Studious Hunter

Ricky's preparations weren't anything grand. He had set up a few traps that would be enough to capture a couple of scouts. He set them on the side of the archway leading to his village.

On the other side, he had spread the dismembered body parts of the creature he killed earlier.

It wasn't as much a plan as it was a wish, but Ricky wanted to keep the creatures away from the village, even if it meant personally leading them deeper into the forest. At the very least, he hoped the creatures, especially the ones in charge of hunting, didn't stray toward the village.

However, the creatures in charge of hunting seemed to do so in groups.

By dicing up spreading the creature he killed, Ricky hoped he could separate the hunters from each other. And if they didn't come, he hoped it would work on the scouts.

Ricky's only plan if a creature other than those two arrived was to run.

Now, he just had to wait.

He wasn't sure how many creatures lurked beyond the shimmering veil. But since they had brought back an entire boar, it wouldn't be just those hunters and the scouts. The number of footprints also spoke against it.

For some reason, Ricky didn't think the archway had been there for more than a couple of weeks. Even that was a stretch. If it had been, someone, him included, would have noticed it, or the creatures would have found the village.

Ricky was deep in thought as he speculated about the archway's mysterious nature and what lay beyond it.

However, his thoughts were interrupted by a creature walking through the veil.

It was a scout.

Ricky followed it with his eyes and confirmed that it was headed in his village's direction. He wasn't sure if it would step into one of his traps. He considered pursuing it, but he didn't want to miss it when a hunting party left the archway.

The only thing worse than missing an opportunity to reduce the creature's numbers would be to get caught from behind by a returning party.

'Ah, damn it.'

Ricky had no way of knowing when the next hunting party would leave the archway. It was also getting late.

Although he kind of wanted to stay the night, he knew he shouldn't.

Ricky snuck around the clearing and followed the scout.

Since this was going to be the last thing he did today, he was going to make it worth his while.

The creatures in charge of hunting were dangerous. Ricky could tell that at a glance. But since they were the same kind of creature as the scouts, he figured they had the same weaknesses. If he learned more about the creatures, it would be easier to hunt them.

It was the same with ordinary wild animals.

A hunter didn't wait for deer among the trees or where their food doesn't grow. A hunter doesn't hunt a boar by confronting it head-on. A hunter doesn't chase a rabbit. They trap it.

Ricky had managed to kill two scouts with some ease.

But the same method wouldn't work against the hunters. He would need to verify their weak points and study their habits and movements.

Ricky followed the scout without making a noise. He watched it with eyes as sharp as an eagle's.

By studying it, Ricky found out that the creature was lazy. It stopped and sat down to scratch its belly several times, even without displaying signs of fatigue. It was destructive. The creature used its sharp nails to scratch trees, tear moss off of stones, and shred the plants it came across.

The creature was surprisingly agile. It jumped over a small stream with ease. It was about to slip when it landed on the soft mud, but it caught itself quickly. It had good reflexes.

The creature scanned its surroundings when it wasn't being lazy. Its eyes were sharp, but it didn't seem like it could notice Ricky, even when he was upwind. Its nose wasn't as sharp as a wild animal's.

Ricky memorized all of those tidbits of information in his head as he studied the creature. He was getting ready to end the lesson when the creature revealed a fatal weakness. It wasn't unexpected, given its shape and the fact that the creatures needed food, but Ricky let slip an evil smile as he got another method to eradicate the threat to his village.

Ricky snuck up behind the creature, careful to avoid stepping on any branches.

At the last moment, the creature noticed Ricky's shadow. But it was too late.

Ricky slit the creature's throat from behind.

Without even seeing more than its killer's shadow, the creature bled out on the ground.

Ricky looked at the corpse before kneeling beside it.

'It wouldn't hurt to learn some anatomy.'

Ricky was nothing if not a determined and dedicated aspiring hunter. He would do everything he needed to ensure a successful hunt and the safety of his family.

The creature's internal anatomy was strange.

Ricky hadn't seen a human's insides before. But he knew a few things in theory from what his father had told him.

However, weird things aside, the creature had a heart. And the heart was connected to a system of blood vessels all over the creature's body. That was one weakness.

Ricky had already confirmed that it bled, that its spine was sensitive, and that it needed to breathe.

But now, he had confirmed the existence and location of a heart, as well as a few joints and tendons he could cut or attack if he couldn't reach the heart.

It helped that the creature was alarmingly similar to a human in form. It creeped Ricky out, and he started to wonder what the archway was and where these strange creatures came from.

But he didn't know where rabbits, deer, fowl, or foxes come from. He didn't need to know to hunt those, and he didn't need to know what the creatures were or where they came from to hunt them.

Ricky washed himself in a nearby stream before heading home since it was already getting darker.