Freedom, it turned out, was not as fun as Nihe thought it would be. When he had stood staring at the sun on that first evening he had been filled with joy as he started to understand how big the world really was. It had been over a week since then and now he staggered forward between the trees. Nihe was suffering twice, once for the numerous scratches and cuts that covered his body and once for the painful hunger that made his limbs weak and his head spin. After having eaten his way through the supplies Donto packed for him Nihe had eaten some of the fruit growing on a bush to sustain himself and had been left paralysed on the ground for an hour. Nihe had quickly realised it was not a good idea to eat the strange plants. That had been when the first predator had attacked him. Nihe had fought many beasts in the arena, but out in the forest, Nihe had gained a new appreciation for how scary they were. Wolves came at him in packs and worked together biting and slashing at him or a hog would rush him and attempt to spear his stomach with its giant tusks. Nihe had fought and killed each new threat as it appeared. He had even tried to stomach some of the raw meat since he had no way to cook it but he couldn’t keep it down so he just struggled onwards.

Nihe knew now that his freedom meant that not only was he able to explore the world, he was also free to die at any time. If he didn’t find help soon he might well do so whether it be from starvation or on the claws of some beast. Nihe had always been fed in his cage, even if he was not well fed, and he had lost his fear of fighting in the arena years ago. He was experiencing true hunger for the first time and the fear he thought he had lost was returning in force as his situation only got worse. Nihe didn’t know much, many people might consider him an idiot and it was debatable as to whether they were wrong but after a lifetime of tough training and bloody combat, Nihe knew almost everything about the human body and its limits. Right now he knew that his body was at its limits in more than a few ways. He was a body cultivator of the third rank but even the powerful energy in his veins was nearly gone. Without sustenance, Nihe couldn’t replenish his energy and now only had a little bit left.

Nihe’s dragging feet caught on a tree branch and the boy went down in a tumble. He just lay there for a while as he stared at the forest floor, fallen leaves and twisting roots that fought each other for space both above and below the surface. After a time Nihe managed to sit upright. He shuffled until he could rest against the very same tree that had caused his fall. He doubted he would ever get to meet a druid, in fact, he doubted he would ever meet another human for as long as he lived, admittedly that would probably not be much longer. His hands moved into the small sack, there was no food left so Nihe just ran his fingers through some of the loose coins at the bottom. The coins clinked together and Nihe felt the cool metal against the tips of his fingers. When his fingers brushed up against the smooth leather cover of the book that had been thrust into his arms by Donto, Nihe paused. He hadn’t bothered with the book in the days he had been running and fighting his way through the forest. He pulled it out a took a look at it for what he realised was the first time. The book really was thin, the leather cover easily being twice as thick as the pages it contained. The cover itself was fairly simple the leather had once been dyed red but time had worn it away allowing the leather's natural brown to see the light again. Neither the front or the back were decorated, in fact, the only way to differentiate them was the small symbol of golden thread that had been sewn into the centre of the cover. Looking closer at the symbol Nihe saw it was an eye, not human but like his own, the pupil was a vertical slit down the middle dividing the iris in two.

Nihe opened the book, he couldn’t read and the jumble of symbols arranged in lines made his head start to ache after staring at them for too long. The book, however, contained more than just words much of the space was taken up by diagrams and sketches, to begin with, they showed animals, twelve of them, with diagrams which as far as NIhe could tell seemed to show how to bleed blood from the animals. Nihe couldn’t put his finger on it but the animals were familiar to him somehow. Nihe was slightly confused until he turned past the last of these, a drawing showing how best to string up a pig carcass. On this page, the sketch showed a man sitting cross-legged in a large pit while other men tipped large barrels of blood over him. Eyes widening, understanding came to Nihe and he flipped back over the drawings. This book was the manual for his cultivation technique. Nihe had been instructed and trained in this technique since he could remember… well, anything. He had never seen the manual before now, however, he had known there was one from the way Menas’ trainers had told him he should cultivate “exactly like it’s written in the manual.” A statement that Nihe had always found vexing as at that point he didn’t even know what a manual was and even when Donto explained Nihe was left confused. He’d never seen the manual and eventually, Nihe had just forgotten about the manual simply cultivating as he had been taught. Now that he finally held the thing in his hands Nihe found himself wishing he could read it maybe it contained some secret about his cultivation technique that could save him from his seemingly inevitable demise.

With that thought, Nihe remembered his current predicament, Alone and starving in a dangerous forest full of wild beasts. Feeling his spirit groan under the weight of his predicament Nihe sighed, he was doing that a lot since escaping his cage. “At least I can't blame the animals for being wild.”

“Grrrrrr.” Great, now his stomach was talking to him. Maybe I'm going mad? Maybe, but Nihe hoped not he didn’t want to go mad, he didn’t want to die either but it seemed what he wanted was, as always in his life, irrelevant.

“Grrrrrr.” Odd, I didn’t feel my stomach growl that time.

Nihe sat bolt upright, his eyes scanned the forest around him. It was a bear, Nihe winced internally, this was not good. Wolves and Hogs were dangerous but they were smaller than a man even a boy like Nihe was larger than them. Being small meant that when he stabbed them with his spear he could easily push through to their heart or lungs or that if they got past his spear he could push or shove the animals away from him. Nihe wasn’t going to be able to push this bear away.

