"History is a bunch of lies
everyone agreed upon."
Once the entrance to the cave was covered with branches, Daemon ventured back into the forest.
Some would have considered it imprudent to go walking among the trees with a group of angry Macaires at your back, but if he wasn't busy babysitting a noisy fat man Daemon knew how to make himself invisible.
After setting up a simple lasso trap and cutting into the trunk of a tree, leaving a canteen to collect the sap that dripped out of a cannula, he began collecting herbs, flowers and leaves, stuffing everything he needed into the pouch on his belt.
"Here's the last one." he said, picking some white ivy flowers.
In the meantime the canteen had accumulated a few centimeters of liquid, and just as Daemon was recovering it he heard the sound of the trap being triggered not far away; having reached it, he found a beautiful fat hare waiting for him, stuck by one leg.
"Sorry little one. Nothing personal."
He was ready to deliver the final blow, when a faint odor crept between his nostrils, triggering an alarm in his brain.
"I don't believe it." he said through gritted teeth, turning over his shoulder. "He couldn't really have done it."
He had to return. Right away. Immediately.
Having turned his eyes to his prey, he prepared to let it go, but before doing so he wanted to make a small wound on its ear, which he immediately dabbed to prevent blood from leaking.
"I just hope it works." he said as he saw it running away.
Then he ran at breakneck speed along the ridge in the direction of the refuge, while that pungent smell became stronger and stronger.
The barrier of branches was still in place, and a small gray cloud rose placidly upwards from behind, dispersing the smell of smoke all around.
"By all the gods!"
The professor believed that by lighting a fire he was doing something pleasing to his guardian by making him find a warm bed when he returned; instead, he saw it fall on him like a demon, red with anger, who seemed to want to strangle him.
"What are you doing! Turn it off immediately!"
"What!? But I..."
But Daemon didn't even have time to kick a dose of dirt on it before his hunter's senses pushed him to turn worriedly towards the exit.
"Too late..." he said, gritting his teeth, and without hesitation he threw a torch at the branches, creating a wall of fire.
Just in time, because within a few seconds they began to hear loud shouts and yells, accompanied by evident attempts by shadowy figures to make their way through the flames.
Only then did Hinkel understand the extent of the foolishness he had done.
"The smoke..."
"Exactly. Between that and the smell, I'm surprised they didn't find you sooner."
"You mean... we're trapped?"
Daemon looked down thoughtfully.
"Maybe not. Come on."
Whereupon the young man led his protégé deep into the cave, up to a large chasm that opened in the floor, and from which that incessant splashing sound came thunderously.
The professor almost vomited trying to peer over the edge, barely being able to make out the water below.
"You're not thinking of..."
"You don't suffer from dizziness, do you?"
"Well... really..."
A tomahawk missed his ear by a few inches, but fortunately, Daemon had time to turn and strike a single arrow in the throat of the plucked garuda that was racing towards him.
"Choose! We can try our luck in the river or hand over our scalps to the Macaires!"
"Well, if you put it that way..."
The professor needed three attempts to convince himself to jump, which he did only after finding the strength to close his eyes and let himself fall.
Daemon waited to see him fall into the river before preparing to jump himself, but before he could, Mytra came upon him like a fury, her beautiful light brown fur blackened and singed in several places.
"What do you want from that man?" he tried to ask, drawing his dagger. "What did he do to deserve such hatred?"
The lioness did not respond, but instead she tried to attack again. Before things got too long and became dangerous, Daemon decided to retreat.
"Sorry, but I really don't have time for you right now!" she said, throwing a small clay sphere filled with a mixture of phosphorus, iron powder and flint to the ground.
Mytra was literally overwhelmed by a luminous explosion that almost made her eyes bleed for the second time, and when she was able to see again her opponent had disappeared into thin air .
"Go ahead, damned ones!" she shouted angrily at the chasm. "If the river doesn't kill you, it will!"
Daemon had fished in that river a couple of times, but he had never swum in it. Despite this, he didn't remember ever seeing him as impetuous as that time.
