Chronicles of world № 8

How Regh came to lose his name and ear

The mist softly swirled in the night. Amidst the Moss Forest, a small spot breathed in the darkened landscape. Some voices whispered.

"I don't like daylight ambushes."

"This'll be a great opportunity to show my worth!"

"Don't get yourself lost Regh, you need to focus, light is treacherous."

"Silence, you'll get us all attacked."

The last whisper snapped throughout the clumps.

The group would be moving were it not for the tendency of beetles to wake up at late hours, some might argue it makes the day safer, and at least everyone gets their own schedule to wander about. But the Nomads happened to share that liking with the insects, and were quite annoyed by that.

Silently they all waited for the moon to set, for the hunt to begin once the beasts returned to their nests after a long night of walking. And whatever giant beetles do at night. Nomads never took great interest in their nightly activities, and mostly studied their sleeping hours for hunting plans. Going against an awake beetle was as wise as tiptoeing on the Wind-Branch.

Regh was young still, but his deeds were told to equal some of the elder's. However he in truth had no particular honed skills to make such great use of, his merits were all gathered through sheer amounts of luck.

It was the leader's duty to keep watch as long as possible, and despite his cheated achievements. His boastful nature pushed him to at least pretend to be the fabled hero he was. Staring at the wooden ceiling, his feet firmly planted on the ground, feeling every vibration. He looked for any possible threat in the ticking forest. Which is a lot them in a beetle filled place, but he would generally just try to watch out for anything hinting at a 2 ton giant insect getting close enough to visibly shake the floor.

Someone inexperienced could ask themselves, why would a group of Nomads wander far off their camp in the middle of the notoriously grim Moss Forest ? Which was called so, because the trees you would see in a normal forest were here replaced by gigantic moss clumps. The answer is the very source of the danger. And not the danger itself, they weren't particularly thrilled about that part either. The reason is that they were out to hunt much needed beetle shells, for new weapons, cutlery, dishes, and in general whatever that needed to be harder than wood and could resist fire.

Someone else, also inexperienced and probably living in the roots, and not knowing what a fully-grown live (and quite angry) beetle is. Would most probably misunderstand the hunt's nature. It wasn't quite hunt as in "use superior tactics to safely kill a prey" but more as in "use superior tactics to not die, and maybe get a prey". The difference is fundamental, especially when it comes to beetles, and not only beetles, also butterflies, and whatever would be thought as "harmless" in other worlds.

"Psh, they don't even have ears."

"He is right, as long as we don't move the beetles will not sense us."

"All deaf huh, wouldn't be so sure, we still don't know half of what lives in this damned forest."

"You mean, you think some of them could have ears? Why must you scare me like this..."

"Gung, I'm just using my head, unlike Regh."

"That's enough Vick, Regh is in trial, we must abide by his commands as if he were our chief, we will do as he says and as he thinks, we cannot compromise our task with distrust and conflict."

"Funny should you be saying this, Mound, and not our so called leader.

Silence slowly picked up where it left off.