The Secret Plains

The Hunter's Tale (2)

Narattors POV
Nighttime fell. While Kay was trying to wrap her head around what she saw just hours ago, she saw the hunters coming back from the woods. She remembered her promise to Faeya and followed them to the village circle, where they normally sat and told their tales.

When she got there, Faeya was already sitting there with a bunch of others. She waved her over. Kay sat in the seat next to her.

"Remind me why I'm here again," Kay grumbled as she crossed her arms.

"It's important what they go through so that if it happens to us, we know what to do. Besides, they're kind of interesting." She shrugged and eventually everyone fell silent as the hunters were prepared to tell their tale.

"We're gonna divert from our usual stories today," The first hunter said, which made Kay's ears perk up. No usual stories? Sweet! "And do with the classic tale of us humans and the world of Velvimr."

Everyone started to murmur but one of the hunters raised his hands for quiet. When everyone settled, the hunter continued.

"It all dates back to about 15 to 20 years ago when the world was discovered by us humans. Velvimr, a world separated from the human eye, was found by us. We sent some representatives to go and present themselves. They came back a week later, their minds beguiled."

A pause settled before he continued. "The most we could get out of them was that beings were living in this world, Velvimr, called Velai. Velai was associated with 8 types of magical beings: Elves, Faires, Pixies, Mermaids, Werewolves, Vampires, Witches, and Goblins. These are beings we all believed to exist in fairy tales, but once we grew up we learned the hard truth: these beings are real, and unlike what the tales say, they hate humans.

"Quite long ago, the humans and the velai agreed, that no one will trespass into each other's boundaries, and their existence will be known to us as fiction, fantasy. A barrier was placed between us to enforce the agreement. Not very long after, a goblin was spotted in the forest. We thought it had lost its way, so we guided it back to Velvimr, forgetting that there was a barrier between us, which made it quite impossible for them to come to us, and vice versa. Our suspicion grew stronger when a witch was sighted near Old Man Heran's cottage. In the morning, he went missing. We realized that the velai backed out on their word without our knowledge, and they were coming into our world to kill us off and take our land and resources. Thus, we formed the hunters.

"The hunters, are an association of villagers that make it their mission to rid the earth of Velai and force them back into Velvimr to stay there forever. If any velai, whatever the kind, is seen in the human world, it is killed on sight. This will hopefully send a message that we do not tolerate them backing out of their word.

"But," a woman asked. "A pixie was spotted in the village just last night!"

"And," a man continued. "A werewolf was spotted near Mr Goldstein's House yesterday night at around the same time. Mr Goldstein is not here anymore."

"I assure you, the werewolf that is believed to have kidnapped Goldstein has been killed." The hunter said

"What about the pixie?" Someone said.

"The pixie escaped."

Everyone groaned, including Kay.

"I guarantee you, it will be found and killed. Now, we must all retire to our beds. We do not want another kidnapping, do we?" The hunters rose, and the people rose with them.

"I can't believe that happened," Kay said. "My mom never told me. It was always: if you see a velai, run, call a hunter, or kill it yourself."

"I knew some more but I didn't know about the agreement. I thought we were just naturally enemies." Faeya laughed.

Kay and Faeya talked some more as they were walking back home. As they reached Faeya's house, they separated. Kay continued the walk home herself.

She used a path that was at the edge of the forest.
She heard a rustling behind her.

She turned around, immediately pulling out a dagger. After searching the perimeter with her eyes, she concluded that no one was there and continued to walk.

Then, she heard the whistle and a low shuffling. She turned around, this time seeing a velai, specifically, a werewolf.

She broke off running, running so fast and away from the werewolf that she didn't realize where she was until she finally stopped running and looked around.

She was deep in the woods.
She heard the low whistle again and took off, going deeper and deeper without even realizing it.
Then, she tripped.
As she fell, her head collided with a stone and she fell painfully.

The last thing she saw was a werewolf bending over her and a blurry figure hitting the werewolf before it all went black.