"Come on Finn, focus."
Finn, taken out of his concentration, glared at his uncle. They have been in the forest for 4 hours at this point, despite the long time Finn had only managed to 3 small rabbits. Finn lulled himself back into concentration, zoning out his uncle's badgering.
Rhythmically, Finn drew back the string of his bow, eyeing down his prey, a beast much larger and more difficult to hunt then a rabbit, a bearlike creature that made Finn wonder if the arrow will pierce it's hide. Putting his fears aside, Finn releases the arrow, letting it fly towards its mark.
The beast had little time to react, only letting out a slight growl before the arrow landed in eye, reaching into its brain. The beast collapsed causing Finn's uncles' eyes to flash with pride.
"Good shot kid,"
"Thanks, with this we should be able to feed not only us but a few others tonight."
Finn and his uncle were two of the hunters in the village, they weren't the only hunting party, however the others had started to go deeper into the forest due to recent lack of prey. Considering the size of the beast Finn was able to hunt today, they were lucky.
Finn started carrying the beast while his uncle carried the rabbits. Despite the odd scene, Finn's uncle was already accustomed to such things. As he was the one who raised Finn, he was used to his freakish strength despite his body being only 16 years of age.
Showing little signs of struggle Finn along with his uncle head back to the village. By now Finn new these woods as if they were his backyard. His thoughts weren't focused on navigating the forest, rather they were idly imagining how his sister Nina was doing as her first day working in the temple as someone who cleans the temple and assists the priests of the temple in prayer and worship.
As his sister was only 12, she would have to wait before she could be promoted as a priest. After walking for nearly an hour, they were able to reach the village. Despite small size and lack of technology, the people in the village all looked content. They were all busy fulfilling their designated tasks, some were making spears or arrows for the hunters, while others were cleaning clothes. Regardless of what they were doing the village was working in harmony.
The villagers Finn passed all smiled and greeted him and his uncle with nods. While there were around 260 people in the village, there were only a few around Finn's age, this meant that he acted as formally as possible when talking to the ones older than him, minus his uncle who he regularly joked with.
They made their way over to the chef's residence, due to them being both the chef and butcher. Finn's uncle knocked on the door. Finn never talked much and let his uncle to the talking, unless he was with friends.
"By Vikors grace! Would you look at the size of it."
The chef's expression turned into one of awe looking at what Finn had hoisted on his shoulders. The chef instructed Finn to pace it on a large table, which he did so while trying not to slam it so as to not break the table.
"I'll get to it later, first we'd better to the temple."
"Is the head priest giving a sermon?"
"Yes, it's due to food crisis,"
While it was unexpected that a sermon would be held on such short notice, it wasn't as though it was completely out of the ordinary, as whenever the village went through rough times like these, the priests would attempt to pray as much as possible in hopes their God would watch over them.
While Finn was a believer in the God of spirits Vikor, He disliked the idea of relying on a foreign entity for assistance. However, Vikor wasn't going to say this out loud as he knew he would have to pray for repentance.
Upon arriving at the temple, Finn noticed they were the last ones there since the sermon began as soon as the arrived.
As soon as the head priest motioned for it, everyone got on their knee's closing their eyes and crossing their arms putting their hands on their shoulders.
"O God of Spirits Viktor please bless us with your grace and allow us to continue to thrive on this beautiful land,"
The priest continued
"Please grant us forgiveness for our sins and guide us into eternal light."
The priest prayed for half a full hour while no one moved a muscle out of respect for their deity. After the sermon, Finn fetched his sister so they could go to chef before anyone else.
"Hey Finn, how was your hunt?"
Nina greeted him with a bright smile, fitting of someone for her age."
For the first time that day Finn wore a bright smile.
"Great, we managed to catch a massive beast so we should be able to fill our stomachs tonight."
Nina's wide smile grew into a cartoonish one upon hearing her big brothers' words.
Together Finn's uncle, Nina, and Finn all walked towards the butcher and chefs store, making sure to take a few pitstops to give the chef enough time to have cut the meat into pieces. Together they walked through the chef's humble store where they were able to see the chef, who had already been in the shop in the back, preparing the food.
He had already made incredible progress, considering he had to attend the sermon like everyone else. Despite this the chef had already started cooking pieces of the bear over the fire. Finn watched as his sisters' eyes started to glow with gluttony.
"Um sir, when will it be ready?"
My sister called out, attracting the chefs attention
"Have some patience brat, I'm not just cooking for you three, I'm cooking for most of the village."
While what he said was harsh, he didn't give off too much annoyance, probably due to Nina's age. Putting on the politest front he could, Finn asked
"Come on, surely you could just give us a little first?"
