“Sleeping, the Boar burned perhaps that little bit less than it would awake. Still, to look at it for too long hurt our eyes.

  “We snatched glances in near silence for some time. I don’t know if the trees between us lessened the glare or put it into stark relief, but they certainly made me feel a little safer. Not much, as I couldn’t imagine them putting up much resistance to the monster, but a little safer.

  “The Boar lay fast asleep on its side, as large as a house even lying down. It faced away from us, so we were looking at its heaving back. Every part of the Boar shone with a bright light, and the regular rising and falling of its body caused bristles to spark against each other, shooting sparks up into the night sky. People say that the Boar breathed a sheet of flame that set the forest alight. That’s not what we saw. The creature was just so hot that grasses, trees, plants were ready to burst into flame around it. Its snores shook the branches of the trees, shook the ground, shook our courage.

  “Shev was the first to speak.

  “‘We should go.’

  “His whisper shook me from my reverie. I rubbed my eyes, trying to blink away the spots, and looked about. Gwilm had moved closer to the Boar, his bow unslung, arrow notched. He looked back at the rest of us as if surprised to see us there. Galad was not far behind him, his boar spear levelled at the sleeping monster. The serjeant, as far as I could tell, was stood exactly where he had spotted the Boar, and Torrea had moved a little to one side. The rest of us had stepped back a pace or two from the beast, but Shev spoke from the darkness, as if he was half gone already.

  “Jerrol was next to speak. Usually, he kept a mocking tone in his voice that I had come to despise, although I think that was as much jealousy as anything else. Now it was determinedly flat and steady, although I heard a hint of fear that scared me more than Shev’s near panic.

  “‘Is this our best chance? Do we try to kill it while it sleeps?’

  “Not-Tomlines tilted his head towards his fellow. ‘It’s not what I’d planned. But it might work. We need...’ he trailed off, beckoned the two woodsmen over to him. A few whispers later, and Alric dropped his pack to the floor, before both men headed off into the trees, circling around the boar. The serjeant picked up Alric’s pack and headed back the way we had come. Shev scurried after him in eager hope.

  “We didn’t travel far. There was a large spreading oak we had passed a few hundred feet back, set back from the path of the boar’s travel but visible from it. Here we stopped and the serjeant bade us eat and drink.

  “Alric returned alone. He and the serjeant sat together, heads almost touching, while he made his report. I saw Torrea subtly move closer, Jerrol doing the same thing more openly, although I don’t think either of them heard anything much before the serjeant stood and addressed us all.

  “‘We’ve sent word ahead to Appleford. I don’t know if the Boar will head there, but they might need all the warning they can get, as well as the same information about the beast that Alric brought back to us.’ The thought that this was in case of our failure flitted through my head, and I think everybody else’s too.

  “‘The original plan was to lure the Boar into Maiden’s Mere. There the water should quench its fire, the mud maybe slow its movement. That’s still a plan. Whatever happened to the last party to find it shows that the Boar will pursue if attacked. We’ll attract its attention with slingshot and bow, retreat into the Mere and hope it gets too deep before it realises what is happening. Water, rather than fire, for this one, Ulthunc.’ Gwilm shot me a grim nod of what might have been approval. I was both surprised and embarrassed that he had remembered the story about the ogre.

  “‘It was more luck than planning...’ I mumbled, but the serjeant spoke over me. In hindsight, we needed every boost to our courage possible and my having done something ‘similar’ (even if not really) with the ogre was a source of hope.

  “‘Being lucky is not a bad thing, as long as you don’t rely on it. But being able to use your luck is essential. Nothing will go to plan, but you’ve shown you can adapt.’ Perhaps this wasn’t as cheering as not-Tomlines thought it was, but for the first time I felt a little proud of defeating the ogre.

  “‘Alric will lead those of you with slings and bows to the Mere, before returning to the rest of us.’ The serjeant looked at Dorcae, Gwilm, Shev and myself. I was momentarily confused before I remembered that I had my sling tucked into a belt as well as my boar spear in my hand.

