Chapter 71- The Respectable Profession.

It was not until the third day that both wanderers saw a broken tar road which, surprisingly was not affected by the snow.

"The broken tar road!" Jim exclaimed in excitement when he saw the road from afar and ran towards it. His fatigue gone from excitement.

"What is that?" Wilson asked as he ran after Jim to take a closer look at the road.

"The broken tar road. History has it that a man from Tiger City had built it decades back, because he would usually get lost when travelling through the plains. So, he built it with lines and directions pointing at both ends. They say if we look closely at it, somewhere on the road is a pointer that will show us which direction Tiger City is, as well as the approximate distance." Jim explained as he ran down the road.

"Ah, found it! Oh, just follow the road? Wilson, we just have to follow the road." Jim yelled excitedly, waving at Wilson to follow him.

And together, both of them ran along the famous broken tar road.

***********

Three hours later, tracks began to appear. A carriage driven by an unknown hybrid slowly became visible. As they got closer, they noticed three people; an old man, a middle-aged man and a girl between the ages of ten and thirteen, standing by the road as a teenager who looked slightly older than Wilson, crouched and changed a broken wooden tyre. The old man saw them first and waved jovially at them, signalling to them to join them.

"Hello! You are also going towards Tiger City, right?" The old man asked with a smile. He saw how rough and relatively dirty they were and assumed that they were hunters. Hunting was a well respected profession in Tiger City. In any other place, they were just one of many professions but Tiger City taught people to respect them more. Anyone who was willing to face the treacherous and untamed wild and came back alive, was worthy of respect.

"Yes. You must be going there as well." Jim said as he gave his best smile. Wilson looked around at the group of people and could not help but notice the resemblance in all four of them.

'They must be family.' Wilson thought but he kept his thoughts to himself. He was not wrong though. The middle-aged man was the father, the two youngsters were his children and the old man, his father.

"Hehe, we are also going back to the city. Would you young men mind joining us for the ride?" The old man replied and asked expectantly. Jim was a little surprised.

"Oh,no,no,no. We would rather not bother you. This would make us feel like we are infringing on your rights." Jim wisely said.

Wilson frowned a little. What rights was he talking about?

The old man on the other hand laughed and said. "No, you will definitely not be infringing on any rights. You are free to join us. We can both go our separate ways after reaching the city."

"Oh, really? Then, we won't be polite and trouble you a bit." Jim answered and Wilson looked at him. Seems like Jim was well versed in the polite mannerisms of man. Wilson could only shake his head. He felt like there was more into the communication. As if they had spoken in a hidden code that he could not understand.

"These unnecessary formalities. Are they really required?" The teenager muttered while fixing a new wheel into the carriage. Wilson heard him and subtly nodded in agreement.

Nighttime soon came. Its timing was quite irregular and it was regarded as normal in these parts, but during winter times, it became slightly more stable and easier to predict.

The old man sat at the fireplace with everyone and told stories after stories of other people's exploits. He seemed like a historian with a flair for story telling. He had a way of making stories sound more intriguing than they were, even changing his voice every now and then to impersonate a character. Needless to say, he made any story including those that would normally be tagged as boring, sound like the most intriguing stories in the world.

So, while everyone sat and fed on some freshly grilled meat mixed with vegetables, (which by the way, made Wilson feel insecure because it could easily attract any flesh eating beasts), the old man told stories after stories of the days back. Some were about his personal experiences and most were stories he had heard, true or untrue.

"Do you know the full story behind this broken tar road?" The old man started after chewing on a large chunk of meat and drinking some water. Wine was intoxicating bad it was a terrible idea to drink in the wild. It was one of the unspoken rules in the wild.

