Me and Senka had no survival skills, the only thing we did for past months was walking around the Cold Valley, observing fields and forests nearby. On the other hand, Hina was an adventurer for her whole life, she acquired every survival skill as she grew up. She did everything so naturally, you could say that this knowledge was imprinted in her blood. Imagine a monkey climbing a tree, that is how easy it was for her to find a good rock to sharpen a twig to make a bow and arrows. We were fascinated with her abilities and on the next day after we stood on the rocky cliff, we asked her to teach us everything that she knew. We met as usual and without any hesitation I asked

‘Could you teach us everything that you know about surviving?’ my voice lowered towards the end of the sentence.

She only smiled and lifted her nose with index finger.

‘You two are so weak and pathetic, that you have no chance of surviving in this world’ was her answer, after that she laughed and ran away from us towards The Cold Peak.

We were astonished and tried to catch up with her, but she was too fast. Breath became too heavy and we ought to stop. At that point I understood, that we were too obsessed with Hina and her fairy tales. After showing her every attention-grabbing spot in Cold Valley, she lost interest in us. Or she just wanted to show us how slow and weak we truly are? I don’t know, yet we had to find another way to catch up with her and ask to join our adventure to the unknown lands of The Seven Kingdoms.

I gazed upon Senka and his face was pale as a blanket.

‘I thought we were friends…’ he said.

‘We still are friends with her, Senka. She just...’ he saw my hesitation and started yelling.

‘She just what? We showed her our places, shared our dreams with her and now that!’ he pointed towards the Cold Peak and started crying.

‘Oh, stop it, Senka! She is just showing us how slow and weak we are compared to her and that we would be a burden for her during the adventure’ I used a lame excuse, but it was the only option I had.

‘But true friends don’t act like that!’ he yelled at me, rubbing his eyes with both hands.

‘I think it’s just her way of telling us to stay away from places beyond the Cold Peak. Yeah, it’s just her way…’

‘So, what are we going to do now?’ I reckon he realized that Hina is just a wild beast that we tried to be friend with and stopped crying.

‘We could try asking village hunters to teach us, but I think our fathers will get angry if they find out about our intentions…’

‘I reckon this is the only option we have.’ Senka swiftly changed in face. He was very determined, I had never seen him like that before.

Sun was exactly between the Northern Ocean and the Cold Peak, so we had plenty of time to ask hunters for their help. Luckily, they lived outside the village near the pine forest, therefore we avoided going near our houses.

From far away we could see how hunters were stretching deer hide on wooden logs. It was scary to approach them, as we had no idea how to explain our venture. When we came up to their fence, one of the hunters finally noticed us

‘Hey kids! What are you doing there?’ He had a low, but somehow friendly voice.

‘Good day, Sir! Uhm… So… We wanted to ask you something!’ I blurted out sharply.

‘Oh, okay then. How can we help you, little fellas?’ he scratched back of his head and smiled.

‘We want to learn how to hunt!’ that was a blunt statement, because I had no idea what do we need to learn to survive during our adventure.

‘O-oh... Weird… aren’t you two the sons of neighbouring farmers?’ apparently, he saw us with our fathers in Cold Valley’s market when we were helping them.

‘Aahh… Yeah… Could you, please, not tell them that we were here?’

‘Hahah! Not a problem at all, but why out of sudden sons of cattle breeders want to learn how to hunt?’

‘Because we want to go beyond the Cold Peak and explore the lands of Seven Kingdoms!’ I sprouted without hesitation. Telling the truth was the only thing that popped in my mind. I turned my head to Senka, he was terrified. His legs were shaking and eyes filled with tears. Only then I realized what consequences could entail us if this man standing in front of us would tell our parents what intentions we had.

‘That’s a serious statement, young boy. I’ve once been there. Yeah, beyond the Peak and I don’t want to go there again. But seeing you so determined, I can’t resist. I will teach you how to hunt deer with bows and how to make rabbit traps. Maybe after playing enough with arrows and ropes you will reconsider this idea and stay as hunters in the Cold Valley’ was his answer. After a few moments of silence Senka raised his hand and said

‘My… My name is Senka… I will be an obedient student…’

‘And my name is Tariq, please, don’t tell anyone about what we were talking here today…’ I said right after Senka.

‘Hahah! Nice to meet you boys, you can call me Nimrod. As you see, I’m busy right now, come back tomorrow morning and I will show you how to make fire and tie a rabbit trap’ he smiled, turned his back to us and continued with his work.

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This was our first step towards the dream. We need to catch up with Hina and show her that we are not as weak as we used to be and ask her to join our adventure.