The sun had been up for a good few hours by the time Ahanu woke. He lay on his wool mat in the dark of the tent with Aitya nestled into his side, his arm underneath her head and hers tucked comfortably under her chin, pressed into his shoulder. He lay there for a while, bleary-eyed and still half asleep, gazing at the thick cloth roof of the tent. Despite the sun being up it was a cold and dreary morning, with grey clouds roaming the skies high above, and Ahanu felt bad about not having gone to see Makatai the previous night despite their agreement. He’d be sure to visit later on in the day to apologise, and discuss the events of the night before.

It had been so strange, and had unnerved Ahanu greatly. The gate to the other side had opened just like usual, revealing the alien landscape of the Otherworld, but not one spirit had stood on the other side! The gate had remained open for hours, with the concerned and upset people of the Nine Cranes watching and waiting intently, but not one spirit had shown up. Eventually the connection faded and the gate shut on its own, leaving the assembled crowd entirely bewildered and disappointed. They had turned to the highly-strung old shaman of their settlement, who choked out some lame and nonsensical excuse that Ahanu had seen straight through. The old man had no idea what was happening, just like everyone else. So with no real explanation for the people to work with the night had come to an abrupt end, and so Ahanu and Aitya had fallen asleep together in Ahanu’s tent, whispering warmly to each other in the shadows.

As he lay there pondering casually he felt Aitya stir, and looked to his left to see her gazing back at him, her eyes barely visible in the dark. He smiled at her and kissed her forehead, and she smiled back and buried her head in his chest. Slowly he began to sit up, his injured leg giving him almost no trouble anymore after their shaman had worked on it for the last day or so, and he stretched it as he stood. It held his weight just fine and so he turned to Aitya and held his hand out to her. Begrudgingly she took it and he pulled her out of bed. “We should go and visit Makatai, you know. I feel bad for bailing out on him last night. Hey, maybe he’ll know what that was all about? He and Nahla might have figured something out together.” Ahanu pondered aloud to her, pulling his bracers on one by one. His many braids swung freely around his shirtless back, hanging just below his shoulder blades. “Yes, you’re right. You should apologise too, after you decided we weren’t going anymore.” “I should apologise? It’s your fault I called it off.” Ahanu raised his eyebrow as he said this. “How is it my fault!?” “Well, it’s definitely not my fault you chose last night to look so good…” Seeing her flush and begin to open her mouth in protest, Ahanu laughed heartily. Yeah, it was a good day alright. Even despite the weather.

With the pair now fully clothed they stepped out into the daylight. As they did so, Ahanu felt the slightest bit of drizzle stroke his neck, but the rain had a comforting warmth to it. His father and mother sat outside their tent across the camp, and he waved to them, smiling. Smiling back his father threw him two bread rolls, one of which he passed to Aitya and the other he started to eat. He went about telling his parents his plans for the day. “Ahanu! What a terrible friend you are!” His mother began to voraciously scold him. “You didn’t even think to let Makatai know you weren’t going to come?” “Well, I didn’t know in advance…” Ahanu developed a very sheepish look as his mother continued her tirade, with his girlfriend nodding her head and looking disproving. His father simply looked between Ahanu and Aitya smirking, which quickly earned him his own scolding. Still smiling, he motioned for Ahanu to go on and then started to try and talk his wife out of her rant. With the sounds of his parents’ conversation fading off into the distance, Ahanu grabbed a little more food from the feast table as a lot of it still remained uneaten. Munching down on a cold cut of meat he gave Aitya a bite, and after waving goodbye the two began the walk over to the Rising Bear.

Far, far in the distance a flash of lightning could be seen, but no thunder was heard for about thirty seconds. The rain began to drive a tiny bit harder, still nowhere near enough to cause discomfort. “You know, I really was looking forward to seeing Pati last night…” “I know you were, tiger. I’m sorry he didn’t appear. To tell you the truth, I was a little scared he would show up! I don’t think your father likes me.” Ahanu tried to lighten the mood a little, but he put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a little squeeze. Aitya’s father had died when she was young, on the hunt for a titanic boar. The thing had skewered him on one of its vast white tusks just as he sent an arrow deep into its eye socket, the two dying together in a morbidly ironic twist of fate. The one thing that gave her solace was that she could see him once a year, always running to embrace him as he appeared with child-like joy in her eyes.

He knew it hurt her more than she showed, and so he fell silent. “No! That’s not true at all. He only acts so disapprovingly of you to your face.” “Even when he told me I didn’t deserve you, and you deserved better?” Ahanu had to admit, that had hurt a little. “He’s just overprotective of me. And what do you mean by that anyway? Are you glad I didn’t get to see him?!” Her upset was now seeping through, and she was turning it on Ahanu lacking any other target. The rain started to come a little heavier now, the droplets larger and larger. Grey clouds rolled in overhead “Look… I didn’t mean it like that at all, tiger. You know that. I like your father! I just want him to approve of me. And of course I’m not glad you didn’t see him, how horrible do you think I am? I know just how much you look forward to him coming back every year. You’re always so happy to see him, I’d never want you to lose that.” His words seemed to prove effective on Aitya, who relaxed but still looked glumly at the floor. He stroked her hair as they walked, trying to put her a little more at ease, and it seemed to work. They continued their walk in silence.

