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Hunter
Prologe
BANG!
The pop of a musket resounds across a snowy field under the bright sun. A metal can with a large hole in its middle falls to the snow with a plop.
"Damn muskets" mutters the child to himself. His father overlooking his shooting.
"C'mon kid, you've been doing real good, I didn't expect you to hit 60 meters so quickly, I think I'll be able to get you on hunts tomorrow" The large man with a noticeable big smile behind his scarf says, he never does stop smiling the child notices.
"Y'know dad, I've got schoolwork to do. And I'm out here in the cold shooting at cans". The worst part of shooting is reloading, muskets are finicky.
"Relax kid, I can help you out anyways, b'sides, I've just recently managed to get some rifles, I bet you want to try them out, don't ya?".
"...I do" The child responds begrudgingly.
BANG!
The child feels the force ripple through him, he doesn't even want to imagine how sore his shoulder will be. Still, the rifle seems to have better recoil management than the musket, the accuracy is much better, the target 100 meters away was shot down easy.
"Shit, what an obsession with guns does to a person".
"Awright!, ain't that a beauty? With some practice you could do 300 meters easy! Once you get it right I'll let ya go kid, still early after all".
BANG!
...
BANG!
...
BANG!
...
Reloading is kind of a bother, but it's far better than the musket due to the breeches, get on 1 knee, aim, shoot, pull the lock in the bottom, pour the powder and then shove the bullet in the loader, lock it back down, prime it, aim, shoot. Pretty easy manouvers all around. While the kid wouldn't call it "a beauty", he can certainly appreciate the work that has been put into this gun. You can even shoot and reload sitting down.
"Hey dad, How'd you get these rifles anyways?"
"Your old man's got his secrets, make sure to not tell anyone too".
"I don't like what that implies".
The eternal smile of the father does not help to ease up the tension the kid feels.
"I'd say that's good for today, wouldn't ya agree kid? I bet you're wishing to be free now"
"Yeah, I'm gonna go play in the forest, i'll be back for dinner"
"You know the rules, don't go deep in the forest, don't hit any wild animals, if you see a bear just let it pet you, take the bayonet just in case you see you're stranded".
"Yeah yeah I get it, see ya."
"Where the hell am I?"
The imposing forest seems to grow larger thanks to the setting sun, the child feels like he has wandered for hours, and he has in fact done so. Taken off the path due to a moose that was bashing itself into a tree to such a point where you could tell where it's brain was. Maybe it had rabies or some other weird stuff. Anyways, that scares a person to their core.
The child thinks to himself "Maybe if I can find a bear they'll help me get back on one of the paths, but if I don't then I'll just die in the cold, fire takes priority". Certainly, the bears are always very helpful beings, they sometimes come into town carrying one of their injured to recive medical aid from the adults around, they make sure to repay the favor if they find you lost on the woods. Still, you can't really hope for fortune to strike to avoid death, better start on the fire.
The child is really bad at making a fire, he has realized after his 12th attempt at it. It's dark now. He's going to die. Oh dear, what it is to be hit by an existential dread at such a young age, for now, just smile and hope for the best as his father tends to say whenever he commits a goof. How did the folk song go? it was "Just pretend that you are happy and smile when you're feeling blue, if you pretend you're happy you'll start to believe it's true"
"Hello" A mossy looking girl pops out from the tree line. Her cloths don't look like they're made out of anything he has seen.
"..." The child stares back speechless, there's a very inmense joy he feels now, he won't die all in the cold like a dumbass, he's saved! Such overwhelming joy causes some sniffles even.
"I'm saved! Please help me, do you have a fire nearby".
"Oh you're lost! Sure, I think I saw a road nearby, just follow me, it's a bit far".
"Yes, if it's a road then I'll know the way. Say, how did you find me?"
"The trees told me!". This girl might be a witch.
"...What?"
"Can't you talk to trees? From what tribe are you? Did they not teach you there or are you just slow? Actually, that might just explain why you're lost in the first place".
