I was sleeping a moment ago but now I am… Somewhere else. There are trees, all different, not even one resembling the next. They are bigger than what I have seen in my life. They are as big as a house. A rather large house.
My thoughts are disrupted by people moving around me, laughing and chasing each other. I look around and now the trees have buildings around them… Those were not there before. The people are the same but the environment is constantly shifting in front of my eyes like… The dream is sure about the people but not of the surroundings.
I notice the strangest thing… Meuko is now next to me. We look at each other nodding. Meuko gestures behind me. I look at Sylvar, who has the frightened expression of a very particular human that had to stand up to three elders with powers. I somehow know that I cannot talk and since Meuko has not said anything, I assume the same applies to her.
Why are we here? I look closer, moving towards the crowd of people. Sylvar and Meuko follow. Are they here? Am I seeing things on my own or are we… Having the same dream? Regardless, I need to check things out. All the people here look the same.
Their bodies are different size, but the traits… long ears, purple veins that track their skin, slightly elongated fingers, intense eye color… They are all elves. I am so used to the mix of people in my Village that this feels… Strange… Like I am out of my home for the first time.
Their clothes are simple… The material is unknown to me and some choose to wear dresses while others choose trousers… There does not appear to be any reason, simply preference. I keep walking down a beautiful path, filled with light and guided by some force until I realize… Meuko is pulling me back, gesturing at Sylvar, who has taken another path.
We choose to follow him, with the occasional shifting of the trees in and out of existence. We reach a tree that is just as unique and beautiful as all the others… But this one is the only one that does not shift every so often. We go around the tree only to see a parent teaching their child how to shoot a bow.
“When can I learn how to shoot multiple arrows?” the child begs the parent.
“What? We cannot do that, my dear child.” The parent says. “What we can do is learn how to be faster. First, you must learn how to keep your grip on the bow for more than a single shooting motion. You let go even though you know you must shoot two more arrows.”
“But I am tired, Moooooooooom.” The child says, clearly dragging that last word for more than a second. Appealing does not seem to work.
“How about this? You shoot three arrows inside that little circle there and then I will teach you how to draw two arrows so that you can shoot waaaaaaay faster.”
“Great.” The kid says.
It has a clean shaven head, slim body and a large smile as it accurately shoots three arrows.
“What now?” The kid asks.
“You rascal.” The mom says. “You were dragging your feet all day long just so I would give you a reward?” She says as she messes around with the kid, hugging and teasing it. The kid could barely stop laughing.
“Will you show me? Please?”
“Fine… Here, pick up your-”
The sounds distort as the dream ends abruptly… Or so I thought… I am now standing on top of the griffin lair. There is nobody here except for me, Sylvar and Meuko. A trembling, unsteady voice implores us to look up.
We watch as the clouds split open, revealing a giant flaming rock falling towards the Village. The mountains start cracking, the sound of breaking bones and lightning makes my heart jump all around my body. I want to throw up. I am trying to scream, but no voice leaves my body. Smoke engulfs the giant rock as the flames get brighter.
“Stop it.” A voice passes through me like the wind.
The mountain splits open as I fall inside the chasm. What is happening? Why am I seeing-
I wake up, screaming and panting. I spend no extra time getting ready, running towards Sylvar’s house. I need to know if we all saw the same dream. I open the door and there is no one there. I run around the back and I see Meuko and Sylvar in the ground, holding their chests and breathing heavily.
“So… We all...” I say.
“Yes, Volt… We all did.” Meuko says.
“Who was that kid?” I ask.
“I have… No idea, my friend Volter.” Sylvar says
“Are we gonna talk about...” I say, knowing the answer before I finish my sentence.
“No.” Meuko and Sylvar say.
“Yup, I thought so.”
“Well, then you promising kid… ready to train?” Eadwald says as she looks at us trying to compose ourselves.
“Everything alright?” Eadwald asks.
We need to keep this a secret.
“Yup, I just told them about that time I claimed the Leader should let me become a Hunter and they did not believe me.”
