The Myth Of A Dream

The Hunters

Page 4

You get back out of unconsciousness, by something hitting your head. Next thing you notice, is things sliding along your legs, things that you identify as branches from bushes. Very close to you, you hear heavy breathing. The breathing gives you a flashback, the heavy breathing is from the Bear that was chasing you, before.. You can't remember much else yet, other than that you somehow lost consciousness. The heavy breathing of the bear so close to you, drives a shock through your body. Out of fear you open your eyes. As you open your eyes, you feel your body being stuck into something. With your eyes open, you immediately get it.. you are in the mouth of the Bear. The Bear is walking through the bushes of the forest, while carrying you in it's mouth. With your mind just back out of unconsciousness, you can barely think. For a very very long moment, you just hang there inside the mouth of the Bear, dazed as you are. The Bear takes you further and further through the forest.

At a certain point, you realize that you are still alive. Though, being inside the mouth of the giant Bear, you feel that you are as dead as can be.

"Why the Bear doesn't eat me? Why does it carry me through the forest like this?" You ask yourself.

Not sure what to think about your situation, besides being barely able to think at all.. you hang there in the mouth of the Bear, looking at the ground. Panic arises in your head.

"I have to find a way to get out of here." You think.

But you realize that you are lucky that you are alive at all and in the position where you are in right now, you are quite lost. No options for escaping your fate. As you feel the teeth of the Bear sticking deep into your flesh, you get the hopelessness of your situation. You come to the chilling conclusion, that you are neither dead, nor alive. At any moment the Bear could close it's mouth completely and that would be the end of you. Many long frightening moments the Bear carries you through the forest, while you have no idea why, or where it is going to.

From close distance, you hear loud growling, from the direction where the Bear is heading to. Then you hear more growling, from other locations nearby. With fear in your heart, you look at where the growling is coming from. You see three other Bears. Those Bears are smaller than the one carrying you in it's mouth. It doesn't take long for you to figure out the situation where you are in.

"Oh, so that's the reason for me being carried so far. This Bear is gonna feed me to it's family."

An uncontrollable fear is taking over your mind and your body. You want to shout, scream, run away as fast as you can.. but all you can do is watch, while the mother or father Bear is carrying you towards the younger Bears. In the middle of the four Bears, the giant Bear drops you onto the ground.

"So this is it." You feel, you think.

With those monstrous Bears above you, looking at your flesh, you can no longer control yourself. You shout, you yell, you fear for your life. The mother or father Bear reacts to your shouting and yelling. Growling, filled with bloodlust, it steps towards you, moves it's head down and opens it's mouth. The murderous teeth of the giant Bear near your body. You yell and you yell, hopeless.

Through the sound of your yelling and the growling of the Bears, you hear something hitting the giant Bear in the back. The Bear reacts surprised and expresses the pain felt by the thing striking it's back. Two more things can be heard flying through the air, they both hit the Bear. With a last roar, the giant Bear drops down onto the ground, dead. You now see that the Bear was struck by three arrows. The three smaller Bears look up at their dead parent. You hear more sounds, that you now recognize as the sounds of arrows. Next you see one of the smaller Bears get hit by two more arrows. The young Bear falls down onto the ground, expressing a last roar like it's parent. The remaining Bears look next to them and start to panic. The Bears express sounds of fear. You see how the young Bears turn around and flee away. Two more arrows fly through the air. One arrow hits one of the Bears, the other arrow misses and shoots into the bushes. Both the Bears run into the bushes, out of sight and away into the distance. You express a sigh of relief, while you hardly got an idea what is going on. 

Interested to know who fired those arrows, you look into the direction where the arrows came from. 

"It's clear! The Bears are gone!" You hear from somewhere above you.

The moment after that you see a Man appearing out of the bushes. As the Man is walking towards you, you see another Man coming out of the bushes. You notice that the two Men nearing you, are wearing the same old brown clothes as you. Armed with long swords and constantly looking around them, the two Men stop in front of you.

"Too bad those Bears escaped!" one of the Men says.

"Yes, Ergil!" the other Man responds.

"We could have killed them all!" the Man named Ergil responds.

"Yes."

"We finally found the Bear's den. Luckily for us that the Bear brought this unlucky traveller all the way home to feed the young Bears."

"Yes and finally we could punish this Bear for killing two of our Hunters."

"Those other Bears we will deal with later."

"Are you alright?" the Man named Ergil asks you.

At first you aren't sure what to say, as Ergil helps you standing up. Then you feel the pain of the deep wounds caused by the Bear's teeth.

"I'm badly wounded in the side and in the back!" You say. 

"I'm not surprised. We've seen the Bear carrying you all the way in it's mouth." The other Man says.

"We thought you already died. Our scouts heard you shouting, but when we arrived, we didn't hear you anymore. I thought we were too late and that the Bear had taken another victim. When we heard you yelling again, we knew we had to act quickly."

"I thank you for saving me!" You say to Ergil and the other Hunter.

"No problems, we Men need to help each other!" Ergil responds.

"But what were you thinking, walking all alone through the forest?" The other Hunter asks you.

"He is probably from the city, Belenir!" Ergil responds laughing. " The people living within the safe walls of the city have no idea about the reality of the outside world."

The Hunter, named Belenir, laughs at Ergil's words.

"Yes, he probably is." Belenir responds.

"Come stranger. We will take you back to our camp. There you can get some rest and take care of your wounds, before we bring you back to the city." Says Ergil.

