Finding the pond her mother is in isn't difficult. Two merfolk are lying in the water, playing a game of chess. The merman that used to be Astrid’s mother is sitting in the shallow water with his back to her.

The mermaid he's playing with raises her head as Astrid approaches, causing him to turn his.

“Astrid? Oh, thank God you made it." He stretches out his hands. Astrid leans in and hugs him, but shivers as the cold, slippery and rubber-like skin touches her. As soon as Astrid pulls away, he hugs her brother.

The merman looks her up and down and asks, “Are you all right? What happened to you?”

“We got attacked. Elijah can tell you all about it. I just wanted to make sure you're okay before we set out again.”

The merman looks taken aback. “What? Where are you going? You just escaped that dragon, and you look wounded.”

“We're going to hunt down the vampire that killed Fynn's mother. Don’t worry, I just need to show them the house where we fought.”

The merman looks worried. “Please don’t do anything dangerous. I can't lose you too, Astrid.”

Astrid pauses. ‘Should I tell her that the dragon might be Dad? No. If I’m wrong, It would just break her heart even more.’

“Astrid?” the merman says. “Please don't get yourself killed.”

“Astrid!” Fynn yells from the back of Shiva.

“We won’t even fight her. I'm not going to get myself in any danger. See you later,” Astrid says.

She doesn’t see the worried expression on the merman’s face.

 

Fynn jumps off Shiva and helps Astrid mount Ranger without damaging the bandages on her leg.

“I really have to get some proper riding pants, boots, and a new shirt,” Astrid says as soon as she’s in the saddle.

Fynn chuckles. “You’re right. I’d offer you my stuff, but I doubt it’ll fit.”

“Nothing fits me.” Astrid gestures at her clothes.

“That reminds me,” Fynn says. “Catch.” He throws Astrid a small plastic box.

“Come on you two. Let's go!” calls the Sheriff, who’s waiting by the gate with Noah.

Knowing there must be food inside the little box, Astrid tears open the lid. The very thought of something to eat causes the hunger that hasn’t really left her alone these past few days to flare up.

The small box is filled with slivers of cold meat. It’s not much and tastes bland, but Astrid devours it anyway. By the time they reach the farm’s exit, she is already done. It wasn’t much, and it only leaves her hungrier than before. Still, Astrid figures it’s better than nothing. She leaves the empty box on one of the tipped cars that act as barricades.

Fynn, the Sheriff, Noah, Astrid and Oskar leave the farm. Astrid leads the small group back the way she came. Their progress is slow, since the wounded Astrid can’t trot, but eventually they reach the house. It is exactly the way Astrid and her brother left it.

“All right. Let’s go inside and see if Oskar can pick up her scent,” Fynn says. The small group dismounts and they enter.

As they walk through the entrance hall, Fynn turns to Astrid and asks, “Did she say where my mother was?”

Astrid tries to remember. “She said she buried her in the backyard, but when I got here, she came from the basement. Your mother might be down there.”

“We can check later,” the Sheriff interrupts them. “Let’s focus on catching and killing that vampire before she can get away or hurt anyone else.”

Fynn’s expression hardens. “You’re right. Astrid, you said you two fought. Did you wound her or did she leave anything here that could help Oskar track her down?”

 

Upon hearing his name, the wolf looks up at them. He can feel that they’re all tense, but also knows they will soon make him search for something. A search is always fun. Especially if it’s for something unfamiliar like the last few times. He can barely contain himself. He just wants to know exactly what his family needs him to find. There are so many smells here, but one in particular stands out. If they’re not sure, he figures he might as well help them by showing them this scent.

 

While Oskar walks towards the basement door, Astrid says, “They both had backpacks when they left the farm, but when the girl left, she didn’t have one anymore. It must still be here.”

“Right if we… Oskar, what are you doing?” Fynn asks as his dog calmly scratches the basement door. His large claws leave thin scratches in the door’s finish.

Fynn is about to yank his leash but thinks better of it. He opens the door to reveal the dark basement. Out of habit, he flicks the light switch, but the basement remains plunged in darkness.

