"The willow gives me shelter, the one with the crooked branch.I await you there!" I said, desperately trying to give her directions.
Finally, Aren found me.
"Where have you been?" I demanded, "I could have been killed!"
Aren seemed rather taken aback by me yelling at her, but then said, "I lost sight of the star. The trees seem to have changed, there was no wind, no scent..."
As if she was giving me a peace offering, Aren held out a pouch of berries. Hardly acceptable for the hardships she had caused me, but I took them anyways.
When we first caught sight of the camp, everything seemed to be in place. The smoky fire, the split log the cook sat on, the smell of crushed pine needles... all there.
And then we got closer. I could see felled trees, pine branches emitting smoke, torn cloth, and broken tools. Closer. Soon I spotted the hunter's arrow. Then I saw more. More and more broken arrow shafts. Closer. Stones caked in blood, footprints. Not from my own kind, but from animals.
"No!" I cried.
Aren saw what I saw. Soon her sobbing intertwines with my screams. Empty water pouches, deserted cave homes. Closer. The worst was yet to come...
Bodies. Lots of bodies. Many familiar faces, contorted with pain, the agony of their deaths were so apparent. Aren falls to her knees. Her mother, father, baby brother, all dead. Closer. I entered what used to be the cave where my family slept. No... no...
My wise older brother, my cousin Falix, Scar, Aunt Verma, No... no... Grandfather, No... please,... No!!!
I found myself pleading desperately, to who I'm not sure. I just wanted someone, anyone, to bring my family back to me. But this could never happen. They were nothing but lifeless corpses now.
My mother had died of an illness when I was young, however, my father had still been alive before I set out to find Aren. I hadn't found him yet...
Suddenly, I heard a short whimper coming from the corner of the cave. I carefully tiptoed in between bodies, following the light. It was father,alive and seemingly not badly wounded.
I pulled him to his feet, only to see that his shirt was covered in blood.
"No! Father, you are hurt!" I cried.
He shook his head.
"This isn't my blood," Father said, and I understood what he meant. This only caused me more grief.
YOU ARE READING
The Hunted
FantasyIn a world where humans once ruled, there came a day when something terrible happened. Unleashed by the power of an angry witch, a spell was created in an order of vengence upon all human kind. A spell where animals ruled over humans, hunting them d...
