“What happened?” A chilling voice sounded in a silent room enough to make one’s skin crawl.

An old man and a young boy sat in the middle of what looked like a hall. A table was placed in between them, a few potion vials and bandages placed on it. The boy was tending to the bruised body of the old man while the old man looked at the boy tenderly. He had never seen Vance acting like this before.

“What happened? How did you get hurt?” said the boy in a slow yet piercing tone. “Do you have any idea how worried I was because you didn’t come home?” He added.

The old man opened his mouth a few times to say something but closed it quickly, not saying anything. He didn’t want to worry his son too much as this was just a minor wound.

However, with Vance’s persistence, he finally opened his mouth.

“It was the bandits,” he said with a sigh.

“Bandits?”

“Yes, bandits. They usually loot people who are traveling alone for any valuables. Since I was walking alone, they thought of me as an easy target,” Morgan explained.

“But how were they able to injure you? You are a retired knight's commander. You are stronger than them.”

Vance was not able to make out what he was feeling deep inside him. This was an indescribable emotion that was swirling inside him and he felt it for the first time today.

“Well, they were of a higher level compared to the normal thieves. I am getting old too now,” Morgan replied slowly, “I was somehow able to fend them off because of my higher class.”

Silence engulfed the hall once again. Vance kept treating the wounds, bandaging the cuts.

* * *

“Pahh, Pahh”

In the wild stony path of the mountains, a boy was panting. At a glance, he looked like someone with average facial features - olive skin, charcoal black hair, and blue eyes - neither attractive nor ugly, just average looking like someone else.

This 10-year-old boy was furiously panting on the stony path, early in the morning, seemingly tired from physical exertion.

A few years ago, he saw his father injured for the very first time. Witnessing his father covered in bruises and cuts, something inside him snapped, igniting a desire in him to get stronger to protect his father. He had already read about history and knew personal strength was important.

Thus, he started his daily routine of making his body stronger. Four years had passed since that day, with him working hard to train his body stronger.

He was not fairly tall enough for his age, a slim figure with toned muscles.

‘I feel like I can easily defeat someone of my age easily, one on one,’ he thought.

After his daily exercise routine, he started his walk back home. On the way, he noticed his surroundings, which seemed peaceful, green flourishing everywhere since it was spring around this time of year. He now knew there were four seasons in a year - summer, fall, winter, and spring.

“I am back, father,” announcing his return, he opened the main door and entered the cottage, which had grown a bit shabbier with time. The wood had dried up in some parts while creaking sounds could be heard often from the floor.

“Hmm, done with your exercise routine, I see. Good, good. Now come sit down, it's time for breakfast,” An old man with a wrinkled face and a little bent back greeted Vance, his eyes filled with fatherly love.

Age had taken its toll on Morgan, who was now 110-years-old. It was still a high age considering very few people live past the age of 100 due to harsh living conditions and how dangerous the world was. With time, he had reduced his physical tasks to a bare minimum on Vance’s persuasion and was told to rest only.

All the household chores were now entrusted to Vance himself. He would work in the farmhouse in the morning while doing the household chores during the day. Trips to the nearby city were very few on random days, and he would fetch water from the stream during his evening run. An hour for study was reserved at night. That’s how time has passed for both of them in the last few years.

While having dinner, they would have the usual discussion about life around the farmhouse and if anything was new or not.

“Father, I was thinking of going on a rabbit hunt,” Vance said suddenly. “It would be good for your health too.”

“Really? But do you know how to hunt?” Morgan said, scrutinizing Vance. “It's not as easy as you think it is.”

“I know. That’s why I will be careful,” he tried persuading Morgan. “At the end of the day, ist still a rabbit. It's not like it could harm me or something. You don’t have to worry.”

‘How can I not worry? You are still 10-years-old and have barely hunted before. You don’t even know how to hold a weapon.” Morgan said in an aggravated tone.

“Calm down father, it's just a small rabbit hunt. Moreover, I will be at the periphery of the woods only, not going deeper.”

“Hah, why ask me when you have already made up your mind?”

Seeing his father angry, Vance held his father’s old and weak hands in his and said in a filial tone, “Please father, I won’t go any deeper. Please allow me to go.”

“Fine, but on one condition. I will accompany you to the outside of the woods.”

‘Deal.” Vance said in a delightful tone.

* * *

Excited about the prospect of the hunt, Vance looked for a long stick to use as a make-shift weapon. Unable to find something of use, he decided to make one himself.

