Malyn was silent for a moment. “Are you planning to leave after you figure things out?”

“Well, I suppose that would depend on what I figure out, wouldn’t it?”

“I guess. Do your parents live in Nuuvatu?”

“Ah… well, that’s another thing we do a little differently. We’re not raised by our parents.”

“Who did raise you, then?”

“Children are raised in groups by specialised carers.”

Malyn didn’t want to be too quick to judge, but he found himself frowning. “Like group homes or something?”

“I’m not sure what that is. We live in groups of about six similarly aged children with two carers who look after us and educate us. I can see why it might sound bad, but it ensures that every child truly has an equal, and positive, start in life. Every carer is thoroughly trained and vetted. No child is mistreated or neglected.”

“That’s not been my experience with institutions raising kids, but I’ll take your word for it,” Malyn said. “So do you have biological siblings, or is it just like the kids you were raised with are your siblings?”

“The latter. I’m still very close with those who ended up in this world. Did you have siblings?”

“I did. I know my mum lost a couple of babies either when I was too young to remember or before I was born. My parents didn’t talk about it much, so that’s about all I know about that. And I had a younger brother.”

“Oh. By ‘had,’ do you mean…?”

“He died.”

“Oh,” Tyla was silent for a moment. “I’m sorry to hear that. What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Some respiratory disease. He was eight. I was ten. We both caught it. I got better and he didn’t. I still have scarring in my lungs, though. Get out of breath quicker than I should and I’m always getting coughs.”

“Do you miss him?”

“Yeah,” Malyn admitted. “It’s weird. Where I was from, death felt like something you had to be a little bit okay with. You had to carry on even when people died much, much too young, because it happened constantly. But then I came here, and things were different, and it took me so long to realise that I was actually a little fucked up by the whole thing and that was why I got so anxious whenever anyone got so much as a cold even once I knew that young, healthy people here don’t usually drop dead from whatever bug winter brought their way.”

“I can’t imagine. Truly, I can’t. We don’t get sick, at least not from communicable diseases. It must be terrifying to be a child and know that’s a battle your little body will have to face, and that it might not win. That a younger sibling will be fighting the same fight and you can’t help.”

Malyn nodded. His throat felt tight. “I like to think that if he had survived and we’d ended up here together, we’d have stayed close. I don’t really know, though. We were kids, and we tend to like to remember the good parts of people after they die.”

Tyla reached out, placed his hand on Malyn’s arm, and just held on.

“Thank you,” Malyn whispered.

Tyla rubbed Malyn’s arm and then squeezed it again. “I’m sorry if I don’t always know the right thing to do or say. I feel like all of you have been through so much more than I have, and so young. Well, you and Finch, anyway. I’m not sure what Adin’s story is.”

“You know, I’ve lived with the man for two years and I knew him casually for years before that, and neither do I, honestly. I think Finch knows. Well, he knows more than I do, anyway.”

“I know nothing at all, but I’ve always felt strange about him being the person who makes me late night peanut butter sandwiches. I’m not sure why, but it feels… unfitting.”

“I agree, but at the same time, who’s to really say where we fit? I’m glad he’s a part of our family and he seems happy with us.”

“Oh, certainly. I never intended to suggest otherwise. It’s just… I don’t know. Incongruous? Though, again, that’s purely speculation when I know so little.”

“Well, as long as he doesn’t stop feeding me, he can be as incongruous as he likes.” Something stirred in the shadows and Malyn went still for half a second. “Hey, don’t react, but I just saw something move over there.”

“Ah. Do you think it’s our dog?”

“Hopefully. I mean, most animals don’t move towards the sound of humans.” Malyn paused, not even breathing as he listened. “I think it’s circling around.”

“What’s our strategy?”

“I don’t think it’ll attack while we’re up here. Too high. I’m guessing it’s planning to wait for us to come down, so I’m going to have to just get it over with. Fortunately, I know how to jump from this height without breaking my ankles.”

“I can make you an arrow, but if it’s waiting to attack, you’ll likely only get one shot at it.”

Malyn scoffed. “When have I ever needed more?”

“Occasionally. You’re not perfect.”

“Oof, harsh words.” Malyn shot him a smile. “I’ll be fine.”

Tyla twiddled his fingers together and swirling purple smoke formed into the shape of an arrow. Malyn took it from him and it buzzed against his skin. Clenching it in his hand was an odd sensation, more akin to trying to push two magnets together than holding a physical object.

Malyn dropped down from the platform, landing on the balls of his feet and letting his body fall into a squat to absorb the impact. He barely had time to stand up properly before the dog burst out from between the trees. He brought his bow up, notched the magical arrow, and let it loose. The dog dropped to the ground instantly, the magical arrow punching a hole through its skull with more force than any normal arrow could muster.

Mayln let out the breath he’d been holding, shot Tyla a smile, and went to examine the body.

Technically, according to Adin, they weren’t dogs. He’d said they appeared to be some kind of giant mustelid. When Malyn had just looked at him blankly, Adin had explained that mustelids were things like ferrets, wolverines, and badgers. Those all seemed like very different animals to Malyn, but it did sort of look like a larger version of something along those lines with its tiny ears, short legs, and not particularly doglike paws.

