As Clear As Mud

As luck would have it, the sky opened up during my pursuit of the giant boar that kidnapped Aria. I wasn’t even halfway towards the village yet so my estimated travel time easily doubled as I was bogged down by the ground turning into mud.

To make matters worse, it became harder to track the sacred beast as the rain created large puddles in every direction which obscured its trail. In fact, I was no longer confident that the direction I am headed to is the correct one. I was afraid the beast was already making a literal meal out of Aria. I only continued running towards the village hoping that the boar neither made a stop or a detour.

Once I’ve made my way out of the forest and into the grasslands, I became even more anxious. It may be raining, but I was at an elevated position with a decent view of the pastures and the northern end of the village. Yet, I did not spot the boar. Considering its height, it should stand out as it’s taller than most of the houses in the village.

Regardless, I pushed on towards the village, this time, using the beaten path. It was still muddy, but at least I did not need to mind my step for any obstacles that I might trip over.

Further in, I met a flock of sheep with a shepherd and his dog moving towards the opposite direction from the village. I found it strange that the flock would be allowed out in a storm, but finding out why isn’t my concern so I wordlessly passed them by.

Or, at least, that was my intention until the shepherd called out to me.

“Oy, hunter”, he screamed. We both knew of each other, but we didn’t know each other’s names so we only refer to ourselves by our professions.

I stop on my tracks to listen to what he has to say.

He continued, “I wouldn’t return to town for now if I were you.”

“Why is that, shepherd?”

“The river is rising, it would be wise to move to high ground while the water hasn’t overflown yet”

I was hoping he was going to warn me about a large rampaging beast, but I guess that was asking for too much.

“Thanks for the warning, but I have to get to town”, I said to the shepherd before turning away from him. Regardless of whether the river was going to flood, I still needed to pick up my hunting gear in case I had to return to the forest to chase Aria’s kidnapper. Besides, my house was up a hill away from the floodplains and has never been affected even by the worst floods.

But, before I could start running, what he said next grabbed my attention.

“There’s also some kind of commotion to the west”, he said.

I turned back to him and asked “What kind of commotion?”

“I’m not sure, but the militia said there’s some sort of disturbance over that direction near the mills.”

“The militia?” I asked. I had to confirm what I heard because it was surprising that the militia was called.

“Oh, aye”, the shepherd replied.

Thanking him, I proceeded to continue my run towards the village while ignoring further warnings. I was optimistic about what I heard. If the militia has been raised, it would usually mean one of three things.

The first thing anyone would think is that war has broken out and the local lord has called on the village to raise an army. However, our village is safely in the middle of the kingdom away from the frontiers of any hostile neighbors. If war had actually broken out and even if I had been away for six days, it would still be too soon to see a battle right at our doorstep so I could rule that theory out.

Next would be raiders looking to loot the town. It has yet to happen in my lifetime, but the older villagers have experienced being raided. But, in those times, the kingdom was at war so the men were away, leaving the village vulnerable. Currently, our country has been seeing a lengthy period of peace so bandits would have a better chance of gaining loot without risking their necks by robbing the highways rather than an entire village.

Then, the third reason would be wild animals braving into human territory and slaughtering livestock. However, those don’t usually venture too far into the village whether they be wolves, bears or regular-sized boars. They would enter the farms near the borders, but the mills were further in.

This is why I was optimistic. If the three major reasons why the militia was called didn’t make sense, then the only possibility is that something else is attacking the village. I was convinced it was the giant boar.

Or, at least, I was convincing myself it was. Considering I still don’t have concrete evidence that it was the case, I can’t help but still be anxious. It wasn’t until I reached home that I managed to get more information which allayed my uneasiness.

When I reached my house, on the outside, there wasn’t any sign of it being affected by the commotion from the west. Thankfully, it hasn’t reached here yet. But, the inside was messy and hectic.

I still live in my parents' house for reasons that I’m often away anyway and didn’t need a place of my own which I would just neglect. It was them and my younger siblings who had made a mess of the inside as they hurriedly packed clothes and valuables.

“What are you all doing?” I asked. They hadn’t noticed me until I chimed in.

“Oh, Erik you’re home”, my mother greeted me in monotone, seeming like she hadn’t missed me the whole time I was hanging from a tree somewhere in the forest for almost a week. “Come help us prepare to evacuate.”

“Evacuate for what? Is the river overflowing that badly?” I asked because we were closer to the river than the mills.

“Not the river”, my father interjected. “A rampaging beast is headed this way.”

“A beast?” I asked, as my hopes started to rise. “Are you sure? What kind of beast?”

“I’m not sure, but that is what the militia is saying”, my father replied. “Emmard here saw it, though.”

Emmard, my youngest brother, seemed surprised to hear his name as he came out from the next room carrying a box.

“Is it true, Emmard?” I asked him. “Did you see the beast?”

“Y-Yes”, he nervously answered. "I was running an errand when I saw it destroy some houses.”

He was averting his eyes away from our direction, which probably means he was hiding what he was really there for, but it was not my concern to find out what it is.

“And? What did the beast look like?” I asked as I moved towards him.

“It was a giant brown boar”, he answered, now looking straight at me.

Upon hearing that, I started to make my way towards my room to pick up my gear.

As I opened my bedroom door, Emmard continued to give me more information. “Oh, and there was some lady hanging from its mouth”, he said.

That caught my attention.

“Was the lady you saw Aria?”

“Who’s that?” he asked, genuinely looking like he didn’t know the person in question.

