Vayu was waiting for them at the village exit. It was an unofficial term, as there were no official exits out of the village.

A road led to another village. One road led to the town, while another led to the pond. One road went toward the Witch’s residence, and the one they had traversed led them to the calm outer edge of the forest.

As for Vayu, he was sitting on a big-fat rock and tending to his bow. He must have heard their footsteps, or Mannat’s footsteps as the other two barely made a noise and glanced in their direction. The bearded man saw them coming over and turned his head back to the bow, only for his hands to stop mid-way. His head twisted like a grinder over his shoulders in the next second and he glared toward them or at Mannat, and yelled aloud, “NO!”

One word expressed his feelings and thoughts. He wore the bow on his back and stood up. Glaring at the three, he shook his head and pointed a finger at Khargosh.

“I thought you were done babysitting him.”
“Shut up,” Khargosh replied.

Vayu wasn’t happy with the response. He was young and hotheaded. He believed they were equal, but the response clearly showed his partner reserved a different opinion. There were a few thoughts that rose inside him, but he buried them back in the depths of his mind. He couldn’t leave the team anyway. There weren’t many who were better archers than his partners in the nearby villages. He saw the three leaving him behind, bit the curses rising to his lips, and rushed after them.

“I’ll lead,” Khargosh turned and said, and the others quietly fell behind him.

There it was again, the noise. Vayu walked on the back and felt a headache brewing. He became a hunter because he liked the quiet of the woods, and money, definitely money. Hunting paid well, and it kept him busy. It also allowed him to leave his house and his drunkard father to his misery. He hated noise, especially in the woods.

“Why are you back?” He asked Mannat. It was too troublesome. He hoped they would soon found a deer or something to hunt because the sound of Mannat’s footsteps was starting to irritate him.

“To see the rabbit,” Mannat answered and fell silent. He could sense Vayu’s irritation. It was a prickly sensation, like a summer rash. Understanding it, he sped up to keep his distance from the man, but the man followed right behind him.

“No wonder I had a bad feeling about it,” Vayu mumble then cut to the chase and spoke in a hushed tone. “You don’t belong here. Without us, you will die quicker than a butterfly stuck on a spider’s web.”
“I know. That’s why I sleeked their help. ”
The acknowledgment stumped Vayu. He had a few more grievances to give, but how do you scold someone who admits to their flaws? He changed the topic.
“How did you make him agree to bring you along on the hunt?”
“I told him the potholes were deep and wide.”
“I don’t understand?”

“HUSH,” The cold voice came from the front and Vayu reluctantly left Mannat alone for the time being. He didn’t want to babysit kids either. He had only signed up to take care of one kid, not a group of them. If it went on like this eventually, he’d be eligible for a job as a nanny!

“This whole deal’s crooked. I shouldn’t have taken the offer in the first place.” Mannat heard him grumble and couldn’t help smiling.

It wasn’t long before the four reached the cave. They didn’t simply pass it by this time around. Vayu spent a few breaths cursing when their leader guided them toward the dark cave entrance.

“Why are we coming back here?” Vayu complained, groaned, and moaned, but his question went unanswered. He didn’t know why the boy was so interested in the rabbits. No. Guess he did know after all. The thing they had fought yesterday… was not a forest creature. He could attest to that. The damned thing had almost taken his leg!

Although, he couldn’t say it wasn’t all very exciting. He could smell the mystery in the air.

Such were Vayu’s thoughts.

As for Mannat, a closer look at the cave’s surroundings made plenty of things stand out to him. All clearings are not natural, but he could see that this one was. The sky shone a bright blue above his head, and below the land was barren. There was not a blade of grass in the land around the cave. He didn’t see any insects either. Even the dirt looked coarse and dry, like sand. He bent down to cup a handful of it, and it slid down through the cracks between his fingers. There was also a fishy, rotten stench in the air; it wasn’t very strong, but he couldn’t deny its presence. The longer he stayed there the more he could taste it in his mouth. No wonder there weren’t any animals around the cave.

“I want to see the rabbit,” Mannat asked, causing everyone to stop and look at him.
Vayu sneered. “Are you one of those idiots who think there is no difference between wolves and dogs?” “Back there,” Pandit pointed away from the cave, toward a tree and let out an ‘Oh’ in exclamation.  The soil was upturned there. Something had dug the beast and taken it away. The stench was also coming from there.

“That’s not good,” Pandit said. Khargosh agreed. Vayu simply took a step back and looked at them, especially at Mannat. He wanted to see what the Witch-boy –Yes. He had found out after last time—wanted to do. He didn’t believe the boy was evil like the villagers. A job was a job. He knew the importance of one. His father had probably done more evil in his life than the boy, and the man was jobless. He simply wanted to see why the boy was looking for the deformed, blood-curling beasts.

“Do you think there are any potholes inside the cave?” Mannat asked and the three looked at each other.
“You won’t know until you take a look. At least there are no footprints outside the cave to say otherwise,” Vayu said. He had laid out his intention.

Khargosh didn’t like it, but he had already brought the kid over. “Let’s just get this over with.”

The cave was dark and cold; it wasn’t particularly human-friendly. It was narrow and low; they had to crouch and crawl to go deeper.

“What do you expect to find in here?” Pandit asked nervously.
“Nothing,” Mannat replied. “I hope to find nothing.”

The cave wasn’t particularly deep. Broken bones and small skulls littered the cave’s dirt floor, which was par on course for a place occupied by wild predatory animals. They reached the end but didn’t find any potholes inside. Mannat’s fears didn’t come true. He sighed in relief. He saw Khargosh stopping ahead to take a rest and sat down opposite him resting his back against the cave wall.

