Castus
Castus sat beneath the Tree of Harmony, head pressed against the warm crystalline trunk as he gazed up into its glittering branches. He always felt more at peace when he was near this tree, and in the recent days he needed that sort of feeling to help him think.
Since their arrival, he had set to work getting his people settled. The Everfree Forest was not a place he would have liked to send out gatherers and hunters, but he knew that the magical nature of this forest would mean that there was food to be found. And plenty of dangers to avoid.
Suffice to say, hunting creatures of a magical forest of horrors was something he hadn't expected his people to deal with. But after their first manticore hunt, which he led personally, he soon found his people adapting to the new prey. It wasn't long till they had a good supply of manticore meat properly smoked and cured for winter again, and brand new manticore hide blankets for everyone. And then there was the fruits, which took a bit longer to figure out which was safe and which wasn't. One gatherer in particular found a bunch of trees that gave strange rainbow colored apples.
But there had also been close calls. No small amount of hunters had received injuries from other forms of wildlife. As well, everyone knew the dangers of forest trolls. After food had come shelter.
He had expanded the cave, creating wide square rooms to the sides that expanded into the hill to allow his people a larger place to rest, with what little of the Wind he was willing to use. He didn't want to have any more possibilities of tracking spells leading back to their last sanctuary.
That had been the easy stuff however, the hard parts were still to come and growing.
Castus stood, deciding it was time to meet with the Huntmasters to discuss their next step in the war.
As he left, he caught a feeling of...disappointment from the tree. Castus stopped and looked at the tree.
"What?" He said, "This is what I have to do."
The tree of course said nothing, but that sense of disappointment continued....coupled with sadness.
Castus frowned, but he turned and walked off. He couldn't start questioning himself now.
Castus went to a section in the expanded cave which had been sectioned off as his living quarters and the war room for the clans. What remained of them.
He pushed back the fur curtain that acted as a door as he stepped into the room. The Huntmasters were already there, discussing amongst themselves. A number of clans had lost their huntmasters in the attack and had to decide upon new ones, all of which seemed a bit too young to be given such a crucial responsibility.
Still, Castus was glad that he would have plenty of older and more experienced minds with him to balance the youthfulness.
"Our clans decimated. So many of our people lost. So many hunters. Driven from our lands. What are we to do now Fire Man?" One immediately asked. One of the younger ones.
"We keep fighting. We fight till the ponies pay for every life lost." Krul said, clenching his fist.
"We need to be wise in this. We cannot face the ponies as we are....they are many, and we are few." Marcus said, always the word of caution.
Castus nodded, "We will fight, but we will fight on our terms. And we will fight in ways the Equestrians will not expect. But first we need to set our plan."
The huntmasters looked to him, waiting.
Castus sighed, and hoped he had sorted out everything.
"After my little...display with our prisoner, the princesses of Equestria are sure to respond in force." He said.
"Should have flayed his skin and sent it back to them." Krul said with a growl.
Others agreed, and Castus knew that his keeping of a pony prisoner, one who had led the attack on their camp, had not been a well accepted idea. Some had tried to kill Blueblood when he wasn't looking, but after Castus made it clear that he would incinerate any who touched his prisoner, that had been the end of it.
Still he hated that he had to resort to fear to keep his people in line.
"He is more use alive then dead....for now." Castus said continuing, "In any case, I suspect that Celestia and her sister will both ride out to get their nephew back. As far as the Equestrians know we are still back on our lands, and that is where their forces will go to gather and scour the land for us."
"But we are here." Marcus said.
Castus nodded, "Yes, and that is our advantage. So long as the Equestrians think we are back on our lands we can strike at their nation without fear of immediate reproach."
"But what kind of attacks?" One huntmaster asked.
"Attack their Moots. Burn them as they did ours. Kill their women and children. Make them pay in blood." Krul said, gripping his knife eagerly.
"No!" Castus said, giving a glare, "If we kill their people that will only make them more determined to destroy us. We need to break their spirits to fight us, not incite them further."
"But-" Krul began, other huntmasters giving protest.
"No buts!" Castus said, slamming his foot, "Do as I say!"
The huntmasters went quiet, and Castus looked at them all. Some seemed surprised by his force of words, Marcus had a frown. Others glared at their clenched fists, but Kurl....
..Krul glared back at him for a moment, before looking away in defeat.
