The wind blew through the trees of the ever free forest, or as he and his tribe called it, The Dark Forest. From his whole 20 years of life in this world he has been wondering from area to area staking camp in clearings so as not to fall prey to the dangerous creatures of the dark forest, they usually banded together with other human tribes once a year to trade, party and learn.
His species would have never would have lasted this long if they weren't good at camouflage, instead of attack the creatures they would come up with smart ways to hide and 95 percent of the time the creatures would look at a bush or a tree curiously before walking along, fighting was not at all their style, you could almost call them peaceful, but when they felt threatened they would let loose a barrage of sticks and rocks using their numbers to scare off predators.
Most of the time though was spent walking with 15 gatherers to spots in the forest to gather plants and berries that were safe to eat from their teachings from the shaman since childhood.
Kevin though cautious much of the time was, which was strange for his species, very curious, often times going off exploring without anyone from his tribe to come along, But for now he was content on holding his basket, walking alongside his friends, smiling as he spotted a blackberry bush he knelt down on his knees and started to grab the vast amounts of berries that dotted it.
The climate around his camp and the whole forest was rather warm so his tribe usually dressed in a loincloth here and there, with a top for the females, it was an unknown trait the humans had that they didn't even know, but from what they learn from tradition passed down the generations.
Kevin licked his fingers now having a full basket of the delicious fruit and was about to get up when out of nowhere he felt something soft and wet pelt the back of his head, letting out an annoyed grunt he turns around and was immediately pelted in the face with a raspberry spotting two friends about 15 feet away grinning up a storm.
He waved his fist in the air at them picking up a small fist full of berries from his basket he lugs them with all his might leaving some of their upper torso and a bit of their face dotted with black fruit juice, they were about to pick up a berry or two from their baskets but Kevin quickly waved his hand and pointed to his basket silently telling them not to waste fruit.
Quickly brushing the fruit juice from his face with his hand, he looks down giving it a quick look, lifts it up to his face and gives it a quick cleaning with his tongue,"Mmm." he thought, the raspberries being especially sweet this year, slurping on one of his fingers he stood up but a glint of color catches the corner of his eye and he turned his head to spot the color more clearly in a bush not too far away, he took a few cautious steps glancing around in every direction the typical reaction for a human.
Kneeling at the last few feet, he uses his hands to scoot forwards slowly and lifts a feather from the bush, holding the end he rolls it around in his hand noticing that it didnt look like it came from any bird he knew, first off it was a bright sky blue smiling he holds it up closer to his face and studys it before feeling pinpricks against his neck, eyes widening he turns his head quickly, than lets out a soft sigh of relief seeing his little sister, he smiles reaching out and gives her long hair a quick ruffle causing her to giggle, while she does he turns and shows off the feather he had found.
She let out a gasp of amazement smiling he tried to give it to her as a gift,"Want it?" he said curiously,
She waves her hand softly feeling grateful though,"No brother, you keep it, for luck." she pushes his hand back.
Kevin clenched the feather as gently as he could and put his fist against his chest nodding to her slowly,"Alright than Reia."
He stood up and took out his pouch which he carries on his side and slid the feather in than reaches down picking up his basket of delicious black berries and nods to his sister, who smiled and dashed off to the rest of the group, the clouds in the sky were already a dark grey by now and he let out a short whistle causing the others to lift their heads than pick their baskets up and get ready for the trip home.
As they started out in one neat line down the forest, walking carefully making sure not to step on anything, It started to sprinkle. Causing Kevin to let out a soft sigh feeling the coldness of the raindrops as they hit his nearly bare body. He's always had a thing for rainstorms, except the couple of times it flooded through their camps, luckily there was always a few people keeping watch at the community fire at night so things didn't get too bad when the river overflowed.
Spotting his friend Malcolm, he took a few quicker steps forwards now walking along side him, reaching up and gives him a quick poke to the side, Malcolm smirks and glances over giving Kevin a quick nod of acknowledgement
Kevin smiling trudges along, leans over and quickly whispers,"Want to go out exploring again tonight, i think i spotted a hot spring a few days ago while collecting fire wood."
Malcolm gave him a quick nod, lowering his hand and brings a berry up to his mouth quickly eating it and a smile of enjoyment erupts across his face,"Well im always up for a good soak, who should we take with us?"
Trudging along Kevin put his free hand against his chin to think,"Erm Reia, Charlie, Tom, you know, the lot." he stuck his tongue out.
Malcolm smirks and nods lifting another berry up and munches on it causing Kevin to smirk,"If you go at that pace your basket will be empty by the time we get back."
By the time they made it back it was lightly pouring, Kevin smiled though knowing that they wouldnt have to give the berries they collected the usual rinse to clear the dirt and bugs off freeing up some spare time. Finally back into the makeshift little village, all of them tents with waterproofing built in as well as floors, around 25 tents which could fit a family of 10 each were spread out across the valley in a tight formation, to form a defensive perimeter, the gathering group drop off their baskets of berries into the tent they used to storing food than they disassembled and went their seperate ways back to their tents, Kevin and his younger sister Reia walking along til they reached their house lifting one slit that formed the doorway, Kevin let out a soft sigh of relief feeling a warm rush of air hit his skin, the fire was in the center in the firepit keeping everything nice and toasty.
