The following morning, Valen was ready to leave the cave.

He had spent the remainder of the daylight packing up everything he could carry, leaving the rest for Nikki, which were either replaceable items or tools he crafted during his stay. He kept the crutch with him though, as he wasn’t sure how far she would drop him from the nearest village, and he hadn’t done any strenuous exercise for a few days, so busy had he been making their language. He wasn’t going to risk straining himself in a foolish mistake that he could have easily prevented by using his crutch.

Thus, under the instructions of Nikki, Valen was waiting near the edge of the cave, looking at the spectacular landscape spread out before his eyes. He couldn’t see any villages or towns from this viewpoint though, but he trusted that she knew where the nearest ones were. Turning away from the view with no small amount of difficulty, he finally looked at Nikki, who had walked over to stand next to him in the meantime. They had discussed the plan already: she would carry him in her claws while flying at low speed because he was clearly not physically able to withstand the high speed or sudden accelerations her species was able to.

They looked at each other for a moment, before Nikki motioned to him to get ready. Valen took a deep breath and tried to relax as much as he could. Then, he heard Nikki shuffle behind him and looked back at her. He nodded to indicate he was ready, and she nodded in response, the motion now smoother but still a bit bird-like.

Suddenly, without any warning, Nikki carefully grabbed him with her claws and rested her wight on her wings, which had their tips planted in the ground. Valen relaxed himself as much as he could, even though the claws that were holding him were gentle, they still pressed on him, and years of being a hunter had left him with an ingrained instinct telling him to get away from the sharp claws that he had to forcibly suppress. She awkwardly shuffled towards the ledge, clearly not used to standing up like this, then stood for a couple of moments at the edge of the huge drop that would certainly result in his death should he fall.

A loud whirring noise built up in the air around him, and hearing it every day had made it a familiar one. Valen knew what it meant. Nikki was gathering air to start up the strange phenomena that allowed her to fly. And this time he felt the air being swallowed through her chest, an unnatural breeze caressing his face. Then, without any warning, he felt her bunch her rear leg muscles… And she jumped.

Weightlessness gripped him for an instant, then he started to fall. A fall that wasn’t controlled by him, but by the owner of the claws that were holding him tight against the scales he could feel through the back of his shirt. The wind rushing by his face rapidly became a roar, whistling past his one good ear. Then, before he could start to get worried, he felt something shift and the pressure from the claws intensified a bit but not enough to be uncomfortable. Craning his neck to look behind himself, he saw that Nikki’s wings were now spewing out dragon energy, the flame-like tongues of red energy quickly dissipating in the air. They were no longer accelerating toward the ground but had started to pick up momentum forward.

Looking towards the ground again, Valen could see that it was definitely much closer than before. He could now glimpse individual trees, and could see the rivers coursing through the land. He could clearly feel their rate of descent was slowing down though, the realization melting away the last of his apprehension, and he didn’t stop the huge grin from breaking out on his face. Being able to see the world like this was freeing like nothing had ever been before for him, it was something that exhilarated him. He restrained himself from whooping though, given that they were picking up speed. If nothing else he was afraid of taking in too much air.

They were now very close to the ground and had leveled out, and he could even see that Nikki was slowing down, her wings pointing almost fully down, expelling just enough force to keep them going and counteract gravity, but no more. They were still powerful enough to burn the leaves that were caught by the jets. They flew in this fashion above the forest until they reached a clearing, where Nikki finally touched down, though not before hovering just above the ground for a moment to gently release Valen from her claws. He fell the few remaining feetdown, rolling to absorb the impact, then immediately rushed out of the open area, clearing Nikki’s landing spot.She cut off her wings and impacted the ground with a dull thump that sent vibrations through the ground, strong enough that Valen felt the shocks reverberating on the soles of his feet.

The two of them looked at each other in silence for a while, neither daring to make the first move to break the spell. Until finally Nikki nodded and she pointed in a direction before signing, ‘Town there. Not far.’ The last word was made by putting her wings level with the ground and spreading them out as they got further and further from each other.

Valen nodded and signed ‘thank you’ in response. He wanted to add something like ‘stay safe’ but he wasn’t sure how she would take it, and besides, he was pretty sure that she was the safest of the both of them. Adjusting his backpack, he checked the direction she had indicated using both the sun’s progress and his compass (A tool he had been happy to find hidden in the depths of his bag), and set out, waving to Nikki. It wasn’t a definite goodbye, because if Valen had his way, he would definitely see her again. And she was sure of it too.

