Chapter 6: The Hunt

"You are a slave from this day forward."

The words tumbled through his mind in a haphazard storm of emotions. He had just

come from one desperate situation to another.

"What?"- The words tumbled out of his mouth in a low, confused tone.

Morgan ran his nose, scratched his beard, letting fall the dirt that gray desert sand

brought in its wind.

"There is no such system within the wall" - Arthur stated increasing his voice.

Morgan let out his dry, sneering laugh. "Who said we're going to the wall?"

The more the conversation went on, the more disoriented the boy was, he didn't

understand how there could be something like a human system beyond the wall, was

there anything beyond Marked and monsters? A society?

The conversation then ended with a dry "enough" from Morgan. He wanted to ask

Morgan more about it as they walked, but the old man didn't exude a friendly aura for

conversation, remembering the rules that had been set on this journey.

"You're alive boy, if you want to continue, don't ask questions, I don't care about your

past and don't talk."

So, thus the journey through the gray desert stretched on, in silence, only the wind

spoke.

Morgan was experienced, he knew where to go and where not to go, he managed to

avoid most threats, they didn't encounter any monsters for most of the morning and

afternoon, but the dangers weren't limited to the beasts, they had to fight against

something worse, hunger. and thirst.

When finally the belly begged for food, it was decided to take a break, Arthur at that

moment could not even continue walking, the whole walk passed grumbling, low

enough not to completely enrage Morgan, but enough to make him listen.

His belly ached, his throat was dry, sweat dripped to the floor from the exhaustion and

heat. Seeing that they would take a break, he collapsed on the sand.

Morgan started to take equipment from his backpack to set up a small fire, separated the

space, stood up looking at the sky letting himself feel the wind hit his skin.

"Take care of the equipment," he said in his husky, thick voice.

Arthur nodded in agreement and so the old man left for a little distance from where they

were.

It was late afternoon, the sun was starting to set, the sand was starting to cool down,

making the weather milder, cooler.

The boy was sitting recovering his breath lost on the walk, but he couldn't help the

hunger that ran through his whole being.

He was starting to get worried with the night coming on and Morgan far away, even if

he was going to sell him as a slave, he was the only one who would keep him safe from

monsters, anything other than a baby Autrix.

After a while, to Arthur's relief, Morgan returned, not alone, he was holding in his hand

a dead Gray Rabbit, a typical animal of that area, it was little bigger than a hare, eyes

completely black, ears pointed and set high with a coat all gray as if the best were

selected for that desert.

It was the animal most consumed by the Marked that survived there, in addition to

being easy to hunt with the powers of the Mark, as it was a diet animal with small

grasses that grew there, its meat was nutritious.

Morgan then took a knife and began to skin the animal.

"Prepare the fire," he said to the boy.

Arthur even salivated looking at the game, he took the small pieces of wood that were in

Morgan's backpack and began to prepare the fire quickly, used the last handkerchief

with alcohol that they had and lit it.

He started by making a horizontal slash across the animal's belly, pulling the meat as he

carefully and continuously removed it with the knife.

After removing the hide, he carefully supported it and began to skin it. It was an

important step to avoid the decomposition of the flesh. With quick and strong vertical

movements, but with care to avoid damaging the meat.

Once the fire was blazing high, Morgan carefully separated the animal's body parts and

placed them on the fire.

Arthur looked in awe at the meat waiting anxiously for his share.

However, when the meat was ready, Morgan took it off the heat and began to eat,

without even looking at Arthur's face.

Boy was incredulous with the situation — But, my part? he questioned.

Then the old man opened a smile with pieces of meat in his teeth, still with the food in

his mouth exclaimed – "Your share? Hunt for yourself if you want to eat, boy."

" But, I was here all the time taking care of the equipment! Now it's night!"

Morgan finished swallowing the meat — "So sleep on an empty stomach and hope you

have the strength to hunt tomorrow."

Arthur wanted to hit the man in front of him, he clenched his fists to control himself, his

situation was outrageous and frustrating. But he can't do anything. He lay down and fell

asleep, holding the hurt and screams in his stomach.

