章 4: Eyes In The Forest
"Please let me out of here I won't do it again please, I've been hearing strange noises from the forest, please let me out!"
The second day of his punishment, Bigura is already losing his mind. The terrifying atmosphere of the dense night, the warm and the moist afternoon sun is getting to his head. He is not doing well outside of the uncomfortable environment, he's been pleading non-stop from the patrol guardians who were just passing by. The plantsman who is in charge of fertilizing today excused himself from his job cause of Bigura's incessant pleading. Bigura's mom became worried so she sent his little brother Gengje to look after his big brother all day.
"Here's some water mom told me to give you some"
Bigura sucked the water skin dry from Gengje's hands.
"Where's mom? Please tell them to let me out or tell the chief please"
"I'm sorry brother It's my fault you're stuck here, don't worry about that guy I should be the one to fight my own battles"
"I don't care about him just let me out of here"
Bigura's terrified out of his mind pleading to be free, most of the people that interacted with him thinks he's just overreacting and just want to be freed from this humiliation. Bigura continued his prattling about his imaginary fear.
"Last night I've been hearing something moving in the forest I dare not make a sound all night. Please, Gengje let me out of here I don't know what will happen to me. I feel like there is a beast lurking in the forest and it'll eventually notice me. Tell mom and dad about it please"
"Brother don't worry you've protected me all this time I'll be the one to protect you now I'll kill those mean beast for you"
"No Gengje don't-"
Gengje sprinted off into the direction of the forest leaving him alone in the ground no one was around to hear him scream for Gengje to comeback. Bigura has been shouting for hours the sun is hours away from sinking. Someone from behind is approaching Bigura, a faint mumble is heard from Bigura's exhausted mouth.
"Help... Gengje.. Forest.."
"Where is Gengje?"
"Forest ran off"
Bigura forced words out of his dry and damaged throat, Sage quickly responded to his plea and immediately ran to the chief informing him of Bigura's condition and the situation of his brother.
"Chief Gengje is in trouble he's gone into the forest"
"How did it happen?"
"I don't know, Bigura's throat has been damaged he must've been screaming all day trying to find help from anyone nearby but no one else is around until I came"
"Alright I'll visit their house and see if he's there but if he's not I'll form a search party of guardians to look for him"
Sage was already itching to go into the forest to save Gengje, after they briefed each other of the situation Sage quickly walked away to Bigura's direction but the Chief grabbed him midway.
"Where do you think you're going? I know you'll go off and search for him yourself. It's too dangerous to go alone wait for the guardians by Bigura"
Sage nodded and had gone to Bigura with water shortly after talking to the chief. Sage was not dumb enough to charge into the unknown forest he knows how powerless he is right now.
"Here's some water drink up"
Bigura gulped the whole bag of water canteen dry.
"You must've dried your mouth with all that shouting. Don't worry we'll look for Gengje with the other guardians"
Tears were crawling down from the loving brother's eyes.
"So you're the kid the chief was talking about"
Four people emerged from behind them they all look strong.
"So we'll babysit a kid while searching for another?"
A muscular guy broke the ice towering over Sage, a long red head with its hair pulled back, sporting a leather armor that guardians wear bulging with his muscular body standing like a wall and at his back is a greatsword.
"Don't scare the kid Warder he only wants to help his friend"
A charismatic man with a mustard colored bandana told Warder off, he's the leader of the pack. He's carrying a bow and arrow wearing the same leather armor as the rest of them. Fairly built, his voice and his body language speaks like a veteran on the battlefield. The bandana guy walked closer to Sage.
"I apologize for Warder's behavior he was always the irritable type. I'm David by the way and that thin pale man holding a spear is Detman"
The thin pale man sporting the guardian attire with thin hair hugging the crome of his head. He's holding a short spear with a long blade but with a short handle half of what should be the considered a standard spears length. He stared at Sage with his icy grin.
"The other one by Bigura the lady holding a spiked club is Armin"
The girl was squatting down with what looks like an oni's club behind her back, a beautiful woman that has no signs of femininity in her movements. A perfect balance of masculine behavior and feminine appearance.
"You lil' shit who told you to attack a small kid!"
Armin's exuding an oni aura upon bigura while gripping his cheeks.
"I'm sorry sis Armin I'll never do it again please save my brother"
"Yeah yeah we'll find that runt for ya but we have to find him soon the sun is already setting, Which direction did the kid go?"
"He ran towards that direction"
Sage answered Armin's question pointing to a certain direction of the forest.
"How did you know he went that direction? You weren't here when he ran off earlier"
Bigura asked, puzzled as to how Sage knew the direction he went.
"I scanned the surrounding area earlier, I saw broken branches on the ground accompanied with footprints and slight carvings on the trees. The kid is smart by marking the trees he passed by, the height of the markings confirms it"
"Well, well, well, we got ourselves an aspiring hunter, where did you learn how to track like that?"
