Chapter 16: A New Year

My Brothers are all peculiar individuals with their bronze tanned skins. Each and every one of them have their quirks.

Brother Ronat, silent and loyal with his big grey eyes that looked both haunted and meek. He is like the shadow behind you, always steadily following, always with you even when there are no shadows.

Leaping Fox, playful and articulate…when he wanted to be. Brows that could rise like the sun at its peak, wide-set dark eyes that tilted upward, and that quick turn of his grin. We always figured his mouth would be the doom of him.

Little Bird, carefree and like the shit stuck to your boots. Annoying at first, but you get used to it. So much that you learn to love the excretion. He had a face made for mocking. Just the right set of lips made for smirking, hooded eyes that looked sleepy, and the most angular ears.

Big Bird, talented with the blade-spear and the opposite of his younger twin though they both had the same features. The only differences were the slight difference in height and the eyes. It was how you could tell them apart; Big Bird had eyes that could win any staring contest. He always liked to break the awkward silence to humor us.

Hidden Shade, pragmatic and knowledgeable. He had wise eyes and downturned lips. It brought to mind of a frowning teacher. He was our go-to guy for forest lore and for herbs like skyweed. He always kept a few with him in his many pouches. For emergency purposes, he said.

Big Bear, helpful and well, big everything. He had kind, red eyes. It didn’t make sense, but somehow those blood colored eyes of his were kind looking. In battle, they were not, however. They were the stuff of nightmares, though his broad shoulders and chest that could make a bear look tiny were already scary enough. Not to even mention his blade-ridges.

Eagle Above Skies, vigilant and determined. He had these slightly downturned eyes that were always flitting left to right, right to left, and sharp lips that curled upward when he sensed something amiss. Our wise older Brother.

And me, perceptive and observant. But not perceptive enough to describe oneself. How does one go about doing that anyway? I suppose I was a splatter of all of my Brothers. I had a little of each traits. But then again, don’t we all?

-Wolf Under Stars

“All set, Brothers?” I didn’t look back at them as I asked my question. It was not even needed. I knew they were all ready.

My vision was entirely focused upon the Multis Gargantuan. It was an intimidating creature that stood upright on its two legs. Its upper body was almost twice as long and twice as large as its lower body. A total disproportion that looked horrific to the eyes. Its back was slightly bent over, a curvature of the spine. These features were due to the fact that the Gargantuan could run on all six of its limb.

And its skin was of an ashy hue that looked like the bark of an old tree. There were ridges and creases everywhere, especially on its back. On its chest were growths of leafy vines that rippled with movement every few seconds or so. Its face was squarish with two great circular holes for its nostrils and the edges of its white eyes seemed as if laced with threads of green—they were the veins of his eyes. Its mouth, always half-opened, was a jagged line that cut across the entirety of the lower half of its face, barely giving space for the protrusion of a chin.

The Gargantuan didn’t have any hair, only more of those bark-like creases and ridges that crisscrossed into each other. I suppose if one was optimistic enough, that could have counted as hair. I doubted it though.

All in all, it was a formidable creature that stood over sixty feet tall, taller than seventy if it could actually stand fully upright. But that was an impossibility made by the nature of its spine.

We observed the creature for a few seconds more, closely following from behind at a set distance, perhaps about twenty trees spaced widely away. We were probably around two hundred feet away from the creature. But even if we were closer, there was no need to put much effort into hiding our presences, for the creature was almost fully deaf.

The Gargantuan stopped, dropping both of the half-broken tree weapons in his two hands. They fell down with a deafening crash that could even be heard from where we were at.

Then it grinned and started doing a strange dancing of some sorts around a tree. It was a tree that was more than three hundred feet tall and had great big vines and moss growing at the upper half of its trunk. Its size stood out from the rest of the trees.

“That is disgusting.” Leaping Fox spat as if trying to get the disgust out. “I think have lost my appetite for the afternoon.”

Hidden Shade walked up a few feet as if trying to get a closer look at the creature, though that few feet did nothing to close the distance between the creature and our group. “Ah, that is intriguing.”

“What is it doing?” I asked, still looking at that strange dancing of the creature. It had all four of its arms wrapped around the tree now.

