Chapter 5: First Hunt (Part One)

When I regained my senses, I realized I was standing on a battlefield full of corpses. Some of them looked comical, their hands reaching for the bleary skies full of night-colored ravens. Others, they merely looked as if they were in a deep, restful sleep. The corpses all belonged to the humanoid races, and they were like a sea, stretching for miles.

“Hero,” they had called me.

From behind me, there stood the legion of invaders dressed in fearsome black armor. They were like a wave of devouring bloodlust, intent on crushing everything.

“Master,” they had called me.

-The Betrayer

We stood at the northern gates of the village, preparing for our First Hunt with no supervision. There were ten of us in all. Eight of us, including me, were the new Hunters that had just passed basic training. The other three in our group were the lead Hunter and two other experienced Hunters. There was still some more time to waste before we would arrive at the forest.

Beside me, Leaping Fox patted his blade-spear like one would do to a dear friend. “Today’s a good morning to hunt, Brother Wolf Under Stars,” he said. “I wonder if there will be any sheena to hunt.”

“Too much confidence kills the preening fox, you know?” said Brother Eagle Above Skies from behind. He was the oldest of us, seven years old and the leader of our eight newly-made Hunters group. He was cautious, always vigilant. Patience was his thing. Perhaps that was why Hunter chose him to be the leader of our little group. Then again, his skill with the blade-spear was nothing to mock at.

“I wasn’t speaking to you, Brother Eagle Above Skies,” Leaping Fox replied, a small grin on his face.

“Yes. Yes. You should be a little more like the wind, Brother Eagle Above Skies.” Little Bird looked on with amused eyes. He was the most carefree out of all of us. “I bet you haven’t even shared kisses with anyone yet.” He made a gesture with his hands. “The wind does like to caress.”

Eagle Above Skies gave a short glare. “What does that even have to do with hunting?”

Little Bird shrugged his shoulders, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “You are the oldest, thus you should lead us in everything. Even I have gotten a kiss from a Wraithborn girly. I won’t give you her name though.”

“She’s called Mina, and about three years older than Little Bird.” The voice came from beside Little Bird. It belonged to Brother Big Bird, the older twin. He was a silent one, only speaking when he wanted to.

“…”

There was a long pause before Little Bird chose to speak. “Someday, big brother, even though you are my twin, I am going to disown you.”

A loud laughter resounded at that. “You always say that, Brother Little Bird, yet you never carry it out.” Only six and a half years old, but Brother Big Bear was already six feet tall. He was the largest out of all of us. He was also the one I would never want to get into a brawl with.

It was a smart decision, considering the fact that I was only five feet tall, and Big Bear probably had about the weight of two Ronats on me. Bigger Ronats.

He definitely suited the name of Big Bear. Like all the Hunters, we were named after the names of animals, especially ones which reflected our nature. Personally, I wasn’t too sure why I was named “Wolf Under Stars.”

Further behind me were Brother Ronat and Brother Hidden Shade. They were both following in silence. I guessed that they were the silent type, much more silent than Big Bird could be.

When we arrived at the edge of the forest, Hunter and the other two older ones paused. “Now, this part of the forest, we patrol it almost daily, so I am confident that there are only a few beasts that would be troublesome for the eight of you.”

Hunter nodded to the Demona to his left. “Still, it is best that we remain close by, and also to help you in case of an emergency.”

The Hunter with the blue ridges on his forearm walked forward, handing Eagle Above Skies a small horn, just about the length of a finger. The tool was not to be underestimated though. It had been enchanted by a Magus.

Eagle Above Skies also received a few more tools. He nodded in response, putting the various tools into a pouch located at his waist.

“There is no need for me to repeat instructions about your task, is there?” Hunter raised an eyebrow.

We all shook our heads. Our task was to survive in the forest for seven days and seven nights, while bringing back certain parts of beasts and animals to obtain points.

“May luck fare you well, brothers.”

All of us brothers met each other eyes. We knew how to respond to that. “We don’t need luck, only skill.” Then we banged the hilt of our blade-spears onto the ground. “And may luck fare you well also, brother Hunters.”

“Hah, too early for you guys to be saying that to me.” Hunter gave a short laugh. “Likewise, I also do not need luck, only skill.”

We parted after that exchange, heading inside the forest. Morning had just turned into afternoon, and the sun was bright overhead. Inside the forest, though, the canopies were thick enough that only slivers of sunlight managed to pierce through.

Demona, especially the ones suited to become Hunters, had excellent night vision, so we weren’t particularly worried. Following the creed of the Hunters, we also bared our chest to Mother Nature.