Oskar doesn’t seem deterred by the lack of light and starts descending the stairs. As quickly as he can, Fynn unpacks a flashlight and follows. The Sheriff follows with her gun drawn, but Astrid remains behind. Walking is already uncomfortable enough – she doesn’t need to put unnecessary stress on her leg.

Every step the two take causes the old wooden stairs to creak. Astrid watches them reach the bottom but loses sight of them as they start searching the rooms.

Astrid lets out a sigh, then leans against the wall. She looks outside the window to pass the time, as a floorboard creaks in the hallway. Her eyes instantly snap to the source of the sound. There is the girl. This time with her backpack and new clothes. For a moment, they both stand there frozen. Staring at each other. Before Astrid can say a word, the girl sprints outside.

“She’s up here. She ran out the front door!” Astrid yells to the others.

“We’re coming,” they call, but Astrid knows they won’t be fast enough. She hesitates a moment, then charges after the girl. Every other step causes a burst of pain from her wounded leg, but she ignores it.

The girl has had a good head start, but Astrid is still able to keep up, even with her wounded leg. She stumbles out of the front door just in time to see the girl head for the horses. Her movements seem sluggish and tired as she clambers onto Poldi.

“Stop!” Astrid yells, but the vampire doesn’t acknowledge her. With a kick, she sends the horse into a gallop. Astrid mounts her own horse as quickly as her wounded leg allows, and follows.

“Leave me alone!” the vampire yells over her shoulder.

Astrid doesn’t respond. The strain of following the horse's movements while galloping makes her leg feel like it's being ripped off.

Ranger seems to be following Poldi off his own volition, so Astrid turns. She sees Fynn and the Sheriff storm out of the house.

“She went this way!” Astrid yells without breaking off the pursuit.

Fynn jumps onto Shiva and rides after them. The girl has already taken Poldi into the forest, putting her out of Fynn's sight.

“Keep following her until I can get a clear shot!” he yells.

The girl lowers her body against Poldi and kicks him to go faster.

They race through the forest until the girl makes a sudden turn onto a thin path through the undergrowth. Astrid follows without a thought. Low-hanging branches hit her in the face like whips, but she can’t afford to slow down. The small path twists and turns and Astrid barely manages to keep her eyes on the girl. She periodically yells, “She’s going this way!” to make sure Fynn doesn’t lose them.

The forest opens up with little warning and suddenly they are in an open field. The girl seems to be making a beeline towards another farm. Astrid is hot on her heels when she hears, “Astrid. Get out of the way!”

Realizing what he intends to do, Astrid makes Ranger veer to the side to give Fynn a clear shot. The girl is almost at the farm as an earsplitting boom splits the air. A cloud of shotgun pellets whizzes past Astrid and hits Poldi and the girl from behind. The small balls of soft steel burrow into their backs, causing the girl to let out a scream of pain, while Poldi’s hind legs buckle from the pain and shock. He trips over his own legs, and a moment later, the girl goes flying. While Poldi falls on his side, she hits the ground hard and rolls several times before finally coming to a stop on her back. For a moment, Astrid thinks they’re both dead. Then the girl starts moving again. Behind Astrid, Shiva lets out a loud neigh. She turns just in time to see the horse stop dead in its tracks and catapult Fynn off its back. While he lands on the ground hard, Shiva trots away, shaking its head and snorting.

 

Fynn, almost unfazed by the painful fall, crawls towards where his gun lies in the grass. As soon as his hands close around the stock, he scrambles to his feet and raises the weapon. This time his finger is hovering over the front trigger. Now that he’s not moving anymore, it’s possible to take aim. Hate and anger fill him, but he forces himself to calm. The last bit of air leaves his lungs in a long, steadying breath. Lust for revenge gives him a focus he’s never had before. This shot is everything. Only this counts and his body knows it. For a short moment, every muscle works to keep him as still as possible. His arms obey with absolute precision, moving the deadly instrument in his hand without so much as a quiver. His left eye is closed, while his right one stares unblinking through the scope, as the spot where the two black lines of the sight cross comes to a stop over the vampire's chest. She’s turning away from him, but in this very moment, the crosshair hovers right over the side of her ribcage. The perfect shot. A guaranteed kill. Fynn pulls the trigger. The gunshot splits his ears as the hard wooden stock of the burrows into his shoulder, but Fynn keeps it steady. His eye still fixed at the shaking image in the scope, he expects a short burst of blood as the soft-steel hunting bullet pierces both of the girl's lungs and blows them against the barn, but only a small hole appears in the sheet metal wall a little to her left. The girl yelps and jumps as she hears the bullet whiz past her. She scrambles to her feet and runs as fast as she can. “Why are you doing this? I haven’t done anything to you!” she yells across the field without looking back.