“It is practicing the art of survival and the art of life,” Hidden Shade replied.

The realization finally dawned on me with the implication of his answer.

Brother Leaping Fox still had not recognized it. “What do you mean,” he asked. “Is it trying to uproot the tree?”

“It’s a mating dance,” Hidden Shade said dryly. “Call it practice for future practices.”

“Oh…” Leaping Fox’s voice trailed off as the creature started randomly waving its four arms around, before finally taking out something protruding from its lower body. “Now that is just disgusting. You are a freak, Brother Shade. I am almost inclined to believe you know about the mating habits of every creature in existence.”

“Does that include you too, Brother Leaping Fox?” I asked, putting a hint of innocence into the question. He didn’t answer.

We watched the creature undergo its mating dance. Well, the three of us did. Brother Leaping Fox was resting his hands on a nearby tree and “cough-puking” exaggeratedly. It was more of a cough than puking, really. He used actions and gestures when cursing wasn’t enough.

By the time the creature was done, I had almost lost all motivation of attacking the Multis Gargantuan.

“It’s an interesting creature really. Quite unique in the fact that the creature practices its mating dances on trees, and uses trees as its weapons. It also eats the trees for nourishment along with some larger beasts. The most interesting aspect, however, lies in the fact that it can absorb some Nature Essences.” Hidden Shade paused, pondering for a short while. “Its appendage also falls off during mating.”

I almost didn’t hear the stress on the second word his sentence, so dumbstruck I was at the Multis Gargantuan. Unlike Brother Hidden Shade, I only knew of the fighting habits of the creatures and how to defend and attack them. I didn’t really bothered with learning the other unnecessary facets.

“Do you mean that green rod-shaped object,” I asked trying to narrow my eyes for a closer look. The appendage Brother Hidden Shade spoke off had fallen beside the base of the tree.

Hidden Shade nodded. “It’s a rare material full of Nature Essences used for many processes by the Magus. The fallen appendage during mating, if inserted into a female Multis Gargantuan, gives birth to a child using the nourishment from the Nature Essences inside the appendage.”

“Alright, alright. Enough already,” Leaping Fox interrupted. “That is too much information.” He made a sickly smile. “No wonder Hunter said to pick up any fallen green rods.”

The start of the silence before a battle began then. Although it would have begun earlier if the Multis Gargantuan had not danced around the tree. I shook my head, grinning to myself. It was just not right to attack someone, even a beast, in a mating heat.

I took a deep breath, feeling for the intangible, feeling the lines of the runic markings on my legs.

Activating the Runic Enhancements was similar to moving a ghostly muscle. In the beginning, it would take some time for the activation to occur, but with increasing uses, one could activate the enhancements or parts of them with a mere thought. This was what we had been told by the older Hunters.

When I activated the Speed Runic Enhancements on my legs and feet, I had to concentrate hard, trying to nudge that specific ghostly muscle. There was a three second delay before the muscle responded. Three seconds may not have been much, but in a battle, even a second was enough to take a life. A second that could spell the distance between a victory or a defeat, a life and a death.

Upon activation, the lines of power ran through the runic markings on my legs. They used the Light Essences and Sun Essences stored in the blade-ridges and my body. And if my legs had been bare, the runes of lines would have shown a soft golden flaring, not strong enough to be seen through the clothing but strong enough to give off a dim light in the night.

I could feel a tingling sensation. One that would not have been noticeable had I not been paying attention. The sensation was akin to that of a gentle wind caressing your skin, like blood rushing through your body except with a weaker feeling.

We ran then. In our predetermined formation, Leaping Fox and I were in the vanguard. We were sprinting equally alongside each other, matching each other paces. Well, sort of matching each other paces, if trying to outrun one another could be called that.

Barely a few seconds in, and we had already crossed the distance, passing by multiple trees. A distance of two hundred feet traveled in less than five seconds, and that was only due to the obstacles that were inherent in a forest.

The gap lessened. Ten feet left. The Gargantuan loomed up ahead like a small mountain. More than nine times my size and half as wide as that number of times.

My muscles became taut and the world seemingly slowed down. My blood, as if responding to the slow ticking of time, became restless, my heart pounding against my chest like hammer blows. Then I howled.

