After some hesitation, he added one final request to the end.To repair a broken friendship.I was a fool.I'm sorry.
He secured the note to his door, then set to work on all the nuts, berries, and more that he'd gathered, working until he was sore and exhausted.The skins and furs would be ready in a few days, and the nuts and berries could be taken whenever Euclid came for them.
When he returned to the house, the note was gone from the door, and the books he'd offered to the witch were gone from the table.No note or anything had been left behind.It hurt, but he had only himself to blame.
Whatever.He didn't need the company of a living, breathing lump of sugar anyway.He'd planned on being alone out here, and fool him for starting to think that might not be true.Alone was what he knew best, despite a lifetime of trying to change that.Look at all the good falling in love had done him.No, alone was clearly the only thing he could manage to do right.
Stripping off his filthy clothes, he trudged to the pond to clean thoroughly, then returned naked to his house—only to find the nuts and berries gone.Gritting his teeth, he headed inside, ate some smoked fish, nuts, and berries standing at the counter, then crawled into bed and immediately fell asleep, mercifully too exhausted to brood or dream.
The routine continued for most of two weeks, each day more depressing than the last, but he'd made his bed, and he would lie in it.His relationships with his unseen trading partners continued to improve, so there was that.Maybe someday he would have the time to find and meet them properly.As he was clearly here in the forest to stay, it would only benefit him to build whatever relationships he could.
Though he had the feeling none of them would come close to the friendship he'd been building, despite his own protests, with Lord Sunshine himself.
He was out hunting some pheasants for Minali, the witch, when everything changed.
The forest went silent, and the pheasants he'd sighted were so desperate for cover that they fled right into a den that had clearly been made by their least favorite predator.
Abandoning the hunt, he slunk into the long, draping limbs of a Sorrowful Lady tree, crouching to ensconce himself in the lengthening shadows of dusk.He hadn't wanted to be out this late, but the pheasants had proven elusive, and he needed the job done so he could focus on other things tomorrow.
The forest remained ominously silent, and the back of his neck prickled now.
Only moments later, they stepped into view.Hunters, loaded for trouble.Crossbows, dark-tipped arrows that signaled they'd been enchanted in some way.Often for blood-letting or some type of tranquilizing effect.It was a cowardly way to hunt.Skilled hunters made clean kills.
They wore mail and even some plate, excessive for the vast majority of hunting, but necessary in especially dangerous areas or when hunting certain prey, where hands-on work was almost guaranteed.
Given they were in the Forbidden Forest at dusk, there was no telling what they were hunting.Something particular?Whatever they could get?Impossible to say.If they just wanted a basilisk or some of those nightmare-inducing spiders, fine.
But if they tried to go after Euclid or any of the harmless creatures always being poached for dark magic, like unicorns, they wouldn't be going home.They were fools for coming here at night, anyway.
He waited until they'd passed him by, then followed them, keeping well behind and off to the side, where they wouldn't immediately look should they suspect something.A good hunter would sense they were being followed.His mother had always known, and Dipak had developed the skill quickly.
These dumbasses didn't seem to notice anything.They moved more like soldiers than hunters.Mercenaries, then.Which meant they were being paid to kill or capture something.Paid enough to risk going into the Forbidden Forest at night.
Dipak had the sinking feeling he knew what they were looking for.Too bad for them they weren't going to find it.
Unfortunately, he was going to have to make this quick, because he shouldn't be wandering the woods at this hour either.He'd meant to already be safely ensconced in a high tree by now.
He could wait and watch, see what they did, if they had the sense to make camp and wait until morning or something, when he could come back and tail them longer.But if they were hunting Euclid and had come in prepared to fight their way through the woods at the most dangerous hour, he had to err on the side of caution.
Flint arrows were useless against mail and plate, but they weren't wearing helmets.Careless mistake, likely born of arrogance.
Nocking an arrow, he drew back, lined up his shot, and fired.
The man at the rear of the group died instantly from an arrow to the back of the head.Only the sound of his falling drew the attention of the others, a delay just long enough he killed the second one.Two down, four to go.
He immediately repositioned, using the growing dark to his advantage.It was possible one of them also had moon eyes, but unlikely.Soldiers like these usually favored augments like strength or durability.Sometimes speed, but that particular augment tended to be extremely hard on the body and often killed those who possessed it.
As they crept toward where he'd fired his last shot, struggling by the light of, to be fair, good lanterns, he took out numbers three and four.Two left.
The fight became irrelevant, however, when the remaining two were pounced by a basilisk, a nasty, enormous centipede-like monstrosity that paralyzed its victims with venom and then consumed them at its leisure.Not a pleasant way to go.
Moving closer, he put the two men out of their misery.The basilisk rounded sharply and immediately ran at him, but an arrow in its eye put that problem to rest.And the surfeit of corpses distracted everything else nearby.
Taking a chance, he turned and started running for the house.He couldn't camp here, or even nearby, with all the blood and feeding.And by the time he found somewhere suitable, he'd be nearly home anyway.
Thankfully, he made it there with little interruption, his eyes providing an advantage that drew him even with most of the predators about, at least in that regard.
Unfortunately, there were already people at his house.More hunters.Two groups, which meant there were likely more groups, a full team split into four or five.Damn it.