The child needs to process this and thinks "...Tribe? Does she mean town? Should I just say the town name? Why is she so rude? What?".
Breaking out of the bafflement the child responds "I'm from Baker town, where the hell are you from?"
"...Oh" The girl looks a bit worried "I don't think I know where that is". Brilliant answer, no one knows anything and more questions arise.
"Well, what tribe are you from then?" Breaks the silence.
"The Kirin ends, near the border". Seems like the gears are turning in the mind of the girl, or maybe a better metaphor would be leafs are photosynthesizing.
Finally the girl asks with a somewhat strange stare "You're from beyond the border aren't you?"
On closer inspection, the mossy girl is wearing a large and warm tunic that covers her body and things that look like socks on her feet to mantain warmth, talking to trees and odd looking clothes make it clear, this girl is from the beyond the northern frontier. The druids! the child has heard little of them in classes.
"Yeah, from the Republic Owl"
"So that's what it's called, the adults never told us much beyond staying away from you"
"Why's that?"
"You're dangerous people that rejected the embrace of nature... or something like that, the advice was more poetic than that"
"Come on, that's not true, we enjoy plenty of nature, like the... uh... like the..." The child of the Republic had a moment to think "Well you're putting me on the spot, what does rejecting nature even mean anyways, don't we all live on this earth regardless?"
The being of moss that resembles a girl visibly pouts "I told you, the actual advice was different from what I said, besides, most of your people that come carry around those firelances, killers".
"That sounded rude, innit?"
On the tree line a post sign, on it the words "Baker Town, 2 km"
The Child's eyes light up. "Finally, warmth!".
"With those clothes I wouldn't be too worried, they look warm".
"They are, I still wouldn't challenge general winter, there's a story about this guy that lost his entire foot to frostbite".
"uuu I didn't want to imagine that"
What was that sound she just made? uuu?
"Anyways, thanks for helping me out".
"No problem! We're bound to help others, otherwise we'd be bad saplings, Good bye friend!"
"Before you go, do tell me, do you have a spot to go too? The forest is a pretty competitive place when dark"
"It'll be fine! The great mother of nature will lead me towards our encampment!"
The mossy girl runs with great quickness and her silhouette fades into the tree line.
Ch. 01
BANG!
The force of a bullet shakes the body of a moose, it falling to the ground. Its death was instant, one good shot to the head which penetrated the skull, the brains got pushed and splattered into a chunky red mist hitting the white snow on the ground alongside the rest of the moose's body going "pomf" on its way to the ground.
"Oh man you fucking obliterated that little animal, relax kid, we aren't hurting for food!"
"I wouldn't call a giant horned beast a little animal"
"Just a saying kid, t'was a real good shot".
"Yeah yeah whatever dad, just help me carry this thing"
The man with greying hair looks to his adolescent child stumbling over the snow towards his prey, quite grown but will forever remain just a boy in the old man's heart.
"Hey dad, after this I'll be leaving to go pick up things in the forest, did we bring a bayonet?"
"Of course! What kind of question is that? I am always fully equipped! Just make sure to not get lost, alright? Your mother almost kills me that one time"
"Sure, I'll be back in less than 3 days"
"Don't even joke about it kid"
A moose is heavy, but with the power of teamwork and friendship, it can be carried easily into a small wheeled cart, such a cart does have to be prepared for the snow, isn't the power of civilization incredible? Human ingenuity once again proves its superiority. Once in the cart, the moose will weight it down and it may get stuck in the snow, the solution is simply apply strenght in the back of the cart. Works 9 out of 10 times really, for the 10% chance it doesn't work, well just don't worry about it.
"Alright kid, you're free to go, see ya later"
"Yeah, later"
And so the young hunter goes on a walk with a rifle and a bayonet, there isn't much point to such a walk, actual useful things in a snowed forest aren't that much, nor is there any directly entertaining things to do, but it is pretty relaxing. The light reflecting over the snow, the chirping of the birds, the muffled sounds of the boots stepping on the snow. The cries of a mossy looking girl who climbed up a tree to run away from a bear.
