by R W Caron
“Oh, no she won’t.” Nahan replied, his heart hammering in his chest and his face slowly flushing.
“Not at all.” Ryukin replied with a knowing smirk. Nahan was several years younger than Ryukin and by the look on his face he knew exactly what Nahan was going through. He winked at Nahan and walked off to gather his sister. Alina looked up and caught Nahan’s stare and he suddenly felt extremely uneasy. He looked down at the ground, looking for anything to grab his attention anything to make it look like he was not just staring blankly at her. To his relief he found a small marble stone that he knelt down and picked up. He slipped it into his pocket and headed to his teepee to grab his gear for the hunt.
Nahan walked into his teepee and reached for his bow resting against the small work table he had made, he pulled the pebble out of his pocket and stared at it. “What’s that?” Came the females voice from the entrance of the teepee. Nahan jumped and turned to stare at the intruder to his home. Alina stood in the entrance with a smile.
“Just a stone I found.” He replied. “You know it’s not polite to sneak up on your chief right?”
“Oh, I’m sorry my grace.” She replied with a slight bow and a smirk.
“You’re forgiven.” Nahan replied trying not to laugh.
“So I can come with you tonight?”
“Alina,” Nahan started “you are always welcome on my hunts.”
She blushed and stepped into the teepee. “Nahan, you couldn’t stop me if you tried.”
“Alina, we have been friends for a long while, but I am still the chief and I need to act like it. I cannot have you talking to me like that.” Nahan stated.
“I’m just trying to lighten the mood.”
“I know you are but I still have responsibilities.” Nahan replied. It hurt him to talk to her like this but he needed too. She stood in front of him with a hurt look on her face and he didn’t know what he wanted to do; kiss her or tell her to leave. After several seconds of silence, Nahan turned away from her and back to his work table.
“I guess I’ll see you on the hunt tonight.” She replied and started out. “Oh, i almost forgot.” She turned back toward him and placed the arrowhead on the table. “I made my first arrowhead,” She stated. “Since you taught me how, I figured you should have it.” Nahan looked at her and their eyes locked, the spark of young love roared like a prairie fire in his heart. Nahan wanted to grab her kiss her and confess his feeling, but instead he smiled at her picked up the arrowhead and rolled it in his hand.
“Well done.” He replied. She looked away from him and shifted her weight from side to side.
“I had a good teacher.” She said with a grin. “Anyway, I’m going to make sure everything is ready.”
She stood there for a few moments as Nahan nodded his head at her. She took a deep breath and shook her head. She walked out of the teepee and Nahan sighed loudly, raised his hands to his face and dropped back onto the skins and hay he used as a bed.
Nahan’s memory was suddenly cut short by a deafening screech. His hands shot to his ears and his eyes squinted closed in pain. After several seconds the screeching stopped and Nahan suddenly sprung to his feet agilely working his way through the trees towards the source of the screech. He made his way through forest with the grace of a cat and as quiet as a mouse. He never questioned his body like he questions himself and his heart. His body had never failed him, and he slowly became one with the trees. Where others seen a tangled mess of branched Nahan saw a clean cut path. This was a talent he had had since he was very young; he was able to see the way through the most difficult tasks. This was something the elders had called foresight and he had mastered it before anyone had in the entire camp, including his mentors. During combat training Nahan was surprisingly quick at seeing the moves before they happened. He paid so much attention to the movements of others that he was two moves ahead of them before they even began. It was only when he let his heart take over that he faltered, now his heart had been ripped out and stomped on. Nothing stood in his way as he entered a clearing in the trees.
He landed in between two large branches that split off from the truck of a lager tree and couldn’t believe his eyes. The creature that had screeched was in the middle of the clearing with large chains wrapped around his powerful golden brown wings, pinning them to his muscular cat like body. Its tail whipped hard in the dirt and the claws on his hind legs kicked at the men who where containing the beast. One man slid under its belly with ease and yanked the chain tight around those beautiful grayish-gold hind legs, the man on the other side pulled at the same time driving the legs out from under the creature. It started to thrash its hard birdlike head, but the hooked beak had been clamped shut by yet another chain with two large balls on each end. More men came running from the tree line with ropes. They quickly jumped over the creature securing the ropes to the ground and cheered.
Nahan stared in disbelief that they could be so cruel to such a beautiful animal. A man walked forward towards the beast and Nahan could hear him laugh as he walked to the beasts now secured head and looked it in the eye. He slowly drew a sword from his belt and started to raise it, Nahan did not hesitate, he loaded an arrow and drew back to fire, before he let fly however another man about the same size and Nahan grabbed the sword welders arm with lightning speed and drove a dagger deep into his stomach.
