Cahir cursed. There were seven. Initially he thought they were six. Three of them stood with their dripping maws to the ground, lapping up bone and brains alike, the other three kept watch, each of them standing in between feeding ones.
Skin hung off them like tattered clothing. Some of their ribs were exposed and Cahir realized what a fucking idiot he was. His bow was in the cave, had he brought that he could have killed them from afar and avoided all of this entirely. The three ghouls standing guard hadn't done a thing. They'd just placed their gleaming evil eyes on him and snarled. That's when he realized his mistake. They weren't staring at him. They were staring behind him. The seventh-

Cahir whirled out of the way when he heard the panting breathing and the clawed feet scraping their way across slippery stones and rotting entrails. The ghoul's jaw clamped down on his right elbow. The teeth cut through leather like butter. The sharp, stabbing pain made his mind focus, he wrenched his arm free and took some of its teeth with him.

He braced himself and landed a kick right in the middle of the beast's chest. The sound it made was almost human. It flew backwards, landed amidst the muck on the ground and the piercing shriek seemed to affect the others.

He needed to move. Now.

He did the only reasonable thing he could think of. He leapt onto the rock, stepping off a partially eaten torso and tried to keep his balance long enough to steady himself and keep his wounded arm close to his side. The elbow hurt like hell, and the putrid saliva mixed with his own blood.

The three ghouls still on the ground sniffed the air, loud snarling croaking out from their throats.

Fuck. Well. He'd been in worse situations before, chained to a wall, his head on a block, running through sewers-

The ghouls flew at him one at a time, he sliced his sword halfway through the leg of one but it didn't seem to care.

It merely yelped as the steel cut through flesh and kept attacking. They were frenzied. They had smelled his blood and he knew that if they caught him they'd eat him alive.

According to the legends he'd read at the castle they were once human. Forced to resort to cannibalism to survive. The ones who didn't die turned to this-

Cahir moved his sword over to his left hand and spat. How difficult was it to just murder the fucking girl? It had to be simpler than this.

His sword stuck the second one right in the armpit, the force of it sliced through the entire arm and took half its head with it.

'Need help?' Her sing-songy voice pissed him off. He had half the mind to throw the fucking sword at her instead to make her keep her mouth shut until he understood why.

The ghouls ran for her and her bleeding arm.

What the fuck had she done-

Cahir groaned. His right arm was useless. It hung limply by his side and sent bolts of pain all the way up to his neck every time he tried to lift a finger. And right now, the three last ghouls ran for her. She merely stood by the river and laughed, blood running down her arm and dripping to the ground.

The snarling, reeking beasts circled her and he once again cursed himself for not bringing a bow. If he had he'd shoot them all and bring her head with him home. He smirked a little at the expression that would present itself on her pale face once she realized who he was. He had wondered if he knew the soldiers on the ground, perhaps he'd trained them himself?

The ball of fire she hurled at him made him forget about dead soldiers and promises.

He ducked, and his limp arm hit the rock with a painful smack. He'd have to hide it. Hide it from her long enough to get back to the cave and find a potion for it. Anything that could heal it. If she realized he'd been hurt her half-stated threat about taking his horse and leaving him would become more real.

Cahir slid off the rock and reacted. The last ghoul was near the woods now, trying to run. Trying to get away from the raging inferno that was the mage behind it. Auri still laughed, laughed as the flames licked at her arms and charred the simple leather bracers she wore to protect herself.

Cahir widened his stance, raised his arm, placed his injured hand on the pommel of his sword and sent it flying toward the woods.

It hit the ghoul in the neck at the same time as Auri's last crackling ball of fire. He assumed he should thank her for actually following him, but-
'What the fuck were you thinking?' he shouted at her over the sounds of the dying ghoul. Auri turned to him and her shining green eyes darkened.
'What do you mean? You told me to follow, I did exactly what you told me to do!'

Cahir scoffed. He tried to lift his right arm but only managed a small jittery movement, if he didn't fix it soon he'd lose it. Ghoul-bites were not something he should take lightly. Not here.
'Oh, really?' he stated and stepped toward her. The fire in her palm dissipated and flickered out. 'You chose to help only when everything went to hell? Not before? How long were you standing there, bleeding?'
'A thank you would have sufficed,' she snapped and bent down to the ghoul, placing a hand into it's bleeding mouth. Rotting skin was torn apart with a squelch when she pried a row of fangs from it. She turned to him again and tossed three teeth at his feet.
'Take this back to Redania. It should be proof enough. I found your ghouls, now get out of here and leave me alone.' Her eyes flared. She shoved the unruly mess of dark hair away from her face and wiped the stinking ghoul saliva off her chin.

