Rise of the Lycan Queen

Chapter 2

-Nathan-

I knew he was exhausted, just by noticing his sloppy footwork on the forest grounds. Shaking my head at his sloppiness, my eyes caught a glimpse of him. With furrowed brows, I pulled my bow and arrow and shot in his direction, barely missing him. He kept going into open areas. I grinned at his lack of skill, making it easier to track him and take him down.

As a hunter, I have to protect humankind from supernatural beings. Currently, my target is running in circles, making my work extremely easy to take him down. It was only a matter of time.

I walked through the area, scanning the ground for any sign showing in which direction he was going. I started thinking about the problems which could arise this year if I let him be. My target was only ten this year of age. I needed to end this. I could not afford him to escape… I covered my hand over my face, pulling it downwards. The last thing my family needed was the council breathing down our necks. But due to his stubborn and impulsive nature, it made him easy to track down.

I halted at a certain spot, tilting my head sideways. Bending down, I dragged my finger over the ground, watching them turn red as the blood spread over them. He was injured. It could not have been too bad as I have not heard him make any noise lately, but it will surely slow him down. With raised brows, I studied the forest carefully. My eyes zeroed in on an old moss-covered stump. Slowly moving toward it, I readied my bow and arrow. I went behind it from the side, but he had already left. The ground was scattered telling me he was sitting against the stump. I picked up a small white material which confirmed that he was attending to his wound. By the looks of the small blood droplets that already seemed dry, he must have left some time ago.

A dimpled grin crossed my face, the boy seemed to be tougher than I thought. He was challenging me, my face fell when the sudden realization dawned on me. Noticing his tracks moved deeper into the dark forest, I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. OK, boy, you want a challenge, then a challenge you shall have, I mumbled to myself, as a grin formed onto my lips.

I went deeper into the forest and fell upon scattered footwork. A cunning laugh escaped me, his sloppiness would end him today, I thought to myself, my blood boiling from anger. He just put himself in danger by going deeper into the forest, and he could not even clear his tracks. I came to a sudden stop inspecting the trail in front of me. With a frown, I turned backward to inspect the same trail… I turned about twice in every direction and my eyes stretched wide open with realization. The cunning little s**t I thought to myself and moved directly behind the closest tree. I started studying the mess he made, looking for the end of the trail where he would have cleared in order to escape.

I started moving from one tree to another, trying to find his clearing area. I needed to find it. "So you think you can actually escape me, boy?" I tried to scare him by making a noise, but my effort seemed futile.

I scrutinized every inch of the area, and then... one side of my lip turned upwards as I noticed his clearing. I lifted my head and scanned over the area where I spotted a large tree standing out prominently. I noticed the branches were too high for a boy of his age to climb, leaving only one option. He was hiding behind it. I got out my bow and arrow, taking slow, steady steps, towards the tree… A sudden rustle caught my attention and I watched some leaves come down from the tree. Just when I lifted my head in that direction, I felt the impact of an arrow hitting me on my shoulder.

Instantly dropping my bow and arrow, I bent to the ground clutching my shoulder. “Ahhh,” I shouted in pain as a cunning smile formed underneath my fake injury. I heard him scratching into his bag. Lifting my eyes slightly in the direction I expected him to appear, watching him fall with a great thud on his ass and I struggled to keep back my laughter. My eyes squinted with amusement as to how he got up there. As he reached me, I lifted my head with a cunning grin. He half slid on the ground to come to a stop when he saw my face.

“Dad, no,” I grabbed his arm and pinned him to the floor. Enjoying the moment as he burst out in laughter when I started tickling him…

A sudden cry froze us on the spot as we scanned the forest. We immediately got up, grabbed our bows and arrows ready for whatever came at us… After some time, my body started relaxing, and I started walking in the direction where the car was parked… “Come, Micah, it's time to go”… another cry broke through the forest and I noticed the conflict on Micah's face, lifting my eyebrow, as to give him a warning against his unpredictable behavior, I already knew he was going to make an impulsive decision when his eyes went large looking straight at me, then glanced towards the area of the noise. I started moving towards him in order to grab him by his arm, but he dashed with great speed towards the crying noise…

I wasn't sure whether I felt furious or concerned, my only concern was to get him to safety. Running after him, I noticed that he was running faster than ever before. I could not keep up. At least he wasn’t bothered to cover his tracks, making it easy for me to follow after him. It’s been a while now and his tracks were never ending. How far did he go… My fury dissipated and turned to full-on concern at that stage.

As I neared the river, I spotted him and I felt my body relax for a minute. Watching him chatting and playing as if he did nothing ridiculous by putting his life in danger. Just as my words wanted to leave my mouth, he lifted his head with sparkling eyes, making me pause for a second… “Can we keep her?”