The Fearless War

In The Forest

The village chief declared the start of the hunt, and everyone gathered in the square began to move towards the village limits, my father signaled me to follow him, and I walked with my sister to catch up with the others. The journey was not long but the closer we got to the forest, the temperature was dropping, a sign that the seasons were changing.

In a short time, the group was already in front of a fence that marked the boundary of the village, it was a small fence not to keep hunters out, but it functioned as a warning to people and children. Before crossing it, the chief turned to the group.

"Comrades! Prepare well before entering, divide into groups or families, do not steal each other's prey, otherwise you will be charged for the meat instead of selling it!"

At his words the people took out their bows and weapons to go deeper into the forest, they began to separate into their acquaintances or families and each group had a bag full of dye to be able to mark the hunted prey. In the case of my family our prey would be marked by a diluted blue.

Entering the forest, people began to separate even more and in different directions, my father and my sister headed towards a lusher area, following them from behind, I took out the bow that Uncle Miles prepared for me and I saw that by appearance it did not differ from others, but in the center I could see two blades intertwined.

"Don't get too distracted Oz, we need to get to a safe position and you will stand guard while we scout the area."

"Yes father, don't worry."

"Are you ready Oz? You haven't been out hunting since you were little."

"If you compare me to you Eve, I obviously don't get out as much as the point of living in the woods."

Upon hearing my comment my sister's back tensed indicating that I had bitten a nerve, despite liking hunting, Eve still cared about her feminine image. We arrived shortly after to an area between the trees that was empty, a small space in which the moonlight was already beginning to show.

"Oz, climb that tree closest to the center, Eve, you prepare the horned rabbit meat as bait and put it in the center."

"Right away."

"Okay ..." My sister quickly pulled out chunks of meat and ground them up to get any blood that was still left inside her. She tossed them towards the center of the area.

As my sister continued to draw blood from the rabbit meat and move it around, I held my bow in the side of my back and climbed the tree my father had indicated, it was a good position, it allowed me to see the whole valley where the light was hitting and even allowed me to see under the tree, I had no blind spot.

"Well, bait's ready dad."

"Good job Eve, Oz, I'm going to go with your sister to circle the nearby area and try to hunt as much as we can, that way we'll attract more prey here, you'll oversee shooting to keep the bears coming this way. Do not try to take a clean shot."

"Understood, shoot joints, not kill. Anything else?"

"No, just remember, do not shoot for pleasure, do it for hunting and control. Do it with a purpose."

After saying those words, my father headed off into the woods of the new along with Eve and I was left alone. At that moment, I drew my bow again and placed an arrow on the string, without drawing the string taut, I began to tense and concentrate my senses, my head clouded for a few moments as I tried to comprehend everything around me, the leaves clashing the distant footsteps and everything that made up the forest.

The noises were decreasing and I managed to focus on an area around me, I could still hear the footsteps of my father and Eve, they were moving away little by little while their bows were drawn, I could notice the experience and ease they had to draw the bows perfectly. In front of me was a sound of something walking on all fours, I could not discern what it was, it was far away but it was getting closer, its speed was increasing too, when I could catch it well, I opened my eyes and saw that it was a blood bear, by its size it could be an adult.

It quickly approached the horned rabbit meat and swallowed it without chewing, before it saw me, I tensed the bow and put dye on the body of the arrow, the moment it pounced to eat more meat, I released the string and the arrow shot out, it covered the trajectory in seconds and landed on the bear's forehead avoiding the fangs that covered the eyes.

At that moment I could hear the bear's skin being pierced and a dull sound as its body reacted by closing its jaw and falling with a thud. I was surprised that I was able to draw the bow tight enough to get the shot off, because although Uncle Miles' arrows were capable of piercing armor, they were nothing more than pieces of metal if one was not strong or masterful enough to use them.

The excitement of being able to get the shot was short-lived, because the moment the bear fell, my senses were clouded again and I heard several footsteps, as if it were a crowd of people, approaching where I was.