“Off you go then, Vol, you need to train.” Meuko says, clearly mocking me.
“After I train him, it is your turn Meuko. You should learn a few things as well.” Eadwald says.
Meuko clearly did not like that. Even better for me.
I trained the entire morning with Eadwald. She mostly had me react to different attack patterns. That stick she used did not make it easier. My body is covered with cuts and bruises. Apparently, her holding a stick does not mean she will not use her hands to smack me down.
All in the name of improving my reflexes. I did manage to dodge a few attacks, but every time I started learning a pattern, she came up with a new one. I was not allowed to attack her with my dagger, only to defend. After that I went to Blago to ask him for some kind of armor. He gave me something called “tasset.”.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
It is supposed to be some kind of armor made to protect my upper thighs. He also gave me greaves for my legs, instructed me to use it aggressively if I ever want to kick someone. No desire to test that theory. I then watched Meuko training. Eadwald had a brawl with her, no armor.
Meuko is slightly bigger in size than Eadwald, but she does not have the same fighting experience. Eadwald has more… Trained muscles, I do not know how else to describe it. It was a pretty short fight. Meuko went in for the grapple, but Eadwald shoved her on the ground as soon as Meuko dived. Meuko then rushed with a flurry of blows, but Eadwald had to deflect only a couple of them… The rest were off target.
Meuko got closer and tried to grapple, she kept a high stance this time though. Eadwald used elbow strikes to gain the upper hand in close combat. A large built human versus a large built elf. Experience won that round. Eadwald used a leg sweep to take advantage of Meuko’s momentum and then said the brawl was over.
“You have strength, Meuko, and you know where to use it to cause most damage. You lack in fighting technique, however… We need to work on that. I will teach you how to use your arms to deflect blows and hit back… hard… Your usual strength routine is enough, maybe try to raise the difficulty, you might get even bigger. Now, try this.” Eadwald says.
She then proceeds showing a few elbow techniques to use when small creatures, like goblins I assume, try to climb on top of her, as well as throw techniques.
“Why would I need to throw someone? Goblins are small.” Meuko asks.
“Goblins are not the only ones out there… You obviously have not met Hobgoblins or… worse...” Eadwald says.
I make sure to watch, knowing I might need to use some of these techniques. After most of Meuko’s training is done I go around the back of Sylvar’s house and train my knife throwing skills. There was something about the fights we had. Training became… Simpler… Almost as if I now know exactly why I train.
My technique was spot on, I did not make the mistake of letting my form loose after the first two knife throws. In fact, I am rather proud of myself. I was so focused that I completely missed Sylvar’s arrival.
“Sylvar… are you all right?” I ask, remembering that he was looking weird before any of us in that dream.
“I am quite alright… No need to worry about me.” Sylvar says.
His tone has changed… Like all the kindness he had… He somehow forgot all about it. I am so worried right now.
“Hey, my friend Sylvar… Anytime you want to talk… I am here for you, alright?” I say, making sure that Sylvar is paying attention to my honest expression. “In fact, that is more than I can say about my partner that abandoned me when the Hunters came in my house.” I smirk.
Sylvar cannot help but laugh. I think I helped him relax a bit. I hope so.
“Tell me, then, my good friend Volter, what happened yesterday? I am afraid Meuko, Julielle and I were fast asleep.”
I explain everything to him. Even the knife in the dark. I only omit the theories I have about what happened with Hollis and the goblins. It took some time… We even went inside Sylvar’s house to make sure we were comfortable. After I finished the entire recollection of yesterday’s events, Sylvar took a minute of deep thought.
“My friend Volter, when you came to the care house… You left right after you told us that you have an idea about the goblins’ motivations. I expect you to tell us, just not now. Once we are ready to go outside the Village and safe from all eyes… I will keep my eye on you, make sure that no one tries to end your life again. Stay safe and train hard. You will need all the strength you can muster.”
“Thanks, Sylvar… I was thinking that you could teach me how to throw a bit… Faster...” I say, trying to hide the fact that I am fishing for information.
