Your Kind

The hunters recoiled, spears drawn up to throw.

Kana sank to her knees beside Andrev’s body where it was broken and bruised, scooped it up. Wards shimmered in the air around her, and the first few spears bounced off it. She could feel the next spears chipping away at the invisible barrier, but she knew the people were too afraid to get too close.

“Fine,” a woman spat. “Take him. Your kind isn’t welcome here anyway.”

Kana turned to her, eyes dark and wet. “He was your kind, too. If you’d just loved him, he would have been your kind.”

Just to Make Sure

Kana struggled to push herself up, but it was too late. Another hunter, and then another lunged in, driving his spear into Andrev’s body. There was no response, just the sick, slick slide of stone through flesh, the sluggish gurgle of blood.

“It’s dead,” one of the hunters said.

They stood around the corpse, staring. Then a hunter lifted his spear over his head and cheered. “The demon is dead!”

The other hunters joined in the cheer.

And then a woman said, “We should burn its body, just to make sure it doesn’t come back.”

Kana managed to stand up.

No Response

The sound of tearing flesh and bone made Kana wish her ears were bleeding. Andrev couldn’t even screen. His body jerked once, twice, and then went still. The dog growled, thrashing its head wildly, and then it spat a piece of bloody flesh and bone into the grass. The hunters stared, awed and confused. The dog took a step back, then another, and swayed. It crumpled to the ground, a woman once more.

“He’s dead,” one of the hunters said. “The demon is dead.”

“How can you be sure?” another asked.

A third prodded Andrev with a spear. No response.

The Final

The hunters circled Andrev and the woman warily, spears poised to throw once the battle had settled into two static forms.

Kana lay still on the grass, hyperalert, listening. Andrev was going to kill the woman, and he would never receive the answers he needed, about who he was or what he could do, but -

Quick as a snake striking, the woman reared up, shifting into a dog mid-lunge, and she sank her teeth into Andrev’s skull, jaws locked around the final horn. He let out a cry and toppled backward, humanoid once more. The dog shook its head.

Slowly

She was devious, quick, but he was just as fast, just as strong, and half a dozen blows in he knew. Which way she would move, where she would strike, how fast she could turn. The battle raged in cycles, from ground to air to ground again, claws and beaks, talons and tails, poison and quills.

It ended when he had her pinned to the ground, one paw on her throat, his eyes animal-silver and her eyes wide, human.

Kill her, the voice inside him whispered. Survive.

He leaned down on her throat slowly, watching her struggle to breathe.

He Smiled

“Andrev, no!” Kana cried.

He didn’t hear her, not really. One moment his body was a slow-burn of agony, the next he was lightning, quicksilver, moving through the air faster than a blink. Then he coalesced into anger and hurt, body lupine-sleek and darkly-furred, and he tasted-heard-felt the satisfying crunch of a human spine in his jaws.

Kir was dead. Andrev turned on the blonde woman, rose onto his hind legs, shifted into a form that was neither man nor wolf, that was all strength and all rage, and he flexed his claws.

He smiled.

Survive

Survive, a voice inside him whispered.

You are stronger than them all. Survive.

The light was blinding. Andrev was dizzy, confused, - he couldn’t feel. Anything. Not his body, not the grass --

You still have power.

But then he could feel the sluggish sting, the burn of deadly-poison-gold. Kir was cutting him again. His last horn. No. If Kir cut him off, he could die, it would all be over --

He arched his back and roared.

Beneath the roar, he could hear people screaming. He opened his eyes and he was on his feet, and the earth was cracking.

See The Light

Andrev couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew Kir was standing over him, crowing, hoisting another horn high. Three gone. Two to go. Andrev wondered if he would die before Kir reached the last one.

Andrev was cold, but his body couldn’t shiver. Something inside him was splitting apart, fracturing, breaking, like the shaft of a spear dashed over a boulder again and again.

Kir leaned over him again, and he was hissing, snake-like. “This one is for me.” And he drove the golden blade down.

Andrev’s world vanished, and he saw light.

What Happens When

Kana had to play dead, marshal her strength. Every time she moved, one of the hunters stabbed, disabled her again. If they were distracted by the spectacle - if Kir kept up the torture long enough - she could heal fully, pull herself together. She could save Andrev.

Rastaban was face-down in the grass with a spear in his back. He wouldn’t be moving for a while.

Andrev screamed again, writhed, and the scent of blood in the air thickened. Kir hacked doggedly at his opponent, and lightning lashed the sky.

Kana thought, This is what happens when a god dies.

For My Father

Andrev couldn’t think for the pain. Kir rose up, the tiny horn clutched in his fist, and turned to the cheering, roaring hordes of hunters who had come to see the monster laid low. Andrev tried to move, to push himself up so he could crawl away, but his body had betrayed him, and he was frozen on the ground. A hollow ache gnawed in his chest, a counterpoint to the raging fire in his skull.

“The creature is laid low,” Kir said. “This is for my father.”

And he knelt to cut off the second one.

Andrev screamed again.

Four More

Andrev’s head was filled with the sickening crunch and creak as Kir severed the first of his five little horns. His entire life, Andrev had avoided touching them, looking at them, acknowledging they were even there. He’d never sensed cold or heat with them - they were like fingernails.