Reia wondered over and flopped down onto her bag on the ground while Kevin did the same, Kevin's father being out right now hunting and his mother in one of the corners of the tent sewing up a new shirt, letting out another sigh he felt relaxed now curled up under his warm sleeping bag made from the coat of wool collected from sheep, he quickly fell asleep.
A couple of hours passed by, the smacking of the rain against the firm tent lining had caused Kevin to fall asleep quicker than usual, he lifts his head up from his nap and lets out a deep yawn giving a stretch after sitting up hearing a few pops he smiled and stood up wondering over to the door, he opens it and walks outside towards the communal eating area and sits down, the rain was still dropping at a quick rate which he had hoped would stop by now, which caused him to grumble *we might not be able to go out to the hot springs today* in fact if the rain got any worse they might have to move to the hills.
He entered the larger tent, which had inside a long table with the communities food spread out in bowls, and had an elder serving out healthy portions, the seating area consisted of two large tables able to seat the entire tribe plus a large multitude of guests in case some dropped by, there was also a table on a sort of stage that they used sometimes for meetings, but its main purpose was to seat the elders and chief, smiling he gathers up a healthy portion of a plate of meat, blueberries, lettuce and baked bread and wonders over to eat by himself at one corner of the table.
He sat there munching on his meal watching two of his friends, Ryan and Jessica, tossing a ball back and forth to each other, than one of them bats it causing it to fly through the air quickly towards him, he drops the piece of meat he was eating and stood up carefully watching the ball flying towards him,"Ive got it." he called out and bats the ball back, but it awkwardly flew upwards almost reaching the roof before coming back down landing in one of their bowls of soup splashing Ryan in the face drenching him in the warm liquid.
Everyone at the table glanced over at Ryan as the whole tent went silent, Ryan looked a bit upset but a smile began to form across his mouth than he tosses his head back and began to laugh and soon the whole tent joins him in a joyous parade of laughter.
Ryan smirks and reaches into the soup bowl grabbing his ball and nods his head towards Kevin, sticking his tongue out at him,'Heh nice toss Kevin, my little sister can aim better."
Kevin rolls his eyes a bit and finishes off his meal and brings his food bowl over and sets it with the rest of the dirty ones to be washed later and heads outside of the food tent a bit surprised it was still raining, the day was almost over and he seemed a bit worried about the heaviness of the rain so he walked quickly down the the chieftains tent and lifted the slitted doorway and poked his head in.
The chief and his father plus a few of the other older males in the tribe were sitting down around a table in the large chief tent cleaning off their kills and sharpening their blades for next time, his father looks up and waves him to come over. Kevin walked into the tent and sat down beside his father
"Good catch today?" Kevin asked seeing a few dead creatures.
His father shook his head,"Eh not as good as last week, it started to rain and our trip home was quite bad but we did manage to catch a large deer though." he pointed to an 8 star buck.
Kevin smiles nodding his head but looked up at his father with a look of worry on his face and in his eyes,"Well if it doesn't let up are we going to have to pack up and camp in the hills?"
That was when the chief leaned over giving Kevin a quick elbow poke and nodded smiling,"Yes Kevin, it looks about that way, while i was passing by the river it looked a bit swollen i hope you still remember what happened 20 moons ago?"
Kevin shivered remembering that night, one sentry had fallen asleep and when he had woke about a foot of water was already moving steadily towards the community, They managed to gather most of their things and move up to higher ground, but the strange thing was that it didn't even rain hard that day, while traveling he looked up to see a large strange moon unlike anything they've seen, about that time of day the sun should have been rising.
Giving his head a few nods at the chieftain,"Yes strangest day ever." he shivers trying to ward off the thoughts from his head, to try and help out he sits down beside his father and takes a spear head into his hand while grabbing a sharpening stone and began to go to work getting it nice and sharp leaning his head back against the chair listening to the rain drops hit the tent and let out a soft sigh thinking to himself *The watch will have horrible visibility tonight might as well volunteer.*
Glancing over to his father he gave a weak smile,"I had a bit of a rest at home today father and since its raining..maybe i could help out with the watch?" Corvo glanced up staring into his son's eyes for a second,"Well..you are a man now and have proved yourself, so yes ill talk with the chief about it." he smiled, Kevin smiled back and nodded his head and stood up grabbing his personal bag which had several chews for energy, along with several knives and tools for using while staying on watch.
The chief came over putting his arm against his own chest and gave his head a slight bow,"It would be an honor to the tribe for you to give a couple of hours to watch duty, go ahead my son."
Kevin stood up and quickly put his arm against his chest and turned around walking out of the tent and out into the stormy night, quickly finding one of the other lookouts she quickly explained,"We have the north, west and east side of the camp covered, the south is a bit lacking in numbers this night.
