The Hunter's Trek

The Hunter’s Trek

Chapter 4: The Creatures

Edmond Khan Carter was an anomaly to Equestria. He was an unknown to all who have known or seen him. Of course, ponies were familiar with other sentient creatures, from dragons to griffons and even kirins, an old legend not many believe exist anymore. Edmond knew they existed, he had seen one, after all.

So, it wasn’t the man’s sapience that had astounded them, but merely other factors. One of them being that they knew he existed but did not know of any more of his kind.

Many ponies had made theories to his existence, from a science experiment gone wrong, a species of monkey having evolved in secret, a traveller from a far-off land, beyond Equestrian sea’s and even just calling him an alien from beyond the stars.

He never liked talking about himself as much, never confirming nor denying anything, so any information about him was ever just pure speculation.

What much many did know, was that he ate both meat and plants, an omnivore, although they would get confused when he refused flowers, then disgusted when he asked for meat inside of a bread roll with ketchup instead of a carrot-like everypony else would have.

Luckily, there were many who did accept his diet. Knowing that he only ever hunted within the Everfree comforted them to a point.

The other weird thing many had found about him, was his connection to two birds, ones that were almost always flying around the human hunter. The first of the two, a peregrine falcon Edmond had called Fanu’ia, was the faster of them, reaching around 390 km/h at top speed. She never stayed on par with Equestria’s fastest, but the two of them would like to race every now and again, Rainbow Dash enjoying such a sport.

The second, something Edmond had called an ‘Australian magpie’, was named Ternychus. Ternychus was more well known to anyone than Fanu’ia was. While Fanu’ia was faster, Ternychus was a lot more friendly, stood out more and was unlike anything anypony had seen in Equestria.

While yes, Equestria does have the odd common magpie here and there, Ternychus was the only of her kind ever seen in Ponyville.

But the only thing that everypony knew and accepted, or revolted, was an affinity for the hunt.

So, it here that Edmond was once again perched upon a tree branch, bow out, arrow drawn, and eyes locked on a deer. A non-sapient deer, he had to remind his moral side.

A rustle of bushes had drawn the deer’s attention from eating thistle buds. A quick look to the bush and Edmond deduced that it must have been another predator.

‘Two hunters staring down the same prey… This might messy,’ Edmond said in mind.

A snap from a twig was all it took for all of chaos to be unleashed upon the forest. Edmond released the arrow, the deer bolted, a timberwolf burst through the shrubbery. The arrow struck the ground, the wolf fell on its side in surprise and the deer stopped for a moment at the surprised yelp.

It was then that a second timberwolf lept from bushes to the right of the deer, now back to sprinting full force. The first wolf turned its attention to where the projectile had flown from, its green eyes locking onto the figure tracking the retreating form of the deer.

Edmond was about to put his bow away, ready to try and chase the deer. Falling out of the tree, after it had been rammed, seemed to have changed his plans incredibly quickly.

Hitting the ground with a thud, Edmond rolled over, coming face to muzzle with the timberwolf that had rammed the tree. Its putrid breath blocking his sense of smell considerably. It had had almost made him gag. Again.

He slowly reached his hand down to grab at one of his arrows. The timberwolf decided to not keep its stomach waiting, rearing up, ready to strike. With haste, Edmond pulled an arrow from the quiver strapped to his leg and jabbed the metal arrowhead into the wolf’s left eye, then moving to shove the beast off from on top of him.

The timberwolf howled in pain, slamming into the same tree it had just rammed into just moments before. Edmond quickly stood, retrieving his bow and the arrow meant from the deer. He drew the string of the bow back, loaded with the arrow, and looked back to the wolf that now had managed to stand and stare straight back.

A rustle to the side reminded him that wolves were pack hunters, never really wanting to hunt alone.

He released the arrow, striking true, then reached for one of his axes while he still could. But he could not keep his grip in the end, the wolf jumping upon him, pinning him down once more.

The axe he had pulled out was too far to reach and his left arm, of which had the hand that was clutching onto his bow, had been pinned to the ground by the timberwolf’s wooden paw, claws gripping into the ground like a cuff.

It reared its head back, twisting slightly on an angle, ready to strike at the jugular. Edmond thought about retrying the last trick he pulled off. He grabbed another arrow, this time aiming straight for where a heart might be. He drove the arrowhead into its chest, pushing and rolling over on top of the wolf, dropping his bow for the time being.

He grabbed an axe from his side, flipping the axe so he could use the blunt side to strike the wolf. And he did just that. Bringing his arm to the right and above his head, he swung the now-bludgeoning weapon across the wolf’s muzzle. He flipped it back, blade facing the earth, and stuck his axe into the wolf’s forehead.

