Chapter 10

The Huntsman Who Never Killed Anything

   "Oh my!" cried Randal, who had got a nasty shock seeing one of them turn into a bird. He was not yet privy to the details of the curse. What happened? Is the Midsummer magic over already?"

   "Everything's all right," replied Justin, still watching the owl fly over the lake. "He chose to do this. He'll be back."

   "But why?" asked Randal.

   "It's only a few hours ‘til dawn. He gave me the garland to wear so I could sleep without being changed with the sunrise. Meanwhile, he's going to do some night fishing and by the time it's light we'll have quite a few fish for breakfast. You see... there he goes..."

   And indeed, the owl dropped below the moon suddenly into the dark and there was a splashing.

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The next morning...

   Justin awoke to the smell of frying fish.  The other two men were being slowly roused as well despite them only getting a few hours sleep.

   "Good morning! Aren't you all a lot of layabeds!" chirped Brian from beside the fire.

   "Easy for you to say," You just spent the last bit as a nocturnal," grumped Justin.

   "Oh now don't be grumpy! Besides, by that logic, I ought to be the sleepy one. I haven't been to sleep since I left you guys,"

   "You'll probably fall asleep in the saddle again," grumped Justin quietly, but holding out his mug for coffee nevertheless.

   "Beg pardon?" He poured from the percolator.

   "Nothing."

   "Drink your coffee."

   "Yes dear."

   "That earned a smirk, a smile with lips curled over and a sudden and passionate kiss that curled Justin's toes.

   "I didn't used to. But I love being your dear."

   "God I missed you. Even for those couple of hours."

   "Me too. Sorry I'm grumpy. I don't sleep well without you."

   "Neither do I."

   "Are they always like this?" asked Randal.

   "Oh no," yawned Gus. "Most of the time....they're much worse." He pulled the covers over their heads and went back to sleep.

   "Little wiseass," Brian said affectionately.

   "Never mind him. Let's be worse!"

   Brian smiled and lay down next to him. They pulled the covers higher and...well; they were very, very bad.

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   Arrow was very indulgent with them and let them have the whole day there. As soon as Gus found this out, he whooped and then told the others and they whooped and went swimming and fishing and berry picking and when it grew too dark to do anything, lit a fire and told Randal of all their adventures, of Craig and his evil curse, the cow as white as milk, and how Gus was rescued by Justin in much the same way he was rescued by Gus. Then it was time for bed and it was much different and much nicer and cosier to roll up together in their pairs on either side of the fire. It also felt like a real day of camping since Randal was there and the urgency to get him was gone.

   Next morning however, Arrow was alarming them awake and hurrying them on; it was business as usual.

   For that day and all the next, nothing much happened. They flew, had their noon rest, flew, and camped for the night.

   On the third day, around the mid of midday, Arrow suddenly banked to the right a bit, flew southeast for a while and passed over a village. Shortly after that, he dropped and flew into the trees, down some more and alighted nicely onto a forest dirt road. He trotted a little further, went even slower, and turned suddenly left into the trees where there was a hidden trail. He walked carefully down this trail for quite a while as if searching for something. He stopped and waited. He listened with all his might. Then suddenly, he turned left and went off trail, making a trail for about a mile. And then....he stopped...and Gus could tell they were there...wherever they were.

   "Look!" cried Randal, pointing.

   A little ways off to the right of them was a young man of about fifteen, dressed all in soft, supple leather. He was creeping toward an unsuspecting mountain lion lying on a rock sunning itself.

   The young man had on supple, form fitting boots that reached up to his thighs. He wore brown leather pants, a leather belt that carried an assortment of knives and a few other compartments for other tools. He wore a matching brown leather jerkin.  He wore a soft, leather headpiece that covered the crown of his head and reached down to fit as a mask over 3/4th s of his face. On his back was a quiver of short arrows and over his hands were skin tight, leather gloves. He carried a crossbow.

   "Brian! Justin! What do you think we should do?....Bri? I said what are we...oh for God's sake, really?"

   Gus had looked over and realized Brian and Justin were outright and outrageously ogling the young man.

   "So much leather....." murmured Justin.

   "Gaaaaaaahhhhhhh.........maassskk..." Brian's coherence level was at minimum.

   Gus considered whapping them upside the head but then hesitated. He sighed. What would be the point?

   The young man carefully fitted his crossbow with an arrow.  He crept silently forward. He either didn't notice them or paid them no mind.

   The wildcat slept on.

   The leathered huntsman crept from tree to tree. Ever closer to his prey he came...

   SNAP! He stepped on a twig.

   GRRROOWWRRRR!!!!!! The wildcat was instantly on her feet. She spotted him in seconds.

