Warily heading away from the ravine to the flatter ground surrounding the base of the mountain, he found another game trail cutting through a clearing with a dark orange brackish pool of stagnant mosquito-water. He set another regular snare here then continued east away from the mountain for a short distance longer before encountering a creek; animal tracks lining its shore of gray sand. Following the tracks, he found a trap spot in a patch of brush near the base of a spruce tree beside an indent in the shore. From the creek, he made a wide northward arc back toward the mountain. He set one final snare at a rabbit trail running through a large opening beneath the rotting remains of a fallen tree. Figuring he had spent enough time creating traps for one day, he stuck the remaining twine in his pocket and made his way back to the creek to hunt.
Searching along the creek’s shore, he found what he thought were fresh deer tracks heading south. He had spooked deer on his way to Elswood, but this was the first time he had actually thought to try hunting one. There was little difference between the size of the fowl and the rabbits he had seen, thus making a duck hunting bow effective in either case, but deer were far larger than any of those. Did his bow have enough power to effectively down one? Reaching into his quiver, he carefully removed one of the high quality steel arrows he had recovered from the dead witch hunters. If it was meant for piercing armor then it should make short work of a deer even if his bow was lacking in force. If he managed to kill the deer, he wouldn’t have to worry about food for a while. There was just the problem of how to butcher it. His experience with fowl and rabbits probably wouldn’t help him much toward figuring out what to do. He pushed the thought from his mind. He was getting ahead of himself. He hadn’t even found it. If things worked out, then he could worry about that.
Holding his bow at the ready, he began following the deer prints. The tracks led along the shore then reentered the forest. After what felt like hours, he eventually found a lone doe munching on some greenery. Fitting the steel arrow to the bowstring, he carefully took aim. If this doesn’t do the trick, I doubt anything else I own will. Suddenly the light-colored shape of a mountain lion burst out of the bushes, pouncing on the deer. The big cat buried its teeth into the back of the deer’s neck, at the base of the skull. The deer struggled for a moment against its attacker before collapsing onto the ground. As soon as the deer hit the ground, the cat finished it off with several vicious bites to the neck.
Hyroc watched the cat dispatch its prey with a mixture of fascination and loathing. He recognized the mountain lion as the same animal he had encountered earlier in the ravine. It was tempted to kill the cat and take the deer for himself, but killing it for hunting like he was, seemed distasteful. The cat grabbed the deer by the neck and looked right at him. He thought the cat was mocking him. Then it vanished into the bushes with its prize.
Having run into the cat twice in one day, he figured it might be a good idea to follow it to its lair. Maybe he could figure out where it hunted and avoid another deer-stealing incident or something much more painful.
After letting the deer-thief get a head start, Hyroc began following the cat’s tracks back up the mountain. They led him to a steep incline covered in birch trees and a brown and yellow blanket of dead leaves littered the ground. Cresting the top of the incline, he saw a rocky clearing dominated by a jagged cliff face. The mountain lion’s tracks led up toward a rounded ramp of rock projecting from the ground, with a small cave entrance at its top. He cautiously snuck over to the entrance to peer inside. The cave ran a short way inside the cliff and the ceiling was so low he would have to crawl if he was crazy enough to enter.
The mountain lion lay in the middle of the cave devouring his stolen kill. To his surprise, he saw two speckled cubs gnawing curiously on a bloodstained rib protruding from the deer carcass. She was a mother. Hyroc felt a tremendous stab of guilt at having even considered killing her. If he had done so, he would have also killed her cubs. Berating himself, he backed away from the cave. Distracted by his thoughts, he stepped wrong and his foot landed on a dry twig. A loud snap erupted from the twig as it broke in half, sending a resounding echo through the cave. The mountain lion looked in his direction. Her entire body went rigid, and with ears flat against her head, she snarled savagely, exposing every one of her razor-sharp flesh rending teeth. Hyroc’s stomach clenched with the fear he was about to incur imminent blood loss. Making a frantic retreat, he managed to reach the bottom of the rock ramp before she was out of the cave. The big cat growled at him with a fury in her eyes that made his dealings with Miss Duncan look pleasant by comparison.
