Chapter Fifteen

  First Hunt

  The snow crunched under their feet as the boys, now armed with their weapons and some simple chainmail from the armory of the Severed mountains, followed the Hunt Master from the mountain entrance and into the depths of winter’s forest.

  Luris kept his shield up with one hand and held tight to his sword with his other hand. He brought up the rear behind Dewman carrying his bow and a knocked arrow and Hurlorn led the pack, one axe hanging on his belt, the other in his hand, ready to attack.

  “What are we looking for?” Luris asked, trying to swallow his fear and stay brave as he followed his brothers.

  “I’ve been casing these woods round the mountains, seeing what’s here, what’s a threat,” Cailean said.

  “If it’s an Ursaling, I’m ready for it,” Hurlorn said, one axe on his belt, the other wringing in his hand. “We got bronze, holy metal, monsters can’t stand up to it,” he said, pacing forward to catch up to Cailean, “So what’s an Ursaling sound like when you pierce it with something like this, probably loud isn’t it?” he asked.

  “Was a little too focused to care about the sound that something made when it died, if you’re going to hunt you need to focus too,” Cailean said, coming to a tree and getting on one knee, he lifted a patch of leaves and looked at the ground. He took two fingers and pinched a bit of wet ground, bringing them to his nose, “Argler Buck,” Cailean said, nodding.

  “Argler buck? Wait, those are to deer what Ursaling are to bears,” Dewman said, “Their antlers can bend even bronze if the stories are true,” he said.

  “We’ve hunted bucks, we can hunt this,” Hurlorn said.

  “He’s right,” Luris wrung his hands on the grip of his shield and got it comfortable in his hands, “Just a giant deer,” he said.

  “With that attitude, an Ursaling is just a giant bear,” Cailean said, turning his head to take a look at the Ursaling hood hanging on his shoulder.

  “I didn’t mean it like that, I mean, deer is a deer, but this is a creature of winter. We can’t take it lightly, can we?” Luris asked.

  “Good attitude,” Cailean said, “No you can not take the creatures of winter lightly, once we can reestablish the order, maybe find some survivors, get you three to a city to begin your proper training, having a hunt under your belt will be good for you,” Cailean stopped and held his fist up, commanding without a word for the three boys to stop as well, each with a hand on their weapon.

  “You could hear something, I’m trying but I couldn’t hear anything,” Dewman said.

  “As you continue your training, and get used to working in the cold, you’ll find that a kind of sense develops,” Cailean said, looking around with a careful eye for any motion in the woods made by their prey.

  “Hunter senses, I’ve heard about those, they say that you can tell when someone’s got an arrow trained on you from even further than you can see,” Hurlorn said, “When do I get that? How do I get that,” Hurlorn stopped, closing his eyes, “I’m trying to focus, if I focus will I be able to tell where the Argler is?” he asked.

  “You can’t try to focus, that’s like trying to relax,” Cailean said, “The very act of attempting it purposefully discounts the whole benefit you could get out of it, soon your senses will work on their own,” Cailean looked up, drawing his short sword, keeping his longer blade on his belt, “Call it a sense, call it something in your gut, or the with hairs on your neck, that’s how I would describe it, those hairs on your neck stand, and you know that there's something around that wants to kill you,” Cailean worked his grip, the boys were studying his hand, how the Hunt Master gripped a weapon and tried to copy it themselves. “When you get really good at it. When the feeling comes, everything will crawl,” Cailean said.

  “Crawl?” Luris asked.

  “Everything, you can see the flapping of a hummingbird's wings if a hummingbird would come out in winter that is, the way I can tell that it’s happening, that I’m one with the cold, is the snow,” Cailean looked up. A light sprinkling of winter's favor had been caressing and siphoning its way through the thickly gathered but bare branches of the forest elms.

  “You focus, everything goes out of your mind, things slow down around you and all you see is the hunt, your prey in front of you, it is that moment you will know that you can strike and your prey will fall,” Cailean said.

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  “Can you teach us how to do that?” Hurlorn asked.

  “That, I can’t teach,” Cailean said, “Your senses will come to you in your own time, as you train your bodies and minds, condition yourselves to become hunters, your senses will grow naturally, on their own,” he said, then held his blade up, “It’s close,” he said.

  “How close?” Luris asked.

  “You tell me,” Cailean smiled, stepping back and letting the boys take a step ahead of him. Luris stayed in the middle, his shield up. Were the mighty Argler to charge them out of the darkness of the woods, his shield could hopefully take the blow and give his brothers the opportunity they would need for a strike.

  Dewman took a bronze arrow from his quiver and knocked it, gently pulling back on the string, not quite ready to shoot yet, but ready to get ready to shoot.