Edmond sat there for a moment, atop the wolf. He let out a slow laugh as he let gravity take him to the ground, not really worried about the regenerating wolves, who decided to not try what little luck they might have with him.

And so, he lay there, in the middle of Equestria’s most dangerous forests, simply resting the day away.

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It wasn’t ten minutes of laying on the forest’s floor, his lost gear strapped back to where they belong when Edmond heard the sound of something walking on a path a few feet off from him. He rose his head, looking in the direction of the noise in curiosity.

Edmond stood up from his prone position and climbed up the nearest tree, looking out to one of the many paths of the forests to see what had roused him.

The creature walking down the path was different to anything he had seen, but that was expected the more he travelled. He took a moment to study the creature’s appearance, feeling around the inside of his overcoat for his species journal to log it in. Finding the space, it usually would be, empty, he came to a sudden realisation.

‘Darned. Must’ve left it back at the hotel.’ He decided to continue observing it regardless, taking in what details he could within the dark forest.

From his vantage point, all he could see was that whatever it was donned a form of dark amour, almost seeming to blend in with the surroundings, and that it was bipedal.

It reminded him of a changeling he had once met.

As far as he could tell, it had no eyes, but it could be that it was wearing a mask to cover it face. It was wearing armour; the theory wasn’t totally out there.

The head, or helmet, had rugged, black spikes jutting out from it, two large horns, in a similar colour to the spikes, protruded from the side of the head, helmet, whatever it was. The rest of that portion of the creature was coloured to a lighter, but still quite dark, grey.

The creature seemed to have talons in place of hands and feet resembling a lizard-wolf hybrid, both sets of appendages as dark as a crow’s own talons.

For a second, Edmond thought he saw the glint of a metallic pommel and crossguard, features of a sword.

Doing a quick assessment of the path, he realized the creature was travelling away from Ponyville. So, it wasn’t a threat. That was good news.

Edmond, relaxing his gaze upon the fauna, decided to move towards Fluttershy’s cottage to check up on Ternychus and Fanu’ia, having left them in her care after her request. He started jumping between the trees, making slow progress to the other side of the Everfree. Although, he yet to notice the creature turned its own studying gaze onto him.

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Edmond knew the forest was more alive than one might let on. He lived in it, for goodness’s sake. And so, he had learned how alive the forest actually was, he just never got a handle on how to avoid the annoyances of the forest.

When the ponies say the trees move, they do. When they say they see the earth move, growling with hunger, it often would be. But when tree branches make the effort to move themselves, sending tree jumpers like himself crashing down to the forest floor, it made him wonder whether or not the forest was conscious.

So here he was, back on the ground, some yards or so away from his initial destination, when he heard a familiar sound of walking, headed in his direction.

He quickly jumped to his feet, readying a fighting pose, when that same creature came from out the bushes. He saw it more clearly now, now on ground level with the thing and more sunlight being allowed passed the canopies.

The beast was about his height, maybe a little taller, and did indeed sport some armour over its body. Edmond did manage a view of its eyes, though. Two glowing, white eyes with green irises stared straight at him, if not through him, in a cold glare. The rest of its face was covered by what was now recognisable as a cold, metal helmet.

The rest of the body appeared as accurate as Edmond had seen from his view atop the branch. But, having a better look at the creature’s body, he noticed the thin, yet muscular, figure it had, clearly some sort of scout, if this creature truly were part of some army.

The armour itself wore was relatively smooth, spiky formations appearing here and there. The colours matched the helmets scheme, with a dark grey transitioning into a black at the spikes.

As the too finished studying the other, Edmond moved to speak to the creature, hoping it might have some sense of language if it were a warrior.

“Allo, mate. There a reason you might be following me ‘round this here forest?” He asked the creature in front of him, only gaining a grunt in response.

He made to speak again, only for a dart to find its place in his neck.

He knew this feeling. Not personally, but he knew it to be the fate of many of his victims. He knew that this thing in front of him was definitely up to something. But, before he could do anything, he fell to the ground, asleep.

The creature continued to look coldly down at Edmond’s unconscious body until a second one came out of the bushes, holding a blowpipe in its talon. It was bulkier than the other was, and the armour it wore was more blocky, with more jagged points to it. The colour scheme was also different, being almost completely black.

The bulkier creature moved up to the body, picking him up and heaving him over its shoulder. The two of them then turned east, somehow know which way it was, and started off into the dark forest.

No pony had even known of his disappearance, nor even the disappearance of their own princess. That was until one curious guard had checked up on her, finding her study empty.

He knew the princess never liked teleporting without warning, after an incident a couple hundred years ago, so he knew something was up. After a thorough search, the castle went on high alert.