The Day The Music Died

Chapter 2

-Hey, sorry that this chapter is a bit shorter and that it's been a while since the first one, anyway hope you guys enjoy!- 

"What?" Ivon whispered, breathless, "What do you mean?"
"What do you think I mean?" Zephyr demanded, "I mean exactly what I said. They kill us for fun, they're complete sadists. They only like to kill us though. All other animals, they have an undying respect for. But for humans, they will go out of their way to hunt us down and leave us to rot." Ivon felt the blood leave his face as a shiver ran down his spine.
"Do you know why they do that?" Ivon questioned, shifting under his blanket, onto his side to face his friend.
"Nope. No one knows, they just hate us for some reason, and only us." Zephyr replied, seemingly returning to his normal personality in an instant. The bone-chilling yet heart-warming melody had stopped, and the normal sounds of the night returned.
"We should try and sleep, it's probably nothing Ivon was still paranoid to sleep. He lay on his side, eyes wide open until finally, exhaustion claimed him, and his eyes drifted shut.

The next morning, Ivon and Zephyr groggily crawled out of their tent and looked up at the sky. It was still dark, barely brushed with the dusty pink of the sunrise. The two friends walked over to where the others were standing, bows and arrows at the ready and knives in leather pouches on their waists. The hunting outfit was sleek and offered the wearer great mobility, just as it should. Black leather straps over the shoulder allowed them to tighten to fit, although they were all custom tailored to each person so there was no need for the straps anyway.

Ellisar wandered up to the new additions and placed a hand on each of their shoulders.
"So, what do you guys think about going out with me and I'll teach you young'uns the ropes?" He smiled and handed Ivon a bow and quiver and Zephyr the same. Ivon looked over to Zephyr and smiled at him with a murderous glint in his eyes. Zephyr shot him back a worried glance in response.
"Let's go kill some shit."

Ivon, Zephyr and Ellisar carefully walked in single file through the bushes and branches, the leaves crunching under their feet as they stepped. After a while Ellisar suddenly held up his hand to signal the younger hunters to stop.
"Listen" He whispered. Ivon tilted his head so he could hear better. To his left, he heard a deep growling sound, akin to that of snorting, then it was followed by a deafening, horrifying shriek. It made Ivon and Zephyr cover their ears and cower in pain and fear, but Ellisar stood bravely, without flinching. After the ear-piercing screech stopped, Ellisar smiled and walked off to the direction the sound came from, pulling out his bow and grabbing an arrow from his quiver. Ivon and Zephyr followed cautiously, each knocking an arrow just in case. As they continued creeping through the undergrowth, they soon came across a huge clearing with a waterfall on the opposite side to where they were standing. Coming out from the waterfall was a lake with five or six rivers and streams sprouting out, leading to where Ivon thought was the ocean. Ivon had never seen the beach before, only read about it in books and seen undetailed drawings about it. From what he knew, the ocean was a vast expanse of sapphire blue water that stretched across the horizon, further than the eye can see.

"Woah." Zephyr breathed, summing up all of Ivon's thoughts in one word.
"Shhh." Ellisar hushed him and pointed his bow towards a point in the water, it took Ivon a while to see what was going on, but eventually he saw a flurry of fins and tails amidst vigorous splashes causing the water to turn white with foam.
"What is that?" He questioned, turning to Ellisar.
"Hippocampi." Ellisar answered, followed by a quick "Fish horses," after seeing Zephyr's confused look.
"They're really playful, aren't they?" Ivon whispered. "That's why there's all that splashing right? They're playing with each other."
"Indeed." Ellisar nodded. "Ivon, you know how to shoot right?" Ivon nodded his head slowly, knowing the next question. "So how 'bout you show me how you do it."

Ivon turned to the water and saw that one of the Hippocampi had poked its head out of the water. His eyes focused on the hippocampus; the rest of the world's sounds were drowned by the pounding of his heart in his ears. He drew back the arrow until his thumb was brushing his ear. Five long seconds went by, he lined up his arrow with the neck of the creature with glistening rainbow scales that shone in the sunlight. The water around it lit up with the reflection of its colourful skin. Ivon took a deep breath in and out. He let the arrow fly.