The night nears its end. Silence, accompanied only by the sound of the river flowing through the city, is slowly fading away, with the morning fauna getting up, until it is completely overwhelmed by the bells of the clock tower, as they ring welcome to a new day.

The rising sun fills the streets of Riversbrook with its shine, and slowly makes its way into the building interiors, slowly creeping on the still sleeping Adrian. And with the morning warmth touching his cheeks, he hears a voice gently calling out to him.

"…up. Adrian come on, wake up. Didn't you say that you want to go to the market with me?"

Adrian starts to opens his eyes and sees a slender figure with dark brown hair tied in a front braid leaning towards him. Being aware of the intentions behind the slowly approaching object, he tries his best to dodge but to no avail.

*mwah*

Properly reacting to this devastating attack, Adrian got out of the bed with a swift movement.

"Mom! Stop kissing me, I am not a kid."

"Oh you're right, sorry. Breakfast is ready and by the way, does Mr. Cuddles want to eat as well?" She uttered teasingly.

Embarrassed, he tries to hide his teddy bear under the sheets.

"No." He mumbles under his nose.

"Alright then, let's have a quick grub and head out."

The remains of the night’s silence are slowly being overtaken by chatter and footsteps, as the streets, paved with stone, grow more and more crowded with people shopping.

Adrian and his mother Lyra, walk down the seemingly never ending line of wooden stalls, standing on both sides of the road, making the street even more narrow, gradually filling their bags to the brim with groceries, until they stop at one in particular.

"How's business?" Lyra asks a seemingly empty market stall.

"Pretty well, my stuff is selling good right now so I should be done in half an hour, then we'll be ready to go."

A bulky figure suddenly appears from behind the counter revealing dirty blonde hair tied in a ponytail with a full beard.

"Oh, I see that you've brought a companion." Uttered the figure.

"Good morning Maldwyn! And yeah, I‘m helping Mom with the groceries."

"I know it's sooner than we agreed, but can I leave him to you now, if you don't mind… I would like to tidy up the house a bit, to prepare it for lunch, till you two get back with the game."

"Of course, at least we can depart sooner. And also I could use a strong helper myself."

Adrian grins.

"Are you going to be alright by yourself Mom?"

"From whom do you think you've inherited your strength?" Said Lyra proudly with a flexing gesture.

"Well, see you later boys, good luck and don't you dare coming back empty handed."

"Boys?" Adrian repeats angrily.

Maldwyn puts his hand onto Adrian’s shoulder and says.

"Oh come on, don't be so rough on your mother. You're growing up fast, let her enjoy the time she can still pamper you. But on the other hand, this is no place for children, because right now I need a strong man to help me with these last batches in the back. Do you know about someone?"

"I'm on it!"

Half an hour later the chatters and rumbling of the footsteps slowly died out as the rush hour came to a close end together with the morning stock of most shops.

"And, we're done!" Said Maldwyn victoriously, as he slowly began to close up the wooden structure that held many items not a while ago.

"Are we finally going hunting now?"

"Yes we are. But first we need to grab some stuff from home."

"Like what?"

"That's a surprise."

"Wait, are you going to teach me how to shoot from a bow?"

"Hmm… maybe?"

"Yes, woohoo!" Yelled Adrian whilst happily jumping.

After getting the equipment from Maldwyn's house, located just behind his stall, they've made their way through city gates. Adrian was always overwhelmed by the size of the iron gate surrounded by stone, as he didn’t venture outside that much.

Standing near it were two guardsmen on duty, out of which one of them has intercepted their path over the bridge, and said with a serious tone:

"State the business of your departure citizen!" Asked one of the guards.

"Oh, I am just going to pick up some flowers and bring a bouquet to your wife, I'll be right back."

Maldwyn and the guard, whose only recognizable features were a pair of eyes on a wrinkly face looking through the helmet's opening, angrily stared eye to eye for a long while accompanied by utter silence. Adrian was being showered by a cold sweat running down his neck from the sudden stress and animosity radiating out of the two giant figures, until Maldwyn began to hysterically laugh and not even a second after has the guard joined him.

"Seems like the round is on you tonight!" Proclaimed the guard trying his hardest to pronounce the sentence properly through the laughter.

