Hunters of the forest.

by Sylif Daring Doo

House of hunters.

______*the next day 7:31 AM*______

Scootaloo groaned as she awoke and accidentally put her hoof on her forehead causing her to feel intense pain.

"Already trying to suicide?" Came a familiar voice.

Scootaloo returned her hoof to her side and opened her eyes to see Shanda standing over her. "Oh, hey." She said groggily.

Shanda rolled her eyes and walked away. "I take it your not a morning person?" She asked.

Scootaloo grunted. "Yep, never been a fan of it." She replied.

Shanda chuckled. "Tell me about it, but when your a.... hunter.... you learn to get over it quickly." She said.

Scootaloo sleepily looked around the hut. "What's up with the masks?" She asked sloppily.

Shanda facepalmed. "Ugh, oh uh, the masks are for ritualistic purposes." She replied.

Scootaloo noticed the scowl. "Something wrong?" She asked.

Shanda nodded. "Yep, I may have overdid it last night." She replied.

Scootaloo had a look of confusion on her face but decided not to prod.

Shanda silently thanked someone for the silence.

Scootaloo decided to test her legs just to be sure, she moved them lightly to the left and smiled. "Well what do you know, I got feeling in my legs." She said.

Shanda walked over to Scootaloo and moved her legs back to their original position and started to remove the bandages.

Scootaloo was curious. "What are you doing?" She asked.

Shanda looked at her. "I have to change the bandages, unless you want to get an infection?" She countered.

Scootaloo's face turned a pale orange and she was now silent.

Shanda chuckled and removed the bandages on the legs and saw that they were now fully healed. "I told you that this method works." She said.

Scootaloo looked at her legs and she was now genuinely confused. "How did they?" She was interrupted by Shanda putting her hand over Scootaloo's mouth.

Shanda focused on her work. "I've asked dad the exact same question for years and he could never answer me." She replied.

Scootaloo nodded and rested her head on the wood. "Alright, its one of those unexplainable things right?" She said.

Shanda nodded and removed the last leg bandage. "Yes, and it seems that all that remains is for your legs to rest." She said.

Scootaloo had a look of shock on her face. "I have no idea what you did but it works." She said plainly.

Shanda gave Scootaloo a silencing glare before examining the filly's body, her legs were slightly burnt and had small cuts from the sharper rocks but nothing deep, her arms were burnt to a slightly higher degree but weren't too bad, her head had suffered the least damage, at least to the naked eye, but she wouldn't say anything.

In truth Scootaloo had suffered a small amount of brain damage, thankfully its not enough to do any long standing damage but she would suffer some memory loss.

"Alright, lets check the chest wound." Shanda said while unraveling the bandages on the chest.

Shanda pulled off the last bandage and noticed the wound. "Its smaller that's for sure." She said.

The wound was indeed smaller as it was only the size of a fist, even though Shanda did actually know how the healing worked but she didn't want to waste hours or perhaps days on explaining it.

"Regardless the only thing that you can do right now is wait." Shanda said.

Scootaloo was confused right now. "Do I even want to know how this is even possible?" She asked.

Shanda wrapped more bandages around the wound. "Not really, just don't think about it." She replied.

Scootaloo sighed and leaned her head back. "Fine then." She said.

Shanda stood up and walked over to the table. "You should be able to sit, just take it easy until the wound fully heals." She said.

Scootaloo did so and slowly sat up, she finally got a better look at the hut, even more masks then before and what looked like a rack sat in the corner.

Footsteps came from above and Scootaloo looked at the stairs to see Jod'ka walk down the stairs. "You look worse then normal." Shanda joked.

Jod'ka sighed and walked into the large room and over to a large cauldron. "How's your friend?" He asked.

"She's mostly fine, she just needs some time and then poof back to normal." She replied making a poof noise for effect.

Jod'ka put his hands up to his eyes and groaned. "Teenagers!" He shouted.

Shanda laughed softly and Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "I am sure I don't want to know." She said.

Jod'ka lifted the lid off the cauldron to reveal a thick layer of white mist followed by the smell of dirty socks, he pulled a long ladle off of the rack and stirred...... whatever it was in the cauldron.

