Mount Crettes - Part 1

Hunters Club

Chapter 2 - Mount Crettes

Arthur woke up from his peaceful slumber to the loud noise of Jeremy. Jeremy was overly excited and came early without even eating breakfast. Jessica served Jackson and Jeremy breakfast while Arthur had just woken up.

After Arthur ate his breakfast and packed the necessities, he asked his Father and Jeremy if he needed to pack anything else. Jeremy replied to Arthur with an excited look, "Oh, no need! We have everything else! I even packed something for you if you are in danger during the hunt. No need to be worry! If there is any issue, we'd be right there with you!".

After packing everything, they left the house to their destination. They used Jeremy's Toyota to get there since it was quite far away. While driving, Jeremy explained the destination he chose, it was Mount Crettes. Mount Crettes was a mountain that has been a famous travelling spot for centuries, it was also a place where hunters often visited due to the immense forest covering it. There were various animals such as bears and wolves, it was a perfect spot for a hunt.

When they reached the mountain, the place seemed less lively than they expected, they see didn't many people there, only people leaving in disappointment. The atmosphere of the place seemed ominous. They asked the people in charge there about what had happened and they said, "Sorry to inform you but the mountain has been closed to visitors due to a situation."

Jackson tried getting information on the situation and the person said, "Ah alright, I'll tell you. For the past few months, the amount of people who have gone missing has increased tremendously compared. It is the highest amount of missing persons we've got in the past two decades or so. Recently a traveller found the corpse of one of the people who went missing, the lower half of the body was missing, so we decided there that there is a bear or a mountain lion or any other animal who has been killing people near the mountain. Right now, several people have gone missing in the past few days so we decided to hire a search party to search the forest but they have not found anything as of yet. We have decided to contact the hunters club if we do find the animal. This issue may last for a few more days, so please come back then. We are in a state of losing visitors if we keep this up, so we are trying to finish this as quickly as possible."

After gaining the information, Arthur did not know what Jeremy was going to do now, since the place will be closed for at least another week, there would be no way he can hunt here as training for the test. He thought Jeremy would change the hunting spot to a nearby place.

Jeremy said, "No worries, Arthur! We can still hunt here. The search party is searching in the forest so they are not actually in the mountain ranges, the place I picked is an old abandoned pathway to the back of the mountain which has a giant cave. The officials and the search party probably have not heard of the abandoned pathway yet. Arthur, although this may seem illegal in your perspective you will learn soon enough how it all works. There is no need to be worried about the officials and other factors, you only need to focus on the hunt. We will both help you if you have any problem during the hunt."

Arthur had some doubts but since he trusted his uncle, he tried to focus only on the hunt.

Jackson, who had been quiet the entire time had a visible worry, and whispered to Jeremy's ears, "Are you sure about this? Is the place good for Arthur's level? He would have more mental issues than physically?"

Jeremy replied with a confident smile, "You fool, he's your son! Have some faith in him, he won't be so easily frightened! There is no need to worry about the hunting destination either, I am sure he can take it like a man he is!"

They headed to the pathway when the officials were distracted. They reached the pathway, the pathway was hidden by the bushes and trees. As they walked to the beautiful pathway of the forest, Arthur started setting up traps for he did not know anything about mountains that much, specifically the place he was currently in was unknown to him. He found some rabbits and hunted them down.

It seemed peaceful as they were going until they found the body of a wolf. Arthur was shocked to find that a wolf died, either a wolf killed him or a more vicious predator. Jeremy smiled a bit after seeing the carcass. Jackson's facial expression stayed the same.

Jeremy told Arthur to move on and ignore the carcass. Arthur did as he told. He hunted down more and more animals, he found a group of wolves. It was finally a real challenge for Arthur. Arthur took his weapon and attacked the group, he tried distracting the rest and took them one on one. He killed them one by one, but the final two teamed up on Arthur, but Arthur faked his actions and quickly stabbed them.

Arthur's pants were covered in blood, and he seemed a little bit exhausted. Arthur wondered how long they will hunt since although he may be abnormal in stamina and strength, he was still human.