Unlike the older Hunters, we still had not obtained our markings, so our bared chests were plain. We also did not have the ridges on our bodies which would mark us as full grown Demona Hunters.

My skin was a pale white and my hair had grew longer, its jet-black strands falling past my shoulders, covering the back of my neck. I chuckled to myself.

“What’s so funny, Brother Wolf Under Stars,” Leaping Fox asked.

“Nothing, I was just thinking I should have been named White Wolf.”

The Brothers laughed at that.

“True, you are the only one with white skin out of all of us. Then again that makes you the special one in our group, eh?” Small Bird winked at me. “You could pose for some Wraithborn girlies. Some of their skin are pretty white. I could even accidentally give you a kiss.”

I laughed. “Hah, I will go tell your Mina that in the Blooming Section.”

“You would not dare, Brother Wolf.”

When we grew past six years old, the females and the males of our tribe were divided. The six to ten years old would enter the Blooming Section and the males would enter their own. My Brothers and I were all located in the Hunters Section, a separate division of its own, for we matured faster than the others who were our age.

Once the normal children were past the age of ten, they would each go into sections where their professions were located at. Blacksmithing, Woodsmithing, Tailoring, and all those others. Finally, when they were sixteen years old, they would be full grown adults, each able to enter the Demona Section, Wraithborn Section, or the Mix Section.

I had not known this back then as a child, because most of these sections had been barred off to me. I had not even realized that there was a division between Wraithborn and Demona. It was a bit saddening to realize, but I suppose the differences between the two races in our tribe could lead to trouble for some prideful individuals.

After a while of tracking paths, we were deep within the northern forests now. The canopies became thicker, now barely even letting a few shafts of sunlight to enter through. The trees of the forest were majestic emperors. They stood taller than I could possibly see. I had to narrow my eyes so tall were the trees when looking up. The least of the trees, I estimated, were most likely over three hundred feet tall.

“Ah! Blood of Ronats!” Brother Little Bird cursed near the front. His wild kick sent a few stray leaves flying. “What kind of animal piss and shit in a Blackberry bush? I was just about to grab a few too.”

“I don’t know…It seems like a good spot to piss in,” Leaping Fox dryly said. Blackberries were not one of his favorites. Their taste, he had said, was like the shit of Ronat smeared onto the shit of a Bigger Ronat. Not that I knew what the shit of a Ronat tasted like. I wondered how Brother Leaping Fox knew.

While Leaping Fox and Little Bird were arguing about the delights of Blackberries, Hidden Shade suddenly stopped.

All of us noticed the change in his demeanor. Even Leaping Fox and Little Bird noticed. They could get quite serious when the situation called for it.

Brother Hidden Shade, if nothing else, had keen senses. He could probably spy a Ronat from ten miles away and with a few forests in between as obstacles. I exaggerate, of course, but you catch my meaning.

I was the second to notice why Hidden Shade suddenly stopped. It was a slight movement, barely imperceptible. I would not have noticed it had I not been looking upward and were it not for Brother Hidden Shade pausing.

Above the intertwining tree branches of a group of four trees, behind the cover of a foliage of many thick green and brown leaves, there was a leaf that should not have moved as it did. It didn’t obey the rules of nature.

Immediately after, noticing the two of us looking above the trees, the rest of the Brothers followed.

“What do you think, Brother Eagle Above Skies?” Hidden Shade asked.

“Probably the same conclusion you reached, Brother Shade,” he replied. “Most likely a nest of lightning or sky vipers. The height of the branches and the tree seems likely for that.”

Hidden Shade nodded.

Eagle Above Skies looked toward the rest of the Brothers, seeing if they had anything to add.

“Could be a Bristle also,” I added. “Those small beasts have a liking for these types of trees. The height also seems right.”

Eagle Above Skies agreed again. “We will act under the condition that the nest could be either a Bristle, sky vipers, or lightning vipers.”

“It is good for us either way,” Leaping Fox added with a slight smile. “We have about a two out of three chance of a sky viper or a bristle. Our requirements for the First Hunt include these as targets.”

“Let us start then,” Eagle Above Skies said.

We all knew what to do. We had been taught the ins and outs of hunting various beasts and animals. Each of us went searching and picked up a stone on the forest floor. For me, with my blade-spear held in my left hand, I picked up a roundish rock, just about the right size to fit my palm.

Leaping Fox frowned. “How come my stone is smaller than yours?”

Little Bird only let out a short laugh. “Simple. That’s because mine is bigger than yours.”

“Ha. Let us compare it then. I dare you to bring out yours.”

