Relic

Chapter 4 - Sai

'Calum' I thought to myself, what a strange name.

I had never heard it before. The significance of ones name is so important to the people of Arcan and it made me wonder who this boy really was. Choosing your own name is the only real freedom allowed to you in this new world. Everything else is decided for you. People don't  tend to share the meanings behind their names, I only knew the meaning behind one, the fair skinned boy Lukas. He explained it to me one day in a sparring session, he had managed to pin me, which not many people did, because I expected him to be weak, not 'evolved' because of his skin. He said to me that he chose it because everyone looked at him to be a failed experiment, destined to die. He didn't want his skin to be a sign of weakness, he wanted to embrace it because he wanted to survive.

'Lukas means Light'  he told me, 'they look at me and see nothing but light skin, but light is important, light allows you to see the world clearly, with open eyes.' 

I guess I didn't understand the importance of the name, as I didn't live his life. After this week he may not even have a life to live, the hunting grounds show no mercy, he may die, he may not. We will see. 

Speaking of the hunting grounds, I had officially entered, I could not see the archway or any of the wall behind me, it had grown dark and the moon was peering through the gaps in the trees lighting scattered pathways. The ground was cluttered in leaves that crunched under my feet, I could see other patched of broken leaves surrounding my feet, a telltale sign of the others who had entered in the past few days, fresh leaves had yet to fall, showing the paths they had taken clearly. If Calum found his way here he would be able to track me just by footprints alone, I had to think of a strategy fast.

It wasn't until I started contemplating ways to disguise my footprints that I noticed the dull hunger rolling around in my stomach. The ache in my legs had worsened from my determined walking all day. I knew I needed to rest, It was nightfall which ideally was the best time to move from place to place undetected, but maybe not this night. Maybe this night I could get some sleep and look at my problems through fresh eyes.  This in itself created a new problem, I had to find my own food and water, tonight. Though I had been trained to do so this was the first time I really put it into practice. 

Every single person gets a weapon of their choice to take into the hunting grounds, whether fluent with a mace, or axe or any number of weapons, most students opted for blade, something sharp that can be wielded with power, I learnt early on, that I was aflluent with anything that can be thrown. Lukas and I were the only two that opted for this style of hunting, Lukas becoming a master of the Kunai while my weapon of choice was the Sai, my sharpened charcoal black Sai were slung around my waist. I had an attatchment to them, the name alone brought a smirk to my lips, they are not weapons that are usually thrown, nor the most deadly weapon. But with their sharpened points and enough practice I turned them into something to be feared.

I was sure footed as I reached for the nearest tree branch an began climbing, I was looking for a vantage point to give myself as much vision as possible. I broke through the line of trees and could see tops of trees illuminated by the waxing moon. Beyond a few meteres all I could see was drakness, if seeing darkness could really be counted as 'seeing'. I listened to the soft chirps and whispers passing on the wind, the wildlife thrived in this vast expanse of land, left free to roam as they please. We maintained our own farms within our homes, but the main export of farming came from Division 4, they had the largest greenhouse, the largest collection of animals. The animals in the hunting ground only had to fear the 350 people that passed through a year, and only 125 of those would make it out alive. There was usually only about 30 people in the grounds at a single time, depending on how the long the hunt was.

I began carefully slipping between trees, this was a good way to mask my footprints until the trees thinned and became to dangerous or too high to move through, but it made it more difficut to track because I could easily miss so much. I was roaming for about an hour before I saw anything of use, I spotted tracks on the ground below, deer, about half an hour old heading towards a small clearing just shy of here. As I neared the clearing I silently began walking, keeping in the shadows and moving against the wind, so my scent was not blown in their direction. I spotted them and slid behind a bush. I noticed one Deer slept a bit away from the rest of the herd, his leg sticking out awkwardly as if it was injured. That was my target. Creeping slowly around the clearing making sure to stay hidden I reached the bush parralell with the sleeping Deer. I reached for my Sai and lined up a shot to pierce its neck, the Sai were slower to be thrown then most other throwing knives because this wasnt their purpose, but they were still deadly. This shot needed to be perfect, I inched forward just a step, pushing through the bushes careful to be as quiet as possible. I heard a soft growl from behind, I turned around startled and found myself face to face with a monstrous grey Wolf.