The Hunt

In a large valley between two humongous mountains where tall trees with huge stems and white crowns almost covered much of the flora on the ground. On the trunk of one of the huge and ancient trees in that forest, a single branch stood alone in the lower part of that tree.

As a victor of its kind, that almost 2 meters extended and 40 cm thick ramus in contrast to the almost 5 meter diameter of the stem, was the place where two birds were making courtship display. Or the male Tiercel Goshawk like bird was the one trying to convince his female partner to make that place their nest.

Unlike its species, this tiercel was utterly different in looks and size. Almost 140 cm long and a wingspan of 205 cm, having Azure slate blue above with pale gray barred underparts and crimson head with wide white stripe over the eye, dark pupils and white irises.

His partner was a normal 90 cm long with 130 wing span and gray slate above with pale gray barred underparts, having a dark head with a wide white stripe over the eye, with the eye orange pupils to black iris.

It was obvious that the tiercel was the one trying the convincing by the dances and the preening it was doing.

These Goshawk-like birds of prey species usually made their nests in mature and old-growth forests with more than 60% closed canopy. Its species often build nests near breaks in the canopy, such as a forest trail, mountain road, or opening created by a felled tree. They choose surroundings with a nearby brook, pond, or lake.

Unlike its current place, which was 1000 meters away from the nearest creek and not so enclosed, for the branch was almost three meters above the ground. That just added to the effort the Tiercel had to put in. While the tiercel looked hopeless and was about to initiate its last plan for the effort.

Suddenly something jumped out of nowhere, and a vast shadow was cast on both birds. Their first instinct was to fly away from there but it was already too late and the moment they tried to spread their wings and fly away they would risk getting hit by the hooves of that thing, which they could see by now and its underparts.

Which, for the birds, appeared to be quite a shocking thing to witness. It was out of place for them to see hooves flying above their heads instead of being where they usually belonged, running on the solid ground beneath them.

The male tiercel covered its wing on its partner before its instinct took over and it tried to fly away. And it was obvious the decision of making that place their nest was made for them by that third party. A 2 meters tall deer-like creature with 3 eyes and two golden antlers with white fur covered in blue patches, who was running frantically to save its life.

After the birds recovered from the initial shock and were about to decide to find somewhere else, which was only delayed by the hesitant tiercel, which still wanted to find a place near the ground or to up its effort to convince its partner to stay the same place.

At that moment, another human-like silhouette landed on the same branch and jumped over chasing the previous creature and then disappeared into the distance. All of that took place in a space of seconds, for the silhouette to land and for it to jump over and carry on with its pursuit. The only reason the birds noticed it was the vibration on the branch that reached their talons. Everything else felt normal. And that was the last nail on the coffin for them to never come close anywhere near the ground, or at least to not build their nest there.

The creature kept running without glancing its back until it reached near the small water stream. That's when it stopped to make sure nothing was chasing it anymore.

After it couldn't find anything, the beast reached for the water body to satisfy some of its thirst. The moment it was about to drink, its nose twitched and it started smelling around the water and the nearby terrain.

It could sense something was strange, but it couldn't find anything out of place and its thirst took over its beast's senses and it started heading towards the stream again and started drinking.

That's when 2 pairs of eyes suddenly lit up behind the nearby pushes and a high whistle like sound went off at that moment from the direction the beast came running from.

the deer beast guarded up looking in that direction, taking small steps towards that way trying to figure out what that noise was and it was in that instant that it heard something fast going through the wind and the second thing it felt was stabbing pain from its back leg and when its instinct push it to run one second later, it felt again the same pain but this time from the lower part of its neck.

That's when it's survival instinct told it to fight back and when it turned to look at its hunters, that's when two young looking men jumped out from the pushes, one holding a short spear with broad edges and triangular shaped shield while the other one had a bow and small dagger on his waist-back.

They didn't give enough time for the beast to gauge them, Kafi started charging at it.

Wearing only a leather chest piece, shin guards and a piece of cloth to cover private parts with lean body filled muscles and covered in ink, disguise dirt and plants. He picked up speed in the middle of his running, pointing his spear and covering the rest of his body with the shield.

The deer saw the coming threat and pointed its golden antlers while crouching a bit and run towards the enemy.

Kafi saw the gleaming gold antlers pointing at him, threatening to pierce through him, which he abruptly jumped to the side, pointing his short spear to the side of the beast, which cut through its hide but didn't reach deep in skin and muscles.

The deer was about to go after Kafi right after he changed direction, but all it saw was an arrow heading towards its third eye and impaling it. Rofo, who was waiting for his chance, couldn't let that moment go.

Equipped with the same as Kafi except the arm guard, was Rofo, who's been positioning himself for that chance. The deer screamed with pain and jumped around, trying to hit the trees nearby to escape from the clutches of the two arrows and the spear on its body. The spear on the down neck was the first to fall, which appeared it didn't go far into its hide, then it slammed its head on a tree diagonally, causing the arrow on its third eye to break, which apparently caused more pain.

Rofo didn't let that chance slip and already put three more arrows on its lower body part, which appeared to be its soft part of the hide, since the first arrow was still impaled in it.

And Kafi recovered his long spear and positioned himself for the kill.

The deer turned around to see Kafi and looked for the other enemy to see Rofo appearing left of Kafi near pushes and the deer put his back on the big tree behind it and prepared for the fight, only to see both of its enemies smiling and lowering their arms.

The beast was confused.

It could tell from its experience with other enemies it came across, humans and beasts alike, when an enemy was ready to fight and when not.

It couldn't grasp why those hateful humans who have been chasing and trying to kill it halted. 'Maybe....' before it could even have hoped, it remembered the one, the dreadful one that chased after it into this place.

And that was the last thing its brain processed before it went dark.....

Seeing the deer beast fall on its side, Kafi came closer to it

"K, is it dead?"

Rofo then comes closer and hit Kafi at the back and

"You know he hates it when you call him that."

Kafi laughed loudly and smacked his thigh before looking at the one staring daggers on him over the dead beast and said,

"I totally forgot that''

then continued with,

"Hey Krieger, is it dead?"