FALLING STARS: Ocean and Water Kingdom

CHAPTER 1: THE MAGNIFICENT DEER (PART-1)

______ᕙ⁠[۝]⁠ᕗ_____

“Friendship is like two pieces falling apart. It feels like one side is missing. The whole forms a whole.”

______ᕙ⁠[۝]⁠ᕗ_____

As I walked through the muddy puddle with my boots, I took in a little more of the fresh air of the forest. I held my bow tightly, ignoring the branches that tangled my feet, and continued to look for an animal to hunt. Soleil and I had been trying to hunt in the forest since the early hours of the morning, trying not to lose our motivation due to our unsuccessful hunts. If I couldn’t catch something good today, I would have to face my uncle’s wrath again since I didn’t have any decent money to give him. I was sure that if I didn’t give him the money, he would threaten me like he always did and try to hit me again. I let out my troubled breath. I kept my eyes and ears open, looking for any sounds or traces. “Are you upset? Are you thinking about that old man again?” Soleil, who was walking next to me, asked. I nodded in agreement.

“Oh, don’t worry about it too much. I’m sure we’ll find something by evening. Besides, look, we’re trying so hard, I’m sure we’ll find something good.” I smiled hopefully despite his words. Whenever I was in such despair, he would always motivate me with his words and cheer me up. I met him on a day when I was hunting in the forest. While hunting, I had set my sights on a weasel. When I took a position and shot my arrow, the arrow I shot hit its target. But at the same time, someone else had also targeted that weasel. The second arrow on the weasel belonged to Soleil. When we came face to face, we fought over the weasel. The result of our long fight was that we devoured the weasel together. Afterwards, we somehow became friends.

Soleil was an only child and had an elderly grandmother to support. Her father and mother had died ten years ago due to illnesses that they had contracted one after the other. She had also come to live with her sick grandmother. She had no mother or father, and neither did I. On the other hand, that was what attracted us to each other and made us friends. Because we could understand each other, and we both needed this friendship - despite her being Shade. We were no more than four years apart. She had always been like a sister to me, and she had never held back her support. We had spent almost every day together since the day we met, and even when one of us got into trouble, we had never left each other alone. She moved in front of me, shaking her blonde hair that ended on her shoulders, and told me to follow her. I was sure those magnificent fox ears had heard something. We both kept quiet as we followed her from behind. If there really was an animal, we didn't want to scare it away. As we walked through the thick trees, we saw a rabbit a short distance away. The rabbit we saw was a very cute baby with white fur, black eyes, one ear completely brown. We couldn't shoot it. It was still small and we couldn't hurt it anyway. Besides, I had a weakness for all kinds of baby animals. I would never hunt them. But this rule of not hunting between us sometimes didn't apply to Soleil.

Because when she really needed it, she had to hunt them too. I turned my gaze to Soleil who was standing next to me, to see if that time had come for this rabbit. But she was smiling and looking at the rabbit in front of her. So I breathed a sigh of relief. She wouldn't shoot it.
As I quietly walked up to pet the rabbit, I closed my eyes in irritation at the crackling sound made by the dry branch I stepped on. It always happened like this. At times like this, something had to make a noise. When I opened my eyes and looked at where the rabbit, which I thought had already run away in disappointment, was, I opened my eyes wide in surprise. The rabbit had not run away, on the contrary, it was looking at me with its sparkling eyes. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I quickly walked forward and knelt down in front of the rabbit and started to pet its head. When I saw that it did not get uncomfortable and run away, I took it in my arms. It was very cute and extremely cute.