The Hunters of Sian

Hunting Monsters

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Chapter Twenty-Eight

Hunting Monsters

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Over the next few days Nell and Sallos took their dracks out into the ghostly forest. For hours Nell practiced throwing and retrieving his glaive. Despite his own doubts, he was steadily improving. Sallos was quick to set him back into a routine that involved working his muscles and moving his body as much as possible. So far, he had brought down four quilldeer on his own and the last two had been from clean hits.

The dracks were eating well, Nell was nearly on form and Sallos was confident that they could soon begin a real hunt for their quarry. Nell couldn't share his master's enthusiasm for the idea and frequently woke in the middle of the howling night from dreams of giant grinding teeth and blood drenched snow.

On the fifth day, Sallos seemed to come to a decision. 'Sharpen the weapons this afternoon, we start looking for the Nightmares in the morning.'

'You think I'm ready?' Nell asked nervously.

His master looked up from the book his was flicking through. 'I do.' His expression gave absolutely nothing away and Nell couldn't help but wonder if the man would admit it if he didn't.

Nell nodded, even as his stomach twisted. Needless to say, he wasn't very attentive as he prepared their evening meal. The dracks were bedded down for the night. Fed and groomed, both animals were in good condition for the hunt. Now if only Nell could get on the same page. He glared at the pot he was stirring. He could do this. He just had to find his grit.

Thorn seemed to know something important was happening as they saddled up the next morning. The wind had died down, making conditions good for the hunt. The young drack pranced from foot to foot as Nell buckled the straps. They swung into the saddle and set their drack towards the trees. Sallos had his bad arm strapped tight to his chest to prevent it from being jostled. It was healing well, and the chance of infection was now greatly reduced.

The first hour of travel saw them zigzagging quietly through the enormous tress. The weather was good so many small herds of quilldeer were moving about which was throwing Nell's seeking sigil off. Finally, they tracked a decent sized herd scuffling about away from the trees. Nell took a deep breath to steady himself and drew his glaive. The dracks crouched, tucking themselves behind a particularly large snow drift.

The hunters didn't have to wait long at all. At first Nell thought the herd had spotted them when the lead buck suddenly lifted his antlered head, snorting. Several others took up the alarm call, their noses quivering as they looked this way and that. It was then that Nell felt the first quivers through the heavy snow. He sat up straight, and Thorn, thinking they were charging in, shifted out from the snow drift before Sallos could call them back.

The quilldeer were starting to scatter, the feel of the vibration and the sight of the drack sent them running in all direction. The deep vibration got louder and louder until...

Quite suddenly the rumbling in the ground stopped.

Nell and Thorn became absolutely still. They stood and they listened but as the minutes snailed past, but nothing else happened. The last of the quilldeer vanished into the tree. Sallos relaxed in his saddle and turned Shade away from the clearing.

'What happened?' Nell spluttered.

'You broke cover too early. The Nightmare realised that some other predator was above ground and abandoned its hunt. We can do no more here. We'll try again this afternoon.' Nell winced. Okay, so they weren't off to a great start but at least no one had been injured.