He pushed the man away and spun the dagger around in his hand before taking a knee and cleaning it off. A couple of the men rushed to the bleeding man, one rushed the dagger wielder who was cleaning his dagger. Nahan quickly leveled his shot and let fly. The arrow whistled through the arrow and took the man who was running in the eye socket, driving deep into him and expelling its self through the back of his neck. The man fell dead and the dagger wielder’s eyes shot to Nahan’s location, but he was already on the move. The dagger wielders followed his movements as Nahan stopped and leveled another shot. The dagger wielder turned at looked at the men who were still staring at the location where the first arrow came from. A second arrow cut through their ranks and glanced off one mans shoulder guard and dug deep into the side of his neck. He grasped the wound but was dead before he hit the ground. Nahan let fly a third arrow and it landed squarely in a third mans chest, perfectly placed in the heart.
The dagger wielder watched as the men fell with a slight smirk on his face. As a fourth member of the ‘team’ fell the other men decided to turn tail and run into the woods. The dagger wielder quickly disappeared into the shadows of a giant tree and watched. Nahan loaded to fire after the men but held his shot. He smiled to himself and made his way down to the ground. He moved slowly, watching for traps as he worked his way to the fallen beast. He had never seen a beast like this before and as he closed in on it he could feel its power. It was the size of a great bear with wings bigger than anything he had seen.
He approached the creature slowly. The closer he got the more he could feel the creatures pain. Nahan tossed his bow to the side and quickly grabbed the chain the bound its wings. He started to unclasp the chain when suddenly he was thrown backwards through the air with a flash of blueish white light. He hit the ground, all the muscles in his body tightening without control. He hands squeezed tighter then he had even squeezed before and his legs where shaking uncontrollably. Nahan wanted to scream in pain but he could not find his voice. The dagger wielder walked out of the shadows spinning his dagger in one hand and smiling as he moved slowly towards Nahan.
His features resembled Nahan’s clan, his hair was black and his skin tan colored. He had a gold ring in his eyebrow and silver studs in his ears. He also bore a Tattoo across his face, it was a very light outline of a tattoo but its presence was unmistakeable. Nahan stared up at the man, whose blue eyes glowed as bright at the blue sky, and tried to place him in any of the Nipawin Tribe’s he had heard about but to no avail. As he moved closer the tattoo outline became more pronounced and Nahan could see it resembled a bird, his wings stretching out over each of his eyes and the tail
feathers sitting under his bottom lip. Nahan tried to push himself to his feet but his muscles refused to move as he lay on the ground helpless. “Who are you?” The man asked in Nahan’s native tongue.
“Na.. Nah...” Nahan struggled. “Chief Nahan.” He gasped slowly pushing himself onto his hands and knees.
“Chief eh?” The man asked in Nahan’s native tongue again. His voice cared an accent that Nahan had never heard before. This man was a very strange man Nahan thought to himself. “Ay, tis to bad you had to stumble onto my little hunting party.”
Nahan forced himself to his knees and looked at the man. “Who are you?”
“I have always wanted to slay a chief.” The man said more to himself. “Something I have never done.”
“Who are you!?” Nahan demanded.
“But if I kill him, who will help me bring the griffin to the king.” He continued to talk to himself. He tapped the dagger point on his narrow chin, thinking.
The mention of the king sent Nahan’s blood boiling. “Release the creature.” Nahan growled as he pushed himself to his feet. “I am worth more to the king then any beast.”
“You?” the man asked with a chuckle. “I highly doubt it.”
“You don’t know who I am than.” Nahan said. “I am Nahan, the last of the Nipawin People. I am their chief, the last of my kind. The final straw the king needs to eliminate my people.”
“Is that so.” He asked his eyes wide with mockery.
“Yes.”
“Well, young chief. I have seen your talent with a bow, but you are now unarmed.” He smirked. “And if you are as you say, the king wants you dead. Since I am the King’s hunter, the odds do not fare well for you, now do they?” He turned facing Nahan full on. Nahan reached behind him and pulled his twin daggers from the back of his belt. “Oh, how thrilling, shall we dance?” he growled and lunged at Nahan.
Nahan and the Hunter started to exchange blows. Nahan was completely shocked by the man’s sheer speed and power he had to concentrate, just to defend against the onslaught of attacks. The hunter came at him from every angle possible, striking high, low, changing direction and striking again. Nahan continued to defend matching the blows only a split second slower than the hunter. Nahan however could feel that this man was merely feeling him out. As a split second could be the difference between life and death. The hunter quickly pivoted on his back foot twirling low and slicing at Nahan’s legs. Nahan jumped the attack instinctively and the hunter continued his momentum but suddenly shot upwards with an uppercut like maneuver. His dagger slices into Nahan’s arm and followed through into his right cheek.
