Chapter 27
Tristan
The ground trembles under the hoofs of the massive bull, and I barely have a moment to leap off Stone’s back and stand between the beast and Nate. My shadows take root in the dirt, reinforcing my stance, and I draw my sword just as lava-red eyes flash in front of my face.
There’s fear, of course. This beast could paint the cobbles with my steaming guts, but I’m intimately familiar with that emotion. Without fear, bravery is just bravado, and only by mastering one’s dread can a knight carry out their duties to the realm and its people.
That’s what my father always told me. And he died by that credo.
I would be proud to die fighting for Nate’s safety.
My sword clashes with the twisted horns, and as sparks fall, melting the snow, the beast leaps back, making the pebbles rustle around us. Our collision was so intense my arms ache, and I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to fight this bull before my strength gives out.
My sword looks impossibly small in front of the muzzle exhaling smoke in my face
I’d yell at Stone to take Nate away, but two more bulls are already approaching from the other side.
I swear under my breath, and as the animal huffs out more smoke through his nostrils, I grab one of the horns and tug on with every ounce of strength in my body, directing it away from my mount and beloved.
Every muscle in my body burns, spine on the brink of breaking, but I shall protect Nate with everything I have. As moon is my witness, I will not fail him again.
“Stand down,” I scream into the bull’s face.
It exhales, stepping back only to charge, stabbing the twin weapons upon its head at my torso. I spin aside, taking it even farther from my precious human, who’s now yelling my name.
I don’t want to hurt the beast. Its hide is almost as thick as a dragon’s, and besides, it’s simply following its nature, but when it attempts to skewer me in a wild charge, I slam the dull side of my blade on its forehead while the herd roars in fear.
The blow resonates with pain up my arm, but I know these bulls.
They fight with their heads and will accept defeat if attacked this way.
“I said walk away!” I roar, staring into its eyes without blinking.
If I fail, my last resort will be using my wings. I can grab Nate and fly, but then I’d be leaving Stone to the horns, and I can’t do that. My kelpie deserves better after all our adventures together.
I sense the heat from the bull’s nostrils on my cheeks and the smoke leaves soot on my hands, but I don’t let go.
And then, with an angry huff, the bull relents. It steps back so abruptly I almost fall forward. He doesn’t charge, just stares at me as if I’m to know why he’s so furious about us riding on the road. I back toward Stone, never taking my eyes off the animal.
“It’s all right,” I tell Nate, pretending my arms aren’t on fire. I’d rather him think I’m indestructible.
I carefully place one foot after the other, so he doesn’t notice how weak I feel, but then he’s reaching out for me, brows low over those expressive dark eyes. “I thought it was about to kill you… Tristan…”
“Stay in the saddle. Stone, if the bull comes at us again, make a run for it.” I grab the lead and pull the kelpie along with the sword in my hand. My heart is pounding, because while I know this herd well, I can’t anticipate their every move.
They’re acting strange. Some of the cows in the field are walking in a circle, and the few bulls watch from afar, clamoring like a fire warning in a big city with narrow streets.
“Maybe we should go back,” Nate tries, but I am not letting this spoil our day out. I’d rather he believes I’m the master of beasts and thinks about the moment I protected him deep into the night.
I want him to know I would jump into the fire for him.
With the bulls relenting, the cows forming a moving wall ahead of us have no choice but to comply, and as I lead Stone farther down the road, toward the village, moonlight reveals a trembling mound of flesh in our way.
I frown, hesitating whether I want someone as sensitive as Nate to witness the death of an animal that might have been bitten by a despair, but I hear him rise in the stirrups just as the cows hum around us.
“This poor animal… what’s happening?” Nate asks.
The cow’s black fur is matted with sweat, and the unearthly moans it makes speak of pain. I look back at the bull, but it is now kept away by the cows which murmur in unison every now and then, their voices so low the ground trembles under my feet.
“Stay back,” I say to Nate as we get closer and I sheathe my sword.
“I’ll check it for wounds.” And if it’s impossible to save her, I might just have to show the kind of mercy Nate won’t be happy to witness.
I could take Nate to the village and alert the herd’s keepers, but if a despair is still attached to the cow like some giant leech, I need to dispatch it so it doesn’t attack any elves.
