Hunt Race

A dull ache spread through Kael's body.

His eyelids felt impossibly heavy.

For a long moment, he lay motionless, staring at the canopy above as shafts of fading sunlight filtered through the trees.

"...I'm alive."

The words barely escaped his lips.

Every muscle protested as he slowly pushed himself upright.

A sharp pain shot through his ribs, forcing him to stop.

His breathing was shallow.

His arms trembled uncontrollably.

Not far away lay the beast's enormous corpse.

Its amber eyes had lost all life.

Kael stared at it in silence.

It was over.

He had survived.

Then his eyes widened.

"The hunter..."

The thought snapped him back to reality.

Ignoring the pain coursing through his body, Kael forced himself to his feet.

His legs nearly gave out beneath him.

He caught himself against a nearby tree and staggered forward.

Every step felt heavier than the last.

The journey back to the clearing seemed far longer than he remembered.

By the time he arrived, sweat covered his face despite the cool evening air.

The unconscious hunter was still there.

Breathing.

Relief washed over Kael.

He knelt beside the injured man and quickly checked his wounds.

The bleeding had slowed, but he had already lost a dangerous amount of blood.

"We have to move."

There was no response.

Kael looked around the clearing.

The broken spear the hunter had carried earlier lay nearby.

An idea came to him.

Using the spear and several sturdy branches, he hastily lashed together a crude drag with strips torn from his own cloak.

It wasn't pretty.

But it would keep the injured hunter off the rough ground.

After carefully lifting him onto the makeshift stretcher, Kael wrapped the rope around his shoulder.

He pulled.

Nothing.

His exhausted body refused.

Kael gritted his teeth.

He tried again.

This time...

The stretcher scraped across the forest floor.

Slowly.

Painfully.

It moved.

A faint smile crossed Kael's face.

"One step..."

He took another.

"...at a time."

The sun had nearly disappeared behind the mountains by the time the trees finally began to thin.

The forest road came into view.

Kael stopped for only a moment, drawing a long, shaky breath.

They had made it out.

In the distance, the sound of wagon wheels echoed along the road.

Kael lifted a trembling hand.

"Help..."

His voice was barely more than a whisper.

The approaching merchant frowned before bringing his wagon to an abrupt stop.

His eyes widened as he took in the scene.

An unconscious hunter.

A battered young man covered in blood.

And a crude stretcher dragged behind him.

Without wasting another second, the merchant jumped down from the wagon.

"What happened?"

Kael tried to answer.

No words came.

The weight of everything that had happened finally caught up to him.

His vision blurred.

The last thing he heard was the merchant shouting for help.

Then darkness claimed him once again.

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