That dream… What if those people were actually there? What if that voice is trying to show us some sort of possible future?
“You are not quite ready… Soon, my friend. Now, off you go. I suggested to the Hunters that we train for a week and then start venturing out.”
“Sylvar… Before I go, what did the Hunters do with the goblins we faced?”
“It seems that they found several groups and annihilated them… No sign of a cave or a camp though. I also suggested they leave that camp to us. After learning of your… Insanely brave proposition, I thought it would be a good task for us to start with… They were kind enough to let us take care of it IF we prove strong enough in a week.”
“Well then… Let us train, I guess.” I say as I walk out of Sylvar’s house.
That week passed like a flash… The good thing is we were not tortured by nightmares. Not shared ones, at least. I kept reliving the moment Modesta used magic, only this time it was just my parents and him… And he burned everything down, over and over again.
I saw that a couple of times… It helped me focus on my training though… I will get stronger… Strong enough that Meuko will not need to hold herself back just to cover me, strong enough to be able to fight a group of goblins on my own.
During the course of the week I learned how to climb trees faster, throw daggers further away, deflect strikes with a knife in reverse grip… Got to respect Eadwald for that.
Focusing on defense really improved my awareness. The extreme desire to avoid pain was… Great incentive, to say the least. Blago, in his usual judging attitude kept beating me up, just to show me how important legwork is.
“That is enough, you sad sack of manure. The animals outside the Village are more resilient than you. Just go rest already.” He said.
I can tell he loves me, somewhere deep inside that old, burned from smithing body of his lies a loving bear… A very dangerous, but loving bear. He even told me that if I came across some material, he could craft something for us.
Eadwald did not teach us any group tactics… Not that we need them. We are great… Anyway, we decided that it was best for us to go explore the south areas first… Check out the accident site, or whatever. To be honest, Eadwald was the only one of the Hunters that talked to us all this time, so it is not like they cared much about our destination.
All that mattered to them was the fact that we would leave early and not stay outside the Village during the night. The rest of the Villagers avoided us after the whole goblin thing. Their job is resource retrieval and management, meaning they actually do not need to interact with us… At all.
Some of them fish once in a while, since the river is used by fish once a month. The route the creatures use is always the same. They travel from a lake, one that I obviously do not know and my parents never told me, as far as the Hunters are involved. After that, they use the river that goes through our Village and travel north, towards the mountains.
I do not like fish at all, so berries, nuts, fruit and grain is the entirety of my food preference. As far as I know, we also have a few Villagers that tend to animals that happen to pass around this place. If they have extra fur that we can use… We use it. Eadwald has convinced every one here that not obstructing animals and nature is the best path forward.
Some Villagers, like Travlon, fought back and were allowed to fish at least. Once a month, Eadwald performs rituals meant to appreciate the sea creatures that were caught. My parents always took part in those rituals. Meuko, Sylvar, Julie, my parents and I avoid eating animals.
“The food I have is more than enough. Killing for it will not make me stronger.” As Meuko says.
The Village mostly runs on plants that my parents grow and other resources that families like Travlon’s bring in. Of course, they are not allowed to wander further than a few-hours travel. Modesta then refines those resources as needed… A process that he always makes sure we know is something that only he can do.
Julie has a garden that she tends to, one that has necessary plants for her medicine. Meuko and whoever can assist her at the time are responsible for building and repairing. Blago is… Blago, to be honest. He does quite a lot of things. He was the one that proposed people started learning self defense. Even though he teaches me, he was not so keen on teaching others.
That is why he offered that job to Thando, a very serious Orc. He… does not really like me. His always-serious-no-matter-what attitude is not a good fit for me. Every time I see his green skinned, lean body, I am reminded of the one training session we had… The one where he broke my left arm AND leg.
Scary times. Anyway, Sylvar’s arrival helped increase the knowledge around plants, specifically… Around the ones that can be used for poison. Not because he wanted to show us how to use it, only to avoid mistakes. Nothing else matters though. Now... We are no longer caretakers of the Village… We are Hunters… Very soon, at least. I hope.