Kai shivered, wrapping his black cloak tighter to himself to ward off the rising chill. A slight breeze picked up, blowing the cold air right through Kai, forcing him to try hunkering down further into the cloak.
It was the second week after the caravan had left the village and its first night after entering the Dorinthian Forest. As promised, Kai had shown up a bell before dawn the day after the test, but it had taken a couple more bells for the caravan to leave Brasbury. As they’d traveled, the captain himself had taught the newly minted guards exactly what to do.
It was honestly pretty simple. They walked alongside the wagon and watched for threats during the day and at night they would take watch in groups of eight for a couple of bells each.
The guard who Kai had beaten in the test had approached him and introduced himself as Cohen. There were no hard feelings between them and Cohen had basically taken Kai under his wing, making sure they had watch together and staying with him throughout the day. Most of the others chose to stay away from Kai and even the other villagers avoided him due to his association with the Hunter and the frightening fighting prowess he’d shown at such a young age.
Shivering, Kai looked up at Cohen and asked, “Why can’t we have large fires in the forest again?”
Although autumn had just started to appear, the nights had already started to get much colder. On the first week of their journey, the captain had allowed the caravan to set up fires at night to keep warm. However, this night, their first in the forest, he’d forbidden them from setting up any large fires. The merchants and their families slept in the wagons, which provided some buffer from the cold winds, but the guards had no such privileges.
“Beasts,” was the simple answer Cohen gave Kai.
At Kai’s questioning gaze, Cohen continued.
“Normally the animals we see roaming the forest are the weakest, Rank 0 beasts. Most of the more powerful ones come out at night to hunt and unfortunately, fire attracts them like flies to honey.”
Kai, through his education with the Hunter had received some knowledge about Beasts, but he still wanted more information about them.
“So, what types of beasts have you fought?” Kai asked, excited to learn more.
“Why the hell am I even surprised at this point?” Cohen muttered before he sat up a little straighter and answered him. Kai had obviously worn Cohen out these past few days with his boundless curiosity.
“The most common ones you’ll find this side of the Dorinthian Forest are Green Maned Wolves. Nasty little buggers,” he said with a shiver that surprisingly wasn’t caused by the cold wind. “They’re mostly at the initial Stage of the Forging Realm so individually, they aren’t too hard to kill. The problem is, they rarely ever attack individually.”
“I’ve also personally seen a couple of Arm Bladed Apes and a few Flame Spitting Tigers, but never fought against them, though I doubt we’ll see any here anyways.”
Kai felt something then, something that made him choke up for a second, an ominous feeling that felt like a noose slowly tightening around his throat. A slow shift in the paradigm, like the world had been waiting for this exact conversation to occur. The menacing feeling kept rising until Kai’s entire body thrummed with barely concealed tension. Tension that was just waiting to be unleashed.
He stood up suddenly, hand on the hilt of his weapon as he felt something out in the darkness beyond the trees resonate with that tension. Cohen had also tensed up at Kai’s sudden movement and started to stand.
“What’s wrong, Kai?” Cohen asked in a low whisper.
“There’s something out there,” Kai answered in a shaky tone, not knowing how he knew, but certain all the same.
They were both silent then, Cohen trusting Kai enough to know he wouldn’t give out an empty warning. Kai pushed out with his senses, trying to see if he could catch the cause of that ominous feeling. And then he heard a growl. The growl of a predator.
The sound was low, as if it didn’t want to alert its prey, yet both Kai and Cohen’s ears picked the growl up. They unsheathed their weapons at the same time, moving to stand side by side with each other, eyes peeled to look for the threat beyond the torchlight.
The predator must’ve realized that it had given away the element of surprise, because a large wolf with a green mane padded out of the darkness and slightly into the torchlight surrounding the caravan, shining green eyes piercing through the gloom, lips peeled back in a snarl.
The appearance of the wolf was too much of a coincidence to not be suspicious, but Kai didn’t have the time to think about it too much. He breathed out, relaxing his tense body, feeling his blood thrum in anticipation for the upcoming battle. His tight grip on his sword loosened, as he heard Hunter’s voice in his head.
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Not too tense and not too loose. You don’t want to jump at everything boy, but you also don’t want to be too relaxed. Be just alert enough to catch the changing movements of your opponent.
The wolf, without any warning, launched itself towards the two. Kai, even with his quick speed, was only just able to dodge, feeling the wind brush him as the large beast just missed his body. Cohen hadn’t even tried to dodge sideways, instead falling straight to the ground.
The captain had given all of the new guards, with the exception of Kai, the same simple metal armor that the rest of the guards used. He hadn’t been able to find any his size and even if he had, Kai would’ve refused to wear it.
