The Expedition

Arim shot up from his bed and quickly looked around. He was returned home, in his own bedroom with the curtains opened to let the sunlight beam in. The day was clear with a small breeze coming in from the small gap left opened from the window. Arim quickly felt a sharp pain across his shoulder, and he realized the match against Haras.

“Ouch!”, Arim cried in pain as he touched a bandage across his shoulder as well as another pain coming from his head. He could feel another bandage also wrapped around his head, the final blow from Haras.

The door slammed open and immediately Arim’s parent rushed in, T-rab gently hugged around him as his father stood at the bedside. They both looked exhausted and tired as if they had not slept for days.

“Mother, Father”, Arim looked at them as he began to tear up. “I’m sorry I failed you”

“No, it’s not your fault. Nobody will blame you and we know that you did your best”, said T-rab as she slowly released her son and looked at Arim in concern. Arim knew that look of his mother and asked, “What’s happening mother? Why that face?”

His father, Allak stepped a bit closer to Arim and said, “Due to the result, the champion this year belongs to the human, and their new champion is Nead’s son, E-sor. He requests that a group of Beast-folks to be deploy on a scavenging hunt, and you got named as part of the group. Meaning you will have to wear a collar during the expedition.” T-rab broke into tears as she kept silent. “Tomorrow, you will join with the rest of the selected Beast-folk at the North Gate. So tonight, will be your last supper before your return”.

Arim remained calm, “As you wish father and mother, don’t worry. I will return home”. Allak pulled T-rab and left the room. Arim clenched his fists and cried without making a sound. He heard about the tragic stories about collared Beast-Folks and that the survival rate is low, especially when losing their ten-fold strength. That night, Arim and his parents had a silent dinner for the first time, and Arim returned to his room, with a heavy burden but kept to himself. Arim closed his eyes and tried to rest.

The North Gate was the path to a massive overgrown jungle filled with many enchanted plants and monsters to encounter. Plenty of hidden caves and lands for young soldiers to explore and gain experience, but lately it turned into entertainment for the human soldiers that would make a bet and watch a collared Beast-Folk trying to survive. A lone collared Beast-Folk without any protection would only survive for a maximum of two days under the dangerous presence of rank-D monsters or plants.

So, sometime the ‘Engineer’ needed some ingredients to replenish for his workshop and requested Lord Nead for a group to gather valuable items and cores deep within the jungles. Lord Nead saw an opportunity to use the Beast-Folk for dangerous missions instead of the human for exchange of the ‘Engineer’s invention; something to ensure the safety of his human guides. After hearing Lord Nead’s request, the ‘Engineer’ quickly presented Lord Nead with a collar that would be able to block the strength of the Beast-Folk and even turn them into a human form too. A deal was made between Nead and ‘Engineer’, an infinitive amount of expedition for an infinitive number of collars to change the Beast-Folks.   

“Hurry up, line up at the side of the wagon”, shouted the old woman with a stern face as two male collared Beast-Folks were holding a tray of collar ready for Arim’s new group.

She was a short woman with frizzly short hair reaching her shoulders. Her wrinkles were slowly appearing, maybe around the age of sixty with a bad temper. Her long black tunic with red patterns made her look dangerous and the Beast-Folks were very intimated by her command. They quickly scrambled themselves to line up as they were told, facing the old woman. Arim was at the end of the line as the old woman approached closer to them.

 “Before we head out of North Gate, you will be wearing the collar for my safety and only after we have completed the mission will the collar remain until I say so. You will only listen to my command, and that is final. I do not need your opinions, comments or recommendations; all you do is open your ears to listen and follow. You may all address me as Madam Ava. Also do not dare to speak to my two servants” she grabbed one of the collars from the tray and wrapped around a male goat-like Beast-Folk and within seconds, he had turned into a human. Next was a female elephant-like Beast-Folk and she too turned into a human. After a few more minutes, it was Arim’s turn as he felt the strange cold material wrapped around his neck. Without feeling anything strange, his fox-like feature had disappeared and now he looks like a sixteen-year-old human teenager. “Grab a bag and the item-list. We will leave in ten minutes”, Ava turned and gestured the two male collared Beast-Folks servants to follow behind her.

“Arim”, his father, was standing aside, waiting for an opportunity to say his farewell as he saw Arim run towards him. “My God, what have they done to you”, he gave Arim a tight hug and using that moment he slipped an item in Arim’s trouser pocket. “If you find yourself in grave danger, use the item I gave you. It will protect you”. Arim patted on his father back and bid his farewell as he hoped into the back of the wagon along with the group of collared Beast-Folks. The wagon was just big enough to cramp all the people of the collared Beast-Folks including Madam Ava’s two servants.

As Arim looked closer to the two servants, their clothing was different to theirs. Their style was like Madam Ava’s attire except the colour was grey instead of black for the tunic and sleeveless compared to hers. Both had a black belt with two small pouches at their left hip and a pair of black boots, same as Madam Ava. Even though they had human face, Arim could tell that they had similar features, their dark brown pupils with a hint of amber and their straight glossy black hair. He could tell that they could be brothers from the way they looked at each other, but they didn’t say a word during the trip. One of the brothers had a burnt mark on his left face with hazy eyes, making him much older compared to the other brother.  

The journey took about one hour before the wagon stopped, and everyone automatically stepped out on the outskirts of the jungle. One of the guide’s servants made a rollcall before the guide herself gave one final warning, “I advise that you all remain close to each other otherwise this will be the last place you want to stay for the rest of your life. This will be a six-month expedition, so make sure you find the items on your check-list if you want to return home quicker”. The guide and her two followers lead the group into the forest green and immediately entered a strange unfamiliar environment for them. The strange cricking sounds and ensnarling monsters from afar filled their ears as their clothes already got damp from the heavy humid jungle. Each one held a blade as they began to cut a pathway for them to get deeper into the jungle.

For the past few days, the twenty items on the check-list, they could only manage to find two items and already the group of thirteen, they had lost four Beast-folks fighting off strange monsters and killing plants. That night the man who once was the goat-like Beast-folk sat beside Arim and gave him a plate of dried fish and fruit. “I know you’re Allak’s son. I saw the match and that human pulled a dirty trick on you”

Arim didn’t get a chance to reply as he took the plate of the man when two women walked up to them. Arim recognized that one of the women was once the elephant-like Beast-folk as she sat on the ground next to him. “Yes, I saw it too. Well, it’s really my friend who could see miles away with her vision. She said that a human boy was holding a creature in his palm and then you lost the will to fight. If not, you would have a chance to win” Arim kept silence and in turn the man whispered to Arim in his ears, “Don’t worry that creature got away so in the end, so you did manage to protect what you cared about”

“Alright you lots, time to move. We must head deeper into the northern part of the jungle”, Madam Ava cried as she tossed her plate to one of her servants and began to lead the way. The rest of the group scooped as much as they could into their mouth as they began to follow the guide.

Arim smiled to himself, “At least that creature got away from Haras”, as he was the last in line of the group with the guide’s servant behind Arim.