Tossed like a doll left and right, he was furiously trying to stay afloat and not crash into some of the rocks that emerged here and there from beyond the surface.
Meanwhile, he looked in all directions in search of the professor, and with every passing second, he was convinced that he had practically forced him to commit suicide: if he was putting in all that effort, how was it possible that a fifty-year-old with slimming problems and stick-like legs could get by?
In a few minutes the stream came out, plunging into the trees, but any attempt to cling to some branch or rock proved useless.
Then, just as he was about to give in to fatigue, something grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.
"I got you!" said the professor, perched on a fallen trunk that stretched from one bank to the other.
Then, with unsuspected strength, Hinkel managed to lift Daemon out of the water, allowing him to finally reach shore.
"I thought I'd have to fish you out of the bottom." the boy gasped. "And instead it was you who fished me out."
"Luckily, my good father wanted me to learn to swim."
They both then looked around, trying to figure out where they might have ended up.
"Do you have any idea where we are?"
"Out of reach of the Macaires, and that's progress. But now we have to find a new refuge as soon as possible."
"A refuge? Forgive me, but given the circumstances, wouldn't it be better to take advantage of the opportunity to get as far away as possible from those bandits?"
"Not at all. First of all, it will soon be night, and soaked as we are, we would never survive in the open. And secondly, you still have the sarpides in your body, which will kill you sooner or later if we don't do something."
The young hunter then pointed his gaze upwards, imitated by the professor; Clouds as black as night were advancing down from the mountains, heralded by gusts of wind that made both of them shiver with cold.
"That storm will be here in a few minutes. If we don't get indoors soon, neither of us will see the next dawn."
Daemon wasn't joking.
Even before the sun had set, a storm like few seen in summer hit the forest furiously, unleashing rivers of water that transformed the paths into torrents in just a few minutes.
Fortunately, not far away there was another cave, consisting of a single, enormous vaulted chamber, but with an entrance so narrow that it went completely unnoticed.
Once inside and having walled up the entrance, Daemon quickly lit a fire, so they could both warm themselves and dry their clothes.
"Fortunately, the ingredients are still usable." he commented, grinding all the herbs, roots and flowers that he had collected in a makeshift mortar.
As he finished his work, the young man handed Hinkel his water bottle, inviting him to drink its contents; the professor obeyed, tasting a liquid so sweet that it was almost undrinkable.
"What is that?"
"Maple sap. It'll keep your blood sugar up, at least until this poultice takes effect."
The said mixture, once finished, took the appearance of a very unappealing dark slime, which Daemon wrapped around the only piece of dried meat he had left, and then offered it to his protégé.
"It's as bitter as few other things in the world, but eat it all."
Hinkel obeyed, finding out that this was not an exaggeration at all; the strong flavor of the meat barely made everything tolerable, so much so that the professor hesitated for a long time before finally deciding to swallow.
"I suppose it was some sort of antidote." he said, gulping down the little sap left in an attempt to get that horrible taste out of his mouth.
"As I have already said, the sarpides kills almost instantly, but is also expelled very quickly if it fails to have an effect. This poultice will prevent the body from absorbing the poison and speed up its expulsion. If I were you I would prepare myself for a rather troublesome night."
"Goodness, the chance of making it out of this out-of-this-world adventure alive is definitely worth a few trips to the toilet."
As for Daemon, he too felt the need to fill his stomach, and having no more dried meat he had to make do with what was available; the professor saw him catch a couple of large lizards and eat them toasted, accompanying them with a bit of herbal tea to make the flavor a little more bearable.
"Forgive my bluntness, but you seem very atypical, even for a hunter accustomed to living in these wild lands."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"It is. I have had many guides during my travels, but none of them had as much knowledge of the area as yours. Furthermore, you demonstrate skills that go beyond those of an ordinary hunter. Herbal medicine, first aid, even some notions of alchemy. You must have had a great teacher."
"I'm actually self-taught; if we exclude the few things I was taught at school."
