1.3 The Hunt

"Keep Dodo steady! Keep him steady! AHG! I said keep my boy steady!" Mesui yelled as she did her best to aim with her bow while mounting a charging boar.

"I'm trying! Shut up!" Arsec retorted, desperately controlling the reins.

His legs hurt, but it was nothing compared to what was going on between his legs. He'd never undergone rider training during his eighteen years, so that area felt lifeless after the first ten bumps.

A few meters away from them, a sizable woolly rhino was circling back to the Gray Mountains—singled out from the herd.

The time was now if they didn't want to gift a lonely prey to the Wilderkin dwelling there.

Mesui aimed with her curved bow as Dodo reached and ran side by side with the rhino. Several arrows had gone through its back, wearing it down.

She took the shot one more time, piercing the beast's head, right above the eye. Arsec kept the boar on par with the huge animal.

"Great shot, princess! More of those, and the beast will be ours!" he said, a grin on his face as his hands were getting worn out by the reins.

"I'm out!"

"What?"

"I'm out, I said!"

Arsec turned to see his friend, shaking the empty quiver at him.

"Why are you empty? Why did you empty that? How do you empty your quiver like that!?" Arsec yelled.

"Shut up! I missed the first three shots!"

"What? How do you miss those? You're the expert here! Didn't you say you've done this before?"

"Well, yeah, but I had better riders with me when I did so!"

Arsec shook his head, "Great!"

"I told you, we should've headed back!" Mesui said.

"No, no, don't say it, you don't get to say it!"

"Fine! Let's just steer away and—"

The boar veered sideways, taking them by surprise. Then they realized the worn-down rhino had decided to crash into them with its massive weight, but Mesui's mount reflexively took them out of that surprise with instinctive, impeccable timing.

Dodo stopped to reposition himself, Arsec and Mesui barely hanging on his sides like monkeys.

The rhino stopped and circled back, facing them a few dozen meters away. It was exhausted, and as blood stained its thick fur. However, his primal instinct had concluded the herd was beyond his reach, and its eyes were now fixated on the three figures before him. It huffed, now resolved that if it were to die there, it would spill hunter blood at the very least.

Arsec regained his seat atop Dodo, while Mesui used his back to regain hers. The rhino's hooves scratched the surface, readying itself for one last charge.

The young boy panted as he examined everything they had brought with them.

His staff. The empty quiver. The short spear at the side to finish off a downed kill—

"Mesui, pass me the spear..."

"What?" she said, confused.

"The spear!"

"Y-yeah!"

As soon as he seized the spear, he jumped onto the ground.

"What in the blasted winds are you doing?" Mesui said, alarmed.

"I want you to ride away, distract him so I can pierce it!"

"You're crazy, that thing is going to ram you first and then come after me!"

"I have an idea! It's something the shepherds do, I gotta give it a try!"

"Whatever it is, it was done for giant sheep, not for angry woolly rhinos!"

"No, I know, you idiot! Just go, come on, heya! Crap, just go! It's coming!"

The rhino roared and charged just as Dodo made haste. Arsec took a few steps back just to see if the beast would fix its run on Mesui, or if he would go for the weaker, easier kill that was him.

The horned beast paid no attention to him as he reared himself for a final chase after the big black boar. 

Desperate, knowing the rhino would pass quickly, Arsec lunged forward, spear ahead of him, and sought to use momentum and force to pierce the animal's hide.

The rhino moaned as the pain arched its body and made it lose its footing. The heavy mass, dragged by momentum, drifted into the ground a few meters before stopping. Arsec rubbed his hands, burnt by the sudden scraping of the spear attaching itself to the rhino.

He waited a moment, carefully watching for any sudden moves. Then he raised his hands and signaled Mesui in the distance.

"Ha! I did it!" He jogged, "Mesui! Mesui! We did it!"

Far off, Mesui waved her hand as Dodo jogged towards him.

"By all the winds! This was close, this was truly—"

GROWL.

"Wha—?"

The rhino began to stand up.

"You're kidding me."

The beast coughed, and blood had already soaked its wool. Its breathing was erratic. Its eyes, however, burned with a vengeance—it had set its rage on a tiny brown-haired human.

The rhino walked, then sprinted, faster and faster as it charged once more, this time, toward the little human in front.

"Arsec!" Mesui called, whipping the reins, "Run! Come on, Dodo, let's get him!"

Mesui rode as fast as she could, but the trick Arsec had sprung put her at a disadvantage.

The young man cursed and then turned around. The heavy clothing he wore to protect him from the steppe's winds was beginning to feel heavy and obstructive.

Then, stop. He had no way out.

He was at the edge of a crater's precipice. It was filled with a strange fog, and the slope was steep enough to produce a free dive to the bottom.

"A crater? Here?" He said, panting.

GROWL!

The rhino coughed a chunk of blood as it felt its target near.

"No time! Sisters, please help me—!"

He leaped at the last moment. The rhino lunged itself too. Both man and beast flew for a few seconds before crashing down and rolling down the slope. The beast, with its impulse, had reached farther, and the spear that had clung unto it all this time carved its path deeper into its flesh as the rhino hit the ground, piercing itself clean across its body. The lifeless massive husk dived into the thick fog.

Arsec rolled many times over, crossing the mist as well.

Mesui halted at the edge—just a few seconds late, "No!"

Despite the agitation, the smoke simply regained its form and revealed nothing. Mesui's eyes grew concerned, she jumped out of her mount and grabbed Arsec's staff, prepared to enter the mist.

"Princess, halt!"

Mesui turned and saw more riders arriving and surrounding her. The dozen warriors turned their bows at her, readying arrows.

"What is this? You dare to aim your arrows at me?"

She spotted her father's squire approaching them.

"Oburit? What are you doing here?"

"At ease, princess, I urge you not to try anything crazy, on your father's honor."

"How dare you—?"

Her words were swallowed as a particular boar arose in the hill beyond the Keshig. Her eyes widened as she noticed the long spear at the hand of its rider, and the crested battle helmet on his head.

"Why is Father wearing his armor?"

"We are in Wilderkin territory, princess," the squire remarked, "Chief Tulag has readied himself for the consequences, but the winds have been favorable to us regardless of your foils, don't risk it further."

Another shape appeared near Chief Tulag, a massive rabbit humanoid that rubbed its maned chest with one hand and held a tribal, ritualistic spear with another.

"Your intrusion into their territory was considered a violation of our peoples' delicate truce. The wilderkin chieftain will be Tulag's guest tonight as a sign of goodwill."

Mesui shook her head as her eyes diverted back to the crater. Then, she turned to face the archers, pointing their arrows at her.

"Listen to me, warriors of Tulag! Arsec, my servant, has fallen there while we hunted, he's probably wounded, and—"

"You speak of a slave when your father's oath has been shattered by your hand and the tribe's peaceful existence hangs by a thread?"

Mesui gritted her teeth, her mind swirled with the thought of Arsec, his last smile, their last moments, everything began to flash in her mind. The guilt was unbearable.

"Serves him well to meet his end here, rather than at the mercy of Chief Tulag's wrath!" said another keshig.

Mesui looked at the goblin warrior with furious eyes. She relaxed when they met her father again, who stoically watched the whole scene from afar. 

She sighed and reluctantly jumped back on Dodo.

"Take me to my father, Oburit."

The goblin nodded and whistled to signal the company's retreat. Their stride was slow enough for Mesui to recheck the crater. 

The guilt gripped her throat, and tears slipped through her cheeks.

"Arsec..."