"..."
"AAAAAAH"
The bear isn't even chasing her, it's just staring at her.
The young hunter just walks up to the side of the bear and stares at the girl. The bear quickly smells the hunter and pats his head. The hunter returns the pat to the bear and they just continue staring at the girl.
The girl stops screaming for a moment and notices the hunter and the bear just staring at her, her fear seems to be replaced for embarrasment as her cheeks redden.
"You need help there buddy?"
The bear growls in a friendly way
"...No" She sniffles.
"Just get down from there"
She quickly climbs down, kind of like a monkey would and falls on the ground with her feet.
The girl is somewhat familiar looking, wavy hair of brown-greenish coloration, freckles all over her cheeks, large slightly yellow eyes. Her tunic looks to be designed with a few complicated symbols and is somewhat form fitting, a large skirt made to protect from the cold and some shoddy looking socks, the materials are just unrecognizable enough, but by far the biggest thing are the slight growths of branches with leaves on them. Obviously a druid and not from around here considering how scared she was from the bear, do the bears act different in their lands? Somehow, he doubts it. Wait, they're hunter-gatherers right? That would put them in more direct competition against the bears...
"...Thanks" She looks vigilant and stays behind the tree, althought, it might make sense due to the somewhat imposing heavy coat of the young hunter, or it might be the gun, it's probably the gun.
"Come out, I won't shoot if that's what you're worried about"
"You don't really sound convincing, you must be planning something, all you're people are like that"
That must be what they call discrimination
"Plan what? A fucking picnic? Just come here"
"Uuu..." The girl slowly inches forward being careful in her step, the small branches on her hair are slightly off-putting even if it can't quite be pin-downed why. The human body just isn't supposed to look like that.
"No injuries are anything?"
The bear tilts its head
"I am as healthy as the day I was born! But you, how come the bear isn't mauling you? Bears are scary... they can rip out entire trees and destroy villages, how is it just letting you be there?"
That's true in a very far off sense. The bear was going to extend its hand towards the young druid but refrained from doing so when she started panicking.
"the bears are quite strong, but that's probably a little exaggerated as long as you don't try to mess with them while they're taking care of a cub or you get really unlucky with a starving bear, where'd you heard those stories?"
"The adults of my village told me" Hunter-Gatherers with spears and rocks must have a real hard time dealing with packs of bears over hunting grounds as opposed to the friendly relations they have with humans in this side of the border.
"Pet the bear then" With the sound of plaff the bear sits down on the snow.
"What!?"
"Just pet it, I don't know how the bears are on your side, but here they're all nice as long as you don't do anything bad"
That might have been the wrong step to take, now her face just looks like it lost all color
"You must be insane! A death wish!"
The young hunter gets frustrated and responds "Fine then" forcefully grabbing the girls hand and putting it over the bears head, she's too shocked to properly respond.
"..." The young druid is left wordless and has stopped moving.
Maybe this was a bad idea, properly thinking it through, forcing someone to touch something they might simply know as death would be quite bad for their mental state.
"Good! Now just pet it"
And so she does in very static and artificial movements.
"Great, now let the bear pet you."
Her eyes start watering a bit, this is pretty rough, but the bear extends its hand and she doesn't move, presumably out of fear, the bear is very light in its touch, concious on the terror it provoked into the druid, after a few pets the bear gets up and leaves.
That was just awkward.
"...You okay there?"
"Uuu... Just let me calm down for a moment".
What is it with that sound she makes?
"Right, sorry about that"
"It's fine, it's fine" She doesn't look fine, but before long she seems to calm down and stretches a bit. "That was an interesting experience, even if I was about to die, I'll be sure to tell my village"
"Better not, I don't want to get banned from the forest as punishment or anything"
"I don't think you'd get banned, but if you say so"
A silence falls in place, initiating conversations sure is hard.
