[Finneren]

  “Keep your britches on, boy!” Dad said, with a chuckle. “We can’t leave until everything is packed.”

  I had been pestering him for an hour so we could leave. I had my pack ready the night before. My knife was on my belt and my bow was in my hand. This was my first hunting trip, and I couldn’t wait to get moving.

  He finished putting a few more supplies into his pack, but eventually grabbed his longbow and pulled the quiver of arrows over his shoulder, and stood up.

  “When do you plan to be back?” Jer called from the cabin door with Lil standing beside him.

  “We are going north, since I haven’t been that way in a while. We should be back by tomorrow afternoon, evening at the latest.”

  “Alright,” he said.

  “Have fun and don’t miss,” Lil said, then realized what that meant and looked up at Jer, who was staring at her with wide eyes. “Sorry,” she added. “I wasn’t thinking.”

  Jer mussed her hair, which I saw was getting quite long now. “Hey, stop that!” she yelled, and ran back in the house.

  Waving goodbye, we started out on our trip. Dad let me set the pace, but I was too excited so I set off at a jog, not quite running. I had been practicing everyday with Jer’s bow ever since he suggested that Dad take me on a hunt. At first I took many tries to actually hit what I was aiming for, but I was much better now. I could hardly believe it when he agreed.

  Today we were finally on our way.

  By afternoon we were moving into the foothills of the mountains to the north. The pine trees were dense here so we couldn’t go as fast. We had surprised several flocks of quail this morning, but Dad said he wanted me to try something a bit easier. I think he didn’t want me to lose any arrows, but I was fine with that.

  After lunch break we started climbing higher into the mountains when we came across the strangest thing. There was a river full of white water rushing over sharp rocks down a steep canyon. But we had been coming up that canyon for a while, and it was dry. I soon found out why. The river took a sharp turn to the left at some large boulders and disappeared. When we got close, I saw that it flowed into a small cave in the mountain.

  “Look at that,” Dad said.

  “I’m going to check it out,” I said.

  “Don’t get too close,” he warned. “You don’t want to fall in. I don’t know where it comes out.”

  I climbed carefully down the rocky slope to the entrance of the cave. The rocks looked like they were always wet here and were covered with a squishy, green moss. The roar of churning water near the entrance was nearly deafening as it rushed inside. Not far in, though, the cave got much smaller where the water disappeared. We wouldn’t be going into that.

  Still, it was amazing. I wondered if the water went down to the bowels of Elway. That’s what we call the world.

  When I got back up to my father, however, he wasn't looking at me. He was looking up the mountain.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure,” he said quietly. “I just feel like… like we’re being watched.”

  [Lilleren]

  Once Dad and Fin were out of sight, we went to work getting our own supplies ready. Jer and I had agreed last night to go on our own adventure while they were hunting, just not as far, or as dangerous, hopefully. We weren’t planning to do any hunting ourselves, so we brought some food for snacks and lunch as well as our waterskins. Before we left, Jer also decided to make sure we had our knives and a hatchet, as well as a few things to start a fire and for emergencies.

  As we left we grabbed our walking bones. We had gotten these from our monster bird and decorated them with some of its feathers. We had discovered that the bones were lightweight because they were hollow but much stronger than normal bones should be.

  “Okay, where are we going?” Jer asked. Last night, he told me to think about it and decide where we should go.

  “How about Rocky Knoll? We haven’t been there yet.” Across our valley to the west, we could easily see a large hill covered in rocks and boulders, from what we could tell. We had given it a name but had never gone there, since it was quite far.

  “That would be interesting. I’ve always wondered about it.” So we started off in that direction.

  The most direct route would require us to cross the river several times, since it meandered through our valley. However, since the river was running high this time of year, it was too dangerous to cross, so we had to detour around it to the south. That wasn’t really a problem, other than it slowed our progress.

  We stopped for lunch in a wooded area, and sat on a fallen log to eat.

  While eating, I asked, “Do you… do you think we’ll live here for a long time, like, the rest of our lives?” It had been a question on my mind for a long time, since… I couldn’t even think about that… Great, now tears were flowing.

  Jer looked at me with concern in his face. Then he leaned over and wrapped me in a hug.

  “I really don’t know,” he said, after he let me go. His eyes had tears also. “We are safe for now. But we can’t get many of the things we need here. And, I think about the future. I wish I knew what was going to happen, so we could plan ahead. But, I just don’t know.”

  After we sat there for a while, he continued, “I don’t know the future, but I know this. I will do whatever I can to keep us safe, just like Dad. I plan for us to grow up, have our own families and be happy. So, that’s what I’m going to do.”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  We both smiled at that, as we got up to continue our journey.

  Rocky Knoll was much bigger than we expected, more of a small mountain than a hill. But it stood by itself, the land around it being fairly flat, though heavily forested. The knoll had some trees growing on it, but it was very rocky, covered with large and small boulders.

  “Let’s climb up.” Jer said. “I want to take a look around first.”

  So we began to climb. We had to rest several times since it was quite steep. We got stuck more than once, having to go around boulders which were too big to climb.

  “Do you think I could use my magic to jump up this boulder,” I asked as we got stopped once more.

  Jer smiled, but then got serious. “You might, but you also might get hurt.” He turned and looked down, so I did too, quickly making me dizzy. We had climbed much higher than I thought.

  “How about you wait to practice where it is safer?”

