Rise of the Fallen

Chapter 3: The Hunt Begins

It has been a few hours since Julius and I left for the mountain. The sky goes from the brightest blue to the darkest of blacks, but in the darkness, the forest shines with the hues of glowing plants and animals. We manage to find a spot to rest underneath a huge tree.
“My legs. I can’t feel my legs.” I say as I sit down with my back against the tree.
Julius opens a water canister and asks, “You’re tired already? We haven’t even made it into the deepest part yet.”
“I know, but It’s been five hours.” I say, “You got another one?”
  Julius stops drinking and tosses me a canister from his bag of supplies. After drinking the first couple of drops a cold refreshing wave comes over me. I drink for a few for seconds and close the canister feeling better than ever. “Phew. I really needed that, but you aren’t the least bit tired from all the walking?” I say handing Julius back the water.
He puts it back into the bag, “Na not really. I’ve just been training for a while.”
“Oh yea, that’s right. Jaq says he had been training me but… I didn’t even know let alone am I showing anything from it.”
Julius shakes his head and says, “You’re underestimating your him, you’re still alive aren’t you.” I look up at the glowing leaves illuminating the area with a green glow. “Yea you’re right. I am alive.” I say as the memories from my first days in the forest and the day I saved Jaq flash through my mind. I start laughing, and I wipe a tear from my eye and say, “I’ll have to thank him and tell him I’m sorry when we make it out of here.” A few seconds pass without Julius saying a word. He just looks off deeper into the forest. I lie down on the ground and say, “I’m going to sleep for a couple of hours you can keep watch right.”
He doesn’t turn his head and in a solemn tone he says, “Yea, I got you. I’m not tired anyway.”
I wonder what’s got him down. I hope I didn’t say anything. Closing my eyes, I drift off to sleep.
“Danny! Danny! Wake up!” I can hear Julius yelling and shaking me. “Yea, Yea I’m up. What’s going on.” I say groggily as I snap awake. “A giant’s coming this way. It does see us yet, but it’ll smell us soon so get ready.” He says tossing me the bow. I catch it and walk to my quiver. Looking over at Julius as he cocks back his two twin colts. He puts his forehead against the back of the barrel and prays under his breath “Amen,” he says as he looks over to me, “I’ll go this way and you go the other way. Make sure you stay hidden in the bushes. He won’t be able to see you, but he’ll still be able to smell you. So, whoever draws his attention first will be the decoy.”
“Oui.” I say in agreement as I walk in between the trees and crouch down in a bush on the giants left side.
Nocking one of the arrows, I start to slow my breathing. One…two…three. I say to myself to match it. With each breath my I can feel my heart beating slower. The ground shakes as he walks closer. He stops and looks around from left to right. Looks like he smells one of us, but is it me or Julius?
The giant swings his head towards me. Even though I’m in the bushes I can feel that he knows exactly where I am. I can’t hesitate. He already knows where I am. My first real hunt. My heart starts to race as I stand up from the bush as shoot an arrow straight through its eye. It’s just like that first time. The monster lets out a thunderous roar and charges towards me. I roll out of the way and fire two more arrows, but they break when they hit his back.
“Tsk.” I say to myself. The giant pulls the arrow from his eye and throws it aside.
“Damn mosquitoes.” He mumbles under his breath.
“Isn’t about time you come out and help!?” I yell as Julius explodes from behind a tree and rushes in with just his bare hands.
The giant tries to grab Julius, but he jumps and rolls over the giant’s hand and punches him straight in the jaw. As the giant crashes into the ground, he pulls out one of the Colts, presses it against its skull and pulls the trigger.
“That’s the first one,” He says as he walks back over to the tree, “I was right though you do attract them, but good job though”
“You could have come out sooner.” I say laughing.
Julius sits back down and says, “You look like you had it covered, well up until those two arrows bounced off of him.”
I walk and pick up the arrows from the ground and say, “Well I used all my power behind those shots. Speaking of which how did you knock him out and still be ok?”
Julius chuckles and replies, “I’m just strong, I guess. I’ve been like this ever since I can remember. I don’t get tired, never broken a bone. I guess my body’s just weird, and the more I do this the more I feel I can let loose.”
As I put the las arrow back inside of the quiver, Julius says, “But you know what Danny?” I turn and look at him and he continues, “You’re stronger than you think.”
“Why do you say that?” I ask as I sit back down under the tree.