Wilson looked at the old man. Another story was already on the way. Jim looked excited to listen to the story and had at some unknown time gotten closer to the only girl in the group, much to the annoyance of her brother and father. But since she did not seem to mind and they would probably never meet again after arriving at the city, they chose to say nothing. The old man might have noticed but kept quiet. Perhaps, he quietly approved but Wilson, on the other hand, felt like she was too young and Jim was being too much by doing such with an underaged. Could he not wait till she was at least fifteen before making such advances? Of course, it wasn't like Jim would patiently wait for at least three years, but Wilson did not think that far. He simply thought, if one liked someone, they should be able to wait patiently. At least, that was what his mother taught him.

"The history of the broken tar road as most people know it is actually incorrect. The true story is that a man built it not because he always got lost but because he was afraid of his son getting lost. The man was a powerful Hunter and in those days, the snow tigers were more numerous.

There were lots of herbs and plants which attracted all kinds of herbivores which likewise attracted lots of carnivores. After all, where there is a lot of prey, there will be a lot of hunters. So, among the carnivores was a large group of snow tigers, consisting of a single male, some females and lots of cubs. Sounds amazing right?" The old man asked with a cheeky smile. He drank some more water and continued.

"Anyway, the snow tiger's fur became an expensive commodity. Every rich person wanted one at that time. The fur was rich and beautiful so it became a sign of opulence and sophistication, so it became even more expensive. Snow tigers are snow wielders by nature and as a result, were a serious challenge. Lots of hunters died while hunting them, the tigers were never out in the open for long and were smarter than most animals, so the fur was rare and competition was high. So, the price got more and more expensive. This attracted hunters of all kinds. Those that hunted on requests, those that hunted for fame, those that hunted for wealth, those that hunted for sports, name it. Any type of hunter wanted to hunt one, regardless of their reason. Then, a winter came and a retired unnamed hunter came by with his son who had just come of age. He wanted to celebrate his son's coming of age with a bang, literally. And what other prey was more magnificent than the snow tiger in the vicinity then, than the snow tiger? None I tell you.

They gathered a team and came to the plains to hunt for a tiger. The very first day out in the plains, a blizzard came around. Now, this blizzard has caused a lot of conjectures. Some say, it might have been the senior male tiger but no one has ever caught it to verify. Whoever tried hunting it either never found it or died before any communication could take place. Some say, it was simply a coincidence. After all, there was no accurate way to read the weather then. Weather forecast was non-existent. The team managed to stay together but the son was blown far away.

The father and his team spent the whole winter in the plains searching for the son but he was not found, dead or alive. So, the father depressed, went back and gathered a larger group of hunters as well as a team of engineers and builders to help create a road that would show his son the way back as soon as he saw it.

Years passed and the road deteriorated. The son never came back as we know it but thousands of people used to road as a standard landmark to Tiger City. That was until these watches of ours were created and we could stay on radar even in the wild plains so that we will never get lost." The old man finished and drank some more water before lying down on a mat by the fire even though there were tents laid up.

"So, what about the other directions we see?" The girl asked.

"Yes. And since it has been so long, why has the road not completely deteriorated?" Jim supported and asked.

"Well, that's because some dudes chose to add the directions. As for the second question, think of it as cultural and historical preservation. After all, this place holds a great story regardless of if it is the real story or the half baked version." The old man answered and yawned, his eyes closed.

"And there will always be people who will need its use. The watches' map are not usable without network service. Even the smartest scientists have not been able to ignore the effects of weather on the watch connection in the wild." The teenager said, wisely poking insults at the scientists. Who knew what he had against them.

Wilson could not resist and spoke; "Or perhaps, someone will lose his watch or forget to charge it."

"Hehe!" The old man sneered and promptly fell asleep, snoring into the night sky.

The middle-aged man shook his head and carried his father into a tent. He then entered another after noticing that everyone had fallen asleep. He remained at alert though.

While hunters were respected, not all of them did respectable things. He had to watch over his family while they were in the midst of young strangers like Jim and Wilson. He had such a beautiful daughter and someone like Jim who already could not resist might suddenly start having ideas in the middle of the night.

'Tsk, too unsafe.' He thought, totally unable to understand why his father had invited them.

So, what if they were hunters? They are not Gods, right?