There they see a woman sneering at their direction, she is talll and broad shouldered with short cropped black hair and eyes that peered right through their souls.
"God i think they know we're here" liora says, she is scared obviously shaking, she was nearest to where the spear hit.
"You think? She shot an arrow at us!" Raquel says, no longer in a quiet tone more panicked and scared.
Then mel raises her hand to make herself visible and walks forward.
"What are you doing?! You're gonna get shot!" Raquel says irritated, to mel who is raising her hands to the hunters.
"We're just kids, we're lost and can't find our way back, we mean no harm we're just looking for help" mel says her voice is firm but it's obvious she's frightened.
Then a weathered man steps forward he look like he's in his 40's he has alot of scars on his face and arms, his beard is unkempt just like his long hair with streaks of gray, his skin is bronzed from years under the sun.
"Vek tor, hrukk? Vorr vek ne chalcus. Eryx! Vorr vek drak tor lash" the old man says, mel is confused trying to figure out if she knows their language.
Then a gaunt man with hollow cheeks and dark rings under his eyes comes forward, he seems to be some sort of shaman with the inked symbols on his hands, he looks at her his gaze is unsettling.
"Ne drak lash vek. Vor vek nohk, Zahr-mordak" he says his voice just as unsettling as his appearance, with loud guttural noises he walks away.
"Um do any of you guys speak english?" Mel ask, she is still quite frightened.
"Vorr vek drok lash-mord tor?" The girl who threw the spear spoke, she sounds curious, taking a closer look at her she appears to have a long scar running down her forearm with bronze arm bands on her wrist, she also has a red sash on her hip seems important.
"Vorr vek. Tash ne sharr vek—hruuk mordak vek ne. Vorr vek!" The shaman man speaks quite in a frustrated tone, he seem to be quite annoyed, with a closer look he is wearing a cloak made of dead animal hides and his tunic is roughly stiched.
"Sharr vek, Lysandra. Eryx, drok lash-mord tor." The older spoke, he seems to be agreeing with the woman and calling over the shaman.
Mel just stands there not knowing what to do, her hands are still up in the air, then the shaman man approaches her.
"Damnash, tash hruuk vek drak lash mord tor." He seems really angry now , mel prepares for an attack but one never comes her way instead the man hold out his hands and his eyes roll back into his skull.
"Zahr-lash vek, drak sharr vek. Nohr vek ne, korr vek sharr. Lash-mord vek tolm!" A glow appears surruounding her and the glow also appears on the mans hands it stops.
Mel feels dizzy not as dizzy as when she was transported here but still dizzy, the shaman man leavea going into his camp, mel is left there confused then.
"That should work, thanks eryx!" Says the older man as he waves at the shaman who appears to be named eryx.
Mel takes a step back shoked and in disbelief 'wait i thought they couldn't speak english and what was that light, what is happening?!' She think to herself.
Then suddenly the other jump out of the bush pointing the arrows they got from the bear well most of them raquel still hides in the bushes, they are shaking quite visibly.
"There were other kids? God how many of you are there?" asked the hunter woman in an irritated tone.
"Calm down lysandra, i'm sure they have a proper explanation for eavesdropping on hunters, am i correct?" The older man looks at mel quizzically, his face in calm but his words are harsh.
"Y-yeah we do have an explanation" mel says arms still in the air. "we are lost and don't know our way back, can you please help us."
"Lost you say? I see, are all of you a sibling or something else" the older man speaks, he looks at mel then the others.
"No we just so happen to get thrown into a forest" mel says as she finally puts her hands down.
"Are you chastising me child?" The older man ask, his voice now has a more frustrated tone.
"What? Oh no i'm being serious! We really got taken at rge same time and ended up together" mel says trying to calm the man down.
"Fine, tell me your names now" the old mans voice us firm and commanding.
"Isn't it bad etiquite to ask someone elses name before stating their own?" Mel asks, before walking backwards to her friends.
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"You're really testing your luck kid, fine my name is theras of mycenae" the older man said with a sigh.
