It was around midnight and my eyes were unable to fall into slumber.i sneaked outside the hut and sat on a stone near the edge of the ridge. It was freezing cold, the stone I was sitting on felt like ice and not stone.
I looked at the sky, it was vast, clear and full of stars. My father used to tell me when I was 8 that stars are where Gods reside. They see you during the night and if you talk to them about your sorrows then they will guide you to the right actions and speak through your heart.
My father wasn't the biggest man as I had told earlier, but he was braver than any other. Mother used to tell me that the blanket we slept in was the skin of a giant wolf and my father was the one who hunted it. He was hailed as the bravest and the strongest warrior. Though I can not say the same about myself.
When I was satisfied with the sky I looked downwards into the abyss below me, an endless pit of darkness. I must not look at it for too long or I will lose myself.
It was quite dark, I could see nothing no light at all only a sound, a continuous wailing sound , maybe it was the wind down there or maybe it was Something else.
The Shaman of the tribe always told the children including myself not to go near the edges or else the SOUL EATER would rise from the darkness and eat away our souls after dragging us in.
I was about to Get up and go to sleep but I noticed something. A spark maybe, it was quick but I saw it ! And a screeching sound followed by a wolf's howl from the darkness.
There was definitely more than wolves there. I leaned in a little to look closer but I would fall in if I leaned more.
The screeching sounds stopped, the tiny spark didn't appear after I caught a glimpse of it.
I kept looking ..nothing new. No new sound , no howls.
My thoughts were interrupted by my mother.
"Why Are you not sleeping?"
I was so shocked that I lost my grip on the stone and was about to fall, but thank the gods my mother caught my hand and I am still here to tell you this story.
" Are you trying to die in vain !? What are you doing here !?" She asked visibly angry.
"I saw something down there" I said pointing to the abyss.
"Nothing exists there, you should not look at it." She said after calming down a little.
She held my hand and took me back to the hut. I finally felt alive again in the warmth of the house. Mother looked at me and spoke as delicately as possible.
"Are you scared about tomorrow?" She was talking about the coming of age test tomorrow.
If I said I wasn't scared I would be lying through and through but I wanted to do my best for my mother who worries for me.
So I said " No I am not!"
" If you were not scared, why did you go to the edge of the ridge, you know very well how dangerous it is. Were you trying to kill yourself ?" She asked sternly
If I started telling her again of my midnight-awake vision of seeing the lights and weird sounds from the abyss, she would say I am making excuses. So I thought it best to just accept whatever allegations I was blamed with.
" I wasn't trying to kill my self, I just went to take fresh air, soni won't run out of my breath tomorrow. I went to look at the sky. I missed Father"
She looked at me with a smile " do you want me to tell you the story when your father and I hunted a snow leapord?"
My eyes felt cheerful again, and she told me the story of my father's bravery until I fell asleep.
Yes I would definitely grow up to the bravery of My father. I will do my best tomorrow.
Or so I thought.
When I woke up the next morning. I heard loud sounds of groaning, was it a fight?
When I went outside to take a look I saw that all my friends were heading to the training ride, my mother called me telling me to hurry and prepare my bow and arrows, the coming of age ceremony will take place before the Sun rises.
The Children, including me were all 12 years old. Today we must prove that we have the tenacity to survive the Freezing Winters and the Warm summers of Palash. Theybwere walking in groups, friends who were together in the ceremony would be brothers for life. I was alone. I had friends sure, but would they allow a weak one like myself to be with them ? I don't think so.
When I was finally heading out along with other children I felt a weird sensation, and someone pulled me to the side. It was Antelia, the daughter of Anatulia. She was one of my friends, she was the same size as me and she would also be there in the test.
"Roheil , let's go together." She said cheerfully.
"What about the other girls? You could go with them." I remarked, she looked at the other girls and then she looked at me and said " but I want to go with you" her simple way of thinking would definitely get her killed one day I thought.
"You should stick with more people rather than with me."i said
But she held my hand and pulled me along the horde of children.
When we reached the training ridge, all children were already there, we were a little late, and the chief was already on his speech.
"-You must all bring one hunt from the lower part of the mountain back to the tribe, either freshly dead or alive and offer it to the mountain spirit that has protected us for generations! And I warn you to not go beyond the lower ridge and you must not enter the Abyssal depth ! May the blessings of the Stars be with you !" He ended his speech, we were late but we heard the important stuff.
When Antelia and I were about to move we heard a murmur, the children were talking about something in hushed tones, the centre of the attention was none other than the Warrior who had showed me what physical strength is.
He walked to the middle of the ground and liked at the Chief. He had 3 other boys with him , though smaller than his build but visibly the same age. The chief repeated his task and warning, the glow in his eyes told everyone that he expected quite a lot from the warrior.
When he turned back with his 3 friends and our eyes met. It was our second meeting and the third was going to be the Start of our adventure.
When we finally started to descend down the mountain we said our good byes to our loved ones as it might be the last. The coming of age ceremony is not a simple game of hunt, many children die in this hunt and are lost the mountains embrace. My mother had an aur of melancholy around her as she waved at me.
--------------------------------------------------------+
The upper part of the mountain range was the home of cold winds and sunny weather, sometimes violent storms and calm clear nights. But the lower part seemed like a different world altogether, the trees were silent , the air heavy with a distinct sound of stillness, and the wind- there was none. Antelia and I were on our guard , we had long separated from the horde of children, if we had to hunt we would need more people but grouos were already made and slowly everyone left to find their own game.
