At the academy, education was interrupted one day a week. This one-day holiday was when students got away from the stress and intensity of school and rested throughout the day. Although, it was very difficult to find students who were resting during the holidays. But it was necessary for teachers to take a break from education one day a week.
Demir woke up early on the holiday morning like clockwork and did his morning exercise with Kunt. Kunt reminded Demir, who was about to leave the kitchen after a nice breakfast,
- Little sir, since today is the weekend, do not tire yourself out by doing any training. As I said in the evening, we will go on a picnic today. I will let you know when I finish my preparations.
- (Demir, who could not get used to a holiday every nine days being called a weekend holiday, objected to this situation) Today is the ninth day holiday, not a weekend...
Sister will come to the picnic, right?
- (Kunt, who could not explain to Demir that a week is nine days, did not press the issue and answered Demir's question) Of course Nurse Oya will come too. She is getting ready now. You can also go and prepare. We will be leaving in an hour or two.
- Ok…
Although Demir wanted to know where they were going, he did not insist because Kunt did not tell him. Thinking that he would have a good day, he went to his room to get ready. After a while, when all the preparations were completed, they all set off together.
Kunt took the bag with his picnic supplies on his back and went ahead while Demir and Nurse Oya followed him with an intense conversation. They went in the exact opposite direction of the road Demir used every morning and came to the back door of the academy with the guidance of the oak trees.
...
There were three entrance gates in the star academy. The first one is the main entrance door, which is directly connected to the administration building. The second was the personnel entrance used by the academy staff where the education buildings were located and the third was the dormitory entrance door used by the students they were currently standing in front of.
...
The outer wall of the academy, which was quite high, surrounded the entire academy as if it stretched to infinity. However, the section where the entrance door was located looked as if it had been cut off with a knife. A wide double-winged door had been placed in this space as high as the wall.
There were guards waiting on both sides of the door. When they approached the door, an officer came out from the security booth on the side and quickly came to them and greeted them.
- Hello sir,
- (Kunt) Hello,
- (He had activated the portal to the Arin forest because he was informed in the morning, but it was best to ask one last time to be sure) You will go to the Arin forest, right?
- Yes, we will go if you open the door.
- Okay, I'm on it now sir. Follow me please.
The guard approached the left wing of the door and opened a hidden, normal-sized door inside. Although Demir was surprised by this, he thought it would be better to open this small door hidden in the door wing instead of opening that huge door every time.
Kunt passed through the door calmly, and Nurse Oya and Demir passed through the door behind him. A forest welcomed them. Although the academy was full of oak trees, the trees here were much larger with thick trunks. They grew right next to the wall and their height exceeded the height of the perimeter wall. However, as Demir was coming towards the gate, he did not remember seeing any trees visible over the perimeter wall.
Even though these trees had a triangular structure like pine trees, their leaves resembled oak trees. When he took his eyes off these huge trees and looked ahead, he saw a large mountain with steep slopes and a peak above the clouds.
When he got a little closer and passed the tree in front of him to see the mountain more clearly, the view below caught his attention. A forest painted in all shades of red stretched along the foot of the steep-sided mountain. Demir murmured as he looked in admiration at the red forest below,
- If our place yellow lowland, the one here must be the red lowland, right?
- (Nurse Oya) No, this is the Arin Forest. And, the one across from us is Mount Arin.
- It's very beautiful, sister. I never thought I'd see something like this. Is this where we're having a picnic?
- (Kunt) Yes, (Pointing to the small pond on the right side of the forest below) we'll go to that pond down there...
Nurse Oya shivered for a moment when she heard the word pond, but she felt safe because Kunt was with them. As they descended down a slight slope, the green-leafed trees diminished and were replaced by red-leafed trees. Demir asked as he looked at these very large red-leafed trees,
- Sister, what kind of trees are these? They look so beautiful, red-red.
- They're called Arin trees. They only grow at the foot of this mountain on this continent. Did you know that long, long ago, this was a lowland with a wide river flowing in the middle.
Thanks to the arin tree seeds brought by migratory birds from the southern continent, this entire area was soon filled with arin trees. Then, as time went by, the river dried up and arin trees covered everywhere. All that remained of the river was this small pond... … …
While Nurse Oya was telling Demir about the arin forest, they arrived at the area where they would have a picnic. There weren't many trees around the pond. But a little further on, it was covered with dense trees. It was as if the forest had reserved a special place for the pond. Kunt placed the things under the tree closest to the pond and started to prepare to cook with the help of Nurse Oya…
In the meantime, Demir had taken off his shoes and was walking barefoot on the grass, looking around. Although Demir liked stepping on this soft and short grass, it would have been more fun to put his feet in the water.
