Chapter Twelve

The sound of rocks sliding against rough metal brought me back from the dream world in an instant. I opened my eyes and shot up in my bed. Standing up and began to walk over to the washroom door, thinking that the sound came from outside when it sent shivers down my spine, like nails on a chalkboard. I turned around to see my training partner sitting in the corner of my room with one leg over his knee and his blade resting on his foot as he sharpened his blade with a flat-sided rock.

Tired and confused I asked, "What are you doing in here?" in a forced calm voice.

"You didn't arrive at your training today," He said.

"I have been training my whole life," I said.

"By the orders of the chieftess we are going to work together today," He said, not trying to hide the frustration in his voice.

He stood up and marched out the door well allowing his sword to slide against the hardwood flooring, leaving a scratch across the floor. I quickly cleaned up and headed out the door after him.

"The floor didn't do anything to you," I asked.

He turned away and started to jog toward the command building, I jogged after him until we reach the building. Walking into the back room, we saw the chieftess was sitting at her desk with a feather quill in her hand with a yellow-stained paper in front of her nose. An ink bottle filled with black squid ink was sitting above the paper on the right-hand side of her desk.

"Good you are here. I have an important mission for you both today," She said.

Her eyes never left her paper as her pen was slid gracefully in loops across the paper, leaving the smoothest letters I've ever seen in its place. She lifted her hand and gently placed the pen back into its holder by the ink.

"I am sending you both on a search and recovery today. A farmer from the south side of the village took his young son out hunting yesterday night the boy's mother was worried and had asked you both personally to find her son," She said.

"Yes, ma'am," Jupiter said.

"Do we know their last known location?" I asked.

"The boys' mother said that they entered the forest from an old path at the back of their house, from there they traveled West... that's all we know as of now," She said.

We were leaving as the Chieftess picked up her pen again, but before we could take a step out the door, she had spoken again.

"Kristy, I believe you will need those on this mission," She said.

She pointed the back of her pen towards a crate in the corner of her office, by the door. Sitting upon the crate were shiny steel blades with black hilts inside their sheaths. The leather on the hilt was carved and sown to resemble the scales of a lizard. I smiled at her and jogged over to the crate to collect my newly restored blades. Strapping them to my back, Jupiter and I jogged out of the building and quickly made our way to the farmhouse.

"So, they call you Jupiter!" I yelled.

"Only my friends call me that!" He said.

Jogging down the narrow dirt path, I stopped to rest a moment when we arrived at the house. We had our mission, and I was prepared to prove myself and to head straight into the woods, but Jupiter walked up to the front door of the small wooden farmhouse. He gently knocked on the door and waited for it to open. I waited at the bottom of the steps for him to finish what he was doing.

"Jupiter? You're here. Why aren't you looking for my son?" A young woman asked as she opened the door.

"Moana... I'm sorry about your husband and son, but if we are going to find them, we need to know where they went, where were they going?" He said.

She took a step out of the doorway and looked down the stairs at me. Only for a moment, I was able to see her brown hair before she hid in front of Jupiter.

"Hunters have been coming back empty-handed lately, the village is running out of food... There are no animals within the borders anymore. Bill took Keven down the path, outside the border. He thought it would be a good lesson for Keven in hunting," She said.

"Moana, why would you let them do that? You have no idea how dangerous is it getting out there," He asked.

"The village is running out of food; going outside the borders is the only option for all of the hunters to bring back anything," She said.

"We'll find them, I promise," He said.

He walked straight past me and headed toward the entrance to the woods. I closed the distance between us and followed him in. He looked as if he was getting overly emotional after seeing that woman. I kept my mouth shut. Jupiter didn't want to talk or even look in my direction. It felt like we were walking forever by the time we arrived at the border.

"You're so quiet, I forgot you were there," He said.

"You seemed like you didn't want to talk," I said.

"They went that way... The underbrush has been moved and stomped on, someone had been traveling through here daily," He said.

He plowed through the bushes beside the path as I walked on the path beside him.