Desert Hunting

The hunter left his tent before the sun began lighting the tribe's town with its rays, leaving Boniva asleep on the bed they had shared for the night. He walked towards the larger tent home in the middle of the town where the chief resided, "You are an early bird, Kolvma," He was greeted by the tall man stepping out of his tent, "Eager to get to work?"

"I need that paper and something to write with," The chief disappeared into the house before returning with the materials Kolvma could use, "Thanks, I'll be on my way, I shall return before sundown," The chief nodded as the hunter walked in the direction he had been indicated to go, in search of the creature that could be causing the disruptions in the desert of Getulush.

He took the shoreline as his path, staying closer to the sea and avoiding the heavy sand that would slow him down. Kolvma's eyes scanned the sand ahead of him as he did when he was tracking a beast in the highlands he lived in.

The first time he had been forced to fend off beasts had been when he was a younger man. It was the middle of summer, a shepherd that lived in his hometown of Olbat ran back, his herd panicked and his dogs trying to control them as he called out for help. Kolvma and his father were the first to respond to his calls for help as a group of trolls emerged from the woodworks. The herd had disrupted them and their hunger had turned them into crazed predators, chasing the small, quicker prey as if their lives depended on it. Alone, his father would've probably been killed by them and with no other options, he handed Kolvma an axe and told him to fight with him. He did just that, quickly finding his rhythm and using his smaller size compared to the trolls to his advantage, picking up things that he still used against the large creatures. Dodging attacks, reading timing and riposting when he had the chance to, he learned all of those things in his first hunt, all these skills he would continue to use as he continued to hunt.

His eyes spotted something unusual in the sand near the shore, a strange track, as if a large wyrm had slithered along the surface instead of roaming while mostly buried. This wasn't completely uncommon for wyrms, but it was larger than what he remembered a sand wyrm was like, "Strange," He began taking notes and quickly sketched where he was to be able to talk with the chief about his findings, "What is a wyrm this large doing in the desert?" He looked around and noticed small bursts of sand ahead of him, moving along the desert, there were wyrms and they were hunting, but none of them were along the surface and none seemed to displace enough sand to be as large as the large tracks left by the slithering beast that Kolvma had found. He stood up as he folded the page and put it back in his sack and continued to walk down the shoreline as the sun reached its peak.

Tracking a beast of such size would normally be simple, but with the sand tracks being smothered by the other wryms that could pass over the path or the large tracks being shifted by the passage of a sand dweller or a wyrm passing under it, who knew what he could encounter. If he was going to be able to know what this thing was before stumbling upon it, the hunter would have to find some physical remains, scales, teeth, anything that could make him understand what he was dealing with.

The sun was at its highest point and the heat was unrelenting as he continued to walk, his skin protected by a thin cloth cloak that the chief had provided him. Sweat slid down his forehead as he decided that it was going to be time for him to head back, the sun only going to get more intense and the wear on his body going to get worse, "At least I have a few clues for now," He spoke to himself as the hunter turned and began heading back to the village. However, Kolvma kept his eyes on his path and on potential clues he could gather from the sand, trying to find more evidence of the presence of a larger creature that could resemble a wyrm.

He approached the village once more as the sun was setting, some of the tribe's people noticing him as he returned, unfortunately with no actual proof of a large beast, but with it being only the first expedition to search for something, it was good enough for him. Kolvma replied to the greetings of the tribe as he returned to his tent and left his shield and axe down, but keeping his bag that contained the notes he had made of the tracks he had spotted, "Kolvma, you have returned," He was met by the chief as he emerged from his tent, "What have you discovered? Is it one of those beasts you spoke of last night?"

"I don't believe it is, chief, I believe it is something else," He explained retrieving his notes, "I found large tracks that resembled those of a wyrm, however they were much larger than a generic sand wyrm's tracks."

"How much larger, Kolvma?" The chief said as he invited Kolvma to sit down in the same place as the night before. The hunter did and pulled out his notes.

"The tracks are wider than I am tall, probably twice my height," He explained, reading from his notes, "Wyrms are not that large."

"Could it be another type of creature?" The chief said as food was brought to them and the tribe listened to what was going on as they ate. Kolvma didn't respond and began thinking.

"I see no real other possibility for now, I haven't found scales or teeth to help me find out what the creature is, however I did spot a herd of wyrms while I was investigating, probably meaning that whatever left the marks was either not responsible for the wyrm disruptions or that it wasn't around," The chief nodded, "I will head out tomorrow once more, to try and find more information, hopefully something like discarded scales or maybe teeth, something to tell me if there is an actual new creature or it is because of a prodigious growth of a wyrm."

