The Last: Endling #1

Byx wakes to find that she is lying across the back of a horse. She recalls some of what has happened, but not everything. She recognizes the boy riding the horse as the poacher’s guide. He stops the horse and removes the arrow from Byx’s side, covering it with a balm and bandage. As the boy works, Byx recalls what happened and is filled with both grief and rage. Byx notes the boy’s weapons and realizes that her own hands have been tied. When her wound has been treated, they remount the horse and continue on. Byx tries to pay attention to her surroundings so that she will know the way home once she escapes, but she finds it difficult to concentrate on anything but her grief.

They travel for hours, even though Byx can see that the boy is growing tired. Byx thinks she hears someone calling her name but comes to believe it is only her grief. Byx recalls the details of a conversation she once overheard when her parents thought that she and her siblings were asleep. In the conversation, Maia expressed fear that Byx might be the first to die when trouble came, but Byx’s father expressed an even darker fear: the fear that Byx might be the last to live.