The first miles were the strangest for Valen, the lush greenery jarring and unfamiliar to him after being stuck for so long in a cave. Thus he took a deep breath to enjoy the myriad of odors the forest brought to him; the scent of dirt, of the first fallen leaves, the smell of the river he heard gurgling nearby… He had missed this. All of it was part of the experience of hunting, and it was only now that he realized how much he truly appreciated it.

He soon settled into a rhythm,and he was able to make good progress, though he often caught himself looking behind, hoping… Hoping to catch a glimpse of silver. Every time he acknowledged what he did, he shook his head, but it was hard for him to not brood in the absence of Nikki after having spent so much time in her presence. And still, he pressed on, as he wanted to reach the town before the night fell. The wilderness was much more dangerous at night… Especially if you were alone or without a weapon to defend yourself. And Valen met both of those criteria at the moment.

Periodically checking on the sun’s progress, and verifying his bearing using the compass, he grew more and more restless as the day progressed. Doubts and fears started jumping into his mind. What if he had deviated from his heading? What if Nikki was wrong and it wasn’t a town she spotted? He shook his head and banished the negative thoughts from his head. He had noted down the heading on a piece of paper, and he trusted Nikki’s sight much more than his own. So he marched on.

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Finally, as the sun was starting to get low in the sky, Valen spotted smoke on the horizon. He had left the forest behind a couple of hours ago and was now navigating wild plains. The sight of the town reinvigorated him and lifted his spirits. He had long since started using his crutch as a walking stick to relieve the strain on his aching leg, but it felt much more inconsequential when faced with the sight before him. He was returning to civilization, and he just needed to press on for a little further. So he continued, walking at a brisk pace towards the road he could now see.

It still took him a couple more hours to finally arrive in the town, and the sun was painting the sky in bright yellows and reds instead of blue, the clouds appearing pink rather than their usual white. Valen walked towards the gate, closed in preparation for the night, but he could see the slit the sentry would be using to keep watch, and he definitely saw movement. Walking up to the opening, ke knocked on it. .

He heard shuffling for a bit until a voice asked out loud. “Who’s here? It is way too late for any visitors!”

Valen took a deep breath and uttered the response he was supposed to do in this situation. “Hunter Valen, returning from a hunt.”

There was silence for a couple of seconds — likely due to the sentry definitely not expecting the answer Valen had given. Still, he answered. “Hunter? I haven’t heard of any recent hunts in this area.”

“You wouldn’t have,” Valen replied. “The hunt was… Not here. Due to some circumstances that elude even me, I found myself displaced, and my team missing. I have been recovering from my injuries for a while, and only now managed to find a town on my route.”

The sentry was silent for a moment.

“Tell you what. I’m willing to overlook the holes in that for now, but you need to prove you’re not some poacher. Show me your license and I’ll let you in.”

Valen pulled out his license, and he had to admit that he was very lucky that it had survived his mishap. Getting a new one was a lengthy process he did not wish to go through, beyond the trouble he would have faced here without it. He flipped it around and showed it to the slit in the door, and after a moment’s pause, the sentry answered. “That looks like in order, you can come through. I’m assuming the, ah… new ear piercing’s something you picked up in your most recent hunt?” He said after having opened the small door instead of the whole gate.

Valen hurried through, and, not wanting to leave the question unanswered, said. “Yes… I’m pretty sure you can guess what happened from that.” The guard simply nodded in response and did not comment on anything else.

The town he had just entered was not one he was familiar with. Even so, he could instantly see that it was at least equipped with the basic necessities of a hunting outpost. There was a smithy and a guild hall. He also saw the markings of an airship dock, though it seemed to have fallen slightly into disrepair due to a lack of use. The rest of the houses were just ordinary shops, taverns, and living homes. Valen headed straight towards the guild hall. He knew what trials awaited him, and he was not looking forward to them, but he knew he had no choice but to square his shoulders and press onwards..