My head was filled with the vibrations of footsteps, I still had to train myself to avoid the dizziness and pains of trying to discern various things. When it stopped, I could hear better what it was that caused my sensory blindness, they were footsteps equal to those of a blood bear. But the number was too large to be a simple herd. Their footsteps kept accelerating and they were getting closer and closer.

I climbed higher in the tree where I was to avoid detection, and when they began to enter the valley, I could see the danger in front of me. There were more than 10 bears, from cubs to adults, when they reached the center they stopped and put the cubs inside the center, it looked like they were running away from something. I had to warn the others, one bear alone was not a problem, but it would take several hunters to subdue a group like the one in front of me.

While I was thinking how to warn the others, more powerful footsteps reached my ears, not only the tone of them was louder, but the weight they also carried was even heavier than that of the bears. The bears had also noticed them, their fur bristled, and they were preparing their fangs. It came from a small mountain in the forest, where the bears' nests were usually located.

I had to hold on to the branch where I was to avoid falling from the surprise, what came out of the forest could not be described in any other way than a beast. The red fur was the only thing that could relate it to a blood bear, its skull had fangs and horns intertwined, an armor that made it immune to a clean shot to the head and neck. His size was no more than twice the normal size, but for that reason alone everything that made them normally dangerous was duplicated in him.

His eyes focused on the cubs in the center, the other bears stood between him and the cubs. But despite that wall, the beast did not flinch, he let out a roar as he dug his claws into the earth. It lunged at the bears and with its deformed skull, pierced their bodies, finishing off a couple in seconds.

I was paralyzed not knowing what to do, whether to run and warn the others, or stay and eliminate the beast. At that moment a whisper came in my head, it was a voice I didn't know, but I didn't feel any hostile intent or lies from it.

"A hunter, does not kill for pleasure, he does it for a purpose, so one must overcome the hunting instinct and focus on protecting."

Those words reminded me of what my father had said, but for one reason it also reminded me of one of my grandfather's phrases. I did not have time to think about it, just as the voice had said, I had to protect, and I could not let some cubs die without a fight.

I extended the bow and aimed at the torso of the beast that had already finished with more bears, there were only 3 adults protecting the cubs at that moment, I launched the first arrow, but unlike the first time I had shot, this one only managed to pierce the skin. I prepared the second one while I moved to distract the giant bear, the others took advantage of that moment and pushed it away from the center.

As I reached another branch, I launched the arrow and hit it in its paw, it let out a scream that deafened me, but I continued down the tree preparing the next arrow.

"You must try better than that if you want to distract me you big lump of bone!"

My provocation caused him to lunge at me as I continued to attack the beast, the third arrow hit it in the chest, which stopped its run. But he was still not falling. The bears attacked him from behind and managed to tear a leg out of place.

Already on the ground, I separated the bow into the two blades and prepared to pounce against the beast. It was still fighting the bears and threw a claw in the face of one of them and took out one of its eyes. Taking advantage of the fact that it was going to finish off another bear, I approached from behind and while running I skidded and severed the other rear leg, causing the beast to fall to the ground. Despite not having two legs and having wounds on its back and front leg, it was still fighting, attacking from a single position. To prevent it from continuing to suffer, I grabbed both blades together and avoiding the attacks of its claws I thrust the short spears into its neck, they only penetrated a little before hitting bone.

With all my strength, I stabbed harder, until I heard the bone of his skull break, and his eyes blurred, before falling, he pushed his head on me and I could not dodge because I had my hands on the spears. One of his horns penetrated my arm and he finally fell dead.

Ignoring the pain I pulled the spears out of his body and set about cutting the horn that held me steady. My ears rang as I heard small footsteps, people running in my direction. They were far away but steady, I had to hurry. As if reading my mind, the bear I saved by killing the beast approached me and chewed the horn, freeing me. He placed his head on my shoulder to stop the bleeding and when I was free, I could see the ravages of the fight, 7 adult bears slaughtered and one of the cubs dead. It was more damage than could be repaired in a season without hunting. I opened my bag and took what was left of the meat and offered it to one of the adults, who threw it to the cubs. From the look of their complexion the beast must have kept them without food.

