Chapter 6- Atarian Blade of Animae

In case you don't know, Animae stands for Souls in Latin.

December 7, 2027

Morning was dawning in the forest; Niana and Amilia were asleep in Amilia’s tent. Nothing had bothered them during the time they spent walking the forest or the time they spent sleeping. So far the trail had been easy and the worst thing they’d encountered so far was a little Gnome who had tried to rob them with a dagger, it didn’t take much time to hang him upside down with a rope on the branch of a tree. They felt kind of bad leaving him there though, so they gave him a warning, telling him that if he tried anything again that they wouldn’t be so kind. He got the message and ran back inside his little tree home. Other than that, it had been quiet and peaceful. Niana was the first to wake when he saw the sun shining through the tent, he didn’t want to wake Amilia though so instead he just got up and stepped over her. He opened the zipper quietly and stepped outside just in time to see the beautiful landscape of the forest in the morning. Dew was slowly trickling off the trees, and the dew on the grass made it seem as if each little blade was a valuable gem. He looked all around and he saw a little bit of wildlife just wandering around, doing their own thing, and not paying much attention to him. He hadn’t noticed it till then but he looked around and thought about it, as he did a thought passed through his mind and it was a good thought. The forest in the morning was the most beautiful scenery he’d ever seen, it was kind of sad but that was the truth.

Shortly after he noticed that he hadn’t eaten in a while, and that his stomach was growling for some food. He would have felt bad if Amilia woke up and had nothing to eat, especially considering what she’d done for him last night. He wasn’t about to kill an animal and make food, because if it’s one thing he knew about women is that animals must not be harmed. For all he knew Amilia could be the complete opposite but he wasn’t about take that chance. Instead he looked up in the trees for some eggs, he didn’t have to tell her he took them, he just had to say they were on the ground and it was a sacrifice they had to make. He looked up and almost instantly he saw a nest, and with any luck it had eggs in it. So he climbed up and looked inside the nest. To his surprise their was a gigantic bird nuzzled down in the nest. He looked under the bird and he saw she was sitting on her eggs, no doubt to keep them warm. What in the hell was he supposed to do? Without another though he took out the knife he had made while he was supposed to be training, with one quick thrust he put it into the skull of the resting bird. With nothing more than a screech the bird’s body went limp, sure he felt bad doing it but it was worth surviving. Plus he took the birds body to get the meat so not a complete waste, he had to hurry and take the meat out though before Amilia woke up. He figured he’d just tell her that it was just a fish’s meat. Doubt she’d mind. He put the eggs and the dead bird in his pouch making sure that he put the eggs on top so they wouldn’t bust. On the way back he found some berries he knew weren’t poisonous so he picked them and figured he needed all the food he could get to feed two people.

He made it back to the campsite and quickly skinned the bird and buried the body without waking Amilia. He no longer had to worry about offending her, so he went in his backpack and got a match. Niana went out again to collect some firewood and took a few coals from his pack, he lit the smallest pieces of bark and they lit well. Before he knew it he had a nice warm fire going. He grabbed a skillet and put it on top of the hot coals, he got some butter and put it on, and he put the bird’s meat first. While that was cooking Amilia woke up ad went outside, she walked over to Niana and wrapped her arms around him and asked “What smells so good? I’m starving!” With that comment he figured she probably didn’t care so he just told her the truth. “I was planning on getting some eggs for us to eat, but their was a bird protecting them, so I had no choice but to kill it, I took its meat and respectfully buried its body. I also grabbed the eggs and a few berries, sorry if killing it offends you but we needed food.” She looked at him and busted out laughing, “I don’t care if you kill to feed us! As long as you kill to survive and not just for fun then it’s fine with me.” She kissed him and sat down next to him. “Alright well it will be ready soon so go grab something we can use as plates.” Niana said. She nodded and walked off, as Niana sat there thinking and watching her leave.