Finally the silence is broken "Say, from where do you come from? You don't look particularly familiar to these forests"
"Because I'm not, my village is near the border, but it's rather far from around here, in fact, last time I've come here it was years ago, I gained a few points because I helped someone of your people go on the correct path too"
"Well, that does confirm something I've been thinking, we've probably met before"
"Really? I've only met that one person from your lands..." You can hear her think and all "That was you wasn't it! What are the odds! Let's catch up!"
"Uh, sure, I'll start, I've always wondered why a druid was so far off their homeland since then, why was that?"
"Of course you want to know, we were dealing with some weird sickness that started appearing in the zone, animals would go insane and start brutalizing themselves from the sickness, we think it was something in the water" She used a plural there, so it must've been a group of druids, it must've be part of mantaining the forest healthy.
"Huh, how did you deal with it?"
"We used some herbal combination to treat nearby lakes to attack any potential parasites that might've been there and burned the bodies of infected animals, whether it worked or not it's a different matter, but we didn't see any more infections so we did something that worked"
"Right, that's good to know"
"I've told you enough, but what about you? Got anything to tell?
"Hmm..." Thinking hard and no ideas come by "You're putting me on the spot right now"
"Come on, not even what your favorite animal is?"
"I can answer that easily! It's the owl!"
"Owls? We're told their bad luck in our villages"
"How dare they? Owls are incredible animals and the best hunters of the air, seeing an owl in the wild means victory!"
"...Uh huh, changing the topic, you're carrying a firelance now"
"Yeah, never know when you'll need it"
"If you truly were in contact with nature then you wouldn't need it ever"
"Weren't you the one crying over a friendly bear?"
"S-sometimes we commit mistakes, but mother nature is kind enough to forgive"
"In any case, I'm not really interested in being one with nature anyways, if I'm looking into what I could try and be a ranger, seems like a feasible option"
"I'll pretend I know what that means"
"Basically a frontier guard of the army"
"Army? Isn't that like a big gathering of warriors?"
"No not really warriors, soldiers would be the word... You know what, there's probably strong differences in what you and I understand to be an army"
"If you say so"
"Actually, how come we speak the same language? I've heard that the monks to the east also use it"
"This is the tongue that was taught to us by the adults in our village, but our main tongue is that of the forest's will"
"Uh huh, what does that mean?"
"Er, a lot of the plants in the forest like trees can communicate under ground by their vines, we use that to also talk with each other... I guess"
"You don't sound sure of yourself there"
"It's hard to explain, you have to feel it, some of us struggle more with it than others"
That is some strange information, but it does make some sense... probably, it still sounds like witchcraft.
"So, if I'm getting this right your people are all witches?"
"I wouldn't say 'witches', we're simply more in tune with nature than others"
"Right, those sticks on your head must be part of it or something"
"Signs of our progress! I used to be a real overachiver, it has slowed down for whatever reason lately"
"Maybe it's for the best"
Her happier mood seems to have turned sour from that comment, another social misstep
"You... You wouldn't know the struggles we go through, keep those 'suggestions' to yourself"
She doesn't seem mad, she is mad.
"S-sorry, that was out of line, I just think tha-"
"It doesn't matter what you think, this is something greater than us and you will never understand"
...
Quiet again, the mood was finally relaxing too, talk about a joykill.
"Ah well, sorry"
"... No, no, sorry on my part, I got too heated there"
The young hunter looks around before deciding on what to say, the sun oranging out the sky
"You said you were not from around here, do you have a place to stay at?"
"I was mainly just coming back to check on the sickness, but it's gotten too late now"
"My town is nearby, you could find a place to rest there, I'll lead you there"
"...Uh, thanks"
The 2 adolescents from different nations proceed on their walk towards the town. A beautiful sunset just makes the life in the forest shine for a last time before they have to hide from the predators of night, the girls clothes are a bit strange for the town, so maybe it's a better idea to find a comfortable change of clothes for her, that'll have to be done after finding a good resting place, the problem being that she doesn't have money for it, maybe just bringing her back home will be easier. How will he explain to his parents is another matter entirely, those horns are off putting too, this is just filled with issues.