There was no stopping the howl. It came from the depths of my stomach, like a wolf asserting its dominance. My heart tightened as if a fist held it in a strong grip. My right foot swung forward powerfully, and I could feel my boot sink into the ground, no doubt leaving a sizeable imprint. My muscles tensed even more, especially my right leg. Like a massive spring in its coiling, waiting for a release, an accidental snap, anything.

The release came fast, yet slow as if time itself were savoring every slow movement I made. I let out a second howl. It was met with a shout from Leaping Fox. He had split up, choosing to flank the other side of the beast.

In my jump, I could sense the scattering of dirt and a few leaves behind me. Five feet. Ten feet. Fifteen feet. Twenty feet. I shot forward, the wind slapping against my face. I landed hard against the creature’s lower body. My feet thudded against its bark-armored right thigh and my spear stabbed deeply into it. A jolt went up my arm, but I remained steady, not flinching once.

The weapon went in more than halfway, its wooden shaft made from the Ever Tree swallowed more than halfway inside. Against the skin of the beast, it made a cracking noise like an axe cutting through wood. I grunted, pulling my spear off. Blood, of a light green hue, pooled around the puncture I had made. Though it was more of a needlelike wound compared to the massive body of the Gargantuan.

That had been a bad mistake. I should have immediately landed and proceeded for a second jump. If my spear had become stuck inside the creature’s thigh, I would have been left weaponless. I didn’t fancy fighting the beast with my hands.

Using its bent right thigh as a foothold, I kicked away from it, flying more than five feet. Then my blade-spear stabbed forth once more. I held onto the spear, using it to swing toward the creature. I landed at its bent waist and moved closer upward to gain a more stable foothold. I was finally on top of its lower back.

Before even a trickle of exhilaration could enter my mind, a roar resounded like a hundred trees crashing down at the same time. Below me, I could feel the creature turning around, the movement causing a rippling of its massive muscles near the waist.

I sprinted across the curvature of its bent upper body before arriving at its lower right arm, all whilst the creature was trying to shake us off. But it had noticed too slowly and too late.

Not having enough stable footing while running across its back, I could only enter into Small Whirlwind. My shoulders flexed and my waist turned halfway as I gained momentum into the swing of my blade-spear. Then I let it fall, and three feet of Xeonite blade dug deeply into the joint of its lower right arm. The blade met heavy resistance as it cut through the bark-like skin of the creature. I hacked at it once more and pieces of bark-like skin scattered outward. Green on black as its blood dyed my blade. Then another, this time my blade meeting heavier resistance. I was into its bones now.

Another roar and I was thrown off by a quick elbow of its arm as the Gargantuan shook wildly around. I felt myself flying and the wind whistling at me as my vision spun around, two trees passing by and a clear patch of sky was seen. I shook free of the confusion, stabilizing myself, and I turned around and saw that I was careening toward the trunk of a tree.

My blade-spear stabbed out quickly once more and using that as a stopper, my feet landed against the trunk. Gratitude welled up in me toward the Ritual Master like the thanks an empty desert would give to a flood. The tree climbing with the blade-spear was already showing its usefulness.

I chuckled softly to myself. No wonder the Ritual Master had pounded the basics of footwork and climbing to us. We would be fighting huge creatures in our time as Hunters and would be spending most of our time getting flung around into the air.

My head turned toward the roaring Gargantuan. Two of its lower arms hung limp, and green blood flowed out from the joints. Down below, Brother Ronat and Hidden Shade had started dancing around the legs of the creature, trying to slice into its tendons. A meaty fist slammed down onto the forest floor, ripping out grasses by the dozens and scattering dirt and fallen leaves as it left a sizable depression.

One wrong move and you would be flattened under those raining fists from the Gargantuan. Luckily, its two lower arms were barely working. The threat had been lessened by almost half. We only had to be wary of its two arms.

I looked for where Leaping Fox had been thrown off to, spotting him in the opposite direction more than twenty feet away. He had landed into a patch of blue-silver grass and looked to be muttering to himself, clearing some strands of the grass from his head with one free hand.

Pulling my blade-spear free from the trunk, I climbed down the tree. When around only thirty feet remained between me and the ground, I jumped down. I landed hard on my two bent legs, and the impact still went straight up to my knees.

