Chapter 6: Jake and The Huntsman

The next few days passed by both slowly and all at once. Jake was overwhelmed with the new sights and sounds of the forests and the new creatures he encountered that inhabited it.

The wolf pack had taken him in as one of their own and showed him the ways of traversing through the forest. He quickly became accustomed to walking through the root littered forest floor and to differentiate the many sounds that rang through the trees.

“You cheated,” Jake panted as he gasped for air.

He was hunched over with his hands resting on his knees.

“I used my assets and the environment,” Accalia, the name of the young wolf he had protected against the maddened unicorn days earlier, stated.

“You bit me in the ankle and jumped over my body as I fell over!”

“My teeth are my assets.”

Jake stared at her exasperated, never knowing how to win an argument with the she-wolf but too stubborn to admit defeat. He launched at her and tackled her to the ground, rubbing his palm hard against the head of her long fur and causing it to blind her momentarily.

“Stop it! Your stupid thumbs are going to poke me in my eye!” She barked out as she tried to bite at him, but he was quicker than her in standing up and quickly sat on her large body.

“Yeah well maybe you shouldn’t have cheated then!”

“I didn’t cheat!”

“Sorry, I can’t hear you over your lies!”

Accalia’s large head was shoved violently onto his arm and Jake yelled out, “Ow! That’s my bad arm you idiot!”

“Sorry!” Accalia yelled back, but continued to thrash in his grip.

They tackled each other in the muddy grass of the woods for a long time until a branch snapped near them, and both of their heads shot up in high alert.

Out of a thick overgrown grove a large man stepped out, large strained arms held a hunting bow in his hand. An arrow was knocked into it and he aimed it at the white wolf at Jake’s side. Sensing danger, Accalia immediately began to growl as she rose on her four legs.

She had grown considerably since Jake had first met her; now standing above his hips on all fours she would easily outgrow him in a few years.

It was the one thing that had stood out to Jake within the few days he had been with the wolf pack, although they looked and sounded similar to regular wolves, there was a vast difference between them. One of those differences being the rapid growth of the younger wolves in the short span he had known them.

But despite her height she was not a large wolf, and her small build made her seem less of a threat than what he knew her to be.

Still, one is never fearless in the face of extreme danger. And the look on the hunter's face as Jake regarded him alarmed him of danger.

Jake found himself positioning himself in front of her, blocking her as best he could from the direct aim of the hunter’s line. From behind him Accalia kept growling to warn the hunter, but he proceeded to step forward.

“Accalia,” Jake said in a low whisper, “go back to the pack. Alert them.”

She made no move to leave, “No way,” she said sternly, “I’m not leaving you alone with that monster.”

“It’s either you leave now and return back with the rest of the pack,” he turned to look at her, “or neither of us return at all.”

She never once tore her eyes from the large man in front of them, but she growled her dissatisfaction as she turned and fled. The larger man made to run after her, but Jake dashed forward as fast as he could and launched himself at the man.

It must have been faster than the man had anticipated, because in an instant Jake had the man on the floor with his body weight resting on him to keep him down.

Jake had grown faster in the few days he had spent with the wolves and quickly used that to his advantage as he grabbed for the man’s weapon and pointed it at his face.

Jake didn’t have time to ponder over the fact of how he was able to disarm the man before he was put on the defence again.

It seemed the man’s instincts kicked in, and Jake was kicked off of him and lost his balance as he fell to the ground. The bow was picked up by the other man and shoved into his face yet again.

He quickly held his hands up in surrender, his face contorted as his arm protested at the sudden movement, “Wait!”

The man hesitated, but did not lower his weapon.

“Do you… can you speak?”

The man grunted, “Of course I speak, I’m not a fool.”

“Oh…” Jake breathed a sigh of relief, “Okay, okay- me neither. Um, my name is Jake.”

The man only narrowed his eyes at Jake and kept a strong grip on his bow, “I’m sure there’s been a misunderstanding-“

“There was no misunderstanding! That wolf attacked you and yet you let it run away!”

Jake squinted his eyes as he glared at the man, “Woah hey, I don’t know what you think you saw but if I was being attacked, I assure you there would be a lot more blood involved.”

The man blinked at Jake once, then again before he lowered his weapon and stepped away.

“We were just playing around, you know- she’s my friend. Of course, ah… don’t tell her I said that. I’d never hear the end of it.” Jake stood from the ground and began to dust himself off of the dirt and leaves that had stuck to him.

“You… are friends with that wolf?”

Jake froze in the middle of dusting his pants off as his eyes bulged; realization dawned on him as he ran over what he just said. Then he looked up to the man, an incredulous look dawned a hard face.

Jake looked at the man closer now, he had a hard jaw that was set with a harsh clench of his teeth. Strong lines adorned both of his cheeks, but Jake couldn’t tell whether it was from a defined facial structure or lack of food.

Yet beneath the rough exterior Jake saw something else.

The hunter looked as though he could have been around Jake’s own age beneath the dirt and hardened look on his face, and Jake was about to ask before he thought better of it.

“Well- I mean ‘friend’ is a rather lose term, we’re more of acquaintances since we could never find the human village- err, village. Just village.”

“The village is beyond the stream, it’s surrounded by it and the bridge is hidden. An outsider would not have found it if he had an eagle’s vision.”

Jake wondered if he would have found it despite the man’s words. He wondered if he would have wanted to find it. But something in him told him that he would have had to eventually, there’s only so many days a human man could survive with a pack of wild wolves, literate or not.

“Right… um,” Jake quickly followed the man as he began to walk in the direction he came, “could you take me there then? Seeing how you’re not a stranger and all.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. We don’t like outsiders.”

“Well I don’t see what that’s got to do with anything. I’m human aren’t I?”

“You’re human for now.”

That made Jake pause, and he looked after the retreating figure of the man for a long moment before he continued to speak, “Yes, and I do believe I’ll stay that way for quite some time, if that’s alright with you.”

“Look!” Jake called out to the man who continued to walk from him, “I’m not anyone suspicious, alright! I’m just cold and hungry and my back hurts from sleeping on the ground for five days! I woke up in the middle of the woods in a world I have no clue about what’s going on and I’d really appreciate some company that doesn’t smell like wet dog!”

Jake breathed out a tired sigh, “I’m not asking to stay with you, I’m just asking for you to point me in the right direction.”

The huntsman looked at him for a long while, then grunted and motioned for him to follow.

They trudged on for a long while before they reached the stream and beyond it Jake could see the outline of the village. Jake walked forward towards the stream’s edge and tried to get a closer look, but all of a sudden a searing pain shot through his head and his vision went black.

When Jake became conscious again, he found that he was lying on a soft surface nestled beneath blankets and pillows. The first thing he noticed was his feet, they were so incredibly warm and he couldn’t remember the last time he felt comfort like this.

Then a high-pitched voice shot out from nowhere, “Hi! I’m Mimi!” Jake shut his eyes to the intrusive voice as his head began to ring. Then he was being lifted from the cradled warmth of the bed and his body was hit with the cold air of the night.

“Mimi, for God sake, leave the boy alone!”

Jake looked around at his surroundings and noticed the hunched over figure of the huntsman resting near a fireplace, stoking it and adding more wood to keep it alive. In front of him was a young girl around his age, bright eyed and bleary as she stared at him with puffed cheeks and a large smile.

Jake didn’t have time to ask any questions before his eyes were rolling to the back of his head and he fell unconscious again.