The Fearless War

Hunt For The Lightning

I woke up a little late since I had gone to sleep the night before after talking to my parents for a long time about what I had trained with my uncle Miles as well as what I planned to do next, from my goal of training to entering a knight academy to join an order. Even with the risk that I might be called to fight in battle at some point, I promised to value my life above all else so that one day I could return home.

I left my room and as I entered the dining room, I saw my sister ready to go hunting with two cloth wrapped packages in her hand as well as her bow on her back and a set of throwing knives in her waist. On my side, I carried on my shoulder the repaired spear bow and a few new arrows. Since the fang had entered me and merged with the spiritual veins, I began to leave the bracelet by my bedside, something that could be seen as a sign that I was leaving the past behind.

"Ready, Oz?"

"As much as I can, Eve."

"Mom I prepare these, take yours." said Eve passing me one of the packs she carried in her hand, and by feeling the weight and warmth it emanated I could tell it was a lunch box to eat during the hunt, this would be the first time I would hunt for a whole day.

We left the house just as the sun had just risen and instead of entering the forest by the main village road, we headed down a path close to the house, Eve had explained that the path would take us to an area where it would be easier to find the other prey that one could hunt in the area, being the horned rabbits, thunder deer and wild boar.

After a while of walking and entering the forest, we had reached a grove of trees that dominated my field of vision, the only marker of the position being two trees taller than the rest. As we put things down and prepared to split up to hunt more efficiently, I released my senses, and my body again felt an overload from letting my senses free.

"Alright Oz, remember this area well, here we will come and drop the prey we catch to keep it all together, I will go south and west of here. you can go the other way."

"Sure, we leave when the sun starts to set?"

"I don't see why not. Right now, the cold winds are already starting at night."

At that, we split up and marking the area where to leave the prey with a repellent Eve had brought, we started our hunt. I advanced quickly through the trees with side steps avoiding making noise to identify where the prey was. At the edge of my vision, I saw something glowing pale blue and I turned around to move in that direction. As I approached quickly, it didn't take long to hear what was generating the glow, it seemed as if the wood of the trees was being burned and I could hear sparks flying.

In the middle of burnt trees, there was an animal with a body covered with dark hair like the earth and light spots around the body, it was twice the size of a wild boar and on its head there were antlers of a pure white color that from time to time generated a blue glow and when it covered the antlers completely it turned into a ray that shot out in several directions returning to the animal at the end. It was a thunder deer, animals that were normally peaceful but when stressed or in danger their antlers glowed a darker color and they could defend themselves without any problem.

I tried to approach without making any noise while drawing my bow, between the string and the bow I placed an arrow and, in a moment, I released the bowstring, launching the arrow to the side of the deer. A shriek was heard for a moment and the deer had fallen.

The deer's antlers lit up for the last time and it threw a concentrated bolt of lightning at where I was, I darted out of its path and the blue thunder managed to burn some of my hair. It looked like my already dark hair had colorless patches where it had been burned. As the deer's body and antlers were not moving, I approached without worry and began to prepare ropes to move the body to the area protected by the repellent, to prevent other animals from eating what I had hunted.

Once back to the marked area, I was a little surprised to see that in the time where I had hunted a deer there were already 3 boar carcasses. My sister's nickname really didn't do justice to the truth of her prowess in tracking and hunting animals in a forest she seemed to know like the back of her hand. Just before I entered the forest again, my sister arrived in the area dragging another carcass behind her.

"Until I see you again Oz. I thought you had gotten a little sidetracked."

"Not everyone can be the boar reaper, sister."

"Ugh, Anyway, I suggest you hurry up if you want to leave early like you were saying."

At her last statement, she turned in the direction of the forest and ran off without a sound, a mark that she was indeed a huntress. A bit temperamental, but a huntress without a doubt. Likewise, I headed back into the forest to look for more deer but no matter how far I went from tree to tree I could not find a single deer. It wasn't until I was close to the road to the village that I found something like no other.

The forest seemed to be covered with blue lights that pulsated making it seem as if the forest was breathing. Climbing down a tree trunk I saw that dozens of deer were inhabiting territory formerly held by blood bears.  Since their population had been decimated by a mutant, it was not surprising that one of the bears' main preys had the natural confidence to go to a territory previously dangerous to them.