  “I agree.”

  When we got to the top, the view was breathtaking.

  [Finneren]

  Looking around, Dad said, “I don’t see anything, but just in case, let’s go this way.” He started walking up the right side of the canyon, away from the cave, which was an easier climb.

  We came to a large, gently sloping field of aspen trees. I could hear the leaves rustling in the light breeze. There were some grasses throughout with wildflowers growing here and there. Even though winter was over in our valley, there were some shady areas here where patches of snow were still hanging on. And all through the field were little streams of water.

  It was beautiful.

  We took a break here, sitting on a fallen tree. Dad had us finish off our waterskins and refill them. He said this spring water should be safe.

  Dad tapped me on the shoulder. I assumed he wanted me to move again, but when I looked at him, he put his finger to his lips. He motioned us to move behind a larger tree and then pointed across the field. Looking in that direction, I could see a small herd of deer grazing on the grass. There were several fawns, following their mothers, I assumed. Further up the slope, I could see a large buck keeping watch over the herd with a few other bucks among the herd, each just starting to grow their spring antlers.

  We worked our way quietly deeper into the woods and then circled around to be closer to them.

  “Here,” he said, handing me an arrow. “Get ready. When we get close enough, aim for one of the bucks. But be very quiet.”

  I noticed he got his bow ready also. When I looked at him, he just said, “In case you need help.”

  We crept forward slowly through the trees. Luckily, the ground was soft and quiet. Though it was a cold day I could feel sweat forming. I really wanted to do well, and not just to impress Dad. I really wanted to be a hunter like him someday.

  When I could see the herd again, I stopped. I took aim and pulled the bow back. This was Jer’s bow, but it seemed easier to pull than mine was. I realized that made sense, now that I had manifested.

  Waiting until the right moment, I released. The arrow flew right where I wanted, into the flank of a small buck.

  It jumped and started running. Another arrow flew past me hitting the same deer. The rest of the herd was scattering, jumping, more than running.

  He grabbed me as he ran past. “Keep up, boy! It may run for a while before it drops.” We both ran after it, with Dad running a lot faster.

  Someday I’ll be able to run that fast.

  I quickly lost sight of it so I just followed Dad. He seemed to know exactly where it went. We didn’t have to go more than a longstride before we found it. It still had both arrows, one embedded deeper than the other.

  “Good kill,” he said as he patted me on the back. I gave him a big smile.

  My first kill.

  “Now, I could probably carry this all the way home, but I’m going to teach you another way,” he said. “Look around for some straight branches or thin logs, at least two need to be long.”

  Once we had collected some branches and logs, he had me strip them using a hatchet while he cut some into shorter lengths. Then he had me lash the shorter ones to the long ones, with the shortest by itself at one end and then the longer ones at the other.

  Eventually, I could see that it made a kind of sled that we could use to drag the deer back home.

  Before we finished however, Dad stopped me with a hand to my shoulder. He quickly grabbed his bow and readied an arrow. He wasn’t watching me, though. He was looking up the hill at the trees.

  I followed his gaze and my blood froze.

  A wolf was slowly coming down the hill, but it wasn’t just any wolf. It was at least twice the size of a normal wolf. I had only ever seen a few wolves before, from a distance of course. And it had red eyes. I knew that wasn’t normal.

  “Run boy!” Dad ordered. “Find a tall tree to climb.”

  But I didn’t move. I couldn’t. How could I leave my dad to fight this alone? Instead, I grabbed my bow also and got ready to shoot.

  The huge wolf was getting closer now. I could hear a deep rumble coming from its chest. Now that I could see it better, I noticed it had a slight limp. It had several gashes in its fur, recent wounds which hadn’t healed. It looked a little too thin.

  With a deafening snarl the wolf lunged. Dad released his arrow. The wolf had jumped at that moment so his arrow missed. But Dad was already reloading and released another, which went into the wolf with a resounding thunk.

  Somehow he had his large hunting knife in one hand and an axe in the other as he started charging the wolf.

  The wolf tried to go around my dad, heading straight for me, I realized, too late. But Dad was able to sink both his hatchet and knife into the wolf as it tried to dodge around him.

  As the wolf came for me I finally released my arrow and dove to the side. The wolf missed me and rolled down the steep hill before it got its feet again and turned around. By that time Dad dove onto its back, and started attacking it with his axe.

  I stood up and moved behind a tree, though I still didn’t run away, too mesmerized to do anything but watch.

  The fight was loud and furious. It threw Dad off, and attacked with its jaws, but Dad somehow pushed it away long enough to get to his feet and attack with his axe. I couldn’t see his knife any more.

  The wolf was extremely powerful, but so was Dad. And Dad was much faster. After a while, I could tell the beast was losing. It just had too many open wounds to keep fighting.

  But Dad was bleeding too.

  Finally, after one more desperate attack by the wolf, Dad sunk the axe into the wolf’s head and it stilled.

  Then Dad fell over.

  “Dad,” I yelled. Finally unfrozen, I ran to him. I could see he was still alive and breathing, but he was bleeding from multiple bites and scratches.

  “Dad, are you okay? I don’t know what to do. What can I do?”

  “Get my pack,” he said weakly after he laid there for a while.

  When I brought his pack back to him, he was sitting up. He opened it up and grabbed one of his shirts, and tore several strips from it. He started wrapping his arm and leg where the wolf had wounded him.