I awakened to the same sky I had fallen asleep under. The sun was still shining and the wind kissing all that lie on the grassy plains of Foresta Valle. I don’t know what other people wake up to in other parts of the world, but as for me, I don’t think there is a more beautiful place than this. Foresta Valle is surrounded by forested mountains on all sides. In the center of these mountains is the rolling plains, where most of the people here live. Not me though. I live on the unending treeline that encircles the whole valley. From here I can see the dense green forest, teeming with life, fruits, and insects. It’s not that I hate insect. I understand that they serve some sort of purpose in nature. But do they always have to crawl on everything? My food, my canteen, my body? It just feels so invasive.
In the distance I can see the village, and all the grassy plains around it. It’s really the most beautiful place ever. It’s the only place in the world where man eating monsters don’t naturally appear.
I heard stories of how monsters are everywhere in the world. Adventurers go on great journeys to gain honor and fame, bringing glory and commerce to their hometowns. Heroes. That’s what they call them. I don’t see what’s so heroic about going out and killing things for sport though. If people would stay away from the monster then the monsters wouldn’t eat them. I read in a book by Robert Charleston, that monsters tend to not migrate if they don’t have to. So people should just build their towns and cities in places like Foresta Valle.
There was the sound of a twig breaking coming from the forest. Great! Time for breakfast. I grabbed my dad’s tanto blade and my sling and began a crouching jog, as my dad had shown me as a kid.
The sound of crunching continued, and so did I. It was definitely running away from me, I should've been quieter. It was probably a Rabbiclaw, though they were usually much more careful than this. Oh well, the loud would be eaten, the quiet would raise quiet leverets. Survival of the fittest, Robert would say. I tried distributing my weight more evenly and took greater care to avoid making too much noise. After a few seconds the crunching slowed. Perfect, I’ve got you now. I saw a shadow further up the mountain. It was farther than I would have liked, but also larger than I expected. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a rabbiclaw, and it might be more difficult to take down, but judging from the size of the silhouette, it was nothing I couldn’t handle.
It took about three minutes before I could see it, partly because I was being overly cautious, partly because the creature was moving deeper and deeper into the forest. As if it were stalking prey. My stomach dropped. There were no carnivorous monsters in the forest. Whatever this was, it wasn’t supposed to be here. Suddenly I thought of my parents. Later I thought. I’d think about them later. All my instincts were telling me to turn around and go to the village, get help. But what if it was nothing? Just an overgrown beaverfinn. A really, really overgrown beaverfinn. I had to get a closer look. Better to know for sure than be the boy who cried Shade Wolf.
I was finally close enough to plainly see this stalking creature. Creature wasn’t the right word. Whatever it was, it was clearly from one of the Sapien races. I looked closer at the curves and bulges from under the cloaked figure and blushed. A female Sapien to be sure. She was trembling. Was she cold? No, it was summer, she should be sweating under all those layers. Then maybe, fear? I swallowed hard. There was no need to be afraid of any of the docile monsters in Foresta Valle. Everyone who lived here knew that. Then, where was she from? No one ever came here, or left here. If she was an outsider, then maybe I could calm her down with the friendly face of a local.
She jolted around in a mix of fear, anger, and hysteria. I could tell from her expression that she was not pleased with my presence. In fact, from the look on her face, she might not be pleased with my very existence.
“Idiot! What are you doing here? Get out of here before~” a deafening, and all too familiar roar echoed and we both looked toward the direction of the source. I saw movement coming from far ahead. Whatever it was, it was big. Very big. And very fast too.
“It’s too late” she spat, “follow me, I know somewhere safe.”
“Weren’t you hunting whatever thing that is? Can’t you handle it then?” I asked.
“I wasn’t hunting it” she said as she took my hand “I was studying it, to find it’s weaknesses, diet, habits, behavior” she was pulling me harder now, and we were almost in a full sprint. “An Earbear is not something you hunt” she said gravely, “it hunts you. It has the most sensitive hearing of all predatory monsters.”
My heart sank. That’s why the roar was familiar. That’s why I had already given up on survival at the sound of that awful roar.
“An Earbear killed my parents” I said, not sure if it was to her of myself.
“I know” she said bitterly. She knew? How? Why would she know something like that? Who was this woman?
