Vol.1/Chapter 7: Dawn

As the morning sun approaches, streaks of sunlight pass through the thick lush of canopy, making a magnificent wake up scenery. Birds chirping, insects crawling, animals howling, the dense, thick air of the woods gives the chill a person wants to wake up to.

Right beside me is still my newfound friend, snoring like a baby, constantly yawning as she enjoys the company of mine. The fire beside me obviously dimmed out and with a body from a well deserved rest, I stretched out and check the surrounding.

Thankful for the magic chant Almira gave me which healed my sustained injury, waking up with no pain in my body is sure really a blessing. With my spear in hand, bows in the back with a quiver of poisonous and non-poisonous arrows, I was ready to find my way back to my comrades. But I was stopped in my tracks when I noticed that the ground surrounding as are full of the tiny wolf-like footsteps again. I was baffled by this and swiftly turned into alert mode, getting ready as our attacker may come any second.

I slowly but carefully investigated the surroundings and noticed that the edge of the footprints were at least 10 feet away from the fire I made nor to Iresh, my Shadowmane.

"Looks like those little rascals were afraid of the fire nor to my cat, after all.", I told myself.

With the jug half full of clean water, bread that is almost gone, I know we are losing supplies so I quickly woke up my sleeping steed, hoping to find something to hunt or something to refill my container. With a yawn that reverberates throughout the woods, the mighty beast woke up from its slumber and greeted me with a cuddly embrace. We huddled for a minute as the stomach of my friend grumbled and we both knew it's time to find us some food.

She knelt before me as I rode a Shadowmane, first time of my life. The fascinating feline ran like a bird in the wind as I felt the breeze slapping gently through my face. We backtracked the way I came from and with the help from morning light, we found the path me and my comrades originally supposed to take before I was cut apart from them.

As me and Iresh followed the path, we stumbled upon a rustling bush. We carefully sneaked to it and found a mischief of Giant Gophers!

note: a group of rats are called "mischief" because of how they behave when they come together as a group.

These noisy, burrowing scoundrels resembles a giant brown rat except got no long tail, bears almost 2 and a half feet in height, got cheek pouches for their berry stash and are easily startled. I quickly got my bow and carefully picked the quiver with no poison. As I previously did, half of my arrows are covered with Giant Centipede poison that is capable of killing creatures as large as an elephant.

Using Iresh's unique ability, Shadow Camouflage, we went on hunting mode as we become almost invisible to the naked eye. Slowly and slowly, we circle out the mischief without making a single noise. The chattering of the Gophers deafen the accident cracks of branches scattered along the ground, perfect for hiding out presence.

We spot a lone male Gopher, 7 feet from the group and decided it to be our prey. Soundless as we can be, I grabbed my bow and placed my non-poisonous arrow, pulled the string and with a quick flick of my hand, it flew off - Zoom! - the Gopher was hit in its head, killing it instantly. Fortunately, the rodent was far away from its group that it didn't alarm any of its colleagues. I picked up the carcass and, boy oh boy, was it huge for a rat that it won't even fit completely in my knapsack. I just decided to tie it with a rope as I placed it in my back.

We repeated the hunting process until almost noon - finding a lone rodent, sneaking up on it and killing it with my arrow - it went flawlessly. As we are on our sixth kill, the group was alarmed and steady, guarding it from predators. Then we just decided to just do a full on approach as I grabbed my spear.

Going as near and quiet as possible, I readied my weapon as Iresh pounced on the group, catching two in the process. I then jumped off my steed, and stabbed another two of the rodents as the remaining of the group scurry in their makeshift underground holes. My friend tried to catch another one but it slipped away and jumped through the hole.

All in all, this was a fair hunt, catching 10 in the process. Iresh was so happy that she jumped in excitement, wagging its tail. I split the rewards in 7:3 favor of my big trusty cat, and I must say, we make a pretty good team. As she was happily munching on her feast, I tied mine in their feet with a rope and put it on my shoulder.

"Jeez, I got so many things now and it's fucking heavy. Hey, can you help me on this?", I sighed while questioning my friend.

Too busy eating, Iresh just bellow in response and I just looked at her with scorn. I dragged the heavy carcasses and sat on her side. Once finished, I tied the rope with my hunt in her neck as she gets ready to travel again. I rode her, left the Gopher grounds and made through the path again.

It was almost noon and the temperature changed from a mild breeze to an intensely hot environment. Didn't noticed it but I almost emptied my jug as I'm still thirsty. I knew Iresh is thirsty too as she slowed her pace, conserving her energy. We were almost exhausted but not until we heard a faint rushing sound of water from the distance. This, in turn, rushed us with excitement as we ran to the source of the sound.

Arriving to the source, we find a waterfall, not as large as we expected but it is still fairly reasonable. Immediately, we ran through the water's edge and drank as much as we could as I also full my jug. After this, we noticed that the waterfall was surrounded by ruins, covered in vines and worn out by the weather. Black limestone buildings, perfect for a campsite as I detected smoke coming from one of the ruins, suggesting that someone might be living or camping there.

As I tried to turn back, dozens of spears were pointing at me and Iresh. This spooked her as she roared to the oppressors, scaring some of them in the process. Still overwhelmed by their numbers, the sun's ray blinded me as a familiar voice called me out.

"Oh my God, you are safe! Luca, you are safe! I was so worried about you and didn't almost sleep yesterday.", Theo cried to me as my comrades also finally recognized me through my chitin armor.

Calming the spooked Iresh, I introduced her to my comrades as my savior and our new friend. The now docile Iresh approached them with utmost care as the wolves cheered me from my almost impossible near-death experience.

"Holy shit Luca, you are so lucky!", one exclaimed

"If I were in your spot, I should've just killed myself.", one laughed off

"But still, we cannot change the fact that Luca just come back alive and is now a Shadowmane Rider.", one shouted

The group hooted and howled as I tell them my story. All the wolves brighten up as I told how I fearlessly stood my ground between the Giant Centipede, and my former predator now friend, Iresh the Shadowmane. I also shared the three Giant Gophers we hunted and one of the wolves decided to make it a stew for lunch.

All was happy, except one...Alder.

"You just got lucky because of the Moon Blessing that Almira gave you. And who even ran off from their group? Fucking dumbass.", Alder just whispered in utter anger as I ignored his remarks over me.

Not totally ignoring as I taunted him.

"At least I'm now a Shadowmane Rider, your long lost dream.", I just smiled.

This, then, infuriated Alder as he tried to strike me with his spear. Iresh guarded me as she stepped up, let out a fearsome snarl and tail whipped Alder which made him fly a decent distance and knocked him unconscious. After which Theo decided that enough is enough and ordered the group to immobilize Alder and locked up for his treachery.

"Everyone here is a family! Not by blood, or race, or color, we are one and we are many! Treachery of this sort is utterly unforgivable.", Theo shouted in rage as the other wolves agreed.

Locked up in his cage, Alder finally woke up.

"Heed my words, human. One day, I will kill you and I will enjoy it.", Alder just whispered in vex.