The day turned and they continued their walk, repeated at the same time, Arthur's

grumbles and finally the break time arrived, it arrived earlier than expected, after all

Arthur had no more energy due to the lack of food.

Arthur refused to look at the equipment this time, he was determined to go hunting,

Morgan just laughed at the boy's stubbornness and let him go hunting.

But, little did Arthur knew how expensive it was to hunt, he distanced a little from the

area where he was, looked around him believing that he would see a Gray Rabbit, but of

course, he didn't find any, its skin was specific to that environment, a camouflage of

thousands of years of evolution, a simple observation would not help to find it.

The boy then decided to explore and look for burrows in the ground, he understood that

the animals would need a place to stay in the high range of temperatures and rest.

It was no use, his inexperienced search, until he realized that his spells would be useful

for hunting at that moment.

He found small holes in the ground, he knew there were small mammals there. He then

put his "Alarm" spell there in case it came back,

So as he proceeded, every hole he found set a mental alarm going off. Until the first one

went off. He ran to the point, but nothing would come, so another shot, again, found no

rabbit.

He spent the afternoon like that, without finding any game.

They went back to where he was, it was night, he couldn't hunt anymore.

Upon arriving, he saw Morgan enjoying his game yesterday that he had saved the meat.

"What happened? They didn't go with your face?" - He said with his mouth full and the

meat in his hand.

The boy remained quiet, he had to swallow hard, his pride was in pieces, he walked in

silence to his blanket to sleep.

"Hunting isn't simple, you need to be discreet" — for the first time, something that

wasn't a threat or offense came out of Morgan's mouth — "If you don't learn this, you'll

starve, dead people aren't sold. No one will want your fucked up homeless organs."

Arthur didn't answer, he had heard the teaching, but remained still, with his eyes closed

as he tried to control the hunger to sleep. He wasn't new to this, he had slept on an

empty stomach many times, most of his life.

The day then turned, it was time to continue the journey. Unlike the other times, Arthur

didn't grumble once, his eyebrows were tense expressing a face of conviction, the boy

exuded the certainty that he would be able to hunt his food that day.

Arthur's strategy was simple, last day he realized that there was a standard distance

between the burrows, he verified that this time would not be different, he calculated the

steps between the burrows and imagined a circle between them.

Arthur had never studied mathematics, but in his head, almost instinctively, he

understood that in all shapes, square, triangle, ball, circle, he had a distance between

their points in common.

So, measuring with his steps, approaching a meter, the distance between them had been

converted into meters before his hunt by the metric line Morgan had.

He set an alarm at three points that were on the same line of a semicircle, moved away

in a nine pace radius where he sank into the gray sand, camouflaging himself in the hot

sand.

His skin was burning, the sun did not give up, it radiated over him as if he were

immersed in a sea of magma, his whole body screamed in pain, but Arthur did not

express a single noise. He stared at where the holes would be and waited.

He waited for hours, until the sight of him dimmed the hunger and the heat consumed

him, he was on the verge of passing out and closing his eyes.

But the alarm went off.

At that moment adrenaline ran through his entire body, he extended his hand to the point

where the noise came from, the little rabbit didn't know he had stepped on the alarm, the

sound was mental only for Arthur.

"Duel."

Arthur used his second spell on the Gray Rabbit who was within range of him, he

emerged onto the gray sand that covered his body.

The small mammal saw Arthur running towards him, so he tried to jump away, but the

barrier of the spell prevented him from leaving.

From there it was a wild fight. The boy jumped on top of the animal squeezing its neck,

the rabbit from time to time escaped his grasp and screamed to jump away, but the boy

soon wrapped his fingers around his neck, until finally twisting and breaking them. .

The magic was gone, there was only Arthur and the body of a Gray Rabbit in his hands.

The boy had just hunted for the first time.

It seemed something simple, it didn't seem worthy of celebration, but the terror of

hunger that haunted Arthur was about to disappear with his effort and insight, he

couldn't hold back the emotion, lifting the animal's body by the ears the boy shouted, in

ecstasy for the conquest.

He would live for another day.