I heard footsteps approaching and saw lamplights approaching. I sat on the plain surrounded by corpses and three bears positioning themselves to protect me. The first group that came to where I was, was made up of my father and Eve, and some neighbors from the village. They all had their bows and crossbows drawn, but when they saw me playing with the cubs, they lowered them.

My father stood watching me with his mouth unclosed and my sister was hesitant whether to hunt the bears in front of her or pull me to where she was.

"Hello father, Eve. Looks like I have a lot of explaining to do, eh?"

When the group saw me sitting up and covered in blood and wounds, their faces were of surprise and doubt. And it was not much help what I said when I saw them. The adult bears were still around me, looking out for the group that had arrived, being that my sister had her bow still aimed at the bear that stopped my bleeding.

"Eve, put your bow down, take a good look at what it's holding." Saying those my father knocked the bow from my sister's hands and pointed to my arm. Putting his bow down, he began to approach where I was.

"It's okay if I approached Oz, I don't want to attack the hatchlings."

"I don't think anything will happen, they're just a little stressed, and this one won't stay away from me."

The bear cubs were still playing on my feet and the bear that had lost an eye wouldn't let go of my wound, it seemed to be protecting me as one of the cubs. The other two bears let my father pass when they saw that he left his weapons behind, but upon seeing me closer he stopped, I lifted my gaze to his face and saw that he was distressed.

"You fought alone didn't you, why didn't you call for help?"

Even though he wasn't raising his voice, I could recognize the anger in his words, I thought he would question me how, but I had underestimated him, he actually wanted to know my reasons.

"I couldn't let it kill the cubs, the beast was the opposite of what you taught me, to hunt for a purpose not out of desire."

"Ha ... So, you remembered something like that huh?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Had it not attacked alone, the cubs would have died, and we would have been left with nothing for several seasons, despite using other meat and pelts, the damage would have reverberated for years.

"Well, I can't say I accept your decision, but you fought for what you thought was right. Even though it will cost you an arm."

"Ah, this...just take me to Uncle Miles for an elixir."

"Apparently you're not the only one who owes me explanations eh, He sure still takes bribes from the nobles."

"Did he ever stop doing that?" as we laughed at Uncle Miles, my father helped me up and the bear who stood by my side got up, to join the others. As they were all together, the bears headed in the direction of a mountain, and the hunters' stares calmed.

Before entering the forest again, the bear I saved turned to look at me and gave a soft growl toward my father.

"Don't worry, take care of your family too."

"Did you understand what that meant?" Leaning on his shoulder, my father began to guide me back toward the village.

"Oz, when you fight or hunt for a certain amount of time, you can start to notice the intentions behind every action."

After those words, he directed the other hunters to gather the carcasses of the bear and beast, marking them as my prey. My sister was tasked with retrieving the arrows and bows, as well as ensuring the safety of the group. it was not long before we reached the village, other hunting parties had already arrived, and we were approached by the chief.

"What happened, oh my god!!!"

The village chief shouted at the sight of my arm, the tone of his expression helped me stay more awake, I could not afford to fall asleep with so much blood loss.

"Relax, Oz found himself a mutant, apparently we won't be able to hunt bears for a few seasons, tell the others to hunt horned rabbits and thunder deer."

"A mutant?! , we need to move the other hunters!"

"Let me explain well, calm down a bit Dale."

My father being respectful of the chief's authority, saying his name firmly meant he was talking about something serious and had no time for distractions.

"Right, sorry Charles, is the mutant still alive?"

"No, in case you have not figured it out Oz defeated it, I'm taking him to my brother. I left Eve in charge of another group, they're going to bring in the bodies."

"Ok, take him quick, I'll go with a small group into the woods, I'll need the whole story later."