Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 7

Xun looked out over the surroundings again, as he stretched his legs out. His clothes were almost dry from sitting in the sun so long, but he had learned a lot about this Hunter’s Vale from the girl. She didn’t seem to think it was dangerous, because she didn’t bother to look around nearly as much as he did, but rather than calm him down, it only made him more vigilant.

“Do you want to come back with me? It would be so much fun to have another kid there.” Her voice was nice and he was almost convinced. The caution from the letter, though, tickled the back of his mind and he couldn’t help but wonder at her description of the place.

Apparently, Willow had washed ashore when she was only six, and the hunters who had been sent to patrol the beaches that day found her half drowned. The creatures in the water had prevented her from swimming to shore, so she was half dead from thirst and hunger. They had taken her in and raised her with their kids, teaching her to hunt and track the dangerous monsters that lived in the world now. Unfortunately, they didn’t advertise themselves to prevent the Slavers from finding out. So far, as far as she knew anyways, the Slavers had never found Hunter’s Vale.

It sounded too perfect to Xun. He wanted nothing more than to learn how to hunt the monsters and to be able to not just survive but live in a place that had no Slavers. Even the werewolves were not too big of a threat to the hunters that called Hunter’s Vale their home. Willow explained how they caught them, beat them almost to death, then used them as training examples to the kids on how to kill them, even letting the older kids do the killing blows. She was pretty proud of having actually killed several by now.

“I’m not sure. I would love to learn how to hunt and kill the things that are so dangerous, but would I have to stay or would I be able to leave whenever I wanted?” Xun wanted to make sure he could leave if he didn’t like how they ran the place. There had been several times he encountered compounds that had crazy restrictions and rules.

Willow looked puzzled. “Why would you want to leave? I love it there! I’m hoping to find someone to marry in a couple years and have some kids. This is the safest place I have ever been.”

Xun didn’t respond. He knew that people were generally allowed to marry whenever they felt they were old enough, but he was more interested in getting stronger and learning more before he wanted to settle down. This place sounded too perfect.

When he didn’t respond, Willow said, “I guess if you ever wanted to leave, you could when they sent you out on patrols. Only the first couple of patrols are watched. After that, you’re pretty much on your own.”

Xun finally nodded slowly. If what she said was true, then he could easily leave when he wasn’t being watched.

“I have some things I would like to get before I come back with you,” he finally said after he had thought about it some more.

Willow smiled and climbed to her feet. “That’s great! Need me to help carry anything?”

Xun frowned. It was already midday, the morning was mostly wasted talking to her, and he didn’t really like the idea of her following him around.

“What if we meet in a couple of hours, on the ridge there where you said the place was just on the other side?” He pointed at the ridge she had mentioned before, and watched as she turned to look in the direction he pointed to. There was a curious mark on the tip of her earlobe, a type of scar that caught his eye.

“That works. I want to look around and see what monsters live in this valley. I’ll meet you there in a couple of hours.”

He nodded again and watched as she moved off, away from the ruins. He wasn’t sure this was a good idea, but he really wanted to get better at hunting the monsters and surviving.

Hefting his bag, he jumped down off the rock and took off at a slow jog. He wanted to check the carcasses again and get some of the teeth and claws from the cougar, as well as the short sword the man had been wielding.

The wolves had torn the place apart. He could tell several other creatures had come and gone as well, by the bloody prints he found. Not wasting much time, in case any decided to show up, he pulled out one of the knives he had in his bag and started collecting the claws and teeth from the cougar. When he went to get the guy’s sword, he couldn’t find it anywhere. He looked and looked, but with only an hour left, he decided he needed to go. He still wanted to get his pelt from the camp before meeting her on the ridge.

Rolling the pelt up was tedious. It had dried into a stiff board and didn’t want to roll. He finally decided to just fold it in half and headed towards the ridge with it tied to his back. He hoped he didn’t have far to go, because it was heavy.

Willow waited at the top of the ridge for him to show, watching the buzzards fly around a kill in the city ruins below. She hadn’t found anything exciting on her short hunt, but was super excited about getting Xun to come back with her. She would get an extra portion of supper tonight for finding someone and bringing them back. She hoped he wouldn’t be too upset at her for finding out her reason for wanting him to come so bad. She was kind of impressed he had survived out here on his own without any training. Perhaps they would even become friends.