Chapter 2: Scene From A Painting

Dust dived to his left and barely avoided the boar’s charge. Using his momentum, Dust rolled to quickly get back on his feet. He gave a sigh of relief only to freeze up upon finding out that the reassuring weight of his sword was nowhere to be found. His eyes scanned the clearing and found his sword under the massive tusk boar… the massive tusk boar that was angrily glaring at him.

Dust took a step back.

The boar took one forward.

…..

…

.

Dust ran towards the direction of the forest. The ground shook behind him as the boar stampeded after him. Dust, running forward frantically, didn’t even make it half-way to the forest before he felt how hopeless this endeavor was. Just as the boar was about to catch up, the shadow of a person blurred past the side of his vision at speeds his eye had trouble following.

The sound of a collision resounded throughout the forest. Dust looked back to see the girl from before knee the boar in the side of the face, redirecting it’s head to his left and making it fall on its side. The force of the boar’s charge from before sent it skidding across the ground.

Still running, Dust saw the girl stomp on the ground and jump back to avoid the boar that roughly slid across the dirt. Looking at the direction the boar was going, Dust’s movements paused for a short moment before he started sprinting faster than he did in the beginning.

“Why do you hate me!?” Dust screamed at the boar as the tumbling mass of meat was once again going in his direction for the third time today.

Directing all his strength to his legs, Dust made a single desperate jump that gambled on his life! He landed roughly and gave a small grunt of pain at the feeling of stones and dirt scraping against his skin. The boar left a trail of dust as its tumble finally ended merely a few inches from Dust’s landing point.

Dust stood back up with difficulty and dusted himself off. He saw the girl staring intently at the boar and decided to ignore it. Instead of seeing why the girl was looking at the boar like that, he jogged back to his sword and picked it up. Dust looked at the boar’s would be collapsed mess, but was met with the sight of it slowly standing back up.

“How are you still conscious!? Seriously! Just die already!” Dust screamed and saw the girl hold her sword with both hands, prepared to begin another round of fighting.

Looking at the boar, Dust saw that the place the girl kneed before and noted how swollen it was. ‘I’m definitely not making an enemy out of this person.’ Dust solemnly promised himself inwardly and began to slowly circle around the boar.

The tusk boar charged toward the girl who responded by similarly running toward the massive lump of meat. Her hair trailed behind her as she dashed and Dust was once again reminded of how beautiful she was. He didn’t dwell on the thought though, as he also ran toward the boar from behind, participating in a two-pronged attack!

Dust was a bit slow compared to the girl and the boar so he clearly saw how just before meeting the boar’s tusks head on, the cloaked beauty sidestepped and drove her sword into its side, leaving a long, ugly gash that started to bleed profusely. The boar let out a low cry of pain before it’s cry increased by another octave as Dust drove his sword in to its behind…

A realization dawned on Dust and reminded him of the crime he just committed, making him grimace. The girl, seeing her chance to end this, ran past Dust and sliced the boar’s neck in a single, swift slice. Before it's soul left it's body, the boar’s leg muscles tensed up and suddenly kicked backwards, hitting Dust right in the chest. Sending him hurtling away while spitting out a mouthful of blood.

‘Definitely not making an enemy out of her…’ Dust thought to himself for the last time before his vision went black.

-\o/-

Dust’s POV:

“Ugh…” I groan and scratch my head, attempting to stand up. This motion is soon stopped by the throbbing ache that suddenly spiked up around my chest. I collapse on my back and clutch my chest, inadvertently making the pain worse. Grimacing, I started squirming around uncomfortably. It was already late into the evening, and I was laid next to a campfire that lit up the surrounding darkness.

Feeling someone’s gaze on my figure, I moved my head and opposite of me was the girl I had fought that dreadful boar with. Moonlight came down from the sky blanketed by stars, reflected by the girl’s midnight black hair, her eyes never left the campfire that bathed her in a radiant orange glow. She was sitting down with her arms around her knees, hugging them to her chest, this sight could only be described as otherworldly.

The scene I saw at this moment would forever be engraved into my mind, it was as if it came to life straight out of a painting. I stared at her with a stupid expression before she moved her eyes from the campfire to me. The cold, emotionless stare she gave me felt like it bore into my being and snapped me out of my reverie.

“…..” I paused and noticed the small nod she gave before standing up, preparing to leave. “Wait, hold on!” My plea was left ignored as she disappeared into the forest.

I laid there in a demoralized heap for a few moments, thinking about how this girl was the person who started all of this. I sighed and slowly edged closer to the rock near the fire, leaning against it and watching the flames crackle in the dark. The flames reminded me of that day, and it slowly came back to me… the screams, the smoke, and the bastards who ruined my life…

I’m once again snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of crunching leaves. My body that still had trouble moving tensed up and prepared itself for the worst. Walking towards me was her, the girl from before. I guess she isn’t completely heartless then…

Her hands were holding two pairs of gutted fish. She silently stabbed sticks into the fishes’ mouths and set them up around the flames, going back to her previous position that was opposite of me, she sat down and hugged her knees.

We sat in silence before I looked up and spoke, “…Are any of those for me?”

