FanFiction:The Art of the Hunt/Season 2/Chapter 4 - Stalking Shadows

J eren held his hand to his forehead and gazed across the open horizon in the field in front of their camp. Dawn was breaking, and reddish-pink clouds were floating leisurely on the edge of the world. As it was his turn to watch, he and his watch partner, Yuki, were the only ones awake.

"Yuki, you should really see this." Jeren said, almost dumbfounded. He turned around halfway and looked at her, nodding towards the field. Yuki got up and walked over.

As she carefully tiptoed around the sleeping forms on the ground and the large boulders around their camp, more and more light flooded the camp. She was finally standing right be Jeren.

"Wow, that's really pretty..." Yuki said.

Throughout their life, Yuki and Jeren had always been opposing forces, completely opposite of one another. Jeren noticed the beauty in things; he noticed their metaphorical value, the storytelling capacity they held. In a strange way, he wasn't that different from Gamor. Yuki, on the other hand, was more like Taka or Katrina; she noticed things for their utilitarian qualities, how they could be utilized and what they were. Yuki saw rocks as rocks, little more; Jeren saw a rock as a slow-changing organism, practically a living thing, with a story and an ancient tale to tell.

Yuki had a relatively hard time appreciating the beauty. She looked at Jeren strangely, and turned back to the rising sunlight.

"I don't see how you do it." She said.

"There's nothing to 'do', or be 'done'. It just is. Stop looking. That's the problem; you're looking for beauty, looking for meaning. If you always look with your eyes, you'll always think the world is an ugly place. Look with your mind. Close your eyes, if you have to, and look with your mind. Leave your mind open. Always do that." Jeren replied.

Yuki sighed and stopped squinting. She carefully, gently closed her eyes and let her imagination soar. She thought about the time when she was five, and her father and her took a walk down a high road in their old home. The sun had been setting that day. Her young mind, innocent and untainted, saw dragons, fireworks, thunderheads: all peaceful rulers of the sky, little things that swirled about every young one's mind. Her thought drifted to her travels in Moga, when, while sailing, she had witnessed a true high noon. There were no clouds in the sky that day; the ocean was serene; the wind blew only enough to power the little boat.

Finally, her train of thought stopped at the present. She smiled brightly and opened her eyes wide, turning towards Jeren excitedly.

"I did it!!" She said with glee.

Jeren embraced her and gave her a small kiss on the forehead.

She had just imagined something... natural... for the first time in years.

After a while, the others began to wake up. Taka was the first awake. He saw the last glimpses of the sunrise and got up to fix breakfast. For the first time since the beginning of the trip, his mind was filled with happy thoughts. He looked around and realized that he was surrounded by nine other people who, for once in his life (so he thought) shared the same goal. All of them shared a little bit of the same morality. Somewhere, no matter what differences or ways separated them, a little bit of them somewhere was all the same.

Taka respected that bond. Even if none of the other members of the team knew it or respected it, he remembered at least one thing from his past life: the bond shared between friends is a unique, irreplaceable one.

Ali was the next hunter to awaken. She sat up and looked around. She began to feel queasy as morning sickness set in. The young huntress yawned and pushed Brutus over on his side. After a few minutes of silence, Brutus awoke as well. Yuki walked past them and helped Ali to her feet. She gave Brutus a cold look and he blinked hard. He shook his head and got himself up. He stretched, then turned to the small group of hunters that had awoken and were huddled around the fire. Brutus looked around, finally feeling the cold. Night had not yet gone, and the desert still lay chilly.

"Brutus," Ali said to him as she walked to the fire, "Can you fetch another stick of wood?"

"No," Said Taka, "we don't want the fire to burn for too long after we're gone. We need to let it die down. There's still enough flame to prepare a meal for those who still lay asleep," he said, motioning towards Noami, Katrina, Calli, and the other hunters who were still asleep on the grainy ground near the fire.

Brutus shrugged and sat down by Ali, who had already sat down on a log by the fire. They quietly conversed while preparing a meal. For a long time, no one spoke. Jeren and Yuki eventually returned to the fire, where they leaned against a huge rock shadowing the base camp. Brutus noticed them and got up, approaching them for a status update. Ali, too, got up, and walked to the hunters still asleep to wake them up.

One by one, Calli, Noami, Reia, Gamor, and Katrina all awoke from their night's rest. All except Katrina were in high spirits, having received a good night's sleep and ready to take on the day. Katrina, however, as groggy and complained of a constant pain in her back that caused her discomfort throughout the night. She too reflected upon a rather frightening dream that had pursued her throughout the night.

"I get the distinct feeling that this monster's going to be more than we can handle... I'm beginning to wonder if this is a good idea, guys," Katrina said once she gained her ability to speak. Taka, who was packing his things into his backpack, looked over at her.

"If we all thought this was a good idea, then we would have done this sooner," Taka said tactfully. "No -- whether or not this is a 'good idea', I do not know. What I know for certain is that if we do not find a way... No one will." Taka said. The realness, the weight of their burden was beginning to weigh on them all.

"Ugh... All the same, I don't... I mean -- urgh. Nevermind." Katrina groggily mustered.

"What? Katrina, why do you have such a suddenly dark outlook? Has it anything to do with your dreams?" Taka asked kindly. Though Katrina hated him, she wondered at this. Could his skills of logical deduction truly be so great as to single-handedly guess the reason for her uneasiness?

"Well... actually, yes."

"Tell me about them, then."

"It started when we began the trip. I began to feel a great weight on my heart, and that night, I dreamed of something dark and horrible. It flooded the land around me with a dark, foul-feeling shadow, a shadow with shape, and even form. It stood tall in the darkness and shone. The beast released a scream so horrifying, so mind-numbingly terrible that I couldn't move... and that's when the worst part of it all happens. The monster leaps up, and then falls, and then..." She trailed off. For a moment, she pushed back a sob and cringed.

"Then what, Katrina?" Taka asked.

"It then... it pounced. The dreams end with me impaled upon the beast's horns. All goes dark, and a great light, a great light arrives to take me Away. It is..."

"Terrible. I know." Taka shuddered. In his eyes, Katrina could tell that Taka, too, had felt the weight on his own heart, but knew that his dream was surely different.

"I am sorry, Katrina... That is sorely disturbing," Taka said, as he got up and looked around the group. Most of the hunters were eating. He knelled and began packing his things again. Suddenly, Taka sighed and got up, pulling his pack up with him.

He slung it over his shoulder, on to his back. Standing there, almost wearily, he looked terribly worn.

"Calli, Brutus... Get them up. Get them up! We must be leaving," Taka said, motioning towards the others. Some gloomily looked up. In the receding humidity of the camp, none were spared from the grogginess accompanying their night's rest. Brutus and Calli went to separate sides of the camp and began helping the others pack up. Taka began taking care of the fire and the refuse left about the camp, trying to erase any evidence of their presence. After a while, everyone was up and adjusting their packs for comfort.

"We... We go north," Taka said loudly and clearly. He walked off, ahead of them, his figure faintly fading like a ghost at the first glimmering signs of dawn. The rest followed suit. Noami was the last to go. She stopped right behind Reia and looked back. The camp was empty. This was real. They were going onwards.

"Noami," Reia began.

"I know, let's go." Noami said, preventing Reia from finishing her sentence.

They marched off into the misty fog.

To be continued in Fanfic:The Art of the Hunt/Season 2/Chapter 5 - The Trek