10 Years, Forest. Hunt.

I breathe heavily, and come to a halt. I ran faster than ever just now, and spent all my breath on it. I try to calm myself down, try to steady my breath, thoughts and will. This is it – should I ever return to the village, I doubt even the Mayor can, or is willing to, stop the masses from tearing me apart. I ran away from that – but this is first time I ran to solve a problem and not to escape from it. There is nothing left I can do in the village to resolve this situation.

The beast which is responsible for this mess must die. This way, it wont be able to hurt anyone ever again – and especially my Mother, Brian and Ione. The Mayor and the Doctor being out of danger is a plus as well, I guess. The other people... I do not care what happens to them, in all honesty. They ever brought me more pain than good. Yet, maybe if I defeat this foe, it will even quench their anger, and let me return to what family and friends I have left.

"At least if they still want to see you after everything that happened."

I bundle my hand to a fist, and hit the side of my head. This will be my go-to procedure now, anytime the cold voice feels like taking word again. It gets my head clear, and seems to shut it up for a bit.

I take a look around. I do know where I am, more or less. A few minutes inside the forest. I figure that nobody would actually come for me in here, not after what happened last time.

Now, I have to make a plan on how to actually get rid of the predator. In mind, I go over what tools I have in my arsenal. My trusty knife. Despite all the years it served me, it never rusted – father once explained that it was made out of a special steel mass-produced at the magic guild, which does not rust. It does get dull from time to time, but he also showed me how to sharpen it. Father...

I hit myself against the head again. I can not allow myself to get distracted when I have a goal in mind. Masking pain with pain might be not ideal, but what else should I do in this situation?

Then, my most used and useful tool: My magic. I can manipulate heat and movement – of my own body, of rocks, pebbles, water, air, and whatnot else. This could be used to hunt and cook, and therefore bring me cooked meat rather easily. My self-lightening can act as a wonderful way to travel, and my self-heating removes the need of warmth from a potential sleeping spot, opening up completely new possibilities of where to sleep. It is winter, without this power, the forest would be inhabitable to me.

The ability to manipulate air is likely only going to be moderately useful. Sadly, my low coefficient limits what I can actually do with all these intricate techniques severely. Had I only a half of Brians power, I could make myself fly, create mighty winds, or combust everything at will.

Still, these all are tremendously useful abilities, out of question – but for a longer while now, I feel like I am barely scratching the surface of what is possible. There are still so many unsolved mysteries out there. Is light energy? Are emotions energy? What are the limits of magic? Once I have ridden myself of every other, more urgent matter, I feel like thinking about all those questions – hard, and long. It is an aspect that got lost in the later days of my magic studies with Brian and Ione. We refined what we had, tried to explore every nook and cranny of its potential usage – but not one of us ever felt the need to take the pain onto themselves of actually inventing a completely new technique.

The long hours of trying to figure out movement in its essence – they were painful, but they were fulfilling. Brian and Ione probably felt similar when they were trying to find their forms of magic.

But all of this does not matter at this moment. The sooner I get rid of the beast, the better. Therefore, my plan consists of two steps: First, find it. Second, kill it. The first is probably going to prove more problematic than the second one.

As if to prove it to myself, I let the knife glide out of its sheath, and whirl around in the air, cutting up a small shrub before me. Via movement magic, of course. I nod, and let it fly back to its sheath. With this, I can go for eyes, throats, tendons, and any other weak point. If that fails for some reason, I can still launch pebbles like a maniac.

I start wandering around, in search of possible traces. The beast should be somewhere in this area, and its tracks are quite obvious, even to the unkeen eye. The sun is still rather high in the sky, although that will change in a few hours. Should I find it now – I may not even have to fight it. It has behaved nocturnal so far, and an animal of this size and power should not find too many hiding spots. Maybe it is just sleeping somewhere on the ground. There are no caves in this area that I would know of. If I find it sleeping, I will not hesitate to just slit its throat without resistance.

It does not take long for me to find tracks – after all, they largely consist of devastated area and rugged trees. How big must this animal be... Its footprints are also quite distinct. Huge, and like mix of a claw and a paw. I remember the words of the Mayor: "...get rid of the fucking Owlbear in front..." What is an Owlbear? At that point in time, the mayors further monologue quickly killed that question. But now, that I think of it, I should have asked the Mayor more about my target when I had the chance. He seemed to know what it was, and could have given me valuable information. But, I can hardly go back now and ask.