“Back when we were sparring, I hit you with everything I had towards the end.” Julius says
“If you say so, but what’s next?” I say changing the subject.
Julius immediately answers, “Next we hunt for food all while moving towards the mountain. Plus, more giants will be here.”
“Smartest thing you’ve says all day.” I say as I get up and put my bow and arrow case back inside the bag, “You mind carrying this?” I ask Julius.
He takes a minute to think about it and says, “Yea, just make sure you catch something to eat. If I have to eat one more heran.”
I know how you feel. I got tired of them last week. “Yea, I got you just tell me the way to the mountain while I track something, so we won’t go too far off course.”  I say
Julius nods and easily slings the bag full of camping supplies and equipment over his shoulder. “Let’s go. It’s this way.” He says as he points to the south.
As I lead the way scanning the forest floor and my surroundings looking for tracks or broken branches I look back at Julius and ask, “So, what animals are in the Nether anyway?”
He shrugs and replies, “I have no idea.”
I let out a sigh and Julius quickly says, “I don’t know everything ok.”
“Oh, it’s just that you act like you do.” I say holding back my laughter. “
“KEEP…” Julius starts to say before he cut his words short
“Shhh. I found something.” I cut Julius off as I crouch behind a bush and motion Julius to do the same. “What is it?” He whispers.
“It’s a deer… I think.”
“You think?”
I take another look and see a giant deer with white fur and blue antlers eating leaves off of a branch a few feet away. I nock an arrow and aim for its heart. It’s weird, it’s like I can feel every muscle in my body. Drawing the bow back further, I let the arrow fly straight into the deer passing clean through and stopping halfway into the tree.
Julius whistles and walks over to the dead dear and says, “Nice shot. It went straight through.”
I get up and walk over to the tree. Looking at the arrow stuck deep within the tree I think to myself, “Am I really this strong? It’s not normal…then again none of this is.”
I pull out the arrow and go back towards Julius. “You already started to dress it?”
“Yea, hold the front two legs for me.” He says as he cuts from the windpipe from the carcass and pulls all of the organs out.
As we finish dressing and skinning the deer Julius says, “Can you go get some firewood while I finish butchering this?”
             “Yea.” I answer as I walk deeper into the forest.
The sun begins to rise as I make my way back with an armful of sticks and branches. As I make my way back to camp, I start to see signs of fighting. Trees either ripped out the ground and blood. I know I should get back but something inside makes me I follow the trail. After about five minutes of walking, I start to see a trail of giant corpses.
Putting the pile of wood down, I walk over and inspect the body. The writs and tendons were cut then one wide slice across the neck. I wonder who did this?
After satisfying my curiosity, I pick up the firewood and head back to camp where Julius had completely butchered the deer and was laying down in the grass. He looks at me and says, “What took you so long?” 
                 Putting the wood down on the ground I tell Julius about what I found while I was walking back. “Looks like we got some competition this year.” Julius says as he starts making the fire, “because whoever did that is good. Like scary good. Practically made them useless before the final cut.” 
As I sit down and rest my legs, I ask Julius, “So what's the second part of the test exactly. I know she says it tests your combat ability but what exactly do we do?”
Julius starts the fire and picks up a stick, “Well from what I know it’s usually a one-on-one fight.” He says as he puts a piece of venison onto the stick and onto the fire.
         “What happens if you lose?” I ask as I do the same
      “You die.” He says sternly
      “What! Isn’t that a little too much? I know people on the outside can’t know about this but killing the losers even after surviving this place? They can’t just wipe our memories or something?” I exclaim
Julius laughs, “There’s no such thing,” he stops and continues, “But trust me I understand how you feel, trust me but they have their reasons, although I don’t particularly agree with it.”
       We sit in silence for a few minutes until Julius grabs the perfectly cooked venison and hands it to me, “Try that.” 
I take it and bite off a piece. Although it’s not seasoned the flavor is juicy and rich. Shaking my head, “Mhm, mhm. It’s pretty good. If we had something to season it with,” I say as I take another bite.
     After Julius and I spend a couple of hours eating and enjoying the chance to relax we put out the fire and pack up before we continue walking towards our destination. “You ready?”  Julius asks as he picks up the backpack
“Yup let’s go.” I reply back as I pick up my bow and place my quiver over my shoulder.
      As we walk continue to walk through the forest, the trees start to become sparser, and the base of the mountain comes into view just beyond the tree line. We approach the base where there is an entrance that leads into mountain.
