Hunter Academy (Edited)

Chapter 24 (Edited)

Chapter 24

I stuffed the last piece of savoury spiced meat into my mouth and then wiped my hands. I wasn’t sure what kind of meat it was but I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

“The meat you’re eating is fresh,” one of the witches informed me. “We raise chickens for food but we also hunt wild bird and such that live in this forest. They are harder to catch but they are worth it. Most of us here can catch meat in the forest, Erik is an exception.” Judging by the way Erik’s expression darkened he didn’t like that subject and was hoping it wouldn’t be brought up.

“Yeah there are certain things that Erik can’t do, normally that involves school work not actual physical work so I must say I'm surprised by that,” I said laughing. The witch sitting beside Erik joined in.

“Whatever, I do alright when I actually try,” Erik muttered. The witch just grinned knowingly before joining his friends. The adults sat around the main fire talking as dusk fell. The children ran in and out of the clearing playing hide and seek one moment and tag the next. Alexandria was a bit away from the campfire talking to some of the older girls that didn’t want to play childish games. “I’ll be back,” Erik told me before disappearing into one of the tents in the clearing. The witch that had told me about the meat saw that I was sitting alone and came over.

“So I hear that you’re looking for Max?” he asked watching me carefully. “Mind if I ask why? We here watch look out for each other, so you’d better mean no harm to Max or his son.”

“I’m just looking for someone and I think that Max White might be able to find out where he is. Erik’s my partner, I wouldn’t do anything to harm him.” The witch relaxed and then sat beside me.

“I’m sorry but you can’t be too careful during these times. I guess I knew deep down that you were trustworthy but some hunters are prejudiced towards all types of paranormals, but I should have known considering the company you keep. Normal hunters wouldn’t be around vampires if the vampire wasn’t already dead or soon to be dead,” he reflected. His blond hair fell into his eyes as he poked at the smaller campfire in front of me with a stick. Once prodded the diming flames grew brighter.

“So I guess I'm not normal,” I joked but I wasn’t sure if the fact that I wasn’t a normal hunter bothered me or not.

“Max isn’t here because he’s dealing with another bunch of witches. They are having a bit of trouble and they are actually a group of witches that accept the help of other witches,” he explained.

“Do witches not like to be around other witches?” I asked curiously, this wasn’t typically taught in the Academy.

“Witches that live alone don’t mind being around other witches but witches in covens or groups like ours believe they can only trust the members in the same group as theirs. They put all their trust in their group and so they think all other witches are not to be trusted. Of course our little group isn’t like that. I personally that that it is because we are like a family here.”

“So most witch groups just stay away from each other?” the way he was describing it was as if each witch group was their own religion and didn’t allow other witch religions to contaminate theirs.

“Most do that but some purposely seek out other witch groups and attack. They attack so they can claim the territory if the other witches flee. Each witch group lives somewhere so that part is considered their territory, if there is no witch living on a certain part that’s considered free territory. We have had this little clearing for a long time and it’s in the perfect spot. It’s secluded and there’s a lot of room, so naturally it’s been the source of envy for a lot of other witches. There’s a particular witch group that recently has been trying to take this place from us. They keep failing; we have many more people but they are not going to give up so easily.”