“No...” Fynn wheezes as he realizes what just happened. The alignment of the scope was shifted ever so slightly by the fall. A shot, made with absolute precision and perfect in every way, was just ruined by mechanical failure.

Fynn curses as his blood pressure rises. His head feels like it’s about to pop like a balloon. A mad, shrill scream escapes his lips as he sprints after the vampire. Shaking hands open his weapon and pull two new rounds out of his pockets. He burns the image of the failed shot into his head so he knows just how much he has to aim to the right to hit his mark.

“You killed my mother. After we helped you! Now you will DIE!” he yells as he snaps his weapon shut. He raises it once more, but the girl is already at the farm. She disappears into a barn before Fynn can take proper aim.

“We can’t let her escape!” he yells as he runs after the girl. Astrid follows on Ranger.

As he passes the neighing Poldi, Fynn doesn’t even spare the horse another look. Astrid hopes he wasn’t hurt too badly.

Fynn doesn’t run into the barn. Instead, he runs around it. “Stay here. I’ll make sure she doesn’t come out the other side,” he tells Astrid.

Astrid stays. The door to the barn, or whatever this building is, leads into what looks like a black hole, and Astrid is too far away for her infravision to reveal the inside. Suddenly there is a loud clatter from within and a yell from Fynn. Astrid is about to dismount to help him, when another gunshot, followed by a million quiet pings reverberates from inside. Fynn yells, “Don’t let her escape!”

The girl bursts back out the door, a knife in hand. It’s the first time Astrid has gotten a proper look at her since their confrontation in the house. She looks terrible. The bags under her eyes have gotten bigger like she hasn’t slept in days. Her skin is completely drained of color and her eyes are bloodshot. She stares at Astrid for a moment, panting, then runs towards the forest.

Astrid doesn’t know what to do. Fynn is still inside and she doesn’t have a weapon. Ranger could easily catch up to the vampire, but all she would have to do is stab him and that would be it. Astrid’s eyes move from object to object, frantically searching for anything that could be used as a weapon. A pile of metal pipes leaning against a wall catches her eye. She makes Ranger walk to them and quickly grabs the longest of the bunch. Then she charges after the girl. She positions the heavy pipe at her side and holds it in one hand to use it like a lance. Ranger tries to slow down as he gets closer to the girl, but Astrid keeps edging him on. The girl looks back and her eyes widen. Astrid is charging her like a medieval knight.

She tries to dodge Astrid’s charge by ducking to the side.

Astrid manages to stretch the pipe out to the side like a sword. The weapon is unwieldy and barely manages to hit the girl in the shoulder. Still, she lets out a scream of pain as the cold steel slams into her arm. Astrid charges past her.

Holding the reins with her wounded arm and staying in the saddle, all while aiming the lance is difficult, not to mention painful, but Astrid does her best to suppress the burning in her limbs as she brings Ranger around for another charge. This time she intends to use the steel pipe like a club. With her arm raised, she finishes circling around and charges after the girl from behind. This time she anticipates an attempt to dodge. With a scream, she swings the steel rod in a low, wide arc. The metal hits the girl in the leg with a satisfying clang.

With another scream, the girl is knocked off her feet.

The force of the impact almost rips the weapon from Astrid’s grip. She barely manages to hold onto it and charges away again. From a safe distance, she looks back.

The girl is groaning and doing her best to pull herself back to her feet.

‘Wow. She is resilient,’ Astrid thinks as she prepares for another charge. By the time Astrid has finished circling around, the girl is back on her feet and dragging herself towards the tree line.

Astrid starts picking up speed. She kicks Ranger's flanks hard, again and again. She despises motivating the horse like this, but if this charge doesn't take the vampire down, she will escape into the thick undergrowth and Astrid won’t be able to follow on Ranger.

