"I think that should be enough for today, Besides that should be enough jackrabbit meat to get me at least 30gs and some silver," Juka said, "I'll head into town next, I promised Mom I'd get the stuff for her at the town shop."
He packed up his kills in a leather, water-resistant sack and put it in his backpack. "Off I go," Juka said as he began walking through the dense forest. "Ok, the time it takes me to reach Ermix it should be at least midday, but walking would take a toll on my stamina," he thought as he was walking on a beaten old road through the Great Forest. A random thought cut through his planning, "There IS something that could make this less boring."
Moving through the trees would be a lot faster than walking and the kind of experiences he had with his dad, Stalking prey from above and landing on them is an effective way of killing them, even so, this would drastically drain his stamina reserves. But it had to be done.
'PARKOUR TIME!!', his brain shouted hacking and slashing through all manner of reason as he started scaling a nearby tree.
"YA-HOOOOO, It's been too long since I've done this", Juka said as he leapt off of the tree into the next one. His feet remembered all too well what this felt like, Swinging on vines, somersaulting through the tall oak trees, moving so fast that he almost felt like a bird. Also, the same speed that had him feeling like a bird had dramatically reduced his original arrival time to Ermix from midday to mid-morning.
Busting a backflip and sticking his landing he sat at the base of the tree to rest, Juka ate the breakfast his mom made him before leaving to replenish his lost stamina, a scrambled eggs between two whole wheat slices of bread, while he was eating he saw a beautiful young lady walking into town. By the time he had finished, she had an entire crowd entranced by her looks alone.
In Juka's mind she probably just came to town for something new, or a change of pace from her own life, whatever it was, It wasn't his business nor did he intend to make it his business.
He passed by the crowd to get into town, call it fate or luck but the well-dressed and moderately jewelled girl felt a stare on her, as if someone were staring directly at her soul, the girl just happened to look in his direction and caught Juka staring awkwardly, but instead of the girl breaking eye contact, she approached him and immediately tried striking up a conversation, " Hi, My name's Carmen, " she said, "What's yours?" she asked quite unexpectedly.
Not trying to be rude he answered her, "It's Juka, nice to meet you, Carmen right?" "Juka, huh," Carmen replied. "I'll remember that name."
Juka and Carmen stood in awkward silence for a few minutes before Carmen broke the spell of silence by asking a flurry of questions: "Why are you here today? Where are you from? Why are you wearing such funny clothes?" Juka didn't have time for this and just wanted to get out of town before it got too crowded, but he answered her questions honestly, "I'm here to get some stuff for my mom, I'm from the small hunting village called Stonehenge and these are my everyday hunting threads.....any more questions?" Juka asked in a slightly annoyed tone, just trying to get through town before the tavern's happy hour is bad enough, now he had some privileged, prissy, princess asking questions.
"If you have no more questions, I've gotta get going," Juka said trying to push past the crowd that had gathered to see Carmen De Estaban; Second in line for the throne of Ermix Santos. Carmen was slightly revolted at the lack of respect that she was getting from this....this commoner, yet she remained composed and calm; If she was to win the favour of these citizens and keep her family on the throne she could not lose her cool over one person who didn't recognize her authority. While she was consumed in her train of thought she bumped into an odd thug. "HEY, watch where you're going you SPOILED BRAT!" It was almost neuron activation the way Juka intercepted the thug's hand which was placed on his waist-mounted broadsword, preventing the thug from drawing the blade. "That isn't any way to talk to royalty," Juka said in a low tone, increasing his grip on the thug's hand, "Seems like someone needs to slap some sense into you"
The thug found it hard to retrieve his hand from this kid's absurdly strong grip, he also found it strange that a kid was beating him in a contest of strength 'Just what is this kid, no one just achieves grip strength like this' His stare was cold and unfeeling as he held the thug's hand back, "Take your hands off the boss" The thug's cronies started making a fuss and attacked Juka
"HAAA!" Sloppy sword swings and thrusts followed the over-exertion of the thug's lackeys, "Hiyaaaa!" Juka barely moved out of their way, causing them to look like they completely missed their attacks. "I'll show you how to attack" within an instant, Juka swiped a dagger from one of them. "That'll do" The thugs all stared at each other in bewilderment, then burst out laughing "What're you gonna do with that small dagger little man? Whittle me a totem?"
He started parrying all the incoming blades with masterful strokes of the dagger, disarming all four of the thugs while keeping his cold stare on the "boss"
"Is that all you guys got?" Juka said cockily and in a bit of a mocking tone, "Maybe the BOSS should come and try or is he too scared to lose face?"
A few swift strikes from his fist landed all four of them on their butts, and he threw their dagger back to them.
"I really don't have time for this," he said while picking up the basket of goods he had set down. "Just leave her alone okay?"
"WAIT!" Carmen called out to Juka, but he had already disappeared into the dense crowd. "I....never got to thank him...." She kicked a few pebbles in frustration but soon calmed down and hoped she would be able to see him again to express her gratitude, little did she know that Fate would bring them together much sooner than she'd have expected