“Is this it?” I ask
“Yea, I think we’re supposed to go inside.”
“Where exactly inside?”
Julius pauses and looks at the note then look at the mountain “Not sure?”
“What do you mean not sure?” I ask.
Julius shrugs, “Guess we’ll have to go in and find out.” He says as he entered the cave.
Sighing, I go in after him. By the time I catch up with Julius, the light from the entrance is just barely enough to where I can just see and getting dimmer the deeper, we go. I place my hand against the wall and continue to venture deeper into the cave.
After for what felt like hours, Julius stops and asks, “You feel that?”
I nod my head as a subtle breeze makes the cave that much colder. We walk in the direction of the breeze for maybe half an hour until the sound of crashing water reverberates through the cave. The sound of Julius' feet quickens as he rushes towards the sound and abruptly stops. I follow after him into an opening and as the sound of rushing water becomes louder, we enter a clearing where the dull multicolored glow reflects off the rushing waterfall and gives the cave an ever-changing light.
I walk over to Julius and sit down against the stalagmite. “You feeling ok?” Julius asks looking down into the pond.
     “My body just aches.” I reply in an exhausting tone, “I just need break and some water.”
I can feel my mouth drying up by the second.
“We don’t have any more you drunk it all.” Julius says.
“Great… so what’s next?” I ask
Julius turns around and sighs, “Not sure, the letter says that the crate should be in the deepest part of cave. I'll go look around just stay there and rest up.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll make sure nothing jumps you from behind.” I say in a joking tone.
Julius nods and starts to look around and explore the cavern. A few minutes pass and I can feel some energy start to come back.
“I guess I should look around too.” I say to myself as I get up and walk around.
As I make my way towards the cave wall, this sensation I can’t quite describe begins to grow at the pit of my stomach. Is it ear, my restlessness, or my curiosity? As I inch ever closer, the sensation grows to where it sends chills down my spine with every step.
I approach the wall a faded mural comes into view. It’s a huge elaborate scene broken into three sections. The sky, the land, and the sea. In each section, a beast painted in the most detailed way. In the sky, a giant eagle with wings that block out the sun. On land an unstoppable creature with the strength to topple mountains, and underneath the waves lies a dragon like serpent that can summon tsunamis and breath fire.
Placing my hand onto the cold rough surface of the mural something inside me resonates. “Yo D, come here!” Julius' yells as it echoes through the cavern.
I pull my hand away from the wall and head towards Julius who’s rummaging through a black crate almost identical to the one at the tree house. “You didn’t have to yell. What if you woke something up?” I say worriedly
Julius looks at me and shrugs, “Chalk it up as a lapse in judgment, but if anything heard us it would’ve been on us already.”
Shaking my head, “What’s in the crate?” I ask changing the subject.
“Uhhh, some supplies, some guns and ammo. This is a bow case, right?” he says as he hands me a sleek black case with gold accents on the latches.
“It looks like one,” I say as I take the case out of his hand, “feels kind of empty though.”
  I put the case on the ground and open the first latch and the same feeling I got from the mural comes surging back. Taking a deep breath, I slowly open the last latch and open the case to find an all-black recurve bow with some sort of letters or symbols inscribed on the grip in gold. Its lightweight but feels solid in my hand.
“Oh, yea this is nice. Was it your dad's?” I ask
“Na he didn’t like bow and arrows much.” He says as he stopped going through the crate, “He did have a friend who could. He only told me about him once, but he says that he trusted him with his life. Huh, what's this?” 
Julius reaches for the case and starts to wiggle something free from the inside of it. “It's a picture of my dad and somebody else.” He says
“Can I see?” I ask
Julius hands me the picture. Looking at it, I see a guy that looks almost exactly like Julius but just a little shorter and next to him is a picture of a young dark-skinned guy holding a bow.
“That’s my dad.” I say in a surprised tone
“No way! Really?” Julius asks
I nod my head and say, “Yea, he looks younger but that’s him.”
“So that’s his bow.” Julius points out.
My grip around the bow tightens as tears start to roll down my face.
“Don’t tear up now, a giant’s headed this way.” He says as he starts to put food and water back in the crate.
“How can you tell?” I ask wiping away the tears.
“I just can. Can’t explain it. It just starts to feel heavy but hurry up and grab what you need.”
