Our formation collapsed; with one of us down, the burden on the rest of us increased by several folds. Aurel was panting heavily, and Rigle who not only had to protect the vanguard and rearguard but also the motionless body beside him was the worst for wear. I still had a lot of leeway, as I'd barely worked up a sweat, I need to protect everyone I thought to myself, as I firmed my conviction to work harder.

“Rigle, how do we get out of here?” I asked, wondering if we could make our escape if I created an opening in the swarm of Falupians.

“It's pointless running! They are faster than we are, and they are very good trackers, escaping them is impossible,” Rigle yelled back.

So we need to kill them all? I wondered. I swung my sword harder and faster, abandoning our crumbling formation, and ran into the horde of monsters. I could hear Rigle yell something behind me, but he was a considerable distance away from me and the growls of the Falupians drowned out his voice.

As I wreaked havoc in the middle of the swarm, their attention seemed to turn on me, providing a little respite to my battle-weary companions. I do not know how long we fought for, but by the time we slew the last Falupian the sun had set.

“Radley! Radley!” I heard a voice yelling in the distance. I made my way back to my companions only to be greeted by a sorry sight.

Radley—the man who had been paralyzed—laid on the ground in a pool of his own blood, unconscious. His left leg from around mid-thigh was missing, it had been completely bitten off; there were three deep gashes on his chest too. It wasn’t looking good, I didn’t know how he was going to survive without a healer around.

“What do we do?” I heard Mileena asking, she was standing beside Rigle who was on his knees assessing the injuries Radley sustained.

“For now he's still alive, we need to stabilize his condition first, if we can keep him alive long enough for us to get back, a healer can heal his wounds,” Rigle said, standing up and looking around curiously at the carnage around.

We were standing in an ocean of dead Falupian bodies, the stench of blood wafting about. The smell was pungent and it made my nose sting.

“First we need to get out of here, it's dark already and the smell could attract more monsters, though we’re close to the area protected by gods, you never know what could happen,” Rigle said.

“Should we head back to the steppe we passed earlier? Back in the safe area we can treat the injured and properly assess what next steps to take,” Aurel said, I nodded along in full agreement as he spoke.

“What will you do Silas? If we go back we might have to abandon the hunt. I think it is better we forge forward, while the steppe might be safer, we still need to make something to carry the injured and I saw no trees back there,” Rigle said.

Abandoning the hunt was absolutely unacceptable to me, but I also couldn’t selfishly demand we continued while ignoring the wounded. Looking around at the faces of my companions, they looked worried for the injured man, all except Aurel who was instead looking at me with a curious look. “I trust you to make the right choice,” his face seemed to be saying to me.

“Well, as you said, we need to make something to carry the injured. Let's do that first. Aurel and I will go look for a tree with sturdy branches to make a stretcher, then we can move elsewhere,” I said.

“Will he be alright?” Aurel asked as we explored the unknown land in search of a sturdy tree with thick branches to cut down.

“I hope so,” I replied.

“It isn’t normal for that many monsters to be so close to the protected area, is it?” I didn’t know if the question was rhetorical or not, but even if it wasn’t I had no way of answering; however, I also found it odd.

It wasn’t abnormal for monsters to stray close to the area protected by gods, but there were over a hundred Falupians at least, it was very strange.

“I hope we finish the hunt quickly and leave this place, it seems more dangerous than I'd thought it was,” I said.

Thankfully we didn’t have to roam far before finding a decent tree; looking at our weapons, it was decided that Aurel would carry out the task of cutting off the needed parts with his broad sword.

When we got back we found Rigle applying a green paste on the wounds of Radley. The strong smell of herbs permeated the air.

“What is that? It smells awful,” Aurel said, pinching his nose. Underneath his arm were two long sturdy branches, and I also had two under my arm. We'd also cut some long leaves on our way back.

“It’s temlick paste, it's used to stop bleeding, the smell also wards off monsters. For now, this should be enough to stop Radley's bleeding,” Mileena replied Aurel. She was tying a piece of woolen cloth on Ridley's half-chewed up thigh.

“OK, Aurel and I will try to make a stretcher,” I said, setting down the tree branches and the leaves. First, we made ropes from the leaves by braiding them and then using the ropes of leaves we tied the branches together. We cut up two branches into four parts and tied them horizontally across two vertically placed longer branches.

We carefully lifted Radley and placed him on the stretcher, placing pieces of clothes underneath his injured leg to elevate it, then we tied him to the stretcher using torn-up clothes.

“Let's leave, even though the temlick wards off monsters, it isn’t going to guarantee that we don’t get attacked, so everyone be at alert. First, let's move a little deeper and try to get out of this canyon,” Rigle said. He and the other man in his party carried Radley, I took the front, Mileena took the back and Aurel walked beside the stretcher as we made our way deeper into the Ulssa mountains.

