Gideon expected the male deer to bolt the moment it spotted him, especially because he had the carcass of another deer clearly slung over his back. At least Gideon would have run, were he the one to confront a hunter who had just killed one of his own.

The buck did not bolt.

He cursed softly as its red eyes stared into his, unafraid and unhinged. Its breaths came in small white clouds, thanks to the chill of the forest. Gideon stared at it for a long moment before taking a slow step back, seeking silent retreat.

He really did not want to have this fight. Killing one was hard and exhausting enough. He wasn't sure he had it in him to kill a second.

His foot crunched on dry twig, letting out a snap that resounded on the trunks of trees around. The buck let out an angry snort in response. It lowered its head, pointing horns that could impale three men at the same time towards Gideon.

Then it charged.

With a curse, Gideon let the carcass slide off his shoulder, grabbing an axe from his side with a bloodstained hand. He pulled it free just before the buck reached him, giving him enough time to dive out of the way.

The beast thundered by, hooves tearing up dirt and leaves as it tore past Gideon, unable to stop. Gideon, though, landed in a roll, twisting to face the buck. Not waiting for it to turn to face him again, he charged it.

The buck had halfway turned when Gideon met it, axe first. The heavy weapon slammed into the side of the animal, and Gideon's momentum sent them both over the side of a small hill they stood on.

The two skid through the leaves, coming to a hard stop against the other at the base of a huge redwood tree. They lay dazed for several seconds, lungs heaving with effort.

The buck recovered first, twisting its heads to impale with its horns. Gideon barely caught its head in his hands, grunting with the effort to keep the horns from his face. He began losing the battle though, and slowly they turned toward him.

Suddenly, just as it seemed he could hold no longer, the muscles in the buck's neck spasmed, and it let out a bellow of pain. The action surprised Gideon and he nearly lost his grip on the head, hands slick from the blood of his last kill.

Fortunately, the buck was now attempting to flee, but Gideon's axe had snapped something important in its forelimb. It jerked violently, then slowed, head drooping. It took a few seconds for its struggles to cease.

Gideon let out a relieved breath, crawling backwards from the animal as he tried to figure out what had killed it and whether it could kill him too. The answer showed itself when he spotted a pair of arrows protruding from the buck's hide.

The leaves rustled as Dawn revealed herself from the shadows of a group of overhanging branches. She gave him a hard gaze, almost accusing.

Gideon was too exhausted to acknowledge it, and all he felt was relief that he might not have to carry the dead deer - unfortunately plural - back to camp.

"It would have killed you, had I not interfered." Dawn noted quietly as she reached the deer. She put her foot against it and yanked the two arrows out of it.

"Good thing you payed attention during archery classes, then." Gideon groused as he pushed to his feet, leaning against another redwood away from the dead buck to catch his breath.

"You need to pay more attention, Gideon," Dawn continued, not turning from the deer as she brought out a hunting knife and drew it across the its neck. "If you insist on hunting alone," She added.

"What I need is rest." Gideon answered irritatedly, stooping to pick up his axe. He wiped the sharp edge of blood on a patch of moss growing on a nearby boulder before replacing it on his hip with its twin. "Do the others know you're here?"

"I don't need their permission." Dawn answered as the last of the blood poured from the gaping cut in the bucks neck. She tied its forelimbs and hindlimbs together with a length of cord hanging from her belt, her movements jerky with barely contained frustration.

Gideon knew why, but he didn't feel up to asking.

After the spiders attacked two days before, and Dawn's flames had devoured them all, everyone had been more than wary around her, careful not to do any thing that might trigger another occurrence of the heavenly inferno. It didn't help that all four of them had gotten second degree burns from it. Most of the damage had healed off, but the memory remained.

"You can haul that one?" He asked, walking off in the direction of the carcass he dropped. He didn't wait for her answer, slipping between the tree trunks. He spotted the other deer, stooping to grab it by its tied legs.

As he straightened with the catch on his shoulders, Dawn marched past him, her kill on her shoulder. She didn't even stagger. That irritated Gideon to no small extent.

The trudge through the forest was silent, the dark shadows of the forest around them seemingly full of watching eyes. 

This time, Gideon was more careful to keep his steps quiet and watch for any signs of other animals, predators or not. At least this time, he had Dawn with him. If he'd met another deer while alone... he pushed the thought away.

He felt the tenseness of his shoulders ease as he spotted the familiar tree they'd set camp in through the jagged shadows of the trees. After several skirmishes with the smaller terrors of the forest, distant cousins of squirrels and ants that had as much in common with the originals as Gideon did with a night-beast, they began using the branches of sturdy trees as their camp. It gave the added benefit of giving them a good view of the forest, with ample warning if they needed to flee.