While the sun starts sinking, I find more and more signs of the beast's presence. From time to time, I find obliterated animal corpses: as usual, with their heads intact. They were in various states of decomposition, and also varying in size. I count two deer, a boar, three foxes, and at least twenty smaller animals. The sheer amount and variety is impressive, and frightening. Squirrels, rabbits, hares, there was even a mouse. How can such a large animal have such a precision? The head was never damaged, not once. The rest of the body was finely torn to shreds. The stench is awful.

I wandered a bit deeper into the forest by now, deeper than I usually go. Here, the smell is ever-present. No matter where you look, there are signs of destruction somewhere. I am definitely on the right way. The light is starting to dwindle, I should find the beast soon if I want to kill it in its sleep.

I step into something glibbery. I take a look at my foot – that is definitely flesh and blood. I seem to be on some sort of forest glade, with a boulder in the middle. It reminisces me of the clearing I used to read my book on – up to the point where I broke the magic meter in the back, that is. Later, Brian, Ione and me practised there. It was also the place where Brian injured himself...

It may not be the best time and place for that, but I decide that I want to sit down on the boulder, and pretend to read. Its stinking, but so does it everywhere here, and I do not care. If I do not find my prey anyway before dusk, I can wait for it here as well. Like that, I will at least be able to choose the battleground.

I carefully take the book out of the pouch, and go to the boulder. It is to dark to read, or see anything really well, but I don't care. I could jump on it easily, my self-lightening allows for that. But, for the sake of the old times, I will climb onto it.

I rapidly jump back a few meters. This rock... is it moving? Ever so slightly, but it seems to vibrate. Could it be... I quickly put the book back into the pouch, and draw the knife. If it only would not be so dark...

I approach slowly, careful to not make a single sound. On a second look, the texture seems odd, almost like... feathers. Feathers and fur.

My heart rate starts to rise. Sweat starts pearling from my skin. This is...

I circle the huge animal in front of me. The darkness tricked my eyes – how did I ever see a boulder in that? It is massive.

Its forelegs are thick as branches. Brown-Grey Feathers cover them, and I see massive claws protruding from its paws. Its head looks like the Bear trophy hanging in the small tavern of our village – only instead of the mouth, it got a menacing beak. Its eyes are closed – luckily. It is laying down, and still towering me by a meter. I see why the mayor called it an owlbear... and I see how it obliterated the search troop.

Cold sweat running all down my body irritates me. How am I going to kill this monstrosity...

Slit its throat. It seems to be my only option, with what means I have. My hand shakes uncontrollably, and my legs feel like failing me any second.

I form a fist, and knock it hard against my head. Now is not the time for weakness. I have to do it now. Now is the chance...

I firmly grip the knife, and enclose on the beast. I touch its neck with my left hand, to find an optimal spot to stab with my right. The feathers covering the neck look a bit like downs, and they tickle my hand as I wipe them away. The skin beneath is rough. Rough and cold. The animal is not any warmer than the surrounding temperature. Is it dead? I hold the touch a bit – I feel no pulse whatsoever. It does not breath, either... It must be dead if it does not have that.

A shuddering runs through the massive body in front of me. It is not dead... It is very much alive, actually. What kind of monster lives without a pulse, without having to breath?

I must kill it – now. If I wait any longer, it might awake.

I take my hand off, grab the knife with both hands, and prepare to stab it right into the throat, as deeply as possible. I enhance this swing with everything I have, putting all my magic coefficient into it – therefore releasing self-applied heating and lightening. The cold instantly starts claiming my body, and I feel heavy. In favour of this one crucial strike, I ignore all of it.

“DIE!” To fast for my eyes, the dagger gets ripped out of my hands, and embeds deep into the Owlbear's throat. A triumphant expression forms on my face.

Then, a primal roar of pain shreds through the night. I freeze, unable to move a single muscle. To my shock, the gigantous body starts moving, and a pair of orange eyes with massive, pitch-black pupils stares at me in hatred. As if it had waited for this very moment, the moon purges the darkness with its silvery rays.

Slowly, the Owlbear rises to full size, twice as big as I am. Thick, yellow fluid flows down the handle of the knife, and drips onto the ground right before my feet.