Castus looked around for any challenge before continuing, "Now...we will first instruct the new hunters. Any boy or girl able to hunt shall learn to fight. Our women too. I want everyone proficient with a spear and bow as soon as possible."
This got a response from everyone.
"We are to teach our women to fight?" One said in surprise.
"I will not send my wife into danger!" Another shouted.
"Silence!" Castus shouted.
Everyone went quiet.
"I know...we have lost a lot...and we don't want to lose more. Our women and daughters are the future of our people. But when we taught them to use the slings, they were able to better defend others. And as we saw, the enemies we fight care not if it is man or woman or child. In this war, we must all be fighters...or risk our destruction." Castus said to all.
The huntmasters were quiet, some had tears in their eyes.
"I know some might not want to fight...which is why only those who wish will learn. You will all deliver this to the women of your clans. Any woman or girl of hunting age who wishes to fight may." Castus finished.
The huntmasters nodded.
"Good....now, here is our plan of attack..." Castus said, as he began to outline their next strike.
Valen
Valen chipped away at the obsidian stone he had. He had been at work chipping away new arrow heads, and his hands held a number of cuts from the sharp edges. He wondered how long he would need this skill once the art of making metal arrows was a more common practice.
Still, till then he found the process of stone chipping and shaping to be relaxing, and helped him think.
And he had a lot to think about.
Valen glanced once more at the knife at his belt, then to the small stone room, which the opening was covered by thick roots that if someone tried to force their way in, would find themselves wrapped and constricted by the roots till they passed out. Inside that impenetrable cell, sat in what he hoped was extreme discomfort the very pony he had longed to stick his knife into.
The pony huntmaster. Blueblood he remembered the Fire Man calling him.
When Valen had learned that Blueblood, was here, he felt he would at last have his revenge for Ralof. Other people had desired to kill the pony, for his part in the attack on the Moot. But any attempts at taking proper vengeance had been prevented after the first few attempts, Valen one of them.
The Fire Man had not be happy to see his people try to kill his prisoner. He had only seen the Fire Man angry a few times, and the cold tone in his voice when he had said that if anyone attempted to kill his prisoner without his express permission would face a fate worse then death.
Valen and the others gave up after that. None would dare cross the Fire Man.
Never the less, Valen couldn't forget, or forgive. He couldn't understand why the Fire Man was protecting the pony. But still....he had tried to talk to Marcus about it, but the Huntmaster only said.
"Trust the Fire Man. His reasons are difficult to understand, but they are for our best interest." Was what Marcus said, and Valen could tell that even if the Huntmaster lived by those words.
Valen wanted to believe those words, but he was having difficulty.
Ponies were nothing more then animals. Murderous animals that didn't deserve mercy.
Valen winced as he felt his finger glide along a sharp edge of his arrow head and he pulled it to his mouth. He decided then to return to focusing on his work. At least to spare his fingers more pain.
"Valen."
Valen looked up from the stone to a number of hunters, each dressed for battle with spear and bow. As well, now each had a small thick shield of cured hide and leather.
"We go to hunt. Will you join?"
Valen nodded, anything to help him get his mind off of Blueblood. And so he quickly gathered the equipment he needed and followed the hunters out into the Everfree. As they left the cave, they had to cross the crystal tree, called the Tree of Harmony, by the Fire Man.
Valen found the tree strange. A strange name for a tree, but stranger still was the feeling that...the tree was...talking to him. Not in words, but Valen could feel...something everytime he got near the tree besides the strange calming sensation it gave off when near its presence.
Valen couldn't understand it. But when he was near the tree, he felt...like it was....sad. But even more so, when he was near he thought he could feel the tree was.....curious.
Valen found it uncomforting to think such things, and quickened his pace to be away from the tree. But that only seemed to make the sense from the tree, humored.
He was glad to finally enter into the forest itself. He would take a manticore or troll any day over strange glowing trees.
Prey was easy to come by in the Everfree Forest, even in a harsh winter as was occuring. Every creature here was both predator and prey. A hunter was not just a hunter, but hunted as well. But while Valen had faced creatures that hunted man as well as beast, like lions and herdbanes, the creatures in the Everfree showed a hunting instinct and intellect that rivaled a mans.
It was not a comforting thought. But he had grown use to it in the days they had arrived.
