I let the water fall, wipe my hand on my jeans, and draw my knife. The cave is across and down the slope from me, a few hundred meters away, and I move toward it. The hiss is faint but getting slightly stronger. I can feel the animal adrenaline rise a little but I breathe slowly, in and out, calm myself, concentrate on what’s happening.
c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h c h I’m twenty meters from the cave, level with it, my knife in my hand.
C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H
There’s movement below me, a black figure partly hidden by the forest. Then there’s a grunt. I tread softly but quickly down. The black figure moves away from me and is lost in the trees. Only Hunters can be that fast and quiet—no fain could do it. And I follow. We’re racing downhill, fast and silent, and I gain on the figure and see it’s not one but two men in black. And I’m jumping down a small cliff and sliding down the slope on my backside and I’m up again and below them now but they’re further along and I see one black figure leap downhill onto the first. And I run to them and slow. The two black figures are fighting on a small area of flatter ground.
It’s not two Hunters. It’s Nesbitt. The Hunter was chasing him but now Nesbitt has got his arm round the Hunter’s neck. The Hunter’s face is quickly turning purple. Nesbitt looks up as I step toward him but he doesn’t change his grip on the Hunter.
“Kid, you gave me a scare. For a minute I thought you were the other one. I’d love to ask this fella a few questions.”
The Hunter Nesbitt is holding I recognize as Kieran’s partner.
“He won’t tell you anything and we’ve got bigger problems,” I say. “The other one’s invisible. And fast,” I remember to add.
“Great.”
Nesbitt keeps hold of the Hunter and his body jerks and struggles but seems to know it’s already lost. It gives up. Hangs there. It twitches once again and then is still. Nesbitt lowers the body to the ground.
“I know the other Hunter,” I say. “He wants me.” And I know I want him too, and I think I can take him but I’m not sure, if he’s invisible. I wonder if the animal in me will come to help.
I look up the slope. We’ve come a long way.
I say, “Your best chance is to run. I’ll deal with the other one.”
“Sure?”
I keep scanning the mountainside above me but it’s all still and quiet. “Keep out of the way for a few hours is my advice.”
“This one hasn’t got a gun. Just a knife,” Nesbitt says. “They weren’t prepared.”
“Are you staying or going?”
Nesbitt grins at me, says, “Good luck, kid,” then bounds off down the slope. He quickly disappears but I imagine he’ll be back to see which of us, if either, survives.
I turn the other way, going as silently as I can but hard and fast too, back to the cave, listening all the time. I crouch down on the bare rock above the cave and put my knife on the ground in front of me. I’m clearly visible to Kieran but he has to come to me. The forest is as still as ever. The sun is up now, shards of light angling down through the trees. One of the shards to my left blinks off and back on, as if an invisible body has passed through it, and the animal adrenaline races into my bloodstream and I want the animal to take over. A small cascade of rocks clatters and I turn to the sound. Another shard of light blinks off and on and the animal adrenaline is surging and I lick my lips and rise up from my haunches.
C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H
The adrenaline floods into my system.
C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C HC H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H C H CHCHCHCH
One Last Look
“Nathan? That you?” Nesbitt calls as he comes up the slope.
He stops.
I don’t move. Neither does Kieran.
“Oh shit.” Nesbitt turns, bends, and coughs. He coughs again and watery sick slides to the ground. He straightens, takes a breath, and turns to me, keeping his eyes on me, my face, and not on Kieran’s body, which is lying in the mouth of the cave.
“You OK?” Nesbitt asks.
I don’t feel like answering and I just stay still, sitting on the ground. I don’t remember what happened once I transformed. All I know is that I woke up near Kieran’s body, his knife embedded in my left thigh. I pulled it out and healed. I found my clothes, which were in a small pile in the exact spot where I’d waited for Kieran, as if I’d shrunk to nothing and the clothes had dropped off me when I turned into . . . whatever animal I turn into. My father’s ring was by the pile too. I sit and twirl it round my finger now. All the time I’m trying to remember something, anything, but it’s all black.
“How long is it since you left?” I ask.