Cole kicked at the charcoals in the fire-pit.

  "Died a little more than six hours ago. They can't be far." He noted to Sonhu.

  Sonhu paced around the haphazard clearing. Small patches of cleared snow revealed where tents had been set up. Winding sets of footprints told the story of the campsite. Likely four to five men. Sonhu and Cole had initially spotted the smoke from the fire a few miles south of their own camp.

  "We make our way down tonight," Cole said to Sonhu.

  Sonhu merely nodded as the two of them trekked the way back to their campsite. They would go down the mountain that night, carrying as much of the game as they could in a few wooden carts, to a small town at the base of the mountain, where Ruffus waited with the cart. Cutting their hunt six days short.

  They quickly pulled out the various parts of the game they had preserved under the snow and organized them. Cole assembled their makeshift cart. The sun crept slowly down the back of the mountain, eventually obscured as long shadows stretched farther and farther.

  Sonhu and Cole were almost finished with their preparation when Sonhu heard the snap of a branch. His ears flicked, and he turned, gazing into the deep shadows of the forest. Cole stopped fastening the tarps over the cart. Following Sonhu's gaze with his eyes, he grabbed his bow, notched an arrow, and aimed it into the woods.

  "Easy there." A voice said to their left. A man stepped out of the shadows and into their clearing. Cole pivoted, aiming at the man. Sonhu watched as two other figures emerged from different parts of the forest.

  "Stand back." Cole threatened.

  "Don't make this hard. We're after your game, not your lives. So let's make this easy." The man said, taking another step forward. The other men raised bows. They were three brawny men, with ragged clothes and ragged shaves, long burly beards, messy hair that seemed to have cut themselves. They wore heavy layers of dirty furs and leather.

  "I am Sir Cole, captain of the Brawnwood Sect. This is property of the Syrgerd Church. Do you wish to violate His will?" Cole tried his church authority on the man.

  "Right, a crusaeder and a beast together in the woods at this time of winter." The man said with a raspy chuckle. He took another step.

  "One more step," Cole said, his tone firm.

  "And what?" The man said, "You are gravely outnu-"

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  As the man took another step, Cole released the arrow, and it spiraled through the air and landed with a satisfying thunk in the center of the man's chest. Sonhu jumped to the snow where his bow lay and grabbed an arrow, notching it and aiming it at one of the other woodsmen.

  Cole turned as well to the woodsmen, only to be greeted with their arrows. One flew right by his ear and landed in the snow a little bit behind Sonhu, the other one landed in Cole's shoulder, causing Cole to release the arrow he had half drawn, landing in the snow just in front of him.

  Cole ducked behind the cart and began notching another arrow. Sonhu aimed and released his arrow at one of the men. The arrow landed in his knee. He let out a yowl as he fell to the ground.

  Out of the corner of Sonhu's eye, he saw an arrow flying towards him, and he narrowly avoided it. Falling back into the snow. This arrow had come from somewhere else in the forest. A fourth man.

  Sonhu grabbed the arrow that had landed behind him, notched it, as another arrow whizzed past him. Cole stood up above the cart and released an arrow into the skull of the third woodsman, who fell to the ground limp. A woodsman emerged from the woods and charged Cole. Cole quickly drew a knife and began a melee with this woodsman.

  This woodsman had come from a different part of the woods than the arrows, which meant there was still one out there. Sonhu pressed closer into the woods, expecting another arrow, but none came.

  Suddenly, a woodsman lunged at Sonhu with a buck knife. He had appeared from a bush and clumsily attacked. Sonhu easily dodged, and as the woodsman turned to make a second lunge, Sonhu shot an arrow into his chest at point-blank range.

  This woodsman dropped his knife and fell backwards into a pile of leaves as he began choking on blood. This woodsman was much younger than the rest, smaller, and his beard more a stubble.

  Sonhu turned back to Cole, who had killed the fifth woodsman, who lay in a pool of blood on the ground beside him, but a sixth woodsman now held Cole in a chokehold. Cole was struggling to break free from the woodsman's hold.

  Sonhu, with no arrows left, dropped his bow, drew his knife, and charged the man. Jumping on his back, he felt a jolt of shock run through the woodsman, as Sonhu pulled his head back with his hair, up to the sky. He raised his dagger, glinting in the sunlight, before it was brought violently down into the eye socket of that man.

  His grip on Cole released, as he fell backwards into the ground on top of Sonhu. A pain burned in Sonhu's back where he had landed on his side.

  When Sonhu managed to get him off, he rushed to Cole's side. There was a deep cut in his leg, as well as the arrow in his shoulder. Sonhu began to treat the wound with water when Cole stopped him and said,

  "Confirm the kills." His breath was labored.

  Sonhu went to each of the bodies and drove his knife into their skulls like he had done with all the other game.

  Sonhu had to follow the trail of blood of the woodsman he had shot in the knee. The man had pleaded mercy as Sonhu turned him over and held him down while he confirmed the kill.

  Sonhu then returned to Cole, cleaning his wound. Wrapping the wound with torn pieces of the tarp. He dragged Cole across the blood-soaked snow and back into their sleeping hole. Sonhu went back to the cart, grabbing the sleeping bags and some of the hides from their hunt.

  Sonhu wrapped Cole in them. Cole made no protest, closing his eyes to rest.

  Sonhu looked back into the clearing. Night now fully upon them, he would have to stand guard for the entire night. He walked through the clearing, gathering his bow and as many arrows as he could find.

  Hopefully, they could make their descent tomorrow.