He took off down the incline as fast as his legs would carry him, his heart hammering away uncomfortably within his chest. He ran until his breaths came in deep gasps and he was sure the mountain lion was not pursuing. Resting his back against a springy cluster of pine tree branches, he caught his breath. That was too close!
Once his mind allowed coherent thought again, he resumed hunting. He spooked a wood grouse, the bird instantly taking flight. Almost instinctively, he took aim and simultaneously loosed an arrow. The arrow whizzed through the air, striking the fowl and sending it plummeting to the ground. He rushed protectively over to the grouse’s lifeless body; he was not about to lose this meal to another opportunistic animal. He plucked and gutted the bird before making his way back to the cabin to cook his prize.
When the bird had finished cooking, he hungrily sank his teeth into it before it had properly cooled. The delicious taste of hot meat flooded his mouth and he was so hungry he barely even noticed the burning sensation on his tongue. His only regret when he finished was there wasn’t more.
Belly full, finally, he removed the fishing line from his pack and used a sturdy branch from the spruce beside the cabin to fashion a fishing pole. He then spent the rest of the day fishing in the nearby stream, managing to land a decent sized trout.
As Hyroc stared up at the ceiling of the cabin trying to force himself to sleep, he absentmindedly removed his necklace. He held the trinket in front of him, its silvery metallic surface, orange in the glare of the fire. He lazily studied the bear on the front. Then turned it around to look at the fox, badger, and claw symbol etched into its surface, trying to figure out the enigma of what each might represent. Other than speculating these were symbols used to describe someone’s personality in times long past, Marcus was never able to give a satisfying answer to any of Hyroc’s questions regarding them.
Foxes were smart cunning creatures and Hyroc thought he was smart. He was unsure what badgers represent but he had heard somewhere it was bravery. He liked to think of himself as being brave, but long ago he had learned going unnoticed was a far more comfortable option, which to his dismay seemed a somewhat cowardly lifestyle, making him question the accuracy of such thoughts. Bears represented strength, and even though he greatly admired them, if he truly possessed strength like a bear, he would not have been beaten so often. Just as with the badger, the bear too seemed out of place. Then there was the claw symbol. It didn’t appear to belong to any animal anyone in Forna had ever heard of and Marcus was unable to give a sensible theory about its possible meaning.
What if this necklace is somebody else’s? The thought sent a cold shiver down his back, as the few things in his life he thought were unshakable would be thrown into question. He pushed the thought out of his mind before it could take root and blossom into a black tree of despair. The idea was too painful for him to even consider.
“It’s just a necklace, nothing more,” he said aloud, squeezing his eyes shut. He repeated the statement several times in a quiet chant, and put the necklace back on.
CHAPTER 19
Deer Rabbit
Beams of morning sunlight streamed between the branches of the trees as Hyroc trudged toward the back of the valley to check the spring snare. A bolt of excitement shot through him when he saw the sapling standing upright and there was something dangling from it. He had hoped he would catch something with it but he hadn’t r
eally expected to on his first attempt. At the trap, he found a rabbit hanging helplessly in the air; at least he thought it was a rabbit. The rabbit was brown with white spots and two small antlers protruded from its head. Unsure if sleep was clouding his vision, Hyroc rubbed his eyes. The creature’s appearance remained unchanged. He pushed one of his claws into the side of his snout to see if he was dreaming. Pain was supposed to reveal that. It hurt so, no, he was awake. Shaking his head, feeling as if a small part of his world just stopped making sense, he unsheathed his knife and stabbed the rabbit in the head. When it was dead, he moved a few yards away to slit its throat. A stream of blood spattered onto the ground before slowing to a few red drips. He gave the rabbit a hard shake, tied it to his belt, then reset the trap.
