The Hunt

I walked through the trees. The birds chirped happily as the wind rustled the trees. My steps were quiet as I walked deeper into the vast forest that separated the kingdom from the ocean. As I walked I thought about all the bad, terrible things I’d done during my seventeen years of life. They were all nothing compared to what I did that brought me here.

I stopped walking. Something wasn’t right; it was quiet. The birds had stopped chirping. I turned around just in time to see an arrow whiz past my head. The Hunter! He found me! I ran off to my right in a zigzag pattern so he doesn’t have clear shot. I could hear him running after me. I saw the river up ahead and when I reached it, I jumped across then started running up the other side. There’s a waterfall up ahead. If I can just get there before the Hunter shoots me, I’ll be able to get away.

Another arrow zooms past me. The Hunter followed me across the river. I hear the roar of the waterfall as it nears. I say a quick prayer and jump diagonally back across the river. I spin around to see the hunter’s face. He’s wearing bandana that cover almost all of his face but I see his bright blue eyes. I widen my eyes shock and he aims an arrow for my heart. I jump backwards off the cliff and into the deep pools below, of course being the only thought running through my head.

I come for and immediately dove back down. The Hunter can’t know I survived the jump, yet.  I swim towards the waterfall then jumped through it. I learn on my first hunting trip with my dad that there’re caves behind the waterfalls.

In this one, there’re three caves that run deep. In fact, they seem to go on forever. Then there’re two small caves that are just big enough to hold five people. In one of the small caves there’s a ledge just above eye level. On that ledge is my bow and quiver of arrows. I go to that cave which is to the right of the waterfall. I grab my bow and the quiver and wait for the Hunter.

*******

My father splashed some water, from the creek, onto his face, and then looked off into the distance. “Is something wrong, Dad?” I asked.

“Now that your seventeen, Zeb, there’s some things you have to know about the kingdom we live in. The first is that this kingdom was ruled by kind man, a man who cared about his people. He was killed in his sleep by his sleep by his Grand Advisor, the man he trusted most. The Grand Advisor was a cruel man who only cared about power and money and he passed his cruelty down to his descendants.

I looked at my father with wide eyes. “But they told the king was kind I school.”

“They lied,” my father replied. “The second thing is the king was your great, great-grandfather.” When he saw the astonished look on my face he said, “Yes, you have royal blood running through your veins. The last thing is-, “he just stopped and stared into my green eyes, the same eyes he has.

“Yes, Dad?” I encouraged.

Still staring in my eyes he said, “The guards will come for me. They’ll probably take your mother too.”

“What? Why?” I shouted.

My father put his hands on my shoulders in an attempt to calm me down. “They know your mother and I know the truth and they’re afraid we’ll tell someone. Like you and you need to know the truth before they come. You need to use this information.” He stopped and waited for me to calm down. When I had, he said, “When the guards come you must protect Maria. The guards can’t have her. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I said.

The guards came that night. I awoke to them breaking down the door. I heard the bed creak in my parent room. My father must have woken up as well. I hard their door fling open, then my father said, “I’ll come willingly as long as you don’t hurt anyone.”