  “‘The five of us will then attack the Boar as it is sleeping. Alric has seen scars on its belly and face, so it can be wounded, and those parts of its body are exposed. Leave everything you don’t need beneath this tree. We can pick them up when the Boar is dead.’

  “The four of us bound for the Mere gathered around Alric, our cloaks, various packs and bags left piled haphazardly at the foot of the oak. Torrea clasped my shoulder in passing as she, the serjeant, Jerrol and Galad walked off to approach the Boar from its other side, that being both downwind and where the exposed belly faced. There was no time for any longer goodbyes.

  “As Alric led us through the forest, the serjeant’s last words kept replaying themselves through my head, but altered.

  “‘We can pick them up if the Boar is dead.’

  “Maiden’s Mere was not what I’d expected. The name had conjured up images of a tranquil forest pool, peaceful and calm, where people or animals could innocently frolic without care.

  “The reality was that we could smell the Mere long before we arrived. It was the stench of stagnant water, rotting plant matter, unhealthy air. Not the place for any sort of frolicking.

  “We had resorted to lighting the stump of a candle that Alric placed in a horn lantern. It didn’t provide a lot of light, but we had got ahead of the Boar by now. The brightness from the fires surrounding it made our shadows stretch out before us, but with the lantern there was enough light that we rarely stumbled. Ahead of us, though, the darkness seemed to open up, consuming what illumination there was. Blackness over the land delineated by the bright stars above. Then we stepped through the last of the trees and there was a small splash as somebody’s foot immediately fell into the water.

  “The Mere was not a pool. It was large enough that it could be called a lake, but not, Alric told us, very deep. If you knew the right places, you could even wade across to some of the small hummocks that rose out of the water on the Mere’s southern side. Technically they were islands, but to use the word conjures up something more definite and distinct. The northern part of the Mere was deeper: apparently the area around the outflow and closest to Appleford was actually quite nice, but this end saw a dozen small streams trickle slowly into something that was more akin to a marsh. It was neither dry land, nor wholly water, and hard enough to find somewhere to stand even in daylight.

  “There were bogs around our village, but nothing quite like this. I think Dorcae and Shev were even more unnerved.

  “Alric passed Gwilm his lantern, and turned back to the trees.

  “‘My advice,’ he said, ‘is that you get used to the area. Try and find some drier routes that take you further into the Mere. And make sure you’ve got enough stones for your slings.’

  “Then he stepped into the darkness between the trees, and was gone.

  “We did as he suggested, or tried to. Mostly, it was Gwilm and I who were trying to find a decent path further into the Mere. We soon gave up, both already wet to the mid-calf. The light was too faint, the ground too unpredictable.

  “It was as we were grubbing up a few small stones to add to our pouch of slingshot that the noises began. Our eyes immediately flew in the direction of the glow through the trees.

  “Up until then we had become accustomed to the Boar’s snoring, but it was interrupted by what could have been mistaken for a crack of thunder, but the sky remained clear. Then the sound lowered, became more organic, more pained, more threatening. The light through the trees became stronger, throwing Dorcae’s body ahead of me into clearer relief. Distant shouts began, the battle cries of the men we had been travelling with for the last few days, and the woman whom Gwilm and I had known most of our lives. The Boar’s growling stuttered once or twice, breaking into short grunts, each one accompanied by a flare in the light.

  “Then the first scream sounded out.

  “That one was human, there was no doubt about that.

  “The calls of our fellows grew more frantic more panicked. I felt useless, pointless, standing there with my feet wet while a few hundred yards away battle was being joined. Don’t mistake me: I didn’t want to be attacking the Boar with them. But I didn’t want to be stood there doing nothing but straining my ears either.

  “A little splash close behind me made me jump. It was followed by a larger splash, and I turned to see Shev sitting down in an expanding circle of ripples. The light coming from the Boar was light enough to see him clearly now.

  “‘Step back.’ Gwilm reached down to help Shev up, but his words were addressed to Dorcae and myself. ‘We can’t lure it into the Mere if we’re all standing at its edge. But make sure you’re within slingshot of the shore. And don’t get in each other’s sightlines.’