She is so beautiful and she doesn’t mind certain things, which in my opinion makes her even hotter. Knowing she had a crush on me, I planned on asking her out when the moment was right, but right now we’ll stick to kissing and cuddling. Not a moment later while Niana was pondering his thoughts, Amilia came back with two flat stones. I would have never thought of using stones so I complimented her, “Good job on finding those, their perfect to eat off of.” She looked back at me and grinned then giggled a little. She was strong enough to carry two heavy stones, and she could still look cute while doing it, not many girls can do that. Even though she was right next to me I was thinking all about her and how bad I had wanted her, I didn’t see anything wrong with it but instead of proposing the idea I kept it to myself. I’d thought of it so many times before, what made this time any different? The fact that she was right there didn’t stop me one bit. In fact, if anything it made my want for her even stronger. I hadn’t really noticed but I felt myself starting to get hard, so I quickly stopped thinking of her in panic that she might notice. I turned away and quickly finished eating and made up the excuse that I was going to get more firewood, she believed it.

It gave me time to walk around and think more about her without being embarrassed. The only thing that was different to me is that now she was actually mine, and I almost couldn’t believe it. I quickly snapped out of my daze as I heard a noise not far from where I was standing. It sounded as if it was coming from a nearby bush, but I was wrong. Instead I felt the presence of someone above me, so I looked into the trees only to see some mysterious creature looking back at me. Before I could react it jumped at me and pinned me to the ground. I couldn’t make out what it was, I saw the thing in plain sight, yet to me it was a foreign beast that I had never seen before. It looked like a mixture of a black bear and a white tiger. It was striped black and white like a zebra but looked nothing like one. It had the claws of the bear yet the tail of a tiger, its head was the shape of a bears but had a tigers ears. This thing looked vicious and the moment its eyes met mine it sent a sense of fear through my body.

          I didn’t mean to but I guess looking into its eyes was ways of saying you have bad intentions, because the next move it made was swipe at my face. Luckily I rolled out from under it, but I barely had time to get up before it was trying to pounce on me again. I tried to pull out my knife but the small animal knocked it out of my hands and broke the handle. I was panicking and I didn’t know what to do, I looked around and realized that I had walked too far away from the camp for Amilia to hear what was happening, I didn’t want to admit it to myself but she helped me once and I guess that made me kind of dependent on her help. I took a quick glance at the animal as it ran at me, I jumped out of the way and did a tumble roll and landed back on my feet. Without thinking I looked in my hand and to my surprise I was holding a sword, but not just any sword. It had ancient scripture on it, and oddly enough, I understood what it said. On the sword was writing that read, “Atarian Blade of Animae” Their was that word again, Atarian. Apparently it was the clan that I was apart of and this weapon was something my clan used. Without giving it another thought I looked at the beast who was charging me again. I took one slash at it while it was in the air, as my blade cut through the strange animal fell to the ground and dissolved into the dirt. I looked to where it seemed to have just dissolved away and instead of blood or any remains their was a single plant growing out of where the animal had been killed. I looked at it closely and didn’t bother thinking too much of it. I stood up and sheathed the newly obtained blade in the sheathe that appeared on my hip the same time the sword did. I looked behind me to find the trail to the campsite; once I found it I followed it back, I thought to myself and realized I probably have some explaining to do when I see Amilia.

          I arrived at the campsite a little later; Amilia wasn’t sitting by the fire anymore. I checked in the tent and I saw her so I figured she was just tired and was laying down for a nap. I went out to the dying fire and sat down next to it. It was kind of cold so I decided to walk to the tree next to our tent and rip off some bark and branches for firewood. They didn’t burn very well at first but after a while they were burning like any other wood. While sitting there at the fire I decided to take out my blade and inspect it. The same writing was still on it; I looked more closely and saw that it wasn’t made out of just any regular material. I didn’t know what it was made out of but it wasn’t something I saw commonly, in fact this is my first time setting eyes on something like this. I sheathed the sword again and then walked over to the tent to find Amilia still sleeping. I had to admit that I had a long day and I was tired as all hell. So I lay down next to her, I put my arms around her and let myself drift into sleep.