Beasts

The thousands of youths had dispersed on the vast plain that extended to the huge forest a few miles away. Behind, the gates of the training camp had closed. Ten poor unlucky guys moaned while they hold their broken arm. Everyone had a look of pity for them as they knew that leaving with a broken arm was equivalent to signing their death sentence.

Jun looked around, calculating his odds. The others were either gathering in small groups or heading alone to the forest. A few even decided to stay near the camp. But he knew it was a bad idea. Here, there was nothing to protect or defend themselves. They would starve to death if they're not eaten by some brave beast adventuring near the human camp.

As he was wondering what his next action should be, someone came to his side. Instinctively, his body tensed up and his legs bent slightly, making him ready to flee if necessary. He slowly turned around to face the newcomer. But a warm voice greeted him, revealing no evil intentions. "Hello ! Jun, right ? I'm Karin."

Jun, not used to his name yet, had a moment of confusion. Then he looked at the hand that was stretched to him with perplexity. Shaking hands wasn't really a habit in the poor districts Jun grew up in. He knew the signification but hadn't really the opportunity to use this gesture.

The boy named Karin didn't insist and retrieved his hand while he kept smiling. Jun didn't feel any hint of danger but he couldn't relax anyway. He realized he saw him before as they were close to each other when Sadim was giving his speech. He had always had a smiling and confident face that made people think of him as a reliable guy. They were about the same age but looked really different.

Karin had a tall and slim stature, with a natural grandiose feeling around him. He was handsome and had fine facial features that gave him the look of a noble boy, not really in his place here between the commoners.

At the opposite, Jun had an average height for a twelve years old boy and larger shoulders that showed his already well developed muscles. While his face wasn't ugly at all with a pair of steel like eyes, his square jaw and straight nose, black eyebrows and ashen hair gave him a severe air for a young boy, even in this world.

The two stared at each other for a while. But when Karin realized Jun would not go first, he went on. "You know, we'll have more chance to survive in this place if we join our strengths. What do you say ? Let's team up for the duration of this test !"

"No. Thanks." were the only words Jun replied after letting a few seconds pass. It wasn't that he didn't trust Karin, he truly sensed good will from him, but he wished to take this test alone. If he longed for strength, he could not depend on anyone other than himself.

A bit disappointed, Karin's face darkened for a split second but then returned immediately to his usual smile. "Alright then ! I'm sure we'll meet again in thirty days. Let's be friends when this is over ! Good luck !" Jun watched as the smiling boy was heading to a large group, determined to find a strong and reliable team.

Suddenly a huge and deep roar resounded everywhere, followed by children screams. It looked like the first batch who went to the forest suffered an attack. All the others were now reconsidering what to do. More decided to stay near the camp walls, convinced that only death awaited in those woods.

Jun looked unconcerned by all this and started to run in silent steps. It took five minutes to get him at the edge, but he never stopped. As if the vegetation was swallowing him, he disappeared in a second and no sound was made.

There was another reason for him deciding to stay alone. In groups, it'd be much more difficult to keep off the senses of the beast that lurked in here. He had no hunting experience at all, but his life in the districts taught him a few things.

Anyway there were two elementary things he needed to find to survive. Food and water. He had no idea which plant was edible or not so he could only hunt to eat. As for water, he had no idea. But he insisted on going through more of the forest. The agitation due to the arrival of the participants would surely drive many deathly monsters near the edge of the forest so he needed to get as far in as he could before settling down.

As he was slowly advancing, a very distinctive sound started to get louder and louder on his left. The earth was shaking under to formidable footsteps of a huge thing. A loud 'boom' sounded once in a while as trees were uprooted. And this thing was getting closer. But as he was about to speed up, a boy that looked quite distressed suddenly bumped into him from the same direction as the sound came from.

Both fell down on the floor but the one who wasn't looking ahead didn't even apologize and get up to run again. His hurried breathing told that he had been sprinting for a while, running away from something.

Jun had no time to think because this huge thing had arrived. A monstrous mammoth-like hill-sized beast was standing in front of him. It stopped for a instant, looking in the direction the other boy went, then looked down on Jun. Its huge trunk sniffed a few times and its eyes turned red when it passed by him.

He understood a bit of what happened. The other boy had probably touched something he shouldn't and got a distinctive smell on him. Then this smell got on Jun when they bumped into each other, turning him into a new target for the mammoth standing only thirty feet away.

Jun cursed in his head for his bad luck then started to madly run in the opposite direction. Seeing its new target moving away, the beast let out a huge roar and decided to go after him.

Fortunately for Jun, it appeared that this mammoth monster wasn't really the fast-type guy, because its huge size made him too large to sprint inside the forest. He had to bump into a great number of trees to pass, which slowed him down quite a bit. But Jun didn't rejoice. This thing had turned mad and wouldn't stop the chase so his only way out was to find a safe place were it couldn't go after him.

The escape went on for quite a while. Jun ran for hours and started to feel really tired. If he didn't find a way out of this situation soon, he would die. But it was his first time outside the City walls, so he had no idea where to go. As his legs became numb, he started to feel desperate.

A few minutes later, he was ready to give up. 'Am I really going to die ? So soon ?' His speed slowed down, getting him closer and closer to the end. The harshness of his face softened, his eyes lost their luster. His features looked much more like that of a child for a split second.

'No ! I refuse ! It has not even started yet ! I promised ! I cannot let them get away with it !' With difficulty, his legs sped up again, getting him out of the monster reach.

"I need to find a cave."