He’d never expected the pain.

Andrev thrashed, screaming and begging and pleading, clawing at Kir to make him stop, but he could feel something inside him curling up, shuddering, withdrawing. The earth beneath him roiled, and the sky turned black.

The other hunters watched.

“Four more to go,” the blonde woman said.

Each

Kir dropped down, planted one knee on Andrev’s chest and pressed. Andrev writhed, tried to dislodge him. Kir grinned and brought the knife lower.

“Do it,” the blonde woman said.

Kana cried out. “Don’t do it - no --”

Andrev didn’t want to think of her, couldn’t think of her, gaze fixed on the blood-stained gold coming closer and closer.

“You’re not a gift from the gods,” Kir said, voice low, almost gentle. “You’re just an animal.” And he hacked.

Andrev screamed. His entire being was on fire. He could feel each scrape of the blade against his flesh, his bones.

Once More

“Andrev!” Kana cried. She was sprawled across the grass, body broken, bleeding. She heaved herself up on her hands, dragged herself toward him.

He shook his head. No. She’d betrayed him, pretended to die, turned him into the monster he’d told himself he wasn’t. But her eyes were wide, pleading, and she was crying.

“Andrev, don’t --”

Kir kicked him in the ribs, spun him over onto his back. Andrev lay there, panting, gazing up at him.

“Not so strong now, are you, beast?” Kir leaned over and sneered, his breath foul, features twisted with hate.

The earth trembled once more.

Won't Last Long

Andrev’s eyes went wide, the breath driven from his lungs even as the searing pain buried itself between his shoulder blades. He staggered forward, landed on his knees. He twisted to look over his shoulder, eyes wide, and saw Kir, who looked shocked and triumphant, clutching a gleaming golden blade.

Gold.

Andrev willed his body to shift shape, to shake off the wound, but it wouldn’t respond. He could feel his power constricting, tightening in his chest, unable to obey his call.

“You were right,” Kir said to the blonde woman.

“I know,” she said. “But it won’t last long.”

She Smiled

The blonde woman signaled, and the remaining shapechangers moved into battle formation. Andrev crouched, ready to spring, ready to take on any form. He charged first. Even as an animal he was lightning fast. He was tiger, wolf, bear, hawk, lion, eagle, slashing, biting, tearing, clawing.

A cacophony of animal growls and roars rent the air, but Andrev ignored them, reveling in the quicksilver sensation of going from shape to shape without stopping. When he returned to his human form, the ground was littered with bodies.

The blonde woman looked pale, shocked.

“I don’t believe you,” Andrev said.

She smiled.

Believe Me

“No,” Rastaban said. One of the men lunged at him, turned into a bear midair. Three more creatures dove at Kana, and Andrev could only watch as they fell on her and tried to tear her apart.

“It’s true,” the blonde woman said, “we would not have found you but for the witches and their magic. But that matters no longer. Your time here is ended. No one creature is meant to have the power you have.”

“If you want to end my power, you will have to finish it yourself,” Andrev said.

The woman smiled. “Believe me, I will.”

Ours Is

“No,” Kana began, started toward him.

“I fought to avenge you,” he said. He turned to Rastaban. “You told me she was dead, that she -”

“I never asked you to avenge me,” Kana said.

Andrev felt rage boil in his chest. The ground shook. “I loved you!”

“That’s sweet,” the blonde woman cooed. “The little boy learned to love.” She sneered at Andrev. “You fool - our kind can never love a human. We do not love - it is not in our hearts. Ours is to create and destroy. And right now - it is our time to destroy you, five-horn.”

And Then He Realized

“You’re not stronger than us,” the blonde woman said, and she rose up from the fray of the other shapechangers. “We are the dragons, the spirits of the earth, the creatures of all forms. We are indestructible save to each other. Your petty magic cannot harm us.”

Rastaban flicked his wrist, and one of the men was thrown to the ground. “We don’t have petty magic,” he said.

Andrev felt his heard wrench. “Kana,” he said. “You were dead. I saw you --”

And then he realized. All those nights, all those dreams - they’d all been real. “Did you betray me?”

Neither of Them

Andrev spun around. He saw her standing on the edge of the fray, beautiful, alive. No. He’d seen her die. He’d seen Rastaban die. What was going on? Unless - unless neither of them were human.

Something about her was different. She didn’t have the same careless, mercurial air about her. The lucidness in her eyes was almost - frightening. The hunters turned and saw her as well, and Andrev heard some of them scream.

“She’s a ghost!”

“She’s a demon!”

“He turned her into a monster!”

“I am none of those,” Kana said. “I am human. I’m just stronger than you.”

If He Wasn't Careful

“Wait!” Kana cried, but Rastaban burst from the shadows, dove into the fray, laying about left and right with a broken spear he’d scooped up from a startled hunter.

Kana supposed it was better that he hadn’t gone straight to using his gift, because he’d likely kill everything in the vicinity if he wasn’t careful.

The wolves howled in pain, shifted back into human form, circled Rastaban. Andrev reappeared as a human moments later.

“Rastaban - you were dead! How --”

“We need you alive,” Rastaban said. “I’m here to help. Come on --”

“We?” Andrev asked.

“Kana,” Rastaban. “Kana needs you too.”