The beast glades

"I can't believe the third elder did this, there must have been something in the tea, I had barely eaten when I felt so full and so sleepy," Lingyun said as he examined the weapons before him.

Linghua stood beside him nodding. "What do we do now, can we stay here for a month?"

"I am sure they are probably watching us from somewhere, no harm will come to us," Lingyun said, "What I am worried about is food, we shall have to hunt some mortal-level beasts for food at least."

"Which weapon do you want?" Linghua asked.

"Hmm, I'll take the spear," Lingyun said after some consideration

"I think I'll take the sword." the third elder had taught me a few things.

"Let's stay here for now," Lingyun said looking up. It was already dark and there was no need to go anywhere for the time being. The next day would be hard, but that was going to be a problem for his future self, his present self just wanted to let his anger subside.

Inside the cave, their fathers had been kind enough to leave the bare minimum camping equipment like water skins and skinning knives but that was all.

The night passed without issue and the next day they were woken up by the sounds of the birds singing. So far to Lingyun, the beast glades seemed paradisical, but he knew that yesterday had probably been the last normal day of his life.

Contrary to what others might have assumed he knew that there was something special about his body, especially how heightened his senses always were. If he could he still wanted to live a carefree lazy life but that seemed unlikely now. Linghua woke up soon after and after stretching they nodded and headed out of the cave.

The night before they had made a simple plan that would ensure the one-month stay would be as easy as possible. First, they would secure clean water, then find some mortal-level beasts for meat and some cold yuan qi herbs to preserve the meat.

Up in the sky Lingfeng was rend with anger at how his son was planning to pass the one month. The matriarch had laughed when she heard the plan the boys were making, but he was ashamed that his son was so lacking in ambition. Lingman had nodded being an advocate for safety over adventure unlike his brother but he too was a little disappointed that their sons lacked ambition.

The two boys each carried their preferred weapons as well as a bow and an arrow. They had found a small pond soon after leaving their camp and there were traces of a path near it which meant that some beasts came to drink water in the pond. Lingyun had suggested they find somewhere to hide and wait for the animals to show up so that they could hunt.

Soon enough some metal-horned deer pushed through the trees and started drinking. It was a male deer and a calf. The male had short spiky horns. The female had long majestic horns. The boys had been lucky that this calf was not accompanied by its mother.

Lingyun assumed that its mother had died leaving the two behind. Linghua had come up with a simple plan for hunting any beast they found: the first step involved shooting with a bow if they could, the second step was using Lingyun as the spear bearer to skewer the animal and then he would finish it off with his sword.

He aimed his bow at the male and Lingyun aimed his bow at the calf. The aim was true for the male but the calf was hit in the leg and it scampered away noisily. The male was heavy enough that they had to drag it to their camp.

Lingyun was glad that it had been so easy the first time as they skinned and cut apart the meat. his cousin had lit a fire and he proceeded to roast some as his cousin continued to cut the rest. it was barely done cooking when he had finished wrapping up the meat he had cut for later. He was strong enough to hang the hideout to dry, they could use it later.

It was soon after they had finished eating that the first sign of trouble came to them. Lingyun heard the distant sound of a howl, which was followed by another then another. His cousin heard the last howl as it was closer than the others. Wolves. They put out the fire and headed in the opposite direction.

They both knew they would have to leave the camp but neither thought that it would be this soon. It was a shame that they couldn't carry the excess meats but it would probably be better if they left some so that the wolves don't follow them.

The sun was high in the sky by the time they arrived by a small stream. The howls had eventually faded and Lingyun assumed that the wolves had found their camp. He was refilling his water skin when he heard rustling from the nearby bushes.

Looking up he saw about thirty meters away the calf of a metal-horned deer raising its head. he was a little late to realise that as it stepped back it was limping. The first thing he noticed after seeing the limp was the meter-long branching horns that gleamed in the sunlight. He now realised that he had assumed wrong.

He jumped back with his spear ready. The metal-horned female deer walked out of the bushed and he now saw that on its horns was one of the heads of the wolves from before. Its blood dripped red into the stream as the deer walked forward. Was this a mortal-level beast?

Lingyun could feel the blood lust from this animal as it jumped across the small stream and looked directly at it. He could feel cold sweat on his back as he backed away from the beast. He noticed Linghua's shaking hands with the long sword pointed at it.

In the sky Lingfeng was nodding his head as he watched the situation. This was also one of the first beasts he had met when he was younger and he remembered the fear he had felt when he looked at those sharp metallic horns.

"I wonder how they'll overcome this. They should be feeling cornered right about now." Lingman said placing his sword on his shoulder. He was prepared for rescue in case something happened.

"Hey, you." Lingyun heard a female voice in his head, "he didn't dare look around, jump into the water when you see the ripple."

He didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed Linghua's hand and dove into the stream when he saw the water ripple.