feet were planted on the ground with a solidity that is not learned in a few months.
'Two blows.'
One of the six said something in a low voice that Darik couldn't fully hear. Another took an involuntary step back. Only one, small.
Alesandra was at his side looking at the big one.
"Do you know him?" Darik said in a very low voice.
"I saw him in the dormitory the first day."
"What do we do about him?" Marcus said, just as low.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that boy killed the Pumareth in two blows and we've been running from one all morning. What do we do about that?"
"Nothing for now," Alesandra said without taking her eyes off the big one. "Just keep him in mind."
No one replied.
Marcus had his eyes narrowed, reordering something he thought he knew.
Eryndra was looking at the big one and not the animal. Darik noticed it.
The six arrived behind, all panting, all looking at the same thing.
The dark-haired one looked at the animal. He looked at the big one. He made a visible calculation on his face and took a step toward him.
"That was..."
"I don't care what you're going to say," the big one said without turning.
The dark-haired one stopped.
"I was just going to..."
"The answer is no."
"We are six," another of the six said, lower than the dark-haired one, with the tone of someone presenting a reasonable argument.
"You are one."
"I know how to count."
"Then you know the numbers are not on your side."
The big one stood up and looked at them. He said nothing more. He looked at them with that kind of silence that was not empty, and the six looked at the hammer, looked at the Aether that still glowed slightly on his forearms, looked at the Pumareth on the ground that he had killed in two blows.
Hands moved toward weapons.
Darik stepped between the two groups.
"Listen to me." He said it to everyone, without pointing at anyone. "No one needs to fight here. The instructor said any part of the animal. If we divide what's here, there's enough for everyone. There are four claws, the fangs, the fur. Eryndra calculated it this morning and the numbers work."
He looked at the group of six. He looked at the big one. He looked at his own group.
"No one has to die over this."
The six kept advancing.
"Wait!" Darik said. "...Are you listening to me? The claws, the fangs, there are enough parts for..."
"Move aside," the dark-haired one said without looking at him.
"Just listen to me for a moment—"
"Move aside," he repeated, this time looking at him.
"And he accepts that?" another of the six said over Darik, addressing the big one directly, as if Darik wasn't there.
Darik looked at the big one.
The big one did not reply.
"Hey." Darik took a step toward him, directly. "Do you share the parts?"
The big one looked at him. He still said nothing.
"Enough people have died today," Darik continued. "If we all work together, everyone leaves with something. No one has to..."
"And what do you hand over?" the shortest one from the back said, with his arms crossed. "I don't see that you or your group have anything."
"Not yet, but if—"
"If." The boy didn't move. "The horn is going to blow and you talk to me about ifs."
"What he's telling you," Marcus intervened with a tone that closed more than it opened,
"Is that we are four, you are six, he is one, and the animal is on the ground. If you're going to do numbers, make them right."
The dark-haired one looked at Marcus. Then at Alesandra with that same attention as before, the one that had been there since the trees.
Alesandra held his gaze without moving.
"Darik." Marcus's voice came low from his left.
Marcus signaled with his eyes toward the forest behind the six.
Two boys came out of the trees. They had something hanging from their belts, one on each side. Darik took a moment to identify what it was.
Pumareth heads.
One each.
Behind them came Kael.
He came with dirty clothes and a heavier step than was appropriate for someone his size, as if every meter cost him a little more than normal. He walked slowly, with clumsy movements, but his eyes scanned the clearing, moving from one group to the other, from the animal to the big one, from the big one to the six, without stopping too long at any point.
Darik felt something strange in his stomach.
'When?'
Alesandra looked at him. He looked at her.
'When did he hunt three animals?'
Marcus had his eyes on the two new boys and the way they had naturally positioned themselves at Kael's sides without anyone telling them to. Eryndra was looking at the big one with the hammer. The big one was looking at Kael.
The six also saw it. The dark-haired one looked at the heads. He looked at Kael. He looked at the big one. He returned to the heads. The calculation on his face changed shape, adding variables he hadn't expected, reaching conclusions he didn't like.
"How many did that group kill?" someone from the six said in a low voice.
No one replied.
The clearing was very still.
Then the horn sounded.
Long and deep, piercing the forest from some distant point. A sound that in another context could have been beautiful. The hunting hour was over.
The dark-haired one looked at the animal on the ground. He looked at the big one. He looked at his five companions. Something flashed across his face, quick, that moment when a decision that was already made confirms itself.
He advanced.
The other five behind him.
Darik stepped in the way again.
"We can still..."
"There's no time left," the dark-haired one said. The last layer of friendliness had disappeared.
"There is only one objective now."
Marcus grabbed Darik by the shoulder and pulled him back.
"Stop."
"Marcus, if we talk..."
"Stop, Darik. Look."
Kael had taken a step forward.
It wasn't a big step. It was simply that he was no longer behind the two boys but ahead of them, in the open space between the two groups, with his eyes on the big one with the hammer. No weapon. No stance. Just standing in the center of the clearing.
"We will share."
He said it without raising his voice.
The six looked at him.
Darik's group looked at him.
Alesandra was to his left. She thought, almost to herself,
'What...? He has no weapon, nothing... What is he supposed to be doing?'
The big one with the hammer looked at Kael.
A pause that lasted exactly long enough.
"We will share," the big one said.
The six relaxed. Their shoulders dropped. Their hands moved away from their weapons.
Darik felt the same relief but something in him wouldn't let him release it completely.
'Why does he obey Kael?'
'Since when have they known each other?'
'What happened in that forest?'
He looked at Marcus. Marcus looked at him with an expression that said he had the same questions and no answers yet. Eryndra was still watching the big one with the hammer. Alesandra looked at the heads hanging from the belts of the two new boys with something between impression and caution that Darik understood without her needing to explain it.
Kael looked at everyone. At Darik's group. At the six. At the big one. At the two new boys. His eyes passed over every face without rush, like someone verifying that everything is in its place before continuing.
"We will share."
A pause. The exact time for the first part to sink in.
"But my friend doesn't like high numbers."
Another quiet moment. Longer than the previous one.
"So there will only be half."
No one spoke.
"The rest will have to die."