The atmosphere had definitely calmed down, so much so that the professor almost had to laugh when he began to feel some disturbing stomach movements.
"Now excuse me, but I think I'm going to make the first of those trips to the toilet you were talking about. I just hope there's a little secluded spot in this cave."
The rain continued to fall violently throughout the night, stopping and giving way to clear skies only shortly before dawn.
As the sun rose, the forest was overflowing with dew, and a very strong but pleasant smell of musk filled everything; the ground had already absorbed a good part of the water that had rained for hours, becoming dark and heavy.
"The village of Nevria is about ten miles to the east." Daemon said as they continued walking through the trees. "At this rate, we'll be there before sunset."
"Luckily, those stubborn Macaires seem to have finally given up."
Daemon had also noticed this, but unlike his protégé, he couldn't feel completely at ease.
"What happens?" the professor exclaimed when Daemon, after having stopped, signaled him to do the same. "More Macaires?"
In fact, they suddenly heard sounds of someone approaching, and Hinkel began to turn nervously in every direction, waving around the large stick that he had picked up along the way.
"I was sure you would understand."
"Glad to see that you didn't sleep during my lectures on trial dispersion." said Drufo jumping down from a branch "But you could also have thought of something better. Do you know how much effort I made to follow the tracks left by that hare, and therefore yours too?"
"I had to think quickly. Good for me that I can count on the best hunter on the market."
Once the moment of introductions was over, it was time to get back to serious things.
"Did you find any signs of the Macaires?"
"They followed you for a while after you got out of the river, but then they stopped."
"I noticed. It's actually quite strange."
"Strange!?" said an incredulous and worried Drufo. "You really didn't notice anything?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I take back everything I said about your training."
Drufo then led Daemon and the professor into a nearby ravine, where the two suddenly found themselves face to face with a scenario that was nothing short of macabre.
The ground, covered with pine needles and dead leaves, was literally strewn with so many prey that not even the most greedy lion would have been able to eat them all, some nibbled, others almost completely stripped of flesh.
"By the robe of Zion." Hinkel exclaimed
Daemon was shocked at that sight, wondering how he had failed to notice the other traces they must surely have stumbled upon.
"But this is a basilisk." said the professor, analyzing a small pile of completely shredded remains. "Its bones are among the thickest in the entire animal world, yet they're almost crumbled."
"There is only one beast capable of doing such a thing." Daemon whispered.
Then, as if something had suddenly shaken him, the hunter turned behind him, with all his senses tense and his fist clenched around his bow.
"Did you hear it too?"
"What happens?" asked Jacob, who obviously didn't have their sixth sense
"It's here. It smelled us."
"And soon it will be upon us." Drufo funereally said.
Understanding who and what they were talking about, the professor felt his blood run cold.
"Maybe we should run while we can."
"Impossible. If we run or turn our backs, it will jump on us and tear us apart."
"And in any case." Daemon said. "We can't allow him to get too close to the village; otherwise there will be a massacre."
"So... what do we do?"
"The only possible thing. Let's fight."
Working together, Daemon and Drufo used branches, trunks and stones to transform that small portion of forest into a kill zone, with holes filled with poles, traps and other similar devices; finally, they lit a large number of fires all around, immediately covered with damp leaves, thus filling the air with acrid and dense smoke.
"Are you sure it will be of any use?" Hinkel asked when faced with this latest idea. "As far as I know, the tarkana's sense of smell is not bad enough to be fooled by this stench."
"It's not its nose we want to hit, but its eyes." said Drufo "The tarkana has exceptional sense of smell and hearing, but terrible eyesight. Furthermore, their eyes are very sensitive. The smoke will irritate them."
A sudden and frightening roar interrupted all speeches, causing everyone to turn in the same direction.
"Here it comes"
A moment later, the trees seemed to give way to that powerful creature, which leapt out of nowhere and stopped right in front of the three companions.
Although tarkana was their official name, everyone used to name them armored bears, although apart from a vague resemblance they had nothing in common with these animals.
"Come on, you beast! Come and get us if you can!"