Chapter 1982 1982. The Hunt Begins
"That's everything you are leaving me with?" Walker looked at Gil with a little more worry than before. Gil had changed to a plain tunic that was covered in different elven symbols.
They were made to create a pattern of growing plants and dying trees. All of them were made to show the cycle of nature that Gil was supposed to be experiencing within this full day. The back of the tunic even had some fighting monsters sewn in to it. It further showed that nature was violent along with peaceful at times.
"I already said I was fine. Now I have to read this out loud as a pledge to nature. It's part of the tradition."
As Walker stepped back, he could vaguely sense that there was a little more natural mana around them than usual. It made sense though. Gil had been using the high elven dagger technique. He literally brought it back from being a lost art so to speak. Therefore, Gil would have more natural mana around him than most other people would in general.
"By my name, I swear to spend the next rise and fall of the sun. The next rise and fall of the moon. Alone without my weapons. Only a bow to be my guide. Only the nature as part of this forest to be my path. I open myself and offer nature my pledge. I will protect what must be protected. I will lay myself bare to the very flow of nature that allowed me to be born and one day will allow me to die. Show me the way."
While Walker understood this was a version of this tradition that had changed, the words still carried the same meaning.
For an entire day and night, Gil would be left alone. Just a man and nature meeting to decide if he was able to survive. If he was able to accept nature and nature could accept him. The elves had done this out of respect for nature that they relied on for survival.
Even as the elves had gained strength, they never lost their way. In the forest, the elves did not cut trees to make their homes. Instead, they guided the trees to grow in ways that allowed them to live there without harming the trees.
These acts were proof of how the elves valued the nature that gave them the very lives they lived. So doing this ritual, this incredible tradition, was a way for an elven man to meet the very thing that allowed him to reach the point he was at.
Joining hands with another in the leven traditions meant that they may bring life in to the world as well. They would be part of nature that was incredibly delicate and needed the utmost focus and strength to be able to protect that piece of nature.
So much more could be said or even just felt when experiencing and being a part of this. To shoulder that responsibility and everything that would come by walking this path, the elves believed becoming one with nature in this was was a method that had to follow.
Some other cultures had the same or similar acts.
Demi-humans would fight a battle in the coliseum against a rival or someone that they greatly respected. A battle like that would not be something that had to be won. It had to show the growth of the person and the strength they had. It was meant to show everyone and everything that they were not a weakling standing aside. It would show the strength they had that allowed them to stand by their words and their emotions.
The merfolk would have a race through the water. Control of their body was important to survival when in the oceans. Therefore, they would race the fastest swimmers of their life to be able to show that they too could survive and protect in that manner.
While there were many other methods based on the race and cultures, these were just examples that walker had researched or learned about within genesis. So many of them showed that this point, the point in time in Gil's life, was incredibly important. He was just following the elves' ways to do so.
Before Walker could try and speak, Gil had darted off in to the forest. He had the bare minimum. No food. No water. Nothing else.
Walker took to the air while wrapping himself in shadows. The trees of the forest were naturally larger because this was a part of the elven forest. They had made an effort to assist it in growing on the outer edges so that it would be able to handle the wood taken from the edges because of building in Genesis.
The fact that the elves and put so much effort in to boosting the growth of a forest and literally connecting their own major forest to it, showed a true trust that Genesis would have limits to everything. It also showed that the elves had grown in strength as a people.
The other elves gained their understanding and relationships with the forest elves back as a major event alone. But they had allowed the forest elves to share knowledge and help the forest grow immensely. There had even been some elves who could help plants grow better like Alma could that had gained new skills.
On another note, it had also allowed for hunters and certain animals to return to forests that had been cut down for nearby villages. This teaching opportunity made the entire world better. Just a simple thought that Walker had while wrapping himself in shadows and stepping through the air with the wind ripple skill.
Gil had run faster because he wanted to actually be alone. He also knew that the scent of the herbs he had rubbed on his body might be attracting danger to Walker. Regardless of Walker's strength, he did not want Walker to have to fight. However, he also knew that Walker might be lurking around here and there in the shadows. He would be a fool not to think that Walker would do something like that. It was just how Walker was. Always worrying about his family.
As Gil moved through, he quickly found some rabbit trails. Small trails that the forest rabbits had gone over so many times that they had beaten down any little plant seedlings that had grown there. They had effectively made their own trails that a hunter like Gil could track. He wanted to find himself a source of food while he was out here.
As a hunter, Gil was able to use his bow to take prey and make himself a meal. He also knew that by finding this rabbit trail, that he could make arrows while tracking.
In just a few moments, Walker had watched Gil move leaves on the forest floor to find small rocks. In another hour, Gil had smashed the rocks to make rougher arrow heads than what Gil normally made. Then he had even used the edges of some rocks to cut dead branches from trees to make arrow shafts.
Surprising Walker the most, Gil had managed to use some of the tougher dried leaves as the arrow's ends. Instead of feathers, the leaves would allow for the arrow to fly straighter than just if it was a shaft with an arrow head. It also balanced the weight.
From there, the tracking was amazing. Walker had not expected that Gil's skills had gotten so much better. Even the smallest scratches in the patted down mud wet enough for Gil to tell how often or how recently the rabbits had come here.
In just a few moments, Gil had discerned which rabbit tracks were fresh and which were not. It was a level of scouting and tracking that Walker did not have. But he was learning from Gil as he watched.
The sounds of birds chirping were allowing Gil to know that monsters were not around. A silent forest was a dangerous forest. That meant that a predator had been spotted by weaker animals. The birds would stop chirping. Other monsters or animals would silence themselves and hide. They would not even more to protect themselves.
This was the best option for most of them. However, when Gil heard a sharp whine, he realized that the rabbit he was tracking had already been snatched up. He also realized that in this moment, the forest had gone silent when that whine was heard.
Gil's knees bent and he began using a few handfuls of mud to cover his body. It changed his camouflage and allowed him to hide better. He had no idea what predator he would be facing with a scant amount of arrows.
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