World Eater: The Hunt

Chapter One

~This is my first story so I apologize for the lazy, amateur writing. I'm doing this for fun, so thanks for stopping by! Constructive criticism is appreciated immensely. I will be constantly editing each chapter, as nothing is ever perfect.~

They say keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Little did we know that our enemy had taken that quite literally, and to heart. As hunters, we had become the hunted. And none of us knew until it was too late. While we learned from one another, so did the enemy; we might as well had written all our secrets down in a book. We had travelled for a nearly a month, facing dangerous creatures and untamed elementals, to kill the World Eater. We had trained our whole lives to do this. And it was all for nothing.

Because the World Water was with us all along.

~

The incessant ticking of the clock on the wall was the only indication that time was actually passing by. I found myself looking down at my leather-bound book about elementals more than once to suppress the boredom that was slowly sinking in. My hands shook as I turned the pages, trying to study. For once, I had a difficult time focusing on the words in front of me. The letter signed from the Grandhunter that I had received earlier today brought back anxiety that I had managed to get rid of years ago.

I glanced at a small golden picture frame on the desk in front of me. From the angle I was looking at it, it was a picture of a blonde girl, most likely the Grandhunter’s daughter. I focused back on my book as if I was afraid the girl in the picture would pop out, but then closed it at the sound of a black cat meowing. The cat, perched on the windowsill in front of me, gazed, unblinking, at me with its yellow eyes. The cat purred as if accepting me, and then it leapt off the sill and into the back room where no one was permitted.  I had a hunch the feline was a shifter because it gave off a weird, peculiar vibe. Before I could wonder more about it, the door to the office creaked open. Just like I rehearsed in my mind a hundred times, I immediately stood up and straightened my back to greet the Grandhunter, the one in charge of Hunters’ Academy. I prayed I wasn’t sweating.

He was clad in black armor but his head was concealed within a gray hood, our school’s main colors. All I could see of the Grandhunter was a pair of scrutinizing green eyes. I subconsciously gulped; I was in the presence of the greatest and oldest hunter the world has ever seen. He was nearly 500 years old but, from the collection of portraits, he didn’t look older than forty. “Alexander,” he greeted with a grunt, and then motioned to my armchair. “Sit.”

Wordlessly, I obeyed and the butterflies in my stomach tripled in numbers. The Grandhunter gradually took a seat in what looked to be the arms of a great, golden eagle. His chair was so massive that it gave off an immense shadow which swallowed most of the red rug. I already felt small and insignificant.

“You’re nervous,” the Grandhunter pointed out as he opened a small notebook on his granite desk. I instantly cursed in my head. Was it that obvious? After folding his hands together and leaning forward, he added, “Relax, I have nothing but good news.” With that, I breathed a long, sigh of relief, and I relaxed my hunched shoulders. So this wasn’t about the bathroom incident yesterday.

The Grandhunter leaned back in his eagle-formed chair. “You’ve been chosen as a hunter,” he declared, simply. Before I could open my mouth, he continued on. “Your grades have exceeded even the top students that are years ahead of you. You’re smart, you know how to handle yourself in tricky situations, and I’ve watched you in Speech class. Your words are powerful and you’re able to hold the room on your own. I’m impressed.”

The butterflies were gone but a new type of feeling settled in my stomach. I gripped the right armrest of my chair to steady myself from the sudden news. Of all the silly conclusions I came up with about me being summoned to Grandhunter’s office, me being promoted to a hunter hadn’t even crossed my mind. I felt a rush of pride, but also fear. Only hunters could go on the Hunt to kill the new World Eater, but for that, you had to trek to the Other Side where it crawled with the Untamed, monsters, and fiends. Only the brave and skilled could become a hunter, and I didn’t consider myself either of those things.