Hunting

Lucien woke up very early with his father the next day and headed out through the farmland towards the forest lying in the east.

It was a nice cool morning and the ground was covered with a thick dew. The morning was barely lit by the light of the sun as it hadn’t risen far enough into the sky yet.

After about a half an hour they reached the edge of the forest.

“You ready?” his father asked.

“For sure.” Lucien held up his bow and two arrows. His father only brought a couple loafs of stale bread for when they got really hungry. Unfortunately for the Verglas, they were always hungry.

His father led the way into the forest and began to scan the forest ground. He couldn’t really see anything noticeable to the naked eye, so he continued to lead on, deeper into the forest.

“What are you looking for father?” Lucien asked.

“Anything.” He replied simply.

“Anything?”

“Anything like the dew being disturbed, animal droppings, a crushed leaf, maybe even a track left in the soft dirt. I’m looking for anything that may give a clear sign of an animal that has passed through recently.”

After hearing this, Lucien began to look around for these signs as well.

After about twenty minutes of walking around as silently as possible, his father waved Lucien over to where he was standing.

“Look at this son,” he pointed at a leaf of a plant low to the ground. “What do you see?”

Lucien looked very carefully at the plant. He didn’t see anything noticeable.

‘What I didn’t see anything? That’s it!’

Lucien looked at the other plants behind the one he was told to look at as saw the small glistening of the dew on their leaves.

“Father, it’s not what I see, but what I don’t see. There isn’t any dew on this one!”

“Right, which means an animal brushed past it, knocking off the dew. Also, if you look very carefully, the dead leaves scattered on the ground here are turned over. It looks like the animal walked through here recently and by the way the leaves were disturbed, I’d say it’s headed north.” His father pointed north. “Let’s start heading that way and see what animal it might be.”

They walked through the forest as softly as they could and tried to avoid stepping on any sticks that may alert the nearby animal of their presence.

They arrived at the foot of a small hill and began to scale up it. When they reached the top, they peered down the hill towards a small opening in the trees where grass was growing.

The sun was up now, throwing down rays of sunshine into this opening and onto a deer standing about fifty meters away. It appeared to be male deer as it had very large antlers growing off of the top of its head.

Both Lucien and his father got behind trees at the top of the hill in order to stay out of the deer’s sight.

The deer’s ears flickered at the sound of them doing so and raised its head to scan the area around itself. After looking around and listening out for any noise that may signal danger, the light breeze blew south through the trees so that the rustle of leaves could be heard. The deer relaxed and continued to chew at something on the ground.

Lucien’s father used this to whisper to Lucien, “When you feel like you have a clear shot, aim for the heart. Its located just behind the shoulder.”

Lucien understood. He peaked around the tree and positioned himself in order to be able to jump out and fire. After doing so, he pulled out an arrow and notched it onto the bowstring. Now all he had to do was wait.

The deer slowly moved forward and then turned so that it was facing east, exposing its side to Lucien.

‘This is my chance!’

Lucien stepped out from behind the tree and quickly pulled the bowstring back, aimed, and released!

The arrow sored through the air, dropped, and sunk itself right into the deer’s side, impaling the heart. The deer staggered them fell onto its side with a dull thud.

‘Yes! My hard work has paid off!’

Just then another deer started to sprint off from behind some thick brush beside the opening. It was a female due to their being no antlers on its head.

“There was another!” his father commented with surprise.

Lucien jumped to action. He quickly loaded another arrow, aimed and fired at the running deer. The arrow flew through the air, but missed its mark, and sunk into the deer’s hind leg. The deer didn’t stop but continued to limp away as its life was in danger.

‘Darn it! I don’t have much practice with moving targets!’

Lucien only had two arrows, so he couldn’t fire again.

“Lucien grab the arrow out of that one and chase the other one down!” his father yelled. “If you lose it, follow its blood trail! I stay here with this one!”

Lucien did as his father said and pulled his arrow from the dead deer’s carcass and sprinted off for the other one.

The deer was limping, but it was still faster than Lucien. He did his best, but his endurance was not very high.

Lucien eventually lost sight of it. He decided to stop running and catch his breath while he looked for a blood trail.

He saw some red splattered on a green plant and followed it quietly.

‘I’ll be as quiet as I can. Maybe, it’ll think I stopped pursuing it and it will take a rest.’

Lucein followed the blood trail as quietly as he could. This caused Lucien to walk slowly for around twenty minutes until he caught sight of the deer in the distance.

He approached it as slowly and quietly as he could while keeping as low to the ground as possible, jumping from tree to tree.

The deer, believing that its predator had ceased its pursual, laid on the ground to rest as its leg hurt from the arrow.

Lucien sneaked up on it until he was thirty feet away from the deer.

He notched the arrow onto the string and the and pulled back the string. He aimed for its heart, but he wasn’t sure if he could hit it because of the position it was in.

‘It might go into the lungs, but it wouldn’t get far before collapsing.’

Lucien let the string slip through his fingers, sending the arrow whistling towards the deer.

The arrow went into the deer’s lungs. The deer stood and began to run hard, before stumbling and falling.

