The Vow.
"Hurry, Guardian. This way," she says, leading the man toward one of the hunting huts on the edge of the village.
"What's going on, Marin?" he asks, keeping pace with the woman's quick stride.
"A couple of our huntsmen ran into something on the edge of the woods… Something dangerous."
"I thought you told the old man it 'wasn't' dangerous?"
"I didn't lie, if that's what you're asking. He wanted to know if the village was in danger. And the answer is no. Not with you here."
He swallows deeply and continues toward the hut.
Inside the hut, a man lays unconscious on a short wooden table. Blood glistens under the dim light of the lamp hanging above. A young man kneels beside the table with the injured man's hand grasped tightly between his own.
"What… what happened to him?" Klutz asks as soon as he surveys the room.
The injured man has his limb tied off tightly above the elbow. Just below the elbow, his arm has been severed and seems to be badly burned. Another large burn covers much of his chest.
"Shahid, tell him what happened." Marin calmly prompts the kneeling man.
He looks up at the Guardian with shock still visible in his eyes. "W-we we're on the southern path. Checking the traps, at the end of the woods. I-it came out of nowhere!"
Marin crouches down next to the young man and puts her hand on his shoulder as tears begin to well in his eyes. "You've got to go on, Shahid. Tell him what attacked you. How it attacked."
"I-I it c-came out of… out of…" He closes his eyes to try and stop the tears. Wet streaks run over his dirty face.
Marin stands up, patting the boy on his back softly. "I haven't been able to get much out of him. The guy on the table… It's his dad," she quietly explains to the Guardian. "I have a good idea about what did this, but I'd rather not go after it blind. Think you can get him talking?"
"I don't know how to-"
Suddenly Spark appears at Klutz's side and floats down to meet the distraught boy. "Your father is going to be alright, Shahid." She speaks softly as she scans over the unconscious man. "He hasn't lost too much blood. You must have got that tourniquet on quick, huh?"
He drys his eyes on his sleeve. "I had to stop the bleeding."
"Did he teach you how to do that?"
"No it was our surgeon… Nadia."
Marin returns to the boy's side. "Nadia will be back real soon. She's just gathering supplies so we can take good care of your pa."
He takes a sharp breath to stifle a sob.
"Well, she taught you very well, Shahid," the Ghost says with a kind and genuine voice. "You've done a good job helping your father, but we still need your help."
The boy hesitantly moves his eyes up toward the gentle machine and the huntress.
Marin lightly grips the boy's arms to help him stand. "We can't let something like this happen to any other folk. You understand?"
Shahid looks down at his feet and nods. Tears leave wet spots on his worn leather boots.
Spark moves closer to the boy to guide his attention. "Marin is right. My friend, Klutz, is going to help her find and stop the thing that hurt your father so it can never hurt anything else."
The boy looks up at the Guardian across the table. "You'll kill it?" he asks with the slightest tremble in his voice.
Klutz is a little caught off guard by the question. He looks at the injured man, laying in his own blood, living on labored breaths. He answers. "Yes. I'll kill it."
"The monster, it came out of nowhere." The boy's face has turned from fear to anger as he elaborates. "One moment we were alone in the woods, just the two of us, the next it appeared out of thin air, right in front of us, and lunged at my pa."
"What did this monster look like, Shahid?" Marin asks plainly.
"It was tall and its eyes lit up blue. It walked on two legs, like a man, but it was nothing like any man I've ever seen." He raises his hands above his head. "It had four arms!"
Spark quickly looks to her Guardian and her shell segments move almost erratically.
Marin also looks Klutz in the eye, unsurprised by the description. She looks back at the boy, noticing his quicker breathing. "What happened next, Shahid? Is that when it hurt your pa?"
"Yes…" He lowers his arms and quiets his voice a little. "First it threw fire at his chest. He was not prepared, so he fell on his back as the fire hit him. Pa yelled at me, told me to run. The monster carried a sword that crackled with lightning. He swung it at Pa… that's how he lost… how he lost his arm."
Marin can see the boy becoming overwhelmed again. "How did y'all get away? Did it leave after hurting your pa?"
The boy looks back at the table where his wounded father lays. "No. When Pa told me to run, I really wanted to. But I didn't listen. The monster pointed its sword at him, it was gonna finish him off. I loosed one arrow. It landed in one of its eyes and all of this bright steam shot out as it screamed." The boy kneels back down and holds his fathers hand again. "The monster turned at me and roared, I thought it would get me next. But instead it pulled out the arrow and disappeared. I tied Pa's arm and dragged him here."
"Thank you, Shahid. You are a very brave man," Spark says before returning to her Guardian's side.
Marin pats the boy's shoulder softly as the surgeon enters the room.