We couldn’t make good ground; it was dark and carrying around an injured person made our pace slow. After 5 hours of walking it didn’t even feel like we moved, we were still smack dab in the middle of the canyon. It felt like we could walk all night and we still wouldn’t make it out of the canyon; thankfully no monster attacked us.

The mood was somber as we foraged forward, no one spoke. I couldn’t imagine what was going through the heads of Rigle and his party members, but I was surprised Aurel could read the mood and stay quiet. While we were walking, I strained my eyes to pick up movement in the pitch-black night, and my ears were perked up trying to pick up sounds around us. The mountain was quiet, the growls and howls of the previous night had vanished.

We found a small cave beneath the mountains as we were moving and decided to rest there. It wasn’t deep, and we determined it would be easier to defend ourselves in that cave than out in the open, plus fatigue from the fight had made our pace slow to a crawl; my companions needed rest.

“You guys rest, I'll take the first shift,” I said, standing at the entrance of the cave watching Rigle and the other man in the party carefully set Radley down in the corner.

“Wake me up when your shift ends,” Aurel said to me.

“OK, I—”

“We still need to determine the order of things,” Rigle interjected as I was talking.

“Silas and I are less fatigued than you guys, we'll take the first two shifts so you guys can rest, the woman can tend to the wounded so why don’t you and the other man decide between yourselves,” Aurel said with some authority.

“OK, I'll go after you guys. Is that OK with you Tadley? Mileena will watch over your brother, so try to get some sleep,” Rigle said to the other man named Tadley. I was unaware he was brothers with the injured man, but knowing this made his reaction when he realized Radley had been injured make sense. He was inconsolable, however by the time Aurel and I had come back from getting the branches to make the stretcher he had calmed down.

My shift was completed without incident, and after waking up a shivering Aurel, I spread my mat and went to sleep. For the second night, I had no weird dreams, and by the time I opened my eyes again, I was feeling rejuvenated.

The cave was illuminated by the sunlight, and I scanned around to find my still sleeping companions. Mileena was sleeping sitting down, her back to the wall of the cave, and the injured Radley laying just in front of her. Rigle was sleeping soundly close to Aurel who was snoring loudly. They must've been very tired I thought to myself, smiling wryly. I got up and folded up my sleeping mat and put it back in my rucksack, I then made my way to the entrance of the cave to see Tadley sitting on a rock, staring pensively into space.

“Morning,” I said to him.

He turned to look at me, and I could clearly see his face, his eyes were red and swollen, the unmistakable dried-up white streak running down his face evidence that he'd been crying.

“Good morning,” he said with a cracked voice, forcing a smile onto his face.

My chest suddenly tightened, my nose and my eyes stung, I felt a lump in my throat. I wanted to reassure him that everything would turn out alright, but I had no way of being certain, and whatever words I said would’ve likely felt hollow to him. The silence between us as I stared at him was filled in my head with many words I left unspoken.

“How long ago did your shift start?” I finally asked, choosing instead to make small conversation than to insult him with hollow words of consolation.

“It's been just over one hour I think? Sir Rigle let me sleep long, although I had a restless night,” Tadley answered, still smiling.

“Should we wake the others up? We need to decide what to do next,” I said, and Tadley only nodded. I left him in the front and went to wake up the others.

Everyone fully awake, we huddled together to discuss how best to proceed. After a lengthy discussion, we decided to leave Mileena and Tadley behind in the cave while Aurel, Rigle, and I went on to hunt the Willow. I'd thought they'd want to return back to the settlement to treat the injured man and was ready to accept their decision, but they surprisingly insisted we continue with the hunt; it was me and Aurel instead that was arguing that we return. I guess hunters had their own pride too.

Missing the archers, I took on the role of the archer, moving to the back of the formation, Aurel being the lone vanguard and Rigle between us. Our pace was much faster as we sprinted forward instead of walking, determined to complete the hunt as quickly as possible. We alternated between sprinting and walking as fast as possible and five hours later we were out of the canyon.

We were now in a plain, a plain filled with lush greenery. The trees were tall, their leaves a healthy radiant green, the ground was filled with grass, and we could see some animals grazing. Wild horses strut about the place, majestic, on the trees were many bird nests, and the chirping of many different species of birds could be heard. In the distance, there was a small pond, and according to Rigle Willows could be found around that pond.

“OK, as you know the Willows can blend with their surroundings and are very fast to escape when they sense danger, so we have to be careful not to spook them. Right now there isn’t any in sight, so we have to hide and watch, when they inevitably come to drink from the pond we'll attack,” Rigle said.