Chương 100: Two-And-A-Half-Years-old (1) Hunting In The Morning

Ah! Life! You know how it is, rain, rain, more rain, and a waterfall of corpses behind me. Well. That's not exactly a waterfall, nor is it corpses? Well, can you count animals as corpses? My mind ponder on that thought for a while. Are dead animals corpses? I feel like there's a special word for dead animal? Something like... carcass? My bolt explodes out of my crossbow impaling a falcon that was passing beside me, it was pretty high, flying close to high branches from the trees that remains around the crater.

But unfortunately for it. I was pretty high too, my soles sticking to a branch, it's not even bothered by my baby weight, nor does it seems bothered by the fact that I'm UPSIDE down, my soles sticking, keeping me standing on it's bottom side as if gravity didn't exist. Gravity seems to have a problem with it but I'm fuckin spiderman so it won't do shit in the end. Thinking about my new kill, I move away, not my first kill today, it's like... the twelfth? How do these fuckers struggle with food for fuck sake?

Makes no sense. Sliding while pondering how weak my village hunters are, I fall. Well. Falling is a big word. In reality, I stepped on the branch, sliding until I was over it, then reached the trunk, pushed my foot against it, transformed my entire body into an arrow, arms tight against my body and all, gathered as much speed as possible, slid off the branch, and jumped off. Yes. I jumped off. That's a better word. And yes. Right now, I'm mid air.

Crossbow sticking in my right hand, cloak trailing behind me as rain falls while I plummet toward the ground. But I also plummet forward. Forward enough for my left hand to brush against a high branch of a tree and before a second even passed, my entire body is hanging from my left arm. It sticks. It grips, and make sure to slide upward, following the momentum and not letting me be still for a single second, I cannot, otherwise my shoulder is going to pop out from it's socket. And that's bad.

You don't want your shoulder to pop out of it's socket. Redirecting the momentum with a spin of death, it sends me turning around the branch fast enough for my vision to get blurry. Or at least it would have if I wasn't already gone. The second my feet went above the branch, WHILE my body was spinning around this branch like it's a pole, the second it happened, the second my legs were above it. I let go of the branch. My entire body flew up with the same momentum I previously gathered.

My right foot found the tree trunk. And I started sliding. Upward. Against gravity. My body only stopping when the impaled falcon was in front of me. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Like a drift car putting on the brakes, my entire body jerks forward, but with one hand on the trunk and my entire body moving like a wave to absorb the momentum and not hurt my baby body, everything is fine. And I find myself cornering a dying falcon. My bolt still inside it's gut. Well.

That should do it for today. Grabbing the bolt with one hand. The other hanging on my side, my two legs single handedly keeping me up on the tree with their stickyness. I pull the bolt. This. Is still hard. No matter how much I'm used to do it, taking back my bolt is always the hardest part of hunting It's because it's absolute strength. I can cheat when weaving through the trees.

By sliding, sticking, and jumping, weaving through momentum and just push through any obstacles that needs strength with pure explosivity. But this kind of thing? Where I just need to hold something and pull it as hard as I can? It's hell. I can cheat a bit for sure. But it's still hell. My hand sticks against the bolt making sure it won't leave as I start falling. Yes. I start falling. You heard me. Again. I start falling. My entire body weightless. But only for less than a second. For less than a second.

Standing on a tree trunk, back rounded to grab the bolt, my soles stopped gripping the wood and gravity took me back. But it was only to give me enough time to do something. Jump. The second my soles stopped gripping the trunk. My two legs SLAMMED against the tree as I did my best to jump off it, to fly away on the opposite direction. Then. My feet stuck again.

And the entire jumping momentum and strength went through my body, that danced around it, gathering the energy until the only one without any defense took all of it. This poor little bolt took all of it. It resists for a slight second before giving up and I'm sent barelling backward, back arching, neck arched to look behind me as I stand on a tree horizontallly, bloody bolt in my hand. The body of the falcon falls beneath me.

And with another trick I figured out those last few months, I use my arms and EXPLODE, twisting on myself for exactly a single turn before my feet sticks too hard for me to keep turning on myself. And just like that. I went from looking up at the sky, to looking down at a dying bird on the ground. Figured out some good tricks for sure, that's one of the first trick I figured out to be honest. Letting myself slide down the trunk, wind brushes against me as I go from standing still, to rollercoaster speed.

As I fall, my hand comes up, put the deadly bolt between my elbow pit, my cloak covering it, and with no care about how fast my baby body is hurling toward the ground. I clean it. Wiping the blood on my cloak, making sure none stick to the bolt, wouldn't really want to damage it. I've lost some bolts those last few months, don't want to lose another one-The second my body slams on the ground, something that isn't baby minced meat happen. I push against the tree. Jump off. Roll on the ground.

And my entire falling momentum get transformed into sliding momentum. For a moment I slide on my back before pushing myself up and sliding away. Putting the bolt back in my cloak pockets, my head turns around to give a look at the dead falcon. That's a problem. My grandfather is aware of my hunting activities. Well, that's what I heard in youta's office. And he doesn't know who killed all those animals. But he still knows something weird is happening. That's why I didn't want to hunt months ago.

Focused on magic training. But, for a lot of reasons, like my pain growing, and my desire to improve my aim, I figured out a way to hunt again. It's not a really really crazy way to be honest. But it shifts all the blame away from me. Putting both fingers into my mouth, I take a BIG BIG breath, and then. I whistle. For an entire second. The forest get silent. This part of the forest is safer than most.

It's still pretty deep into it, as it's on the side of the crater instead of in front, but a good amount of the animal population here got annihilated, still, a good other portion survived, that's why this forest still look like a forest. And this forest. Is always pretty silent. Every prey and predator tries their best to be silent, to avoid trouble. It's silent. Everyone does their best to keep themselves in bushes, or in ravines, or close to the trees, to ambush each other.

Everyone hold their breath, nobody screams, that's the official rule of the forest everyone understand and need to understand if they don't want to end up as a meal. Today. I broke this rule. Like everyday. I whistle so fucking hard every animal that survived can definetly hear me..... And me? I continue to slide, holding a crossbow with one hand. Here. That should be enough for him to find the carcass and take care of it.

Looking down at my crossbow while waving between trees at a ridiculous speed, I wonder if I should put another bolt in it, but then I'll need to gather back momentum... And I have a good momentum now. I've been trying to reload my crossbow while sliding but... no luck, not strong enough, and not stable enough. Maybe I can try ag-! With more instincts than anything, my entire body lowers itself down until my knees brush against the ground, the sound of a jaw clenching down just beside my ear makes me look backward.

Giant. Green. Bursting out of foliage, a pattern hiding it's movement from prey when rain fall, sharp pointy fangs coming down and hissing at me as I slide away. Huh. First time I see a giant serpent.