Chapter 5
"Where the hell did he go?"
"How am I supposed to know?"
"You were the closest to him."
"That's only because you were so scared I thought I was on a hunt with my sister."
Several men started laughing, from the sounds of it there were 5 men gathered around the base of the stump I was hidden in. Why they chose this spot to regroup I don't know but maybe I could learn something useful, like if they were planning on coming back.
"That's because he killed Entrith, I thought he was supposed to be a scholar. When do scholars ever fight back?"
"Every so often you hear of one, it's rare but not surprising given who we believe this is."
"His father, sir?"
"Yes, if it's who we think it is his father used to be the head of clandestine operations for Jenzen, the Tribe Leader for this territory. I was part of an operation four years ago to try and capture him and thanks to his father's skills he was able to escape. It wouldn't surprise me if his father taught him at least part of what he knew while he was a child, and it would surprise me less if he'd been honing those skills after watching his father sacrifice himself so he could escape. We've been looking for him ever since. We thought he must have disappeared, gotten as far away as he could, Gregin will be interested to find out that he's still around."
"Wait, that means his father was-"
"That's right, his father was Acerin."
I felt anger surging inside me. He confirmed what I already knew to be true about my father, that's not really what got to me though. They've been hunting me for the last four years like I was an animal! I suspected that eventually there'd be another abduction but that's just how it is for scholars, what I never expected was for the same tribe to be hunting me specifically for four years.
"I need to figure out who these guys are," I thought "Gregin sounds familiar but from where? Who is he and where have I heard that name before?"
The one who'd been called sir started speaking again, "You guys go search the area. See if you can find him and meet back here in a couple of hours, we need to get off this mountain before it gets dark. I'll wait here and see if he shows up."
"What if we don't find him?"
"Then we'll have an early morning. He's already gotten away once, the search isn't over until we have him or we're sure he's not on this mountain."
I huddled in my enclosure like a caged animal. I listened as the men trekked through the forest, making too much noise for anyone used to the woods. The sound of their footstep's slowly faded into the distance, and I heard the man who stayed behind sit against the base of the trunk I was in.
"Those guys wouldn't be able to sneak up on a deaf cow," I thought "but something about the man in charge seems different, more like a predator. No wonder he's the one in charge. If only I knew his name, after all, he knew mine, and it's always good to know the identity of the man hunting you, especially when he's so determined to continue after four years."
I grimaced at that thought and the thought of the determination it would take to continue an unfruitful hunt for so long. Having nothing to do now but wait I settled in and watched the sky. It was my only indication of passing time. As I sat in my little hollow, I watched as the skies turned into a deep purple and the clouds turned red like blood droplets above me. Soon after I could hear men shuffling through the forest coming in my direction. I heard the man who had been sitting at the base of the stump stand up and brush himself off. Once all the shuffling had stopped I assumed that all the men had regrouped beneath me, and I was proven right when the man in charge started to speak.
"Anyone have anything to report?"
"Woods, woods, and more woods" grumbled one man whose voice I hadn't heard before.
"Well, he couldn't have just disappeared!" snapped the man in charge.
The other men fell silent at their commander's outburst.
"Get back to the village, the last thing I need is for one of you fools to get lost up here in the dark. When we get to the village it's straight to the inn for the lot of you, no one get any ideas either, we'll be back on this mountain before the sun illuminates the peak. With any luck, we may be able to catch him while he sleeps. The Scholar's Outpost clerk says he shows up every few months, he must have a house somewhere on this mountain."
"Sir," another unfamiliar voice began cautiously, "if he continuously shows up there why don't we just wait on him to show back up?"
"Because we tried to get him, failed, and now he knows we're after him. The last time he escaped it took four years to find him again. I won't sit idly by while he escapes again. He may believe he's gotten away for the night and stay on this mountain but having escaped once you can believe he won't stay here and wait to get caught. Are you truly so incompetent as to ask questions with such obvious answers, or do you think the man who managed to escape me for four years, and myself by extension, is that incompetent?" the man growled.
"My apologies Commander Marketh, I never meant to imply such a thing about you, please forgive me for asking such a foolish question."
"So, the man whose been hunting me is named Marketh." I thought.
"Get off this mountain, all of you!" Marketh barked.
"Yes, Commander!" a chorus of voices rose up.
I could hear the men start working their way down the mountain. While I waited on them to get a safe distance away, I looked at the ever-darkening sky and pondered my predicament.
"It appears I have two options, I can either run and continue to be hunted like a wild animal or I can fight back and teach them I have claws and fangs. But what's the point of fighting back? It's not like I'm going to change anything. My mother would want me to play it safe and flee to continue the scholarly life somewhere else. All my instincts and my father's training were telling me to do the opposite, however. I thought back to what I dreamed of doing as a boy, the reason my father spent so much time training me. I wanted to be just like him, in fact, deep down I still do. The issue remains that even if I were to fight off these few men it wouldn't change anything, realistically I would still be hunted everywhere I went by every tribe who discovered me until I was dead or enslaved. But what if I could change something?" I shook that last thought from my head, that was too much to think about right now. However, as I jumped out of my hollow place in the stump and hurried back to my house, I steeled myself. It may not change anything in the long run but at least this time I was going to put up a fight they'd never forget, besides this may be the only chance I get to avenge my father.
"Father," I thought, "I swear to you I won't let your sacrifice be in vain, I swear to you I will fight to my last breath for my freedom as you did four years ago, and I swear to you I will avenge your death by taking Marketh's life before he leaves this mountain tomorrow."