I winced from the shock and numbing pain. I wouldn’t be doing that anytime soon again. I had been lucky to have not dislocated my knees or twisted my ankles. The only way I would be doing that again would be if I activated the Fortification Runic Enhancement along with Strengthening Runic Enhancement on my legs.

I realized that I would needed to test the limits of my body, and this battle would be the first step toward it.

In a few seconds, I rejoined the fight with my three Brothers—Leaping Fox had rejoined the battle first, him being thrown off closer toward the creature.

I charged in, quickly falling into a Lower Assailing Stance. Then I moved into Cutting the Mountains before switching to Clearing the Clouds. Fitting moves since I was fighting against a small mountain of a creature whose head could have reached the clouds themselves.

The two moves utilized an uppercut motion, gathering momentum as the blade-spear circled from down below into an upward motion. I aimed Cutting the Mountains at the base of one of its ankle.

The blade bit deeply and my arms met a small impact, but I didn’t pause even half a second before moving on. Clearing the Clouds made a wide upward arc that bit even deeper. The two moves left deep bloody green marks of lines onto the ankle of the creature.

I moved backward again, avoiding the fist that came from above like a lightning strike. Leaping Fox moved in to fill the space I had left, jumping around the impact the fist had left. The Gargantuan roared again and I could hear the undercurrents of frustration in its grating voice that seemed to echo around.

We switched on and off then as we worked on the ankle. To the other side, Brother Hidden Shade and Brother Ronat were doing the same, each taking a turn to swing at the leg while avoiding any raining fists.

A minute passed by and we had cleared off most of its outer bark-like skin, leaving only the softer inner skin. This, we cut through with ease.

“Body slam!” I yelled as soon as I saw the beast tensing its two legs. Before even the words were out my mouth, I was already sprinting away and had started to activate the Speed Runic Enhancements on my legs. Around me, I saw my three Brothers sprinting away into different directions.

By the time I had cleared more than sixty feet, my Runic Speed Enhancements activated on my legs and I dove for a tree. I felt the ground come spiraling upward and my body moved into a roll as the impact of the ground struck. As I rolled, I kept my blade-spear always pointed away from my face and the length of the weapon flat. It rolled along with me smoothly.

A word of advice. When you fall down with a weapon, always keep the end of it away from your face—the sharp end of course. And the length of it parallel to your legs and closely perpendicular to the hips, though that is just one variation. There is a whole art to rolling with a weapon. It lessens the risk of dying from a self-inflicted stab wound. A stab-wound to the face is always a no-no. It’s a feeling akin to that of a wedding invitation sent to you from your long-time crush. Trust me, I speak from experience.

As the creature body-slammed onto my direction, I could feel the forest floor trembling from the impact. In the midst of that, my body was still rolling from the dive. As soon as I stopped rolling, I quickly flowed into an upright position using the momentum and quickly observed my situation.

It had been a narrow dodge. I could see the entire length of the Gargantuan’s two massive arms lying just short of five feet away. Its pair of white eyes bordered by green veins stared out at me in purposeful anger. Its stubby neck, too inflexible to turn upward, showed only its two eyes as the Gargantuan peered at me. In its failed body-slam, it was eating the dirt and leaves of the forest.

I tasted my own dirt and spat it out. A little dirt in my mouth was worth it to survive the creature’s attack.

In its fallen position, the creature was vulnerable now, and I could see my four Brothers on the other ends of the Gargantuan. With the Runic Speed Enhancement still flaring on my legs, I sprinted toward its ugly face. A big knuckled, ashen colored fist came swiping at me, but I easily dodged it. It was slow from pain and from attempting to stand upright once more.

A rough estimation entered my thoughts and I jumped upward toward its face. From more than a fifteen feet height, I fell spiraling down toward the top of its head. With my blade-spear in the forefront and two hands gripped tightly on the middle of the shaft, I stabbed deeply into the back of the creature’s raised head as it attempted to stand upright.

A painful roar entered my ears and shook my whole body from the force of the ensuing sound. I tried pulling at my blade-spear. I grunted and pulled. I pulled hard, but it didn’t budge. Almost the entire eight feet of my blade-spear’s length was inside the creature’s skull. Only the tip of the black handle of my spear peered out.