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

So he walked into the building through the open archway, no door barring his path. His entrance attracted the attention of the guild receptionist, who was clearly surprised by his presence, having not expected a hunter at this hour. Valen nodded to her and went to the counter. There he presented his license once again and she took it and looked it over before doing a double-take. “I had no messages about you being anywhere near this area, Hunter Valen… ”

“You wouldn’t have…” He sighed. “The hunt I return from was not successful… Worse, it was a wipe.” She gasped. “As far as I know, I was the only survivor.”

A wipe was the result of one or several deaths during a failed hunt, it was rare, but not that uncommon. More often it was a death during a successful hunt (a casualty then), or simply a failed hunt. And there were procedures when a hunter came back from one.

“How long has it been?” She had now pulled out a paper and was writing on it.

“I’m not certain, I lost track of the days while recovering from my injury… But I believe it was two weeks at least.” He scratched his head. “Could you add that I lost my weapon and that my armor is not repairable?”

“Already noted.” She sighed. “I’ll have to send a message to the nearest main city for this, which would be Harth. Then I’ll have to ask you for a full report detailing what happened in the hunt. You know the procedure.”

Valen nodded. “I expected nothing less… Do you have a spare room? The road back has not been kind to me and I haven’t slept on a real bed since before I left with the hunt.”

She smiled. “There’s one open, yes. I’ll wait for you for the full report, come when you are ready, but it must be done by tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t shirk my duty.” Then he gratefully accepted the keys she presented him and lumbered up the stairs to the rooms situated on the second floor, nodding a goodnight at the receptionist as he walked to the stairs. He looked quickly at the room number on the key’s tag and went into the corresponding door.

The room was a simple one, with a drawer, a bedroom with its accompanying table, and a window. The exhaustion of the day finally catching up to him, he quickly put down his backpack and disrobed, and immediately went to sleep, entering the realm of dreams instantly.

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When Valen woke up the following day, the sun was already high in the sky and it took him a long moment to blink at his surroundings until he remembered the day’s events, and why they felt so unfamiliar. And when his mind finally caught up with those, he let out a huge yawn while stretching, then shook himself and got out of bed.

Before anything else, he went to the bathroom, deciding that a good cleaning was the most important thing he needed. His plan was put on hold the moment he entered it, though, something immediately catching his gaze… Hanging on the wall was a mirror. And it was reflecting the face of a stranger.

The last time he had seen himself, his head was unblemished. And while he had known, intellectually, that he was missing an ear, seeing it himself finally made the reality of his injuries crash over him all over again. The entire left side of his head was now a gigantic burn, still a bit red from healing. No hair grew from it, and the space where there should have been an ear was just a simple patch of skin. The burn stopped at his cheekbone, but it was unmissable. He stared at his reflection for a while longer, but eventually slumped and let out a sigh. He would just have to live with it.

However, something else seemed different to him. He didn’t have the same look in his eyes, he felt… Wilder. Experienced. Like the world could throw anything it wanted at him and he would find a way out somehow. Which was, he thought, an accurate representation of what happened to him. He should have died. He had no business being alive, but because of sheer luck and moxie, he had gotten out.

He then examined his leg, a thick scar drawing a line through the muscle. Touching it, the flesh felt hard and didn’t give much. Again, the outcome lined up with what he had expected. He could manage, and that was all that mattered to him.

Valen shook his head. He had lingered enough on his new scars, and he still needed a quick scrub. He would certainly ask for a full bath in the afternoon, but for now, cleaning the grime on himself would be enough of a start, along with a shave.

A while later, he emerged from the bathroom feeling cleaner than he had in weeks. Back in his bedroom, he was happy to discover that a pile of fresh clothes was waiting for him on his bed, alongside a note which said: ‘These aren’t free of charge, but I’m sure you would appreciate receiving them early.’

He chuckled. He didn’t intend to abuse the generosity of the receptionist, but he was grateful for the forethought. He quickly put on the clothes, left the room, locking his door behind him. He walked down the stairs, nodding to the guild receptionist when she noticed him.

She motioned to the backroom behind the counter, beckoning him over. Valen went into it, the receptionist following right behind him, locking the door behind her. He looked around the room. Definitely a piece used for meetings —- it had a couple of candle lamps, a table, and some chairs. There were other doors leading out of the room, however, which he guessed led to the archives and the personal quarters of the receptionist.

The receptionist sat down on a chair, spread a piece of parchment out in front of her, then pulled out a quill and a bottle of ink. She unstoppered it and inked the quill with the ease borne of years of practice, readying herself to write. He sat down on the chair directly in front of her. She looked up at him and said, “Recording the after-hunt report of Hunter Valen, who has returned declaring a wipe and being the sole survivor. Hunt target was?”

