Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 13

“How many times has he evaded them?” she asked incredulously.

“He claims four.” Max almost seemed to be boasting himself.

“And he’s how old?”

“Almost thirteen.”

“No way. He’s too small. I don’t believe it. Kid, how do you know how old you are?” She walked towards him, and Xun suddenly felt much smaller than he really was.

“My father died when I was eight?” he tried his best not to stammer.

“And how do you know that you were eight when he died?” She wouldn’t let it go.

Xun pulled his bag off, and rummaged inside. He finally pulled out a piece of rope that was dirty and frayed. Twelve knots could clearly be seen on it.

“My dad gave this to me when I was about five. He said every year when the snow loses it’s grasp on the world I should tie another knot on it. That way I would always know how old I was.”

Everyone in the room looked at the dirty piece of rope with eyes that were a little too shiny. Xun was thinking about how his father had patiently taught him how to count using the rope, and then how to tie the knot. He still couldn’t tie them as well as the first five were, but he was getting better.

As he put the rope back into his bag, Trudy nodded.

“All right. I’ll test him. Come on kid, best to get it done as soon as possible.” She turned and headed deeper into the building.

Xun jogged to keep up with her, leaving everyone else behind. She turned into a doorway, and proceeded to head down some dark stairs. Halfway down, Xun realized they were in a cave. He paid as much attention as he could to the surroundings while still keeping up with her. She stopped at the bottom and waited for him to join her.

“This cave extends all the way to the ocean, but we can’t actually access the ocean because most of the cave is underwater. The water rises and falls with the tides, so if you get caught by the tide you could drown. You don’t have to worry about any monsters down here, they can’t make it through the tunnels. All you have to do, is find the light switch. I’ll leave the door above open so you have some light, but that’s it. You will be timed and the quicker you find it, the better your score. Any questions?”

Xun nodded. “What’s the tide? And what’s a light switch?”

She looked at him for a moment before sighing deeply.

“Okay, right. I forgot you were from outside… The tide is when the water from the ocean rises and falls twice a day. So, the water in the cave will get deeper and shallower depending on what time it is. As for a light switch, they are little levers that turn the lights on or off. When you find the lever and switch it on, the lights in the cave will turn on. I warn you though, this test is very difficult and many people who take it have a very hard time.”

“What’s the quickest and longest times?”

“The quickest time is about an hour, and the longest is three days. We had to fish the guys body out of one of the caves. Your time will start once I leave.”

Xun swallowed. She turned and left. Taking a breath, he calmed himself down. There were no monsters here, only an empty cave with water that could drown him if this tide thing decided to come up. He sat on the bottom step and began to think. He had noticed the light came from the ceilings in all the buildings of the compound. So, following that line of thought, the lights in the cave should also be on the ceiling.

A short, sharp whistle echoed around the room like crazy, confirming that the ceiling was probably pretty high. Nodding to himself, he pulled his bag open and pulled out a small mirror. He used it to see parts of his body when he was injured. Playing with it for a few minutes, he managed to get the light from the door to reflect onto the ceiling far above him. It was too far to see a light, but he finally managed to get the glass bulb to shine at him. If the light from the door was stronger he could maybe see where the switch was using the mirror. Moving the tiny spec of light around a little more, he found another light bulb, then another. After only a few minutes, Xun had found five bulbs, and all of them were in a straight line.

Standing up, he carefully took several steps in the direction of the bulbs. His eyes had adjusted but it was still very dark. Taking a deep breath to calm himself again, he put the mirror back in his bag, and slung it on his back. Counting his steps, he walked heel to toe, with his eyes wide open. After only fifteen steps, he could not see anything at all, so he closed his eyes. On step twenty he stepped into water. Gritting his teeth, he continued to walk forward with one hand reaching out in front of him.

The water rose to his ankles, then his knees. Once it reached his waist, his hand felt rock in front of him. He was at step 45. Using both hands he explored the rock. There were gaps in a pattern in the rock. Exploring one of the gaps, his fingers were able to feel grooves where someone chiseled the hole. Reaching as high as he could, he felt for more gaps and found them. Taking a firm grip, he began to climb the rock. He counted the holes, to give himself something to focus on. As he reached for hole number twenty, he found a peculiar object under his hand. His fumbling fingers moved it, and suddenly he was blinded by the lights.

“How did you do that? It’s only been about twenty minutes??”