I nod and look through the crate and grab five broad head arrows with expandable blades and five regular broad heads.
“You ready? I got a plan.” Julius says in a hurried tone.
I sling the quiver over my shoulder and pick up my father’s bow. “Yea, what do you have planned?”
“Same one from the forest.” Julius says confidently as the ground begins to shake violently.
“I don’t think we’ll have time for that.” I say as the shaking becomes more violent.
The giant comes put from one of the entrances. The creature stood 20 feet tall and covered in so much scar tissue it makes him a near impenetrable. It let out a vicious roar and started charging us.
Being twenty feet tall you would imagine he would be slow, but he moved faster than I could react as he swats Julius through two stalagmites and into the cave wall.
“Julius!” I called out as I nocked an arrow into the bow and drew back.
“I’m fine. Just shoot.” He groans as he digs himself from the rubble.
I let the arrow loose, but it breaks off of his armor like neck. Running, I nock another arrow and slide behind a stalagmite.  I look over my shoulder to see the giant knocking over rocks.
“Looks like its vision isn’t good,” I think to myself as I wait until the giant turns his back and fire an arrow into the back of his knee.
Howling in pain the giant collapse to one knee and at the same time Julius starts shooting and making cracks in the monster's skin. I nock my third arrow and aim his other knee. As soon as I fire the arrow, the giant pulls out the one stuck in his knee and swats the other one away.
“You gotta be kidding me.” I say to myself as I nock another arrow.
“Danny watch out!” Julius yells as I look up to see a giant wall sized fist hurling towards me.
I bring the bow close to my chest to brace for the punch but as it connects, I can feel every cell in my body scream in pain as I fly through the air and into the pond.
“Danny!” Julius yells. His voice muffled and fading as I sink deeper into the frigid water.
Is this it? Am I going to die here? I still have to find out why. As the images from that night ten years ago flash through my mind the scar that serves as a constant reminder starts to burn bright red. I take a deep breath, and something begins to pulsate inside of my chest that fills me with an energy I’ve never felt.
I open my eyes and start swimming up towards the surface with incredible speed. Breaking through the surface I see Julius shooting at the giant as he starting to break down, or so I thought. He rose from his knees and flung Julius at the cave wall.
“I am getting really tired of that.” He says as he stands to dust himself off. The giant charges towards him Julius rips a stalagmite from the ground and drives it through its feet. The giant let out a monstrous roar.
Dripping wet, I nock my last arrow and take aim. The scar still burning bright red, and my mind is clearer than it has ever been. Drawing back on the bow string I can feel my body brimming with power all the way to my fingertips. This feels good.
As the giant moves into view, I take a deep breath and shoot. The arrow flies towards its target as it rips through the air and pierces the monster through the armor like skin and into his neck. The nephilim collapses and Julius walks over to the giant and digs the arrow in even deeper before he turns to me and says, “Glad you didn’t drown. By the way are you ok? You took a mean hit.”
“A little sore but I’m ok just tired. Let’s just get the crate and get out of here. My head’s killing me.” I say as I walk towards the giant’s corpse and retrieve the arrow.
Julius nods and says, “You and me both I think I broke a couple of ribs.”
Julius and I packed everything we could use in the crate and made our way out of the mountain. These past couple of days have been the most exhausting and fun I’ve ever had. Plus, I’ve made a friend I can trust with my life. My heart’s still racing.
After we made it back to the treehouse, Julius and I spent the remaining couple of days to train and prepare for the next phase, a combat gauntlet featuring the survivors of this phase. Julius doesn’t know the details but feels something might be different this year with a new headmaster, so we have to be ready and in what seems is a blink of an eye it’s the last day of the first phase.
We wake up early to train before we rendezvous with everyone back at the entrance of the Nether. “You think we’ll have to fight each other eventually?” I ask dodging Julius' punch.
I counter with a low kick to his shin, but he dodges he replies, “We might.”
He steps in and throws a left hook. I block it and step in just enough so that my uppercut will connect.
He dodges that, grabs my fist and puts me in an arm bar. Taping I say, “I give. I give.”
Julius laughs as he lets me go, “At least I know if we do have to fight each other I'll win.”
He helps me off of the ground and asks, “You ready to go?”
I take a long look at the treehouse and the Nether. It’s a special place that can swallow you whole and spit you out but at the same time it feels like I’m leaving home.
“Yea,” I say grabbing a one of the crates and my bag,
“Let’s go.”