‘Maybe I can make use of the tree branches.’ He thought when he saw a tree and had an idea.

Vance quickly climbed up the tallest tree nearby and cut off some straight-looking long branches. Soon enough, some five-six wooden branches around two hands in length lay on the ground. He quickly took out a knife and started carving it out to make the tip pointed.

He placed his fingertips on the wooden point and, satisfied with the result, a joyful smile appeared on his face. Soon, he repeated the same process on the remaining wooden sticks, making them into makeshift spears.

“Woah, I see you have done a good job at this,” When Morgan came out of the cottage to accompany him, he was surprised by the results. He didn’t expect such cleverness from his 10-year-old son.

“Doesn’t it look good?”

Vance was feeling proud after hearing his father’s compliment. This meant too much to him. He soon tied up all of the make-shift spears into a bundle to carry them on his back.

“Do you want me to carry this for you?” Morgan said as they slowly made their way to the woods.

“Nah, this isn’t that heavy. Besides, I don’t want to burden you with it.”

After half an hour of walking, they reached the periphery of the woods. Vance had to go inside alone now while Morgan would stay on the sidelines to look out for him.

“Just you wait here, father. I will go and come back with a delicious rabbit like it’s a breeze,” Vance said as he made his way inside the woods.

“Be careful, my child,” an inaudible whisper came out of Morgan’s life, a worried and anxious expression on his face.

Vance had often witnessed a fox hunting some rabbits in the past when he would come on his routine walks. He slowly made his way in that direction. He didn’t need to hunt anything big; just a rabbit would suffice for both of them tonight.

As he kept going inside, the woods became a bit dense, disrupting the sunlight, and making it harder to see.

“How am I supposed to hunt something when I can’t even see it?”

Most small animals would just run away hearing his footsteps on the grass while the birds perched on the tree branches, chirping, making it hard for him to focus on the sound of the animals.

Standing in the middle of the dark wood amid the chirping of birds, he closed his eyes and tried to focus around his surroundings for any signs of sound.

Five minutes passed.

Ten minutes passed…

His concentration was often broken halfway since it was his first time trying to focus on something. He tried again, this time his focus did not disappoint him.

Another five minutes passed as he kept his focus, looking for even the smallest change in his surroundings.

*squeak* *squeak*

When Vance opened his eyes, there was a sharp glint in his eyes. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a white-haired animal under the green bushes, looking around - it was a rabbit.

Delighted with his discovery, he bent down a little, took out a spear from the bundle, and started taking slow steps towards the rabbit.

Slowly…

Slowly, he took another few steps before he was at a close distance and stopped to not give away his presence. The rabbit still looked busy.

When the rabbit was only a few steps away, Vance slowly pointed his wooden spear in the rabbit’s direction and adjusted the aim.

“O’ Mother, please let me hit it once,” he prayed to the divine goddess he read about in the books and carefully took a shot.

The spear left his grip and traveled through the air, covering the distance in mere seconds, and struck.

MISSED !!!

The strike was a failure, which alerted the rabbit. The rabbit looked around in fear and spotted a human a few feet away from him. Scared, he made a run for his life.

“Shit! Shit! Shit! I should have at least done target practice before coming here,” Cursing himself for his incompetence, Vance chased after the rabbit, too prideful to let it go.

“Oi! You stop there right now. Running is in vain”

Chasing after the rabbit, he repeatedly called out to him; but had an animal ever talked? And even if it talked, why would it stop on a human’s call just to be sliced into minced meat the next moment?

Vance chased after the rabbit without paying attention to the surroundings, and unbeknownst to him, the surroundings were changing; the woods were becoming denser, and less chirping of birds could be heard. An eerie silence plagued the area.

When Vance realized something was off, it was late, very late. The little rabbit was nowhere in sight and the woods gave off an eerie vibe.

“O’ Mother, what have I done? How could I be so careless?” The silence of the woods made his skin crawl.

*ptak ptak*

The sound of a few twigs snapping broke the dreadful silence, bringing Vance out of his stupor. He turned around in the direction of the sound -

“Finally found you, you damn rabb…….”

- yet what he saw turned his face pale.

A dark wolf-like beast, similar to his height, stood there looking at him similar to how a predator looks at its prey.

“I am sorry father, I should have listened to you,” were the last words of Vance before a deafening howl from the beast created chaos in the woods.