The Hybrid Fateful Sorrow

#22: The Thrill of The Hunt

Amelia is being surrounded by Jowan and his team, beneath the heart of the forest.

‘I need to find a way out of this!’ Amelia thought.

“Don't come any closer!” she said as she readies her bow.

Anafe quickly drew her longbow as well.

With Thomas swinging his ax and Rioljar bringing out his short sword.

“Hey don't scare the kitten now, ” Jowan said as the only one not raising his sword.

Brandishing his muscle in front of Amelia.

“Come here you'll enjoy it, ” he added with an arrogant smile.

‘Run! Run Amelia. Why won't my feet move!?’ She thought as she started to get tense.

“Stay calm and behave, lady, I don't want to put a scar on your lovely face, ” Anafe said with her longbow out.

“Ah! I'm tired of waiting!” Jowan said as he ran to Amelia with both of his arms open.

Amelia hesitated to shoot Jowan that's closing on her.

Jowan moved to tackle her down.

Amelia bashed Jowan's face, scraping his cheeks, breaking the bow in the process, as he staggered down.

“Ah! You b*tch!” 

Amelia grunting as she grabbed the arrow to stab him in the neck.

Only to be blocked by Jowan's hand piercing through his flesh.

Amelia, seeing that she fails quickly steps back, and runs away.

“Ah! You mother! You stabbed me!” Jowan said as he tried to grab Amelia's legs.

Running away from the mercenaries, traversing the forest as she fears for her life.

'No no no!'

Jowan's team helped him to get up.

“Bloody tw*t, stabbed me in the f*cking hand, ” Jowan said as he gets up.

“You want to kill her?” Anafe asked.

“Shoot her in the leg, show her how to properly use an arrow, ” Jowan said.

“HEY!!”

“I'm the one doing the stabbing!! You hear me?” Jowan yelled to the escaping Amelia before he pursued her.

“Let us hunt our meat!” he added.

“Aye aye!” Thomas said.

“Alright!” Rioljar uttered.

The rest of Jowan's team followed him to catch their prey.

——

While Amelia runs away her mind finds herself wandering into her past where she was young and conversing with her father.

13 years old Amelia with a scraped knee is sitting with her Father in a rested bark watching a much younger 5 years old Elise who is playing with flowers.

“Dad, you promised me?” Younger Amelia said.

“I promised, I will always be there when you need me, ” A man voiced clouded with mystery.

“How? What if you are far?” she asked.

“I would hear you, ” he answered.

“What if you are too far to hear?”

“Then yell louder, cry my name, and I’ll come straight at you, ” He said as he taps her head gently.

“What if you have to choose? What if we both stumbled? Between me and Elise, ” she asked as she looked at Elise.

“I hope it won't come to that, ” he said.

“That is why promise me you'll stick together, be always with her. You'll feel much safer and braver knowing I would be there to save— ” he said as he stands up, and faces Amelia.

Grabbing her by her underarm as he quickly raises her in the air.

“And to lift you both out of danger, ” he added as he smiles his heart out.

“Drop me! I'm heavy now!” Amelia said while being lifted.

“Promise me first, ” he said as he teases her.

“I will stay at her side, I promise dad, ” she replied earnestly.

“Okay then, ” he said as he gently drops her to her feet.

“Me too! Me too, ” Elise said as she ran toward her father.

——

'So now where are you? Father? You'll always be there, but you have been missing for two months! Where are you?' she thought as she gasped for air while she ran.

'I just so need you right now dad, I need to know you'll come and save me!' Thinking with her every step.

A whistling was soon heard traveling in the air was an arrow fired from the mercenary Anafe.

It quickly hits Amelia’s left thigh piercing through her wool pants.

A shriek of cry came out of her as she fell to her knee. She quickly stands up enduring the pain, limping on the forest for everyone to see. 

'Why was I so stupid?' She thought while she was in agony.

“You got her!”

“Woah she's still going.”

“A damn clean shot Ana!” Jowan yelled back.

She decided to sit on a fallen log. Seeing her leg bleeding from the arrow that pierced through her thigh, she gritted her teeth.

'I know you are doing this, showing strength, showing it for your sister. There will be time for that, and she will see that strength you possess,' Amelia thought, remembering Amadeus' words.

'I don't have it in me!!'

'We can help you hunt, Sister.'

'With you on my side, I feel much stronger. The way our father used to hunt, the way he moves, he was in a thrill.'

'I never going to be like you, father,' Amelia thought as she sat on the fallen log looking at her pursuer.

“We got her now!” Thomas said while he ran.

“She's going to damn well pay!” Jowan said, running as he laughed.

“Easy now boys!” Anafe let out walking at the back.

Amelia with her unimpaired look struggled to stand up. Putting more weight on her safe right leg, enduring the pain in her thigh.

“That's right, ” she let out.

——

At dusk in their room while the much younger Elise is already asleep. The young Amelia decided to pursue her question to his father.

