Cineris walked with the three most experienced hunters of the village: two old and shabby men, Hem and Boro, as well as someone younger, just in his mid-twenties—Haru, a black-haired, green-eyed fox-kin man.
"Don't worry, child. This guy, Haru, is a mute, so he cannot speak, but he's a great hunter for his age," Hem said, a sword strapped to his waist.
Haru turned toward Cineris and bowed slightly, then kept walking, a sword by his side.
"I see. I'm Cineris," she said to Haru, who diligently assessed the surroundings, looking out for the sacrifice to capture.
Boro twitched his back toward them, far ahead, holding a spear in his hand. "It's not like no one knows you in the village. He very well knows you."
"Really? Even though the village is this big, for years I never saw him there."
"He really loves to explore the outside nature. He's quite the explorer, I'd say," Boro replied.
"I see…"
"Now please, you all keep quiet, or you'll scare every potential sacrifice," Boro said.
"M'kay," Cineris added, leaving a path through the deep snow with her hands behind her back.
***
The group leaned by the trees as Boro peeked out slightly, holding a pink rabbit in his hands. But in doing so, a primitive axe—a sharp stone tied to a stick with dried grass—flew past Boro's nose. It sliced cleanly through a tree, flying in an arc before returning somewhere from where it came.
"And we happened to meet it here again…" Boro muttered.
***
Ten minutes before, the group had been walking through the trees, searching for the sacrifice. Slowly, they made their way past the spruce trees—a monotony of green needles on the horizon. The thick snow covering the ground wasn't helping at all; it only enhanced the stillness.
"Thank the Creator there is no snowstorm this year… It would doom us," Boro said.
"Indeed. I still remember it as if it were yesterday, when you fell into that cave concealed by the snow. It was fun seeing you struggle to climb up. You were so young back then… last year," Hem said.
"Old man, cut it out!" Boro added, just as he spotted a pink rabbit lying unconscious on the snow. Cineris noticed it too, exclaiming, "A pink rabbit? He's so cute!"
Haru stood further away from the group, staring at something in the distance. He began backing away slowly.
"A pink rabbit? Aren't they extremely rare in the world? It would do an amazing job as a sacrifice," Hem remarked.
Just as Hem and Boro walked up to the pink rabbit to pick it up, Cineris glanced to the side where Haru had been. In that moment, she saw him running away from where he had been watching—but then something flew toward him and sliced him cleanly in half. His body flew into the air.
Snow and trees around were splattered with blood as the lifeless halves of Haru fell.
Cineris's eyes widened in shadow. Her hands began to shake. She wanted to scream but couldn't.
At that moment, the thing that had sliced Haru flew back the way it came, and a second later, a creature emerged from behind the trees.
It revealed itself: the upper body of an athletic man with unnaturally long arms, and a head like that of a rabbit with very long ears. Its legs were like springs—tendons from behind its knees held them together, along with a second knee. Its legs resembled those of a rabbit.
It walked up to the lower half of Haru's body, picked it up, and began consuming its prey.
Cineris backed toward the rest of the group, slowly muttering, "Hey… Hey! Please, help."
They both turned toward her. "What happened?"
Cineris whispered, "Shhh! Haru… It killed Haru!"
"What?" Boro whispered back.
"It sliced him in half!" Cineris's arms and legs shook as she explained. "Its head was that of a rabbit and chest of a fox-kin. Its arms were too long! And the legs…"
At that moment, Hem grabbed Cineris, covering her mouth, and picked her up. He looked at Boro with dead seriousness.
"Stay silent, We are running. We are dead if it corners us."
"Trust me. Run."
Boro nodded, unsure of what had happened, and Hem started running at the top of his strength, Boro close behind.
"Hey!" Boro said in a voice louder than a whisper. "What happened? I don't understand."
"Seriously now? Run, I'll explain later!" Hem said. As he spoke, an ax flew through the woods, slicing through dozens of trees and sending them flying. It flew past the group in a highly curved way.
Cineris shrieked as it flew past her. The moment she did, Hem covered her mouth. But at that instant, a loud BOOM! echoed through the trees. Boro turned his head to see a tree near him explode in half, shredding in the middle.
The half that broke off—and at the top—stood the monster on its legs. It tightened its muscles and BOOM! again, flying past the group and landing a great distance away, where it could easily see them through the trees.
"That's what I was saying!" Hem shouted as he sharply turned back with Cineris in his arms and ran past Boro. "Move, you idiot!"
Boro jolted past them.
Hem ran, looking for a sign on a tree. There he spotted an X etched into the bark. Seeing it, he shouted to Boro, "Turn right now and jump!"
Boro did as he said and jumped. And so he was here—and now he is falling down a cliff. "You old bastard!" his voice echoed, dimming each moment.
Cineris closed her eyes and clasped her hands together in prayer, muttering it.
Hem, as he arrived by that X, did so too and jumped down the cliff.
They flew down as the wind screamed past their ears. As they fell, the monstrous rabbit-man watched them. It threw a stone off the cliff, then shook its head and ran along the edge, searching for a better place to jump off of.
***
Boro hit the snow, leaving a hole his size. Soon after came Hem and Cineris, landing in the snow by Boro.
Getting out of the snow hole, they gasped for air as they crawled out. Cineris had passed out from the fall and wouldn't wake up, so Hem kept her in his hands. He turned to Boro, who was on his knees coughing out snow.
"Stand up! Boro, we need to run!" Hem said.
"I get it! Cough! I get it!" Boro stood, barely, and both of them ran away from the cliff through the trees.