It was a cold morning, the chill of autumn tightly held onto the falling leaves. Arthur silently stalked along the beaten game trail, following his prey. Winter was nigh and he had to gather enough hides and meat to last the winter. He had been stalking this particular herd of musk deer for a day and a half now and he knew that he was near.
Musk deer were a particular animal, an animal that has a nose more sensitive than a blood hound, as long as he was upwind from them or came within 500m during a stagnant wind, they would be able to smell him. Each musk deer was the size of an adult man and had a very thick coat, perfect to last the winter and highly sought after by residents in the nearby villages.
Arthur himself was from Buono, an outskirt village hidden away in a peaceful forest. Rarely would traveler’s stop by and only occasionally would they receive merchants of any kind. This was to be expected, because the soil around Buono is poor, not allowing many crops to grow. Thus far, many residents of Buono made a living by lumberjacking and hunting and Arthur wasn’t an exception. By the age of 14, he had lost both his parents due to a hunting accident, there was a mudslide that washed away both his parents into the Black Gorge as they were returning from a hunting expedition; at least, that’s what the other hunters from the party recalled.
Ever since losing his parents, Arthur relied only on himself to survive from day to day. He received pity from a few close neighbors and had been given small tasks to carry throughout the village which allowed him to survive until now. He just turned 20 not too long ago and things were starting to look up for him. He learned how to hunt, he saved up a decent amount of coins ready to use as a dowry and he even had a sweetheart he planned to propose to. After this coming winter, he planned to ask for her hand in marriage and build a larger house for them both.
“This should be it.” Arthur stooped down, covering himself in foliage. Just a few hundred meters from his position was the herd that he had tracked for the last few days. He wasn’t good enough to hunt in a party with the veteran hunters of the village, thus he would often hunt by himself. This led to him developing and adapting to a method of hunting that even a single person can do: trapping. The large majority of the time, hunters of Buono, Arthur included, would target musk deers and through experience over the decades of hunting, they developed a few countermeasures for the strong scent detection of the musk deer. Arthur uncorked a strong estrus that was collected from prior hunts and dabbed a few drops around the trail.
The estrus would be used as a lure, since his target was the prime buck, the leader of the herd, the scent of a doe in heat would be the most appropriate lure. Underneath the leaves along the trail, Arthur had also laid a few traps that were simple enough to tie down the buck for a few seconds. A few seconds was all he needed to take down the buck. Once that was over with, the day began to brighten up and the herd would soon awaken, so he quickly retreated from the area and moved downwind until he had a clear line of sight to the location.
Not long after, a curious young buck wandered into the setting, “Damnit, not you. Go away.” Arthur silently bemoaned to himself. He didn’t come all this way just to bag a young buck. It had to be known that the antlers of musk deer are excellent materials used in medicine; the larger the antler’s the more its worth. Arthur wanted to bag a large buck before winter hit and this would be his last opportunity, otherwise the conditions would be too treacherous to hunt by himself come winter. That was why he was frustrated when the curious young buck slowly approached the target area.
As the musk deer drew ever closer to where he laid the trap, the more Arthur’s expression fell. Finally, he sighed to himself in resignation and quickly got an arrow ready on his bow. “At least I’m getting something.” However, just as he resigned himself letting his arrow fly, a loud snort erupted from behind the young buck. A large shadow quickly dashed over, knocking aside the young buck. A musk deer, nearly twice the size of the one pushed aside stood proudly over the younger buck. This was the display of authority from the herd leader. The young buck quickly understood the meaning and meekly crawled away, soon leaving only the buck impatiently snorting around the traps.
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Arthur’s heart nearly leapt out of his throat as he held his breath. Just as he thought he would have to give up on bagging a large one, the heavens had given him an olive branch. As if noticing something, the buck smoothly walked over to where he had hidden the bulk of his traps. One step… Two steps… Three steps… Finally, right when the buck was about to take that final step and Arthur was about to release his arrow, a haunting howl froze his blood.
“Awooooo~!”
“Fuck! Why the hell are they here?!” Arthur felt the hair’s on the back of his neck stand up on end. The howls of wintervale wolves, the hunters of the north; these monsters were located much further north than the forest surrounding Buono, but during his hunt, Arthur had managed to travel much farther northward than expected. It was a really rare coincidence that would rarely ever happen one time in a hundred. The wintervale wolves always traveled in packs and move south in the winter to hunt. It was still very early for winter and yet he had met a pack. Arthur had heard many stories of parties that encountered these beasts and being devastated by them. Even his parents had often warned him never to waste time in leaving the area if he heard the haunting howls.
Quickly, Arthur dropped all ideas of bagging the prized buck and scaled down the tree he was perched on. He didn’t spare the buck another glance as he swiftly ran off the way he came. The buck hadn’t stayed idle either, its ears perked up and its strong hind leg muscles were put into action as it dashed off towards the rest of the herd. Loud growls and bleating noises were quickly fading off into the distance as Arthur dashed away, his heart giving away the fear and trepidation he was experiencing. Along his fear-induced escape he had unknowingly traveled southeast, towards the Black Gorge.
The Black Gorge was another famous location near Buono. It was a rift in the land that had no bottom, at least the residents that decided to explore the gorge never reached the bottom of the gorge. Because of the unknown depths of the gorge and low rumbling noises that were always coming from its depths, the residents of Buono labeled the Black Gorge as a taboo area. This gorge was also what led to the deaths of his parents; they both supposedly fell into the gorge when they decided to take a shortcut to return home after a hunting expedition.
It was already late into the evening when Arthur also arrived at the Black Gorge. Unlike other landmarks, people hear the Black Gorge before they see it and Arthur was no exception. “Why am I so unlucky…” He tiredly complained. He had ran the whole day today, the cold feeling of death kept nipping at his heels as he ran, given him no chance to rest and have a breather. As a hunter, he had a natural instinct of detecting intent, especially killing intent. Since any accomplished hunter had to hone and conceal their killing intent when hunting, thus he learned to sense it and he could feel killing intent behind him as he ran.
With no other choice, he could only continue along the path towards the gorge bridge. It was built a while ago to explore and travel through the gorge, but was later abandoned because of the superstitions surrounding the gorge. Even though the bridge fell into disrepair and was falling apart, it was the only chance Arthur would have to escape his hunters. If he were to try to go around the gorge, it would take about a day and by then the impending crisis would’ve caught up.
The low drone of the gorge soon drowned out his crazily speeding heartbeat. He had arrived. In front of him spread a rickety bridge that made Arthur question his own sanity. Behind him though was…
“Awoooo~!”