The desert stretched out in hopelessly long dunes in front of the hunters, sprawling across an endless sea of sand like a blanket strewn across a hot bed. The sun bore down on them, and every glaring ray seemed to pierce their hearts. Yuki had told them that to the northwest lay their quarry, in a deep vale between two long dunes. These early hills were the last of an outstretched arm of the distant mountains to the west, and if one were to travel along them to those spires, they would find the ragged forests of many long years past.
But those forests were nowhere near the hunters, and even if they were, the bounties of a forest's harvest will not prove useful for a clan traveling across the desert plains, such as they were. Now, the last leg of their journey into the Gathib Region and the outskirts of the Sandy Plains was before them, and the sweat that permeated their brows was very real. How they longed for more water! None was to be found in this place, nor within ten miles of them, save for the oasis from which they had departed the day before.
Taka and Brutus walked in front, with Yuki and Jeren near at hand, covering the front flanks. In the rear walked Gamor and Calli, while Reia and Noami guarded the rear flanks. Katrina and Ali watched the sides. With their cart and aptonoth, the journey was not too difficult for them, and they found the path relatively easy to stay upon. The sun acted as their compass, and guided them diligently across lands which would trouble groups of unequipped travelers. They did not stop, for though the sun was a cruel mistress, their water supply was great and filled with the vigour of youth they found the strength to valiantly troop onwards for many miles.
Few words were spoken. The lands were quiet, unnervingly quiet, and to break the silence with so much as a whisper was akin to the like of blowing a great horn-blast. What words were said conveyed no secrets, and when an occasional loudly spoken word was heard, it seemed to die instantaneously in the empty lands, devoid even of living echo. But the desert could not stretch on till the ends of the earth.
It was after midday when they crossed the last dune, now rocky and staunch in its pedestal. The valley stretched before them: on their side and the other were a large dune each, composed primarily of rock and garnished with white sand, pure even for the dust of the Gathib region. The valley that stretched before them seemed at once close and connected, but analysis showed them that their eyes deceived them with hopefulness, and indeed the valley was a mile wide in its widest place. Towards the west end, dark eaves of stone gave way to a huge cave beneath the earth, from which no fume or sign ushered. But the hunters knew what dwelt beyond that permanent shadow.
Taka looked at his map and called Katrina over. They talked for a while under the shadow of a standing rock nearby, and decided to take rest near the rock shelf in which was bored the hole that their prey had taken up residence within. The two described their plan to the rest of the group, and the Ten were on their way again, headed west to the rock shelf no more than 500 yards away now.
Their march did not last very long before they were beset with troubles. Across the plains, silently, had approached a pack of Jaggi, with a Great Jaggi at their head. A marauding pack, perhaps, but its presence unnerved the hunters. The Jaggi packs did not typically venture out of the true canyons and the small caves of the tumbled rocks within the Sandy Plains. What brought them? But they had no time to think of that now.
The Great Jaggi and his pack were approaching quickly now, and the rearguard was suddenly aware of them. They set a shout upon the desert plains, and for a blistering second, the Jaggi leader looked at them with vague doubt in its remarkably simple, shallow eyes. The dark gaze passed, and the leader charged forwards.
"Arm yourselves!" Shouted Calli, unsheathing her Lance and pointing directly towards the head of the pursuing marauders. Gamor equipped his hammer and pulled it backwards, readying a Whirlwind Strike. The front guard turned, and unsheathed their weapons, making a resounding noise in the quiet expanses of sand. The Jaggi pack, starving and angry, were undaunted. They approached the hunters with undue bravery and taunted them, urging them to take a shot and be destroyed.
Noami was the first to strike, an unusual show of bravery for her. Her arrow struck the head of a Jaggi minion, and he lurched backwards, screaming in agony before taking his final rest. Noami shuddered, and notched another arrow upon her bow, aiming now at the minions to weaken their resolve and give her teammates an opening. A few Jaggi minions ran her way; she quickly disposed of them and ran behind a rock, which had been split in twain by the passing of the long years. From here, the shadow of a hunter could shoot and go unnoticed, but not unfelt, for a very long count of minutes.
When the first minion had departed from the world, Gamor unleashed his strike. The other hunters gave him a good deal of space while he swung his hammer 'round and 'round, finally crashing into the head of the Great Jaggi with a resounding clash. The bloodied head of the beast drew back and a shriek issued forth. It shook its head and glared at Gamor, leaping towards him and pushing him down. The Great Jaggi was about to bite into his almost-unprotected chest when with a resounding and grotesque sound of splitting flesh, the Great Jaggi was forced onto its side by the Great Sword of Brutus. Gamor looked thankfully at him, and was thanking him when Brutus rolled his eyes and extended an armored hand towards the hunter on the ground.