"Damn it, no wonder I lost with your dumb looking face Otto."

The guard took down the helmet revealing a head of a bald older man.

"Oh come on Mal, let me have this one, I am usually the one paying. So you two going out on a hunt judging by your stuff."

"Yeah, I'm going to teach Adrian here how to shoot a bow. We need to make haste since we were told not to come back without a proper kill."

"Young man here becoming a hunter?" Said the guard before kneeling down to level with Adrian's height. "Heh, let me tell you that girls nowadays dig men with bow so be prepared to also become the prey." He finished with a smirk and stood up again. "Speaking of which…" Otto looks at Maldwyn.

"Don't look at me like that… I still haven't asked her." Mumbled Maldwyn while averting his gaze.

"Oh come on, the mood around you two can't be more unbearable for us spectators and I am pretty sure it is worse at least tenfold for you. Look man, I already lived through my lovey dovey years so I have some experience, and I can tell that you two belong to each other. All you have to do is take the lead and confess, and I am sure that Lyra feels the same way."

Maldwyn sighs.

"Alright, I'll try to muster up some courage on the way, thanks."

"Hey no problem, you can thank me with another pint as you tell me the good news."

"A bit too positive, are we Otto?"

"Heh, I must have woken up on the right foot. See ya!"

Maldwyn and Adrian began making their way to the nearby forest located around a twenty minute walk by the main road. Strolling without uttering a word, Maldwyn felt nervous as to what was Adrian's opinion about him, and his mom Lyra being together.

After a while, having come a short way into the forest, with the ever increasing emotion Maldwyn asked him:

"About your mom and I. Sorry if it was too sudden I didn't want to make any presumptions unless I was totally sure of what would happen so if it-"

"It's alright." Said Adrian cutting his nervous blabbering off.

"Really?" Maldwyn asked happily as he turned to Adrian and put both of his hands on his shoulders.

"Yeah, I mean, I know you for a long time and I like being with you. I am sure you would make Mom happy. I also never knew my dad so it would be kind of cool to have one." Adrian proclaimed innocently.

Teary eyed Maldwyn proceeds to hug him as he says:

"Thank you. It means a lot." He rejoiced while almost choking him.

"And by the looks of it you'll need all the help you can get so if you need anything I am here to-"

Adrian’s supportive speech was stopped by Maldwyn, who put his palm on his mouth completely silencing him, and whispered:

"We shall continue discussing our plan later, right now we seem to have a visitor." He slowly turned him around to see a lone rabbit bouncing around.

Maldwyn continued whispering whilst moving as calmly as he could:

"Now watch me, I'll take the bow with my left hand, grab an arrow into my right and nock the arrow all the way back and…" With a deep inhale, Maldwyn let go of the string propelling the arrow right through the rabbit, pinning him into the ground.

"Of course, there is more to it and I'll show you in a second but right now we have to end this poor guy's suffering." Finished Maldwyn as he began moving towards the rabbit.

"Wait what? Why? I thought you've hit him."

"That I did, but for it to be most painless, one must strike their vital points which are either the head or the heart." Answered Maldwyn while showing the said points on himself. "Unfortunately, small rabbits like this one here are harder to hit, so sometimes it's not a quick death and we need to help them."

Adrian followed him to the slowly dying animal, and watched as Maldwyn kneeled to the heavily breathing creature with a knife. Touching its chest with the kinfe’s point, Maldwyn thrusted the blade inside so that it almost looked like it disappeared in its fur, but after pulling it out, the steel came out painted red.

Adrian’s vision was all of a sudden getting blurry, after which he started to lose his balance, and finally fell unconscious onto the forest's green bed.

…..

*thump*

…..

*thump*

…..

*thump*

Adrian, now sitting against a tree, is slowly opening his eyes, trying to locate those annoying thumping sounds attacking his ears. With the image getting clearer, he sees Maldwyn throwing his, now clean, knife into a tree nearby.

"W- what happened."

"Oh you're finally awake. Didn't know I was being accompanied by such a wuss, passing out from a smear of blood." Said Maldwyn after which he started laughing. "Just kidding it's pretty normal to have this kind of reaction for the first time. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think so." Answered Adrian while looking around.