"And i'm lysandra of thebes you better remember the name little girl" lysandra said as she walked toward mel then to the others.
There in front of them stood mel who was in disbelief 'aren't those really old greek cities?' Was all she could think of right now.
"Mel are you okay?" She looks behind her seeing cairos with a worried expression.
"Yeah i'm just kinda shocked, i mean they saud they were from cities in the bronze age" mel says to cairos who looks at her oddly.
"Wait you can understand them?" Cairos says shocked that mel knows their language.
"W-what no they're speaking english-" mel says confused, but then she remembers the light.
"If you're done chattering, tell us your names. Now" theras says his voice has a much more rough tone.
"O-oh yeah o-okay um- i" mel tries to get out words but that was all she could muster, her sheer confusion was too much.
Then a younger man with maybe around 18 approaches her "kid you better do what the captains orderin you to do, and do it fast" he says his voice threatning and he has a spear strapped on his thigh.
Mel takes a deep breath and moving away from the young man "alright, my name is mel foster" she states at the hunters in front if her.
They stare at her confused.
"Have you ever heard of a city called foster?" The younger hunters asked theras.
"It may be a smaller city or a city from beyond the ranges" theras states, he look at her then the others"And those kids? What about them and tell them to put down those arrows."
"Mel what are they saying" cairos looked at mel with a worried expression.
"Put down the arrows first 'kay" she tells them, after they do so she says "tell them your names okay."
"A-alright, hello my name is carios thallion" cairos states to them, they looked at mel.
"Tell us what he's saying mel of foster" lysandra says looking at mel.
"He's saying his name is cairos of thalion" mel said after thinking of what to say.
"Of thalion? Mel what are you talking about" cairos looks at her quizzically trying to figure out why she put 'of' in front of his surname.
"And he us hollis of lancaster and she is liora of pixen" she looks at hollis and liora who are equally as confused as cairos.
"I se is that all of you?" theras said in a calmer tone, as he says that he goes back to his sitting down.
"No there's one more, she's just pretty scared of you guys" mel says putting emphasis on the scared part.
"Whatever" he says taking a drink of his bottle then pointing at the sky "look at that big star and follow it until you can find a city, or just keep walking down the river." he said.
The other hunters have calmed down as well going back into their positions before they were interupted.
"Can we stay here for awhile, i mean it's dangerous during night" mel says trying to hide the desperation in her voice.
"What no of course not, just keep following the river" theras says, he us annoyed that she would even say that.
"But it's dangerou-" mel tries to say before being cut off by theras.
"So what do i care if a couple lost kids die, i mean what would we get if we do care for you" theras says looking at her, he is angry.
"We're kids and it's dark" mel tries to get a word in before a spear is thrown at her, nearly hitting her leaving a small scar on her cheek.
"Next time i won't miss, so get gone" the younger hunter says looking at her with annoyance like she's a bug on the wall.
Then a sudden scream is heard they all look around trying to find tge source, then they see raquel who fell into the line of view the bear carcass now visible.
As she looks back at the hunters, they are shocked and suprised to see the carcass.
"That's the bear of Taygetos, kid did you kill that beast" lysandra says getting closer to the carcass.
"Yes we did it attacked us and we had no choice but to kill it." mel states leaving out the part where another bear helped them.
"Lord agamemnon will be impressed if we bring him the beast head" theras states then putting a hand on mel's shoulder "kid if you can hunt like this we'll bring you to your home."
Mel sat there suprised 'if we hunt more animals we can stay' she thinks before looking back at the others "fine but cast a spell on the others as well."
"Of course! Come join us tell your friends to relax" theras states inviting them to eat.
"It's okay guys you can rest" she look at the others relieved that they can rest safely.
"Are you sure?" liora ask "they seem pretty dangerous" she looks at them then at mel.
"It's fine we can rest for tonight they said so, if we hunt more in the morning" mel says quickly saying the last part.
"Wait you want us to hunt more? We were barely able to hunt this one if it weren't for the other bear helping us!" Raquel stares at her expecting answer.
