Legacies of light

It has been eight months since I joined the village; to put it simply, it has been fun. At first, all I did was wake up, train, eat, and then sleep, but over time I was able to make a friend: Willow. Through our mutual love of animals and knowledge we were able to bond, and since we both became warriors, we have grown closer; it seems through all the time I spend with Willow and the other kids, all of the older villagers have been more friendly with me. It also seems Pine and Sequoia were putting in a good word for me.

Being part of this big family has made me enjoy being here, even though some people would like me to die. Regardless, I have many people who care and want me to be around now. It makes me want to stay here forever, but I still need to leave. I can’t stay here forever, so I have two objectives to accomplish to do.

The first, is to make it so I know the entrance and exit to the village. I still have to be knocked out whenever we go hunting. From being here for so long, I have realised that is their most guarded secret, people who aren’t warriors are not even allowed to know, and the reason I am not allowed to know, is that people who aren’t a fan of me have been pushing back against me being told, so I need to win these guys over first, which is much easier said than done, especially since the closer I have grown with people in the village the angrier they become.

Second is Coles’s status. Due to me and the Sequoia conversation, his execution has been put on hold, but the dissenters for him are much worse than for me. I have been trying to change their opinion of him, but everyone has realised, I am just doing this to avoid his death; thus, they can't trust my words concerning Cole.

Though Sequoia has been taking him out on walks around the village, he even gets Cole to help him do odd jobs. Which has altered some people’s perceptions of him, but most people in the town are still weary.

So, until I find a solution to my current problems, I can't go anywhere.

-Break-

“Population control.”

“Yes Orb, all the warriors will be carrying out some population control.”

Hearing this, I get up and try to leave the training grounds, but Willow stops me.

“Orb, what are you doing.”

“I am going to file a complaint to Sequoia. I thought you guys were more civilised than that, to think you’re going to have a culling.”

“Population control of animals, not humans,” Alis tells me

“Oh, why?”

Then willow says, “Around this time of year, sonbits start propagating non-stop. This is an issue, because they eat all of the vegetation, and it takes quite some time to grow back, eventually killing off lots of animals and themselves due to lack of food. So we slaughter most of the sonbits, so they don’t bring about the destruction of all the animals.”

“But isn’t it sort of bad to commit genocide?”

“Orb three things: First, sonbits are pest, sort and simply. Second, their stupid, they eat everything and then starve to death while bringing most of the animals with them, it is our job to stop them from committing suicide. Third, sonbit meat tastes amazing at this time of year, and there is a lot of it.”

“You were making a good argument until you said the third reason, you guys just want to eat them,” I see seeing the mouths of all the warriors around him watering.

“Your one to talk to. Your hungry every second you’re alive,” Aea says

“No, I am not. I happen to be full now,” then after I say this, my stomach releases a large grumble.

Laughter is heard across the training grounds as Orb stands there embarrassed “Ok, I might be a little hungry.”

As all the warriors train and laugh together, one chooses to stand alone by himself, that man being Buloke. “They have all been blinded and can’t see the danger in front of their eyes. This issue has grown to where something needs to be done.”

-Break-

So as the day comes for the culling, all the village's warriors gather together and are told to form into groups.

“Why can’t we all go together out together.”

“That’s because there are multiple different locations that the sonbits gather to propagate and we like getting this all done in one day, so we just split up. Now stop complaining, and let’s go find someone to pair up with.”

Spurred on by Willows’s comment, I shout, “Does anyone want to pair up with us.”

Then a crowd of people gather around both me and Willow. The voices around us saying things like

“I want to.”

“I’ll protect you two.”

“You guys should join me. It will be fun.”

It’s weird seeing how much everyone wants to be around me now.

“It seems I am incredibly popular, Willow. You should be worried that your place as my best friend might be taken.”

“Don’t worry. It doesn’t mean much to me since I don’t consider you my best friend.”

“Huh, who is your best friend then,” I say with a trembly voice

“He was a person very close to me, but he died when his head became too inflated, and now all that’s lets of him is a cocky imbecilic.”

So, as I am going to ask someone to group up with us, an annoying person locked eyes with me. It was Buloke. He then walks up to me, gets onto one knee, and says, “Would you let me partner up with you guys.”

So Buloke, the man who has had extreme animosity against me since I got here, now wants to partner up with me for a mission that would bring us out in the middle of the forest with no one around. There is only one answer to that question.

“No!”

“Would you please reconsider.”

“No!”

Buloke then gets on both his knees and says, “PLEASE.”

As I am about to response with: no again, I notice everyone around me has a shocked expression, I know this is out of character for him, but it seems they are overreacting.

Noticing my confusion Willow says to me, “I guess you wouldn’t know this, but a warrior bowing to another is seen as articulating the person is better than you in every regard. It is the most significant sign of respect one can show.”

Then I hear someone ask Buloke, “Why are you going this far for this.”

“Up onto now, I have been very petty and disrespectful to the guests whom we have welcomed into our village, so I want to do something to make it up to them, and as a warrior what better place to do that than the battleground so please let me accompany you.”

So, as I am about to reject this wolf in sheep’s clothing, I hear someone say.

“So, you have finally come to your around.”

“We were waiting for you to return to your old self.”

“Well, I guess Orb and Willow are the youngest warriors, so having the strongest here go with them is the smartest thing to do.”

“We’re leaving those two to you, Buloke.”

Then all the other warriors walk off from the rest of the groups. I see no one in this village understands what the words no mean, but that’s not the issue. Now my problem is that I am about to be murdered.