Demir, who folded his pants up to his knees and played in the water for a while, came to the campsite to look at the food when his stomach growled due to the smell of food reaching his nose.
- Kunt, isn't the food ready yet? I'm hungry,
- (Kunt replied with a slight smile on his face) It's almost ready, be patient a little longer, okay?
- Okay. (He came to Nurse Oya, who was sitting calmly on the sidelines and sat down) Sister, doesn't the food smell nice? Do you know what food this is?
- I don't know. I asked Kunt but he didn't tell me. It's a special dish. I'm eagerly waiting for it to cook. I hope it tastes good.
When the two's stomachs growled together, they looked at each other and then at the boiling pot of food. Kunt occasionally opened the pot and stirred the food. When the smells of the food spread around due to its intense aroma, the growling of their hungry stomachs increased…
…
The three close friends were lying down in the midday heat. When the one with the sharp sense of smell suddenly stood up, the others also stood up suddenly. When the younger one looked around and saw that there was no danger, it got angry at it friend.
- What right do you have to make us jump like this? I don't see any danger around.
- What danger? Can't you smell that beautiful scent? This, this is the smell of a freshly dead gazelle. Let's go.
When it friend ran ahead, the other two followed. After all, they couldn't always eat gazelle meat. They had to find it before others did and eat it, or at least carry it to a safe place. After running for a while, when the others smelled the scent, they increased their speed, pushing each other aside with joy..
The crazy trio, whose appetites had increased and their mouths watered along the way, finally found the source of the smell and saw three people cooking and eating the gazelle. One of the red wolves, who thought their prey had been stolen, made a suggestion to it friends,
- They are eating our food, let's eat them too...
- No, no way. Human meat smells very bad and foul. I'd rather eat carrion... Let's chase them away and get our gazelle meat from them.
When the crazy trio came to a decision, they left the dense forest and started to slowly approach the people. When the wolf with a sharp sense of smell stepped forward and shouted, "Leave our food and get out of here as soon as possible," the people stood up in panic...
…
After the wolf howled, Demir got up in a startled manner and spilled the food in his hand on himself. Nurse Oya also got up quickly and stood next to Demir. It was obvious that he wanted to protect him.
Kunt acted more calmly and stood in ahead of Nurse Oya and Demir with a kitchen knife in his left hand. While all his attention was on the red wolves, he turned the knife in his hand so that the tip of the knife pointed to his elbow and took a defensive position.
…
Although it was unlikely that this little person would pose a threat by coming forward with the knife in his hand, the killing intent he was spreading around was increasing. Just in case, it friends next to it opened up a little and assumed a fighting stance. Now that the crazy trio had formed an insurmountable battle formation, these people would also get scared and run away and leave the dead gazelle behind, but it didn't happen as they thought.
When the expectant looks of the wolves didn't get what they wanted, the longing to eat gazelle meat inside them turned into anger. In the face of this sudden anger, the little person said something to those behind him, then turned the knife in his hand and took an attacking stance. Those behind him started to run away with a piece of gazelle meat. The little red wolf quickly jumped forward after making eye contact with it friends and started chasing the ones who were running away.
…
First Nurse Oya and Demir, then the little red wolf dove into the trees and disappeared. Kunt, who never took his eyes off the wolves, suddenly had a dagger appear in his right hand. Now, as he walked towards the wolves with a kitchen knife in one hand and a dagger in the other, the dagger in his right hand began to glow blue.
The wolves' instincts told them to run when they saw the blue glow, but it was too late. When Kunt's killing intent reached its peak, the wolves couldn't move. While the wolves were living the regret of being late, they could not do anything but breathe like a fish caught in a net. Kunt calmly approached the wolves and started to cut their throats,
- Don't take no offence, I only needed one of you and I wasn't the one who chose him.
After killing the wolves, Kunt threw their bodies into the small pond to get rid of them. As the bodies slowly sank into the water, the water of the pond also turned red. Observing the red water for a while, when Kunt did not see any movement in the water, he said, "I guess he didn't like the red wolves," and then turned around and went towards the campsite...
As Kunt left the pond, bubbles started to form where the redness in the water was. The pond water swelled slightly, and when it returned to its original state, there was no trace of the redness left by the blood in the water…