Skylands Legends

7.1 Hunters

Not everyone was capable of understanding the thrill of the hunt. The excitement that coursed through your body as you tracked down your prey. It was a high. One of the best ones you could achieve, Bushwhack believed.

But not everyone saw it as that. His time as a Skylander had shown that to him. He had lost track of all the times someone had asked him if it was hypocritical of him to be classified of the life element while also being an avid hunter known to hunt and kill his prey. They would tell him, "Taking an innocent creature's life isn't very life-like of you." As if they actually understood.

A common misconception about the life element and nature, in particular, was that it was all about preserving life. That they were in opposition of death. And while nature gave birth to so many beautiful things that just radiated life and appeared to actually be in opposition to death... this way of thinking was completely false.

Nature is rough. It brings about as much destruction and death as it does life. It supports the wild freedom of chaos and crushes those in its way. It separates its creations into predators and prey and lets them go at each other. That's how it is. That's how it keeps its balance.

Vitae taught that the trees provide the necessities of life for the prey who in turn serve as the food for the predators. And when the predators die, they return to the soil to help the trees grow, allowing more prey to feed.

This was what Bushwhack had been taught all his life and what most didn't understand about nature. When Bushwhack hunted, he did it with nature at his side, playing by the rules that had been set before him. And in knowing this, he had become the ultimate predator. Which was why he was often called by those looking for someone to track people down.

Hence his latest contract drawn up by the Skylanders. It had been a long time since he'd done any work for them. Most of the time his contracts came from the one of the prime realms – most specifically the Cloud Kingdom. It wasn't like he was avoiding the Skylanders, they just never had a need for his help. With the lack of villains on the loose, why would they?

I guess things change, he thought.

After receiving the call from Jet Vac, Bushwhack had taken Stealth Stinger to the Academy to make sure the contract was drawn up properly before setting off towards the Lowlands. Normally, when traveling through the Lowlands one would want an actual sky ship capable of putting off enough light to get through the darkened fog, while also being able to take a couple hits from the inevitable 'bumping' into islands.

Bushwhack didn't need that. He had Knight Light.

Knight Light was a war angel literally forged from light. He had brilliant white armor that emitted a bright light in the darkest of places and great white wings as beautiful as anyone could imagine. He was also as deadly as they come. He had various arcane abilities in his repertoire and would summon a great sword forged from traptanium to his hand at his will. He was one of the most skilled fighters Bushwhack had ever met. He also understood the thrill of the hunt, which Bushwhack saw as a positive.

The two of them had first met at the Academy as cadets and had been partnered together on many occasions, leading to their friendship. Upon retiring from the Skylanders, Knight Light had travelled through the Skylands following the "Holy Sword" as he called it. He had described it to Bushwhack as a feeling he got that would lead him to those in need.

Bushwhack had thought it was a bit ridiculous at first, but there had been a few times on contracts where Knight Light would suddenly show up at his most desperate moment to bail him out. He could hardly deny the power of the Holy Sword after that.

Knight Light even had a tendency of showing up just before Bushwhack got a contract sometimes too. He had come to find this usually meant it was a rather dangerous task. Looking back on them, he wasn't sure how he would have ever succeeded without the armored angel's help on those jobs. It was like he knew he would be needed.