"Get up, and don't be so clumsy." Brutus said, with a gruff change in his voice indicating an attitude untrue to the one he had presented this. Though Gamor had trouble with sarcasm, he detected it now and knew Brutus's intentions, and they were good. Gamor was emboldened again, and picked up his weapon. Yuki had just gotten her Gunblade ready when he got up, and she shouted aloud as he started to attack the beast.
"I would get out of the way, if I were you, Gamor!" Yuki shouted. Gamor quickly obeyed, rolling to the right as he had been trained as the young huntress approached the beast with outstretched weaponry.
The gunpowder in the chamber made an indescribably loud crack as it was ignited and forced the various pellets of monster scale into the Great Jaggi. While this was a weak attack at a distance, combined with Yuki's slash, it presented a particularly difficult circumstance for the Great Jaggi, which aired its frustrations with a load growl. But its troubles were not over. Jeren approached it with even more gunpowder, shoving the end of a gunlance into the side of the Great Jaggi and releasing the trigger to burn the pierced flesh. With a howl and scream of pain, the monster limped off quickly towards a whole. Though Noami got a few more arrows in, the creature escaped into the rat-hole and was gone. The hunters all looked around in varying degrees of exasperation, examining their team to ascertain that it had remained whole.
The ensuing silence was defeaning. As usual, the tight-knit but yet distant hunting team found no words suitable for use here. It was now Jeren who broke their silence.
"You all know our code of conduct. It is forbidden to leave a beast to suffer until mites eat away at his flesh and he dies in pain. We must find him." Jeren mused aloud.
They did not look very long. Within the rock shelf was, half-buried in the sand, an entrance to a dark cave. Four of the hunters lit torches and strove inwards. The other six stayed with the wagon - Gamor, Calli, Yuki, Jeren, Brutus, and Katrina were all left at the surface, since their weapons were less accustomed to fighting in caves and closed environments. The sun was swiftly disappearing into a slow dusk and the hunters now got a small fire going - nights in the Sandy Plains and the entire Gathib Region were extraordinarily cold, and to be in one without a fire was to take one's life.
As twilight descended upon the land and all the area was set alight with orange fire, they huddled around their small blaze and watched for the returning hunters, and listened. As the first stars appeared in the sky, they began to hear muffled shouts that seemed to come from the very ground itself. Those on the surface looked at one another happily. The battle seemed to be going in the favour of those who had descended, which boded well for the coming day.
Finally, the sun had set and there were no more clouds to be seen by light of day. The blue night of the Sandy Plains was beautiful, made even more so by the presence of shining stars and an ever-present meteor shower that occurred nightly. The hunters laid back, and at once some felt, like there on their soft blankets on the conforming sand, that they were back in their own beds in Tanjia City, and knew nothing of the beast which attacked them.
For them, now, the only thing of existence were the stars. Blazing, shining brightly above them, each one seemed to twinkle like a gem out of the far deeps of the Earth, shining like a ray of light from an otherworldly plane. Those same stars, thought some, shine upon Tanjia tonight. Some wondered what their parents were doing now, and if their friends and families back in the Citadel were looking up at the same stars right now and remembering them and their names.
Several of the hunters fell asleep. Two set their own watch, eager to be awake when the party returned, while the rest slept on, doing naught else until something had occurred. Their long journey, the small hunt, and the stars of the Sandy Plains were all argument enough for a good night's rest, and no one begrudged them this.
Hours before, below the surface of the cave they had dug their way into, the hunters - Taka, Noami, Reia, and Ali - had lit torches and were listening closely to the sounds of the Earth. Not even a drop of water or a groan of stone could be heard now; the desert spoke no words to its guests, though it had a great many stories.
They continued down the dark path, which seemed to wind ever deeper as it went. Had there been any fissures above, the utter dark would have swallowed any light that had permeated the close walls of the cavern. Eventually, the smell of decaying flesh and muffled growls and a distinctive snoring told them they were growing close to the Jaggi den. Surely enough, the space ahead of them seemed to widen inexplicably and the air grew suddenly colder, and more open. The moonlight was now streaming through a large crack in the ceiling, and the stars shone high above. In the moonshine lay the Jaggi leader in his defeated glory.
Taka, thinking quickly, got out a bomb and placed it near the creature's head. He hated to do this, but knew it was the most powerful and effective way to put the creature out of its misery. The rest of the team did so as well, and with drew towards Noami as she drew back her bow. The arrow whined through the air and hit the barrels, igniting the gunpowder inside and creating a great fire of light and sparks that singed and scarred the Great Jaggi. It got up quickly and though dripping with blood from various wounds, screamed in rage.
