CHAPTER THREE
The sun was straight up in the sky over the village of Gromac. It was about halfway through the day and the streets were bustling with people of all ages. Children were playing tag in the streets as merchants tried to peddle their wares. A man was carrying a large boar like beast back to the village, he was the butcher’s brother and one of the best hunters in the village. The day was great, it was the ascension season, so all of the flowers, trees, and other plants were blooming. It looked amazing, and the best part of it all was the annual festival that was happening currently called the ascension festival. The festival lasted four days. Each day consisted of gift giving, making merry, playing games, song singing, and many other very fun things. And then on the last day, there would be a great feast. The ascension festival was a great time of the year, people would come to the village from miles around just to be a part of it.
Everyone loved it, but not quite as much as Einieni did. This was her absolute favourite time of the year. And now that she was finally eighteen cycles old, which was the human equivalent of sixteen, she could participate in the hunting competition that was a part of the festival. She was determined to win, even though countless far more experienced hunters would also be competing. She knew that she’d be able to win. She was a very optimistic person, and always had a sort of glass half full kind of attitude.
Einieni had very little experience in hunting, but she knew that one day she’d be the best of them all. Gender had nothing to do with stations to her people. Women could do just about anything that men could do. It was a completely equal society. So Einieni had the dream of being the best hunter in her village from a very young age. Her mother and father, both of which were hunters, had taught her the ins and outs of hunting. So from a young age, she knew exactly what to do on this day. And that was to be the best.
Einieni sat on her mattress that was against the wall and on the floor. There wasn’t much for her to do at that time. She still had about an hour until the hunt had officially began. None of the participants were allowed to go into the forest until the competition began. In order to assure that no one would try to cheat. It was an annoying rule, yet it was still understandable. She would hate it if someone beat her because they had snuck into the forest and hid a bunch of traps and bait so that they’d have an easier time once the hunt started. So she was okay with waiting, in the meantime she’d go visit her grandmother.
Einieni rose from her spot on the bed and put on her hunting vest. It was made out of the hide of the first beast that she had ever killed. The leather was grey and rough. It was more for storage and protection from the claws of beasts than for it’s looks. She only ever wore her nice clothes during festivities. So during the other parts of the festival began, she’d wear that instead. She was also wearing loose fitting hide pants that covered the entirety of her legs. Her long black hair was braided behind her. She gazed at herself in a mirror, her greyish blue skin contrasted with her deep red eyes.
“Mother, I’m going to see Grandmother,” Einieni said as she grabbed her rucksack and bolted out of the house. Her grandmother had been almost as excited as she was about the festival. It was something special that they both shared. She remembered sitting on her grandmother’s lap and watching the many fun things that happened during the festival. Those were great memories for Einieni, she wouldn’t trade them for anything.
She walked to the small cottage that her grandmother had lived in and walked right in. The house was covered in numerous books and magical items, her grandmother had been a shananhi, which was what her people called those who learned magic. Her grandmother could manipulate fire, water, ground, wind, electricity, metal, people’s minds, and so many more things. She often spoke of how she learned all of this through her many years of life. Though no one knew exactly how old she was. Not even Einieni’s parents or even Einieni. Her grandmother seemed to be only seventy cycles old. But most shananhi her age still didn’t have nearly as much power as she did. It was amazing to Einieni how her grandmother could be so skilled at that.
“Grandmother? Are you here?” Einieni called out excitedly into the seemingly empty house. She hadn’t seen her grandmother in about two weeks so she was happy to get the opportunity today. She stood there waiting for a response.
“I’m coming Einieni.” Came her voice from a room in the back. The woman had the voice of a stereotypical old woman. She even looked the part of an elderly wizard like being. She had on robes and walked with a stick in her hands. It wasn’t exactly a magic staff, more of a walking stick that she needed for moving around. Her old body wasn’t what it used to be anymore.
“Hello grandmother. How have you been?” Einieni asked her grandmother. She walked over and helped her grandmother to the table in the corner.
After they both sat down her grandmother had looked at Einieni, “Are you okay child? You look famished! When was the last time that you ate something? Would you like for me to get you anything?” She asked her. Einieni’s grandmother was always like this for her. She wanted to coddle her even though she was basically an adult now.
“I am fine grandmother,” Einieni said. She then looked out of the window. There were a few children playing in the road as a few other villagers had been carrying decorations to the corner to put up. The colours were green, purple, and red. Those were the customary colours for the festival.
“Okay okay. I just worry sometimes that your parents aren’t giving you your proper nourishment,” She said dismissively. “Well I suppose that you’ll be going on the hunt later on today. Would you like for me to read your future? It may help you to win,”She said with a wink to Einieni.