I didn’t need to contemplate too much to know what my Brothers were referring to. I will give you a hint, though. It was definitely not the stones in their hands.

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“I bet you that it is a nest of sky vipers.”

“Nah, it is definitely lightning vipers.”

I closed their arguing voices out after that. I looked up at the branches of the group of four trees. They were, more or less, about a hundred feet high or so. Easy pickings. I wasn’t worried about my stone not being able to reach the branches.

Each of us Brothers, if we chose to, could have easily thrown our blade-spears to that height, with enough force left over to kill anything that stood in the way. But that would have been stupid. The blade-spears were our hearts. Our lives. They were like the mothers we never had, not that we blamed the Caretakers or anything. It was just the way of our tribe. Nothing more, nothing less.

When our stones hit the branches, they trembled violently, as if a fierce wind had come storming through. From the foliage of green and brown leaves, two green tails with a black tipped spike dropped down. Then they went still. So still that you could not even tell if it belonged to a living creature.

“Told you it was a sky viper,” Leaping Fox said with a winning grin.

“That was only because you chose first. I had wanted to pick that choice first,” Little Bird replied, a dissatisfied look on his face.

A hand went for the tool pouch around his waist. “It also looks like I will be getting the honor of first blood too.” Leaping Fox took out a black hilted throwing knife. It was a beast of a thing, as long as his forearm and almost as thick. Brutal was the word that would come into mind upon looking at the knife. And though it was a brutal-looking weapon, it was perfectly balanced.

With a poorly suppressed grin on his face, Leaping Fox made a “hmm” sound for a few seconds. “Looks like the distance is around a hundred and twenty feet or so.” In a five fingered grip, he held the wrapped hilt of the throwing knife. His wrist flickered, almost blurring.

Almost immediately, the knife traveled outward, cutting through the entire tail of the sky viper. Dark blood dripped below, and the stub of the tail—at least what remained of it—moved violently in protest after more than two seconds. It was as if the sky viper had not noticed its mutilation.

That was how clean the cut was. Brother Leaping Fox was the best Hunter among us at throwing knives. If I was to be honest, I would say that his skill with the knives was much better than his handling with the blade-spear.

“Good throw, Brother Leaping Fox,” I complimented, while at the same time readying my blade-spear.

Sky vipers were dangerous opponents. More so a nest of them.

The dripping black blood of the sky viper became the signal for the battle. Multiple heads with red, beady eyes protruded outward from the foliage of leaves. They came out of hiding from almost every branch. There were dozens upon dozens of them. Among them, the sky viper that had been disfigured by Leaping Fox dropped toward the ground, a muffled thud resulting from the crash.

It had lost too much blood, and from the great fall, I could see that the sky viper had lost almost half of its body.

Little Bird smirked. “Looks like it was just a youngling, Brother Leaping Fox. I think you should have chosen the other tail.” His smirk soon turned into a frown, which was then replaced with worried surprise. “Oh dear All Mother. Forgiving All Father.”

Even after dozens of sky viper heads had protruded outward from the foliage to see who had dared to invade their territory, more kept on appearing. By the tens. By the dozens. We watched in horrid fascination.

Brother Big Bird even deigned to comment. “Pissing Ronat…”

“Yar,” said Brother Big Bear, “No way we are going to fight that.”

“There is a time and a place to fight. And there is a time and a place to retreat. I think now is the time for the latter,” Eagle Above Skies dryly said.

Leaping Fox cursed. “My knife!”

We fled then. We fled like the wind. We fled as if there was a great dragon chasing us.

From beside me, I could hear Leaping Fox issuing a myriad of curses. “Shit. Shit. Shit. You do know that was my favorite knife right.”

Little Bird laughed. “Who told you to use your favorite knife, anyway?” His laugh was a “heh, heh, heh,” almost like a wheezing hyena that had swallowed a sand dune. It was a laugh Little Bird liked to use to great effect. We agreed that it was his most annoying laugh.

I spared a glance behind me, and almost regretted it immediately. Hundreds of sky vipers were fervently slithering down the branches, and down the thick trunks of the trees. There were so many of them that in some places, the sky vipers were slithering over each other.

And in the middle of the waves of sky vipers, I saw an entirely red sky viper. It was easy to spot not due to its color, but due to its size. The creature was probably more than thirty feet long. Its width was also no laughing matter. It was most likely wider than two thighs altogether.

“I thought there was only supposed to be around ten to twenty sky vipers per nest. And that’s including their younglings,” Brother Ronat meekly said. He was the youngest of us all, the baby of our group. We were all quite protective of him, especially Brother Hidden Shade.

