Kel got up at dawn, yesterday had proven to be unproductive. He prayed for today to be different. Going back home without a catch was a hunter's biggest shame, and heavens forbid he went through that. He took a deep inhale of the morning's cold breeze, beat his chest lightly to rile himself up and get himself motivated.
"Everyone is counting on me, I can't fail them… ouch." He winced as he felt a sharp pain on his hand, and upon taking a look, he noticed that his right index finger that held his engagement ring had a deep, small tear around it, like something had clasped the ring hard against his finger, sinking it close to the bone.
'What is this?' it had been over a year since he had it on, for an incident to occur now and out of the blue was certainly strange, especially how he did not notice until he woke up. He merely shook his head, dismissing the pain.
He carefully made his way down the tree after he was certain that no hostile creature lay beneath, and as soon as his feet landed on the ground, he heard a sudden rustling of leaves a few meters from him, something had ran from fear of his descent, something large enough to make a meal.
He swiftly nocked a few arrows, and let them fly in the direction of the sound, hoping that the numbers would overwhelm it.
Immediately, he heard a pained cry, and he ran forward to claim his prize. "Ahh hah!" He cried in excitement, looking at the dying sand rabbit hanging by a tree, an arrow holding it in place.
"Maya's favorite," he uttered before walking to it.
"Perhaps today is my lucky day." He removed the arrow from the corpse, and placed it into his leather bag. He picked back up his arrows, those were difficult to make. Now filled with excitement from catching a game, he continued on his hunting expedition.
It was just beyond two hours when another sand rabbit fell victim to his sharp arrows.
Usually, he tended to turn back after this, two sand rabbits were roughly the same weight as a healthy teenage boy, and that was enough meat to go round for everyone in his hamlet, but not this time, he had spent a day without any catch, and clearly the gods of hunting were on his side this morning, it would be a waste of opportunity to squander such grace.
"I smell a feast later tonight!" He yelled, and then howled like a wolf.
He went on, stuffing his satchel with another sand rabbit corpse. His steps did not slow, and instead, he walked around with a hurried gait, hypervigilant, his eyes darting back and forth for prey worth his blade.
Coincidentally, he noticed the abrupt change in the power of his sight. He could see lizards on branches hundreds of meters away—almost like he had crept right in their midst. Even his hearing had improved, it was like he could focus his ears on the specific places he wanted to hear sounds from.
Still, he attributed these to the day's luck, and a good night's sleep.
The morning left as swiftly as it came, and it was late noon. He had seen many animals worth killing but he kept gambling on a bigger game, it also did not help that they were almost all sand rabbits, surely the forest had more to offer.
He was close to resigning when he realized that the sun was close to setting, evening had arrived without him noticing. However, the gods would respond to his faith as he spotted a herd of white-flaxen deers grazing. A wonderful array to select from.
He was careful not to move any closer. He had a clear view from where he sat, the deers were known to be fast, hitting them once they were aware of a hostile presence was almost impossible.
He slowly nocked an arrow, eying one of the closest to him. He abandoned numbers, the gods hated waste, and he did not want to kill more than he could carry, just one would suffice. He then exhaled and released his grip on the arrow.
The arrow zoomed across the air, donning a blue lick of energy. It struck the target almost instantly—not stopping right on the head like Kel had intended but going right through the deer, killing it and many others that were on the arrow's path until it struck a small tree that splitted into lateral halves.
He blinked multiple times trying to absorb what had happened. All he wanted was a deer, but instead, near a dozen deers laid in gore, while the others scattered in a frenzy.
Kel walked to what he had just done, mangled bodies formed a path before him, all at the might of just an arrow, it did not make sense.
He squatted, looking at the gaping hole that ran from the deer's head to right through its legs. Kel was a veteran at cutting animal pieces yet the sight had him gag, the way the deer's torn guts spilled from the large gash unsettled him.
He went past it, it was too damaged and too bloody to take back home with him. He walked down the path of dead deers down to where the arrow was lodged. He sought to pull out the arrow but it remained firmly in the tree's standing half, unyielding, and eventually he gave up.
He had killed a lot more than intended, a total of nine deers, and they all died terribly save for one that he decided he was going to take back. It was the last on the path and the arrow had struck its thighs, causing it to bleed to death.
"That was more luck than I requested for." He mumbled.
Though Kel was a hunter, he believed the sanctity of life extended to animals as well, and as such, he was not comfortable with leaving such a horrid sight of corpses. Myths that evil spirits would possess such corpses and hunt one in one's dreams were stories he grew up with. He had to bury them.
It took him close to an hour to dig a hole deep enough to fit all remaining eight, and by the time he was done, the sun had set and night had arrived.
Another common myth Kel grew up with was that monsters came out at night.