The Hunter

Separation

A tugging on his chest had Collin pausing for what felt like the hundredth time in the past hour. His hand rubbed at his left pectoral - it did nothing other than make him feel like he was doing something. In the past week, his life had completely changed.

He glanced over his shoulder and waited for the discomfort to subside. Despite all her bluster about it being too dangerous for her to go near the hunter town, Mira was following him about a quarter of a mile back. He didn't really understand it, but he could have pinpointed her exact location on a map. If she had known about his newfound ability, she hadn't mentioned it before he left. He liked to think she didn't or she would have told him, but who really knew?

For the last couple of nights, he had tried to convince himself that his original plan was the reason for what he was about to do. He couldn't quite believe it, though. As if to mock his façade, the chest pains had started soon after she bid him farewell and pointed him in the direction of the hunter town. She'd barely looked at him when she said goodbye.

A part of him was furious about it. If he were suffering, why wasn't she? Another part not only knew how ridiculous that sounded, but also that her emotional distance was her way of coping. The last few nights had been awkward at best, except for when they settled in to sleep. The nights were cold and she'd snuggle into the sleeping bag to keep him warm. He might have exaggerated the extent of his shivers just to get her next to him.

For some reason, his senses had all intensified recently, as had his strength and resistance to the cold. Just another thing he didn't fully understand. The ultimate proof of his increased physical power was when he threw one of his javelins straight into the heart of a boar the previous night.

Most humans couldn't pierce the hide of a wild animal with a wooden javelin just by throwing it. Hunters could, but it typically didn't go straight through the heart on the first throw. A little bit of pride had swelled in him at that, but the corresponding alarm tainted it. Something wasn't right and for the life of him he couldn't figure out what had happened to him.

Correction: he suspected the source, but he didn't know what caused it. His hand went back to his chest. The tugging had diminished and he continued on his path, following his nose to his destination.

Once he got closer, he crouched to the ground downwind and paused for a second to listen before he climbed up into a tree. He secured his backpack into the top of the branches with a rope, before he soundless leapt from tree to tree. On the ground below him were fifteen rogues and not rogues like Mira knew. These were rough and dirty. These were what he thought of when he heard the words "rogue wolf." Mira was an exception to that definition, as were her friends.

He once again tried to tell himself he was doing this for his original plan-the one where he met with some other hunters to form his own base away from his brother. If he went to the hunter town, word would get back to his brother, who would come looking for him. Even though Ezekiel was Collin's only family, Collin didn't want to go back with him.

Ezekiel was content to monitor the area around his base, as were most of the hunter groups. The issue with Ezekiel's method was that the rogues were the most dangerous of the wolves and monitoring did little good in the grand scheme of things.  Collin had firsthand experience with their ferocity. Through some interrogations, they had learned of a rogue pack forming. Collin, along with several other hunters, believed they needed to eliminate the so-called pack before it could gain momentum. Ezekiel had said it was none of their concern and most of the leaders of the base had agreed with him.

Now Collin didn't know if he wanted to destroy the rogue base. The faces of the pups popped into his head, followed by Mira's. He gritted his teeth as he slipped back to his bag and stuck his sheathed dagger into the back of his belt.