Hunting Game by hanlik_arts

I looked back up the slope we had just fallen down, not seeing the hunters that had shoved us down here.  So they hadn’t killed us… yet.  They’d taken us to this valley and thrown us down into it… but why?  Their chief had told us to run for our lives… from what?

“What is going on here?” I wondered aloud.  “What are they doing?”

“I think I know,” Tekia said, her voice quavering.  When I turned to look at her, apart from the dirt that was caked on her face, I didn’t think I’d ever seen her looking so pale.  Then she looked at me, and in a hushed voice, whispered one word:

“Hinkuva.”

I had never heard that particular word before, but I knew the pieces of it, and was able to discern her meaning.  Hin, meaning human, and kuva, meaning hunter…

I looked around at the valley around us.  In every direction I looked as far as the eye could see, we seemed to be surrounded by the high mountain walls of the valley.  There were plenty of plants and trees in the valley to be found, but I didn’t see anything that looked like a way back up; at least not without some grappling hooks, ropes and utility belts.  It was like a natural enclosure, a walled off preserve.

The chief had called us prey, and told us to run.  As I thought about it, it all started to make sense.  And I was really wishing it wasn’t.

They didn’t want to just kill us. 

They wanted to make sport of it. 

They were setting us loose in a preserve, so they could hunt us.

And from the bloodthirsty howls I could hear in the distance, it sounded like they were on their way.

Tekia grabbed my hand and we started running for the trees.  We had no idea where we were running; we just ran.  We ran, and we ran, jumping logs and roots and rocks and embankments, and just kept running, until our muscles ached and breath felt like heavy labor.

When we caught our breath, we looked around to take our bearings.  For now, we saw nothing but more forest, with no sign of any hunters or giant lizard things.  But that proved nothing.  There was no letting our guard down, not even for a second.

So when we heard something stirring in the brush, our first reaction was to tense up, ducking back behind the nearest tree, looking frantically around for the source of the sound.  But all that happened was a big gray skira emerged from the trees, flapping its wings and flying away.  We relaxed a bit, letting out a breath, and I looked down to where Tekia’s hand was still gripping my bicep like a vice.

That was when I realized the hunters weren’t the only things we would have to worry about.  Who knew what else was living down in this valley?  We were completely unarmed, and if we happened to run into a krevasha, or a zalaku, or a pack of churudi, or even something worse, we’d be fucked.

And when I turned to look at the pale look on Tekia’s face, I could tell she knew it too.  “Clay… what we do?” she quivered.

I swallowed hard, and tried to think.  “There has to be a way out of this valley,” I thought aloud.  “Those hunters come and go somewhere.  We just have to find it.”

I was about to start moving to look for that way out, when Tekia gripped my arm tighter and pulled me back.  I turned to look at her, about to tell her this wasn’t the time to panic, when I noticed her finger at her lips, telling me to be silent.  And when I turned to look the other way again, I saw why.

Tekia and I ducked back behind the tree, doing the best we could to remain invisible, as the hunters emerged from the foliage, their spears glistening as they scanned about for us.  The ones in front started poking their spears at a bush as a few small animals rustled about in it, and finding nothing of interest, continued to move.

We both held our shared breath, not wanting to make any sound, praying that our pounding hearts weren’t loud enough to give us away.  Time slowed to a crawl as we waited for the hunters to move past us.  They kept pausing, scanning the trees and brush for signs of us, drawing the wait out to agonizing lengths. 

Finally they started to disappear into the brush again.  Slowly, Tekia and I began to relax, preparing to dash into the foliage as soon as the hunters were out of sight.

And then, just before the last of them was about to slip out of view, something next to us moved.

Don’t ask me what it was.  I couldn’t have told you then, and I couldn’t tell you now.  Whatever animal it was that suddenly made a dash for it, the result was the same: that last hunter heard the noise, and stopped, turning to look back in our direction. 

And then he started to advance on us. 

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