The World Divider

Chapter Two

      As they ran from the town, the little halfling and the human, they went through the forest. Though the creatures of the forest can be more deadly, they were less likely to get caught going through the forest than traveling on the roads. The majority of their travels were quiet, both of danger and of conversation. The only thing Bee had to hear was his own thoughts. The questions he constantly asked himself kept him on his toes. Is there danger around this bush? Why did Beln risk going to prison to save me? Will we be attacked tonight? Where's the next town? Will a guard venture into the forest and find us? How deep in the forest are we? How long has it been since we left? These questions never stopped coming to Bee's  mind.

      During the nights when Bee could see the sky through the trees, he spent hours staring at the stars. He wondered why they shined so bright, where they were, but  most importantly to him could one of the stars be his mother. His mother died during his birth, and his father couldn't bear it, so as soon as Bee was old enough to think for himself, his father took his own life, leaving Bee on his own. He had to name himself, teach himself the skills necessary for life, and form who his is meant to be. For him, it was troublesome, he never knew his mother, but knew his father good enough to know he wasn't a good man. His father would beat him and blame him for his mother's death, and did strange rituals after nightfall. His father's death didn't come as a surprise. His father had stabbed himself through the chest for some ritual that required a live sacrifice. Whatever it was, it doesn't seem like it worked.

      Bee's life had been good up until now, running away from his hometown as a criminal. By now they should have noticed his disappearance and posted his wanted posters. For him, it'd be better to reach a town soon. He needs to get new clothes and some coin. Food also seems to be running a little short, even with harvesting from the plants.

      A couple more days passed and the frequency of forest critters started to lower, berry bushes had less and less berries on them, and there started to be a chill in the air. At night, the grass seemed to be getting a little frosted. Bee couldn't believe it was almost time for the frost to claim the lands. This wouldn't be good for them unless they found a town soon. But Bee's hope has also been declining with the weather.

      Almost a whole ten-day passed before they say the signs of something big. Beln first noticed the tracks of the animal, and warned Bee of the danger. It could be a bear or something far worse. The continued in the direction of the tracks, in hopes of finding the animal and possibly having some fresh meat for dinner. Their food supply has been so infrequent that the food they gather now is used up all in the same day, and the water has become increasingly more dirty and unhealthy. The tracks they followed didn't lead them to any better circumstances. The water went from unhealthy to increasingly stagnant, and the berries weren't there anymore, freshly eaten off the bushes. There were critters, but only the corpses. The rabbits they found were headless and didn't have a stomach. The foxes were torn to shreds. The wolves were the most gruesome, having their entire skeletal system torn from inside their bodies and thrown aside. The rest of the wolf corpses weren't there, the flesh and meat were gone, whether the bones were picked dry by scavengers or the creature they are following is unknown. What is known is that the creature won't go down without a fight, and the fight won't be easy.

      By the time they caught up to the creature, nearly two ten-days after the start of the hunt, frost had claimed the land. The creature that they have been hunting has led them to a cave. Beln knew it would be dangerous to storm it, and throwing in fire would scare it out and make the fight easier, but in the frost, making a fire isn't easy. So he had to get creative to attract the creature out. In the days that followed, Beln was making strategies and weapons. He constructed tents, sleeping bags, and cloaks out of the fur of the creatures that hunted them so they could keep warm. He created nearly a hundred arrows and two quivers which to hold the arrows, and two bows, a bow for Bee to practice shooting arrows and a better bow for his weapon to kill the beast. It is evident to Beln now that the creature they have been hunting is a creature unlike they've ever seen and they will need to deal as much pain on it as they can. So the more they practice, the better they get, the better chances they'll have.

      Beln is only able to teach Bee how to hold and shoot a bow with good precision before he deemed it time to strike the beast. The frost is starting to come off the plants, warmth is coming back, slowly. The beast will soon wake and kill them if they don't strike first. So they went to strike. With the frost coming off the ground, a fire is easier to be made now, so Beln creates and fire and throws it into the cave. They wait for what felt like forever but only lasted a couple minutes. Then, as if out of no where, an owl-bear runs out of the cave, ready for a fight. Beln and Bee were waiting on either side of the cave, so when the owl-bear came out they shot at it surprising the creature. They were able to get two shots each on the owl-bear before it chose who to go after. Bee. Once Beln saw the owl-bear run after Bee he shouted "Run!" And took off after the owl-bear shooting it with more arrows as he got closer. Bee immediately started running, he put his bow around him so he didn't have to carry it as he ran. Bee ran far and fast, he didn't know where to go so he just ran in one direction, going over and around as many obstacles as possible to slow down the owl-bear's pursuit. He found the tree line and ran past it into a clearing. The clearing had a bunch of stones in it. So, as is Bee's natural instinct, he ran behind a stone and hide.

      Beln was able to shot the owl-bear in the leg and stop it's advance on Bee. He stabbed it in the head with a bow and made no attempt to scavenge its corpse. He just stood there, looking at the strange beast that has an owl head and the body of a bear, he deduced it must be the outcome of a failed experiment. But what experiment and how did it get loose? Beln didn't spend much time pondering this, for he needed to get to Bee. He ran the way Bee ran, the same direction, over the same path, and out of the same tree line to the same clearing covered in stones. Beln stopped. He scanned the horizon and saw two small towns. He walked down through the stones, looking behind each one, until he found Bee and said to him "I've killed the foul creature, it look half owl and half bear."

      Bee was more concerned with other things. "I want to find civilization." Unknown to Bee, Beln found their new towns. All Beln did was pull Bee up and showed him the towns in the horizon. For the first time in a single season Bee was filled with hope. He had his own bow, a fur cloak to keep him warm, a fur sleeping bag and a fur tent for the night, and a goal for him to head to. He and Beln headed out to the town to their right, the closer of the two, without any idea of what was happening there at that this time.