55 2.10 Hunters

Note: Not from Nara's point of view.

A man wearing a long leather coat and black leather pants was laying under a big tree near a pond. His face was covered by a black cowboy hat and it looked like he was asleep.

A white horse, which was probably his, was grazing nearby. It was a hot summer day, so the place was perfect for resting during a long journey.

When a gust of wind blew, some leaves fell from the tree and a small splash was heard in the pond. At that exact moment, he took out a knife from under his coat and threw it towards the pond. Its tip passed through the gills of a fish that had just jumped out of the pond and landed into the tree on the opposite side of the pond.

"Four," said the man and took his hat off of his face and wore it.

There were three fishes already there hanging in the same tree in a similar way. All of them were struggling out of water so he must have caught them recently.

When the man stood up, the birds on the tree flew away noticing his presence. He was taller than normal, at least seven feet tall.

"Yu hoo... Drake, did you find anything?" shouted another man who was coming towards the pond riding a black horse.

He was wearing a similar-looking but white-colored hat and was dressed in a white shirt-like dress with brown pants.

Even though he was shouting as loud as he could, Drake didn't respond. He just started collecting the fallen dry branches and woods to build a cooking fire.

"Man, we have been friends for over two decades now, but you never eat the things that I hunt," said the man getting down from his horse.

"Billy, I already told you that I hunt for myself," Drake replied looking annoyed. He then started the fire using fire magic.

Billy took out a rooster from one of the pouches that were hanging on his horse and asked, "But what do I do about this now?"

"Eat it yourself," Drake replied while taking the fishes out of the knives.

"But we won't have to cook separately that way y'know," Billy said while collecting fallen branches to build a different cooking fire.

His actions were contradictory to his words, probably because he already knew that Drake wouldn't agree. Drake just didn't respond and started cleaning the fishes.

"Drake, you aren't planning to go to that labyrinth, right?" asked Billy after starting his cooking fire by taking a burning branch from Drake's fire.

"No," replied Drake while putting the fishes near the fire on sticks.

"Then why are we going back towards that place," Billy said looking towards Drake in a serious tone.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to," Drake replied while ignoring the serious look.

"Did you forget what happened last time?" Billy asked in a loud voice.

"No, that's why, I will just hunt in the area outside the labyrinth for now," Drake replied looking towards Billy.

"We were still young back then, but remembering it still gives me chills," Billy said with a serious look on his face. He then stopped cleaning the rooster and looked towards Drake saying, "What could really be in there?"

"I don't know," Drake replied while glaring at the fire.

"Well, I don't think anyone will be stupid enough to enter that place for finding out what could be inside," Billy said and resumed cleaning his rooster.

"But it's because of that, we became hunters," Drake said looking towards Billy again.

"Yeah, I clearly remember that day. Our fathers went there looking for treasures and we also went with them. They were so blinded by the greed that they didn't even realize they were heading to their deaths," Billy said looking towards his fire. He didn't look sad as he was saying that, instead, he looked angry.

"You can't blame them, they too had no idea," Drake said, sensing Billy's anger.

"Yeah, I know. At least they told us to wait outside while they take a look inside. We could also have never returned if we had gone inside," Billy replied.

"We were stupid to wait for a month hoping that they would come out," Drake said turning the fish around.

"Well, we were too scared to go in and too much hopeful to give up and leave," Billy said while making the stand using two branches on the two sides of the fire.

He then took out a Machete from one of the bags that his horse was carrying and chopped off a long branch from a nearby tree using it. He then put the roster in that branch and hanged it over the fire with the help of the stands that he made earlier.

"Are you sure you don't want this? It will be good," Billy said looking towards Drake.

"No. As I said, I hunt for myself," replied Drake and chopped off a leaf from a banana plant that was near.

"Haha... Well, you never change," said Billy with a smile.

Drake didn't respond. He just kept on turning the fish around. When it looked like it was cooked, he put them on the banana leaf and waited for it to cool down.

"Drake, did you hear it? It sounds like a carriage is coming this way," said Billy turning his chicken around.

"Just ignore," said Drake, taking a bite of the fish that he just cooked.

Even though it had no seasoning, Drake was eating it as if it was the tastiest thing in the world. Someone once said, 'when you cook something, it tastes better. And when it's your own hunt, it tastes doubly better.' It was probably true in this case.

"It sounds like it's heavily loaded. They will probably stop here," said Billy looking towards the road. Nothing could be seen till far away.

An ordinary person would have never been able to hear something from that far away. He had probably enhanced his hearing by manipulating the wind around him using wind magic.

"That's why, just ignore. They will come here themselves," replied Drake.

After around 5 minutes, the carriage could be seen coming towards the pond. Billy looked surprised at what he saw while Drake wasn't even looking. He just kept on eating his fish.

"What the heck! Are they going towards the 'Forest of endless trees' for a honeymoon or something?" said Billy looking surprised at what he saw. He then looked towards Drake and said, "Can you believe it? A girl is sitting in the guy's lap in the driver's seat."

"What's wrong with that?" asked Drake looking confused.

"Everything is wrong with that. who even does that?" said Billy looking surprised at Drake's reaction.

Drake just ignored him and pointed towards the rooster that was almost about to get burned. Billy quickly turned it around.

The carriage came near them and stopped. As soon as it stopped the girl who was sitting in the driver's seat jumped down and said, "Hello there, we are going towards the labyrinth past the forest. Are you on a journey to somewhere too?"

"Are you serious? Didn't anyone tell you kids that going there is suicide?" said Billy hastily.

"Yes, we know. But we need to go there," replied the boy.

"Boy, is that bird in the sky yours?" asked Drake looking towards the boy.

"Yes, you could tell? Flare, come down here," the boy said after which the bird came and sat down on the boy's shoulder.

"Drake no, don't be stupid," said Billy knowing what Drake was thinking.

Drake looked towards Billy with a serious look and replied, "I haven't been able to sleep from 'that day'. I need to find the answers."

Next Chapter: The Forest of Endless Trees