“But you still have to choose, father. I'm not your own blood. I'll understand if you will choose her, ” a younger Amelia said.

Her father took a moment before he uttered any word.

“Yes and No. You are right that we don't share the same blood, ” Amelia's father said.

“But what you have is the blood of a survivor. The blood of someone wanted to grow, to fight, to struggle, to endure every pain, to pull through in any challenge. The blood of someone wanted to live, being alive is living with constant pain, ” he said as he crouches and grabs Amelia closer to his chest.

“I had that same blood when I was younger, much younger, I had to endure so much pain for so long, ” he added as he holds her tight.

“Are you crying, dad?” Amelia asked as she held her father.

“I can see it in you, the blood that I lost, the will to live, ” he said as he looked her in the eye.

——

'You must fight! Pull through in every pain possible! Stand up on your feet! Shout, yell loudly! Cry if you must! But never give in!' Amelia remembering her father's words!

'Stand Amelia! Cry and fight back! I'll always be with you!'

“I understand father, ” Amelia said as she stands tall on her feet.

“FATHER!!” Amelia screamed!

Upon hearing Amelia's cry.

“This woman is going nuts? She is calling her father?” Thomas said as he got closer.

“Hey! You are alone with us in the middle of the woods! Haha,” Jowan yelled back.

Raising her dagger as she braces herself against the mercenaries Jowan and his team.

“You will come right, you will always come, ” she let out in the wind.

'I will always be there,' Amelia's father said in her thought.

“Be careful boys! Even a trap kitty will scratch back when cornered, ” Anafe let out to his team.

Amelia swings her dagger in the air as they move closer.

“FATHER!!!” Amelia screamed!

“She's losing it! Look at her eyes it's crying but I don't think she notices, ” Thomas said.

“For God's sake, I'll be your father, now drop the shouting and give me the butter knife. Be a good lad for once, yeah?”

“She is sad, ” Rioljar uttered.

“No hell she's sad, she's f*cking terrified of your stupidity, ” Anafe said.

“Let my son talk, you ugly man-woman,” Thomas said.

Ignoring the old man.

“Just listen girl, I don't want to shoot you again, these idiots right here will make me too if you continue to fight back, ” Anafe said as she checks Amelia out.

“You look very young, so much you can be, ahh who am I kidding there is not much to become, but you can give in and be alive tomorrow, ” she added as she walks closer.

“Get back!!” Amelia yelled.

“Okay!”

'Where are you? Where are you?' Amelia as her mind races.

“This ends now!” Jowan said as he jumped closer.

Jowan quickly attacks Amelia with his steel sword.

Amelia used her dagger to try to block her attacker.

With his great force and her small knife, it blew away disarming Amelia. Leaving her a spot of bruises in her arms from where she holds the knife.

“Hahaha! She's a fiery one!” Jowan said as he laughed.

'For the last time!' Amelia braces herself as she closes her eyes.

“FATHER!!!” Screaming from her heart out.

“F*ck shut up!” 

'What is it? Why is my leg shaking so bad? I'm so terrified, I don't want this! It's still shaking wild, is it the ground? I'm scared and I miss you, dad!' Amelia's mind while her eyes are closed.

The ground shakes, roots untangling, trees plummeting, rocks firing, specks of dirt flying, grounds pressed with every thudding, leaving a gigantic print.

A presence of something big, huge even in Amelia's back, as it slowly breathes just above her head.

Bringing with it is the unexplainable feeling of cold and darkness.

Amelia slowly opened her eyes, seeing the mortified look of her pursuer.

“No, no, no, oh, I won't, this can't be” Jowan uttered as he slowly steps back.

“What in the hell!” Anafe said as she slowly moved back quietly shrieking with every step.

While Rioljar has fallen to his knees, as he stares above Amelia.

“Is this, her father?” Rioljar asked.

“What are you?? In all the years I've lived, I have never seen such an enormous being, ” Thomas said as he retreats to Rioljar slowly picking him up.

Leaving a trail of toppled and trampled pine trees in his wake.

A gigantic pure gray wolf almost as tall as the trees easily reach 30 meters high as it stands, wider than any of their homes with its nose-to-tail 65 meters length. An animal, a man, a father, a beast in the shape of a wolf.

Coated by a thick gray fur and hair, fluttering high above in the breeze.

The wolf's head is bigger than themselves combined. Having a thick mane and ears that slowly move.

It has a smoldering vermillion red eye that constantly moves with a current beneath that reads their movement. A nose that smells their fears.

With a large jaw and sharp canine teeth for ripping flesh as it delivers loud shallow breathing.

Standing in front of them at the back of Amelia with its long muscled legs and large paws that can be used to effortlessly flatten them.

The appearance of an immensely powerful being, towering to all of them, as it proceeded to speak with a voice of a man possessing a God-like sound.

“I Am Wolfvir. Hunter of Men. The Writer of Chaos. The Gardener of Fear, Cultivator of Roots, ” he said with its Godly voice echoing in the lands of the forest.

“By the Gods.”