"It's either that or we're forced to walk the river at night." mel says with a stern look on her face.
"Fine, cairos give me your sleeping bag" she looks at cairos who is unfolding his bag.
"What? No this is mine" he states looking at her confused.
"Whatever" raquel says before laying down on the bear carcass.
"Okay now that that is settled rest up we're gonna hunt in the morning" she look at hollis and liora.
"Cool cool" liora says before climbing a tree then sleeping.
"Hollis you okay" she looks at him, he nods and sits on the grass below the tree liora is sleeping on, clutching his bag he just waits for sleep to take him.
"Okay i'll be going to sleep now" mel states looking at the hunters.
"How about you join us kid tell us your story" lysandra says taking a bite out of meat.
"Yeah come join us" the younger hunter states while getting the spear he threw.
Mel sits with them specificly beside lysandra who is eating a huge piece of meat.
"Your name is mel right i'm myron of crete nice to meet you" the younger man named myron states, with a closer inspection he has a muscular frame and curly hair he also doesn't have many scars only small ones unlike the other hunters.
"Yeah nice to meet you as well" mel says hesitantly "um is this all of you."
"No theres aion of phthis he's standing over there cheking if there are beast, he doesn't really speak only when needed to" theras states taking another huge swig of his bottle.
"I see and are you guys hunters?" She ask while looking at aion who is tall and wiry, with green eyes that seem to simewhat glow in the dark and his face is marked with what appears to be ritualistic scars.
"Hey kid tell us your story" lysandra says looking at mel.
"Oh me i'm just your average kid nothing special about me" mel says trying to sound innocent.
"Kid you killed the taygetos that is not your average achievement for a child" she says her voice sounding impressed.
"Well that's unless you're from troy but you're not right?" Myron ask mel.
"Oh no i'm not a trojan i just come from a family of hunters" she states.
"I see alright youcan rest if you want, you look tired" theras states.
After that she goes to rest sleeping near hollis and liora.
In the early morning they are awakened by the hunters.
"Wake up kids we just found our prey" lysandra says splashing water on them.
Mel is the first to wake up followed by hollis.
"Okay okay we're up wake up your friends as well and follow us, we already cast a spell on them" lysandra states.
Mel stirs awake walking over to cairos and raquel shaking them, on the other hand hollis hessitantsly shakes liora, liora wakes up jumping down from the tree landing on hollis.
"Raquel wake up" mel says shaking raquel hard on the bear, after awhile she wakes up with a groan.
"What is it" raquel's voice is groggy, she looks at the sky "the sun is barely up, why in the world am i being woken up."
"They found the 'prey' they were looking for and we need to help them" mel says she is also pretty groggy.
Raquel slips off the bear landing on her back "ow god this is the worst!" She cries out.
"Uh what's going on" cairos says already woke up because of the noise raquel made.
"We're going out to hunt" mel said now fully awake, grabbing her bag.
"Oh okay" cairos says packing up his sleeping bag and putting on his bag.
After awhile they get to the hunters who are getting ready for the hunt.
"Hey you kids ready for the hunt" theras says as he is putting on his boar tusk helmet and bronze greaves which are dented from past battles.
"Yes we are" mel says confidence in her tone.
"Good just remember we won't protect you you'll be out there on your own" lysandra chimes in picking up a small bronze axe, behind her are dual-pronged spears.
"Understood ma'am" cairos says in a cheerful tone "wait... i can understand you" he says suprised the others are suprised as well.
"That's thanks to eryx, come on let's go" theras says.
They starts going to the spot of the beast leading them is aion who ocasionally stops and listens to tye trees, there they see a huge lion fur as black as a starry night licking it's paws it's a beast like no other.
"That is The Black Lion of Taygetos" aion says.
"Good job aion, everybody ready?" Theras says looking at all of the them.
"We're fighting a fricking lion?!" Raquel says holding a bronze short sword she was given.
"Yes we are, now" he pushes raquel into the line of sight of the lion "go."
*END OF CHAPTER 4*
