The boy glanced around the clearing. Wooden crates piled upon one another were blocking the view to one side of it, people coming to, disoriented and confused, starting to look around just as he. The trees around were tall, old looking, the clearing itself covered in short grass. He rose to his feet, heading towards one of the containers, but one of the other boys stopped him. The other boy was a bit taller than him, his hair short and black, face slightly tan and his bearing confident as he approached. 

“Hey, are you alright? I don’t think any of us should be wandering off before we…” he trailed off, his eyes scanning over the surroundings. “Before we talk things through as a group. I’m Mayhe” he extended his hand in a greeting.

“Hitch” the shorter boy shook the hand, his eyes still drawn towards the out of place pile. “I wasn’t wandering off, just wanted to check those out.”

It wasn’t a lie, though he did sound defensive.

“We can do that after, maybe someone knows something. Do you know anything?” 

“Not a clue. Just woke up and was.” 

The two walked towards the larger grouping, people asking each other the same question, each one young and confused. The group was twenty people in total, an even split of boys and girls, all dressed in similar looking gray cotton shirts and pants with brown leather vests and boots.

“Does anyone know anything here?” a tall blonde girl’s voice cut through the crowd, every head turning to her. She waited a few moments, scanning the crowd, then sighed. “Okay then. My name is Anika and I think we should all get acquainted, assuming no one comes to tell us what’s going on. I’m from the midlands, I’d like to think I’m pretty handy outdoors.”

The group froze for a moment, expectation falling on everyone and no one to speak up next, every person waiting for another to take the step. A short, brown haired girl with wider shoulders broke the silence.

“Layah. From the southern part. Worked in the scroll rooms. Was heading to deliver a message when I just appeared here.”  

Slowly people grew bolder, settling in the rhythm of the person to the left of the last speaker introducing themselves, awkwardly, putting names to the faces here, though hardly sticking into Hitch’s memory. 

“Hitch. Worked for the tanners. Family business.” 

Once the last of the kids introduced themselves, Anika spoke up again, standing on a slight bump on the ground. 

“So, how about we go and check out those crates over there now? I think we should figure that out before doing anything more. Anyone who’s good at camping and hunting let me know, we’ll need to find some water or something soon.”

Her taking up a leadership role was not unwelcome, something to follow while everything was such a mess. The mass of bodies moved to the crates, opening them up, finding foodstuffs - mainly the kind that wouldn’t rot, but also some rather fresh looking apples - in the first few crates. Another was filled with bedrolls, enough for everyone in the group. The next one was a surprise though - sets of four swords, axes, spears and bows, quivers and arrows included. Twenty knives in total and three heavy looking books, inset with a red, blue and yellow jewel on the cover each. The bolder of the kids grabbed at the weapons and started waving them around, a heavyset boy named Voysh clashing metal of an axe against an equally well built seeming girl named Pallia, who had a sword in her hands. The pushing around and trying to get at the new shinies was a bit much, a few of the gathered pulling away. One of them, a lithe looking boy standing close who’s name Hitch couldn’t recall turned to him.

“Do you think those are tomes or are they just regular books?”

“They seem tome-ish, but I couldn’t tell. Never seen one myself, you?”

“Only one. It was displayed at the hall in Tomsrik when I visited with family. Think I could check it out?”

“I don’t see why not. Assuming no one decides to monopolize it.”

Mayhe walked up to the two, carrying a few knives in his arms. He extended them towards the duo, the boys taking one each. 

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Twenty of the things. Figured everyone having one would be helpful. And it’s something to do other than argue about how to handle the weapons.”

The smaller boy turned to the boxes once more.

“Any thoughts about the books?”

“Pretty sure they’re tomes, so also a lot of arguing.”

Hitch drew the knife from its sheath, then put it back after giving it a once over. 

“And what are your thoughts on it?”

“We should share. Anyone going hunting or taking up guard duty should be armed.”

“Do we need guards? I thought Anika’s plan was to look around.”

