Death's Hunt

Chapter 5

The following morning, I arrived in the foggy clearing before Chiyoko. The gravel beneath my feet crunched as I paced back and forth waiting for her. “Come on… she should have been here by now…” I thought to myself while tapping my tail impatiently against the ground. “Why am I even doing this?” I kept thinking. “It’s not like anyone was there to teach me. Anyway, I’m losing valuable time!” Finally, a figure stumbled out of the nearby bushes. I glance over and saw Chiyoko.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I’m late but I…”
I put one of my hands up in the air to silence her, “We’re going to need to work on that.”
“Hun?”
“Your timing. We’re going to need to work on your timing.”
“What… what do you mean?” she asked hesitantly.
“If you want to be successful as a death, you are going to need to learn when you should and shouldn’t attack. There is always a short window of time, and I will have you know that seeing if you could get here on time was your first test. Considering you made me wait, I don’t think I need to tell you the results.”
Chiyoko looked down, clearly feeling disappointed – as for who she was disappointed in, that I’m not sure. I walked over to a rock and picked it up. I turned back to Chiyoko before speaking.
“I’m going to throw this rock at you. I want you to grab it.”
“Wh… what?”
I didn’t say anything. Instead, I just threw the rock. Chiyoko didn’t really try to catch it. All she did was stumble before falling backwards on her behind.
“Why did you do that?” Chiyoko shouted.
“I told you what I was going to do in advance,” I stated bluntly. “When you’re going to be hunting something, you won’t get a warning. You must react accordingly, at the right moment. Now get up!” I picked up the rock again before walking back to where I had been standing previously. “This time, just try to dodge it.”
I threw the rock at her. She did… okay. I mean the rock didn’t hit her, but she fell flat on her face. “Get up Chiyoko. You’re doing better.” I guess adding that last part gave her a bit of strength as she got up a bit faster than before. “Now, every time I throw this rock, I want you to keep dodging. And try to stay on your feet this time.” We repeated this process, over and over and over. Chiyoko kept stumbling, but at least now she wasn’t falling.
“Why do I even have to do this? I thought we couldn’t get hurt by anything,” she finally questioned.
Without warning I threw the rock at her. It was obvious that she wasn’t expecting it since she fell onto her back clearly caught offguard. I did notice that she had caught the rock with her feet. As I walked up to her and took the rock out of her talons, I answered her question, “It’s true we can’t get hurt, but knowing how to dodge an incoming object can allow for a much faster and efficient kill.” I then looked down at the stone in my hand. Four deep scratches from Chiyoko’s claws were imbedded into its surface. “Congratulations Chiyoko. You just got yourself a kill.” I dropped the rock and began to walk away.
“Wait! Where are you going?”
“I’m done for today.”
“What do you mean you’re done?”
I simply turned around before telling her in a monotone voice, “You have to learn to walk before you can run. Right now, you’re still waddling. But at least you are taking steps.” Chiyoko had a look of confusion on her face. Clearly, she didn’t understand what I had meant by that. I sighed before putting it very simply, “We don’t start with the hardest things. We always do the easiest ones first.” I turned around brusquely and flew off into the mist.
When I finally emerged, I found myself near a river in British Columbia. There were quite a few bears standing by the river. I stood back and waited for the animals to do my job for me. Suddenly, a salmon leapt out of the water and another and another. The salmon run. I sat in a tree watching the spectacle before me. Sometimes collecting souls was easy, and this was one of those cases. The bears ate the salmons and I collected the dead fishes’ souls. This lasted for a few hours before the last of the salmon swam away. With the bears full to the brim with fish guts, I moved in to collect the souls.
As I did so, I felt a pair of eyes watching me. I listened intently waiting for something to happen. A twig snapped and in the blink of an eye, my tail swiped across the ground throwing up a cloud of dust. I heard coughing before I beat my wings to disperse the sand and dirt.
“Why did you do that?” a voice hissed angrily.
“You know I hate being followed.”
A tall figure stood in front of me, waving his hands around to get the dust particles out of his eyes.
“I’m assuming you’re here for the salmon run,” I asked sarcastically.
“Why else would I be here Kakrix?” a loud boisterous voice replied.
“Because Alger you probably already know about Anga forcing me to participate in this year’s Soul Hunt, since you’re the one who organizes it.”
One thing is for sure Alger definitely looked the part: besides his incredibly tall and thin frame, Alger was always wearing some kind of suit and tie, looking somewhat like a businessman. The only thing about him that wasn’t prim and proper was his physical attributes, mainly the fact that he was literally just skin and bones, fitting considering he had starved to death.
“Well, I guess that is true as well. I actually came here to talk to you about your fourth teammate.” As he said that, a few stray strands of his hair fell over his face. He quickly blew them back into place, took out a mirror and made sure that everything was proper. I wouldn’t say he’s vain per say, but he cared way too much about his looks – or rather what looks he had left.
“Listen if you’re going to ask me to reconsider having a new death in this game of yours, you’re going to have to take it up with Anga. It was her idea. Not mine. And I swear, if you don’t want her in there because she is not experienced enough and won’t put on a good show, I can guarantee you that it won’t change the outcome and Anga will not back down.”
As I finished saying that Alger burst out laughing, “Make you reconsider having her?!? Not at all Kakrix. Actually, I’m here to ask you quite the opposite.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You see, a new death entering this year’s Soul Hunt would not only be interesting to see happen for both myself and the audience, but if she wins, I am sure that she will gain quite the reputation, such as yourself.”
“You mean a reputation where practically everyone fears me?”
“Well… hum… well… you never know how deaths will react.”
“So, what do you want from me?”
“Oh… all I really would need from you is… hum… help to convince her to join.”
“She’s already in your competition.”
“No, no, no Kakrix. What I mean is that I want you to really get her into it. Make her want to do this. Because from my understanding, right now she is… hum… hum… how should we say… she is right now in a fragile state…?”
I suddenly spread my wings to intimidate him, “You listen to me Alger! Chiyoko will do what she wants and no one can change that! So why don’t you go pack up your bags and take it up with Anga. I’m sure she’ll tell you the exact same thing.”
“Lis…Listen Kakrix… I didn’t mean to offend you in any way,” Alger replied while backing away from me.
“She is still a girl. This is already hard enough as it is. Leave me alone. Leave her alone. And we will get along just fine,” I practically shouted in his face.
I then went back to gathering souls. Alger started doing the same, but he was smart enough to keep quiet this time. Once I finally had finished collecting my souls, I turned to fly away. That was until Alger asked me to wait.
“What is it now?” I asked in desperation.
Alger opened his mouth, but no word came out. Really one look at my face told him I wasn’t in the mood to talk. He simply backed away with his own bag of souls and slinked off into the trees, looking like one himself. I sighed and continued my flight, but now I had something else on my mind.