The Final Confrontation, Conclusion (534 words)
Moreso, Noga saw his wife’s quiver full of arrows strapped across Nanarex’s body.
“You!” Noga roared. With Nanarex’s arrow in his leg, Noga’s mobility became limited. He lacked the dexterity he had before as he painstakingly turned to face Nanarex. Noga managed to fire off his loaded shot, grazing Nanarex’s shoulder. Nanarex gritted her teeth. Though just a graze, the wound caused enough pain to bring back Nanarex’s regard for her own life. Blood trickled down her upper arm.
Despite his wounded leg, Noga seemed to have something else eating at him. Something about his posture betrayed a weakness growing by the second. His eyes became unfocused. Nanarex didn’t think an arrow to the leg of such a hardened murderer could deter him this much. Something else was wrong with him, and that fact became plain when Noga shot at Nanarex a second time… hitting the tree five yards left of her.
“Damn it all…!” With no equilibrium, Noga fell to one knee, keeping his arrow-ridden leg as straight as he could. His breathing grew raspy, and he seemed to struggle to gather air into his lungs. Once Noga’s gaze found the back of his hand, and that look of fear touched his eyes, Nanarex understood what was happening.
Raust and the two other surviving Warwood men rushed to give Agon first aid. Raust had no idea what he was doing, but he tried to help anyway. They lifted Agon to his feet and supported him away with Noga’s arrow still sticking out of his belly. Noga toppled over, losing his grip on his bow. Nanarex approached him from one side, and Elyson, emerging from his sniping point, approached Noga from the other. Elyson’s unfired arrow still remained secure and loaded in his bow.
Both of them stood over Noga. The brigand leader couldn’t see them anymore; his eyes had clouded over, and now a sickly sweet odor began to emanate from his sweat-drenched pores.
“Lunartick venom,” Nanarex said matter-of-factly, answering Elyson’s unvoiced question. “Of course… that’s why Raust—” She cut off.
“I see,” said Elyson. The boy drew back his nocked arrow, until his bow reached its limit, and his arm began to shake. The arrow was poised over Noga’s head.
“Elyson, no!”
“Do you smell that?” Elyson asked, emotionlessly. “Father says Lunartick venom attracts wildlife. If we let him suffer, we’ll be overrun by wildlife and possibly other Lunarticks by nightfall. It has to be done, Nanarex.”
Elyson let his arrow go. The details of the killing blow were too gruesome for Nanarex to take in, and she turned away to vomit. Perhaps it wasn’t the sight of Noga’s death that caused her to lose her breakfast… that Lunartick venom had a very strong odor.
There they stood, two child-archers, Nanarex of the lost village, and Warwood Elyson, son of the chief, amid the pool of dead bodies belonging to friend and foe alike. The forest drank in their blood today.
“We need to burn these bodies,” Elyson said flatly, hanging his bow over his body. “Lunartick venom isn’t the only thing that’ll attract wildlife.”
Nanarex wiped the last remnants of vomit from her lips and tailed Elyson back into Fort Warwood.