  “Another scream came out of the darkness, a half-scream, now abruptly ended. I splashed closer to shore, grabbed my boar-spear from where it was leaning against a hazel tree acting as a lantern holder, and half-ran back to the lake. Only once I had reached Dorcae did I realise that the lantern was now effectively pointless. The little candle contained within could no longer compete with the light from the Boar, which seemed to be growing ever brighter.

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  “Ahead of us, Gwilm was standing in water up to his knees, knocking an arrow to his bow. Shev stood a little further back, and to the left. He seemed a little too deep to use his sling properly, but the boy had already proved us all wrong with his skills. I plucked at Dorcae’s sleeve so that we both moved to the right.

  “I used the butt of my boar-spear to probe the water ahead of us. It was still slow going and I could barely hear the ragged sounds of our breath over the grumblings and growlings from the Boar. There were still human calls in there, along with the crashing and cracking of trees as something forced its way through.

  “Another scream from behind, and a sickening crunch.

  “I’d gone further than I’d intended, the water now lapping above my knees but there was a small rise of firmer ground ahead that I had discovered with my boar-spear. Climbing onto it, it seemed large enough for two, and I called Dorcae over. I heard her wading through the water towards me, and thrust my spear into the ground. The lantern, I noticed, had fallen off somewhere. I unlooped my sling from my belt, selected a stone from my pouch, and turned around.

  “The light from the Boar shone over the waters of the Mere, shifting and intensifying as it thundered through the trees. After so long looking out into the Mere, the sudden light burned my eyes. By the time they had adjusted it was almost too late.

  “A shadow ran out of the trees, skin burned and red along its right side, weaponless and cradling its left arm. Behind it roared the Boar, its back brushing against the tops of the trees, enraged and bellowing, hot blood dropping like molten iron from fresh gashes on its belly and head. One eye looked out in unthinking fury, the other was half-closed from a deep axe-cut.

  “‘Run!’ he screamed out. To this day, I don’t know if the figure was calling out to us or trying to urge his body onwards.

  “The Boar was on him.

  “Hulking and monstrous, it crashed through the final growth and into the Mere as its prey tripped and fell, water flying up around him. I caught a glimpse of Alric’s face, desperate and wild in a way that I had never seen the forester before.

  “Gwilm loosed his shot, arrow steering unerringly towards the beast. But though the aim was true, the missile ignited in flight, tail feathers catching first before the whole shaft burst into flame, burnt up in the wrath of the Boar’s rage. Something must have got through, though, as the Boar’s head swivelled to look at the archer, steam beginning to rise up from the water simmering around its trotters.

  “‘Hoooo-ee! Here piggy, piggy!’

  “I had begun to feel despair that our missiles could ever slay the Boar, but Gwilm’s ridiculous call reminded me that that wasn’t the plan. The Mere was the plan, and our role was to entice it further in. The Boar was currently standing at the edges of the water, its molten blood steaming as it fell to the lakebed, but it wasn’t enough.

  “‘Come on you stupid pig!’ I let my stone fly, though my aim was off and it merely glanced off the Boar’s side. Something that size should have been nearly impossible to miss, but my eyes were still adjusting to the light emanating from the beast. Around it, the Mere seemed to have moved through time to noon, while the rest of us stood in twilight. I noticed the little horn lantern, now extinguished, bobbing in the water between us. Behind it, the forest burned.

  “‘Bacon!’ Dorcae screamed, and her slingshot bounced off a tusk. It turned its head to look at us, two small burning eyes filled with hatred, and the swing of my sling around my head faltered. We had seemingly distracted him from Alric: I could see the desperate woodsman backing slowly away on all fours. But the Boar refused to come deeper into the Mere.

  “Another arrow burned up in the air, and I fancy I saw the melting arrowhead splatter itself over the Boar’s jaw. Then a slingshot buried itself into the unwounded eye and the Boar roared and charged at Shev.