I marveled at the vitality of the beast. Its brain had eaten almost a whole eight feet long blade-spear and it was still alive, yet looking no worse for the wear. I had lost my blade-spear in that exchange also. Not a fair trade at all.

And just in time, I jumped off the creature’s head as a giant hand came careening downward, trying to make a grab at me. I retreated, leaving my blade-spear still stuck inside the skull of the creature.

Up ahead, I saw Brother Hidden Shade, Leaping Fox, and Brother Ronat racing each other across the fallen back of the Gargantuan. They came sprinting fast, as if trying to outrun each other, and reached the head of the Gargantuan in a matter of seconds.

Leaping Fox arrived first and from the stubby top of the creature’s neck, he leapt toward the closest tree, before kicking off the trunk of it into a half somersault. His blade-spear then stabbed into the eye of the Gargantuan in a spurt of white and green goo. He left his blade-spear then, retreating backward toward me.

A grin was aimed toward me as he landed nearby.

Before the beast could even roar out from the pain of its stabbed eye, Brother Ronat had already stabbed at its other remaining eye, half-somersaulting off the tree like Leaping Fox. He left his blade-spear there also as the beast moved a hand to grab at his face.

At the same time, Hidden Shade stomped the black handle of my blade-spear which was stuck inside the skull of the beast. The handle disappeared down, and the entire length of my blade-spear entered inside its skull. Without any hesitation, Hidden Shade jumped off before the creature could swipe at him.

The creature bellowed out in pain then, blinded as it attempted to remove the blade-spears stuck in each of its eyes. By that time, the Multis Gargantuan had stood back up again, it ran around in circles, swiping at the foes it could not see. The bodies of trees became half-broken in its rampage, almost as easy as breaking the stalk of a flower.

“Did you really have to do that, Brother Hidden Shade?” I asked. “That was my blade-spear you stuck inside its brain. Now it’s probably swimming in its brain goo.”

He shrugged at me. “Fastest method to kill the creature. It will die eventually from the fatal wounds.”

“Couldn’t you have used your own blade-spear?”

“It would not have went as deep,” he simply replied.

Leaping Fox let out a small laughter. “Shouldn’t have done that, Brother Hidden Shade. Doing that to his weapon would be like stealing his future mistress.” He winked at me, nudging an arm toward me.

“Mistress? What do you even mean by that?”

Leaping Fox sighed at me. “Your weapon is already your first wife, obviously. So any extra girlie you marry will be your mistress.” He shook his head, as if disappointed in me.

So we followed the rampaging Gargantuan then, but only after I had rolled my eyes at Brother Leaping Fox in annoyance. It took a minute or two for the rampaging beast to settle down. Its bellows of anger were futile. Just like its attempts to free the blade-spear out from both of its eyes. His hands and thick stubby armored fingers were too unwieldy to grab at them. It only drove the spears deeper inside its eyes.

The creature gave up soon after, and could only destroy its surroundings in anger. And as the seconds passed by, its movements became duller and duller, before finally it leaned down against a tree, moaning weakly out in his agony.

In our wait for its death, there was only silence between the four of us. We watched as its last set of heavy breaths came harder and harder. There was something in watching the king of the northern forests slowly waste away, the bony hands of death reaching closer and closer every passing second. Each breath the creature took, the rise and fall of its vine-covered chest, seemed as if it was made for eternity.

There was a fascination in that rhythmic movement. The death that comes calling for the living. And when the movement finally stops, you know that death has finally laid its claims.

“In death, everything is equal,” Brother Ronat whispered softly, his voice trailing off.

The words surprised me. In all the time I had known him, he had never hinted toward such feelings toward killing the creatures. There was only that usual haunted look in his eyes, and that grim silence of his.

But that wasn’t all there was to it. The words were a phrase from the death aspect of the All Father, a figure we worshiped in our Demona and Wraithborn tribe. And the figure’s counterpart, the All Mother.

At the beginning of each year, we would begin the All Festival in our tribe. And all the adults of the tribe would pour a small cup of blood onto the ground. A return to death, a return to the earth, to the embrace of the All Father and All Mother.

