Chapter 15: First hunt
Leo thought that he had mistaken what Natalie had told him and could only say,
"What?" Natalie smiled as she looked at him and said,
"We're going on a hunt, and you're coming with us. While you seem to be able to use the basics of chi, that means you should be able keep up. You'll follow us while we hunt, and observe so that you know what a hunt entails. Your first kill will wait until the day before the full moon." Leo was excited to venture out of the village for a while, but something Natalie said caught his attention.
"Why wait specifically until the full moon?" Natalie arched an eyebrow at his question and then sent a look at Iris, who then quickly looked away. Sighing, Natalie explained,
"The full moon is the night of the goddess of the hunts full power. In order to appease the goddess, when someone hunts for the first time they offer up the heart of the kill to her on the night of the full moon. The fresher the kill the better. It's said that by doing the offering, the goddess will bless the hunter. While ignoring the goddess or providing an old offering, will invoke her wrath." While Leo heard it he nodded his head to indicate he understood, but secretly thought such traditions were foolish.
He didn't believe the gods existed, and therefore there was no need to go out of your way to honor them. He however didn't say this, due to the fact that since there was magic in this world there might actually be gods as well. He figured better safe than needlessly provoking things he shouldn't. (When A certain goddess of the hunt heard his thoughts, she actually started laughing out loud) so gathering the equipment he was loaned, he followed Iris, Natalie, and the rest of the hunters out of the village.
They ran about halfway down the path leading down the mountain, before coming to a rope ridge. The bridge went from the path, to a platform hidden in the trees. The trees were the same ones Leo had seen on his first day, that looked as if they could even dwarf the famous red woods. After reaching the platform however, things got interesting. The rest of the hunters started taking different directions, while Natalie and Iris stayed with Leo, soon they were the only ones left. Leo was watching in amazement as he watched the other hunters leap away from the platform, and they used chi to travel from tree to tree through the forest.
Natalie then gestured to follow her, and leaped from the platform to another tree. Iris soon followed, leaving Leo to take the rear. Leo looked down and felt dizzy, before shaking his head and powering his legs with chi like he had been taught; he jumped to land on the branch next to Iris. He thought he had done well, until he soared over the branch and had to catch hold of one of the lower branches from the next tree to keep from falling. Hanging from the branch Leo called out,
"A little help please!" Giggling uncontrollably, Iris jumped to the branch Leo was on and pulled him up. While sitting on the branch Leo tried to catch his breath from the thrill of what he just experienced. Natalie joined them a moment later, and while Iris was still giggling at Leo's mishap; flicked her on the forehead. Iris quickly stopped giggling and started rubbing her forehead, telling leo Natalie must have used chi when flicking her. She then said,
"Truthfully not bad, you somewhat managed to recover before falling. And you over jumped which showed you had the power, just not control. That's what we're here for. Instead of just using chi for training, you need to apply it out here where you'll actually be hunting. Traveling through the tree tops and searching for prey on the forest floor. Jumping from branch to branch will soon be second nature to you." As Leo heard her lecture he slowly understood. He had been brought here half to experience a real hunt, and half to learn how to travel the woods.
After being sure Leo understood her, Natalie took off again while Iris followed behind. Leo took the rear again, but because the jumps weren't as drastic as the first one he was able to make them. As they went further and further, the movements got more and more extreme. While Leo struggled to keep up, he happened to notice that both Iris and Natalie were scanning the forest floor for game while moving. After a few hours of moving with occasional breaks for Leo, Natalie suddenly stopped and held up a fist saying to stop moving and keep silent.
Leo crept forward, and became amazed at what he saw. There in front of them was what seemed like a herd of deer, except they standing ten feet tall before getting to the antlers. Their fur was a light silver on the head working its way down until reaching behind the shoulders; then it turned to a darker brown. The most amazing part though, was the antlers. They appeared to be living tree branches complete with leaves growing on them. He watched in amazement as the herd continued walking, completely unaware of them. Seeing him stare in wonder, Natalie then said,
"These are stag lords. We call them so due to the antlers looking like crowns, they are the most common game we hunt. One stag lord could feed a single family for over a month, while several could feed the entire village." Leo watched as Natalie drew an arrow, and nocked it while drawing and taking aim. He wondered how she planned to make the shot, as his experience told him they were well out of range. But as if sensing his thoughts,
"When using chi, not only could you add power to the arrow; you can even use it to take control and guide it while also increasing the range. The only impossible shot, is the one you don't take." While he was contemplating her words, she loosed the arrow. Leo watched as it flew silently through the air and buried itself in the eye of the largest stag lord. And before they could react, she drew another arrow, and released. Taking another one through its eye as well. Leo watched amazed. He had missed the first shot, but on the second he noticed a kind of pale light covering the arrow.
The remaining stag lords then darted off in the bushes. A moment later however Leo was wondering how they were going to move the two stag lords, when Natalie removed a whistle from her pack. Putting it to her mouth, she blew into it creating a high pitched sound throughout the forest. Soon the other hunters appeared and started working on cleaning the kills. She then lept down with Leo and Iris, and Leo learned how to clean a kill, before being given an entire leg to carry back to the village.
And so ended his first hunting trip. As the next two weeks went by, he joined the hunters every day. Either just patrolling for any abnormal monsters, or checking snares for small prey. And day by day Leo's chi control got better, until finally it was the day before the full moon; and Leo would never forget the day's events.
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