I noticed a rabbit 🐇, I pulled my arrow from my waistband and put it on the bow, i signled to Antelia not to make any sound.
I had practiced the day before all the day and has finally learnt how to weird a Bow, but my aim was not the best, neither was Antelia's.
As I pulled the arrow in the string to my chest the rabbit's sensetive ears caught on and it escaped. We were disappointed. The sun had risen and we had to get back before it set. We had quite a lot of time , we munched on our rabbit jerky and took rest for a while.
While we were laying a rope trap for hunt, Antelia spoke , perhaps she was bored we had done nothing but shoot arrows all morning.
"Have you heard the rumour that Sandar is the illegitimate child of the Chief ?"
"Who is sandar ? " I asked
"The Big guy who was looking at you in the training ridge, his name is Sandar you know the one who arrived last" she was speaking as if she was telling me a story.
"I heard the elders talking that Sandar was the child the Chief made with a woman who came from down the abyss!" She spoke a bit louder now .
"Shshh!! The prey will all run away!" I said while utting my finger on her lips.
She looked at me for a while and then all of a sudden a leopard jumped out from behind a rock.
"Grrrr!!" It growled as it moved towards us.
"What do we do now!?" Antelia panicked.
I told her to run in the opposite direction and attack from behind while I bait it downwards.
Antelia nodded and ran, the leopard tried to jump at Antelia but I turned it's gaze my way by hitting it with a stone.
The leopard ran towards me Antelia shot and arrow at the leopard from behind but her aim was off and it pierced it's ear. I ran with all my strength downwards and screamed
"Antelia shoot it!"
Antelia kept shooting the but running in the snow was difficult and aiming while running was even difficult.
The elders said that leopard only hunted on in the mountain foothill of the nearby mountain not on this mountain.
So why is there a leopard chasing after my flesh !
The sun started to disappear the sky turned black , did evening come already ? I could not hear Antelia at all? I looked back the leopard had stopped it looked at me and then looked back. Where Antelia was standing at a distance taking a breath and god's know how It decided not to chase after me. It even didn't attack Antelia and passed by her like invisible Air.
Antelia came ran towards me and jumped at me. "Are you okay!?" She was breathing heavily , she must have continuously shot arrows while running.
We sat there on a rock for a moment to take a breath and then looked around , it was dull and dark. Antelia then realised something and spoke hesitantly " we have entered the Abyss, what should we do now ?! "
The way we came from had disappeared already , it was trees all around. No sun to find direction either.
Just then we suddenly heard a rustling sound. Something was walking out from the darkness. I quicked took out an arrow and aimed at the direction of the sound.
What was it ?
Was it the SOUL EATER ? That the elders kept talking about , the Shaman had repeatedly told us not to enter the darkness.
--------------------------------------------------------+
I aimed at the sound my eyes unblinking and my arms strained with the pulled arrow. Should I release it now?
I released it ! And a loud sound came ! A wolf's Howl louder than any other I had ever heard. And our came from the Darkness, a glowing winter Wolf bigger than the biggest wolf in my imagination. It shone like the sun, it's hair was glittering like the Night Sky and it's fangs longer then the Spears and Sharper. It seemed injured , more than what my arrow could have done already, it had a huge would bleeding from his torso.
My arrow was also stuck at its breast,bleeding slowly . It was painfully groaning and walked towards us, I hurriedly pulled another arrow but the beasts eyes which looked as if it pierced my inner self before my arrows could pierce it, made me hesitate. The wolf growled and with its remaining strength it jumped at me before I could prepare my bow and arrow.
Before its large fangs could grab me, I was thrown to the side by a heavy push. It was Warrior who I do not know came out from where but has saved my life and now was struggling Against the Giant wolf holding its jaws by both hands.
Antelia attacked the wolf by shooting arrows but the Warrior screamed " Do not shoot! I
He is not dangerous" he gripped the jaws and threw the wolf to the side.
The wolf fell but tried to rise again only to fall on its belly. It was way too injured.
The wolf as it layed down breathing heavily looked at me and then at the Warrior and suddenly in my mind i could hear a voice
" Help me children of palash~"
The sound echoed in my mind as if the nature was speaking itself.
When the sound ended the wolf closed its eyes and fell unconscious.
The warrior looked at us " what are you doing here? This place is forbidden"
"We could you the same question" soke Antelia
"A leapord chased after me and I was separated from my friends" though he gave his reason , it was difficult to believe that someone who can overpower a wolf as giant this this one sprawled here would run away from a. Leopard, but what would we know we ran ourselves.
" We were also chased by the same leapord perhaps" remarked Antelia.
The warrior looked at me and spoke " do you have any herbs ?"
I gave him some herbs which I brought, afterall he saved my life.
The warrior didn't use it for himself, he walked to the Wolf and starting rubbing the herbs on the Wolf's would. , he took out the arrow and then sat beside it.
I would have asked why would he try to save a beast who could if it would kill us the moment it woke up and eat our flesh and bones without chewing, but I chose not to as I was finally out of the danger of death for the time being and decided to rest for the moment.
This was our third meeting , I thought as I looked at him nursing the injured wolf and I felt this would be more than just a coincidental meeting.