The rest of his snares were empty. When he finished with the last one, he made his way to the incline leading to the cliff face where the mountain lion’s lair was. He knew this was not one of his best ideas, but he saw a good spot to set a snare when he was up here yesterday. Keeping a close watch on his surroundings, he made a final trap using the last of his heavy twine. He hoped he wouldn’t end up catching the big cat or any of her cubs putting a trap here.
Once finished at the incline he made his way back to the cabin. Making sure to preserve the animal hide, he got to work skinning and gutting the strange rabbit. While the rabbit cooked in his fireplace, he studied the fresh hide, trying to figure out what he could do with it. Selling it in town would be the obvious option, but letting the villagers see him still seemed like a terrible idea. He didn’t need to rush into a potentially hazardous experience, he could wait a little longer. Since selling the hide was out of the question, he knew he needed to figure out a way to use it or any future hides he obtained. He was confident he could figure out how to utilize any he got, but from experience he knew the hides would eventually rot and he had no idea how to prevent that.
Thinking back to the family of hunters, he remembered the father and son skinning animals. Much of their clothing looked homemade, which must mean they had a way to preserve those hides. Maybe sometime he would go see what the family did with their animal hides. By now, the rabbit had finished cooking. Biting into the meat when it had cooled, it had the same gamey texture as rabbit but it tasted strangely like the venison he had occasionally had for dinner in Forna. After lunch, he headed out to hunt. Whatever he needed to do with the hide, he knew it could wait for a while; food was a more pressing concern.
From the cabin, he made his way to the creek where he had found deer tracks the day before. Following along the shore he headed in the opposite direction as yesterday. After about an hour of walking, he settled down in the shade beneath a birch tree to rest his feet. As he sat there listening to the relaxing murmur of the creek, he caught sight of a weasel poking its head out of a hole in the tree’s trunk above him. With his nearly disastrous encounter with the big cat still looming in his mind, he welcomed the presence of this small creature.
Slowly he reached into his pocket, removing a piece of meat from his leftover deer rabbit and held it up to his beady-eyed guest. Cautiously, the weasel took it before dashing down the tree and off into the forest. The weasel reappeared a few minutes later. Hyroc put a tiny piece of meat in his palm, resting his upturned hand on the ground in front of him. The weasel came over to his hand, tentatively sniffing; recoiling several times as it slowly drew closer. Once the weasel had a hold of the meat, it ran a short distance away before stopping to eat its prize.
Hyroc put another piece of meat in his hand. Having downed the meat scraps, the weasel stood up on its hind legs to sniff the air. It dropped back on all fours, coming toward his hand without showing much trepidation. The weasel touched the end of his fingers with its nose and pulled back. Hyroc remained motionless as the weasel leaned forward toward his hand again. It snapped up the meat then surprised him by dashed up his arm. The weasel jerkily worked its way to the top of his head. Hyroc felt a tickle on one of his ears as the animal sniffed it. Without warning, it sank its needle-sharp teeth into his ear. He yelled out in pain as he threw his hand at the top of his head. Startled, the mischievous creature leapt from his head and disappeared back into the tree. Touching his ear, Hyroc was irritated to see a globule of blood on the tips of his fingers.
Not wanting to risk another ambush by the evil weasel, he ventured to the opposite shore of the creek via a rocky crossing not far from where he was attacked. He found some yarrow on the edge of some trees ringing a hill. He cut off the yarrow’s white flowers and held them on his ear. As he stood there waiting for the plant to stop the bleeding, he noticed a rabbit lying at the base of the hill to his right. He gently let go of the yarrow, which was now delicately stuck in place by congealing blood, and silently nocked an arrow. Right before he let it fly, he realized the rabbit wasn’t moving or breathing, it looked dead.