The hunters were taken aback. Here was a Great Jaggi, beaten and mauled, and yet it had the gall and wit to roar at the hunters. But there was not now any time to question his motives: five Jaggi underlings surrounded him and jumped in circles around him as the creature seemed to smile and sneer at them. Suddenly, as if its strength had come back, it lunged at the unaware Ali, who had no time to prepare her shield. The Great Jaggi roared as it bit into the side of her arm, rending her armor.
She screeched and slashed at the neck of the Great Jaggi, causing it to lose its grip. She fell backwards and shook her head, but the great Bird Wyvern was not done yet. In a gesture of power, showing in what ways it would play with its doomed quarry, it spun quickly around, slashing at Ali and leaving a line of blood across her face. She coughed a few times as she got up, and drank a potion, staggering with the adrenaline of her first unplanned experience with a monster. She readied her weaponry again and looked on.
The Great Jaggi had now focused on Taka and Noami, who were working in tandem to attack the creature and draw it off their friend. Arrows whined as the Bow of Noami sang. Taka's blades were a masterful fury. The Great Jaggi was not particularly pleased. Again using its tail, it knocked Taka over onto his side when he had taken a small moment to rest, and it used this moment in which to pounce. Taka grimaced as he felt all 800 pounds of monster flesh settle on top of him and move about him in a cruel dance. He grunted, working against time, the Jaggi, and himself, and unsheathed his hunting knife, which he drove into the ankle of the beast that stood upon him. The Great Jaggi shrieked and removed itself.
While this had happened, Noami had had knifework of her own. After their master had attacked Taka, the Jaggi minions surrounding their pack leader came for her. She had disposed of a few with well-aimed arrows, but they soon grew so close that she was required to sheathe her bow and draw out a long, thin knife she held on the back of her armor. She slashed quickly and fluidly, but at times haphazardly, at the faces full of razors that beset her. Soon, they were all disposed with and the Great Jaggi was standing menacingly.
He now stood between a difficult set of choices. To the forefront had came Reia, after seeing that Noami had ran out of arrows and was warily searching for more. Behind the Great Jaggi, it and the hunters knew, was an immeasurably deep ravine, in which water once flowed. No water flowed there now, and the landing would be hard. IN a show of strength and bravery, the Great Jaggi leaped again, this time towards Reia.
Reia had, up unto this point, primarily tested her strength against dummy monsters and other people, and nothing had prepared her for the might with which a true beast, cornered and angry, would approach her. Her Long Sword was pushed back, and for a fleeting moment, it seemed the Great Jaggi had the better of her. But it was not so. With a powerful blow forwards, the silver shaft swung through the air, through the Great Jaggi's body and into the ravine was the carcass cast as it jumped backwards. The hunters sheathed their weapons and sat, for a moment, on the ground, wearied as those who have just finished great but sudden labour are. They shared a great many laughs and got up, dusting themselves off. They went back towards the surface.
Back on the surface, it was not an hour after their bedding the four had returned. They looked weary and some were dirty, but they returned safely. They would not speak of their tale, except to say that the Jaggi had been slain and the body had fallen into a ravine too deep to be explored. They brought no news of the Silver Magala that they had tracked here, and all went well. Gamor and Jeren were awoken after another hour of the continued watch, while the other hunters were allowed the honour of sleeping away the night. The rest of the night passed uneventfully, and in the morning, the hunters were ready to find their quarry's true resting place.
"Dawn is not far away," Said Taka to Jeren as he placed more wood on the fire.
"But dawn may not bring new counsel," Replied he.
"You speak wisdom, but we go now into a cave, not to an open march. You cannot carry fire with you. What are your intentions now?" Asked Taka.
"We'll all need torches and good food to do this. I am playing my part by making that which will replenish you and fill you with strength, which we will need ere the day grow much longer." At this, Jeren looked up mysteriously and questioningly, questioning the fabric of his Earth.
Taka seemed to be content with this explanation, and went to his own tasks.
The day was not yet an hour old when all the hunters had awoken and breakfast was served to them, better than many they had had for a great long time. How they missed their beds and their breakfasts! But there was no time to debate this now. Though the Desert Canyon lay in front of them, the entrance to the hole in which the Silver Magala had taken reference lay yet many feet ahead, and could prove ill if traversed in ill fashion. They waited until the day was at its fullest morning light, and headed out.
To be continued in FanFiction:The Art of the Hunt/Season 2/Chapter 8 - The Caves of Gathib