“Well, I, for one, will certainly not be going back to count how many are there,” Little Bird interjected.

“Probably over a dozen nests’ worth living in that group of trees,” said Hidden Shade. He jumped over an overgrown root while putting a finger to his chin. In the forests, Brother Hidden Shade was truly a natural. It was as if he had been born and raised in a forest. He was also the most knowledgeable about all things related to the forest out of all of us.

“I saw a red-scaled sky viper. The creature seemed to be leading them. It was also the largest out of the whole lot,” I added.

“Strange, I have never heard of that before,” said Eagle Above Skies.

He looked at Brother Hidden Shade, who merely shook his head. “Neither have I. Probably a queen of some sorts.”

We quickly agreed upon that. After all, it was not as if we could really check it out. We would need to ask Hunter or some other older Hunters.

Pretty soon, the cacophony of angry hissing from the sky vipers was no longer heard, and we paused to confirm our surroundings. Even in the midst of our retreat, we were always keeping track of the paths we went through.

It was easy to get lost in these forests. A mistake that had been the cause of many lost lives, Hunter would always remind us.

Judging from the state of the forest, and the shafts of sunlight that were let through the canopies, it was around midafternoon. Day would soon turn to night in a while. We didn’t need to set up camp yet, however. We still had plenty of daylight left. And even if it was night, we had vision that could see in the dark.

We looked for the tracks of the beasts we needed to hunt. Not surprisingly, it was Hidden Shade who found the first set of tracks. But it was a shame that the tracks did not belong to one of our required targets for the First Hunt.

Hunter had given us various targets for our First Hunt. And each of these targets, depending on their difficulties and danger levels, were worth a certain amount of points. To complete the First Hunt, we needed about three hundred points. At this moment, we still had not obtained any points yet. But that was only due to our desire to hunt the targets that would give the most points.

The next set of tracks were found by me. The tracks belonged to that of a Scylla, a six limbed creature with two heads. It was a dangerous beast, one of the top predators in these parts of the northern forests. For our task, hunting down a Scylla and bring proof of its death would award us forty points.

For more than an hour, we followed the tracks of the Scylla, which we almost lost when the tracks disappeared across a river. I wasn’t surprised when we found the tracks again more than fifteen feet away from the river when we crossed it. The creature must have jumped. And judging from that, it was most likely full-grown Scylla. That would pose a challenge to us all.

Another hour of tracking led us to a cave, which we stayed far away from. The Scylla’s sense of smell was not to be underestimated. Just judging from the tracks alone and the distance we needed to take, I knew that the Scylla was a formidable beast. After all, no beast could be this weak if it had such a wide range of hunting territory.

We conferred for a moment, and all of us agreed that we would hunt the Scylla in the morning. The beast, although most active during the daytime, was the most dangerous during nighttime.

Setting up camp was simple. We simply found a spot that was far away from the tracks of the Scylla, and in a location where its formidable sense of smell would be hard to reach. The spot, of course, was a distance away from the trees. Camping under trees was a risky venture. No one knew what lived up atop the branches. In addition, we also took the risk of making a campfire.

The fire was a small comfort, not really necessary, but it would drive the smaller animals and beasts away. But most of all, the annoying nightly insects were averse to fire and smoke. For extra caution, Eagle Above Skies, Hidden Shade, and Big Bear set up a perimeter of small traps and warning bells that would inform us of any invaders.

It was not foolproof, but it would at least ease the stress on the members of the night watch. For food, we hunted down Ronats which had already burrowed deep down into their dens and Bexans, which also belonged in the small prey category. Bexans were four limbed creatures that were somewhat similar to deer, excepting two features. They had one long horn instead of antlers and their tails were long and flat, almost like a paddle.

Trust me, Bexans were not to be underestimated. Their paddle tails were hardy and strong. A slap would hurt more than it would from a Ronat. An interesting feature of these Bexans were that the males would propose by slapping the females buttocks with these paddles. Strange, but I wasn’t one to judge Mother Nature.

“You know, Brother Eagle,” said Little Bird, “you could learn something from these Bexans.” He took a bite out of the paddle tail of a Bexan.

“…”

“I don’t know why I do not disown you too, Brother Little Bird,” said Big Bird, breaking his usual silence. He was digging into the ears of a Ronat.

Beside me, I heard Eagle’s soft mutter as six of us, excluding the night watch, went to sleep. “I don’t know why I disown all of you.”

“It’s cause you love us.” The ears of Brother Little Bird was not to be underestimated.

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AN: If you find any mistakes or inconsistencies, feel free to leave a comment. Thanks.