She glanced at me, but stayed silent.

“If you eat too much, you’ll get fat, you know?”

Silence.

“You’ll ruin your good-looking figure, you know?”

…Silence.

“Men all around the world will shed tears, you know?”

…..More silence.

By now, the fish was already nicely cooked. It’s smell permeated throughout the open air and entered my nostrils. She took a fish of her own and began eating.

“I’m taking some… alright?” I say and gingerly reach my hands out towards the perfectly cooked fish. I quickly scoop up a single fish and bring it close, holding it like I would a child.

"....." I stared at her as she ate and sighed.

I stabbed the stick holding the fish down next to my sword beside me and continued to look at her.

“…Why aren’t you eating?” My eyes widen at the sound. Her voice was soft and gentle, providing a fitting contrast to her cold demeanor. This was probably the first time I’ve ever heard her speak!

“…I’m not really hungry.” I said dejectedly and could almost swear that I saw the corners of her mouth twitch in annoyance. I watched her for a few moments before I smiled and leaned back on the stone behind me, closing my eyes and gently breathing in the cool summer night’s air.

“…Thanks.” I say silently, dozing off and entering a not so dreamless sleep.

-\o/-

Dust’s POV:

I was awaken by the sunlight’s evil glare and started to groggily stand back up. There was still a dull pain around the center of my chest, but it wasn’t too unbearable. I scanned the surroundings and vividly remembered the night before. The fire had long since gone out and what remained was only a small pile of ash and charcoal. The girl from last night was gone and the fish I set down was now being hungrily devoured by ants.

'I still don’t know her name, and now regret not eating last night. Great. '

I shook my head and suddenly remembered I had something to do. The bet! I practically tore open my pouch of goblin ears and noted the petty amount of ears I had. The ten ears would amount to a measly five points as two ears amounted to a single point.

I sighed and began walking. Now that I think about it, I was pretty lucky to have encountered the girl from yesterday. This forest was pretty large after all, and even though the amount of people participating in the competition wasn’t a small amount, it would still be hard to encounter a person by coincidence here.

I thought back to the girl and wondered what she was doing here, she should at least be at Hank’s level of strength to fight that tusk boar, maybe even higher, why would she need the award from this event? I’m guessing the request she took had something to do with that boar.

Thinking all day would get me nowhere though, I thought and hid behind a bush. A goblin was now frantically running in my direction and paid no heed to the amount of noise it made. I readied my sword, holding it in both hands, ready to strike.

Just as the goblin entered striking range, I leapt out of the bush and slashed my sword diagonally. The goblin had good reflexes though, and jumped back as I struck. But it wasn’t enough! It was too busy running and I had gotten too close. My sword had already left a long, deep wound on its chest extending from its shoulder to the green-skin’s side.

It gave a painful, high-pitched screech and retreated, running for a short distance before collapsing on the ground, it’s life seeping away from its body. I collected both of its ears and started walking towards the direction the goblin came from.

Doing this, I encountered six other goblins. All of them seemed to be running from something, like an evacuation. Four were alone and were dispatched sneakily and with relative ease but the last encounter was with a pair of green-skins that took me some time to kill as while one goblin was injured heavily due to my sneak attack, the other persisted and fought well until it finally died.

I wiped the sweat off my forehead and collected the ears of both goblins. The ears I had now numbering twenty-four, fourteen were from the goblins I managed to kill today. Bringing my points up to a solid twelve, even at this pace though, I felt that I was nowhere near enough.

Walking the path from before once again, I stumbled upon a goblin settlement. Or rather, the remains of one.

The gates on the settlement’s two meter walls were demolished and the sight inside the settlement would have made me puke out my breakfast if I had any in the first place.

Goblin huts were wrecked and the corpses of goblins were littered across the floor, some were crushed and others had gaping holes in their bellies, making the putrid smell of blood permeate in the hot and dry summer air.

Hoof-marks were everywhere and parts of the walls look to have been broken through by a large animal. An animal even larger than the boar yesterday… the boar that was female by the looks of it… Hah... Hahaha!

I started laughing and remembered a little trivia about tusk boars; they take their mates very seriously. If my guess was correct, then the boar me and the girl from yesterday killed was the mate of the tusk boar that destroyed this area. It must’ve gone berserk after finding out about the death of its lover! Due to this, the boar that was rampaging about, found the goblin settlement and took its anger out on the poor green-skins!

I’ve really gotten lucky this time! I’ve just entered and I’ve already spotted the corpses of dozens of goblins! This settlement isn’t a small one either, there has to be at least more than a couple hundred goblins here!

I walked around the settlement and harvested the goblin ears, which were the size of my thumb, placing them into my little pouch. Soon enough, I ran out of space so I rummaged around and found an old, dusty sack from within one of the houses.

Afterwards, I resumed my collecting. It took a couple hours and it was a tedious task, but I did it happily all the same. It was now time to head back and settle the score with Hank!

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Author’s Note:

And here’s the second chapter! I hope you all liked it and give your opinions about how this turned out. Was it handled correctly? Was it too cliché? I’m looking forwards to your comments. Again, leave a review and tell me your thoughts!

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