Kai quickly turned back towards the wolf that had fully made its way into the light. It was larger than any wolf from his old world, standing almost up to his shoulder. An emerald green mane that matched the color of its eyes stretched to its lower back. It was growling louder now, clearly angry at having missed both of its targets.
Kai, seeing that Cohen was trying to recover from his unceremonious drop to the ground, decided to keep the wolf’s attention by directly attacking it. Falling easily into the First Form, he stepped forward, his blade snaking out and creating a shallow cut on the beast’s shoulder before it could dodge. Kai tried to move out of range of its retaliation, but had underestimated the wolf’s speed.
A paw ripped through the air and one of the beast’s claws caught Kai’s shirt and created a small cut on his chest. Checking himself to make sure it was only a minor wound, Kai glanced backwards and caught sight of something that made him gulp in fear.
Flying through the air towards him was another Green Maned Wolf, jaws open wide. At that moment, he remembered Cohen’s words earlier about how these beasts never travelled alone.
Kai was attempting to turn his body in time to take the attack head on before a blur flew through the air and smashed into the second wolf. He saw Cohen and the other wolf land on the ground, with Cohen pushing off midair and somehow landing on his feet. Trusting that Cohen could take care of himself, Kai turned his attention back to his own threat.
Kai was sure they’d made enough noise in their scuffle to attract the other sentries, but just to make sure, he whistled loudly to signal them of an attack on their side.
The wolf was pacing around, trying to circle Kai, but before it could do anything, he attacked again, slipping into the first three Forms with ease, dancing around the speedy beast, slicing and thrusting at its thick skin. As he moved through the positions of the Forms, he could feel a barrier in his mind and an understanding that lied beyond, a barrier that he could tell could only be broken by powerful energies.
His mind felt along the barrier, trying to sense if he could pass through a crack of some kind, but not feeling any openings, Kai tried to brute force it by trying to push his mind straight through. The translucent barrier bent a little, before bouncing back and giving him a slight backlash. His head started to pound and Kai left whatever state he had been in.
He shook his head quickly and focused back on the fight. The wolf’s fur was matted with blood and it was growling at him in anger. Kai was lucky that the wolf was at the very initial stage of the Forging Realm, or he wouldn’t have been able to keep up with it.
Throughout the battle with the wolf, Kai hadn’t realized that the beast had maneuvered him so that his back was facing the darkness of the forest on the right. An awareness in the back of his mind suddenly screamed at him to duck but it was already too late.
Kai felt claws pierce his back and a large weight threw his body down like a rag doll. The wolf, which had taken him by surprise, started to rip into him with its claws. The pain came to him a couple of seconds later, waves of it ripping through his body, making him cry out. Kai scrabbled on the ground to find the sword that had flown out of his hands from the surprise attack of the third wolf.
Surprisingly, just as Kai had started to accept the death that was surely waiting for him, he felt a slight pressure add to the weight of the wolf before it was suddenly gone. As his ears came into focus, he finally heard the sweet sound of the caravan guards yelling curses and clashing with the wolves.
Kai heard the faint sound of his name being called before he felt the familiar pull of the River of Death once again drag him to its waters. With one foot in the invisible waters and another on what felt like dry land, Kai looked up to see the same specter he’d met 12 years before floating in front of him.
“So,” said the ghostlike figure. “Barely a decade has passed and I’ve already seen your Soul twice, mortal. What makes your Soul so special that it has touched the River one more time than any mortal's has right to?”
“You think dying is really that special?” Kai asked.
“I think that having your soul ripped from the tantalizing waters of the River twice does make you a little special, yes.”
“Wait twice? But that means I was saved, doesn’t it? Why am I still here?”
“Now that is the question, isn’t it? Why is it that even though your soul knew it wasn’t going to truly die, it still chose to visit my humble abode? Maybe it feels more at home here?”
Kai audibly gulped at that, wondering if the specter would still take his Soul even after his death had been subverted.
Death waved a sleeve. “Don’t worry mortal, I do not care enough to take your Soul.” Yet being the unspoken word.
Kai bowed low and said, “Then, I humbly thank you, Death God.”
“Go now child, your body is calling its Soul back. Even though you survived your battle, staying too long with one foot in the River will extinguish your Spirit. You do not ever want to see an empty Soul container return to its body. Go!”
And right at that moment, Kai felt a tug at the back of his mind and let himself be ripped from the River of Death for the second time in twelve years.
The specter watched as Kai was taken away from the waters. He looked down at the scythe in his right hand, which had pointed itself away from Kai as soon as he had appeared, as if it was afraid.
“Interesting. It seems that the cords of Fate bind this child much tighter than either of us had suspected. He was right wasn’t he? The Mortal World really doesn’t like change.”