"I've been hunting as a pastime"
Armin questioned him not as much as interested but more amused for a kid who thinks he's a hunter, Warder followed up.
"What do you hunt? squirrels? HAHAHAHAHA"
"No, I hunt wild boars and occasionally shelled osprays"
"Those annoying birds? Is that why there are no reports of them attacking recently? You must be a living scarecrow then"
David pleased with Sage he's easily impressed by little things.
"Then It's no problem if you lead us to Gengje right kid?"
The silent Detman provoked him with a hint of insecurity, in Detman's mind the kid was only showing off because Armin was there. The three of them nodded their head in unison thinking he just a kid that only want to show off. Sage then headed to the forest without hesitation with them following him, every sure sign of a human is scanned and explained to the four guardians as they progress along.
They haven't gotten much further, yet the markings on the trees have been longer as they follow. The gaps of the markings is progressively getting wider of each other indicating that Gengje was in a hurry, the crude marks indicates he has no time to make a decent mark on the trees as he passed by. Sage picked up the pace, soon he immediately noticed a different set of tracks on the ground not a human print but a four-legged paw print of unknown identity the marking of the footprints indicates they were running. It was at most six four-legged animal he identifies.
"I think Gengje might be in trouble I see tracks the size of a large dog over his, how many they are after him is around eight"
"Then we have to go, come on kid lead the way"
Warder shouted at Sage as they saw the situation has become dire than they'd thought, Sage has beads of sweat coming down on his forehead the four of them saw Sage freaking out fanning his face like a nervous wreck. David stepped up and touched Sage's shoulders trying to comfort Sage of the situation.
"Get a hold of yourself kid calm down so we can find Gengje faster"
"Yeah runt I'll slice them up with my greatsword so you don't have to worry about the dogs"
"Shut up period blood. I'm not freaking out I'm searching for Gengje's scent, the number of pursuers is overshadowing his smell right now meaning they are already near each other"
"Are you a dog or something?"
Armin remarks doubtful of Sage's nose, Sage then pointed to a direction that might lead to Gengje. Warder was unfazed by Sage's disrespect to a senior let alone calling his hair period blood. Sage sprinted to the direction of the scent of Gengje the guardians followed. They inevitably meet with three four-legged creatures walking around the area.
"It's a Rock Tongue Hound be careful don't get close they can propel their hard tongues at you like blunt harpoons. They are not threatened yet and some of them are still not located be careful, Armin, Warder charge at them I'll support you from behind Detman guard my back"
The group executed a well-coordinated position thanks to David's leadership and the quick actions of the other members without hesitation, trusting David to have his back shows their camaraderie in fighting. Warder unsheathed his huge greatsword along with Armin and her spiked club facing the three Rock Tongue Hounds the two parties faced each other, one of the beast started growling, then the others followed, the hounds acknowledge them as a threat. Growling at them and staying their ground firmly both of the sides are not taking any actions they stood for a good four minutes, but the stare down moment came to an abrupt stop when an arrow met the mouth of one the beasts. The beast squealed in confusion along with the other two beasts signalling the start of the combat.
"Don't worry boy we've been fending off these types of beasts for many years we know what to do"
David assured Sage thinking a kid like him needs it, but Sage the adult-minded kid let these kinds of statement slip to guard his real identity. The stare down was actually intentional it's to let David aim and get a better shot on one of the beasts to disrupt their tempo after that shot the two guardians quickly lunges to the other enraged beast, the two swung down their weapon but the two beasts were agile enough to dodge.
The two beasts opened their mouths and started their tongue barrage after they've dodged. Warder held his greatsword to block most of the attacks, the other beast started focusing him. While the three beasts were busy attacking Warder an arrow flew again disrupting the beasts tempo again. Now Armin saw this chance and charged at one of the severely injured beasts with a clean hit and finished it off.
"Oh shit I was only aiming to knock it out"
"Everyone close our distance"
David instructed immediately to come closer, the others knew this will happen and instinctively closed the gap even before David said anything. Sage is wondering why they choose to be defensive rather than maintain the flow of attack.
"Why are you suddenly defending, you killed the beast you guys should've continued attacking"
The group shortens their distance with each other while defending from the remaining hounds. Sage's ears picked up a cluster of footsteps, Sage turned his attention 180 degrees south of the battle. It was the same footsteps as the present Hounds.
"Kid the reason we are on the defensive is that we had killed one, killing this beast releases a smell that his kind knows very well and it can act as a beacon for them to gather. We are supposed to just knock it out and carry them far away and execute them so they would not swarm near the village"
David gave a brief explanation of the situation but Sage always gave an unfazed look. The situation may have become problematic but Sage noticed that this is all part of Davids plans, the night is growing dark and the forest clearing they are fighting upon is getting dim this must be Davids plans to lure the hound in this vicinity and kill them as soon as it gets dark, to quickly dispose of them and easily search for Gengje.
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