The Legend of the Hunter
Journey to the Shrine

It had started to rain during the night and it was still pouring when Belac, Lathlin, Talat and the two Hollow People set out on their expedition to their Shrine. Belac had a few misgivings about the entire enterprise, and he was extra careful to position himself next to Lathlin. He found it slightly strange that he was so attracted to the Elfling, as if there were some ancient bond between the two of them. Although he had set out to capture Lathlin, he had somehow become his protector.

He wanted to talk to Lathlin about some of his suspicions, but he first ensured that they were not within earshot of Abyss and Void.

“Lathlin, isn’t it strange that Rhinihr was allowed to leave unharmed? Why didn’t this scum kill him like they killed Talat’s men?” he quietly asked the Elfling once a space had opened up between the Hollow People, who were out in front, and them. Talat made up the rear, as if the Hollow People were daring him to escape, but surprisingly, the Thug followed meekly. Belac reasoned to himself that Talat probably knew he wouldn’t last a minute alone in the Forsaken Forest.

Lathlin was silent for a heartbeat or two, tapping his staff in front of him, before he turned his head slightly towards Belac, a gesture that had now become most familiar to the Hunter.

“Yes, it struck me as odd, too. However, could they not have reasoned that Rhinihr would most likely be killed by some creature or another, seeing that he is not particularly spry or young?” he responded.

“Granted, that could be the case,” Belac conceded, “but what about me? Why leave me alive when it is you they really want? I could only be a threat or disadvantage to them, and we know that their natural instinct is to kill,” the Hunter insisted. He needed to convince Lathlin that they should not trust the Hollow People in the least.

As if reading his mind but most likely reading the colours swirling around the muscular Hunter, Lathlin said, “I do not trust them, friend Hunter. Fear not. I only agreed to go with them because I could see that they were not being false when they told me that they have great need of my healing power. And besides, they already tried to eliminate you,” Lathlin said, confusing Belac slightly.

“They did? When was this?” the Hunter asked.

“Have you forgotten the dreiche?” Lathlin asked rhetorically. “Those creatures were made by the Hollow People for the specific purpose of killing. They are the animal versions of expert assassins,” he concluded.

Not for the first time, Belac cursed his stupidity. He should have figured that out on his own, but maybe he was being too harsh on himself. After all, he thought, he had been seriously injured in that fight.

“And there are more of them roaming this forest. In fact, we have been followed by another pack since we left our camp this morning,” Lathlin calmly revealed.

Talat happened to hear this last bit and spun around quickly in fear and trepidation.

“Relax, Thug,” Belac said drily. “If they had wanted to slay you, you would have been dead meat long ago.”

“How can you be so sure they won’t still attack us? As you said yourself, you and I are expendable. It’s the Elfling these murderers want!” Talat spat angrily.

“I can be sure because I know these dreiche. They are killing machines and the fact that they haven’t attacked us yet means they have been ordered not to do so. And no guesses as to who gave the command,” Belac said and turned back to Lathlin.

“I agree with Belac. We do not need to fear the dreiche … for now. Let us just get to the Shrine and see what the motives of the Hollow People are before we make any assumptions or draw conclusions,” Lathlin advised in his patient manner.

The forest had been alive with background noise – the twitter and tweets of numerous birds; the calls of strange animals; the distant buzzing of a variety of insects – but suddenly, as the path the travellers were on took a downward slope into a shadowy hollow, all sounds ceased. Belac and Lathlin noticed the sudden silence instantly, and both the Hunter and the Elfling’s senses heightened. From the murky forest surrounding them, three dreiche lazily revealed their presence.

“Come, it is not much farther now,” Void beckoned to them, for the three had momentarily frozen in their tracks upon catching sight of the menacing dreiche.

“Don’t mind our pets,” Abyss said jokingly and smiled, making him look more menacing rather than harmless. “They are under strict instructions not to attack or molest any of you. Come, it is but a short while before we shall reach the Shrine,” he added and started walking once again, Void falling in beside him. The dreiche cut across the path in front of Belac, Lathlin and Talat to follow immediately behind their masters.

“Stay close to us,” Void suddenly said. “These trees are a-crawl with an especially aggressive spider that has developed a taste for human flesh. We aren’t sure if the frunx likes Elves, too, but why test that theory?” he asked and continued on.

As if to give visual confirmation of his words, a large spider, easily the size of a puppy, dropped from one of the branches to land squarely in front of Belac, who was a mere three steps away from the creature. The frunx was pitch black, hairy and had crimson legs. Venom dripped steadily from its oversized fangs, darkening the dead leaves littering the forest floor.

Without so much as a blink, and in a speedy blur, the Hunter had an arrow in his left hand and speared the arachnid right between the eyes. Surprisingly, the frunx emitted a loud scream, and flopped to the side, dead as dead can be.

“It can vocalize?” Lathlin asked in some bewilderment.

“Oh, yes. We thought it would be an amusing addition to our creation,” Abyss answered blithely. “We thought we could teach the frunx to speak, but that turned out to be an impossibility,” he revealed.

“You people are sick!” Talat said, in utter disgust.

“Come on, let’s stick close to them,” Belac suggested and the three of them quickly narrowed the distance between them and the Hollow People. Occasionally, they would hear rustlings and strange vocalization from the tree canopy, but no more spiders made an appearance. Apparently, having seen one of their kind killed so quickly had made them far more cautious of these “prey”.

After about a forty-minute walk through the gloomy hollow, the path curved upwards and the group emerged onto a sunlit gravel path. The view that met them was in total contrast to the dark area they had just traversed. The path stretched out for some distance, clear of any overarching trees, revealing the late afternoon blue sky, before it once again disappeared into the dark depths of the forest. Belac, Lathlin and Talat were glad to see the sky again, but they also found it extremely strange to find the cleared path here, deep in the woods. They could think of no explanation for its existence, and the Hollow People offered none.

