My name is Arvi I ain’t got much to say so I’ll keep this simple.

I came out to the frontier to have peace and quiet but then my wife bless her decided we should have kids and what little free time I’d earned vanished like the smoke over a fire pit.

One of the few things I can still consider my own is the days I spend hunting in the forests around the village. That and the rare times I have to go into the city to run errands, though that’s not so enjoyable most of the time. Today has been one of my best days yet and it keeps getting better because as of tonight, my eldest daughter becomes an adult and to celebrate we’re going to party till we drop, as expected I’m bringing the meat.

Today's hunt is just as special as the occasion but I haven’t told anyone what it is I’m planning to bring for now it’s a surprise.

My finger drifts across the dirt, a thin line is scraped into the ground, almost imperceptible to others I notice it in a heartbeat and my boots are silent as I trail behind. My focus stops for a moment and a smirk spreads across my face, claws have dug into the dirt a small sign that my prey has found a hunt of its own.

Cresting a small hill I see it in the distance crouched low as it sniffs for prey.

On all fours, it’s as tall as I am, and its back is coated from end to end in stone-like hard plates that not only defend it in a crisis but help camouflage it as a large rock while it sleeps. On each paw sits four massive claws each as long as my finger and sharper than the sword at my hip. It’s strong enough to crush through stone walls and still devour any unlucky survivors on the other end.

Known as a Stone Bear this beast could easily kill its prey in less than a second but it never does often leaving the mauled victim just barely alive long enough to watch it gulp down the first bite.

The beast roars slowly rising until it stands just under the canopies above, easily twice my height.

I unsheathe my blade and lower my stance my muscles becoming taught as they wait for my next move.

A faint blue glow coats my body and I let loose like an arrow from a bow.

—{}{}{}{}{}—

My head surfaces and I heave for breath my belly full for the first time in days.

I turn around to get my bearings when I see it slowly approaching me silently despite its insane size.

A bear coated in stone rises over the ground dwarfing me in its shadow and announcing my death long before it moves again.

I expected to die, I was ready to die, but holy fuck did I not expect it to happen like this. The bear roars so loud I’m positive my eardrums burst adding to the laundry list of injuries I’ve accumulated.

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A burst of motion and my vision goes dark.

I’m not dead.

My hand reaches up and wipes the hot fluids from my face and eyes coming back coated in a thick layer of crimson. The first things I see as my life is suddenly restored are the bear specifically its head several feet from the rest of it and a mountain of a man holding a sword about an inch from my neck.

Well Fuck.

—{}{}{}{}{}—

He’s barely standing coated head to toe in cuts, blood only some of it being the stone bear’s, and bruises.

And yet he’s wandering the forest alone, unarmed, and without provisions. Either he’s deranged, stupid, or a mage of some kind sent to spy on us.

I look and he hasn’t a drop of mana in his body, an obvious sign of a novice mage whose only targets are civilians without a sense. My sword lowers slightly, no group would send a novice after us no matter how desperate.

So just stupid and deranged it is, probably thought he could train out here without knowing the real dangers of this forest.

“So kid what in the hells are you doing out here all alone?”

He looks at me for a moment his eyes slowly widening, finally, he speaks and I don’t understand a word.

“The fuck?”

—{}{}{}{}{}—

Mr. Mountain speaks and obviously, I don’t know a word of what he says though the sword is much lower I’m not confident he won’t change his mind.

“Do you speak English?”

I’m slow on the word English trying my best to idiot talk my intent to him but his expression shifts from an annoyed concern to one of absolute confusion.

He says something under his breath but I doubt I’d understand it even if I could hear it, his sword digs into the ground and he starts pacing in between me and the still-bleeding bear corpse.

The stream is light pink.

He stops pacing and starts dragging his sword into the dirt making three separate drawings all around the skill level of a toddler. The first is clearly a door with a set of arrows pointing up and down on its surface. He’s watching me expectantly as I stare at it, I shake my head ‘no’ and move to the next picture. This one is a compass, I think, it’s a circle with four large arrows and several smaller ones in between those evenly spaced. At this one, I nod and point west hoping for the best but he seems unfazed by my recognition of the image, next.

The last one is odd, it’s completely unknown to me, and as best as I can tell it’s some kind of writing that he expects me to know by a glance, when I shake no again he frowns crossing his arms.

After a moment he walks over to the bear with a huff and starts removing the skin silently I find myself helping him by holding the already cut skin while he moves to the next area. We discard the rocky bits. We finish after about an hour the pelt rolled up neatly and bound with a rope he pulled from his side pouch.

He starts cutting the flesh and comes away with a fist-sized piece holding it towards me, he mimes eating and I nod, I am hungry.

With one hand he shoulders the pelt and I step closer to follow, I expected him to lead me away but he heaves the fifty-pound pelt onto my back before turning to the bear itself.

In a feat that makes my eyes bulge, he sheathes his sword and reaches for the bear lifting the thousand-pound monstrosity with ease he even motions for me to follow with his shoulder and out of absolute terror I trail behind him.

A line of blood follows.