Chapter 4: The Other Fantasticals

Brian carried his passed out son Edward on his back. Both covered in boar's blood, Brian would often look over his shoulder to see the rare sight of Edward with his eyes closed. Sometimes he felt like his son never blinked, always absorbing the world around him with that magical eyesight. The rest of the hunting party were either carrying a tied up piglet or dragging the massive carcass of the father boar through the underbrush on a makeshift cart. Eager to make their way home and celebrate the injury-free victory, they pulled with renewed vigor.

It was very rare to have such a successful hunt. Before Edward joined the expeditions, there would often be injuries and the success rate was abysmal, at best. Rarely finding any prey, usually only finding strong predators who could hunt the party trying to hunt, it was a celebrated victory if everyone came back unharmed. After Edward became old enough to follow along, though, hunting became easy. The kid's magical ability to see things hundreds of meters away allowed the party to slip past the dangers of the wild, like the carnivorous Corpse Trees, and the ever present tigers and wolf packs. Even back on earth, such things were lethal to men, much less here, where the tigers could swallow men whole and the wolves were strong enough to tear through entire tree trunks with their feral jaws.

Several hours later, around dusk, the hunting squad made it back to the blue colored cliff-face that signaled they were out of danger and back in the territory of Blue Stone Village. Jeff went forward and gave the signal to the sentry sitting inside the hidden ravine entrance, who pushed away the boulder used to hide the Village. The Sentry, an older man who was a survivor of The Shift named Harold, exclaimed at the sight of the massive boar and the live piglets. If they could raise those piglets properly, that would mean a safe source of food! He ran back through the ravine and notified the entire village of the hunting party's success.

The hunting party were welcomed home like heroes from war. Parading the gigantic boar around the village, they cheered and set the hearth ablaze, eager to cook and smoke the meat, preserving it for the weeks to come. Brian carried his son back to their family home, where Melody took her only son and placed him on the family bed. Edward, sound asleep from the exhaustion from his first battle, didn't awake in the slightest at the cheers and celebration outside...

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"Your boy was something else, Brian. I can't believe he was able to prevent the piglets from escaping! He even killed one himself... Scary."

"Yeah, who would have thought? A mere seven year old boy being able to heavily contribute to the safety of our village. Makes us fully grown men look like jokes, sigh..."

"Hey, don't compare yourself. Ed's one of them Fantasticals, they're different from us. They were born for this shit hole. Just like Ronald's boy, Clifford. That kid is STRONG. He might not have that super vision that Ed's got, but I think that boy might grow up to be strong enough to go toe to toe with some of them beasties! That'll be the sight."

The men and women of the village began discussing the different children of the Village who had awoken all kinds of abilities. Although only five Fantastical had been born here, that was still a huge amount compared to the other known villages. Clifford, who had the strength of a fully grown man despite just being 9 years old. Violet, who could communicate with the wildlife and even talk to some of the birds. Then there was Lily... No one really talked about that orphan.

Cases like hers were why there was a bit of a stigma behind the birth of a Fantastical. You see, Ann could control flames from what they could tell. But when she was first born, she had no idea how to control herself and one tragic night, she had a horrible nightmare and caused her family's house to explode, killing her mother and father and her unborn brother. Lily, only being 3 at the time, had to be taken in by the older women, although no one wanted the cursed child in their home due to the precedent of accidentally murdering her entire family. Lily became incredibly introverted and mute, never speaking a single word to anyone, only helping out with chores. Even though no one had seen her use her powers in almost 8 years, everyone was still scared of her.

The other two Fantastical in the village had the most impressive and important to the village. Edward, with his magical eyesight helped the hunting party prevent the village from starving and involuntarily saved the village many unnecessary deaths with his ability. The other was actually the oldest of all of the Fantastical, and the very first to appear in the Village. Gangdor was 13 years old this year, and despite being so old, he was never allowed out of the village to go hunting due to the risk of losing this lynchpin of Blue Stone. Gangdor had a very simple ability. He could, from the village chief O'Connel's guesses, accelerate the healing process of injuries and cure diseases. Gangdor was very thin and frail, and had had struggles with his body since birth. However, his ability to save lives was downright divine in this tiny village with nearly no medicinal capabilities to speak of.