The Hunt

By Anya O' Jacobs

1 Power

Silver orbs stared out from a pale pixyish face framed by what looked like a stream of molten copper. A thin hand brushed a few stray strands behind one pointed ear as with the other hand she pulled an arrow from the quiver at her back. She notched the arrow to the string of her long graceful bow, balancing on the balls of her feet small body tense and muscles rippling beneath her skin. She might be small but she was anything but helpless. She was clad in a brown homespun shirt and pants in the same simple color that were tucked into the top of soft brown leather boots designed for walking in silence.

Eywn pondered the vision in the still pool of water that was once again clear. What did it mean? The old man reached one gnarled hand to his silver beard in thought. His green eyes were troubled yet he seemed a bit detached from this worry at the same time, like an ancient tree as if it had been around forever holding the knowledge of the universe but to tired and old to tell you if you tried to ask.

A small child her purple hair windswept from flying landed beside him folding her large purple wings at her back. She waved a dark-blue hand in greeting.

"Grandfather! Meeka wants to see you!" They all called him that, Grandfather, but then again he was old. He tried to recall how old but after a few minutes gave up, his memory wasn't functioning that well any longer.

"Grandfather?" The girl's tone sounded worried. Actually the whole tribe was a bit worried for this old man who had been with them since any could remember.

"Hum? Oh yes Meeka..." Eywn lacking wings relied on the ancient pure magic of nature that found a home in him to fly after her, although it was more like walking on a surface created by power. The name of the woman who was asking to see him brought up memories of another Meeka from long ago. A Meeka who was an ancestor of the tribe leader today, who had looked rather like the little girl flying in front of him. Those memories brought back other memories, much more painful memories. Would he ever see the woman of these other memories again, the woman called Cladi, the only woman he had ever loved? Maybe he would and then again maybe he wouldn't. He lost his train of thought as a majestic bird with emerald feathers flew by singing its song of the free wilderness.

"Grandfather!" He drew his eyes away from the creature of the sky. The girl was hovering impatiently ahead. She had wanted him to follow her. For what reason, he couldn't remember. He sighed and followed her.

The arrived at the tribe's home, a grove of ancient monolith trees. In each of these trees there were huts on the branches but they were built around the branches and trunks accommodating the trees and were being constantly rebuilt as the trees grew, for these were a people who respected and based their culture around nature.

"Ahh! Elder Eywn!" Only the tribe leader called him that. The others just said 'Grandfather'.

"Yes Meeka?" He smiled at the woman, she had just been elected leader and took the responsibility to heart.

"I see Talla found you alright."

He nodded. Ahh so that's why he was following the girl. He knew the reason would come to him eventually.

"We have received something for you. It came by way of a falcon."

"What exactly is this item that you speak of?" Falcon... He'd heard that before...

"An envelope, Addressed to you."

"Interesting. May I see it?"

"Of course. Just wait here a moment and I will get it."

He was left standing there as Meeka flew off to get the letter in question. Eywn feeling tired went over to the base of a tree where an exposed root lifted up forming him a seat.

"Thank you." He sat down gratefully. A frinklas rolled by on its greenish-brown fuzzy body. Its squeaked a greeting to him and rolled over to his feet wiggling in joy as he reached a hand down to pat it. Then it squeaked farewell and rolled away again. By the time Meeka got back he had forgotten all about the letter.

"Elder Eywn?"

"Hum?"

"I have your letter."

"Letter? I haven't written any letters."

"No elder it's a letter written by someone else for you."

"Oh." He took the letter and cracked the seal pulling out the thick yellow parchment from within. Opening the letter he began to read. As his eyes took in the words the old man's vision became blurred and a drop fell from them onto the page before he wiped the tears away and read the last of it. His heart skipped a beat as he reached the signature.

"Cladi!" He cried aloud rereading the letter. Then reading it again. Tucking it into the breast pocket of his robes he got shakily to his feet and hobbled over to his tree-home. Levitating up to the front entranceway, he was to old for climbing the stair-like branches up, he entered the hut. Going straight to the center of the room and placing his hands on the gnarled trunk of the ancient tree.

"Wise old friend, I need to ask one last favor of you." He paused giving the tree had saved his life once before as he had killed himself trying to rid his mind of the disease that made him an insane killing machine time to consider. It had mended his torn spirit with power and replaced the damaged area with the same power making him no longer human but rather a force of nature that talked, ate, and thought like the human he had once been. This tree had been his home for almost a millennium, and with Cladi gone it was the closest thing he had to a friend.

"I need you to renew me. Please I implore you to bestow upon me youth, for I need it to go to Cladi." These words came straight from his heart and the tree heard him out. Not listening the way you or I do, but understanding all the same.

He began to glow with an eerie light in the late evening as the sun was just disappearing beyond the mountains in the distance and the world's three moons began to rise into the night sky. One was a crescent as it always was, and the other two were full.

An ear splitting cry escaped his lips sounding horse and strangled at first but growing stronger and louder as time drew on, awaking the entire tribe who began to gather around watching through the branches and leaves that made up the walls of his home.

The winkles on his skin began to smooth out as muscle that had faded with age was replenished and his posture straightened. The hair that fell around his ears and into his eyes slowly turned from silver to flaming red. His beard fell out in clumps falling around his feet and a look of utter pain twisted his now young face. Eywn stumbled back from the tree as the glow around him started to fade and he dropped to the ground vision fading into blackness as the pain started to leave his body along with the glow and a sigh escaped his lips. Face untwisting into a triumphant smile, he dropped into a blissful sleep.

When he awoke he was on his bed of springy moss with the village healer bending over him as well as the entire tribe hovering nearby. He wondered vaguely why but then recalled yesterday and grinned leaping out of bed. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt this alive.

"Good morning to you as well!" The others were looking at him with awe and slight fear, which dampened his mood a bit, but only just.

"All of you look as though you've never seen an old geezer young again!" And with those words he swung down out of the tree using branches and waving goodbye to the tribe he had spent most of his life with set off on his quest to go to the aid of his one true love.

The tribe watched him as he disappeared over the crest of a hill in the golden glow of the early morning sun.