Nihe had seen bigger bears but they had been in the arena and although they had been bigger than this bear they were gaunt and starved, ghostly versions of what they had been in the wild. This bear was neither gaunt nor starved, even on four legs the bear was as tall as Nihe and the thick brown fur that covered its bulk did little to hide the shifting muscles that spoke volumes about the bear’s strength. Nihe new that the bear's strength wasn’t all he would have to contend with either bears are fast, really fast. Nihe would have been able to just about lose the bear if he had been at full strength and run as fast as he could but now he wouldn’t make it past a couple of trees before the creature caught up to him. Even if Nihe got away that massive twitching nose would probably find him again within a day if the bear decided to hunt him. Nihe had never thought about his senses of smell and hearing but being attacked by the same wolf pack three days in a row would make anyone respect a predators heightened senses that put even Nihe’s keen ears and nose to shame.

Nihe sat there looking at the bear a mixture of awe and fear keeping his body still. Nihe realised that his stillness might be the only reason the bear hadn’t killed him yet. It stood there staring at him with a cold intensity. Finally, his fear overpowered his awe allowing him to move. Nihe searched through his blood for any energy he could use and managed to scrape enough together for one final burst of power. His eyes still focused on the bear, Nihe moved his pack onto his shoulder and broke eye contact with the bear looking for his spear, that was a mistake. The second he broke eye contact the bear roared and Nihe herd a few pounding strides before the bear leapt at him. Nihe leapt for his spear rolling over it as he managed to close a fist around the shaft coming up in a crouch facing the bear. The bear turned quickly but seeing that Nihe was holding his spear now it didn’t immediately charge and began circling him looking for a moment of weakness. Nihe felt a cold pit form in the bottom of his stomach. This bear wasn’t just well fed and in better condition, than an arena bear, it was smarter too. In the arena bears lost both their strength and rationality to the pain of starvation charging fighters in a manic rage. Nihe had fought bears in the arena before and had gotten used to those charges using his cultivated strength and speed to hit weak points like the mouth or eyes turning the bears own momentum against them. This bear was smart enough not to give him the opportunity to do that. Nihe realised that he had no chance to kill this creature his only hope was an escape and to do that he first needed to ensure the bear wouldn’t be able to track him. NIhe knew he would only have once chance at this and readied himself to draw on the power in his blood.

The bear snarled coming in and swiping a claw as big as Nihe's entire head at him. Nihe dodged out of the way a big exaggerated roll that took him nearly 3 meters from the bear. The bear growled and started its advance again. Nihe dodged its next swipe, in the same way, earning him another growl from the bear. Nihe breathed out, the bear was really angry, it was now or never. On the next attack, the bear swung fast almost lunging at him trying to swat him before he had a chance to roll away again. NIhe didn’t roll away this time taking a small step backwards out of the bears reach. As the bear’s claws swung past Nihe he felt it draw five bloody lines in the skin of his arm. Ignoring the burning pain Nihe swung his spear down giving it all the force he could without using his cultivation. He drew a single blood gash on the bear's face bisecting the beast’s nose. The bear recoiled and Nihe took that moment drawing on the blood in his body he turned and ran.

Nihe had only gone about 20 meters when he heard the roar of anger and the thudding of four massive paws on the forest floor. Nihe knew he would only be able to outrun the bear as long as he had the energy to draw on and he was running out fast. He cut between the trees looking for thick patches of trees or narrow gaps in the underbrush that would slow the bear down or force it to go around. Nihe ran flat out and when he ran out of energy in his blood the angry roars of the bear were distant, he hoped that would be enough. He kept running even without his energy but before having taken more that 10 steps he tripped on a tree root and went tumbling over a ledge and down the side of a hill. Nihe lost his spear in the tumble but he clutched the strap of his pack for all he was worth. Nihe seemed to roll for hours but eventually, he felt himself burst through a bush rolling to a stop on hard packed dirt. The sun shone down at his making think he had stopped in a clearing. Nihe quickly pulled on the pack's strap and felt relief as he saw that his pack hadn’t torn in the fall. It was only then that Nihe noticed the sound of hoofbeats coming towards him.

Nihe looked up wondering what manner of forest beast had come to kill him now but what he saw made him break out in a cold sweat riding towards him were 2 people were they the same men who had killed Menas. Donto had said they had been after him after all. were these two going to capture him and take him to that Duke Ansted, Donto had told him he was worse than Menas and that thought made Nihe shiver. As the horses came close Nihe tried to get a good look at the riders but the morning sun behind them only showed Nihe vague silhouettes. Nihe tried to stand to prepare but after the fall his body had all but shut down. When the horses were next to him they pulled up and one of the riders dismounted. They were not soldiers.

“Are you okay?” The person who had dismounted was a lady, no not a lady, a girl. She rushed over to him and knelt down next to him she had brown hair and green eyes which quickly moved over all the cuts and scars on his body. “No, of course, you're not okay, stupid question.” and then she turned to the other rider and called out. “Danen he’s in bad shape.”

Nihe followed her gaze looking up at the man who was still mounted and staring at the forest on either side. He turned to glance at Nihe and their eyes met. The man's eyes were different colours something Nihe had never seen before and as he watched the man's pupils dilate and felt his own do the same as he remembered what his own eyes looked like. The man spoke “Your eyes…” and he heard a sharp intake of breath as the girl beside him noticed them as well, shuffling away from him.

Nihe was just about to reply when he heard it.

“Roarrrr!”