"You are the hunter here, we will continue to provide you with help and resources until you can find out what is really going on with the desert, our livelihood depends on us being able to know what creatures we should come to expect in our deserts and not to be in fear of whatever may surface from the sands and cause us to lose lives or resources," The chief explained, once again pushing how important the task he had given Kolvma was. The hunter nodded and began eating as the chief studied the notes, "Are there wyrms of that size that exist anywhere?"

"If they do, they are probably sea dwellers, serpents are too large to live on land, they crush themselves with their weight or simply require too much food to survive," He explained, "I learned a lot of things from a few Jukk hunters I had met when I had left the tribe years before, they told me that the creatures they could find were all smaller wyrms, never colossal wyrms that could match the tracks I found."

"Could a serpent move onto the land and use the desert as protection?" Kolvma stopped and tried to think of an answer to give, he had never considered the chance of a sea creature needing to escape something and therefore retreating onto the land to protect itself, "Creatures fled to the seas for one reason or the other and vice versa, why couldn't this be the case here?"

"I didn't find any tracks leading from the sea, but I will try and see if there isn't anything like that, I hadn't thought of an escape instinct pushing a foreign beast onto the land from the sea," The chief nodded. Kolvma was joined by Boniva and three of the same women as the night before, however Yishva had found her way back to his side and sat opposite of Boniva. There were a few men sitting near the pale skinned hunter as he spoke with the chief.

"You have attracted quite the attention, Kolvma, have you met these ones?"

"I recognize, Boniva and Yishva, but I do not know the other three nor do I know these young men who are attentively listening."

"Ah, yes, the three women are Juva, Eldiva and Sonelva, young women, 23 blooms, 22 blooms and 25 blooms," The hunter turned and nodded his head as if greeting them, they smiled back, without saying anything in response, "These men are the young hunters of our tribe, Covo, Iltvo and Eldevo, 19 blooms, 18 blooms and 20 blooms, they recently accomplished their first wyrm hunts, making them officially hunters," Kolvma repeated his nod and they reciprocated. He could feel Boniva and Yishva nearly fighting over his attention without them saying a word.

"What have you hunted, Kolvma?" One of the younger hunters asked.

"I have hunted trolls mainly, nearly my home in the Naav highlands," He explained, "They are rather simple to hunt for me now, but every now and then I trip their predatory instincts and I am forced to fight them."

"What do you enjoy hunting, Kolvma?"

"I haven't had many excited hunts since my first hunt, I killed 3 trolls on my first hunt and since then, I haven't had that same rush of adrenaline in the hunts," He shrugged, "Trolls are unique because of how they hunt and how they will want to fight you."

"What's the biggest thing you have ever hunted?" The chief went to silence the young hunter before Kolvma gestured to let him speak.

"A sand wyrm is pretty large, but that was a while ago and recently the largest creature I have hunted has been a large snow troll, not crazy large, but still pretty massive for any human to fight against," His words were listened to attentively by the young huntsmen as the five women around him silently begged for his attention, "I will head out tomorrow to try and find actual evidence of the beast that left the track I spotted today, something that large shouldn't be so difficult to find."

"It is a large desert, Kolvma, no matter how large the beast, the sand grants a protection to our eyes greater than any other environment," The chief explained, as if trying to give the young hunters a lesson about hunting in the desert. Kolvma nodded and shrugged, "But you have a different set of skills compared to regular people, you have hunted since you were a young man."

"How old were you when you started, Kolvma?"

"My first hunt was when I was around 13, defending my hometown with my father from enraged trolls, 5 of them."

"Only the two of you?" Covo piped up, "2 against 5?"

"Many creatures will be selfish when they are hungry, so if they hit each other when they aim for you, sometimes they will strike at each other for a few moments, allowing you to get attacks in."

"How many did you kill, Kolvma?"

"I killed 3 of them, 2 of them on my own and I helped my father with the last one, simply seeing the opening and striking it for the kill," He shrugged as the fire in the center of the village was refueled with new logs and grew slightly, giving more light to the night and overshadowing the moon's delicate light. Kolvma stood up, but before the women could join him, he gestured with his hand for them to stay seated. He looked around, as if something was off, the tribe went silent as the chief raised his hand, allowing the hunter to try and find what was bothering him.