“Well yeah, but still - if someone’s looking around, and something big comes by, you’d want to be able to defend yourself. I doubt we’re all gonna be running around all the time.”

He smiled, the voices growing louder, arguments heating up. 

“Don’t lose the knives, I’m going back to try and make sure there’s no stabbing.”

He turned and jogged back to the pack, his voice joining the others. Hitch and the small boy went the other way, sitting down in the shade of one of the trees.

“Sorry, what was your name again? I’m Hitch.”

“Tar. It’s okay, there’s a lot of names to remember.”

He nodded, turning away slightly, waiting for the group to come to a conclusion, unwilling to step in to help make a decision himself. A part of him feeling like he should, but with everyone so sure, he didn’t want to butt in, add another voice to the cacophony. Though really, he had to admit to himself, he was just afraid and awkward.

—-

The small blades were passed out to everyone, the rest of the weapons and books remaining in the crates. A fire pit was being prepared by a small group, the rest of the people split up in threes to go look for some water or food, set to reconvene in an hour or so. Hitch was walking with the stocky Layah and a boy named Ponneltor, a blonde kid with long hair and limbs who always seemed to be moving so slow, his entire body seeming like it was stretched. They were making their way through the woods, sky hidden behind the crowns of green. Ponneltor was carrying a spear in his hands while Hitch and Layah were carrying only their knives. The three had a bag each, found in the knife crate underneath the cutting implements, enough of them for every person present. They were the eastbound group, making their way through thick underbrush. The languid boy stopped.

“Something moved there?”

He nodded towards some bushes, spear levied towards it.

Hitch’s eyes focused towards the bush, the leaves vibrating before a branch snapped. A white hand-like appendage was gripping it, around the size of a man but seeming like it was made entirely out of some sort of white ceramic, six fingers of varied lengths wrapping the branch before dropping it. The owner of the hand emerged, a little over a meter tall, four arms ending in the weird hands extending from its torso, two short legs partially hidden by the bush still. Its head was like a ball with two large inset glass beads reflecting the light and a hole underneath them, closing and opening as the ceramic slid around it. The creature was looking at them, just as they were looking at it, then turned around and pulled itself away from the group. Layah drew her knife, gripping the handle.

“Fuck, what do we do?” 

As the blade and spear were still kept pointed in the direction of the thing, Hitch started dashing after it. He didn’t know why, other than that it was other, different. Maybe dangerous if left unchecked. What if it had friends? Or maybe it knew a way out?

The creature was fast and familiar with the woods, or so the pursuer seemed to think. But it was too bright to hide and not really all that dextrous, scraping itself against the trees, bits of it flaking off and leaving a trail on the bark. 

“Wait, I just wanna talk!”

The boy’s scream was ignored until he caught up, grasping the creature’s upper arm, tugging it towards him. The creature shifted, then struck him across the face with one of its free hands, two others clinging at his clothing. “Weak” was a word that seemed to best fit it in Hitch’s mind, his own two arms enough to pull the thing off balance, his body mass great enough to push the ceramic thing to the ground. As they fell, the thing cracked, shards digging into the boy’s hands, the mouth hole no longer moving, glass beads going dark.

Hitch stopped. The thing stopped. Nothing moved for a few drawn out moments, then he stood up, tears in his eyes. He started to slowly pull the shards out from his hands, looking at the broken creature. Dropping the pieces onto it, his blood dripping down.

The other two caught up with him a while later. Layah started saying something, then started tearing at her clothing, getting stopped by Ponneltor. He took off his shirt and tied it to the wounded hands, the blood seeping into the clothing. His spear stood by a tree, the girl squatted by the broken creature, poking at it.

“It’s dead? It's not moving and it's empty inside. Did you…?”

“No, I- I didn’t mean to hurt it. I pushed it and it just… It broke, instantly. Crack, and that’s it.”

“Okay. We should probably head back, tell the others about it. Are you okay enough to walk?”

He nodded and the group turned back the way they came, leaving the shattered creature on the hard forest ground.