"Don't act like that with me brat, you know the rules, no special treatment, even to hunters."
"Tsk"
Finn wiped the smile of his face, clicking his tongue in annoyance. He thought that his request seemed reasonable, judging from how much he busted his ass to hunt that beast, he deserved a bit of special treatment, or so he thought.
"Just tell us how damn long it'll take."
Finn's uncle picked up the conversation
"You'll hear the bell ring so just have some patience!"
The three of them walked out of the store, feeling dejected. After they left a mutter could be heard leaving Finn's mouth.
"Damned bastard."
He was clearly still upset that the chef hadn't even bothered to tell them how long they would have to wait. Unfortunately, he had said this loud enough to get his uncle's attention
"Calm down it's not that big of a deal!"
Finn's uncle had said in hopes that he would let it go.
"I'm sick of hunting only to get the same share as someone who was just cleaning clothes."
"Let it go Finn. It's just the way the village works. Do you want to cook and do your own damn laundry. If not than shut up."
Finn was about to say something but bit his tongue instead, knowing that his uncle wasn't wrong. While Finn excelled in physicality or hunting. He sucked at doing more mundane things that most people would find easy.
If he was being honest, he really had no desire to learn such things either. Still, he was somewhat resentful of his hard hours of labor only amounting to the same as someone who washes clothes.
The trio didn't return home, rather they lingered around the store, hoping that when the bell rang, they would get first dibs.
Once the long-awaited bell rang, they near sprinted to the chef who now presented the food for everyone to see. Despite how good the food looked, Finn couldn't help but notice that there was only the food that he had hunted with his uncle today, which was odd, considering there were two other hunting parties that went out today. His uncle also noticed this asked the chef if the hunting party was unsuccessful in catching anything.
"Apparently they haven't even returned yet."
This came as a shock to the duo as they were the last hunting party to venture into the woods. However, Nina, who lacked the ability to read the mood, simply put on a large smile.
"Soo how much can we have?"
She asked in an anticipated tone. Her expression turned to disappointment when we were given a small plate of meat each. However, Finn, who would usually be getting worked up over the little food was sitting with a blank expression, still thinking about the hunting group that hadn't returned. What if something had happened to them? What if they wandered too deep into the woods? Questions filled his mind, getting lost in thought.
Despite this he was still eating what little he had, not wanting any to go to waste.
"Finn are you gonna finish that?"
Nana had been eyeing Finn's plate. Finn snapped out of his deep thoughts, wearing a grin.
"Sure, but if you eat too much, you'll get fat."
"Liar! We don't get enough to get fat."
Despite the response, what her brother said clearly bothered her since she was no longer asking for the rest.
Once they had finished their food, the trio all went to sleep. Finn and his uncle got ready to go hunting the next morning. Unexpectedly, Nana was there to see them off. Typically, she wouldn't go to the church until later however since she had already woken up, she decided to see her uncle and brother off.
"See ya later."
While her goodbye was short, Finn couldn't help but smile.
"We'll be back in around 7 hours."
Today they were going to hunt for longer than normally, they didn't know when or if the other hunting parties would come back so they headed out for longer, hoping to hunt more beasts.
While they were in the forest, they were able to catch dozens of rabbits. Each time Finn would rhythmically pull back the string of his bow and let it fly.
After a while, Finn started to feel deep pit of anxiety, causing him to miss out on hunting anymore rabbits. Finn's uncle chastised him, however after missing a few more times, he decided to call it a day, and they both started to walk back early.
As they got closer to the village, Finn's pit of anxiety only grew deeper. Finn's walk turned into a sprint as he heard his uncle's voice scream out in confusion falling far behind. Finn zoned out his uncle's shouts as he continued.
Soon he reached his village, only to be met with a macabre sight. Broken buildings and blood filled his sight. There were no bodies to be found, something had taken them away. As he stood there stunned, his uncle finally caught up.
"Finn, what the fuck was-"
His uncle stopped, taking in the sight of his village ruined and destroyed. Finn ignored this running once more, trying to hold on to hope that his sister was okay.
As he reached his home, passing the ruined buildings. He was disappointed to find nothing. However maybe his sister had escaped. Maybe she had retreated into the woods. Maybe she was okay.
Finn was trying to rationalize the situation when he heard a strange snarl come from somewhere outside his home. What welcomed him was an abomination, he could only attempt to describe. The creature was standing around 13 meters tall with a serpent-like body with a huge human shaped head. However, while its body was serpent like, it seemed to be made of faces.
The creature, that seemed to be the cause of all of the destruction now turned its attention towards Finn.