“But in life, everything is unequal,” I said, continuing the phrase. “The All Festival…It is almost upon us, isn’t it. Only two days till the new year begins.” It would be our first time attending it since we had just been initiated as full-grown Hunters, as full-grown Demona.

With those thoughts in our minds, we moved toward the still body of the Multis Gargantuan, the first and last king of the northern forests. The last king in the fact that we had overcome any obstacles the northern forests could ever throw at us. And the first king in regards to the creature being the strongest in these familiar, yet unfamiliar forests. The northern forests were too large to ever be called familiar, even though we had grown up in this place.

Truly an informal rite of initiation into adulthood. A death that signified our growth. The Multis Gargantuan.

My musing was soon interrupted by Brother Leaping Fox.

“Well,” he began. “I am not going anywhere near that green rod. Leader Wolf, you should pick that up. The loot, after all, should be handled by the group leader.”

“...”

Leave it to Brother Leaping Fox to break me out of my ponderous moods. He excelled in that.

==========

When we came out of the northern forests, the sun had set and night had fallen, taking over the sun’s domain. We greeted the watch-guards at the northern gates and I met the familiar pale blue face of Miam with his short and stocky body. Tonight was his turn at the northern gates.

The watch-guards at the northern gates weren’t there for only decorations, or for the village walls to have company. They were there for the stray beasts that sometime came wondering out of the northern forests. Long before I was born, around twelve years ago, a Drakon had come wondering into the village on a full night. And two Demona and Wraithborns had died that night before the beast had been subjugated.

It was a mistake that would never be repeated again. After that incident, guards would always be posted even at night.

We headed toward the Hunters section of the village, a place in the village that was the least furnished. Each and every one of the Hunters lived a simple life with the minimum furnishings. Our homes were also simple, just wooden longhouses with thatched roofs made from Hibis plant. And in the middle of the section were four wells used to catch rain.

The rain wasn’t really that welcomed though. We had a fresh lake just outside of the eastern gates, a little past to the south. The clearings around the lake was a popular place used for the Magus who had an affinity with Water Essences.

After a few minutes of walking, we arrived at the four wells of the Hunters section, and saw Hunter’s home off a short distance. As the lead Hunter, he lived closer to the center, though he now had two homes, one with Magus Embracing Flower whose child had been born. A daughter who was already over a year old.

I visited them sometimes. But in the deepest crevices of my mind, I still held a bitterness that I could not explain to myself. A memory that I kept locked, not willing to even speak of it to myself even in the darkest of nights, even in the loneliest of nights.

Elder Magus Zelas, her father, was also no exception. To him, I held an even darker memory that was hidden in a deeper than the deepest crevices of my mind. I visited him every few months or so, as if thinking that with each visit, my bitterness would lessen.

Each visit, he made an even more and more piteous figure. Broken like a bird which had lost her wings. The decaying flame had sunk in deeper and deeper. The darkness, the smell of decay, had now covered almost half of its body.

On my second visit, a few months after the night of the imparted secrets, I had found the courage to ask him. It was a senseless question. Edgeless, yet sharp.

“Why live on with such pain?” I had asked him. “Why not die?”

“Death may have its grips on me, but so does life,” he said bitterly. “Simply put, I am a coward who clings onto life’s fleeting hands.”

I paused for a moment, thinking about it, of the death I had imparted so oftentimes on the beasts of the northern forests, of their eyes. “To survive is courage.”

I don’t know if my words were a comfort or why I said them, for he fell into a silence then, and I quietly left his house. How far he had fallen. He no longer held the position of Elder Magus. He no longer even left his home, just brooding in the dark embrace of the dark corners of his home, leaving traces of his former self in every corner.

After arriving at Hunter’s home, we reported of our success, handing over the “green rod,” and he nodded. Success. Simple as that. His face that night, however, seemed darker than usual, as if worried by something. It was easy to tell, for he didn’t engage us in a small conversation or ask about our kill.

Our group split up then, with each of my three Brothers wandering off to do their own little tasks. I went back to our home, practicing with my blade-spear before finally going to bed.

Two days passed by quickly and the All Festival arrived with hints of foreboding. The skies were grey with troubled clouds, as if it would rain any unexpected moment.

A messenger from the Sun Cherishers tribe had arrived, requesting to meet with Hunter.