Bismarck's (attempts at) Dailies

It was a beautiful day for a hunt, or so Talya's instructor had said. The sky was clear and the sun bright, a cool summer wind rolling through the trees as she crept through the forest on the mountainside. Talya glided like a shadow between the trunks with her bow in hand as she searched for a target. Her task for today was to bring a single deer, nothing more, nothing complicated. Talya wanted something more interesting, something in the higher peaks like a young wyvern or a ram, but if she was asked to hunt deer, she would.

Not far behind her was Ser Tora, her instructor, a veteran of a thousand hunts over his lifetime. He moved so silently it was as if he never touched the ground; his booted feet passed over fallen leaves and branches without disturbing them. He stopped and raised one hand, and Talya darted to the nearest tree and stopped. He pointed ahead. A stream ran down the mountain, and a pair of deer were having a drink there; a doe and her fawn. Talya looked at her instructor.

"Take the fawn." he mouthed silently, drawing his bow. Talya glanced back at the pair. Then she looked back at Ser Tora. His cold grey eyes met hers, his face stern and still. She nodded and nocked an arrow. She shifted to a better posture and drew, aiming down for the fawn. A moment of silence.

Ser Tora's arrow flew, hers did not. His found its mark in the doe's neck and it fell, the fawn scattering. Talya's arrow came a moment later and missed as the fawn panicked and ran. Ser Tora glided from the shadows and moved to collect the kill.

"Talya." he called. She emerged from the shade and he turned his steely gaze back to her, and she was unable to meet it. "You didn't loose."
"I did, ser."
"You loosed late."
"I know, ser."
"Look at me." he said. She did so. "We were to take them both. Now the fawn has escaped down the mountain. Go after it."
"Ser?"
"It will die without its mother regardless. It would be mercy." said the custodian. "Go." With a nod, Talya went after the fawn. It wasn't hard to find. The fawn had run a ways down the stream and taken shelter behind a brush, pressed as flat against the ground as it could. Talya took a position behind a nearby tree and reached for an arrow. The fawn's large eyes were filled with fear, its ears pressed flat against its head. Talya hesitated again, her hand lowering slightly. She looked at the black tattoo on the back of her hand, of the eye. After a moment Talya kissed it, and recited a prayer she had never spoken before.

"Forgive me for that which I do in your name."

She loosed an arrow.