"Paaa!" a small, irritated Sang whined, stomping his foot. "You promised! You said that when I turned ten you would take me out to hunt! Well I'm ten today, and you've been gone forever. Take me now!"

Sang shouted from the entrance to the thatched bark dome he knew as home. Abhiraj's mighty figure approached casually down the slope, cast in the dark orange light of a spring day almost done.

Though he led an involved and dutiful role, Abhiraj chose to live towards the edges of the central slope with his family, where the huts were much sparser. He loved his people with all of his being, but he enjoyed coming home to a place that was somewhat distant from all the commotion his days tended to hold. Just today he spent the entire afternoon and evening teaching some older boys how to craft daggers from stone. They were an impatient bunch, so it was more draining than expected. Regardless, he enjoyed every second of watching them grow, and was now coming home to a son he had made a promise to.

He loomed over Sang, who pouted, and gave a warm smile while ruffling his son's hair. Looking towards the sinking sun, he pondered on his decision.

Bilhana, his wife and Sang's mother, emerged from the hut after Sang and began scolding him with a hand around his arm.

"Sang! Let your father get some rest; something that you should do also. I am sure he will take you tomorrow as soon as there is daylight."

With the last sentence she looked at Abhiraj with pleading eyes. Abhiraj knew that Sang never forgot the promise even for the smallest moment, and it was probably all Bilhana could do to keep him from running up the path to find his father throughout the day. She was fully exhausted.

"Huh? No!" Sang broke away from his mother's grasp. "Dad promised today, I want to go today!"

She gave an exasperated sigh, and turned to Abhiraj. "Please talk some sense into your son. I need to sleep."

Abhiraj stood and thought for some time, looking at his son standing as tall and ready for anything. Suddenly, he unleashed one of his soulful gales of laughter that brought ease to all ears that heard it. "Just look at him, Bilhana." He spoke in his reverberating voice. "He is so full of vigor, so full of heat, he is meant to be a hunter. It would be an evil to continue keeping him from wrangling his own destiny."

"But what about the dark?" she exclaimed, "The sun is already almost gone!"

Abhiraj turned to face Sang head on, and said in a voracious voice "Are you afraid of the dark, boy, or anything that it may hold within it?"

"Never!" Sang shouted.

"That is what I thought!" Abhiraj laughed again and clapped his son on the shoulder. He swooped one arm into the hut, and grabbed his thick, curved bow.

Bilhana wore a look of worry with her hands clasped as she watched Sang stride with excitement towards the end of the central path. On his way out of the hut with bow in hand, Anhiraj bent to her ear, and spoke seriously under his breath. "I swear on my life no harm will come to that boy. Have faith in me, please, as you have always done until this day."

Her expression eased. "No more than two hours."

They kissed, and Abhiraj hurried after his son, who already approached the point where the worn path broke and divided into the wild.

The air felt cool and the wildlife full and blooming, Sang's eyes filled with wonder as he took in all that he could before the sun was replaced with the moon. Eventually darkness enveloped them, but as he said himself Sang showed little fear. He felt bravery, traversing the things he could not see, empowering him further.

Suddenly he stopped, and looked up at the shadowy figure of his father. He had been trailing in near silence behind his son several steps back, not letting him out of his sight while still holding a relaxed demeanor.

"I want your bow."

"Oh?" his voice raised in curiosity, "And why would that be?"

"Please?"

Laughing, Abhiraj unslung the bow from his shoulder, and placed it in Sang's hands. Upright it stood far taller than Sang, and the strength of a boy was not nearly enough for its incredible draw weight. However, it appeared Sang did not actually intend to use it.

He hung it on his back just as his father wore it, and drew himself up to his full height. There. Now he felt like a true hunter.

Watching his son finding a path in life and seeing joy in it, made Abhiraj proud. It was the same feeling he had experienced before while he taught craftsmanship to the young; the pride and fulfillment of guidance. Though even if Sang had no interest in hunting, he knew he would still be proud.

Abhiraj had three arrows tied loosely to his hip. It was somewhat possible that they would see a Nilgai at this altitude, and if he did pick up a trail he would want to show Sang how to shoot properly. But for now, he was fine with him walking around with it.

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It was only a few minutes later when it grabbed the cheiftan's eyes. He was giving Sang tips on how to maneuver in darkness and how to see with one's feet as opposed to their eyes, when the faint starlight illuminated several scrapes through the dirt.

"Wait." he commanded.

Sang stopped, Abhiral beckoned to where he stood over the tracks. He knelt, and Sang followed suit.

"Do you know what this is?"

Sang looked puzzled, scratching his head.

"...Legs?" he said after some time.

Abhiraj sat still, dumbfounded at this answer, then laughed aloud as he realized Sang had interpreted the marks on the ground as a drawing.

"No, Sang" he said, "These marks mean an animal has passed. Precisely, these are the marks made when hooves are dragged in the dirt while wounded. A nilgai's hooves."

Even in the dim light, Abhiraj could still see Sang's face light up at the mention of this animal. even children knew it was the prominent source of food and resources for their people, at times yielding far more than their agriculture.