This time the girl doesn’t just try to dodge. Instead, she turns around, her knife at the ready.

With her pipe, Astrid has much more range though, and standing still the girl makes an easy target. Before she even has a chance to stab at Astrid or Ranger, the steel rod connects with her shoulder. It’s the most powerful blow yet and hits so hard that holding onto the pipe almost tosses Astrid out of the saddle. The girl is thrown to the ground, while the knife is flung out of her hand.

Even without Astrid telling him to, Ranger swerves to the left to avoid running into the small trees that make up the forest's edge.

“You… bitch!” the vampire screams while Astrid trots around. The girl grunts. Even though her arm is broken, she manages to gather her strength. Her face is distorted by pain, but with her good arm, she grabs her knife and pushes herself to her feet.

Astrid didn’t expect her to get back up. “God. What does it take to keep you down?”

The girl backs up against the small trees and brush. “Screw you.”

Astrid considers charging again. The vampire is too close to the trees now. Ranger would slow down too much before hitting her. Even if he didn’t, running into her at full speed would cause Astrid to crash into the undergrowth. Right now, she is forced to make a choice. Turn and run to help Fynn get out of whatever he's trapped under, or dismount and fight the vampire.

The vampire is taking deep breaths in quick succession. Her eyes are filled with an almost animalistic bloodlust.

“Come on!” she yells. “A blood-crazed vampire against a homicidal elf. One on one.” She stabs the air in front of her. “I haven’t fed since I killed that asshole’s mother. I bet your nice elven blood tastes much better than that vampire’s.”

Anger fills Astrid. ‘This time I will fight!’ She jumps off Ranger’s back and swings her pipe like a sword.

“You'll pay for what you did!” she yells. Her mind focuses on the vampire, drowning out the pain in her arm and leg.

The girl lets out a hearty laugh. “If God or whatever the hell else is now responsible for this world didn’t want me to do that, it wouldn’t have turned me into a bloodthirsty vampire.” The creature advances. Bloodlust in her eyes. “You know, for breaking my shoulder, I don’t think I’ll drain you. I'm going to turn you and that gun-toting asshole into vampires too. Then we’ll see what you’ll do. How well you will behave.” She swings her knife, even though she's nowhere near close enough to cut Astrid.

Astrid feels a wave of cold, almost calculated anger flow through her. She takes a step forward and swings the pipe like a sword, forcing the girl to jump back to avoid another blow to her broken shoulder. With Astrid committed to her attack, the vampire sees an opening. She jumps forward, her knife outstretched, but avoiding Astrid's original blow has put her too far away. Before she can reach her, Astrid swings the pipe again. The steel makes a satisfying clang as it connects with the side of the girl’s head, causing her to drop like a ragdoll. She lies still for a few seconds.

‘Is she dead, or did I just knock her out?’ Astrid takes a step towards the girl, only for her to lurch forward. With her mouth open, she pulls herself along the ground with a sudden burst of speed.

Astrid yelps and jumps back, barely avoiding the girl's bite.

The vampire growls and slashes at Astrid’s leg with her knife. Astrid is forced to throw herself back. She loses her balance and falls. The blade manages to hit her leg, but it doesn't have enough force behind it to cut through her pants.

The girl crawls towards Astrid's leg and grabs her foot with both hands. Her mouth opens as she goes for the elf's exposed ankle. Astrid screams out of both fear and anger and swings her steel pipe at the girl's head. She feels the vampire’s jaws close around her ankle. The painful pressure of teeth against her skin. None of her teeth are longer than those of a normal human, but their touch feels hot. Like the vampire is trying to pierce Astrid’s skin with a branding iron.

The steel pipe connects with the girl's head.

The blunt force knocks her head away. Astrid feels her teeth painfully scratch over her skin as the vampire’s head is forced to move. They leave a burning sensation behind.

Astrid scrambles away while the girl groans and holds her head.

Astrid looks at her ankle. Her breathing is erratic as she expects to see a bite mark. The vampire’s teeth scratched her skin, but didn’t pierce it.

The girl is back on her feet, but the bloodlust in her eyes is gone. Her gaze fixes on something behind Astrid, then she turns and runs.