“No grandmother. That would be cheating and it would get me disqualified. Then as a penalty I’d have to miss it again next year,” Einieni said. It was true, cheating during the competition was highly looked down upon and the penalties for cheating were high. On a few occasions, cheaters were exiled. The competition was to honour the gods after all.
“Okay dear, if you’re sure. But there is one thing that I have to tell you before you go into that forest. Something very important,” The woman said in a wise tone. The type of tone that could only come with age.
“Okay grandmother. What would you like for me to do?” Asked Einieni. She had a feeling that whatever her grandmother had to tell her was of grave importance. She could tell just by the way that she had said it.
“Bring him to me. Don’t let anyone else know about him. Just bring him here directly. This is very important. For all three of us,” She said. The seriousness in her voice had consumed the room. As if someone was filling the room with water and there were no buckets to bail it out.
“I don’t understand. Bring who back? All three of who? What are you talking about? Why is this important? Why can’t anyone else know about it?” Einieni asked with a puzzled expression on her face. This time it was her that was gushing with questions that she wanted answers to.
“I can’t tell you who. You will just have to find out why for yourself. And the three people are you, him, and me. You will learn how in time. But now is not that time,” she said with a mixture of seriousness and mischievousness. This just made Einieni even more confused. But she knew better than to try to get answers from her grandmother, it never worked. She had years of practice on keeping her mouth shut.
“Okay grandmother. I’ll bring him back,” Einieni agreed. But the question was, rng who did she have to bring back? Einieni only knew that she was looking for a boy. She wasn’t given a description or anything. “Can you at least tell me who I’m looking for?”
“Oh you won’t be looking for anyone. You will just see something that catches your eye. Trust me dear, you will know as soon as you see it,” She said. “Now, you should probably go get ready for the hunt dear. I wouldn’t want you to miss it. And remember, no one can see you with him. You must be as secretive as possible.”
“Yes, I understand grandmother. If I see the boy, I’ll bring him back to you,” Einieni said reluctantly. She didn’t like being told to do things without being given any details about it. It made her feel like a child.
“Not if child, but when you see him. Just bring him here. Now shoo, off with you girlie. Go do young people things,” She said playfully.
Einieni was pushed from the house quickly. She didn’t mind though. She knew that her grandmother’s intentions were good. She was always telling Einieni about how she should act her age and not spend all of her time in a house with her grandmother. She would then tell her stories about all the trouble that she had gotten into when she was Einieni’s age. That was one of the primary reasons that she stuck around her grandmother so much. All of the stories that she would tell her. She would joke that if Einieni hadn’t gone out and done things, she’d be dreadfully short of stories to tell her grandchildren. She was right in a way.
Einieni decided to have a walk around the village. Just to soak in the grandeur of the festival. The day had been going by quickly. In no time at all the competition would begin. She needed to grab her bow and hunting glove quickly. Einieni then broke into a sprint back to her home. She had almost bulldozed over at least six people on her way there.
She had run into the small house in which she lived in then grabbed her bow and glove. The glove made it possible for her energy bow to work. It harvested the world energy around her and formed it into arrows for her to fire out. It was far more efficient than a simple bow and arrow. One of the main reasons was you didn’t have to struggle with cleanly removing the arrow from the beast. She loved using the bow. It had been a present from her grandmother when she had killed her first beast. Which was one of the main contributions on why she cherished it so much. She had used it to kill many things since she had received it.
Einieni walked back out into the village. The clock in the middle of the village had shown that it was quarter to three. This meant that she had fifteen minutes before the competition had begun. It would only take her ten minutes to walk there, so she began to casually stroll down the road towards the forest. Even if she hadn’t made it on time, she would be able to enter anyway. As long as she was there before an hour after it began, she would be fine.
Once at the edge of the forest, she walked over to the signup sheet. She grabbed the writing utensil and quickly signing her name on the sheet. She saw eight others standing there ready to run into the forest once the competition had begun. She saw that all of them were very skilled and had been doing this for a very long time. Though Einieni was still convinced that she had a good chance of winning the whole thing. She knew in her head that she was the best. Whether it was true or not was up to others to decide. But most would say no, not by a long shot. She was good, but the ones standing right in front of her had been the best in the village. All the greats were there ready to compete. All except for one that is, the rules state that if you win, you can’t compete in the next years competition. The winner would have to sit out one year and if they wanted to, they could compete in the year after that. Einieni never understood why though. But she just never questioned it. It wasn’t like she had won any years. This was her first time competing. As opposed to the several other competitors. All of which had won at least twice before. Einieni was sure that one day, she’d be like them. She’d be a multiple time winner of the ascension festivals hunting competition.
A man walked over to the hunters. He was wearing nice clothes and a top hat. THis was the mayor of the village. He was probably coming over to announce the rules of the competition or something like that.
