Hunting-Part 3

The night passed on with no sign of any life searching through the forest. As the sun crested over the horizon, Kye climbed down from the tree and made his way back to the cabin. He gently opened the door and found all of its occupants awake and currently eating. Nadiya saw Kye and rushed over to him.

"Are you okay? I didn't see you yesterday after you left."

"I was fine, just was on watch throughout the night and came back briefly as the sun went down. Both of you were asleep so I didn't wake you."

Kye turned to Hakos.

"Anything weird through the night?"

"Nothing. Was pretty silent except for some animal sounds."

Kye nodded and looked back at Nadiya, her eyes full of concern.

"You should rest, you've been up all night."

She grabbed his arm with both her hands and dragged him to a seat. Kye smiled wryly and rested briefly as they all ate a simple breakfast. He ate quickly and brewed himself a coffee. As he was messing with the kettle, Thelos spoke up.

"Did you encounter the enemy yesterday?"

"Just one, I took him down silently. His body should be found by them today, I plan to lie in wait around the area."

Nadiya shot her head up.

"You're planning to go out again?! No, you have to get some sleep!"

"Relax, I'll use some waker mixture and head back out. Hakos, you can get some sleep while Thelos and Nadiya are awake, they should be able to wake you if anything happens."

Hakos frowned but ultimately decided that Kye could make his own decisions and nodded, got up off his chair, and walked into the bedroom to get some much-needed sleep. Nadiya remained concerned and didn't look away from Kye with a worried expression as he made more waker mixture and rubbed it on his gums. He picked up his spear that had been resting at the doorframe and opened the door. He turned back and gave a small smile.

"I'll be back soon."

He then turned and closed the door behind him. As the door closed, the natural light that poured in was slowly cut off and Nadiya felt her anxiety of the situation rise. She felt as though Kye was going to fall to pieces if he kept pushing himself to the brink. The worst part for her was that he owed her nothing and had already been so kind yet was continuing to risk his life for her. Thelos noticed the gloomy aura around Nadiya and placed a rough hand on her shoulder.

"He might be young but the kid is tough. He'll be alright."

Though the words felt hollow, Nadiya turned back and smiled at Thelos before getting up and cleaning up after Kye.

Oblivious to the anxiety of his newest friend, Kye moved through the forest at an increased pace to get to an advantageous position before his enemies got moving. He stalked through the thick foliage and followed the path yet was surprised to see that there were already two men in black already on the path. One of them had a large two-handed sword on his back while the other had two daggers in sheaths on his waist. The one with the daggers squatted down and inspected the ground. He picked up some dirt and rubbed it between his fingers before shaking his hand to get rid of the excess dirt on his hand.

"He's been dead for at least eight hours. He was probably left here as some kind of warning, just like the other body we found."

"Hmph. Whoever we're up against is clearly not to be underestimated, Belz was a good fighter."

The man with the daggers shook his head.

"He was caught unaware, there was a scuffle but he was probably on the ground already when the blow was delivered. You don't get a wound that deep with a thrust."

"Then I suppose we should advise the rest of the gang to split up into groups so we aren't picked off so easily."

"That would be wise. Although with two losses already, we'll only have five groups searching if we pair up."

"It might move slower but it's better than dying."

"True that. Let's get moving back to camp, the rest are waiting."

The two men moved off down the path but Kye wasn't about to let them go unhindered. He snuck along with them until they reached a fork in the path. The left path led down to the edge of the forest where their camp was no doubt set up while the right path led to a cave used by local wildlife. Kye had set a few manual traps along both paths but if he wanted to properly take care of these two, he would need to lead them to the cave.

This area of the forest was rather rocky and the path was split because there was a sheer face in front of it that couldn't be traversed normally. Kye had placed a boulder close to the edge of the ridge to be pushed off. Kye broke cover and ran to the opposite side of the ridge to climb up. Using all the power his muscles would give him, he made his way up and quickly ran to the boulder he had positioned. Giving it a large shove with his shoulder, throwing his entire weight behind it, the boulder tumbled down the ridge and stopped in the middle of the path.

The man with the two-handed sword heard the noise and dragged his companion back out of the way. They both narrowly dodged the boulder and drew their weapons, training their eyes in on the ridge. Kye had already hidden from view and strained his ears to listen to their conversation.

"That shit can't be a coincidence, whoever's against us knows we're here."

"We should just continue down the path and get back to camp."

"But what if there are more traps? If we go down the other path and cut across the ridge they probably won't be able to do anything."

A few brief moments of silence elapsed before they started speaking again.

"Okay, we'll go the other way but we need to make haste."

"Agreed."

Kye then heard the footfalls of the two men running back to the fork in the path. He gave a slight smile and slinked off back across the ridge.

'Now to make sure they never get back to camp.'