Mortal Magic: Broken (Book 1)

11. Third Party

The next morning we got up before sunrise just like we said we would and we got ready to depart. Yuto made sure to get some money by finding some of the herbs the shopkeeper that made the mana potions wanted and as a bonus he also gave him some potions that were used for muscle relaxation and for dampening the senses in case of a painful injury.

We made sure to not wake Maia up and left her house just before dawn with the hoods of our cloaks on. It was satisfying to be able to move as much as you want and not be bedridden all the time. After we left the village limits I couldn't take it anymore and just run until I felt I needed to take a break and Yuto was right behind me laughing at my stupidity as he called it.

A few hours later and we could no longer see any kind of manmade structure, only the vast expanses of the plains and far, far away what appeared to be the beginnings of a forest. It took us until noon to actually come close to the forest and now that we were at its edge I could see that it stretched as far as the eye could see. I wouldn't be surprised if it started and ended with the plains themselves, and it was just as big as them or even greater as a forest.

I was familiar with the life in a forest. I lived in a village inside a great forest 5 years ago so this was nothing new to me. The trees were as big as the coliseum itself, more than a hundred feet tall and old as at least two generations like huge pillars as far as the eye could see and then some. The intoxicating smell of the earth and the sound of the birds sitting high on the tree branches were as relaxing as I remembered. It felt peaceful here, like everything else could be postponed for a few hours. Even if I knew that the only way for me to rest was to finish what I intend to do.

Soon I heard Yuto's stomach growl in hunger and I suppressed a laugh only because I was hungry myself and the act would backfire at me. "I guess I should have bought some bread at the very least before we departed". True he should have thought about it but I was not better myself. If it was up to me I probably wouldn't have been able to even find the information I needed, much less prepare for the journey ahead. "Stop whining. We are in a forest full of life and any animal can sustain us. We need only find an animal and we have ourselves a meal. Besides I was a hunter in a forest much like this one before remember? Hunting is one of my specialties".

We left the deviated from the path only a bit and then I told Yuto to gather wood and gather some wood for a fire. "Why? I have all the fire someone can need". He did not understand why I asked and frankly I didn't have the patience to teach a fire magus the importance of using natural fire to cook since it would need the appropriate temperature and time for the meat to cook properly. No magus can concentrate long enough to slowly cook a rabbit or a deer if that was what I returned with and he would simply end up either burning the food or not cooking it well enough. I left without explaining though with only a glare of warning that he seemed to understand for his sake.

I wandered for about half an hour until I found the first signs of my pray. I stumbled upon the footprints of a deer but the multiple variations in size told me that it was more of a herd than a lone deer in the forest. Following the trail for a few minutes I found that it was indeed a deer herd feeding of the sparse grass and the bushes they found. They were twenty in total, more than half of them male from the looks of the huge horns they donned on their heads. One of them stood out as it was the only one that was looking vigilant and cautious as it ate its share of the wild.

I was about to make my decision and kill one of the males as the females were less and they would be needed later when I saw a one of them wandering off the herd in search of more food perhaps. It was one of the somewhat younger males, its horns big but not huge like the others and body slightly smaller than theirs. If I killed one of the big ones it would be an even bigger waste, so I decided to stick with this one instead. I followed it further from the herd and when I we were far enough I made a dagger projection above its head and was ready to fire when I saw two relatively big hares in the distance. They were slightly smaller than the one in the plains and they had a brownish fur instead of light gray and they were eating side by side what little grass they could find.