The sound of a stick breaking caused Valen and the other hunters to turn, arrows and spears aimed. They waited a tense minute, breathes held until the creature finally jumped out from the rustling bushes.
It was a small fox, only it had a third eye on its head. The fox looked at them, then ran off, and Valen caught sight of a second tail on the fox.
The hunters relaxed some, and they continued on. Though everyone was still tense.
Maybe...they weren't as use to it as they would like.
After their encounter with the two tailed fox, they had another encounter with a much greater beast. They had managed to stalk and ambush a lone Garn, a large wolf like creature with only a single eye in the center of its head and a pair of large sabreteeth. A garn was the size of a Clefthoof, able to stare a grown mane full in the chest.
Normally garn traveled in packs, but this one bore wounds stating it had lost a battle for pack control and been cut off. It snarled and frothed at the mouth in rage, howling and clawing at anything. In its rage, it had been easy to sneak up and attack.
But sneaking up on a garn and killing one was two different matters entirely. And while they eventually managed to kill the animal, many hunters would have new scars and injuries to be tended to. But the price was worth the prize, as garn fur made excellent blankets, and they would need plenty until this winter ended.
'If it ever does.' Valen thought, shivering as he thought he caught a moan in the air. he might have been wrong, but he felt sure the snow had picked up a bit with that moan.
"What do you think the Fire Man will do next?" One hunter asked, on the way back to the caves.
"He will led us to revenge. The ponies cannot be allowed to get away with their actions at the Moot." One said.
"The Fire Man will not act rashly. He won't throw away lives meaninglessly." Another said, an older hunter with more experience.
"Meaningless?" A hunter said, "Our people were slaughtered by those animals. They deserve to be paid back in kind."
"We should start with that pony huntmaster. Skin him and leave him hanging from a tree." Another hunter growled, finger his knife.
"Alright enough of that!" The older hunter said, "the Fire Man wants the pony huntmaster alive and we will respect that. What he decides upon will be shown in time. Until then we must be patient."
The hunters all went silent at that, but one said to Valen.
"What do you think Valen?" He asked.
Valen bit his lip, but before he could respond, a loud shrill scream caught everyones attention.
The pole on which they carried the garn was dropped as every hunter pulled out their weapons and looked around. There was another scream, and it sounded like a young girl.
"Someone is in trouble. it could be a gatherer." The older hunter said, and headed off after the sound. Valen and the others followed.
As they ran, another noise followed the scream. That of a loud and wild howl, which was followed by other howls.
Garn. A whole pack. They were hunting something.
Valen and the hunters made quicker pace, and as they reached an area where the trees thinned out into a clearing, they saw a pack of garn surrounding their prey. Valen and the others prepared to attack to defend what they assumed was one of their own when one of the hunters said.
"Wait. It is not a gatherer. It is a pony." The hunter said, pointing.
The hunters stopped and looked. Sure enough, Valen saw two young ponies, one orange with a purple colored mane and wearing strange clothing that didn't look fit for hunting or battle. Another was pink and wore a strange glittering headdress. This one also wore strange clothes.
Both ponies stood huddled closed, holding each other in fear as the garn took turns snapping at them, testing their defenses before attacking.
Valen felt a cold spot in his heart, and began lowering his spear.
"Lets move on." he heard the older hunter say. The other hunters all agreed, and began moving back.
Valen nodded, and began to follow, when he heard the garn snap its fangs again and the headdress wearing pony give a screech. It would soon be over for them. The garn were sure to see they were defenseless.
Valen wanted to leave, but something....something just didn't feel right. He looked at the ponies again, and could tell they were not very old. Maybe his age? Less? Children really.
Would he really leave children to be eaten by Garn? Even if they were ponies?
Valen tightened his grip on his spear, as he felt conflicted. He should leave, the ponies had hurt his people. They deserved whatever fate gave them....and yet....
The garn gave a growl and Valen saw it leap to go for the ponies, ready to make the kill.
Time seemed to slow down then, as Valen soon found himself hurling his spear with a yell as he charged forward. The spear struck the garn in the side, and set it to the ground impaled. it howled in pain, and the other pack members turned to see who had attacked their pack mate.
Valen rushed, screaming and howling as he swung another spear, holding it out and stabbing at the garn, turning to watch all his sides. He could not explain why, but something told him that he could not live with himself if he left children to die by the fangs of a garn.
Even if they were ponies.