They reached the base of the tree, and Gideon waited by it as Dawn walked around the space between it and other trees, searching for anything out of place. When she gave him a positive signal, Gideon unsheathed his hunting knife and rapped it on the tree trunk. A rope unfurled from the branches in answer, and within moments Gideon was being pulled up several feet in the air, catch in tow.

Alexander balanced on a branch at the top, hands gripping his end of the rope. A faint sheen of sweat covered his forehead from the exertion of pulling Gideon up.

"That's a nice catch." He noted, nodding appreciatively.

"It was a hell of a demon to catch." Gideon answered with a tired grin, swinging off the rope onto the branch beside him. The other hunter eyed him for a long second before turning back to the rope. Within seconds, Dawn had joined them, her kill on her shoulder.

Gideon noticed the reprimanding glare Alexander gave Dawn for running off, and her blatantly ignoring it. He chose to follow suit, unwilling to get into an argument.

"Jacqueline is still scouting?" Gideon grunted as he let the carcass of the deer slide off his shoulders, balancing it in the crook of a branch.

"She is." Alex answered, pulling out a hunting knife from his pack and settling down to skin their dinner. "Since she's been gone so long, I'm going to assume she found something interesting. That or she's avoiding Dawn's pleasant presence..." He added under his breath.

"If you're going to speak about me, do it out loud." Dawn growled from where she was washing her hands from a water-skin, the mixture of blood and water cascading down to the earth below.

"I mean no harm, Dawn, but would it hurt you to be a little less prickly?" Alexander said the words like they'd been dragged out of him with a knife; with great reluctance.

"And what exactly do you mean by prickly?" Dawn asked, eyes going hard.

"That..." He gestured vaguely at her expression, "is what I mean by prickly. Quick to pick an argument. For goodness sake, Jacqueline is now afraid to start an argument with you."

Gideon was honestly only half listening to their argument, his mind on how much he would enjoy his dinner, especially after how hard it had tried to kill him. Which meant he was the first to hear the distant howl that filtered faintly through the trees.

His head snapped up and he froze, waiting for the sounds. "Quiet," He barked at the still bickering Dawn and Alexander. They gave him looks of surprise, but obliged, taking note of his alert stance.

"What is it?" Alexander whispered, grip tightening on the hunting knife in his hand.

"Listen." Gideon answered, trying to filter out the ambient noise of the forest around them.

The faint howl came again, clear this time. They all heard it, hands swiftly grabbing weapons by their sides. Fight abandoned, Dawn and Alexander grabbed their packs and dropped off the branches they sat on, landing silently on the forest floor.

Gideon considered for a second before jumping down too, pack in hand, deciding that being able to run immediately was better than being able to spot the threat from afar. And it was fast becoming clear that his meal was not to be.

He tied the pack securely around his back, pulling both axes, Phobos and Deimos, from his belt.

"We can't leave without Jacqueline."

Gideon was surprised to hear the thoughtful sentence from Dawn, but before he could express his surprise, Jacqueline herself raced into the clearing, panting with exertion.

"Night-beasts... to the... south... raided... village." She gasped out, bent over as she heaved to catch her breath.

"How many?" Gideon asked, not waiting for her breathing to calm. Every second they stood here was one where they could be escaping or fighting."

"About six by my count." She managed, seeming to notice for the first time that the others were all wielding weapons and glancing nervously about. She gave Gideon a nervous glance as she pulled out a short sword from her cloak.

"Shit." Gideon grit his teeth at the answer. Six night-beasts against four hunters. Four inexperienced hunters who hadn't even figured out how to control their mage gifts.

Running would be the smarter option.

Jacqueline seemed to sense his line of thought.

"The village is a small one, Gideon, two hundred at the most." She pleaded. "The hunter guild can't have spared them any hunters. Right now, we're their only chance at survival."

Gideon wasn't even sure he had a chance at survival against a night-beast himself, but the thought of allowing two hundred innocents to be brutally torn apart by night-beasts wasn't one that he could even let his mind entertain.

It was their duty as hunters to defend the helpless from night-beast attacks. No matter the cost to themselves, their duty clearly called. Running might have been the smarter option, but fighting was the right one.

He still wondered why the decision was his to make, why the other three had turned to him to hear his answer.

"If we're going to save anyone, we're going to have to go fast." He growled, turning in the direction Jacqueline had come from. "Unless we want to meet a village full of corpses."

The others didn't need anymore persuasion, tearing off after Jacqueline as she led them to the site of attack. Gideon followed closely behind, praying to God that this weren't his last moments before they met.