Looking ahead he could see the outlines of tents in the far distance and knew they were nearly there. But something began to unnerve him, that being that despite the fact that the wind was blowing their way there was both a noticeable lack of both smoke and sound coming their way. He could hear absolutely nothing, and not one fire was lit. Ahanu frowned slightly, becoming a little concerned at the noticeable lack of activity, but continued on to the settlement. He really started to worry when he could see absolutely no-one moving around the camp. Looking worriedly at Aitya and her returning the expression the two began to run towards the Rising Bear.

Ahanu’s blood ran cold as they arrived. A cold wind rolled through and the rain still poured, lightning breaking overhead. The encampment was ruined. A few tents had collapsed, there were weapons strewn everywhere and food and drink littered the floor. Shards of glass and ceramic lay all about, evidently from shattered cups and glasses. The couple surveyed the scene in horror, looking around and then at each other with eyes wide and jaws tight. They stepped further into the mess, the only sounds being their footsteps in the mud, the driving rain and the howling wind as the weather grew progressively worse. Tent flaps whipped wildly in the wind as they approached the center of the chaos. As they walked Ahanu took note of the markings in the dirt (signs of a struggle) and curious, thick tracks all leading towards the central bonfire similar to those that a predator leaves after hauling away a carcass.

Serious dread was mounting in Ahanu’s heart now. There was absolutely not one sign of life anywhere in the entire village, and not a single set of tracks leading outside it. It was as though the people of the Rising Bear had quite literally vanished into thin air, leaving not a single trace of where they had gone. Thoroughly scouring the entire settlement over the course of nearly an hour, with the pair almost silent the entire time so as not to break the tentative quiet, with doing so feeling almost disrespectful. Upon completing his thorough sweep, there were two conclusions Ahanu had come to. First of all was that despite there being clear signs of a struggle, with weapons having been abandoned seemingly mid-fight and a general state of disrepair across the whole camp, there was not a single drop of blood anywhere to be found. No sign that anyone had been injured at all. His second conclusion was a revision of a previous one that he had made. There was, in fact, a singular set of tracks, human boot prints, leaving the village to the east. The figure seemed to be limping. coming down harder on the right side than on the left. Ahanu looked east, his eyes following the predicted direction of the footsteps. He could see nothing out of the ordinary through the rain that now lashed his face, but knew that in that direction was Knightsbed Grove, A titanic woodland that ran almost all the way to the border of Avalon. However even the closest corner of the grove was still far away, miles and miles of plains, hills, valleys, ridges and rivers separating the settlement and the forest.

Ahanu paused to consider. There were two possibilities as to who the individual leaving the Rising Bear was. Number one, which seemed the least likely to Ahanu, was that it was the culprit of the attack who was leaving after fulfilling their goal. This struck Ahanu as extremely unlikely for multiple reasons, the main ones being that he considered it almost impossible for one person to have done away with the entire tribe, considering that there were plenty of warriors amongst them. Second of all, if the people really had been attacked and killed, where were the bodies?

He pushed those thoughts from his mind. No, it was impossible for a single attacker to have done this. Which left him with only one remaining option, and it confused him severely. One of the members of the village had “survived” (although he had no way of knowing whether they were actually dead or not) and rather than going to seek help from any of the other settlements nearby, of which the Nine Cranes was closest, they had headed further away and into the wilds. Despite the fact that this made little sense, compared to the other option Ahanu felt that this was vastly more realistic. Judging by the footfalls, whoever this individual was was clearly injured and so could not have gone far. His curiosity was building by the second, and combining with his shock at the entire situation. He hoped against hope that it was Makatai, despite him having never been the best fighter, and motioned for Aitya to come over.

“Aitya. Get help from the village.” He explained about the tracks, and who he believed they belonged to. “Send some warriors here to move any supplies left back to our village, and protect it from bandits. Call it a show of goodwill, whatever you might, but we should all look out for each other out here." As he spoke he moved through the camp. He grabbed a bow and a quiver stuffed with arrows, slung a leather shield over his back, a bear pattern emblazoned on it, and picked out a beautifully crafted Leviathan steel tomahawk from a weapons rack nearby. Swearing under his breath to return it as soon as possible, he tucked it into a hoop on his belt and it fit in snugly, then turned to face Aitya again whilst patting the pouch full of bolas he always carried with him to make sure it was full. "Fine, but where are you going?" She came over and put her hands on his shoulders. He brushed her chin lightly whilst simultaneously looking off into the far distance, his face warm but his eyes cold and calculating, just as they were whenever he was tracking his prey. "I'm going to do what I do best, tiger. I'm going hunting."