Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 9

Xun paused to shift Willow’s weight before continuing down into the valley. They had been making their way slowly for over an hour and the light in the sky was starting to fade. He was so exhausted, all he wanted to do was stop, but if there was one thing he had learned over the years, was to not stop until he physically could not continue.

Willow had managed to help him get her down for the steepest section but the pain in her foot was getting so bad she was having a hard time putting weight on it at all. Thankfully, as they left the cover of the trees, guards on the walls saw them and sent people to help.

Xun was more than willing to hand her over to the people who showed up, and because he had helped her, they decided to let him into the gates.

“Who are you, and what happened?” asked one of the men once the gate was closed behind them.

Xun looked the man up and down, taking note of his large muscles and lack of filth. This place was better than any other compound he had ever been in, in his life.

“My name is Xun, and we were attacked by four wolves at the top of the ridge.” Xun hoped he could get muscles as big as this guy’s, and wondered if he could learn how to get them.

“Why were you traveling together? Where are you from?” The man seemed to be very suspicious of him, and Xun couldn’t blame him. If what Willow had said about this place never having been attacked by Slavers was true, then they probably didn’t want him to lead any here.

“I’m from the east. The last compound I had lived in was captured by Slavers and I fled. It’s been about a month. I saw some guys in the city ruins on the other side of the ridge, and was going to talk to them about finding a place to stay, but they were killed as soon as I first saw them by a large monster. It ambushed them. I finished it off, where they had almost killed it for me, and one of the guys mentioned this place. I ran into Willow earlier today. She said I could stay if I came with her?”

Xun was trying to play up his childishness, hoping it would help them take pity on him. It had helped before in getting into a compound, but he was older now. He also knew from experience, the more information he gave them, the less they asked for.

“We’ll let you stay the night, since it’s so late. Whether you can stay or not will have to be decided in the morning. Joe! Take this kid to get a bath and something to eat. Put him up in the barracks until we decide what to do with him.” He waved at a guy who was walking by, not paying attention to them, and the guy trotted over. Joe had just as many muscles as the first guy.

“Come on kid, you stink! What did you do, bath in a stream or something?” It was obviously supposed to be a joke, but Xun didn’t think it was funny. How else was he supposed to bathe?

He followed him in silence, looking around at the buildings that towered above him. He could see windows for a second floor in almost all of them. He couldn’t imagine how they built them to be able to have a second floor. Joe led him to a building that didn’t have windows, and showed him where to leave his things.

“You can grab a clean pair of clothes to change into, if you have any…” Joe trailed off at the look on Xun’s face. “Let me guess, you only have the ones you’re wearing?”

Xun nodded in confusion. How could these people have so many extra clothes? He set down the heavy hide, but kept his bag. If he needed to flee he wanted to make sure he could survive.

Joe watched him curiously, and when it was obvious Xun wasn’t going to leave the bag, he just sighed and showed him to the community showers. Xun had never seen a place like this before. They had inlaid flat stones into the floor and walls, and left holes covered in flat metal pieces for the water to drain down. He saw pipes sticking out of the walls, and when Joe showed him how to turn the shower on, he was amazed.

“How does this work?” He wondered if they had huge barrels of water on the roof for the water to come down when they turned the lever, but then the water got warm.

“It’s called plumbing. I keep forgetting how good we have it here. Look, this is called soap, you rub it on your wet skin and it helps to take the dirt off. Why don’t you set your bag over there on the bench so it doesn’t get wet, and I’ll take your dirty clothes while you wash. I’ll bring clean ones for you to change into. And a towel, I’ll bring you a towel too.”

Xun watched him shake his head in frustration, not knowing what a towel was. Setting his bag down just outside of the reach of the water, he began to strip nȧkėd again. Though when Joe went to take his clothes, he set them down next to his bag instead. With a sigh of annoyance, Joe left him with his dirty clothes.

Picking up the bar of soap, he stepped into the spray of the water and found that it had gotten much hotter. Jumping back, he messed with the lever until he had the water temperature turned back down to almost cold. Then he proceeded to wash with the soap just like Joe had shown him. He even scrubbed his hair, and was surprised how different it felt when it was clean.

The clothes that Joe brought back were made of the fine cloth he had seen on Willow. Taking them gently, he took his time marveling at how nice they were while Joe tried to hold back his laughter. Once he was back by the bed where he had left the hide, Joe left him and promised to bring food in a short while. As Xun rested on the too soft bed, he held his axe close.