They continued walking towards the cave, a small bridge had been built over the river. There they met a man who seemed to be in his sixties or seventies, the man had a backpack and a hat. He seemed to have his clothes shredded by the wolves. Arthur asked the man why he was here, he did not look like an official but may have been separated from the search party. The man said with a grumpy look, "Who are you people? There were not supposed to be anyone in the search party or officials to know of this place, I had recently discovered this place yesterday. Ah, now I look at your faces, you are not from the search party nor an official. The young one seems to have hunted down those wolves. Hunters? None of my business, though. I'll take my leave then." The man started walking the pathway again. Arthur yelled to him, "Wait! Stop! You have not told us your identity yet!"

The man stopped walking and looked back to Arthur and replied, "Ah, I forgot. My memory is getting bad I suppose. My name's Daniel Florin, just a normal mountain hiker who has grown old and spends his time climbing mountains. I am searching for my daughter, she went missing here recently. Her name is Sarah, brown hair and in her late twenties. Please look for me if you find her. She's strong like I was when I was young. I wouldn't care if I were to die here, but I wish to see my daughter's face."

Arthur felt pity for the old man, he knew that the possibilities for her survival were very low. But he smiled and said good luck to the old man. The old man went his way after saying goodbye.

Arthur asked his Father about the possibility of his daughter surviving, and he replied with a smile, "You and I both know it's low, but he has faith in finding her, he has hope. Arthur, never lose faith in searching a loved one even if the possibility of their survival is low."

Arthur hoped that the old man finds his daughter. Arthur slowly followed the pathway, and suddenly started smelling a foul smell.

He saw three short humanoid figures, they had an ugly faces with yellow eyes and green skin. They were carrying stone swords. Arthur suddenly remembered the figure from the book, it was a goblin. A mischievous monster with the appearance described similar to that of the book. Arthur started thinking about what'll he do. He panicked a bit, and Jackson said to Arthur, "Calm down, you won't die from them. You can easily take them on if you become calm. They may look ugly and terrifying. They are not that big of a problem compared to your current strength. They are only carrying stone weapons, and are three in number. They must have been loners of the tribe I suppose. You should be happy they are not that smart as the rest. You just need to focus on them, attack when they leave their guard down."

Arthur found it strange that his father knew so much about monsters, but he tried to think about how to approach and attack them. He slowly approached them and threw a stone to distract them, and ran towards them as fast as he could and stabbed one of the goblin's heads, the other two yelled in goblin tongue, they tried to attack Arthur for killing their mate. Arthur distanced himself from them and then threw a rock at one of the goblin's eyes and he ran towards that goblin to slice his neck. He killed two goblins right now, but the last remaining goblin who was the leader of the group had attacked Arthur from the back, but Arthur could handle it and attacked the goblin. By Arthur's strikes, the goblin lost his sword and hand with it. Arthur ran towards the goblin and killed it by slicing its head. His clothes were covered in goblin blood, and Jeremy laughed at Arthur's clothes and said, "Goblin blood is hard to clean off, good job, Arthur! You have succeeded in killing your first monster!"

Jackson seemed a bit relieved that Arthur did it without a big injury, Jackson laughed at the clothes and said, "Your moms gonna have a hard time cleaning that off! I worried about nothing, you did better than all of the people I've seen. If you have any questions about us, we will tell you after the hunt ends." It was the first time Jackson had laughed today.

Jeremy smiled and said to Arthur, "Just cause you killed some ugly green things doesn't mean the hunt is over yet, our destination is the cave after all!"

They started walking again and saw the cave in distance but near them was two goblins. Arthur killed the goblins better than last time, he is a fast learner and didn't let his guard down and had a better understanding of their behaviour even if a little. They walked towards the dark and gloomy cave, it smelled bad. It smelled of corpses. A ray of sunlight hit the cave and Arthur saw a giant figure holding a human being, the human was Daniel! The giant figure was a Troll!

TO BE CONTINUED - Part Two