Lush green forest welcomed my eyes as soon as we stepped out of the gate. I stepped forward, on the damp ground that gave a feeling of decay to the surrounding. The ground was covered in fallen leaves that had turned yellow. I turned around to look at the massive blob of darkness that swirled around violently. The blob of darkness, or rather the gate whirled and swirled as it collapsed upon itself to reveal a simple stone arch. I had watched this phenomenon thrice now, and it always felt so fascinating.

“This used to be a stronghold, back when humans were venturing into the eastern badlands. We will be using this place for a few days.” As we walked a bit further into the forest, we reached a little collection of small sheds built of wood. They were scattered around in a haphazard manner but after looking closely, I noticed that there used to be many more such sheds along with the existing ones. The time and decay almost extinguished the flames of this chapter of history. However, many still remained even after hundreds of years had passed since they were built.

I went ahead and chose one of the better looking sheds. By choosing, I meant that I went inside the shed and spread a sheet on the ground to sit comfortably. And by the rite of the first to find, the shed should have belonged to me. However, Sirius probably didn’t know that as he also walked in right behind me as he checked out the little wooden shed.

“Hmmm, this one should be fine for both of us, Mehr.” I was in the motion of sitting down on the sheet, when I heard Sirius’ words. I stopped and turned around to look at Sirius who was also proceeding to sit down beside me.

“No,no. We are staying in separate sheds.” I said, wanting to create a clear distinction and boundaries. However, either due to his excitement of coming out of his house for the first time, or because he simply chose to ignore me, Sirius quickly sat down beside me.

I was going to ask him to leave when I heard the footsteps of old man Blake approaching us. He entered the little shed and looked around a bit before addressing us.

“Looks like you’ve made yourself home. However, resting time will come later on. Come now, let me establish certain rules for the time we would spend here.”

Oi, I was going to establish certain rules between Sirius and I, you shitty old man. Well, I guess his rules are also important, albeit barely.

Sirius and I looked at each other as we tried to guess what the old man was going to say. But only a moment later, old man Blake opened his mouth to let us know the torture, I mean, the rules for our stay here.

“First- your food. You’ll only eat the food you’ve hunted. You shall bring in a beast everytime you would like to eat and I shall cook it for you. If you’re unable to hunt and provide your own food, then you won’t be getting any that day…

... Second- You will use your weapons when you’re hunting. The beasts out there aren't much stronger than you individually. So I would recommend working together for more efficiency…

..Third- You are not allowed to go farther into the forest. When you see the trees that are darker in colour, you will turn back immediately. We will start going in deeper when you’ve grown stronger than you’re now.

And lastly, if you see some strange apparitions, ignore them and turn back immediately. They have never harmed anyone before, but you can never be too careful. Do you both understand?”

Oi, haven’t you glossed over some very important things half heartedly? Dark forest? Apparitions? What the fuck?

Sirius and I nodded our heads without asking any questions. We knew that we wouldn’t be getting any answers anyway. At least we were sure that old man Blake would keep an eye on us covertly, even if he was saying all these things. Sirius raised his hand when the old man had finished speaking. Blake gestured to Sirius to ask the question he had.

“When do we start hunting, Grandpa?”

“Whenever you would like to eat.” Old man Blake answered with a smile on his face. His smile looked like a smug expression a pig would have after rolling in shit. Mood souring, was what I meant.

And so we departed. Sirius and I. We chose a random direction and decided to proceed on. We walked, among the trees that covered most of the sun and created a dreary scenery in front of us. Silence permeated the area as if the noises were being swallowed by nature itself. We couldn’t even hear the sounds of insects. Well, we didn’t even know if there were any insects here. We continued on though, looking around and trying to spot something, anything, that would help us find today’s food. That’s when my eyes spotted the droppings of a beast. I nudged Sirius with my elbow and gestured with my hand for him to follow me. We slowly moved forward, focusing on all minute things around us and after a few moments, we were standing right next to the dropping.

“I don’t think we should eat this, Mehr…..”

I looked at Sirius with disgust as the image of us trying out this dropping etched into my head. I hit his foot with mine and whispered to him, “That’s absolutely disgusting, Sirius. Good job making me imagine that scenario.”

Sirius shrugged, implying that he didn’t understand what I meant. However, his smile said otherwise. I ignored him and crouched down to look for footprints and it only took us a few moments to spot them. The footprints were the size of our forearm and the beast’s claws looked to be longer than our palms. Sirius pulled my shirt and said, “I don’t think we should go after this one. Let's look for a different option.”

I turned towards him and with a smug smile on my face, with the intention to mock Sirius, I said, “Why? Is the hero afraid of the first beast itself?” I giggled to myself as I noticed the flustered expression on his face. He looked to be pondering something as not long after that, he pulled my shirt again and said, with a determined look, “I can handle the beast by myself. And even before you can.”

“Oh really. Then let’s make a bet. We’ll see who’s attack kills the beast.”

“Challenge accepted.”

I smiled as I tightened my grip on my spear. The corners of my lips had gone up drastically as I imagined Sirius’s face after defeat. Was I being too serious in this challenge against a child? Well, children should know that the world is quite unfair and it was the perfect time to teach Sirius.

Well anyway, the hunt was on now.