“There’s nothing here,” Pandit mumbled and sat beside Mannat.
Khargosh asked Mannat, “Have seen enough, yet?”
“I have,” Mannat said. “But I still want to know what happened that day.”
“How did you find out?”
“Find out what?” Vayu let out along with a groan. Reluctantly, he had followed the others inside the cave and he was starting to regret it.
Mannat answered him. “I found out that the beast that attacked little butcher was not something else but the same kind of rabbit you fought yesterday.”
“What?” Vayu exclaimed. There was the mystery he was looking for. His head turned toward Khargosh, he squinted. “How come you never told me? I am your partner for god’s sake!”
Khargosh answered back in a cold, depressing tone. “I never told anyone.” Saying so, he looked back at Mannat, wordlessly telling him to start speaking.

Mannat obliged. “I wouldn’t have figured it out if Pandit had kept the secret. I have seen your marksmanship. Something big and heavy like a wolf could have never bested you. For something to get an edge over you, it would have had to be fast and agile; something small; something that could dodge arrows, or at least shrug them off; something like a—“

“—Rabbit that’s dark as a thundercloud and fast as lightning.” Khargosh took the words out of Mannat’s mouth. He took a deep breath and stared beyond them, at the cave’s mouth. It was glowing brightly thanks to the sunlight coming from the outside. It reminded him of the dark evening and his pensive mood grew solemn.

Khargosh got into it slowly. “We didn’t get held up that evening. We were pretty much on time, but that boy really wanted to eat rabbit and we had seen a family near the cave while passing through here in the day.”

He turned his head back and looked at the three of them one by one. His eyes passed by Vayu and Mannat, before stopping at Pandit for a few tense seconds, and then he looked away again, toward the darkness that covered the cave’s end.  

“It was as if his fate was decided the moment he stepped into the forest. The boy suddenly saw a rabbit and wanted to hunt it, alone. Rabbits are rabbits after all. They can escape, but there is no chance of injury, unless self-inflicted. So I agreed to his request. It wasn’t the first time he had laid such a request, and it had been a perfect day until then. We had made no errors in stalking a deer or hunting it. Then he chased the rabbit as I kept watch over him. the chase went for a while and the rabbit led him to the cave, where the other one, the bigger, angrier one, the one you call a beast, was waiting for him.”

Khargosh licked his lips and shook his head. He found Mannat staring at him and told the rest of the story staring straight into his eyes.

“The sky suddenly darkened above my head as if an omen of the tragedy about to befell us. Then lightning struck in front of my eyes. I had no time to act when the beast attacked. It caught the boy’s left leg and dragged him into the cave. I dropped the bow and ran toward him screaming. I picked up his cleaver on the way. It thundered and rained as I rushed over to the cave. I heard you killed one of them, so you should know how agile it is.” He told Mannat and continued, “Anyways, what happened next… I don’t want to talk about it. I only know that I somehow got my son out of the cave and then rushed to the village without caring for anything else.”

There was silence in the cave as the sound of their breathing whispered and whistled around them.

 “What happened to the rabbit?” Mannat said.

Pandit's father kept silent for a long time It was only when Mannat told him it was important that he told him, “I returned the next day and killed it.”

“And what did you do to the body?”
“I burned it.”

“Are you sure?” Mannat asked, just to make sure. He knew the truth. The rabbits were products of miasma poisoning. He wanted to make sure Pandit’s father had killed the doe. Her death would mean the rabbit they had killed a day ago was the bucks spawn with a normal female. Otherwise, there was a possible army of them hiding in the forest. Mannat felt a pressure lifting from his shoulders when Khargosh gave him a nod. His stiff shoulders relaxed. Finally, the feeling of nervous agitation that had been gripping him since the morning cleared the space for healthy thoughts.

Mannat was glad that it was over, but Vayu kept his eyes glued to Khargosh. He was not convinced. A glint passed through his eyes. He was about to speak up when their eyes met. They communicated without speech and he closed his mouth. The boys didn’t notice the quick and subtle exchange that passed between the men. They wouldn’t have noticed anything strange anyways.

That evening,, the Witch was waiting for Mannat at the clearing, looking at the glowing tree with an indescribable emotion.

“What do you think about the tree?” She asked when Mannat approached to tell her the good news. Of course, she already knew. She had to.

“I think it’s the most wonderful gift that I have ever received,” Mannat replied truthfully.

The Witch gave a toothy grin, which made her look at least thirty years younger. Regretfully, she looked the same even thirty years ago. She was probably much older than he predicted. Removing mere decades from her age wasn’t enough to soften the textures imparted to her skin by time.

Jokes apart, the Witch asked again. “Where do you think the future comes from?”
Mannat shrugged. “From the present, I guess.”

“It’s not a bad guess.” The Witch nodded and turned back to watch the glowing tree dance in the evening wind.
“If the present has its roots in the past, then can you say the future comes from the past?”
“Isn’t everything a part of the past once it has happened?” Mannat said.

He followed the Witch and watched the tree glow. Its colors changed from red to orange to yellow, all the way to violet, before the cycle would repeat, endlessly until the night dissolves and the sky changes ownership.

“Don’t forget it.” The Witch said with a cackle. She raised her head and looked at the black clouds that were slowly creeping toward them from the horizon. Suddenly, a strong gust blew through the clearing and made the tree shudder. Its leaves flashed red and cried for help as the gust tried to sweep them away.  

“Let’s go back,” The witch grabbed Mannat’s shoulder.
Mannat was surprised by her action. The witch had never touched him before, but her behavior wasn’t the only thing that had changed after he became her apprentice. “Are you fine? I think there is a storm coming.” He said.

“Worry about yourself.” She said staring into his eyes. “The storm isn’t coming for me. Don’t get swept by it.”