Scootaloo was of course curious but not THAT curious. "Yep don't want to know." She added.

Shanda opened a cabinet and then a grabbed a bow and quiver and a pair of hunting knives. "I'll be back later." She said.

Jod'ka nodded and lobbed a small ball at her. "Remember, emergences only." He said firmly.

Shanda nodded and opened the door to leave, she pulled her hood up and left.

Jod'ka looked at Scootaloo for a moment before going back to what he was doing. "I think you should know, yesterday when Shanda kept that group away, it wasn't personal." He said.

Scootaloo looked at him for a moment before sighing. "I'm aware." She replied.

Jod'ka put the lid on the pot and the ladle back on the rack. "Very well." He said blankly.

For a while the hut was left in bare silence as the two had nothing to talk about, occasionally Jod'ka would come downstairs to stir whatever was in the cauldron and return upstairs.

Scootaloo looked around and noticed that the panther was gone. "That's odd." She said.

Jod'ka walked into the room from one of the other doors. "What is?" He asked.

Scootaloo looked at him and rubbed her leg. "Where'd that panther go anyway?" She asked.

Jod'ka suddenly burst into laughter and he attempted to gain control. "I-I'm sorry-but if you-must know Shade is right there." He replied between breaths while pointing at the window.

Scootaloo looked at the window and saw the panther. "How didn't I notice that?" She asked herself.

Jod'ka walked over to the weapons cabinet and pulled out a javelin and tomahawk. "I'll be back, Shade you know what to do." He said before walking out the door.

Scootaloo looked at the panther who was staring out the window. "Great, me and a panther, this wont end well." She joked quietly.

Shade simply yawned and continued to look out the window. "Wonderful." Scootaloo said.

Scootaloo looked around the hut and noticed a strange tail. "What in the world?" She asked herself.

The tail was like a scorpions complete with a stinger, it looked like it was sliced off entirely.

"Nope." Scootaloo said firmly to herself.

_______*three hours later*______

Shanda walked down the stairs and saw that Scootaloo was asleep so she decided to keep quiet and walked towards the large cauldron in the room.

When Shanda reached the cauldron the door opened and Jod'ka walked in. "Why is it every time I get near this thing you enter the room in some way?" She asked.

Jod'ka chuckled and carried in a dead animal. "Coincidence." He replied with a mocking tone.

Shanda sighed and looked at the dead animal, it was small and looked a lot like a chicken but was far to tall. "Hey dad.....have you seen Rock?" She asked.

Jod'ka shrugged and set the dead animal on the cutting board and proceeded to begin his work.

Shanda sighed. "I swear every time we find Shade we lose Rock....go figure." She said with annoyance clear in her voice.

Jod'ka silently worked on cutting up the giant chicken thing. "It is your pet you know, you should keep track of it." He said calmly.

Shanda nodded. "Yea, next time I see that lion I will tag him if I have to." She replied before walking towards Scootaloo.

Jod'ka looked over at Shanda for a brief moment before returning to his work. "More will come, or she will return, most likely with that group from before." He stated.

Shanda walked passed Scootaloo and towards a cabinet in the corner and opened it to reveal a large assortment of items, the most noticeable being a blue and green spear with a white crescent moon with the carving of tiki masks on each side and a skull shaped shaft, Shanda carefully pulled the spear out and flipped her hood up.

"I'm going out." She stated before walking towards the door.

Jod'ka sighed and walked over to Shanda and pulled out a scroll. "Here, this contains all of the knowledge I've learned about this world and a one time hearthstone." He handed the contents over to Shanda who took them.

"I'll be back." She said plainly before walking out the door.

Jod'ka sighed and walked over to the cauldron and began stirring. "That girl will be the death of me."

Author's Note:

Surprise! I AM ALIVE!

Soooooo.....what do you think?

I know that I've been....absent but I didn't have the drive.....but this time shall be different!

I SHALL RULE THE WORLD WITH TERRIBLE PUNS AND WRITING MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!