  Hurlorn closed his eyes, he tried to block out everything except the cold. He tried to not try, and when he opened his eyes he saw a figure moving in the trees, “There!” he said, a little too loud as the creature jumped and leaped clear over a fallen tree trunk and slammed onto the ground in front of them. The creature was likely ten feet from the base of its hooves to the tips of its antlers. It had black fur, much darker than the buck the boys had butchered just before they spoke their oaths. It had red eyes that stared daggers at the boys as its foaming mouth let out a growl and drool dropped onto the snow collected on the forest floor. Its antlers were the most stunning pair the boys had seen on any kind of deer. The way they twisted and spiraled around one another, with barbs going all along the long ebony-colored horns extending from the sides of the beast's head.

  “Woah!” Luris leapt to Hurlorn’s side, just as the monster threw its body forward and made a stab at Hurlorn. Luris caught the antlers with the edge of his shield and pushed the attack up, just over Luris’s head and just barely making it miss Hurlorn’s throat.

  “Thanks for the save brother,” Hurlorn jumped to the side and with a wide swing buried his axe in the thick mane around the monster's neck. Hurlorn hit mostly thick hair and his axe sliced down against a wide bone just over the beast’s skin. This was no simple deer. It seemed a creature of winter was more than some village folk’s next meal, this Argler Buck was not a meal but a monster.

  The Argler reared up on its hind legs and Luris grabbed, Hurlorn, pulling him back. The two fell into the snow ground as the two great hooves slammed into the ground, likely with enough force to crush bone had the monster landed his blow.

  Dewman pulled back on his bow, and let his bronze arrow soar through the air. Like Hurlorn’s attack, it also hit the mane and while hitting the neck of a deer would be enough to fall it, this beast was proving that it was no deer.

  “It’s got some kind of armor on its neck, never mind the mane,” Hurlorn pushed off the ground and rolled the side, “Luris draw a blow,” he commanded.

  Luris sprung back up and not thinking, waved his shield in front of the beast, trying to keep its attention. The beast lunged its head and horns forward again and Luris again felt the impact of another blow on his shield, knocking him to the ground as the monster let out another coarse roar over him.

  “Keep it distracted!” Dewman said, Cailean couldn’t help but notice how fast he was able to knock and lose so soon after his first shot and with such accuracy. He caught the beast in its open jaw, the arrow going into the mouth and coming out of its cheek. Its foaming mouth was shaken left to right as the beast tried to shake the arrow from its jaw.

  Luris seeing an opportunity, bashed his shield forward and slammed his shield into the monster’s skull. He rang its bell as it fell back, still shaking back and forth.

  “That’s the way!” Hurlorn sad as he jumped, threw his axe down, and embedded it in the creature’s side, just below its mane and hitting flesh this time. Hurlorn threw himself up and mounted the great beast as it started to buck its back legs trying to shake the young hunter off its back.

  “Dewman, go for the eye,” Hurlorn said, struggling to stay mounted as he wrapped his arm around the creature, grabbing the top of his axes hilt with his other arm, bringing the creature's head up as it continued to struggle to get the human off of its back.

  Cailean turned to Dewman, damn this boy was fast with a bow. He brought up another arrow, and Cailean saw him pause for just a second as he concentrated his aim and sent the arrow flying, embedding itself in the creature's eye.

  Hurlorn let go of the creature next and tucked himself to roll off the back of the monster and slam into the ground with minimal discomfort for himself.

  The three boys watched as the creature, shaken head, gash in its side, and two arrows in its face, stumped, grunted, and tossed around before falling to the ground. The last sounds of death rattle coming from it as it bled a dark almost ebony red blood onto the tossed snow beneath it.

  “Is that hunt? Did we do it?” Hurlorn asked, looking at Cailean.

  Cailean smiled, “Aye, that’s a hunt boy,” he said, sheathing his unneeded sword and approaching the beast. He reached for the arrow embedded in its pale red eye. He gave the shaft of it a shake, to ensure the creature was stirring no longer, “You killed it and killed it good,” he said, yanking the arrow out and presenting it to Dewman, “I told you, boys, nothing kills monsters quite like bronze can, I’m proud of you,” he looked to the boys, “The three of you not only used what you learned, but you used it together, each of you making up for the shortcomings of the other, working together, your bond with your brothers is sacred advantage hunters get when fighting these monsters of the cold,” Cailean said, “Now, each of you grab a leg,” he said, reaching for one of the beast's hooves.

  “What do you mean?” Luris asked.

  “You want dinner, don’t you?” Cailean smiled, “Oh yeah, reminds me of my first kill fighting with Duncan Hightower, nothing tastes quite like the meat of your first kill,” Cailean said, “Come now, the Sun-kissed girl and that old druid will have a fire ready for a feast by the time we get back, I told them to make sure to prepare,” the boys each grabbed a leg and the four began to pull the giant beast out of the woods, “I knew we would find something to eat, something edible at least,” Cailean said, “Just be lucky you didn’t find a Spider Folk in your first hunt,” Cailean laughed, remember a quite unpleasant if not nutritionally fulfilling meal he had not that long ago.