Far from the Kashyapa Clan…..
In a outskirt of a mountain forest….
Ambhik opened his eyes and stared at the roof made of leaves and bamboo a little above in front of his eyes. The quilt over his body was getting black in color and now giving a pungent smell. This quilt was previously owned by a big fat boar on it's body as skin few months ago, till he was killed along with it's group by tribe chief and his men.
While the meat was enjoyed by the whole tribe, the skin was given to his father and other men who helped the chief as a reward. But now the quilt was rotting and the previous soft color when they washed and dried it for using it as quilt was no longer there.
When he saw his left, there was another person lying next to him. That person was his younger brother. After looking at his younger brother he remembered the morning and his body filled with fighting spirit.
Ambhik's family had a total of four members including his father, mother and a younger brother. He was the eldest child in the family and turned fifteen this year. Together, they lived a hard yet honest lifestyle. Very rarely did they get to eat meat and fish, but the entire family was content with living with the meager resources they had. But it was still a good lifestyle considering the life they had few years back.
Few years back what they usually do was travel from one forest to other searching food or attacking other tribes but most of the time chased by other tribes. Ambhik's tribe was a wandering tribe, they used to go place to place in search of food and when they totally exploit the resources of that place they leave. But this was all in past.
Few years ago when Ambhik was still nine, one day a man came with two women and challenged their previous tribe chief. The man was far stronger than their previous chief thus the previous chief was defeated and killed by him. Since he had challenged and killed the chief, he was made the new tribe chief by the sacred priest of the tribe according to their tribe rule.
The changing of leadership of tribe has always been a big news for them cause most of the time the new chiefs used to rape the women of the tribe and exploit them as much as he can for few years till he is satisfied or he is killed and replaced by someone else. So when this new chief took over the tribe, they were again on their guard, he even has two women besides him already, making his image even worse and expecting for even worst.
But nothing happened except the new chief called all the men in the tribe and made them fight each other everyday. Just in few months he gathered fifty strongest men of the tribe and started making them fight with him, he even used to teach along with it.
Hardly after a year they were as strong as the previous chief. Then the new chief used those men to attack some tribes and conquer them. In just four years the tribe that had just four to five hundred people before now had a population of four to five thousand.
Just a year before the new chief stopped attacking the other tribes and started teaching the kids aged 13 and above in the tribe the fighting skill and the archery along with spear and sword skills. Last year Ambhik aged 15 was one of the few kids who started learning along with other few exceptional kids of the tribe.
Few days back his brother turned thirteen and since yesterday he started taking those class with him. Yesterday was the first time that all the men in the family fought together. Ambhik was excited seeing his father teaching them his cool fighting skills but what makes his veins filled with vigorousness was going on hunting with his father and brother today's morning.
On thinking about today he immediately closed his eyes, trying to force himself to sleep. His father told him, in hunting they will need their full concentration so if he didn't go to sleep now and get a good sleep, he won't be able to he to wake up early today much less concentrate on hunting.
Physically, Ambhik was very ordinary. Body was tanned with a average height and muscle of a fifteen year old. The next moment he was in dream, the dream of him helping his father and killing a wild boar himself.
The next day he woke up earlier then everyone else in the house. Used a stick and start poking on the earthen pot hanging up from the roof. This was done by his mother to prevent him and his brother as well as the pets in tribe from swallowing the dried berries in it all at once. He has perfected this skill so after just three to four poking the pot turned upside down for a moment and some berries fall on the ground. Immediately picking up all those dried berries he ate some of them and save the rest for his brother and for eating afterwards.
Then he looked at the corner of his house, there was two bows and two quivers filled with long wooden pointed sticks. They were his and his brother's equipment. He carefully counted them sharpened these arrows again with his father's knife. These were the things he was taught when they first started using weapons. They were told to always check their sword and bows and count their arrows as the first activity of the day.
After a while his mother woke up. She was surprised seeing her son woken up so early and sharpening his sword on a stone. She smiled gently on seeing this. After a short while his father and younger brother woke up and her mother brought some dried berries for them to eat.
Ambhik always had a suspicion that her mother knew about him stealing the berries every morning but since she had never said anything to him, he had never stopped stealing them. He laughed and ate those berries.