After getting gist of his surroundings, he notices a beheaded rabbit pinned on a tree in an upside down position, and immediately averts his gaze somewhere else.

"Take a breather, we should go catch some more food but first… shooting training." After a small preparation, Adrian stood in front of a tree with a dug out target symbol.

"Just like I showed you before. Hold the bow in your left hand, take an arrow with your right, and nock it into the string. Tilt the bow a bit to make the arrow rest on your finger, and pull your hand to your cheek so that you can aim it better. Now before you decide to shoot, take a deep breath and steady your aim. When you’re ready, you can let go of the string."

Adrian followed the instructions to a tee, but the shot arrow missed the target, and even the tree completely.

"Damn it!" He swore.

"Hey now no need to get worked up over one missed shot. Mistakes happen and you need to learn from them, remember your initial aim and improve upon it. Grab another arrow."

This time the arrow hit the tree, but a tad lower than the target.

"See, that's better! We still have eight arrows left so go ahead."

Adrian's continuous shooting improved his skills, so that he managed to shoot the area of the target with last few arrows, and with the final one the bullseye. Maldwyn was puzzled whether it was just a coincidence or his talent, nonetheless he deemed it to be enough.

"Alright, let's pick up the arrows carefully and hope we can still use some of them. Fortunately I brought a couple more just in case."

After managing to salvage some of them, Maldwyn took the rabbit, tied to a stick, with him, and continued on with Adrian in search of another prey.

A while later, they managed to spot a deer feeding on a lush patch of grass.

"Do you feel up for it or should I hunt it down?" Whispered Maldwyn.

"I will… try." Replied Adrian unsurely.

Summarizing in his head what he had previously learned, Adrian drew the bow shooting an arrow towards the unsuspecting animal, after which, during the few moments of uncertainty, he closed his eyes in prayer for a straight hit. Not even a second right after that, he heard a sound similar to something falling on the ground, shortly accompanied by Maldwyn's praising words.

"Great shot!"

Adrian opened his eyes and saw the brown furry thing, lying on the ground motionless, with an arrow sticking out of its long neck. Both of them rushed to it to check whether something still needed to be done.

"It seems to be still alive, you probably just paralyzed it." proclaimed Maldwyn, after which he took his knife out of its sheath. "Killing a deer is a bit more gruesome, so I suggest you turn-"

"No." Adrian interrupted. "I want to do it."

"Are you sure? Well if you say so. Take my knife."

Surprised and concerned Maldwyn started giving him instructions:

"Hold it down with your hand, and put the knife right above the middle of its neck, with the blade facing down. Now after you stab into it, you must then cut along the direction of the blade, outwards with a one strong slash."

Adrian nervously swallowed, and thrusted the cold steel into its still warm body. With the ever increasing weight of his breathing, he began pulling the sharp edge outwards, but due to his lack of strength, he only managed to cut a small length. Inch by inch, he was pulling the blade, struggling both physically and vocally, until the knife was finally free. While the blood from the jagged cut painted the gaps between the grass blades red, Adrian was trying to catch his breath.

Maldwyn extended his arm towards him, in offer of helping him stand up, to which Adrian gladly accepted, and grabbed his hand. He then patted him on the head and insisted:

"You've done well, go sit it out and I’ll take care of the rest."

Adrian nodded in agreement.

After few minutes Maldwyn announced:

"Well, I am done here, it seems to be getting foggy here, we should go back now… you feeling alright there Mr. Huntsman?"

Adrian grinned and said "Yeah, let's go home."

Backtracking their way out of the forest became increasingly difficult due to the thickening fog, but fortunately they've found their way onto the main road from where the route was easy to find.

Maldwyn noticed panting Adrian and asked:

"Still a bit shook? We can take a break if you want."

"Nah, it's fine… it's just kind of hard to breathe in this mist." Answered Adrian while holding his chest.

"We'll be there in a few minutes don't worry. But still… it's uncommon for it to be like this at noon."

Nearing their destination, Maldwyn noticed a burning smell. With Adrian barely keeping up already, his pace gradually increased.