“Maybe I can help it!” Nate shouts, and I hear Stone blow air out in a doubtful huff.
Under the watchful gazes of the other cows, I approach, with my palms up. The beast’s spine is level with my head even as it lies on the road, and once I’m close, I soon find the source of her distress.
An elongated white bulge emerges from her body, streaked with blood, and for a moment I’m certain this poor animal is evacuating its own bowels, but then the protrusion twitches, and my heart starts beating faster.
“She’s giving birth. But why—”
“Something must be wrong,” Nate calls out, and I only glance his way when his boots meet the cobbles with a loud thud.
I get up, frantic to reach him when he slips, but Stone raises his skull-head and keeps my human upright.
That will be an additional sugar cube for dessert for my trusty steed!
Words are stuck in my throat as Nate joins me, because he’s been through so much I fear the sight of blood and twitching flesh might set off his fears. There is no hesitation as he approaches the trembling cow and places both hands on her head, which is bigger than his entire upper body.
“Shh, girl. I won’t hurt you…”
I look around, wary of the cows changing their minds about our presence, but nothing alarming happens, so I turn all my attention to Nate. There’s none of the terrified trembling I’ve seen him succumb to, and his breathing is even. He scoots down, unbothered by the blood and unpleasant smells.
“Maybe we could fetch a medic,” I say and stroke the cow’s sweaty head.
The moment of silence is noticeably long, but then Nate takes a breath and rises.
“I’m here,” he tells me as if it’s the most obvious thing in the universe.
I stall and watch him move, fingers never leaving the heifer’s skin, as if he wants to reassure her that it’s still him, that there are no unknown actors who didn’t let her smell them.
Nate scoots behind the cow, brows low over focused eyes. “I need light.”
I don’t question him anymore. He told me about his experience with animals, and if he feels he can handle this, then so be it.
I run over to Stone and grab a lantern off his side. As soon as I kneel with it next to Nate, I turn it on. A few of the cows let out harumpfs next to us, but they’ve seen swamplight, and thankfully it doesn’t alarm them.
“What now? What do you think is wrong?” I ask, spotting a calf’s leg moving beneath the semi-translucent sac.
“It’s probably stuck,” Nate says before shaking off the fine outerwear, until he’s only wearing the tight riding outfit. I don’t know much about the particulars of cattle rearing, but when my human gently tugs on what is currently out, a bout of nausea tightens around my throat.
Nate isn’t moved, even though the cows could overwhelm and trample us. Even though there’s so much fluid and blood. Even though the expecting mother could kill him with one kick to the head.
He’s calm, focused, and by the time he reaches inside the cow, I don’t try to stop him.
He knows what he’s doing.
In this world of unknowns, he’s found himself in the perfect time and place.
There’s a lot of push and pull, and I get nervous when the other animals close in, humming like a choir, but then one head is followed by another, and the calf lies on the cobbles, twitching inside the sac.
“Knife,” Nate demands, and when I offer it to him, he cuts through the layers of membrane, revealing four big red eyes. “Poor thing…” he whispers as if to not alarm the mother.
This is not the first two headed calf I’ve seen, but I realize that might not be the case for Nate. “It’s all right. You got it out,” I stroke his back, weirdly proud.
He’s been through so much, yet as soon as he saw the animal in need, dropped everything to help.
So what if we’re now dirty, stink, and are in no shape to go to the village anymore?
We got to do a good deed. Well, Nate did.
I would have been lost without him here.
I knew he was an animal healer back home, but I had no idea he would have such a good sense for the beasts of the Nightmare Realm!
“Yes but it probably won’t live long,” he says, watching two of the other cows approach the new mother, almost as if they were offering help.
The calf wiggles its skinny legs and makes a needy whine. I stroke its head. Then the other. “Why? Looks healthy to me. It’s not every day we get one like it, but I’ve seen them live on.”
Nate exhales, smiling when the heifer finally rises and licks slime off its baby, only to then stroke her long, meaty tongue along Nate’s arm.
He laughs, catching my gaze, and for the first time since I saved him from Gloombane’s tower, there are no clouds to disperse his joy.
It’s shining through in his gaze and smile, as warm as the sun he’s grown under.
I’m so in love with him.
But if he never chooses me again, I wish to at least keep him in my life as a friend.
“Really? It has a good chance?”