The lights were drilling through the branches as the sun was rising. The triangular leaves were moving in the wind, projecting blue dancing silhouettes on the floor. The cool morning weather makes the frogs hibernate longer, it was at sunrise when it was easier to catch them. Still drowning in sleep, cold from the night, unable to move. Shavheol was pretty much aware of that fact since he was nourishing himself by catching frogs for two weeks. He had tried to catch iluks but they were moving way to fast. Those damn leporidae were so used to being hunted that they had developed an impressive sixth sense when it comes to identifying predators. Otherwise they were quite dumb. But so tasty. He was so tired of only eating frogs and berries. But he didn’t have any tools to hunt and, no, a carved stick wasn’t enough to catch fishes or mammals.

He was from a small village next to Uisge – the interior sea of Gliima, south-west continent of Igemba. Some pirates had raided the village, killed men and raped women and children before making the village their new hiding place. Luckily, Shavheol was on a stroll outside at that time and was able to escape. Otherwise, pirates would have probably raped him as well since he didn’t reach adulthood yet. He was only a twelve year old Canavali – sea tribe from the Gliima interior sea, dark green skin speckled with light green spots, dark blue eyes and hair to match. He was slightly taller than the other boys from his tribes but he was still looking young enough to not be considered a man. He hadn’t learned how to hunt yet since in the Canavali tribe, you start learning when you are 16 years old. Before that age you just help around in the village.

He didn’t have any plan to join another tribe or family representatives since he knew no one. The only thing that he knew was the fact that he will survive and comeback to his village once stronger to take his revenge.  That’s why he was walking through the forest despite the fact that his feet were hurting and that he lost his friends and family.

Five days later. Shavheol was closer to the ocean and farther away from his home village. He could smell the ocean air and see different species of moki (native Gliima seagull that are grey and have a scope of one point twenty meters). He had created a trap to catch smaller birds to diversify what he was eating. But he wasn’t great at it at all and didn’t catch anything. Instead, he caught two green gruts (small lizar wich are not venonimous contrary to black gruts). But it was better than the frogs so he was happy about it.

Shavheol was a one day walk from the ocean but still protected by the dense forest. He chose to create his hut in nearby trees. There were two options : either creating it on mangrova trees; safer because it was harder for other tribes and big wild animals to venture in it but there would be an abundance of dangerous insects. For exemple the possibility to encounter anopheles which suck on blood and transmit disease will be higher. But on the other hand there will be much more tiny prey for him to catch.

The other option was making his hut just above the grood between two or three kapok trees (huge tree with above ground roots). That was a great and bad option because making a shelter will be much easier but there will be easier access for big carnivorous animals and humanoids.

After great reflection – twelve years old- Shavheol chose to make his refuge in-between kapok tree roots. The probality of encountering big wild animals was lessened by being so close to the ocean and he knew from walking around that there were no humanoid tribes close to him.

After a month of staying into the forest he was much more proficient in catching and cooking food. He was slowly starting to adapt to his environment and his body was starting to shape itself in the form of a hunter. Those were great changes but Shavheol was too focused on improving himself to prepare his revenge to notice those changes.

Two days ago while hunting iluks he found a moki nest. There were three chicks in it. From his previous observation mokis were kind of smart but not smart enough to catch the thief that would steal their babies. Furthermore, they don’t really care about their progeny. So he chose to take the three of them with him. He ate two and kept the last one to raise him. To have his eyes in the sky.

He was keeping him at his shelter in a tiny nest that he made with dropen leaves and dried grass. It was too soon to take it with him, train it or do anything except protecting and feeding it. He named him, Uentos. It was nice to have something to care about. Thanks to the chick, he was able to move on and focus on his future. His mind was full of how he would be able to raise Uentos, what he would teach him and use him for.

Now during the night, Shavheol was starting to dream again between his nightmares. Beside his usual dreams of his village and how he was sent into the forest. He was demeaning about Uentos and him on a ship travelling around the world, becoming stronger and meeting new people that would help him take his revenge. 

After three weeks at this spot, Shavheol was starting to become accustomed to its surroundings and was beginning to venture further away. Uentos was growing slowly but was now able to walk a bit and it was trying to fly but it was still too soon for that. Uentos got used to Shavheol and considered him as his mother. Deepening his relationship with him. Now when they would sleep, Uentos would always crawl into his arms for the night. From time to time, Shavheol was taking Uentos with him during his hunt or exploration time. He would put the chick in a tiny bag he made out of leaves and braided grass and carry it around with him. Surprisingly, during those times, Uentos was especially quiet. As if he knew it was mandatory to be silent. It was during one of those explorations that Shavheol ended up finding a pirates hiding. They were staying in a creek surrounded by cliffs. There was approximatly thirty of them and they had a schooner covered by plants and seaweeds to hide it.

For a whole week Shavheol was observing them, taking notes in his head as how they were living and what was their habits. Spying them was scary but that way he was able to understand their patterns. The thing is, they were acting like normal humanoids. They were living in a similar way as the people from his village. Everybody seems to have a specific role and they were taking turn on those. They were not as monstrous as he had thought. It was just a mix of different tribes living and venturing together.

As his observations was doing great, he was getting accustomed and growing careless while approching them, each time a bit closer. Once he stayed a bit to late and the sun was going down. The fire the pirates had lit was dancing in the middle of the shore. They were drinking, playing and dancing around it. Shavheol was lost in the contemplation of this peacefull scenery when Uentos started to be hungry and made sound to express it. Shavheol heart froze in an instant, trying to shut up Uentos, afraid that the pirates would discovers them. Fortunatly they were too far away to be noticed by them. He started to crawl back to where his shelter was, hiding himself in the bushes when a weird sound make him look back.

Another pirates sheep was entering the creek, attacking the other with arrows and a big thing that was like tunder. The shore pirates was dying one after another. Trying to fight back but they were too drunk to launch anything. The tunder thing was so terrifying for Shavheol that he started to run without caring about hiding himself anymore. Uentos was terrified by the whole mix of noises and was screaming as if he was telling shavheol to run faster.  The forest and the night was absorbing them. He was running for their life for the second time.

To be continued.