Nahan quickly shot his feet out and caught the hunter in the chest, saving his life and shocking the hunter. The impact sent him backwards, but he rolled over his shoulder and was back to his feet. He rushed in at Nahan again who parried his aggressive attack and quickly moved to the left spinning and kicking his boot out high. The kick caught the Hunter in the back of the head and sent him tumbling. Nahan smiled as he turned to face the hunter who was already to his feet. Nahan smirked then suddenly realised he had not evaded the attack fully as he felt the warm sensation of blood running down his side. He looked down and realised he had been cut again. The hunter shook his head and spun his dagger’s in his hand. “You are good for a young one.” He said with a smirk.
“Why do you serve the king? You are one of the people.” Nahan asked.
“I am not one of your people you silly boy. I came from a distant land, across the Helkus Sea.”
“Why are you here then?” Nahan asked.
“To make privileged little shit’s like you ask questions.” He attacked again, high and low. Nahan blocked both attacked and quickly attacked high and low in return. As he lunged at the hunter, the wind was suddenly taken from him as the hunter moved impossibly fast and drove his knee hard into Nahan’s sternum. Nahan doubled over but the hunter was not finished, he landed several more blows in a matter of seconds. His leg moved so fast it was a blur to Nahan who fell face first in the dirt.
“You see Nahan, I hunt for a living. I have never failed.” The hunter explained as he walked around. “I have many gift’s that help me in my hunt. Somewhere given to me, some ability I was born with, but you and all the people of this land are ignorant to these gifts. The king however, has seen my talent and offered me a hefty some of money to bring him his griffin. Who would have thought I could bring him the two things he wants the most on the same day.” He growled and walked over to Nahan. “I am sorry you must die. You put up a better fight than most.” He rolled the dagger over and drove it down at Nahan. Nahan survival instincts took over and his foot scored a direct blow to the Hunter in the groin. The hunter staggers back and Nahan rolled to his feet.
“I’m not dead yet.” Nahan growled. “You’re going to have to try harder than that to defeat a Nipawin.”
The hunter scoffed. “So, I shall.”
The two engaged again, Nahan defending against another onslaught of the hunter’s, Nahan parried an attack to the right then quickly went on the offensive, driving the hunter back now. He attacked right and low, spinning left then quickly changed momentum to the right, trying to break the hunter’s concentration but the attacker’s blades met him at every turn. The hunter pushed the tempo up attacking quicker and with more aggression but everything he tried, Nahan managed to parry away. The hunter attacked high, slashing down at Nahan’s open shoulder but Nahan quickly rolled to the left, narrowly missing the blade and managed to land a backhand slash into the Hunters shoulder. The hunter staggered forward grasping his shoulder and cursing. “How dare you?”
Nahan stood gasping for air, his cuts stinging even more with the sweat rolling into them like a raging river but he had damaged the hunter, proving he was nothing more than a man. “I do not wish to fight you.”
“You have no choice.”
“Why?” Nahan asked. “You could walk away now, go back to your homeland.”
“I came here to escape my homeland. There my people are worshiped now. You would be worshiped just for looking as you do. I would not be caught dead sitting on a pillow. I am a hunter.”
“So you came here to be a slave?” Nahan asked.
“I am nobodies slave!” the hunter yelled and the anger in his voice was apparent.
“You said it yourself, you are the Kings Hunter.” Nahan said. “Why not join my people and be free?”
“Ha,” The hunter laughed. “You think you are free? You may think you are rebellious, you may think you are fighting for freedom and for your people but at the end of the day, if there are none of your people left then why the hell did you fight in the first place.” He snapped. “I have seen war, I have watched what war does to men. That is why I am the Hunter. I am no puppet.”
“Yet here you are doing the King’s bidding.” The hunter quickly attacked but Nahan parried the attacks with ease and landed another blow slicing deep into the hunter’s hip. The hunter dropped to a knee and Nahan stared at him. “The king is an evil man.”
“As are you.” The hunter replied. Nahan looked completely taken back by the comment. “For different reasons I am sure, but aye, you are evil as well.”
“I am not evil. You don’t even know me.” Nahan exclaimed.
“I do know you. You are Chief Nahan, the last of the Nipawin people. You are the last of the people because you lead your people to their death. Your actions will and have cost your people everything.” The Hunter explained. “It’s too bad you will never get to experience what its like to realise the evil within you.” The hunter quickly turned and throws his dagger with deadly speed. The dagger slammed right into Nahan’s chest digging deep into his already injured sternum. Blood started to pour from the wound and Nahan landed hard on his back. His head rolled to the side and he saw his bow. He reached out and grasped it loaded an arrow. He used all the strength he had and drew back the bow. The arrow whistled past the Hunters head and Nahan fell back into the dirt.
&nbs
p; “After all that and he missed.” The hunter chuckled. As he stepped toward Nahan to retrieve his dagger a shadow of giant wings spread out behind him. He looked down at Nahan and smirked. “Well played Chief.”
