Tipping the Scales

1

The glint of sunshine reflecting off finely polished metal was all the warning given to the deer. In such a harsh world wrought with danger and death, you would think an animal, prey to so many, would be a little more perceptive of its surroundings. Though it could not perceive the threat of a mere glimmer of sunshine nor the glistening arrowhead that caused it. The young hunter offered the unfortunate deer nothing more.

Breathing out ever so slightly, the arrow was released with an almost inaudible strum of string. It flew its deadly arc, glinting once more before plunging into the lung of the deer. Moments later, the hunter emerged from the brush, shrugging off branches and leaves. He remained alert as he tread cautiously across the clearing, though his prey had been felled. Carefully, he pulled the arrow from the carcass, cursing as the spindly shaft emerged without its head.

He gazed for a moment into the jet-black pearls of the deer's eyes, now lifeless by his hand. Though any sense of guilt was quickly replaced by the thought of the grinning faces of the young ones from the village. Had it been two or three weeks since they had last eaten meat? He returned the splintered arrow shaft to a near empty quiver. Rarities in the village, especially those as vital as arrows, had to be carefully preserved. The deer was sizable, but with a practiced ease, it was slung over the hunter's shoulder like a sack of grain.

Deer were uncommon in the woods around the village nowadays, ever since the Plaguers arrived. They were not unlike wolves, but more fearsome in every way and aptly named because they swept across the land like a plague. A few years ago, they had been but a story to scare young ones from wandering into the forest. One day they started arriving from the east and grew in numbers, feeding on the abundant supply of humans. These days, a hunter was just as likely to go missing as a deer. You either had to be foolish or brave to hunt in the forests alone.

"Or desperate," the hunter thought to himself. The lives of those misfortunate enough to reside in isolated villages like Rosehallow were bleak, where even the pleasures of a fulfilling meal had become few and far between. Hunting was not his usual profession, but the downtrodden village had fallen on even tougher times. With casualties to the Plaguers and the Kingdom's ever-increasing demand for more soldiers, the number of capable men left in the village had dwindled. He had to put down the sword and pick up the bow. He had learnt to kill, a skill Tobias had informed was hard to learn outside of war.

The hunter smiled to himself as he imagined the looks on the faces of the children, "you will eat well tonight, little ones," though the deer was not nearly enough for the whole village, it would serve its purpose in raising the spirits ahead of the celebrations that were to come.

The hunter's thoughts of home were cut short by a faint sound, the slightest rustle of something brushing against the shrubbery ahead. He paused, motionless, daring not even to breathe as his ears scanned the noises of the forest, like an owl on the hunt. Out from behind a bush emerged another deer, about twenty meters ahead of him. Laying the carcass carefully on the forest floor beside him, the hunter notched an arrow once more, carefully lining the nock with the rough sinew. Only a sliver of light pierced through the dense forest canopy above, catching the gleam of something shining. But to the perceptive hunter, that was all the warning he needed. For it was not his arrow that was reflecting the sun but the small glossy eyes of a Plaguer, concealed in the undergrowth and poised ready to pounce.

Suddenly, time seemed to hang by a thread. The sound of wind rustling through the leaves and the quiet trickle of the nearby brook faded away. The birds stopped singing and the crickets ceased their chirping. Even the deer seemed to detect the lingering intensity of the atmosphere, its head outstretched and rigid as it flicked its ears back and forth. In a cruel twist of fate, the hunter had become the hunted.

The hunter's breath held once more, his lungs beginning to strain under the intense beating of his heart, which could now be felt in his head as his body cried out for breath. The thread of time seemed to tighten as the Plaguer shuffled ever closer, unaware its presence was known by its target.

The deer bolted all of a sudden, kicking up leaves and broken twigs as it scampered off, unknowingly breaking the emanating tension from which it escaped. The thread snapped. The Plaguer pounced, all three rows of razor-sharp teeth the size of knives directed at the pulsing veins on the hunter's neck. The young hunter finally allowed himself to move, releasing his breath along with the arrow.

"Lukas killed a monster! Lukas killed a monster!" The children ran into the village ahead of Lukas, cheering and dancing. The small rural village of Rosehallow was unimpressive: a small collection of houses surrounded by wheat fields, the only layer of protection between them and the untamed forest enclosing them on all sides. The only way out, a single, overgrown track that led to the world outside; though the inhabitants of Rosehallow lacked the bravery and desire to attempt to follow that path. Their strongest connection to the outside world was Tobias Musgrave.

"A good kill," Tobias approached Lukas, one side of his lips curling into a tight smile, enough to make the skin on his face, taut over his pointed cheekbones, distort cruelly. It was no surprise the children of the village feared him. "You remind me of my younger self". Though Lukas doubted the old army veteran had ever killed the likes of a Plaguer. Not out of lack of skill, these monsters were unheard of five years ago and it had been double that since Tobias fought his last battle. Now the retired soldier lived out his days in the peace and quiet of Rosehallow, acting as a makeshift village elder; though age and wisdom were about the only qualities the man had in common with one. Let's just say he preferred a more militaristic method way of life. Lukas had no doubt Tobias would be out hunting himself were he not the only one capable of fending off an attack directly on the village. As the villagers had begun to venture into the forest less and less, the Plaguer's grew ever daring. Their calls could be heard most nights, growing closer to the cowering village-folk like an unavoidable plague setting in.

"I was lucky today, Tobias," Lukas wiped hot dripping sweat from his brow, "this beast hunted me." He came to a halt, dropping the hind legs of the predator, having dragged its hefty body for over a mile.

"Did I teach you to do half a job?" Tobias' face quickly shifted into the stern scowl Lukas was accustomed to. "It's no good leaving a corpse in the middle of the village, take it up to Darcie."

"I would, but I need to go pick up my other kill, how does venison sound?" Lukas tested his mentor's patience, as he had begun to do more as he grew older.

Tobias squinted his eyes, pondering whether to clip the young boy's ear.

"I was sort of hoping a strapping old man could do the heavy lifting for me."

This time Lukas suffered a ringing ear as Tobias clipped him with all the speed of a youthful man. "As you're leaving tomorrow, I'll help this once," Tobias pulled up his sleeves, revealing wiry muscles, bulging under his skin with no fat to soften them. He took a firm grip of the Plaguer and began dragging it's body up the hill with little signs of exertion.

I hope to be as fit as Tobias when I reach his age.

Leaving the Plaguer body in good hands, Lukas retraced his steps into the forest to where he had felled the deer. He looked down at the large doe, sighing at the thought of lugging it back. His muscles screamed in protest but he ignored them as he had been taught to do, slinging the lifeless body over his shoulder as he started the journey for the fourth time.

Thank you so much for reading the first chapter! I really hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please support it with a vote. If you have any feedback or thoughts, it would help me massively to hear them – I will respond to any and all comments 😊