The Hunt

 

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The Hunt

 Verin watched as his father began to gather his spear, bow and dagger as he readied themselves for the hunt. Verin looked on longingly, he had to wait another year to be able to participate in the weekly hunt. BRVOOOOOM, sounded the horn an the men waved goodbye to the women before heading into the dark forest. Verin walked back into the village and helped his mother with work around the house, cleaning and cooking. The sun began to set down on the horizon after a long day and Verin’s mother began to worry. Verin walked through the door and sat on the grass on the edge of the forest. He started to worry himself, his father could have met a bear, or worse. His mind took a downward spiral of all the thing his father could have gotten himself into. Finally the men began to emerge from the trees, tattered and torn. The men were covered in claw marks and teeth shaped holes, and some hadn’t come back at all. Looking upon the pitifully small crowd he finally saw his father, battered and bleeding. “Father!” He yelled as he ran over to help him. Slipping his father’s arm over his shoulder Verin brought his dad home into their small cottage, warm with the dancing fire. When they got through the front door Verin’s father was instantly pulled into an embrace, “Why are you so late.” Scolded his mother. “W-we were attacked, by a beast. It was massive and scaled with a large snout and claws,” he said looking up. “But it wasn’t a dragon, in the forest..... it was worse.” When the moon reached its highest point Verin lay awake his mind and body ready for the next moments. Getting up he quietly he snuck into his father’s room, he gripped his father’s spear, bow and dagger. Then sneaking out quietly out, towards the door. As he opened the door he didn’t realise the man standing near the ashes of the fireplace, smiling towards him with his wife next to him. “Don’t worry, he can do it, I know it.


The little light cast by the moon turned green as it filtered through the leaves of the forest. The dense lines of trunks surrounded Verin and the green leaf litter covered his foot steps. Walking through he saw claw marks lining the trees, and thick branches snapped cleanly off the tree. Following the trail of marks Verin quietly took his spear from his shoulder. Then he stopped and thought again, looking up he saw the claw marks were 3 meters high at least. So instead he grabbed vines from the nearby trees and set to work on the trail. Finally after his work was done he continued towards the trail and tracked down the beast. Verin froze when he heard it, large stomping, enough the shake the ground. Looking forward he saw a large beast, with a long snout filled with rows of teeth. It’s mouth reached down and picked something up from the ground below, and to Verin’s horror he realised it was a body of one of the hunters. Reaching back for his spear he drew it, aiming he slowly pulled his arm back. Waiting a second he trained his sight of the beast, he drew in  his breath and snapped his wrist forward. The spear flew forward, but it dropped faster than he originally expected. Instead of hitting the head cleanly it fell in towards its leg. It lodged itself in the joint where the leg met the body, roaring in fury the beast turned towards him. It charged him, the spear snapped as the bone moved up, but that led the iron tip wdged deeply into the flesh. Verin turned and ran, and he was lucky, the spear tip hindered the beast’s movement. Verin sprinted down the trail, the way he came. But as he sprinted at full speed he made sure to jump when he reached the two trees he had marked. After another few meters he turned back and faced the beast which was only meters behind him. But it failed to see the camouflaged line of vines stretching from one marked tree to the other. It’s legs collapsed and it fell forward, neck snapping from the force of its head and neck colliding with the ground. Walking over Verin gripped his dagger and cut out two things, a tooth and a claw. Walking home proudly Verin held his two rather large trophies.

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Author’s Notes

 This was a short story I made in class for an assessment. I decide it was good enough to add into my collection of books which are growing considerably over the year. I hope you enjoyed. As always thank you and goodbye.

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