Welcome, while I have been writing online for some time this is going to be my first crack at writing fanfiction. This is the first of three interlocked fanfics that will make up the Saga of Souls . Each will detail the life of one a 'minor' person from a setting. While each soul is independent of the others, some that share a setting may interact with the others, often in ways that aren t apparent until you read the event from the point of view of one of the other souls. This is mainly to take a deeper look at a setting, focusing on areas often left in the corners and shadows in the main stories. And so it is unlikely that the characters will interact with the 'main' cast, though i may throw in a few easter eggs for the very observant readers. I hope that you enjoy it.
This is the Soul of the Hunter. Part of the "Saga of Souls".
"and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."
-Deuteronomy 6:7
A cry of pain escapes the rough-cut stone house, followed by a calm voice that is all but drowned out by a woman cursing. Inside a number of women bustle about a pregnant woman laying on a blood-stained sheet. In the hands of one of the midwives is an infant child, looking like a normal Human child save for the tentacle-like strands that rose from his cheeks to wave in front of his face and grasping anything that came close enough. Carrying the still bloody child outside, the midwife raised him above her head and for the first time in his life the child was silent as he look out on the Silent Voices. As the woman below chanted the prays and benedictions that were say to bring the blessing of the ancestors on the newborn, the child reach upward toward the colorful and luminous bands spread across the starry vault, as if trying to touch them. And so the child drifted off to sleep, under the light of the stars and the Silent Voices, and lulled by the chanting and the soft, warm breezes.
A child stood on a bluff overlooking several small stone buildings. Any baseline Human that looked on the boy would assume that they were five or six, but in truth it had been nearly twenty years since the child was born. It had been many years since the child had last seen either his father or mother, but such things mattered little in the Great Hunt, so he paid those thoughts no mind. At the moment his attention was focused more surely on the sky above him. It would be a few minutes yet before the sun had fully set, and several hours more before the night truly got dark.
He looks back down at the town one finial time before setting off, heading farther away from the small outcropping of building. This was only his third trial, and as far a trials went this one would be rather easy. He only needed to head out a certain distance, survive a week, then return to town. Tonight promised to be clear and warm, but the rains would start before the trial was over.
It was nearly midnight before the child stopped walking. Looking around he decided that he had gone far enough from the town. The only thing he had been allowed for the trial had been a small, un-powered knife. Looking at the few scraggily trees that grew in the stony hills he quickly gave up any ideas about crafting a wood shelter. Sighing slightly, the boy clears a small patch of ground of sharp rocks and settled down to rest till morning.
Come morning, the boy set out to search around for any small caves that he could use for shelter. He wasn t hungry yet, but if he waited too long it would be harder to catch something to eat, so he kept an eye out for anything edible as he searched. It was well into the afternoon by the time he found a cave deep enough to keep him dry during the rains. Unfortunately, the cave delved deeper than the boy wished to explore, and he decided he should be careful in the likely chance that something else called the cave home as well.
It was well into the fourth day of the trial. The boy sat inside the cave chewing on a raw hunk of a lizard the size of his arm, the rest of which was sitting nearby. Outside the rain was falling in torrential sheets, and the boy couldn t see more than a meter or two out from the mouth of the cave. Some of the water from outside flowed into the cave, forming small rivers swirling deeper into the cave. Despite this, there where still plenty of dry spots that the boy could sleep on, and the water had flushed out the lizard that the boy was currently eating.
On the fifth night, the boy woke unexpectedly. Looking around for whatever had woken him, he pulled his knife from its sheath. After a moment a sound came rolling up from the depths of the cave. For a single terrifying moment, the boy thought that the cave was collapsing, but after a moment the noise stopped. Then a few moments later it started again, louder this time. Suddenly the boy realized that the cave wasn t collapsing, but rather something was coming up from deeper in the cave. Backing slowly toward the mouth of the cave, the boy noticed several things about the cave that he had not noticed before. Such was the fact that the cave was nearly completely round, and that it didn t grow bigger or smaller the deeper it went.
Turning and running the boy fled out into the rain, ducking around the corner of the entrance to the cave and pressing his back flat against the stone there. The roar came again a third time and the boy thought that the stone beneath him was going to crack under the force of the sound. And then he saw the beast.
Or more accurately he saw part of the beast. The cave was nearly five meters high in the center and the same at the widest point; even so the boy wonder how the beast managed to fit inside. It slid past, seemingly unending, as the boy watched in growing horror and terror. Seemingly an eternity later, the last of the beast slipped free from the cave and vanished into the rain. The boy did not sleep again that night.
On the seventh morning, the boy set out back toward town. Struggling through the rain and mud. It took him much longer to return to the town that it had taken to leave, and it was nearly nightfall again before he managed to stumble back into the main building in the town. Looking down at the young child dripping water and mud onto the floor, the town master had little to say beyond chiding the boy for nearly being late and to make sure that the boy would clean up the mess he was making before the evening meal was served.
Author s Notes: right. Originally, I had planned on having the first chapter cover the entire child period of his life, but it kind of got away from me. After I had finished the bit on the trial I realized I had enough for a chapter. So in all likelihood it will be a while before he finishes the child stage of the story. After writing this the plan is to write out the following: another trial; his naming; he leaves the planet; his first hunt. But seeing how well I follow plans *shrugs*.
If any of y'all are wondering, he is an Anzat. The Anzat are basically star wars pseudo-vampires. More info about them can be found in the New Essential Guide: Alien Species book or on wookiepedia.
Comments, Suggestions, & Questions are all welcome and I will answer them as I can. Please no flaming. if you don t like my tale, use constructive criticism to tear it down instead (people are less likely to ignore a multi-paragraph post using logic and proper grammar, than they are a one-liner in all caps).