As he cautiously walked over to the dead rabbit, he saw a strange silvery moss covering its back legs. When he touched the moss, it stuck to his hand, pulling uncomfortably on his fur. He had never heard of this kind of moss. When he grabbed the rabbit by the midsection, it was squishy like someone had filled a water skin full of cheese curds and a whitish pink substance began oozing out of every orifice. Startled, Hyroc dropped the rabbit. The carcass hit the ground with a wet slap. As he resisted the urge to be sick – he got the eerie feeling something was watching him. Grabbing a hold of the hilt of his sword, he scanned the surrounding terrain. He saw nothing but the disturbing feeling remained. Stealing a glance at the rabbit-curd-sack, he realized he had probably scared off whatever was feeding on the rabbit and it was probably watching him right now. It seemed wise to avoid incurring the wrath of whatever could do this to a rabbit. While keeping an eye out, he unsheathed his knife to cut off a piece of the moss. He was a little surprised how tough it was; it was harder than cutting through the heavy twine he made his snares out of. Moving his knife in a sawing motion across its surface, the moss began to come apart more easily. After a few more tense seconds, he cut a chunk off. Sticking it in his pocket, he hurriedly left the area the way he had come, listening for any sound of pursuit.
At the edge of the ring of trees, he stole a glance at the rabbit to see if he could spot the thing that was feeding on it. The rabbit carcass was missing, but he caught a glimpse of a dark shape disappearing behind the rise of the hill. The shape moved in a disturbing manner, as if it had more than four legs. Disturbed, he decided fishing for the rest of the day at the cabin was a great idea and made his way back to the cabin with his hand on his sword hilt the entire way.
CHAPTER 20
Two Brothers
Over the following days, Hyroc settled into a routine of checking his traps in the morning and then spending the rest of the day hunting. He saw the mountain cat he shared the mountain with watching him from a distance on numerous occasions as he performed his daily chores. The sightings made him wary, as he knew she was probably trying to figure out if he would make a tasty meal. Despite his fears, she always seemed to keep her distance and avoided wandering near the areas where he set his traps. He in turn was careful to stay away from any of her hunting grounds and kept himself from cresting the rise leading to her cave. Slowly he lost some of his distrust toward her, giving her the name Huntress, but he never forgot she could kill him if she were so inclined. Still, as she was the closest thing to company he had had since leaving Forna, he felt an odd sort of attachment to her.
One day, just after checking his traps, which had frustratingly remained empty since the deer rabbit, he came across deer tracks within the ravine. They led him off the mountain, into the forest below. After tracking the animal for most of the day, he found a small doe. The deer stood in a gap between the trees, facing away from him with a single pine covered in thickly clumped branches at its back. He crept toward the tree, keeping its trunk between him and his quarry. Peeking through the branches, he nocked one of the steel arrows. He silently lined up his shot through a space between two bra
nches.
Another arrow whistled through the air from his right, striking the deer in the chest. The deer took two steps before collapsing onto the ground. Hyroc lurched back, dropping down behind the cover of the tree’s bottom branches as two boys came into view. He recognized them as the two boys from the family of hunters. The older boy carried a bow and wore a leather quiver on his back, while the younger one only carried a single sheathed hunting knife on his belt. Hyroc watched helplessly as the two boys approached the dead deer to claim it as their own. He hated the happy looks on their faces; those feelings should have been his. He was so close to killing the deer. It didn’t belong to them!
He very much wanted to contest the fact this was his deer, but that seemed like a very bad idea. He could only imagine how they would react if he showed himself. The oldest boy was liable to put an arrow in him the moment he came into view. Then even if he managed to survive the encounter, everyone in the village would know he was here. It would be better to stay hidden until the two of them left with his stolen kill and resume hunting.
“Donovan, I thought I saw something,” Hyroc heard the youngest boy say. He felt a surge of dread at the words. For an instant, he saw himself getting skinned, his head mounted on a wall. His heart pounded away inside his chest as he frantically looked for an escape route.
“There’s no one here,” the oldest boy said in an annoyed tone. “If this was someone else’s game, they would’ve come out and said so by now.”
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