The crunching was getting much closer now. We would not survive this. Not together at least. She was perfectly fine before I came and practically yelled her position to the Earbear. The least I could do was help her escape. When the time came, I’d save her. I’d give her the opportunity to make it to wherever she was leading us. The Earbear was going to catch us long before we made it. And even if we did, it would still find us. Those ears were dangerous, and its sense of smell was no laughing matter either. The crunching was only a few second behind us now, maybe ten seconds at best.
“Go without me” I said, spinning around and readying my sling. If I could hit it in eye, it would be harder to see. If i could hit it in the other eye, then it would have to rely solely upon hearing and smell. If I could slash it’s ears, then perhaps she could survive without it tracking her. I realized that with each goal, my chances of success dropped lower and lower. And with success, so dropped the chance of my survival. This was stupid. Horribly stupid. At best I could slow it down. Oh well. It was my fault this was happening anyway. At least I’d see my parents soon. I smiled.
“You idiot” she screamed, running ahead. That was good, she wasn’t going to do anything futile like try to fight the Earbear, like me. I had to admit that I was slightly hurt by the fact that she didn’t even slow down to give saving me a second thought. Oh well.
The bear came rushing from a different angle than where I was prepared to shoot. And much closer. Too close. It was by the grace of God that I saw it rise up for a killing swipe in time to barely throw myself into a roll out of the way. I crashed into a tree and hit my head. Dazed, I readied my sling. The momentum from the bear would take a few seconds to control and redirect, just enough time for me to aim. The bear came again and I shot, hitting in dead in the left eye. It roared and slowed down, violently shaking it’s head. It rose onto its hind legs and began stalking toward me, keeping its claws near its face, knowingly. It was protecting its other eye! Damnit! I hadn’t realized predators were smart like this. How could I? I'd never faced a predator before. I was going to die, right here, forgotten, never doing anything with my life but look at grass in the wind.
At that moment an arrow pierced through the bears left ear. The skull of an Earbear is too thick for any arrow to pierce. Only a stab through the heart will instantly kill it. It roared in the direction the arrow came from, exposing its right eye to me. I shot. It wasn’t a clean hit, barely a graze. But that would make it hard enough to see. The bear roared again and began charging at me. I dashed off to the right, toward the direction the arrow came from. Someone was trying to help me, and if I could give them a clean shot at the bears other eye, I might make it out alive. The bear must have been aware of this too, because it was chasing me with its head turned down, exposing as little of its usable eye as possible.
I was no match for the bears speed, I knew this, but I did not realize how outmatched I was until it knocked me down. I rolled several times as the bear circled in front of me, putting its back to the shooter. Damnit. I tried. This was it, it was really it this time. I drew the tantou. If I got lucky it would raise up on its hind legs again, as Earbears tend to do for the killing blow. That would expose its underbelly, but I would have to risk either being torn to shreds, or being crushed beneath its weight even if I somehow stabbed its heart. Better me than that woman, or that archer who tried to save me. True to it’s instinct, the bear rose up for the killing blow. But I’d have to wait. If I charged too soon, it would fall back onto all fours and simply rip me apart with its fangs. I’d have to wait for it to raise its claw for the killing strike. In that very moment its heart would be exposed, it would be vulnerable. The bear came closer and closer, savoring the kill. Wait. Just. . . wait. The bear was now only two meters away. It waited, seeing if I would run, or if I was frozen in fear. It decided on the latter. It raised its claw. Now! I leaped up, extending the blade to its ribcage. As if predicting my plan the bear spun out of the way. The blade stabbed through flesh and became lodged in its left arm. Now I was defenseless. Outsmarted by a predator, should I have expected anything more? Now all the bear needed to do was turn around and finish me.
At that moment it began a frenzied roar, thrashing about. Another arrow had pierced its right eye. The archer must have been waiting for the perfect moment to shoot. The bear’s thrashing knocked me down and I went tumbling into another tree, the air rushing from my lungs as I was nearly knocked unconscious. In a half conscious state I saw the archer, dashing toward the bear. He drew a sword identical to the one my father had and began a dangerous dance of slashing and dodging with the bear. He wore it down one slash at a time. With one final swing the bear was still at last.
“You really are an idiot” a familiar voice called. The archer ran to me, winded. It was the woman, and she was crying. “You could have died! I had a plan, why did you do that” she asked, tears falling as she lifted me up.
“You were fine until I came around, it was my fault you were in danger. What kind of man would I be if I let you get killed because of me” I asked.
“I had a plan” she repeated. “Come on, we need to talk” she said.
“You’ll know when we get there.”
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