Jachum finished stretching and with a sigh stood up. He had just completed strength and core exercises. This was something he was forced to do constantly no matter what training he did beforehand. As his father had explained it, “Control begins with core strength and flexibility, without either of these your dead before the first arrow is loosed.”

“At last, he thought to himself. “Another training session finished. Time for lunch.”

Stretching his sixteen-year-old frame towards the sky he made his way into the same old cabin he had seen his entire life. Well, maybe not the exact same, over the years it had grown a little worse for the wear. “It’s so fucking boring here” Jachum sighed in his mind.

“I really don’t understand my Dad; he teaches me all of this shit about the outside world and doesn’t even let me go out and see any of it.” He thought as he stomped into said cabin, glaring at the man who held all of his ire.

“Jachum” his father said without turning around as he finished grilling some squirrel meat. “How long is it going to take for you to get over this teenage angst of yours. I’ve read quite a few books about it from your mother’s library, but I never thought it would be this bad.”

“Whatever old man, speaking of my mother, tell me again why you decided to run away with me.” asked Jachum snidely.

“I never should of tried to make homemade beer: that stuff was really potent.” Grumbled his father. “For the last time you little brat, I didn’t run away with you. Your mother and I mutually agreed that it would be best if I was the one raising you.”

What sane person would agree to let you raise a child by yourself?” cried the teenager in outrage. “Even then, why did you decide to live in the Dark Forest, without any other human contact?”

“First off” said his father coldly, “You coming with me is a decision I will always be happy about. I would be terrified to leave you in the hands of your mother and her family. Secondly, the peace and quiet out here makes it a very good environment to raise and protect you against outside influences. And who knows what you would have gotten into if we had stayed in the capitol city. And thirdly, this forest is my retirement. And I’ll have you know that this forest has a lot of spirits that venture across realms into its depths. The only reason I can guess why you don’t see any of them, is because you have Wisahkeha’s spit still on you.”

“Dad, the only women I’ve ever seen is the painting you have hanging inside your room, and when that piece of shit fox is trying to confuse me.” Jachum spoke in a sad voice. “Heck the only reason I know that the fairer sex exists is from books and your Anatomy and Physiology lectures. How is this any sort of life for a teenager?”

“It is good reason you’ve never met a woman; they only cause trouble.” Said his father. “The only reason I’m in this mess is because of a damn woman.” the older adult thought in his head.

“Whatever” said Jachum, “Why can’t we at least go somewhere other than here, it’s so boring, I feel like I’m becoming schizophrenic. I still don’t understand why we never go visit a city, or town, or see other human beings. If they even exist that is.” At this point Jachum was shouting.

“We are clearly not going to be able to hold a logical conversation while you’re this angry. Shut up, eat your squirrel meat and go into the forest, we can talk about this when you come back tonight.” Said the man, brooking no argument.

Jachum, unwilling to not have the last word, but knowing he was beaten added a sullen “Fine” to the silence. He quickly ate his meal, and grabbing his spear ran out the door into the pristine wild beyond.

His father slowly sat at the kitchen table, looking a bit worse for the wear. “Jachum I swear to the spirits I thought this was the best decision for you at the time. But I don’t know anymore, you are lacking so many things you should have had. A mother for starters. This was the only thing I felt I could give you at the time, freedom from any greedy hand looking to make a profit off of you. Maybe it was the wrong decision, I don’t really know.”

“I really wish my father was here.” He thought with a long sigh looking around at the quiet empty cabin. “Maybe I should take Jachum to visit him. I only have two years left to wait, two years. I think I can hold on till then. He is becoming more of a hand-full day by day. It would be alright if Wisahkeha wasn’t his only friend.”

“That fox really is a piece of shit; he is scaring away every fairy that could have been Jachum’s friend.” He thought heatedly, “It’s no wonder Jachum always upset, he is bored and lonely because that fucking fox isn’t letting him see anyone else. I really think I made a stupid decision by permanently attaching my only son to a named one. The child’s thoughts grow ever so foreign to me day by day. I still don’t even know what gift that stupid fox gave my son. My original guess is wrong I think, cause Jachum is still clearly human. Fuck, I don’t know how many times I’ve had to save him from deaths door over the years.”

What was he even talking about Wisahkeha turning into women? I guess I’m going to have to play damage control on that one too. If only I could keep the fox away from Jachum to make him a little more normal” Thought the man with a sigh and an exasperated laugh.

“Oh well, what will be will be.” He said aloud trying to calm down. Standing up the man sort of fell into his shadow, disappearing and leaving the cabin completely empty.

Deep into the forest a couple miles away from the empty cabin, Jachum was stalking a very large very dangerous cat. With fangs the size of his knife and claws that could tear through the wood on the massive Buloke trees like they were butter. One hit from this predator and Jachum was toast. He wasn’t worried though, he had come a long way from back in his preteen years.

At the age of fourteen his father had made him stalk the same type of creature for an entire afternoon. Halfway through he almost died. But now, he had full confidence in his ability to not be noticed.

He had been following this particular cat for the past two weeks. It would usually sleep in the early afternoons, so this particular day Jachum was surprised to arrive at the cat’s cave and find no cat. Luckily the tracks were extremely fresh, and it only took his a couple of minutes to catch up to the beast.

It looked as if it was stalking something but from Jachum vantage point up in a tree, he was unable to tell. As the predator was being treated as prey by a 16 year old, the cat had its eyes focused on a place two hundred meters away. For sitting there trying to dress a wound on her shoulder was a frail smelling human female. The Cat stalked the wounded female slowly. The female completely unaware of its presence.

“She is so pretty.” thought to himself, taking in her figure. From the long locks of black hair to the curvy body and the blood dripping down her arm.