  “It was going from a standing start, on infirm watery ground, so at first it was more sound and fury than forward movement. Otherwise, that would probably have been it for us.

  “Shev instantly bolted deeper into the Mere, tripping and falling once again. Gwilm took two steps back, and I saw him consider firing another arrow, but it was clear that we now had the Boar’s attention. I let fly with my own sling, and turned to flee before seeing where the stone would fall.

  “Dorcae was ahead of me, already up to mid-thigh in the water. The Mere beyond the small rise she and I had stood on was deep enough to slow us down significantly. I felt my own legs sink deeper into the water. It was impossible to step up from the water, our only option to force a way through. Dorcae toppled over ahead of me, fully submerging for a moment, and I bent over to pull her up before we pressed on, hand in hand.

  “There was an enormous sploosh behind us, a scream, and a bellow of rage from the Boar. Now Dorcae was no longer leading the way, the water before me was unclouded by sediment she had kicked up. We kept going, the water reaching the top of our thighs, up to our waists. It slowed us down, but made me feel more stable.

  “Dorcae’s hand gripped mine with an intense strength. It seems odd, but one of my strongest memories from the Mere was just the feeling of her hand in mind, holding on so tightly that it hurt. But I relished the touch. It gave me strength.

  “The water reached our chests.

  “We heard the Boar roaring still. A human screaming again, panicked, not pained. From somewhere off to the left I could hear Gwilm alternately hurling abuse on the Boar and calling on the saints to bring him home to his family.

  “Strange to tell, but the water seemed to begin to warm up. Whether it was our exertion, or, as I feared, the Boar was burning so hot that it was heating up Maiden’s Mere itself, I couldn’t say. Also, wondrous to us at that point, the water level seemed to be beginning to drop.

  “My gaze had until then been fixed on our path, trying to save us from a stumble. But I risked a quick glance ahead. A little to the right I could see a pair of trees rising out of the mist. I gave Dorcae a gentle tug in that direction and we headed for the higher ground.

  “The water fell away from our legs with every step, and soon we were pulling ourselves out of the water by alder roots exposed where the land had slipped back into the Mere. My hand felt empty as Dorcae released it to wrap her arm around the rightmost trunk. Perched, dripping, on solid ground for the first time in what seemed an age, we finally turned to look behind us.

  “Maiden’s Mere was now hidden by a softly glowing mist that reached above our heads to the limbs of the alder trees and was drifting behind us to the shore. The glow seemed to have a source, but that source no longer seemed to be moving around. Sound appeared deadened. I could hear Dorcae’s breathing, my own, the slapping of water at the edge of the land, and nothing else.

  “‘Is it dead?’

  “Neither of us truly thought it was over. The land we were on rose a matter of inches from the water and would have been barely long enough for the two of us to lie down on had the trees not been present. It was a temporary respite at best. It couldn’t be more.

  “But.

  “But the sounds of the Boar had stopped, as had the calls made by Gwilm and Shev. We hoped that meant that they too had fled. We couldn’t be sure.

  “The movement of the Boar had stopped, too. The light of the mist was definitely coming from somewhere, and I thought it was from somewhere on the Mere. I couldn’t be sure.

  “I looked at Dorcae. Her clothes were waterlogged and covered in mud, her hair hung lank down to her shoulders, her eyes were red from tears I had not realised she was crying. Mist had formed into droplets on her eyelashes. My hand remembered the touch of hers.

  “‘I’ll go and check.’

  “I’m not sure what I expected: vehement protestation or gushing admiration. What I got was a tired nod, a grateful smile, and she slid her back down the trunk of the alder and buried her head in her hands. Hesitantly, I patted her shoulder and left our islet.

  “I headed to shore first and circled around to where we had first fought the Boar. I had two reasons that I would have told Dorcae had she asked, although I only thought them through long after I left her. Firstly, to see if I could find any others of our party. I couldn’t bring myself to think that we were the only two left. The last I had seen of Alric was along my route, and he had seemed wounded and in need of help.