Astrid is about to lunge with the pipe when she hears, “Astrid! Duck.” She drops down to give Fynn a clear shot.

The girl runs into the forest as another bang splits the air. Astrid hears a zip above her head and splinters explode out of the tree next to the girl. She yelps again and disappears between the bushes.

“Damn it. Don’t let her get away!” Fynn yells.

Astrid doesn’t need to be told and goes after the wounded vampire. Quick steps carry her through the thick foliage. With one hand she pushes branches and bushes away, while her other hand holds the pipe at the ready. Even her infravision can’t see the girl, but she can hear branches snap and leaves rustle as the vampire runs through the forest.

Astrid hears her desperate voice nearby. “Stop following me! You’ll be sorry if you do!” The girl's threat sounds pathetic.

Astrid does not slow her fast walk. Whatever that sudden burst of confidence in the vampire was, it is gone now and the fear in her voice gives Astrid a morbid and alien sense of pleasure.

Astrid spots the girl's red aura between the trees. “You can’t run forever and you can’t hide.” She can’t hear Fynn, but she yells, “She’s this way!” to give him a chance to catch up.

Astrid continues to follow the girl. “Come on. Where’s that one on one?”

The vampire ignores her.

The trees open into a clearing. The vampire is ahead of her, climbing over a rock formation. Without plants to block her way, Astrid increases her pace.

As she steps out of the dense forest, she feels something. A sad presence that dampens her anger. Astrid was tunnel-visioned on the girl, but this stops her dead in her tracks.

Ankle-high grass and ferns grow on the ground, with only a few tall trees. They are dense enough to cover the floor with a roof of leaves, but leave enough gaps to keep the ground well lit. Several dark stones with a rough, coral-like texture stand like pillars between the trees. They are overgrown and covered in odd crack-like markings that look too random to be man-made, yet too consistent to be natural.

Astrid hesitates. There is something wrong with this place. The girl has led her here on purpose and Astrid only has a few moments to decide what to do before the girl will have too much of a lead to catch.

Enter or leave.

Unlike with the fog, her instincts don’t help her. She looks behind her, then at the rock the vampire disappeared behind. She takes a deep breath and steps out of the forest.

The air is saturated with what Astrid can only describe as magic. She passes one of the pillars, and as she does so, the markings emit a faint purple light. It comes from within the stone, making the markings look like actual cracks that let the light escape. Astrid can hear faint whispers in the back of her mind. Like dozens of people breathing secrets of sadness and despair all around her.

She yelps and jumps away from the magical stone, quieting the whispers back to that ominous presence.

Her palms are sweaty. She shivers, even though she feels hot. ‘What is this?’

If horror movies have taught her anything, it’s that when you hear weird whispers in your head, the best thing you can do is to run. But if she runs, the vampire will be gone and Fynn will never have his revenge.

Astrid hisses, “I should have just killed her when we first met,” and continues to walk towards where she disappeared.

She can feel the presence getting more powerful. It fills her with an odd sense of sorrow. The whispers grow louder and more pronounced. She knows they want to tell her something. They feel sad, yet at the same time excited. Astrid ignores them, which dulls the voices to little more than background noise, but with every step they become harder and harder to push away. Occasionally, snippets of meaning make it past her mental defense. They fill her mind with a feeling of loss, but she refuses to be distracted.

Unlike the pillars, the rocks the vampire climbed on look like normal gray stones.

Astrid is about to climb up herself, as she hears Fynn’s voice behind her. “Astrid, where is she? Did you lose—” He stops mid-sentence as he steps out of the dense forest. He looks around, but then just shakes his head. “Where is she?”

His voice distracts Astrid from the whispering. “She jumped over this rock. Fynn… there’s something wrong here.”

“We can’t let her escape!”

Astrid climbs up the stones. Behind them is a natural pool. Water flows out of the stone above the pond, from what must be an underground spring. The flow of water is split by a large boulder and feeds the pool below as two small waterfalls. Moss covers the parts of the boulder not obscured by the water, but Astrid can still make out its odd color and weird markings. The waterfalls pour into the far side of the pool, creating ripples that expand over its entire surface. The pool is roughly circular in shape, filled with crystal clear water and surrounded by the same pillars of dark stone. Some of the pillars stand straight, while others lie in the water.