Without warning, one of the dreiche that was right behind Void was attacked by an enormous snake that had slithered lightning-quick from out of the clearing. It had been so well camouflaged that no one had seen it lying silently in ambush.

The monstrous reptile wrapped its muscular coils around the snarling, snapping dreiche while the other two dreiche tried to come to its rescue by slashing at the snake from two sides. They might as well have tried to slice through iron. The snake only tightened its grip and within seconds, the bones of the captured dreiche snapped sickeningly, and the struggling dreiche went instantly limp. Blood oozed from its eyes and mouth, and urine streamed freely from its hind quarters.

Realising that their pack mate was dead, the other two dreiche reluctantly retreated with menacing growls while the dark green snake leisurely repositioned itself to swallow its prey head first.

“Ah, now this is one of our other successes,” Void said with unadulterated pride. “The mreinik. It took us a few attempts, but we eventually managed to breed this hardy snake that is impervious to fire, and is uncannily intelligent. They usually hunt in pairs, so beware its mate. It is without a doubt very close by,” he added, and then pointed to just beyond the feeding mreinik, to the low growing vegetation on the left side of the path.

Talat nearly jumped out of his skin when his eyes finally made sense of what he had assumed to be a log. He only saw the mreinik when it chose to let its presence be known by slowly and purposely raising its diamond-shaped head slightly off the ground. Talat cursed loudly and moved away from the reptile.

Lathlin focused his blind gaze on the serpent and said, “It knows we are aware of it, but it has no interest in eating us. It is enjoying the spectacle of its mate devouring the dreiche. It seems that it abhors the dreiche,” he explained in a carefully neutral tone.

“A foul, unnatural creation,” Belac stated and spat in the snake’s direction. Then the party moved on towards the unwelcome gloom ahead. Once they entered the forest again, Abyss said they would rest for about half an hour before moving on.

“We should reach the Shrine just before dusk,” he said, making the others realise just how vast the Forsaken Forest was if they had to travel nearly a day to get to its heart.

Although all of them were inhabitants of Wrochcia, they were not unaware of the existence of the other four major continents on the rest of Verahasti, their planet.

Pahexin was the largest continent; it was also known as the Green Continent because it was covered entirely in an unbroken forest. It was this continent that gave the planet its oxygen rich atmosphere. Crimshan was next, and it was an inhospitable landmass covered by deserts and mountainous regions. Then followed Wrochcia, the most temperate of the continents, while Jyarrew was a continent of extremes. It had active volcanos scattered all over its surface, but it also had fertile lands and beautiful beaches. Last and definitely the least was Niminimi, which was more of an island than a continent. Its inhabitants behaved like wild islanders and were fearless seafarers.

Belac hailed from Niminimi, but he kept this a closely guarded secret. He was loath to let others know too much or anything at all about his background and past. Thus, as an islander, he was poleaxed by the immensity of the Forsaken Forest, but he kept his astonishment studiously concealed. Unfortunately for him, he was an open book to Lathlin.

“Yes, it can be overwhelming,” the Elfling said so softly only Belac heard him. “But I found that if I concentrate on the individual trees, my senses are not so stunned as when I consider the forest as a whole. I study the ancient oaks and sorrowful willows; the aromatic conifers and the silvery birches. And I am able to ground myself and not feel as if I am being borne away on clouds of leaves.”

Belac was rendered speechless by the youth’s poetic descriptions, and he found a strange feeling of serenity descend upon him. He looked at the young Elf sitting next to him, and simply said, “Thank you.” But his tone conveyed much more while the colours swirling around him spoke volumes to Lathlin. The Elfling only offered a gentle smile in return.

As soon as Abyss had judged half an hour to have passed, they continued their trek towards the Shrine. Talat was footsore and irritable, but Belac simply walked next to Lathlin as if he were out on an expedition of his own choosing.

As the light started to fail and after one more resting period, Void said, “We are nearly within the precincts of the Shrine. You will feel its irresistible pull before you glimpse the Shrine itself,” he proudly announced. Both he and Abyss had gained a definite spring in their step, and even the two dreiche appeared energised. Belac exchanged an ominous look with Lathlin, but the Elfling only smiled his enigmatic smile and softly whispered, “Patience and fortitude, Belac. Patience and fortitude.”

Both noticed that the forest had gone silent again as they neared an especially thickly-clustered group of trees. These trees had colossal trunks covered in dark brown to red bark, knots and deep grooves spread all over the surface of the bark. The giants grew so tall that the tops disappeared far into the darkening sky. A soft breeze rustled the leaves on the lower branches and provided a welcome cooling of the hot brows of the travellers.

All of them felt the “pull” Void had mentioned earlier: the hairs on the back of their necks stiffened, while their heartbeats suddenly started to race. It was only with an enormous effort that they could lift one foot after another, as if they were physically being repelled while simultaneously being magnetically drawn forward.

Talat cursed vehemently. “What is this? It feels as if I’m trying to move through mud or treacle!”

“Yes,” Abyss answered in a maddeningly calm voice, “the Shrine affects outsiders differently. For us, it is an alluring, irresistible magnetism. For you,” and he gestured to Talat, Belac and Lathlin, “it is a trial of temptation and aversion.”

“It lasts only until you pass the ancient tree barrier,” Void added in explanation, “then you will be released and accepted as invited guests into the sacred grove where the Shrine lies.”

And as he said that, they passed an invisible wall and all the pressure lifted from them. What they beheld though once again bereft them of easy breath.

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