  “Secondly, I had left my boar-spear stuck into the ground where we had used our slings. I didn’t want to face the Boar with only a knife.

  “There were other reasons. The mist was quite thick now, and there was no way I would be able to find my way back to Dorcae from the Mere. When I reached the main shoreline of the Mere I made sure to carve a prominent arrow into tree-bark pointing towards where our little patch of dry land was.

  “Underlying all of these reasons was the fact that I deeply didn’t want to come across the Boar again. This part of me fought against my pride, my honour, my reason and my desire to help Dorcae, Gwilm and, if possible Torrea. It lost, but only just, and there were a few times when only the memory of the water droplets on Dorcae’s eyelashes kept me from running off into the woods. Yes, it’s nauseating, but I was young and that was how I felt.

  “The fires caused by the Boar in the Copperwood were already going out, dampened by the mist. I had come across the burning trees early on my journey along the shore, and had worried that the destruction might make it difficult to find where the Boar had entered the water. There was not the same taste of ash in the air as previously, which I was happy about, but the water was tainted grey at the edges. I splashed through the shallows, avoiding the fires and the occasional sludgy puddle of ash and water.

  “I needn’t have worried. The footprints of the Boar at the forest edge remained bright and glassy, radiating a soft glow as they slowly cooled. The blood that had fallen from the Boar formed dark mounds that repulsed me. I took my bearings, and waded out to where we had stood.

  “There had been no sign of Alric, or any other person.

  “I found the spear surprisingly quickly. It remained where I had left it, buried blade deep into the water. Its shaft was exposed to the air. It had not been burned, but it was lightly singed, the wood darkening and blackening except for a finger-width’s strip running down one side. I pulled it carefully from the ground, washed off the shaft and rubbed the blade clean and dry with my sleeve. It felt strange in my hands, the wood warped in ways that were invisible to the eye but tangible to my fingers.

  “The last time I had stood at that spot, Maiden’s Mere was lit up as if it were daytime by the Incandescent Boar. Now, the mist was still lit up by a diffuse light, but everything was grey and washed out. There remained a brighter spot within the mist, holding still somewhere within the Mere off to my left. It wouldn’t be hard to find the Boar, I thought as I stepped off into the deeper water once again.

  “Approaching the light, the swashing of the water against my body seemed overly loud. Again the water rose up my body, faster than before despite my lack of haste. As it rose up, so did a new sound, a rattling wheezing rumble from up ahead.

  “The water had reached my armpits by the time I reached the Boar. What had been an indistinct form of light suddenly resolved itself into the gargantuan side of the beast.

  “At some point in the night it had fallen into the Mere and was now unable or unwilling to get up. The Boar lay with its legs trapped beneath it, head barely lifted up out of the water which lapped at its mouth. Its body still shone with light, but less so than at any time previously. Mud had spattered all over the body, and then been baked solid, giving a piebald effect to its hide and muffling the brightness even further. The various scratches and grazes oozed the lava-like blood down its flank into the Mere.

  “The animal looked at me with its two damaged eyes, one gashed, the other swollen near-shut. I got the strangest sense that it had been waiting for me. Before, those eyes had shone with fire and fury. Now, the fury had died out, and all that was left was pain from a fire that the Boar was unable to quench.

  “I raised my spear completely out of the water. The thrust was awkward. Torrea had not thought how to teach me how to fight submerged three-quarters in water, but the Boar lifted its head and my blade sank into the soft skin below its jaw. It must have caught a blood vessel, as immediately fiery molten liquid shot out from the wound, falling into the Mere and sending yet more water hissing up into the air. I stepped back, pulling my spear free, its blade deformed and ruined, and the blood became a torrent.

  “One thrust was all it took. The Boar died within a minute, its lifeblood falling into the simmering water as I kept it company at a distance.

  “I don’t know if this is me putting feelings into the beast that were not there, but it seemed peaceful. Almost grateful.

  “As the last of its life spilled into the Mere, the light faded from the Boar. One last inhalation, a rattle in the throat, and it was dead.”