Hunting

9. hunting.

It has been two weeks after Alessa left, I wake up in the usual place in the cage between the chest and the box. The meat box is almost empty and as I eat the last few pieces for breakfast it becomes empty.

I walk out the cage and pick up the sword from the ground, I can move the sword with two hands for a long time, but the sword still feels slow and if I do any side way swings I tire out quickly.

I decided to go hunting after I finish the first box of meat so that is what I will be doing today instead of training. Alessa told me how weak I am compared to everything else in this world so only training won’t make me strong enough to defend myself.

 I also need experience in fighting and knowledge about magic, even though she said I cannot use magic I still need to know how it works so I can beat it or at least know not to fight it.

I walk outside with the sword in my hands and my dagger and knife behind my back. The only things Alessa knew about the beasts that live here are what they look like and what weaknesses they might have but she didn’t know where you could find them, so I will have to go around randomly searching for something to hunt.

I turn left from the cave entrance and start heading downwards to see if there is anything near the river to hunt. The fresh air feels good, but the sunshine is too bright, but I struggle to keep looking up, so I won’t be surprised by the dangerous beasts that are supposed to be near here.

After walking past the stone wall, I can see the water wall on my left and I see a wide area of grass slope that leads to the river.

I walk downwards the slope and see something go to the river, as I walk closer I can see that it has four legs grey fur and antlers on its head. It must be a lopedeer, Alessa told me about it.

It is fast and strong with thick skin and it can modify its antlers how it wants although it takes a while.  Its weakness is its soft underbelly that is cut easily, after that it will bleed out quickly, but it is still alive after that, so I should be careful.

The lopedeer started to drink from the river and I began running toward it, after I got down from the slope I slowed down and started to move quietly. I sneak from behind the creature as it keeps drinking the water, I soon get close to it without it seeing me.

I set down my sword on the grass slowly and take out my dagger, I go to the lopedeers side and crouch down. I quickly roll on my back under the lopedeer and stab my dagger in its belly, it starts running immediately but as my dagger is inside its belly it slits the rest of the belly open as the lopedeer runs to the left leaving me soaked in blood and other things. 

I stand up and go to my sword, and as I pick it up I see the lopedeer turning around. There are no trees or large rocks near here, so I can’t take shelter, I must try to defend against the impact or try to dodge.

The lopedeer runs so fast that I don’t have time to think and I try to use the sword as a shield as I jump to the left, the lopedeer just moves his head to the left and hits me with its antlers and knocks me in the air.

my sword protected me from the antler spikes, but the impact was a lot more than I expected, and as I hit the ground I feel a sharp pain and feel like there is no air in my lungs. I try to breath, but I can’t, I try to roll on my back left and right, but it is not helping.

I look behind me and see the lopedeer turning back, it is bleeding heavily but if I do not dodge his attack I will die. The antlers are moving on the lopedeer and I am starting to panic, I try but I can’t breathe yet and sitting up seems impossible.

The lopedeer is getting faster and I am out of time, I push the sword away from on top of me and take the knife from behind my back. I stab it in my left arm and I breathe in, I rise my upper body and get my feet on the ground and kick them to roll to my left.

The lopedeers antler scratches my foot and then it falls, the harsh turn and continued moving while heavily bleeding finally made the creature fall.

I lay on the ground watching the lopedeer to make sure it doesn’t stand back up, but it just lays there bleeding in agony and after a short while it puts its head down on the ground and closes its eyes.

I lay on the ground for breathing heavily and trying to keep my arm from bleeding, if I don’t hurry up and leave other beasts might come.

I sit up and pull the knife away from my arm, the cold metal sliding through my skin feels horrible but if I don’t get back to the cage I will probably die. As I get the knife away I put it behind my back and hold my left arm.

I run to my sword and drag it with my right arm as I hold my left against my chest, I got to the lopedeers corpse and see that its antler changed its shape to a horn with cuts on its side. The pure white color and the clean shape made me want to take the horns for myself, so I took the sword with both hands and tried to cut its head.

The blade went through the skin, but it did not go very deep, I started hacking its head till it got through. I grab the horn with my right hand and its shard edges cut into my arm. I held the sword with my left arm as I kept it pressed against my chest to reduce the blood flowing from the wound as much as I could.

I walk up the slope as my both arms bled, and when I got to the cave I just threw the head in the first room and walked through the cave to get to Alessa´s room. Before I go in I drop the sword on the ground, I open the door and walk inside, it is my first time going inside this room for two weeks and it feels kind of weird, but it might be that I am just losing too much blood.

On top of the table there are cloths Alessa prepared for me when I said I wanted to fight creatures when I got stronger, she made the from the clothing of the bandits I killed after she cleaned them up.

I take a piece and wrap it on my arm where the wound is, then I took another and wrap it on my right hand. It was much more difficult as I couldn’t use my right hand properly to put it.

I go to the room with the meat boxes and eat meat and drink some water, then I go lie down in my cage while thinking how I get to do something with the horn soon.  

Chapter seven. Chapter nine.