The girl is kneeling on one of the half-submerged ones. The stone around her is emitting the same faint purple light as the pillar. Her wet clothes float around her in the shallow water, while she grips the stone with her hands. Her head is bowed in a praying position, with her forehead partially submerged and up against the glowing rock.

Over the splashing of the waterfalls, Astrid can hear her talking. Her words are slurred and broken up with sobs. “—are. Please, I know I did something bad, but don’t let them kill me. I’ll do whatever you want…”

Astrid grips the steel pipe so hard her knuckles turn white. “What are you doing?!”

The girl ignores her. “Please answer me. I know. Not the nothing. Please.”

Astrid feels the whispers intensify as she takes a step closer. They try to communicate, to fill her with sadness, but she ignores them. Still, they gnaw at her anger and resolve.

She hears Fynn climb up next to her.

“There you are.” Astrid expects his voice to sound angry, but it doesn’t. It’s quiet and strained, almost sad. She can see tears streaming down his face. His eyes are red and his hands quiver as he raises his weapon.

The girl looks up, causing the water in her hair to mix with the tears streaming down her face. Her eyes widen at the sight of the gun.

Astrid can feel the presence flare up, its intention lost right outside Astrid’s mental defense. Fynn pulls the trigger, causing the water on the far side of the pool to explode in a small fountain. His hands are quivering.

Astrid turns to stare at him, only to see him fall to his knees. “What… is this?” he sobs.

“Fynn? What’s going on?” Astrid turns to the vampire. “What are you doing to him?”

Her face is still contorted in a sad grimace, but underneath the sorrow, Astrid can hear joy. “This isn’t me. She heard my prayer. She’s helping.” The girl throws herself back down into her praying position and begins to whisper, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you….”

Astrid stares at Fynn. She can feel the presence battering her with sadness. She knows she has nothing to be depressed about, but the sorrow the presence sows still causes her mind to search for memories she associates with being sad. Every sad memory, even only that of getting a bad grade, makes the presence stronger and gives it a small back door to penetrate her defenses. Still, the fear that fills her mind creates a shield that the presence’s influence can’t pierce.

Fynn is barely able to keep himself from falling to his side, and only because he is using his gun as a crutch. Astrid grabs him under his shoulders and tries to lift him to his feet, but he is frozen in place.

“It’s not fair,” he whispers.

“Fynn? Snap out of it!” Astrid yells as she tries to drag him away from the pool.

He doesn’t fight her attempt to move him, but his body is rigid. Frozen in his kneeling position and stiff as stone. With one hand, she grabs his gun and locks her other arm around his chest.

Fynn is not an easy thing to move, but she manages to pull his stiff form over the stone and back the way they came.

He whimpers, “I don't…”

The strength needed to drag Fynn along the floor and the constant mental assault is exhausting. Astrid can feel her hands getting wet with sweat. Her senses begin to dim. The whispers lose power as she gets farther away from the pond, but they are still wearing her down. She focuses on pulling Fynn away and the more she focuses on something else, the duller the despair becomes.

Suddenly Fynn snaps out of his rigid state. The lack of tension almost causes Astrid to fall, but before she can trip, Fynn grabs her hand. Tears stream down his face in two small rivers. His face is red, but with each other's help, the two drag themselves back into the forest.

As the last echoes of the whispers finally fade, they both collapse onto the ground.

Fynn’s breathing is fast and shallow. He manages to gasp, “Thank… you… If I could, I would hug you right… now.”

“What. The hell. Was that?” Astrid's brain feels like melted cheese and her heart still pounds with incredible speed.

“I don’t know… I thought about my family and then this voice replaced the whispers. It said something about her family and that she knows my pain. She made me feel her sorrow. The despair… I've never felt this sad… How did you manage to resist it?”

“I didn’t hear the voice. Just the whispers.”

 

They rest for a while before Astrid manages to stand up and help Fynn to his feet. He takes a final look at the magical grove.

Astrid follows his gaze. “What about the vampire?"

“Let it do whatever it wants with her. I don't care. We can’t go back there. It would be… stupid.”

They leave the magical pond behind. By retracing their steps, they find their way back to the horses.

