Soul Sunder Black (Preview)

And then suddenly a loud Crunch sound echoed throughout the forest. And as suddenly as this encounter started, the silence came just as quickly.

“Hey kid did you do this?” said a large man standing over Tachi's body still sleeping. From his appearance it was clear he was a hunter. He carried around a lot of supplies on his back. Along with sporting a very rugged beard looking as if civilization would have no idea of what to do with a man like this.“I said hey kid!” he said louder as he roughly woke up Tachi. Tachi slowly opened his eyes, clearly drained from the night's engagement. His body was covered with bloodstains but luckily no serious wounds as the wolves only had time to nip at his limbs. The bites would leave scars but nothing too life threatening once it had been cleaned.

Tachi woke up and could only see a large muscular man eclipsing the sun.''Oh good your awake , I thought you might be dead.” the hunter said. “Did you kill these wolves?” he further enquired. Tachi then moved some of his black hair out of his eyes, slowly looked around and saw the broken corpses of almost a dozen wolves around him. He then replied “I am not sure, they attacked me and everything is a blur after that.” The hunter then replied “ Whats with your accent? You sound kind of like how my grandfather used to speak.” “I don't know” Tachi said . “Well my name is Brax” the hunter replied. A manly name fitting of the stranger's posture. Tachi then exchanged his name as if he was unsure. “My name is Tachi? I think. I can't seem to remember anything beyond last night.”

Brax stared at him with interest for a second thinking to himself about the combination of dead wolves, a stranger with amnesia and with a weird accent. Brax suddenly let out a weird loud low pitch laugh “HEE HO HA HAHAHA” .It definitely startled the birds in the nearby trees and made them fly away. “Well” Brax responded “Are you just gonna sit there or help me carry some of these wolves back to my camp?” Tachi picked up a wolf and followed the stranger. Brax was clearly someone who had seen the world several times over. A weird guy in the forest did not freak him out, in fact he was almost glad for the random occurrence as he spent most of his time alone. His last name carried worth in this land as well but one can only assume such a man would of made a large impact on society when he was present there.

Tachi and Brax arrived at his camp about ten minutes later. A very well set up camp I might add. A small wooden house that looked freshly crafted. You could still smell the tears of sap off the weeping trees as their lives had been quickly fashioned into a well designed shelter for this monster of a man.

Tachi stared around at the small cottage and the surrounding forest. One would guess that wild animals would still be nearby. I mean at the very least a squirrel but there were none at all. There was no animal in sight that would intrude on an area so thick with distinct anki. Tachi however still did not have knowledge of anki. Which was quite ironic for him as it had would greatly affect his life, him more than most. In time however he would become quite familiar with this unnatural energy source.

“TACHI” Brax exclaimed. “Why are you still standing around? You are a guest but this is not exactly a bed and breakfast. Go fetch water from the stream while I prepare this meat.” Tachi picked up the pail and went to catch water in the stream in plain sight of the camp. 

What am I doing here? Tachi wondered. He stared at the fish fighting to go upstream. Look at these fish , watch how they fight the flow of the water not for themselves but for their offspring. A very odd one caught his eye. It was a slightly paler color than the rest which made it stand out. It swam with more grace than the others, more strength. It looked as if swimming upstream were as easy as swimming downstream. Tachi then pondered if his uniqueness lead him to a harsher life. That standing out in a school of fish is not actually a good idea because when predators attack you in groups you being a bit more distinguishable makes you easier to pick off and eat. They say its the reason zebras have stripes.