As I start panicking, Willow noticing the change in my hair colour, tells me, “Buloke is the most prideful person. I know he would never bow to anyone, so he must be sorry, and some groups are pretty close together, but if you are still worried, I will be right there with you so that everything will be all right.”

With Willow words and the time it took for everyone to group up, calming me down, I walk over to Buloke and say, “Nice to be working with you,” while stretching out my hand.

“Nice to be working with you as well,” Buloke says as he shakes my hand.

Then the chief comes up before everyone is about to leave and is about to give a speech, but as he gets up in front of everyone and sees all the groups, he stops and takes a second to look at our group and smiles.

Not you, too, Sequoia I thought after seeing our group you would forcibly break us up, but my hopes were shattered.

Then after Sequoia gives us a send-off, all the warriors head off in their groups.

“Hey Orb, the scars on your arms have increased.”

“Well, it just a sign that’s all the training has been paying off,” after I say this, I suddenly feel an impact on the back of my head.

-Break-

As I get up from the ground, I quickly get a hold of my situation. I need to stop falling for their distractions. It’s been months, and it works every time.

“Orb, your awake we just parted from the groups close to us and are rather close to our destination.”

So after getting up, I run with Willow and Buloke to the next destination. But then Buloke says, “I am quite a bit faster than you both, so why don’t I carry you both.”

“Yeah, I think that would be a good idea,” Willow says ecstatically.

So, as Willow takes buloke spear, we climb on his back. Then he runs incredible fast towards our destination. His speed is inhuman. He can’t be doing this with just physical strength. Even with all my training, I haven’t been able to reach that point. I tried asking around to all the other warriors, but they couldn’t give me anything conclusive either. They keep saying things like: when we focus, we are stronger.

At first, I thought it was something genetic, but Cole who was frostbitten almost to death, was able to stop Buloke’s punch, so without a doubt, there is something that I am missing.

“Where here.”

We arrived, after getting off Buloke’s back, I saw the colony of sonbits who were living by a cliff side, and one thing immediately caught my eye.

“Willow sonbits are herbivores, right.”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“So why is that one swallowing an animal corpse,” I say, fascinated.

“Well, you see, sonbits happen to be how should I put this, stupid. They can only derive nutrients from plants but will put anything in their mouth, so they usually swallow animals, get sick, and then die, but at least they have evolved to handle that since it only takes them two weeks to birth a child from pregnancy, and the child takes two weeks until it can start giving birth, so the amount that is born surpass the amount that dies.”

Well, that’s true, since I heard that we were giving a small colony to handle, and there are at least 200 sonbits here.

“Willow, Orb, let’s get going, we should be done quickly.”

So, we get up, start running towards them and take them out. Sonbits usually attack in two ways. First, they jump up high and try to squash us with their weight, but because they always scream humina, it is straightforward to hear what position they’re coming from. The second way they attack is by spitting acid from their stomachs, but the indicator of it is clear to see, so dodging is no problem, and it even helps us because the sonbits are so large that the acid tends to hit the other sonbit.

Though it is still tricky dodging simply because there are many of them, I perceiver, and when I can get behind them, I slash their napes. Their fat is thinnest around their necks, so it is the easy part to get a kill.

As we fight it, I take note of both Willow and Buloke. Willow is doing about the same as me, while Buloke is fantastic; unlike Willow or me, Buloke is lobing off each of their heads in a single strike.

While we fight, I see some getaway, and I scream to Willow and Buloke, “I will handle those.”

So, I give chase. These guys can jump far but bash their heads into the trees after a while, making killing them easier.

So, after I finish and start walking back, I think: how will we get all these bodies back? This is going to be a pain.

As I arrive back, I see both willow and Buloke bodies unnaturally laid on the ground with a bunch of sonbit bodies around them, so I run up to both of them to see what’s wrong.

I check on Willow and see he is unconscious, but that doesn’t make sense. There are no other injuries on his body, so a sonbit couldn’t have done this. Then I realised what had happened. I move from where I was standing, barely dodging the attack that was heading towards me.

The only person who could knock Willow out here is you, Buloke. He just swung his spear with real killing intent. “Do you hate me so much that you would embarrass yourself as you did earlier”

“Hate plays no part in my actions. You and the other outsider must die, so don’t resist and make this harder.”

As he says these words, I realise how bad my situation is. Due to Him running at full speed, we were probably the first ones to reach our destination, so the other groups weren’t even close to us, and since I was unconscious, I didn’t even know what direction to head in or even how to get back to the village, so nowhere to run and this whole forest is like his own house, so nowhere to hide.

As he lunges toward me, he goes for my head, but I barely dodge. His attacks are still solid and precise despite killing over a hundred sonbits, but it still seems that me dodging all his attacks is bothering him.

He probably isn’t used to someone avoiding him like this. He also is attacking at his average speed, so he is perhaps exhausted to some extent; so, I need to find some advantage right now.

So, I say, “Don’t you think people will find it strange that I happened to die when I left with one of the village’s strongest warriors? Even if I die, you won’t get away with this.”

“There are many strong animals in the forest. As long as I cut off one of my arms and find a way to get rid of your body, I am sure I can make a story to convince everyone.”

I need to find an opening for an attack. While dodging all his heavy attacks, I see one, so I try to grasp it and slice him on his legs. Still, as I go in for the attack, he moves at his super speed and is behind me with his spear coming near my neck, but we suddenly hear HUMINA. It’s a sonbit and it does a ground slam, which causes the cliff with all of us on to collapse.

The sonbits were doing lots of ground slams against us, so the cliff must have deteriorated. As me, Willow and Buloke were about to fall, Buloke, at his incredible speed, kicked Willows’s body a safe distance away and threw a spear right through the sonbits head, Buloke and I then fell down the cliff.