I wasn’t surprised he didn’t know her. I forgot Emmard was only four years of age when Aria left the village so it’s not strange that he doesn’t remember her anymore.

“Nevermind. Was she wearing a white coat? Did she have light brown hair in a ponytail?” I continued my inquiry as I collected my equipment - my bow, my quiver and my satchel.

“Yes and yes”, he answered.

Relief came over me. It sounded like the sacred beast hadn't consumed Aria yet. Although, there was still one thing I wanted to confirm.

“Was the lady you saw alive?”

“I think so”, he answered. “She was shouting for people to move away from the boar’s path.”

That was all that I needed to know. Thanking my little brother, I rushed out of the house despite my mother’s protests.

I headed west hoping the sacred beast was still there. Luckily, for better or worse, it was still in that general direction. However, it’s gone past the mills and already in an area with several houses.

The militia seem to have been able to slow it down by forming two lines to make a V shape and collectively pointing spears and pitchforks at it. However, when it tried to rush past the formation, all the militia could do was move out of the way. There was no stopping that much force.

One house was destroyed due to this. People, who seemed to not be part of the militia, were running away from the wreckage.

I was still at a distance as I witnessed it. Hopefully, no one was inside the now destroyed house.

The militia tried to reorganize quickly, but, before they could complete their formation, the beast rushed at them again. This time, however, there was no structure to stop the giant boar’s attack.

Worryingly, the direction it took was towards the people who had fled the first attack. Most of them managed to get out of its path, but there seems to be one girl who was frozen in place.

Luckily, I was already close and managed to jump at this person and get her safely to the side, evading the giant boar. We both got mud on each other from falling into the ground, but neither of us seemed hurt.

“Thank you, Erik”, she said.

I was surprised that the girl I just saved used my name. I hadn’t had time to look at her face when I was trying to get her out of the way of the rushing boar, but, now that I’ve looked, it was the smith’s daughter, Mae.

Then, for some peculiar reason, she decided to reward me then and there with a deep kiss to the mouth despite how muddy our faces are.

It was not unpleasant, but I was still shocked. I didn’t expect it. Especially when we were not out of danger yet as the giant boar faced towards our direction.

I wanted to scold her about the time and place to do these things, but she had my mouth sealed.

“Erik, what the hell are you doing?!” I heard someone shout. It sounded like Aria.

Mae had heard it, too, and pulled out from the kiss.

I then told her to go somewhere safe, which she obeyed. After wishing me luck, she ran towards the opposite direction from the boar where the militia was reorganizing their formation.

“You’re supposed to be rescuing me aren’t you?” The shouting continued and it was indeed Aria. “Why are you brazenly cozying up with another girl?!”

“Can’t a guy get a reward for saving a girl?” I humorously asked. I was about to face off with a sacred beast so I felt like a light-hearted quip could ease some nerves, mine especially

“Not when the guy has his lover right in front of him!” she exclaimed as she thrashed about in front of the giant boar’s mouth.

Then, as soon as she said that, the boar rushed at me as if it was on signal. I had just stood up so it caught me flat-footed. But, with some quick thinking, I managed to evade its attack by diving into the puddle behind me as it went past over me.

The militia that was regrouping behind me seemed to have escaped its attack, too.

I tried to stand up quickly as I expected for the beast to attack again, and, sure enough, it was already on top of me, poised to stomp me. I was still on my knees so I rolled to the side to evade its pettitoe.

When it saw that it missed, it moved forward to create some distance. It was probably preparing to rush at me again.

I wasn’t lying on the ground this time so I thought about drawing my bow to try and hit the boar in the eye before it makes its attack. That was the plan I came up with while I was chasing it. I can’t kill it because I did not have any sort of weapon that can put a sacred beast down like in those heroic legends. Surely, my arrows aren’t going to pierce its skull so the best I could hope for is to blind and disable it then lead it somewhere it can’t do any harm.

But, considering the rain and the wind, there’s a good chance I may miss it. It’s not that I wasn’t confident with my skill with the bow nor was I afraid to miss, but there’s a possibility I might hit Aria instead. That was a risk I was not willing to take.

As the boar faced me again, I was expecting it to rush at me once more. However, surprisingly, it stopped on its tracks for some reason.

Curiously, Aria took the time to shout her grievances at me.

“That’s enough!” she shouted. “If you’re going to cheat on me right in my face then I don’t want you to be the one to rescue me!”

“Huh?” That stunned me for a moment. What is this girl saying?

“What do you mean?” I shouted back.

“I meant what I said!”

“If you’re worried about me, then don’t. Just worry about yourself”, I said, thinking that was a cool line.

“I’m not worrying about you right now! In fact, I’m really angry at you to be worried so go home!” She rebutted.

That struck a nerve in me. At least worry about me when I’m risking my neck to save you from becoming that sacred beast’s meal!

So, annoyed, I replied “You do realize you’re not in a position to be picky right now? I’m the only one in this village who’s familiar with that giant boar.”

I immediately felt like I was the bad guy asking that to Aria, however.

“I don’t care! There are other men that aren’t going to cheat on me!”

“Say, I’ve been meaning to ask since earlier, but we’ve been interrupted.”

“I’m not interested! Go home!”

“Why do you think we’re lovers?”

She didn’t give an answer. She just stared at me looking hurt. I waited for maybe ten seconds before I noticed she was crying. Although, I could not really tell for sure because of the rain.

Then, the sacred beast began its attack once more.