I climbed down from the tree and my senses were saturated but not in an uncomfortable way, every time the antlers shone a sound, they generated something like a heartbeat and being among the dozens it became a rhythmic and relaxing sound, which helped me a little to control the bloodlust I could get from seeing so many deer to hunt. I held my bow and to practice more my technique, I separated the structure of the bow discovering the new blades of the pseudo spears, they were sharper and longer than the previous ones, almost reaching the length of a short sword.

With the spears in my hands, I set my stance as if I were going to run with both blades pointing outward from my wrist, kicked my way to the ground and ran without caring about the noise I had generated. Taking advantage of the trees, I jumped up and held myself high burying a spear to propel me towards my second prey, with one s***h I severed half of a deer's neck and kept moving before the blue lightning could come out towards me.

Following a straight line, I used the same tactic to advance and every time I found a confused deer with its antlers ready to shoot, I took use of my hearing and sight to cut their necks from the thunder deer's blind spot and advance again.

My prancing and neck-snapping was interrupted as a mountain appeared in front of me. Just as I stopped, my back bristled and my arms tensed, with that instinct, I lowered my head and rolled backwards only to hear a small explosion above me. At that moment I could do nothing but distance myself from the sound.

As the aftermath of the explosion subsided, and with still a bit of dust in the air, I noticed how on the mountain where I had stopped there was now a hole right where I was standing before the explosion. the surrounding area of the hole was burning red and ejecting black smoke into the air.

Before analyzing the source of the explosion, I saw a few blue sparks of a very concentrated color coming out of the hole, my arms turned with the rest of my body backwards and I saw a path of destruction following a line of fallen and burned trees. Guessing the source of all that trouble, I prepared all the ropes I had on me and tied them in a chain-like fashion with holes in them from time to time. After a while walking along the burned path, I was finding decapitated deer bodies and antlers totally extinguished, the noise of the other thunder deer had been extinguished as well. I was the only one left on a path of destruction and bodies.

At the end of the road, I had already collected about 15 headless bodies and some even already bled, something that could help a little the preparations for the trip, but thinking about the way the bodies were a part of me could not help but feel uncomfortable. The heads were tied together with the bodies so that I could keep the antlers intact. The sun was already setting behind the mountain in the forest when I reached the area of the dams. There was my sister waiting over 8 or 9 boar carcasses, it seemed to have been a successful day for her.

"Oz? What the hell did you do?"

"Well, I don't know how much I'm going to Uncle Miles, and he told me to get a few deer and antlers ready."

"Ok that, I understand, mom commented on it today, but don't you think that's a bit much?"

"Don't worry, the blood bear area is full to the brim with deer, you know how they breed too fast."

"Yes, but still, hunting that many in one day is more than enough for the start of your trip, isn't it?"

"Maybe, I'd have to show them to Uncle Miles."

"Ahh oz, sometimes you're too much like him."

"I have parts of the whole family and you know it."

"Anyway, gotta get back."

On the way back while my sister headed straight to the house, I had to better prepare the deer, leaving 5 at my house and prepared the others so I could take them to Uncle Miles, I arranged the remaining ones in a cart and put the heads in a sack. I started walking towards the workshop and when I arrived in front of the building, it was already dark.

"Uncle Miles! I brought the deer!"

I kicked in the door and shouted as I pulled the cart completely into the workshop. Once inside I saw that the mess of pelts from the day before was completely gone and there were two metal frames with the treated fur hanging down. Out of the basement came Uncle Miles as usual covered in something burnt and now, he had marks from wearing glasses on his face.

"That was quick, I thought you'd be a little later Oz."

"It's already dark Uncle Miles, how hard have you been working today?"

"Not much, just the furs and a metal with wood carriage to last on the trip."

"So will you prepare the antlers later?"

"Most likely tomorrow, it's a quick process, grind them and carve them, as for the meat I just made a smoker to have it ready the day after tomorrow."

"Just don't burn it, I don't think I can hunt that much tomorrow."

"Being honest I thought you would hunt more, but it looks like you controlled yourself."

"Don't even say it..."

"You can leave the cart with me; I'll take it to Charles tomorrow."

And so, I finished my first successful hunt without so much trouble, since I didn't consider hunting a mutant as a hunt as such, since I was the hunted.