“Blood.” Jachum thought, “Shit there’s blood, this is what the cat had been stalking.”

He started going forward to attract the animal’s attention away from the woman, when he realized something and mentally chided himself. “First off, I need to think about this logically, how many times has Wisahkeha tricked me like this. Why in the world would a woman show up in the middle of the forest out of nowhere. I’m not going to let that fox trick me again, lets wait for a minute and try and see if it is the fox or not.

Instead of making noise, Jachum made his way quietly down the tree, hidden from either participant.

The female raised her head for some reason, and the cat acting as any predator would, it froze in a crouched position, knowing full well its prey was unable to see it.

Till the time of its death, the cat had full confidence in its stealth, to hide from this weak creature. A breathe of wind blew from the woman’s mouth and the cat sort of froze in place.

Jachum was kneeling on the ground hiding when he saw this “Even his father had never done something like that.” He thought stunned.

“I know your there, come out, before I start trying to kill you” Shouted the woman, staring in his general direction. Jachum wasn’t a hundred percent sure she could see him. But he was kind of curious about the gift she had used, for he assumed it was a gift. Slowly stepping out from behind the sapling and bushes he had hidden behind, he raised his hands and shouted back. “I mean you no harm.”

“At least father taught me how to hold a conversation like a normal person” thought Jachum as he made his way towards the woman. “She is prettier the closer I get.” he thought dazedly. “Focus Jachum, focus. You need answers. Why is a woman in the middle of the forest, and for that matter, how did she use her gift to kill the cat.”

It had been nine long years of constant experimentation, but Jachum was still unable to figure out what gift Wisahkeha had given him.

“Hello, might I know where you are coming from and your name fine lady.” Asked Jachum in as calm a voice as he could muster.

The woman glance at him curiously, “I’m Morana, and I’m sure you wouldn’t know the name of where I come from. What is your name boy?”

“My name is Jachum.” He replied, “And I am no boy.”

“Oh” said the woman with a slight raise of her eyebrow and a smile on her lips. “If you are not a boy, then you must be a man. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a man as small as you though.”

“I am too a man thank you very much. “ as soon as it left his mouth he realized how childish he sounded and groaned at his own stupidity.

“Really?” said Morana with a twinkle in her eye “To be considered a man, a boy should know how to handle a woman. Can you handle a woman…. boy?”

“Yes” he replied in a shaky voice, this was after all his first time meeting a person from the fairer sex. “She is acting a lot different from the books I read.” He thought.

“Prove it.” Said the raven-haired goddess. “Come boy, show me you’re a man, give me a kiss.”

Jachum’s mind fell into a daze. It wasn’t as if he really wanted to kiss the woman, but he couldn’t control his body. It was an odd thing to see ones own body move without permission. And struggle all he might he couldn’t stop.

“So” said the woman, “are you going to stand there all day, or are you going to kiss me.”

Unfortunately, the feeling of his first kiss even if it wasn’t completely willingly did not last very long. Pain from multiple stab wounds deadened the feeling and suddenly he regain control of body. It was too late, Jachum’s strength was leaving him, and a gentle push Morana sent him onto his back. Jachum, confused, looked down at his chest only to see blood pouring out from three stab wounds where a healthy heart should be located.

Morana stood over him calmly. “I have to say, for someone who has supposedly never kissed anyone you did a pretty good job. But I have been out of practice these past few hundred years, so I might not be the best of judges.”

Jachum tried to crawl away from Morana but she laughed and said “You can’t leave yet; I’m supposed to leave a message.” She said, practically pouting.

Clearing her throat, she started speaking in an extremely familiar singsong tone, “Well little one here we are again, you falling for my tricks, me enjoying them immensely. I felt like you needed a change of pace, so I asked one of my death friends to swing by. Jachum, I am thoroughly disappointed with your behavior, after so many years even Aborska thought you would have learned not to trust random strangers.”

Morana continued, “That was the end of the message.” Shifting her weight this way and that the lady smiled and said, “You know Jachum, you are a very cute boy; if your still alive in a couple of years I think I might come for a visit.”

With that, she disappeared

-Father’s POV

It had taken him a bit longer than usually to find Jachum. Jaachum seemed to be progressing every day at making his presence disappear. Nothing he couldn’t handle, but it was a testament to the boy’s talent and the father felt a bit of pride in his heart.

Finding him stalking a predatory cat like he had been the past two week, The father thought, “How can the boy spend an entire afternoon stalking an animal, and yet after only a three hour lecture says he’s exhausted.” shaking his head, he moved into a more comfortable position and pulled out a very interesting book discussing the how several planes interact at a single point in all seven planes at once.

It was around fifteen minutes later, that reality seemed to pop back into focus. It was as if a bubble had exploded, freeing the realm to return to normal. The father jumped as he felt reality shift back to what it was supposed to be,

“This has been happening way too many times for my liking.” He thought, frantically glancing around for his child.

“What the fuck did Wisahkeha do to you, Jachum.” He exclaimed seeing his son lying on the ground bleeding out.

“That fox has really gone too far this time.” He thought angrily, trying as hard as he could to save his little boy’s life.

It was the afternoon by the time Jachum finally woke up. He felt confused and betrayed as he lay in bed, thoughts swirling in a chaotic mess. After a few minutes, he shook is head to clear away the errant thought and sitting up out of bed made his way slowly downstairs. His father was sitting in his usual chair smoking a pipe, when seeing him, waved for Jachum to take a seat.

“Tell me what happened, and don’t leave out any details.” Mutter he through the smoke

It took about an hour to finish telling the story, at which point his father, shaking his head, declared “This is why I wanted to keep you away from women.”

Jachum was quiet during the recovery workout and training his father put him through that evening. All he could think about was how awesome it felt when Morana’s lips were against his.