The Hunter's Journey - ep 3
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“What?” questioned James as he tried to understand what had just happened. He looked at the roots now surrounding him. “The fuck just happened?”
He looked around at his new surroundings, and saw that his shotgun was inside with him, along with the wolf that he stabbed, but everything else was still outside. He picked up his shotgun and loaded 2 new shells. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he’d be damned if he didn’t get ready for the wolves to attack again. He listened to what was going on outside he could hear some confused barking from the wolves, who seemed to be surprised by the sudden change of events as much as he was.
He heard a groaning creak of what sounded like a tree moving, followed by a yelp and a crunch of what sounded like breaking bones. The hell was going on out there? He could hear the pattering of paws running away from where he was. Were the wolves running away? And from what? The thing that trapped him? Should he be scared too? Hundreds of questions began racing through his mind, none of which he could answer. He was scared. Whatever it was out there, he couldn’t fight it and he couldn’t run. His subconscious was confused as all hell and he had no ideas on what to do. What could he do in this situation?
He started by thinking about the things he did know. He was attacked by wolves. He could confirm that easily by the bite on his arm and the dead wolf 4 meters away from him. He was trapped in some sort of wooden ball. That much was obvious by the thick wooden walls surrounding him. Something had scared the wolves attacking him. He could tell that the wolves were now far away by the distant barks.
But, that was about it. He couldn’t calm down fully trapped like this, but he began to feel some of the tension leave his body and the adrenaline wearing off slightly. As that happened, the pain in his arm began to become more and more noticeable. He had a quick look at his arm and saw that he really needed to tend to it. Deciding there was nothing left to fight, he broke his shotgun open and lowered it to the floor, and began to un-wrap his arm. He winced at the sight. His arm had 7 punctures where some of the wolf’s teeth were long enough to get through all the padding and into his arm. Thankfully, they weren’t too deep and it would probably heal on its own given time, but he needed to make sure it wouldn’t get infected. Unfortunately his medical supplies were outside of his new environment so he couldn’t do much about that now. That’s a point, shouldn’t he be worried about that?
He walked up to the wall in front of him. On close inspection he could see it was made of entangled roots from the nearby trees, which seemed to have grown out of the ground and wrapped together tightly. He tried pushing on the wall at different places, but he only got very slight movement. He began thinking of ways to escape. Could he cut his way out? Probably not, his knife would be too blunt before he even got half way. Could he shoot his way out? That might work a bit better, but he probably didn't have enough ammo. Both together might work, but he’d be screwed if he got attacked again.
He was trying to figure out another way to get out with everything else he had on him that wouldn’t leave him helpless to attack, when the walls began to creak. Slowly the walls began to untangle and recede back into the ground. He quickly fumbled for his shotgun, getting ready for whatever was coming. He snapped it shut, but before he could shoulder it, a hand reached out from behind him and grabbed the barrels.
“Tha mi duilich airson do ghlacadh, ach bha agam ri dèanamh cinnteach gum biodh tu sàbhailte. A bheil thu ceart gu leòr?”
“Uh, what?” asked James. The hand let go of the barrels. He turned around and saw the strangest thing he’d ever seen. It was what he could only describe as a centaur, but that wasn’t quite right. It was about as tall as he was, standing at 6’3’’, and was covered head to hoof in what looked to be armour made out of wood. It also carried a spear, which was pointed skywards, rather than at him. At least it wasn’t threatening him at the moment.
“... A bheil thu ceart gu leòr?”
“I don’t understand what you are saying.” Still kind of in shock at the whole situation.
“... Nach urrainn dhut mo thuigsinn?”
James pointed at his ear and shrugged. The creature seemed to understand that, and thought for a moment. It then pointed at itself and said “Lafalla”, and then pointed at James.
James then pointed at himself. “James.”
The creature pointed at him and said “James.”
He nodded and pointed at the creature and said “Lafalla.”
The creature nodded. ‘Well, it seems we at least have names sorted’ thought James. He surveyed the scene around them. There were still only 3 dead wolves, but the area around them looked like it had been torn to pieces. Dirt, grass and shrubs lay scattered around the area and a few branches of the trees were broken. He was still trying to comprehend what had actually happened during the past 20 minutes, he was kind of in shock at the whole situation. First he had been going about his business, when the environment just seemed to change, like out of the blue for no reason. Then there was the wolves. Wolves in Britain, that just wasn’t a thing. And the size of them! He could have sworn wolves don’t get 5’ tall! Maybe when standing on two legs, but not on all fours! Those things seemed unusually co-ordinated as well. He’d learnt a bit about wolf hunting tactics, but he didn’t remember seeing anything about distraction, being something they used, or at least not that co-ordinated. Then there was that root cage. How was that a thing! He didn’t see any mechanism or anything to cause them to rise like that. He couldn’t imagine how to do something like that without an incredibly elaborate mechanism, and what are the changes of him standing in the middle of it? And then there was what was happening now. There was a centaur that talked! Well, he couldn’t understand a word it was saying, although the odd word did sound vaguely familiar.
He noticed that Lafalla was studying his arm. Right, he needed to sort that out. He went over to his pack and pulled out the first aid kit and rifled through for the disinfectant. He opened it up and poured it on, which he then immediately regretted as it now felt like his arm was on fire. He managed to suppress the urge to scream in pain until the pain reduced. He then went to pull out something to dress the wound when Lafalla walked up to him and removed a gauntlet.
“Cùm ort, cuidichidh mi” said Lafalla
They then placed their hand near his wound and a faint glow seemed to be emitting from their hand. Pain shot up his arm from his wound, as he felt like what he could only describe as hundreds of ants crawling over his arm that seemed to scratch at his wound. But as he watched, he could see that was not what was happening. It looked like his skin was knitting itself back together. Once it was all over, Lafalla removed her hand and James looked at what was left. His arm had been more or less completely healed, there were scars where some of the worse punctures were, but the wound was gone. He struggled to contemplate what had just happened. He searched his mind for any rational explanation for what he just witnessed, but his mind just came back blank.
“Um, thank you.” he said while gently bowing his head, in a kind of half nod. He wasn’t sure what Lafalla could understand, but he hoped they would understand he was trying to say thank you.
They both stood in a bit of an awkward silence for a moment while both of them tried to figure out what to do next. James decided he should probably pack away his first aid kit before it got dirty. After doing so he looked back at Lafalla, who had taken their helmet off when they felt safe they weren’t about to start a fight, to reveal a face similar to that of a woman’s, just a bit more deer-like, with deer ears instead of human ones and small nubs where antlers would normally be.
She gestured at James and said “Thig. Lean mise” while gesturing for him to follow.
So he did. He picked up his gear and set off in the same direction as her. Something was very off about this place. He wasn’t sure what was really going on, but he needed to find out. He wasn’t even sure if he could walk away and go home at this point. Trying to do that had got him into this situation in the first place. He decided this was his best way forward at this point in time. At least Lafalla wasn’t trying to kill him.
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Posted Sep 15, 2020, 6:44 PM UTC · edited