"Are we going to follow it?" he asked excitedly.

"Of course we are. Well- as long as your mother will allow. Let us go, and remember what I told you about staying light on your feet."

The steadily cooling wind swirled around them as Abhiraj's sharp eyes tracked the nilgais recent past through the darkness. As he followed it, he noticed more and more signs of struggle. Perhaps this one was already taken by a hunter, he said to himself, while telling Sang the different subtle features left behind and what they meant. Sang had grown giddy with all the information, and had to be stopped by Abhiraj's hand as he tried to make heroic leaps where he could not see.

As much as Abhiraj wanted to absorb these happy feelings, something became... uneasy. He had soon expected the trail to end abruptly as the hunter gathered his kill, but such was not the case. The nilgai and its trail of thrashing movements grew more violent, and though he had seen a few splatters of blood dried on the earth before, there were just more and more, and in greater amounts.

He slowed, taking Sang's arm and ensuring he did the same. He stooped, examining the trail with more depth than he would perceive subconsciously. There it was: Intersecting movement; a struggle. A second animal.

Sang felt confused once again as he watched his father do this, waiting his answer on what they do next when he felt his father tense. It was not an extreme reaction, but Sang was at an age where he could pick up on signs like this. Suddenly the dark became a little darker, and the noises of the night became a little louder.

"D-d-dad?" He asked nervously, "What is it?"

Abhiraj arose sharply and pulled Sang close to him, speaking seriously.

"We should return now. Your mother will be getting worried."

He held his son with both arms and pushed him along at a hasty walk, as the faint scent of a corpse already drifted across his nose. It was close. Abhiraj thought intensely. He had heard stories from his grandfather, but never knew whether to take them with seriousness or simply as a story, for he never heard any other accounts of such a thing.

A beast many times larger than the snow cats, other animals which were too small to kill a nilgai. Lithe and stronger than a man, leaving tracks almost untraceable despite its size. A beast with fur the colors of fire.

All this ran rapidly through Abhiraj's head, while Sang became filled with more and more terror. He knew no tales of beasts, but he recognized that a fearless man had become fearful.

Worry and terror continued to thrive in the still night.

Abhiraj began to feel hope that they would return safely, when the shadow moved in the trees. He skidded Sang to a halt and positioned himself in front of his son, his senses on high alert. He thought he had lost sight of it before it emerged from the trees a short distance away, like a dim flame.

Every tale describing it had been true. Sang quaked with fear, hardly able to stand as the jade eyes bored into his.

Abhiraj took action immediately. He hurled a stone at the patterned head, and with immense strength threw Sang up into the nearest tree, the bow still clattering on the boy's back. He was slipping, struggling to pull himself up, when his father leapt up the tree behind him and hauled him up. The bagha was only briefly distracted by the stone, and now sprang its way towards the tree in a way that made Sang's body freeze. Its body uncoiled and leapt into them in a single bound. The impact hit Abhiraj directly, but before it could raise a paw to swipe, he landed a powerful kick directly between its eyes. It fell out of the tree, now rolling and wobbling trying to regain focus.

What the bagha's leap had done however, was knock Sang out of the tree. He landed with his back on the tree roots, snapping the bow and sending a seizing pain through his spine.

Wincing in the pain and struggling to recover air, He saw his father leaning down from the top of the tree, extending an arm with desperation on his face.

"CLIMB, SANG! GRAB MY HAND!" he roared.

Seeing the bagha almost right beside him, Sang let out a cry and tried frantically to climb the tree.

He gave it his all, tears bursting from his eyes.

But his feet slipped again and again, his grip broke under his own weight, and he scraped his flesh trying to wrap himself around the trunk and branches to climb. He was too weak.

The bagha was shaking off the last of the impact, steadying itself on its feet. Sang still struggled out of his father's reach, and it would surely rip the boy off the tree and kill him right there. Abhiraj looked frantically between them, and knew what he must do.

Sang looked through tear filled eyes to see the sinister radial pattern of the bagha's face. Its mouth contorted into a murderous visage and it lunged with its claws outstretched. But before it could come close to touching him, Abhiraj slammed with full force into its shoulders, bearing the unbending courage of a parent's protection.

Before the bagha could attack again, he bellowed one word to his only child.

"RUN!"

He turned once again and faced the beast, ripping the three arrows from his side and clutching them in his fist. Sang was hesitant, taking slow, frightened steps backwards in disbelief.

The bagha tore through Abhiraj's side, and though the blood ran in rivers he wrapped a rigid arm around its neck, bringing the arrows down behind its ear. Though they left deep red gashes of their own, they were not stable or sharp enough to pierce the skull.

They were meant to be fired from a bow.

The arrows snapped apart in his hand, and the enraged monster pressed its full weight over and on top of the man. With his arms straining the beastial jaws away from his face, he spoke again to Sang, desperation in his wounded voice.

"Go!"

Sang turned and fled as fast as he could, mind ravaged by a fear worn haze until he collapsed, the last image in his mind being fangs sinking into his father's neck.