Ranger and Shiva have gathered around Poldi. The horse has given up trying to stand up with its broken leg and is lying on its side. Fynn's expression is frozen in a steel gaze, as they approach the group of horses.

He kneels down next to Poldi. “I’m so sorry, old boy. I shouldn't have done that,” he says. A look at Poldi’s foot tells him that the leg is probably broken. “Just our luck. You just had to fall in the worst way possible.”

Astrid can almost feel the pain Poldi must be in. She imagines her own leg twisted at an odd angle. It sends a shiver down her spine. “What do we do?” she asks.

“We can’t take him back. The least we owe him is a quick death.”

Astrid wants to say something but can’t find the words. ‘We can’t just kill him. There must be something we can do. Fynn is giving up too easily…’ The tears she can see sliding down Fynn’s face as he takes the weapon off his back are enough to stop her from saying anything. She knows nothing about horses and knows that Fynn wouldn’t do this if there were any other way. A quiet click tells Astrid that he has removed the safety.

Fynn swallows as he raises the weapon. His hands quiver and he swallows hard as he takes aim. “I’m sorry, old boy… It’s for the best.”

It takes Astrid a lot of willpower to say, “Wait. Let me do it.”

Fynn freezes, his finger still hovering over the trigger. He nods. Careful not to look at Astrid, he hands her the weapon. It’s surprisingly heavy and her arms sag a bit when he lets it go.

“The front trigger fires the bullet from the lower barrel. Really push the stock against your shoulder and make sure it’s a clean shot through the skull.” Astrid looks through the scope, but Fynn quickly says, “You’re too close to use the scope.”

Astrid nods. Now it's her turn to swallow hard.

Poldi’s dark eye is fixed on her. He has stopped neighing and the only thing moving is his chest. Almost like he knows what’s coming. Almost like he is expecting it. If he could talk, Astrid is sure he would be saying, “Get on with it.”

Astrid tries to do it fast, but her limbs feel heavy. She slowly moves the barrel as close to his head as she can without touching it. It’s almost like her body is hoping some sort of divine intervention is about to save the horse’s life. Her finger slowly moves over the front trigger. She wants to close her eyes, but forces them to stay open. There will be a whole other world of pain in store for Poldi if she doesn’t hit properly. Poldi neighs one more time, but doesn’t move his head. Astrid’s entire body feels like it’s boiling. More or less sure she has the weapon in the right position, she applies pressure to the trigger. It moves back with surprisingly little effort.

Even though she knows it’s coming, the ear-piercing explosion still surprises her. The weapon kicks back with much more force than Astrid expected. Even though she pushed it deep into her shoulder, the stock rams itself into her shoulder bones. While Astrid’s ears ring from the noise, Poldi exhales, then stops moving. His eye is still open, blankly staring at Astrid.

Astrid didn’t notice she was holding her breath, but releases it as she lowers the weapon. She hands it back to Fynn, who immediately reloads it. The kick from the weapon leaves a small throbbing pain in her shoulder. ‘Does shooting this thing feel like that for Fynn every time, or has he gotten used to it?’ Astrid wonders. She doesn’t rub her shoulder. The light pain feels fitting.

They stare at the dead horse for a few more moments.

Killing Poldi weighs much more heavily on her than any other death, and unlike the sadness from the whispers, this pain is her own. She’s not sure why she feels this way. She knows killing the woman that hit her on the head should be harder to take. Yet after shooting this animal, she feels a much deeper pain that is almost completely different from the sadness – or rather, guilt – she felt those other times. Maybe it’s because she’s not in a fight right now. Or maybe it’s because this is the first time Astrid has killed a creature that really didn’t deserve it. Probably both.

She can see Fynn wiping his eyes. Then he says, “Let’s go. Before the corpse attracts something.”

As they walk back to the horses, Fynn says, “Thank you… I’m glad I didn’t have to do it.”

Astrid just nods. She doesn’t want to think about any of this.

As they mount the horses, the last bit of adrenaline fades, and with it, the last of Astrid’s strength. It’s almost like the blood is flowing out of her skull. The passive, trance-like feeling is welcome and intensifies as she relaxes in the saddle. It leaves her mind blank.