Run. I need to run. I need to run, or I am dead. I desperately try to send those signals to my legs, but they continue to be frozen. The Owlbear opens its beak – and releases a piercing scream so loud it bursts my ears. I see it lash out for a blow, its amber claws shining in the moonlight. Finally, my legs free, and I stumble backwards. The place where I just now was gets torn to shreds. Fighting to get onto my feet, I crawl around and run. Fear runs through my veins, and gives me power I did not now I had. I get tunnel vision, focused on only one goal – escape. In a last-ditch effort, I reapply my self-lightening, and sprint. I hear more screams, and a rumbling as the monster gives chase.

The mayor is not a fool. If he can not solve a problem, how did I think I could? Was it hubris?

I run as fast as I can, but the steps of the pursuers do not get quieter. How is this massive thing so fast?

Can I even get away from it? Am I fast enough? A staccato of my footsteps and the beasts stomps is everything I can hear now, expect for an occasional scream that seems to rip through the fabric of my mind.

In opposition to me, the beast never seems to tire. My legs started burning after two minutes of running, and now, after what felt like an eternity, they are just seething pillars of fire. This heat seems only almost enough to stop the cold from whittling me down, however. In favour of the self-lightening, I ditched heating entirely. In face of the fact that the pursuer never seemed to be more than a few meters behind, I thought freezing a bit is preferable over being torn to shreds.

My lungs start failing, I am completely out of breath. After all, I have run for God-knows how long a time now. I never believed in the God and his Followers, but if they truly exist, I would not mind a little help from them. This bidding seems to stay unanswered, however – the only thing I hear are my footsteps, the Owlbears footstomps, and all sort of plants being obliterated by a moving boulder.

If I want something done, I need to do it myself. There is no use in waiting for “Gods Miracle”. If I can not steady my breath soon, I will collapse.

This now is risky – but it is a risk I need to take. I lower the output of my lightening, just enough to allow for another meaningful spell, and concentrate. In thought, I create a small manipulation plane right in my gaping mouth. Everything passing it should be accelerated – in this case, mostly air.

Instantly, all of the air in my lungs gets sucked out. I try breathing in, it does not work. I revert the acceleration direction of the pane – fresh air floods my lungs, stretching them out painfully wide.

Yet, with this, I should be able to breath.

I lower the used coefficient, and switch the direction around every two seconds. Finally, I seem to breath in a way that is sufficient - and requires lots of concentration. But, it keeps me running.

I risk a peek over my shoulder. The Owlbear is roughly twenty meters behind me, and still as vigorous as at the beginning of the chase. The knife is still embedded in its throat. Moon is shedding light upon the scenery, the naked trees are barely obscuring its rays. How is that possible? This animal should have run out of stamina long ago, its body seems way to massive to be a long-distance runner. Also, does the knife in the throat not even bother it in the slightest? This injury would have caused anything I knew before to drop dead immediately.

How longer will I be able to run? My most important resource, Magic, is not going to deplete. But my legs feel like they should have stopped running a few minutes ago. My skin feels terribly cold as well – if I am not mistaken, I feel frozen sweat on it. Until now, I was able to avoid any obstacle in the forest rather fine, but now I have to dedicate my concentration to changing the direction of the air flow regularly, it becomes hard watching for obstacles..

Ten, maybe fifteen minutes. If I run any longer, I feel I will collapse. The Owlbear seems to sense my incoming demise, and screeches excitedly. How can I get it off my tail in fifteen minutes? I can not hide on trees, the Owlbear would just run them over – it proved capable of that. If I would get a decent lead, I could try to hide. I do not know how good the beasts tracking capabilities are, but it would be worth a shot.

There is no way I could fight it. The strongest attack I could think of proved utterly ineffective.

Five minutes. I see the edge of my vision turning black.

I run – and in front of me, a giant ravine splits the ground. This is it – the end.

No, not the end. Its the chance. The ravine seems deep, but it is only around fifteen meters wide. It stretches far in both directions to my left and right. I prepare for a giant leap, and just as my feet hit the edge of the cliff, I jump.

I sail through the air. Then, I dive face-first into the snow on the other side. My skin is too cold to make proper notice of it, and I get up. On the other side, the Owlbear rages and screams. I shudder.

I have to run further, and hide. This is my chance – if I miss it, I am dead.

I sprint further into the forest. Shortly after loosing sight of the ravine and my pursuer, I climb up a tree. It has a considerably large spot in its crown where the branches seem to form a little cave.

Without second thought, I curl into a tiny ball, get rid of lightening and breathing aid, and apply a good chunk of my coefficient as heating.

What a monstrosity have I challenged here...

My consciousness fades into slumber.