Cahir loosed a breath. Either she was on to him, finally having understood that his being here was no coincidence, or she was just tired of having to summon flame to incinerate ghouls. He'd seen what magic did to Fringilla and the mages aiding them at Sodden, he knew the cost of chaos and how it presented itself. His fingers wrapped around the dagger dangling from his belt. She wasn't looking, her face was turned to the moon as she kept gathering ghoul-teeth. Cahir sucked in a breath and pushed the tip of the dagger into his already wounded arm and dragged it across the back of it, splitting leather and skin alike.

'I'll leave at first light. I need to tend to this first,' he said and pointed at his now bleeding arm. Auri turned and narrowed her eyes.
'Did they bite you?'
'No, one of them scratched me.' he lied. If he got back to the cave and she thought he was incapacitated, killing her would be easier. He'd just wait until she was asleep, pierce her heart and drag her dark-haired head back to Emhyr. Simple.

Auri rolled her eyes and picked up her sword.
'Some commander you are,' she said lightly and walked back to the mountainside, ghoul-teeth rattling in a small pouch hanging from her belt.

Oh, if she knew.

Cahir dropped down on the cave floor, placed his wrist in his lap and began untying the straps holding his bracers on. The cut wasn't that deep, if she looked at it she'd send him away in an instant. He wasn't that worried about the cut. No, he was worried about the black lines streaming down his arm from his elbow. He poked a finger at it and winced. He turned to his saddle bag and rummaged through it with shaking hands. The bleeding had stopped for now, which he assumed was good. Blood poisoning would kill him faster than the bite itself. He wrapped his trembling fingers around a strip of linen and a small bottle of pepper vodka. He hated the fucking liquid more than anything but it was useful in staving off infections-

He uncorked the bottle with his teeth and emptied all of it over the linen. His eyes moved to her bedroll, gently tucked in near the biggest stalagmites, shielding her from wind and view.
Her chest moved softly up and down underneath her folded hands. She slept with her sword next to her and a thumb eerily close to her middle finger. She'd burn him in a second if she noticed him. The bow was his best bet. He'd take the head after.

Cahir bit down on his tongue to keep from hissing as he tightened the strip around his wounded arm, the alcohol burnt so bad his eyes watered, and slowly the bruising, bleeding skin and the burning feeling of the bite gave way to the smell of alcohol and iron. He sat there for a few minutes gently flexing fingers and rolling his wrist. There was no way in hell he'd be able to nock an arrow with a useless arm.

Auri turned over in her sleep, her green cloak partially covering her face. Cahir stirred. She moved her hand under her head, curled up, dragged her knees up under her chin and hummed. A low, soft melody, that made her face ease up and the perpetual wrinkle between her eyebrows smoothed out. He didn't recognize the melody but it reminded him of the elves in Cintra. The songs they used to sing while drunk on the Emperor's wine.

Cahir rose from the floor and grabbed his sword. It had to be now. If he took her head, rode through the night and stopped for nothing he'd be back in Cintra in a couple of days. He'd be able to get his arm looked at, deliver her to the Emperor and get his fucking life back. He'd no longer be a disgraced grave-digger, he'd be back at Emhyr's side helping him plan his conquest of the rest of the continent. He had no other choice. Killing her would stop her from decapitating and incinerating more of his soldiers, King Foltest would eventually allow the envoys to speak with him and the Emperor would have gained an ally in the North. All he had to do was kill her.

The steel was cold in his palm, sweat ran from his forehead and dripped soundlessly to the ground, he tried to be still, to focus his breathing and move softly across the sand-strewn ground. She was still on her side.

Auri groaned a little when he placed the tip of his sword to the back of her neck. Her hair flowed out across the cave floor, dirt, moss and blood already plastering it to her scalp. She looked peaceful there, not a single care in the world.
If he had to die he would choose battle, he wanted to die with his sword in his hand, staring down countless enemies and feeling their rage as he killed them, and then, when he got too tired and too slow he'd welcome the slice to his neck or gut. He'd welcome the feeling of life leaving him, knowing he had done his duty to the White Flame and to finally have repaid him for that little scared boy he'd saved all those years ago. But her, he should give her a quick death. One push of his sword and she'd be dead.

She'd been at Sodden. She had been fighting in that inferno the same as him. She'd fled. She was still fleeing. If she had been in good standing with the mages of Aretuza she would have made her way back there, she wouldn't run around by the banks of the Yaruga slaughtering soldiers-
Where was home? She kept talking about home..

Cahir thought of the Emperor and what he owed him. He owed him everything, his very life. This was his way back into his good graces, killing a rogue mage. That was it. It should have been easy.

He placed weight on the sword. His right arm still shook, it didn't matter how much he tried to keep it still. The torn leather glinted red and bloody and the scarce light from the moon illuminated his blackening skin. He had been poisoned.
Fuck.
Cahir's eyes flared and he tightened his grip on the steel.