Malyn glanced back at Tyla as Tyla began to make his way down the ladder.

As Tyla looked in Malyn’s direction, his gaze suddenly leapt to something else. His eyes widened and his mouth opened ready to give a warning. Malyn reached for one of his normal arrows as he turned, but just as he got his fingers around it, his arm was wrenched away.

In the chaos that followed, Malyn assumed he’d made a mistake. That despite the clearly visible hole in its head, the dog had only been playing dead. Its teeth were wrapped around his arm. It tried to pull him by it, but he moved with it, minimising how deeply it tore into his flesh. There was a blinding flash of light and Malyn felt the dog release his arm as he squeezed his eyes shut.

When he opened them again, the dog was lying on the ground, half its body missing. Next to the first dog. Ah. There had been two of them.

“So…” Malyn said. “Think they’ll pay us double for this?”

Tyla was sweaty and even paler than usual. He was breathing heavily. “Are you okay?”

Malyn glanced at his arm. There were clearly defined bite marks in his forearm, but they weren’t bleeding. They looked burnt into his flesh. “I’m fine, but we should probably wash out this acid before it gets any worse. We can come back for the bodies afterwards.”

Tyla gave a shaky nod.

“Hey, I’m okay. It’s over. We know how many dogs originally came through that breach because they were caught on a security camera. The second one out here was a surprise, but we know there can’t be any more. There were only two left unaccounted for.”

“I know, I just…” Tyla gestured vaguely. He still seemed to be having a hard time catching his breath. “It surprised me. And I used too much energy.”

“Oh!” Malyn looked at the dog again. Not only had it been blasted in half, but the forest floor around it was scorched black. “You did go a little overboard. Can you walk?”

Tyla nodded. “Let’s go. We need to take care of your arm.”

Malyn’s arm hadn’t really hurt at all at first, but on the walk back it started throbbing, and then burning. Honestly, Malyn was fine with that. An injury this gnarly should hurt. 

Tyla still looked pretty frail by the time they got back to the bike, but he insisted on digging out the bottle of water Malyn kept in his saddlebags himself.

Malyn held his arm out and bit down on the inside of his cheek as Tyla slowly and carefully poured the water onto the bite.

“Sorry,” Tyla murmured as he pressed against the wound, but Malyn just shook his head. They needed to make sure it was properly cleaned out so that it wouldn’t burn any deeper.

“I think it’s okay now,” Malyn said after a few more minutes of careful rinsing. “It doesn’t feel burny in the same way it did before.”

Tyla nodded. He patted Malyns arm dry with a tissue, dabbed some antiseptic cream over the area, covered it in gauze, and wrapped it in a bandage. 

Malyn examined Tyla’s handwork, nodded, and retrieved a roll of large, heavy duty garbage bags and some duct tape from his saddlebags. “Let’s go get those bodies.”

Tyl hesitated. “Are you sure you don’t want to call Finch and have him come and drive you back? You probably shouldn’t be using your arm, and I don’t think I’ll be much help. Normally I’d use a spell to lighten the weight of the bodies, but I just wasted all that energy. I could try helping you carry them, but I’m not very strong…”

“Tyla, it’s okay,” Malyn said. “I’m fine. I’ll just wrap them up and carry them back one at a time over my shoulder.”

“Okay…” Tyla said, but he still sounded fretty. “Can you drive with your arm hurt?”

“Hold these.” Malyn passed Tyla the garbage bags and duct tape and dug back into the first aid kit. He downed a couple of painkillers. “There. That should tide me over until we get back.”

“Okay. I’m sorry I don’t know any healing magic. It’s tricky, and… well, we have people for that. It would be like training to become a doctor just for your own personal purposes when you don’t plan to work as one.”

“No, that makes sense,” Malyn said as they started walking back into the woods. “There are tons of things that I technically could learn how to do, but like… it would take me years, and for what? Like, humans can do some cool shit. Play piano and do backflips and paint beautiful landscapes. I’d like to be able to do those things, but everything takes time and work to learn. Most people pick just one or two things to focus on.”

“Yes, it’s quite like that.”

“How do you do it? Magic, I mean.”

“It’s like… mental patterns? You have to be able to go through the pattern in your mind and put intention behind it. Patterns can be longer or shorter, simple or more complex. Making arrows for you is short but complex. I can do it quickly, but it took me a long time to memorise the pattern behind it.”

Malyn shot him a smile. “Thanks for learning for me. I like that we get to work together as a team.”

“Me too. You were fine before I got here, so I know you don’t need me, but I’m not much of a fighter on my own. I think I work better as support.”

“I need you in order to be what I am now, and what I am now is better than what I was without you. I mean, no pressure or anything, if you do decide you want to move on…”

“We’re a long lived people. I’m in no rush to go anywhere.”

Getting the dogs into the garbage bags was… an experience. The one Tyla had blasted in half was particularly messy business. Tyla kept apologising for going so overboard on it, but Malyn was just happy his arm was relatively intact. He’d have some gnarly scars, but that would be the extent of the long term damage.

They brought the bodies back to the bike and strapped them to the back. 

Malyn climbed onto the bike and smiled as Tyla tucked in close behind him. “Let’s go collect our bounty.”