“Hello everyone. I am now going to announce the rules. This year they’ll be a bit different. Instead of bringing back your biggest kill, you will bring back numerous ones. The one with the biggest combined size will be the winner,” He said. He then followed it up by saying, “that’s all, let the games begin.”
With that, everyone ran into the forest. Everyone except for Einieni that is. She hadn’t been paying much attention so she didn’t hear the mayor announce the start of the competition. She was thinking about what her grandmother had told her. She remembered that she had to bring someone back to her. Einieni had figured that she meant another hunter that get’s attacked by a beast. After all there were countless things in the forest that could do serious damage to a person.
Once her thoughts were over, she looked around to see that she was standing there alone. The competition had begun. Not even ten minutes into the competition and she was already losing. This was a pretty bad start for her. She turned towards the forest and bolted in. She needed to hurry and catch something to bring back to the village. Going back empty handed would be highly embarrassing. Though Einieni was at a disadvantage there. She needed to both pay attention to her hunting and keep an eye out for whoever it was that her grandmother wanted her to bring back to her.
Einieni stopped under a tree for a moment. She needed to regain herself. She needed to focus on one thing at a time. She’d try to get at least one beast before she looked for the boy that she needed to find for some reason that her grandmother refused to tell her. She remembered what her grandmother said, she said that Einieni would know in good time. She wondered when that time would be, and how a simple beast attack on a hunter could be so important that she couldn’t let anyone except her grandmother know about it.
About twenty minutes later, Einieni spotted a great looking unuk, It was a white furred animal with five red spots on it’s back. It looked similar to a deer but was about twice the size. Einieni was satisfied with her amazing find, this would surely win her the competition. She pulled up her bow and mimicked what pulling the string on a bow looked like. Then an arrow and bow string made of energy formed. She was ready to kill the animal. Einieni took aim and fire out her arrow.
As the arrow shot towards the unuk, a large crashing noise boomed from the distance. Before the arrow found it’s target, the unuk ran off due to the sound. Einieni herself was also surprised at what had happened. What had caused the noise? She wondered. So she did what any curious person would do, she went towards the sound.
Within about forty minutes, she was at the crash. No other hunters had been there for some reason. They must have heard it, Einieni heard it loud and clear from forty minutes away. Perhaps they were even farther than she was when it had happened. The crash had been in a wide open clearing in the middle of the forest. The thing that crashed looked like a small room. But where did the room come from? And what was inside of it? There was only one way to find this out and Einieni knew exactly what it was. She’d go take a look for herself.
As Einieni walked out of the forest and into the clearing, she saw a person lying in the grass. He was breathing so he was obviously alive. Was this the person that Einieni needed to bring back to her grandmother? He most definitely stood out so it must be him. He appeared to be muttering something to himself in a strange language. She quickly snuck over to the room and looked inside. There was an obviously dead child lying on the floor, a red liquid coming from his head. She assumed that their blood wasn’t blue like her people’s blood was and that’s what that strange liquid was.
She walked over to the boy who was yelling something that she didn’t understand. She could pronounce it though ‘Come get me?’ She thought about the words he said. ‘What does that mean?’ She thought in her own language.
The boy then looked directly at her and stood up. He was rambling about something that she didn’t know. He wasn’t panicking about anything. She could tell by his facial expression and the tone of his voice. He looked and sounded highly annoyed. So he must have disliked her presence.
“Who are you?” Einieni said loudly, hoping that he might be able to understand her. “I am Einieni, I have to take you back to my grandmother now. Is that okay with you?”
The boy didn’t seem to understand her or even want to go with her for some reason. So again, Einieni did the only thing that made sense to her. She gripped her bow, both of her hands towards the bottom, and she bashed it across his head. Luckily, he was knocked unconscious in one blow. This meant that she wouldn't have to continuously beat the unarmed boy in front of her. She checked his pulse to make sure that he wasn’t dead and then tried to pick him up. He was too heavy so instead she just dragged him slowly. It would take hours for her to get back to the village like this. But she had to get him back some way, and this was the only one that she could think of.
As she dragged the boy, she thought of how she would definitely lose the competition now. There was no way that she could carry both a beast and this boy back to the village. She then thought of what she would have done if she had actually killed the unuk, it was easily five times the size of this boy, and she was struggling with him. So perhaps it was for the best that she hadn’t got anything. She’d just try again next year.
“Wow, you’re heavy,” she said to the boys sleeping body. She knew that he couldn't talk back, but she just wanted to let him know that. “You’ll like my grandmother. She sure likes you. I mean she asked me to take you to her. So she obviously finds you important,” Einieni continued to talk to the boy as she dragged him. She’d find plenty of things to tell him as she took him to the village. “Just a few hours and you’ll meet her.”
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