Mythical Guardians

♧10. Secret Hunter♧

  "Keep up, slowpoke!"

  "Hey, you try shooting a total of six to seven rabbits and squirrels, it just weighs you down, you know?" Gordon grumbled, but still picking up the pace with his cousins. They were going on a hunting trip, and most of the centaurs hadn't even been able to shoot anything. One of Gordon's younger cousins managed to narrowly miss a deer, and one of the older ones successfully shot down a bush turkey and a young deer, but that's it. Definitely not enough to feed their families, and the reason why they were in such a foul mood.

  Luckily for them, centaurs travel fast. They could catch up with prey that human hunters couldn't, like more fleet footed ones such as deer, ferrets, and weasels. And also, centaurs were known for their deadly aim.

  Of course, that didn't apply for most of the members on the group of the nine centaurs.

  "Guys, it's almost sundown. We should be heading back,"one of his cousins said.

  "Negative," Brandon, the oldest of them, said," We don't have enough food yet. Do you want everyone to go starving?"

  With frustrated grumbles, the centaurs muttered a unified "no". It was a windy day, and blew even some of the more experienced centaurs' arrows off their mark. The frustration and irritation hung like a shroud over group of hunters, it just wasn't their best day.

  " Maybe they will make do with some herbs and berries," one of the centaurs joked," It's high time they learnt to be vegetarians."

  " By my mother's hoofs, no," another said in disgust," I hate veggies."

  "By the looks of it, we might not have a choice," Gordon reminded him.

  "Hey Gore, why don't you go get us some deer or a fox?" Dan, one of the older centaurs quipped," That way we'll just need to wait."

  A few hearty agreements broke out, while a centaur said,"Yeah, let the nerd handle this, he's a freaking hunting god."

  Laughter broke out, while Gordon gritted his teeth. He hated people calling him a nerd just because of the glasses perched on his nose, which Darkkris had given him shortly after they had met. His glasses made his near sightedness stand out even more, which was a very uncommon problem among the centaur tribes, and a common cause for the bullying. Of course, his awkward dorkiness didn't help either.

  The only thing that made his life slightly less miserable was that his hunting skills had improved vastly, ever since he met Darkkris in that dark, mysterious cave, and began working for him a few years back. He did find himself questioning Darkkris's actions, since they were strictly against the centaur's own morals, but there was nothing he could do about it. He didn't want to know the details of what Darkkris would do to those who disobeyed him or questioned his motives.

  "No," Brandon said firmly, frowning at Gordon," We go together. In that case, we get more eyes, ears, as well as arrows in the air."

  The centaurs grumbled, but they mostly obeyed Brandon, who was twenty two years old, the eldest and comparatively most mature as well as most experienced amongst the group.

  The centaurs galloped on, tired, hungry, grumpy and frustrated, perking up at any sign of movement, hoping to get some big game.

  "Tiger!" Someone whisper shouted.

  The centaurs immediately nocked arrows on their bows, eyes sharp and ears cocked for any sign of the orange striped predator. Indeed, the big cat was a few dozen metres away, stalking prey, a herd of spotted deer.

  One of the centaurs, Janet, sniffed the wind. She picked up a few leaves and watched them drift away in the strong gust.

  "We are upwind," she noted," it won't take long for them to smell us."