14 Atlas Lynwood

The competition was being held in a Forrest near the Lynwood Clan's area. A special clearing was prepared and stadium seating was built for the spectators. An amazing series of events was to take place over the next several days. These events would display the abilities of the hunters, who were the lifeblood of the mountain people.

The Lynwood Clan benefited greatly from this event. They also began as a hunting family but eventually expanded to become a merchant family. They were the biggest Clan in the Mountains having three divisions of jobs, Merchant, Hunter, and Soldier. The hunters hunted for raw materials, the merchants sold the materials, and the soldiers protected the merchants on their travels.

The Lynwood Clan collected the hunting materials from the other clans and sold them in large towns and cities. It was very convenient for the hunting clans to work with the Lynwoods and everyone profited from the association.

The Hunter Competition allowed for the Lynwoods to deepen their relationship with the various hunting clans and served as a convenient means for collecting materials the clans wished to sell. Another matter arose recently, the bandits. This year, the Lynwood's Clan Chief was hosting a meeting with the other clans to discuss the growing bandit problem.

Up to this point the Lynwoods were protecting the clans from the bandits by deploying their soldiers. The problem was these soldiers were needed to protect the merchant convoys of the Lynwood clan. Either the Lynwood family need to hire more soldiers or the clans needed to send some of their hunters to help. If they hired more soldiers, then the Lynwoods would need to increase the fees they were charging in order to afford the new soldiers. This would place a financial burden on the hunting clans. Most of these clans were barely getting by as things stood now.

The competition was set to begin at ten in the morning. It was already nine and all of the clans were present except for the River Village Clan. The River Village Clan was recognized as a strong hunting clan and were highly respected by the other clans. Last year, the River Village Clan came in second for the hunting competition. River Snake was unmatched among the hunters, his peers from the village were weaker than him. This plus the slightly less than smooth teamwork caused them to lose firstplace to the Forest Village Clan.

The Chief hunter of the Forest Village Clan was Forest Fire. He took first place last year and led his team to overall victory. It was a close competition, so everyone looked forward to the rematch between Forest Fire and River Snake.

A large man, around six foot seven inches tall, sat in a tent made from spirit beast hide. He had a bulky beard, large muscles and wore a special set of hunter gear which displayed his status as a merchant and competency as a hunter. The colors of his clothes were like other hunters since it could camaflague in the forest, but its quality was far beyond the quality of clothing other hunters wore. His hunter tools and weapons were also of the best quality. This man was Atlas Lynwood, the Patriach and Clan Chief of the Lynwood Clan.

Sitting next to Atlas was a beautiful looking girl who was thirteen. She wore an elegant purple and white dress but lest anyone think she was incapable she also had a hunter's knife and a blackwood bow and arrow sat next to her. She was both a hunter and a little princess. Her name was Xena Lynwood, the daughter of Atlas Lynwood.

"Sebastian, any word about the River Village Clan?" Atlas asked a servant who just entered the tent.

"Sir, our patrols have discovered some villagers from the River Village Clan. These were only the women and some children and old people from the village. None of the hunters or even the Village Chief were present. We asked them where the hunters were and they didn't know. They said the hunters should be on their way," Sebastian said.

"Do you think something has happened to the hunters from the River Village Clan?" Atlas asked.

"I don't know sir, but Mountain Sprite, River Snake's wife and their daughter River Fairy are here. Mountain Sprite asked permission to see you sir. She said she has a gift for you," Sebastian informed him.

"A gift? Please send her in," Atlas Lynwood said to Sebastian.

"Father, how strange is this, what do you think is going on?" Xena asked.

"I don't know, perhaps Mountain Sprite can tell us. She is the wife of the Chief Hunter of the Village. If anyone knows what's going on it should be her," he said.

Mountain Sprite entered carrying a small rectangular box. Following her was Mountain Breeze who carried River Fairy in her arms. Mountain Sprite greeted Atals and Xena.

"Greetings Clan Chief Lynwood, miss Xena Lynwood," Mountain Sprite said with a slight bow.

Both Atlas and Xena nodded their heads toward Mountain Sprite and returned her greeting. The relationship between the hunting clans and the Lynwoods was one of mutual respect and not subservience.

"Mountain Sprite, we are curious about your hunters do you know where they are," Atlas asked.

"They'll be along. My husband and the Village Chief, River Boat, send their apologies for not coming with us. They hope you can start the proceedings on time and they should be here soon. As a way of apology, the Village Chief asked me to deliver this gift," she said.

Lifting the rectangular box in front of her to present the gift, Sebastian came to her and took the box. He brought it to Atlas who opened it with curiosity. Inside the box was an exquisite bone knife. At first, Atlas just thought it was pretty, but then he examined the knife and noticed some strange etchings marked on it. Taking out the knife he threw it at an iron practice dummy nearby. The knife went through the dummy like it was butter. The knife piearced the tent and after a few yells came to rest somewhere outside. Sebastian ran to collect the knife.

"Amazing," Atlas said. Xena's eyes sparkled as she looked on in shock.