Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 32

He was out of breath, but almost back to the compound. Xun paused next to a tree he had spied from a distance, and after a moment, began to climb it. It was taller than all of the trees around, so he was hoping to get a glimpse of whatever was moving through the forest. He had spied it several times, and had a very bad feeling each time, but still hadn’t figured out what it could be.

Reaching the top of the tree, he was scanning the horizon, hoping he might catch a glimpse. A lone howl caught his attention, and he swung around to see a figure propped up on a scattering of rocks less than a mile away.

The tufts of fur stuck out at crazy angles, and Xun’s breath was caught in his throat. For a moment he felt as if he would puke as adrenaline and fear raced through his system.

Almost flying down the tree, he hit the ground hard, and sprinted towards the compound. He had to warn them. Willow had said that they brought werewolves back to the compound occasionally to teach the new hunters how to kill them, so he could only hope they had some kind of plan they could fall back on.

He could see the entrance through the trees, but his lungs were screaming for air. He could hear branches snapping as it raced closer to the compound. He had to get there first. Pushing his burning legs to run faster, the guards spied him as he broke free of the tree line. They looked mildly surprised, a little suspicious, but not nearly scared enough. He crashed into one, grateful for the catch, but as his legs collapsed and he fell to the ground, he could hear screaming from behind him.

Several hunters were running out of the trees, not nearly as tired as Xun was, screaming about a huge wolf. The guards had swords out, and were in the process of closing the thick iron bars of the gate, when the werewolf broke free from the trees, racing after the hunters.

Xun crawled as fast as he could to the side, hoping that he could get out of the way. His lungs still burned and his legs felt like rubber. He looked around crazily for an escape route, when suddenly one of the hunters went flying through the air, through the still open gate, and crashed into the ground not twenty feet from him. The guys legs were gone, but he was still alive. He was gasping for air as he bled out, already too far gone for anyone to save.

As his lungs screamed a little less, he watched the guy in front of him die. That’s when he remembered that Willow had lied about them teaching the hunters how to hunt these things. They probably never had a werewolf attack the compound before. He had to do something!

Screams rang out as people turned to run, or raced to help. Xun focused on his breathing. He had to get his legs to work to be of any use. His lungs had stopped screaming and he thought he might be able to stand, when he heard several screams that snapped his head over. Willow was standing next to Hayden, fear etched onto her face, as she was trying to pull him up from where he had fallen. The werewolf had tired of whatever it had been doing, and was slowly making its way through the gates. Despite the bites of an occasional arrow, which it shrugged off as inconsequential, it seemed to be unimpressed with their defenses.

Xun climbed to his feet as the werewolf focused on Willow, who had forgotten all about Hayden, and was slowly backing up. Xun could see that she was going to trip over a bush and knew that as soon as she did, it would be on her. Hayden was trying to get his arrows to go onto his bow, but the bow was damaged somehow. The string wasn’t tight enough to shoot.

Grabbing one of the guards short swords, Xun charged for the wolf. It ignored him, and the archer thankfully stopped shooting at it. He ran at it from behind, noting that its ears swiveled to follow him. It paused at Hayden’s feet, about to attack when Willow tripped. Both ears swiveled towards her as she screamed, and Xun reached it just as it crouched to jump.

A roar filled his ears as he jumped onto its back, stabbing down with his sword for all he was worth. He could feel it jerk underneath him, and then it was falling.

Xun lay on top of it, with his sword buried deep into its back, the only sound he could hear was the fast beating of his heart. There was another movement, and he jerked the sword in deeper, twisting it to cause more damage. The wolf whɨnėd once, then seemed to deflate.

The cheers of everyone around him finally brought him around. He carefully climbed off the werewolf, then moved around to its front. Hayden had jumped at the same time he did, shoving two arrows into its face. He was underneath its head, unable to move, but unharmed. It had torn his pants and pulled off a shoe, but he didn’t have a single scratch on him. Willow was cursing from in the bushes, furious that others had seen her panic.

Several guards rushed up to shake Xun’s hand and to pat him on the back, but Xun wasn’t happy. Werewolves rarely travel alone, and where ever they showed up, Slavers are normally close behind.

Max arrived just then, trotting up to the area carrying several spears, but slowed when he saw the dead werewolf. Hayden had pulled himself out from under the wolf and was holding his broken bow.

Xun watched as several men wrapped the wolf up in a net and rolled the body away in a cart. Max came over to thank them. He ignored him until he was sure Hayden wasn’t hurt. Before he could try and explain to Max that there may be more coming, he told him that the leaders wanted to see him immediately. He was confused as to why the leaders wanted him, but decided the safety of the compound wasn’t something he needed to shoulder by himself. He had only been here a couple days. What could go wrong?