"Since you know me and I am alive, it means you can't kill me, right? So why don't you back off," said the one called Gideon. Even though he said it gently, his muscles were tense enough to take action immediately if needed.
Both of them growled, but they didn't take action. They retreated slowly, keeping their eye on Gideon. Lucas's eyes were fixed on Gideon's back. He felt safe, similar to standing behind his father, Ethan. Though he knew it could never be the same.
While Lucas was busy admiring Gideon, a few more hunters appeared behind them, and vampires retreated in the night. Gideon glanced at Lucas, smiled and proceeded with the burning of the corpses and other rituals of the hunter. The youngest hunter who came with the group was in his late teens. A few of them had wolves on their side. They were considered young hunters.
"She will sleep for a while," one of the hunters examined Ivy and said to Lucas. There was only one female in the whole group. She came forward and took Ivy from him gently. While Lucas was devasted by the event that had happened here, he was in shock at how, just by standing there, Gideon had scared the vampires away, who had massacred their village along with the hunters who were protecting it.
After completing what Gideon was doing, he came to Lucas, patted his shoulder and signalled everyone to return. Lucas stood in awe until he ran for his sister.
"Don't worry, you both are coming with us," said Gideon. He picked Lucas up and kept him on top of his wolf. Lucas was scared and tensed but made no noise.
After moving out of the ruin of Riverton, they all mounted the wolves—the ones who didn't have one sat with the ones who had. Lucas sat with Gideon, and Ivy was with the girl from earlier, Elara; her name, Lucas learns later. The wolves started running towards the woods. The wolves' speed was fast but steady, and they were nimble, moving through the trees in this dense forest.
Slowly, Lucas lost the sense of direction and had no idea where he was going. After some time, it seemed amusing for Lucas as he was moving out of the village for the first time. The racing trees, the vast forest, and the wind on his face temporarily made him forget the tragedy. After travelling for hours, Lucas lost the sense of time and distance; they reached a clearing. They paused in front of a large iron gate. The gate had silver net patterned lining all over; upon closer look, one would find small tiny needles all over the silver lining.
Everyone started dismounting the wolves. Lucas went to hold Ivy, and Elara let him hold Ivy. Gideon took out a whistle and blew it. And slowly, the gate started opening. Gates were thick iron, and it was opened using chains. From the gate and walls itself, one can see the majesty of the city within. Hunters were patrolling around the wall. It didn't need to open entirely for them to enter the city.
As they entered the city, Elara started narrating about the city. The city was called "Nameless" by the original residents, who were hunters. But the merchants who come here for trade, call it "Wolfhaven" for they can always see wolves in the woods outside citywalls. Most of the merchants know that these are companions of hunters. They leave these wolves outside just in case they make it difficult for non-hunter residents of the city. The city was built for hunters' convenience. They had training grounds, weaponry, forges for making weapons for hunters and councils of senior hunters who made decisions for most of the things happening in the city. In emergencies, they would become absolute rulers of the city and the entire hunter's group. Then there were the markets. There were four markets: East, West, North and South. Market was the place where one can find things of outside world, most of the merchants put there shops here. Some merchants deal directly with the city administration as they bring silver, leather, and other materials that are necessary for the hunters. Merchants were kept in the outer part of the city. The training ground and forge were in the middle part of the city. Weaponry and council was part of center part of the city.
After a long narration of the city, Elara took Lucas and Ivy to her place to stay. Newcomers who want to live in the Nameless city have to be taken in by some hunter who has completed their training. When Gideon asked Lucas what they wanted to do, he was clueless, but he said that he wanted to protect his sister from anything. So he said he can live in the city if anyone takes us in. Everyone hesitated, but only Elara responded to them after a few breaths. Elara lived in the outer part of the city as most of the hunters who have completed their training and were in their early years of being hunters lived here. Elara had completed her twentieth year a few days back. She completed her training two years back, and after five more years, she can attempt the assessment to enter the residence of the middle part of the city. As for the central part, you have to have an exceptional contribution to the hunter's society.
Elara's house was small but neatly arranged and clean. The first night, Lucas slept with Ivy in his arms. And Elara slept in the living room. After around a month of living with Elara, Lucas's grief of losing his parents started subsiding slowly. He was more comfortable here, he was now able to control himself from breaking into tears at the mention of his parents, though Ivy still was far from coming out grief. The good thing was she became very close to Ivy these days, and she was able to comfort Ivy. Watching how happy Ivy was around Elara and how she has been patient and kind to both siblings, Elara slowly became like their elder sister. Lucas started doing practice to make his body strong behind Elara's back, which he had to do because she had told him that he was too young for that. Even when she caught him, she would scold him and punish him confining.
After four months, when Eara caught him for the twenty-first time, she reluctantly asked him, "Are you serious about training?"
"Yes," Lucas was firm with his choice.
After watching his firm face, Elara took him to a place where many hunters were gathered, and they were focused on the fight between two boys of around fifteen years on the stage. The fight was cruel, the punches were ruthless, and it was as if the fight was to death. They were fast and agile, and Lucas was sure that he would be down in seconds against any of them.
Elara only let Lucas watch for a few minutes, and even before the fight could end, she dragged Lucas outside and explained to him what was going on. It was a fight to gauge whether they were ready to take the test to get into Hunter training conducted by the Hunter Society. Every year in the month of Embernight, the month that marks the end of the year and the beginning of a new one. Lucas was scared by the thought that they were not even hunters. She didn't ask him anything and brought her back to her place. Both spoke nothing along the way.
Ivy greeted them with a smile and jumped into Lucas's arms. That smile pricked his heart, and his brain showed him memories of that day. He felt the need to become strong, capable of protecting Ivy and Elara, his two sisters. He clenched his fist tightly and made up his mind to start training.
"Elder sis, I want to start training to become a hunter." Lucas looked at Elara and said firmly.
Elara was shocked by how he addressed her, she has wanted him to call her that but never said it out loud. And now he had called her without any hesitation.
"Since you have made up your mind, be ready for pain," Elara said, though her heart was unwilling.