"Alright, Erbald, Argenon take the hides and the meat from the Bears, then we will head back for the camp." Ergil orders.

The two Men come out of the bushes and do as ordered. All useful meat and all useful parts of the Bear-hides get cut off from the dead Bears, then the two men put it into bags. Ergil gives everyone, including you, one of the bags. He himself grabs two bags. Following that, Ergil, who seems to be the leader of the Men, of the Hunters, signals to someone up in the trees. You look up but you see no one.

"Daldo, Nirden, Herbald! Go scout ahead! We are going back!"

And so the group of Hunters and you, together with the hides and the meat, head through the forest, towards the Hunters camp. As you see the food around you and you feel your empty stomach, you really hope that the Hunters camp isn't too far away.

The Hunters camp

Through many many bushes you go, together with the group of Hunters. You really feel there is no end to the trees, no end to the roof of green leaves, until you and the Hunters come at a small river. Along the river, goes a sandpath, a much broader sandpath than the one that you followed from the Hunter's lodge into the forest. Following the sandpath and the river, after another long long walk, you come at what you recognize as walls.

"Ah, we are back!" Argenon says.

Through the wooden walls, you and the Hunters enter the Hunters camp. As you look around, you see several small structures, buildings, made out of hides and wood. More Men, Hunters are inside the camp. You and the group walk towards a building in the middle of the camp. Ergil puts aside the hide in front of the entrance and steps inside the building. You and the group follow. Inside the small round building burns a campfire. Around the campfire sit a Man and a woman.

"We are back, Chief Ahtan!" Says Ergil. "And we bring good news!"

"What would that be?" The Man, Chief Ahtan, asks.

"We've found the den of the Bear that has terrorized our Hunters for so long. And we killed the Bear." Answers Ergil.

"That's good news indeed!" Chief Ahtan responds.

"We brought hides and meat with us, from the Bear." (Ergil)

"Ersa, show them where to put the hides and meat." Says Ahtan, while looking at the woman.

Ersa stands up and walks towards the entrance.

"Oh, we also found a lonely traveller in the forest, Chief Ahtan." Says Ergil.

Chief Ahtan raises his head and looks at you.

"Keep him here, you go with Ersa to put away the hides and the food."

As ordered, Ergil and the other Hunters follow Ersa to outside.

You stand there alone with Chief Ahtan.

"So, what brings you here, stranger?" Chief Ahtan asks you.

Struggling to find words you try to answer.

"Uhh.. Well.."

Still you can barely understand what is going on. You have still no idea where you are, or how this is possible, but now you stand there talking to a complete stranger, in what looks like nothing but a weird dream. But then you do feel the terrible need for food, you feel tired and the almost unbearable pain of the deep wounds of the Bear's teeth. Impossible to find a way to explain all or anything to the Chief of the Hunters, you keep standing there saying nothing.

"Oh, I understand. You must be tired from the long walk all the way from the city, from Grimbar." The Chief says. "And I ask you these silly questions, I'm sorry."

You don't find yourself able to say yes, or no, or anything. All you do is nod, since that's the easiest thing to do, easier than trying to tell what really happened.

"Well, you can take some rest here. After that my Hunters will take you back to the city. You people from the city have clearly no idea about the dangers outside the city walls. Spiders, Bears and other deadly animals await you in this forest. In the open fields between the city and the forest Orcs and Wolves wait for you, to swallow you to the last bone. It's very unwise to leave the city on your own, it's a miracle that you've made it so far. Let that be a lesson."

Again you nod.

"Ok, come with me. I will show you your rest room."

The Chief stands up and walks towards the entrance of the building. You turn around to follow the Chief of the Hunters. You can not withstand the pain coming from the wounds, while you turn around. An expression of the suffering leaves your mouth. The Chief stops and looks back.

"Are you wounded?" Chief Ahtan asks.

"Yes." You answer.

"How did that happen?"

"From the Bear." You answer.

"Oh, the Bear got you? Well, good that it's dead. I will tell it to Ersa. She will take care of your wounds."

"Ok, thanks." You say, as you nod.

"Well, let me show you your rest room now."

As said, the Chief leads you to outside and outside in the camp, Ahtan walks with you to one of the buildings. Ahtan shows you the building.

"There you can rest and get some sleep," says the Chief as he points at a hide lying down on the ground. "When Ersa has made the food ready, I will send someone to get you."

"Ok, thanks." You say.

Rather you would've liked to eat now, but you realize that you got no choice. The Chief leaves the building as you go sit down on the hide. Somewhat later Ersa enters your rest room.

"Hello, come with me. I will take care of your wounds." Ersa says.

You follow the woman to the building of the Chief and close to the fireplace you go sit down. After Ersa is done, taking care of your wounds, you walk outside to go back to your rest room. In your rest room you lay down onto the hide. Later, a Hunter enters your rest room.

"Food is ready. Come to the eat room." The Hunter says.

You follow the Hunter to the eat room, another building inside the camp. In the eat room you go sit and finally you can eat. Eventhough you feel you could eat much more, you are glad when you've eaten your bit. Done with eating and drinking, you go to your rest room. While walking through the camp, you look at the sky. Between the trees on both sides of the river, you see the white sunlight.

"Strange, it feels like I've been walking a whole day, but the sunlight is still the same." You think.

In your rest room, you lay down on your hide. With the filled stomach and as tired as you are, it doesn't take long before you feel the sleep coming. Every little move you make, makes you feel the pain of the wounds. Eventually, your need for sleep wins it from the pain and you fall asleep.