Then they went for the hunt in the forest. The hunt in morning was strange but lucky as well as unlucky day for them. Lucky and strange because when they entered into forest they saw many animals like bharal, black beer, giant leopard and many other animals that had never left the inner part of the forest were coming out from the inner parts of the forest. They look like they were running away from the inner part of the forest. They could hunt as much as they want cause all type of animals were coming out, weak ones as well as the strong ones.
But unlucky cause even always shy and alone living animals were coming out in groups and so making the hunt even more difficult. Today Ambhik's father was regretting not coming out with his group. He was now wishing to return as soon as possible and then return with his group for hunting. But seeing the faces of his kids, he suppressed his wishes and moved into depth of the forest.
After going in some depth of the forest, they found animal cries and some injured and some running animals here and there. Suddenly he spotted a man behind a fallen body of an elephant. The man didn't notice them. When they got closer to that man, they found him wearing some animal's skin down his waist while nothing above his waist.
But what was strange about him was, he was covered in dark crimson liquid from head to toe. Both of his hands covered and dripping with fresh crimson liquid were savagely taking out insides of ripped open stomach of the elephant. He was devouring those insides like a mad beast. Seeing that scene before his eyes even the face of Ambhik's father turned green and mouth filled with food and liquid he had yester night as he shuddered a little.
The children with him were now hiding behind him and with their whole body shaking and some pieces of yester night's food with smelly liquid coming out of their mouth.
Suddenly the nose of the man behind the behind twitched and a inaudible word "fo.." escaped out of his mouth. While licking the crimson liquid dripping from his lips he looked towards the nauseating smell and for some reason his blood red eyes shown brilliantly for an unnoticeably short moment.
Noticing the savageness in the eyes of the man, the Ambhik's father had a sudden urge of escaping from there but his instinct of a hunter was telling him the man before him can kill him with a snap of his finger. So he pushed his urge of escaping down his heart and thought of striking a conversation to him and then slowly but as fast as he can taking his leave from there. But…
"Where are you from?" the man behind the dead elephant asked.
"W…we a..are tr....hunters from the south of the forest." Ambhik'a father lied with a clear hesitation seen in his voice.
"You're a hunter? But hunters don't come this far in the forest. Are you not afraid of the wild beasts in such a depth of the forest?" the man looked at them with suspicion.
"No, I.. we just heard animals crying so just came here to take a look…." His instinct were now shouting him to get away from this place. His mind was filled with questions like 'what's this strange man doing here?' and 'did he killed all these animals?' but even then he didn't dare to ask him.
"Huh?"
"I thought we can hunt some animals here if they were injured already." He hurriedly add, "But didn't know it's your tribe's territory, please forgive us. Now we should take our leave." The words came out of his mouth and then a mouthful of saliva went down his throat. As he turned around to take his leave with his kids.
"Wait."
He shuddered, a sound came from the back. He slowly turned around and with a pitiful look on his face said, "Yes."
"You're a hunter, came here for hunting then why're you leaving empty handed?" He immediately stood up and came near them.
Seeing him coming toward them, Ambhik and his brother almost felt their leg getting weaker. And as for the kid's father, he tightened his grip on his bow and was ready to sacrifice himself to give his children a chance to get away from there. But…
The man bowed down and picked up a half dead deer from the ground, sniffed the deer and giving them he said, "Take this, this one is still not dead."
Ambhik's father wanted to refuse that, but thinking that he might angry the man, he silently took the deer and put it on his shoulder. The deer was heavy but for him it was not a big deal now. He had trained for many years now so this much of a weight was almost nothing for him. After that he looked at the man asking him with his eyes 'can we leave now?'.
"You can leave now." The man said.
On hearing that, Ambhik's father took a sigh of relief, now sure he is save. But even then he didn't stopped there. After reaching some distance from that man, he ran with his kids as fast as he can, carrying still half dead deer on his shoulder.
When the father child trio left, the man sat again where he was sitting before and shoved his crimson coated hand back into the stomach of the elephant, taking out his insides and again eating it like a savage. But there was something different on his face now, the expression on his face, there was a sinister wide grin reaching almost both ears on his face.
And his nose kept twitching from time to time.