Kevin smiled and nodded,"I'm on it than."
He took off from the clearing into the wild forest, making sure to watch out for thorns that grew in various places he went out 300 yards before spotting a good sized tree, grabbing one of the lower branches he lifted himself up getting about a good 30 feet off the ground his whistle around his neck he let out a soft sigh as he relaxed there and kept his keen eyesight on watch in case of any predators lurking about.
An hour or so into the watch Kevin was cursing himself from forgetting to bring a blanket out there with him, shivering in the cold moist rain he knew if he didn't come down soon he'd end up with a cold or something worse. He made his way down very carefully, the rain had made everything including him quite slippery and to put that into context, on the last branch which hovered about 10 feet off the ground, he misjudged a grab and landed on one leg on the ground, luckily though it was mud.
Letting out a loud groan of pain he grabbed his ankle which he guessed would be sprained, standing up slowly and a bit wobbly from the pain in his leg he found himself able to walk on it, but he didn't chance it and put as light of pressure from steps as he could making it way back to camp, lifting his whistle he made two quick blows followed by a long steady blow indicating he was making his way back to camp, not a few seconds later it was replied with two whistles, the rain continued to pour down.
Shrill whistle blows fill the rainy night air and Kevin about 200 yards from the camp stopped and stood there, his heart suddenly beating faster in his chest and like what any member of the tribe would do, he leaps off the muddy path and into the tall grass where he covered himself up quickly hearing the low, steady rumble of a lions hunting growl not too far off.
Kevin's eyes widen with fear but he kept still hoping the grass would mask his scent knowing already that the rain was helping out a great deal, reaching into his bag slowly he took out one of his large knives getting it ready.
A crunching of grass off to one side, a low growl and he could see glowing eyes in the darkness, lightning erupted from the sky lighting up the terrifying figure of a manticore, his body tensed up as he readied his knife breathing a bit quicker, the manticore's tail swaying left to right as spotted the young human, it brought up one paw, its claws flicking out.
Suddenly a arrow flew out of nowhere and hit the lion beast in the side of the head causing it to hiss and fall on one side, still very much alive and quite pissed off now, Kevin took that chance to stand up and leap back onto the track, running hard despite his ankle sprain, his body was now filled with adrenaline as he gasped for air his bag dancing through the air behind him.
The manticore leaps up onto the trail his vision a bit blurred as he let out a loud angry roar spotting his prey, it bounded after him but stopped for a second, hearing shrill chirps pierce the air causing it to flatten it ears in annoyance, a rock this time, quite a sharp one came out from the trees and hit the lion hybrid on the tail causing another hiss.
Kevin was in a daze the adrenaline kept all the pain from reaching him but he was heading in the wrong direction, running through reeds now along side the banks of the large river which had burst forth, the rushing waters heading towards the valley, if he had been able to think he would have noticed that the water was heading towards his camp site, but instead the angry manticore leapt out of nowhere hitting him in the ribs causing him to fall over and snap his wrist like a twig.
Luckily while laying there he brought up his arm holding the knife from the angle the maticore pounced on him that caused the blade to sink into the lions throat spraying Kevin with blood, the lion twitched a few times before the dazed human under him tossed him off, stood up slowly and fell into the river.
He flicked his arms around to keep his head above the water, but coughed the whole time, the river carried him fast down its length definitely the fastest he's ever gone which ended up with him bashing his head into a rock on one of the side's of the river, bringing him out of his daze, glancing ahead he let out a strained gasp seeing the waterfall, not remembering any water fall from his previous travels down the river side, he closed his eyes and went over flying through the air.
Screaming the whole way down he kept his eyes tightly shut and hit the water below with the same amount of force as he would if he hit solid ground, floating there for a few seconds the waves in the water drifted him towards a smaller calmer river, he hit one side of the banks and lifted himself out of the river slowly and started to cough up water laying there in the grass bent over, his bag fortunately had stayed with him, but he lost his biggest knife.
He lifted his head up slowly and glanced around a bit dizzy and managed to force himself to stain up despite his leg injury, the rain was now coming down at a slower rate helped to wash the blood from his face, he glances around spotting light off in the distance and hobbled over towards it slowly grunting with each step, once closer he could tell it was a...tent? no, it was way too large and wooden to be a tent, but he shook his head driving it from his mind as he got closer, falling over on the door stoop he let out a loud moan of pain as the adrenaline wore off and he was now feeling all the pain that was brought on him, the worse being his snapped wrist.
While he laid there screaming his lungs and throat raw, the door to the house opened up quickly and a yellow creature hovered over him fluttering her wings to keep aloft stared down at him with a look of a mix between fear and pity caused him to lay there calming down but he kept on letting out pained hisses and winces, staring at her for a few more seconds, he turned to the side, threw up and blacked out.
Author's Note
This is my second attempt at a fanfic, ^^ please be gentle, but not too gentle, i need to learn from my mistakes and see if i can improve this chapter than from what i have now