The Monarch: Days of Dusk

Chapter 9. The Hunt.

Eric

Couldn’t have much sleep last night. I was too restless, on edge it seemed to me. Sure I was all tucked up and still with eyes closed but my mind would not know peace. Initially, I myself did not want to sleep.

I kept thinking about all the possible things that I could do to avoid going out to the hunt or better yet, to cancel the hunt itself. Many scenarios played out in my head. Some of them trivial, which I even enjoyed contemplating. An upset stomach, nausea, headache. I could surely have them fooled. Rory could make an intelligent jest out of it for sure. I laughed in my sleep.

Some were a bit more morally ambiguous. Broken bows, spooled food, leaky water pouches etcetera. My stomach churned at thoughts like these. Is this how I will repay their hospitality?

As my thoughts shifted, some scenarios came to the fore that were outright evil, monstrously so. So much so, that I woke up and said to myself, lightly but rather sternly.

What the hell are you thinking?

I surely hoped that Rory wouldn’t have heard it.

After that, with no option to avail, I tried to sleep but it seemed my earlier thinking and shocking finale had left my mind quite thrilled, enough so that sleep would not overcome it.

So, here I was, with a bow in my hand and a quiver of arrows upon my back. A hunting knife sheathed upon the leather belt. Yawning, I trudged along in the cold gray morning. I had practiced a bit, loosed a few arrows. Rory thought it was alright. I didn’t really think it was that good.

“Well, you can never be as good with a bow as Aaron is. So cheer up, as long as you can actually get something down, it’s good.” He said with a smile.

We were walking silently with Aaron leading us. We had been following this trail for a while now.

Suddenly, he signalled to stop. We did, crouching down and hearing attentively. There was a sound. The forest seemed alive. Ralph signalled to Rory and me with two others to follow him to the left, as quitely as we could. I didn’t really understood why we were splitting in the first place. Only when we were in the opposite direction to Aaron’s party did I get it. A diversion. We have the deer surrounded. When we were in position, we started to move a bit closer. My heart was bearing like a drum, my senses were alert. After an minute or so, Ralph motioned for us to nock and draw. We did, aiming as best as we could. It required much more strength than I could have imagined. Just as I was aiming, the deer got alert and sensing something was wrong, suddenly started prancing off away from us. I loosed an arrow, it missed. Same was with Ralph and Rory. Though Ralph’s face screamed disappointment, Rory was content with this, as if he knew something that we didn’t and that put his mind at ease. My reaction was somewhere between the two of them. After a while, we retraced our steps back to our initial posiotion from which our group originally split.

There was a splendid sight. Two of the hunters carried deer while Aaron had a hare in his hand.

“Got lucky.” He said, smiling. It seemed the rumours did do him some justice, Aaron was indeed a skilled hunter. And although he smiled at us all as a group, no one in particular, I sensed and later confirmed that Ralph was awfully jealous of Aaron. Rory was the one who spilled the beans.

As we were walking out of the forest and back to the camp, Rory told me the whole thing.

“ Well, you see…..There is this girl, Giselle. She is a pretty one. Golden hair, pretth features, a nice pair of….you know. Our mate over there, Ralph, is smitten by her. And it’s all good! Our mate over here is not a bad one either, save for some scars here and there and a general ‘rudeness’ but still, not a bad match if you ask me.”

Rory looked at Ralph, who was walking ahead, out of earshot, at least I hoped so. Rory, looking at him, gave a mischievous grin.

“Now comes the good part.” He said. I could see where this was going.

“But Aaron got the girl?” I said.

Rory grinned further.

“No he didn’t. That’s the tragedy if you ask me, or a comedy sometimes.” He laughed a little.

“ And by the looks of it, Aaron is not even interested in her. He doesn’t even care. Why should he? He has other girls fawning over him as well. Plus Giselle is a bit discreet about it all. Still, it’s kind of like an open secret of sorts that no one really talks about but everyone knows. This, as you would know, spoils any chance our mate here would have with Giselle. And he’s so smitten he won’t even look at another girl.”Rory laughed a little. “The gods sure do like their games.” He said.

“Yeah, they sure do.” I felt a bit sad for Ralph. He was a decent enough guy but the feeling was suspiciously nostalgic.

As if on cue, Ralph looked behind and stopped for us.

Had he actually heard what we were talking about?

Hey Rory, pass me your waterskin, mine’s empty.” He said in his usual husky voice. Getting to know about his tragic love story and observing his face and mannerisms, one cannot help but notice and ultimately understand why Giselle would choose Aaron over Ralph even if the former doesn’t cherish her back. Ralph looks like a barbarian when set against Aaron, who looks like and indeed is a prince of noble stock. Also the fact that he is an excellent hunter doesn’t exactly tip the scale of Giselle’s heart towards Ralph.

“What the hell are you looking at” he said to me. Quite irritated.

“I was just wondering how you got these scars.” I said. Deliberately ignoring his plain to see irritation.

“Oh these?” he pointed to his face and he took a gulp from the waterskin. Handing it back, he spoke in relatively calm voice.

“ I was hunting alone, wandered a bit too far way from the camp, to the south through the forest.” He said, his eyes as if seeing it all again.

“It was evening and I was moving through the forest. I came upon a road. A pass between two large hills. There, I stumbled upon a broken down carriage.

The horses were dead, from starvation I supposed but upon closer inspection, I concluded maybe a wolf attack. It was a pitiful sight. There was blood all over. I came closer to investigate and heard some weird noises. I came up behind the carriage and opened the flap. What I saw inside…gods keep me.” He shook his head. It was clear that he didn’t want to talk any more but I my curiosity was piqued too much. More than what common decency can control.

“ What did you see inside?” I asked.

He looked ahead, but eyes still reliving the memory.

“Death.” He said, sighing.

“Inside the carriage, there was a dead lady, on the side. Blood streaming down her neck, her body angled unnaturally as if broken in half. On the other side was a man, blood trickling down his neck and into his chest. Upon his lap, was a little fair haired girl. The man was crying and did not move much, just stroked the little girl’s body as she was….ripping his throat out and feasting on his blood, making noises as a beast. As she became aware of me, she looked at me. Her face smeared in blood, she licked her claw like nails and for her eyes…nothing but darkness. I was terrified, frozen. I couldn’t move for a moment. The whole thing had shocked me a little too much.

Then after a moment, I realised she was not exactly looking at me but behind me. I sensed movement behind me and just as I turned, a boy almost your age slammed into me. I tacked him with all my strength but he was too powerful. I got scratched severely, bloodied all over but I managed to slam his head on the carriage and run away as fast as I could to the Camp.

That is how I got these and if not for the Old Lady, these would not have healed as they did. Hmph, I even have nightmares about it still, gods keep me!” he said.

“Then how come you did not contract the disease?” I asked.

He looked at me and then at Rory, whose eyes had an unmistakable glint of excitement. As if he knew what I was gonna ask. It was so subtle that I thought I may have been mistaken but still I felt Rory knew something that we didn’t.

“Well, I was not bitten, only scrated. The gods were good that day, I pray they always would. Had that fiend bitten me, I would not be here.” Then he looked away and I knew it was time to leave him alone. Common decency or not.

But somehow the explanation really didn’t make any sense to me. Like, how was this possible?

As I looked at Rory, he had a slight smile and an expression of contentment that now was beginning to irritate me.

He knows something. I’m damn sure he does.