“A Glavenus, we were supposed to capture it for relocation.” He sighed. “It was going alright until we got invaded by a Seregios, then we lost control of the hunt and everything degenerated from here.”

“I’ll have to ask you to start from the beginning Hunter Valen. When did you leave for the hunt?”

And thus he recited how the hunt had happened. They had left the city at an early hour, dawn yet a hint of rose in the sky. He recounted how they spent a while tracking their target, taking several hours to find its tracks. How they located the monster prowling a plain. The ambush they prepared. The way it was foiled due to nothing but bad luck, a shift of the wind allowing the Glavenus to sniff them out. The struggle at the beginning but the way they managed to wear it down. How everybody, even their target, looked at the sky when the Seregios screeched and dived at them. He told her how the hunt had immediately descended into chaos once the invader joined the fray. How they had managed to hold on for a while, throwing dung bombs that ultimately proved to be ineffective. The stalemate that ensued, because nobody wanted to give in. The hunters not wanting to let all of their progress go to waste, the Glavenus which, while tired, was still dangerous enough to be a threat, and the Seregios which, even coated with dung, didn’t want to retreat.

How everything suddenly went from bad to worse once their first team member died. The fact that they finally gave in and dung bombed the Glavenus instead, which left promptly. Then suddenly, their second team member died.

Valen took a deep breath. “I am ashamed to say once our second member died… I had a panic attack. It all reminded me of… a dark part of my past. And so I ran off, which led to our remaining team member, Flynn, trying to call me, distracting him at the worst moment and causing him to get thrown off the cliff… My running amounted to nothing anyway since the Seregios caught up to me instantly, wounded my leg, and was about to finish me off… Then all I remember was an explosion, a screech, and falling unconscious.”

He waited a while longer in silence as the receptionist finished noting down his story, until she looked up and asked a question. “So you don’t know what caused the explosion and the screech? You’re implying a third party ambushed the Seregios and ignored you?”

“I truly don’t know… I just remember waking up in a cave, my armor ruined and my weapon missing, my bag missing half of its contents, and a pile of salted meat and some rations next to me. Throughout my entire recovery, I found no trace of anyone. I can only guess it was wild Felynes that found me unconscious in the aftermath of the battle. It’s probably also them who cauterized the wound on my ear, and what a shoddy job they did…” He sighed. “At least it more than surely saved my life so I can’t be too mad.”

She nodded and wrote on her parchment, which was the second one, the first having been written to the brim on both sides. “So you waited for your leg to recover, and then traveled around for a few days, hoping to find a town until you found a road leading to ours?”

Valen just nodded.

She scribbled a bit more before putting away her quill. “That should do it… I’ll need your signature here, take the time to read through it so you can confirm the details,” she said while pointing to the bottom of the parchment.

Valen nodded and quickly scanned the parchment. It was a re-transcription of the account he just told, and nothing was out of place. He dipped his quill in the inkwell and applied his signature. The receptionist added hers and waited for a bit for the ink to dry, then rolled the parchment back up and motioned him to go out. Once back in the main room, she went back to the counter and started capping the roll of parchment into a cylindrical container.

“I will send this to the guild. I’ll have to use a delivery bird, it’s an important one… But before I do that, may I officially welcome you back into civilization, Hunter Valen? You’ve had a harrowing trial, but you survived.”

“Thank you… It’s nice to finally be back. Do you know when I can expect replacement gear?”

“I believe you’ll be asked to train yourself to get back into shape first using a steel weapon and chain-mail armor. And then we’ll assign a hunter to accompany you in a hunt so that you can get new gear.”

“Do you have an estimate on that second part?”

“Not within a month, I can tell you that much. You’ll have to wait for the guild knights to arrive for a more accurate estimate.”

Valen nodded, the timeframe was about what he had expected as well. “I will wait for their arrival then.”

She smiled. “I’m happy that this wipe hasn’t diminished your dedication to hunting, Valen.”

“I would only be ashamed of myself if I did.” ‘Though was a possibility I considered… But in the end, I dismissed it.’

“Then… Enjoy your impromptu holidays!”

“I will,” he replied, finally returning her smile.