Up I went up the stairs faster than ever; back then I would need half an hour, whereas today I was at the fresh air within five minutes. At the top of the ledge, I sat myself under a tree. It’s now like a habit to take a rest here, enjoying the view, and appreciating the birds singing while eating my breakfast.
Looking down upon Aldorem, I could see the city slowly awaking from its deep slumber. The streets were slowly filling with people, who seemed to be like little ants from up here. Noises from deep within the chasm could softly be heard, which the now active mines produced.
For a good while, I overlooked the chasm, but as I finished my breakfast, I spun around and stood up. Stretching myself, I could see the old forest with its ancient trees still standing strong. From many of the mossy giants, lianes hung down or other plants grew onto them. But not only that, there were also millions of little animals housing in and on them.
Normally I would now search for my way, which leads to the other side of the forest, but I wanted to hunt today in the forest and so decided to just go randomly in it to discover new parts I didn’t even knew of. Because of this, I decided to first go north for some kilometres, while orienting on the forest border right from me. Somewhere I then went into the dark forest.
I went straight into it, and then the first tree up onto its branches. From there, I ran from tree crown to tree crown while being nearly noiseless, until I saw a little squirrel searching for edible things on the forest floor. So I quietly took out my dagger and then rapidly threw it towards the animal. I hit it in the head, killing it instantly, so I dropped down, collected it, and put it inside my back.
I went up in the trees again to search for my next victim, which didn’t take long to find. But this time I was too loud, and the rabbit ran away before I had my chance to assassinate it. So it went on for some hours, but at the end I could only kill two rabbits, a squirrel, and two giant frogs, which were each about 30 cm high. With the little hunt, I was quite happy and decided to take a short break.
I decided to go further northward, due to already being far away from the forest’s west border. On the way I found something I really didn’t expect—a lonely Iwàrt walking around. I thought I killed all of them, but seemingly one survived, and now rooms trough the forest. But it could also be another tribe of those wolves, and so I scouted the area without finding another one of them. As I came back, the Iwàrt sill stood solitary there. I Jumped down from the tree onto him and stabbed him in the head. The beast fell down—dead, and with it, the whole wicked race was slayed, probably. But still I sworn myself to kill them on sight, so that one day, there will be none Iwàrts left.
Further North I went after the unusual encounter, only to find myself at a dead end, where going further in the bushes was nearly pointless as the forest got too dense. I decided to go a huge half circle and then go another way back to where I came from.
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I was half way back, to the point, where I entered the forest; when something gigantic, fluffy, and light green entered my sight. It picked up my interest, and so I halted and slowly sneaked up on it. Being nearly over the thing, I realized what I found—it was a Wig’ry. I wondered, as this is a species that lives only in the southern parts of the forest, so what does it do here? It might be on the hunt or it was here because it was banned from its tribe. Either way it was alone here.
I looked for quite some time at the monster, which is said to be the strongest species living around here in the forest. I was quite fascinated because I had never seen one before, due to avoiding the Wig’rys territory. The beast looked a lot like a bear, but in extra large and on steroids, its fur was all green, only differing in its shades now and then. It’s face looked intimidating; two teeth were growing out of it’s mouth – like a sabre tooth—but one of them was seemingly broken off in battle.
‘Should I try my luck and see whether I can beat this guy in a 1v1 or just miss this once in a lifetime opportunity and go now further?’ I asked myself. But then it snapped in me, I always evaded these huge, fluffy bears because they are known to be strong, which is for sure true. But who said that I wasn’t strong enough to kill one or two of them? Over the last few years, I have grown so much and learned to fight really well. Furthermore, my strength is only slowly growing because I am already trained to my body's limit, which is even higher than that of a normal person due to eating the strengthening stone. And a fight like this where I come to my limits might help me break my body limits further.
As I thought I did, I took out my dagger in my right hand, fixed it with tape, and then hung my backpack on a nearby branch. As I was ready I jumped down right on top of the bear, with my dagger head first. I aimed right at it’s neck, but the Wig’ry realized the assault in time and could evade the deadly attack by leaping forward, but still got hit in its lower back, which must have hurt quite badly.
I landed smoothly, stood up, and looked the bear straight into his green eyes as it spun around. Looking angry at me, the bear barded its teeth and then jumped forward, opening its mouth. For it’s size, it was unexpectedly rapid, but still far away from my speed, so I evaded the attack by jumping over him and using the chance to slice the wound from before more open. The Wig’ry cried in agony as, but reacted fast by turning around again. Without giving the monster a break, I leaped forward instantly. The beast didn’t expect it, and so I stabbed it deep in its chest, only to jump back again before he could respond. The bear seemed to still had hope left to defeate me, he threw himself down on me, but too late, as I was already out of its range. Using the fact that the monster was now helplessly lying upon the ground, I ran over it to the deep flesh wound I had inflicted and stabbed deep into the Wig'ry; who, let a loud cry escape his mouth before dying. The sound made all animals in a mile radius flee from whatever the cry made.
I was flabbergasted that the wig’ry was so easy to kill, but I realized that I might have gotten really strong. So I decided now go hunting in the Wig’rys territory, if those are really just some big bears, it shouldn't be too hard.
After dealing with the monster, I decided to take the one tooth that was still intact with me to use as a new weapon. I couldn't carry the rest of the enormous corpse home that easily, so I will probably come with my parents tomorrow to dismantle it and bring it down.
But for now, one tooth was enough, so I went back to the entrance of the forest and then down into the chasm. Coming home I excitedly told my parents about my new accomplishment, who just congratulated me.
This day I slept really well and long.