Lucien sprinted towards the deer and pulled the arrow in its leg out, reloaded it, and shot it through the deer’s heart.

The light of life left the deer’s eyes as it died.

‘Wow! Not one, but two deer. This’ll put meat on the table for a good while!’

Lucien pulled out both arrows and wrapped the bowstring around his chest. This way, he didn’t have to hold the bow. He grabbed one of the deer’s legs and began to slowly drag the deer back towards his father.

He reached his father a half hour later as Lucien had to take many breaks in order to drag the female deer there.

His father was covered in blood and intestines as he had cut into the deer’s corpse with his dagger and gutted it. He was now in the middle of cutting the legs and arms off in order to place them in a bag and carry just the meat they were going to eat.

“There you are son! I was beginning to get worried,” his father called. “Well done! I can’t believe you managed to kill two deer. That’s incredible!”

Lucien smiled weakly as he was tired from dragging the deer all the way back.

“Drag it over here son so I can cut and gut it.”

Lucien obeyed and his father began to cut the female deer open.

After his father completed the task of cutting off all of the meat off the bones and put it into bags he brought, they set off through the forest back towards their small cabin.

It was the late afternoon by the time they arrived home.

“How’d it go?” Lucien’s mother asked as they reached the cabin.

“See for yourself,” his father slung the bags he was carrying off of his shoulders and opened them for his wife to see.

“Oh wow! That’s enough meat for a couple of months!”

“That’s right! And Lucien here is the one who killed them both!”

Lucien’s mother gave him a big smile, “Well done sweetie!” She ruffled his hair then helped them get the meat inside.

“I’ll have to grab some ice from work to put in the crate out back.” His father stated.

His mother took some meat and threw it over the fire to cook for dinner that night.

For the first time in years, Lucian ate and was full.

…

The rest of the summer drifted into the third school year, then it was the end of the third school year and summer came just as fast as it had left. Now Lucien had only one year left of school.

Kalin continued to grow taller, as did all the other students, while Lucien who was now going to be thirteen years old, only grew an inch or two.

“Wow! Can you believe it!” Kalin marveled as he and Lucien laid in the grass and looked up into the blue sky. “We only have one year of school left and then we’re free!”

“Yeah, I’m excited,” Lucien agreed. “Do you still have your sights set on becoming a knight?”

“I sure do. That reminds me. You never told me what class you want to be. So, what is it?”

“Well, it’s been my lifelong dream to become a mage, but I’m not sure. I know the magic that would manifest in me would be ice magic.”

“Oh,” Kalin frowned. “Ice magic is banned though.”

“Exactly.”

The last school year started, and Lucien sat with Kalin and the other students sat all around them, leaving an eight-foot radius.

He was joking around with Kalin when a pretty girl with red hair walked in the fourth years’ classroom.

“Hey Kalin, who is that girl?” Lucien asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen her before. Is she originally from Cleardale?”

“I don’t know. Maybe, she moved here from another town or city?”

Lucien was curious and wanted to try talking to her, after all she was pretty.

Lucien waited for her name to be called so he could learn it.

“Eriel Alvarez!” called the fourth-year teacher.

She stood up and Lucien quickly began to repeat the name to himself so as to not forget it.

School ended and Lucien stood up and immediately walked over to her. He was a little nervous, but called her name aloud, “Eriel!” A bunch of students watched as Lucien approached her.

She turned to face Lucien who was a couple of inches taller than he was.

‘Her goes nothing.’

“Sorry, but I’ve never seen you around town before. Are you originally from here?” Lucien asked her.

“Oh, no. I’m from the city of Alophia. It’s north from here.” She replied.

“Oh, well welcome to Cleardale! Did you move here recently?”

“I moved in a couple of weeks ago.”

“Oh, well it was nice to meet you!”

“I’m sorry, but what was your name again?”

“Lucien…” he paused for a second and wondered if he should give her his last name. He looked down at the bracelet Kalin had given him for his eleventh birthday and remembered what Kalin told him. (see Ch. 6)

“Lucien Verglas.”

Her entire aura shifted from sweet, pretty new girl to stuck up brat.

“What do you think your even doing? A Verglas talking to me, and I thought you were cute!” She turned and walked away leaving Lucien heartbroken.

‘All I did was say hello!’

All the students watched and laughed as they walked away.

“Woah, I know what happened and I didn’t even hear the conversation.” Kalin stated. He stopped and noticed that Lucien was hurt. “I’m sorry buddy. Are you alright?”

Lucien didn’t respond as he stared blankly at the floor.

“Come on buddy, you can talk to me.”

Lucien looked up at Kalin only to shake his head and slowly walked out into the school yard.

“Hey Verglas. How are you feeling after that rejection?” Cletus laughed. Cletus began to laugh so hard that his followers joined in with him.

Lucien just kept walking. Cletus was laughing too hard to stop him and pick on him more.

Lucien took a slow stroll out of town and into the farmlands surrounding Cleardale.

‘They are all just so caught up in their pride. They love knowing that there is someone below them. But I can’t enjoy that. I’m on the lowest level possible.’

Lucien let the tears he was holding in at the school fall out of his eyes.

‘Just wait. I’ll restore my family name! I’ll become a mage!”