   The young man was unwilling to give up. He aimed his crossbow but his hands shook a little. He fired. The shot went wild and fired too much to the left.

   The wildcat was enraged. She screamed...tensed...

   The young huntsman was rushing....hurrying to reload....

   The wildcat jumped straight at his chest and screamed again, in rage and triumph.

   He fired.

   They all disappeared.

   "What the HELL!?" yelled Brian. The others made similar agreements.

   The wildcat was back asleep on the rock. There was a rustling in the bushes and...here came the huntsman!

   The huntsman crept up on his prey. SNAP! The wildcat leapt. The huntsman fired. And they all disappeared.

   The huntsmen came again. He crept up on his prey. SNAP! The wildcat leapt, he fired and...reset.

   They watched it again. And again...And again. And...

   "What the HELL..."said Brian.

   "...Is going on here?" finished Justin.

   "I think I know," said Randal, "Walter used to mention something like this when he would taunt me that no one would or could ever come for me. He said that there were many areas of the forest that were enchanted and if you stepped into them, it would throw you back into time a little. And because you were thrown back, you wouldn't realize it until the point at which you were thrown back again. So the hapless victim was doomed to just keep repeating and repeating and...and....well, like a time loop. There was no escape."

   The huntsman fired. The wild cat leapt. Reset.

   "But how do we stop it?" asked Gus in distress. "My God, that poor man! He may have been repeating that loop for days....a year..."

   "Many years. Centuries even," Randal said sadly, "That poor man! And I have no idea what to do. Walter never said how the damn things were broken."

   Reset.

   "That's it!" cried Justin, "We'll just break the loop! If we break the pattern of behavior, the loop will not start and they'll all be broken free!"

   "Or we could start a whole new loop and be caught in it ourselves!" Randal said. "We have to be very careful."

   After a lot of deliberation it was decided that they would try and break the loop at the last possible second. They set up position and...

   The huntsman crept toward his prey...SNAP! The wildcat woke. She screamed and tensed. The shot fired to the left. The wildcat screamed again. The huntsman struggled to reload.

   "Get ready!" yelled Gus.

   The huntsman aimed...his finger was on the trigger...

   "NOW!" yelled Gus.

   Justin made a chopping motion on the huntsman's arms and ruined his shot. The shot went wild and thunked into a tree high above everything.

   The wildcat jumped. Brian, who was also right there, tackled the huntsman off to the side and out of the way.

   The wildcat landed right where they had been and screamed and roared again. She turned to face the three men and roared and growled again. She hesitated. She was confused. There had only been one man-beast when she had jumped. Now there were three. She looked over and saw a huge horse-beast that she had never seen before as well. What was going on?

   "BAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" yelled Brian as loud as he could.

   The wildcat was sufficiently scared. She ran off into the forest and was swallowed up by the trees.

   There was a rippling wave of magic that radiated out rushing through all the grass and bushes. The grass in the area looked a little taller and a little different. There were a few smaller trees in the area that were a few feet taller now.

   "Umm...I think you can get off of me now," came a voice underneath Brian.

   "Oh...right," Brian sheepishly rolled off the young man. They all gasped.

   Because instead of a gangly 15 year old, Brian had rolled off a young man in his twenties with full, kissable lips, a deep chest, muscular arms and legs that rivaled some of the tree trunks around him.

   The man sat up slowly and pulled off the headpiece/mask in wonder. He had shoulder length black hair. Brian decided to classify his face as "fuckable."

   "Oh my God!" he said, "It's over? Really over? Thank you all so much! I couldn't stop! I couldn't break the loop!"

   "How long were you trapped?" asked Justin.

   "Eight years...it's been eight long years," said the huntsman. "I was fifteen and on my first solo hunt. My dad...my dad must think I'm dead. And that means I'm....23 and...DAMN!!! I turned out good!"

   They all chuckled.

   "We saw a village not too far back. Is that where you're from? We could give you a lift...Uh...."

   "Hunter. My name's Hunter Bruckner. My dad...he's gay but he adopted me. I was getting into trouble but he was training me in tanning and making leather. That's why I was out hunting. I was going to get some animals for their hides. But then...this happened. Geez...my dad must have thought I ran away."

   "Well, you didn't. You couldn't help the time loop. Let's take you back to the village and see if we can find Ben. We'll straighten it out," Justin said.

   Arrow was strenuously against yet another passenger but Gus petted his snout softly and whispered, "Pleeeeeaaase, Arrow...It's just to the village. For me? Please...?"

   Arrow huffed and then sighed as if this was a huuuuge imposition but in the end he concentrated and grew a size and the saddle was big enough for five. They all thanked him....well, Brian said, "Thanks fur-bag," and got his butt lit on fire for his rudeness. They all laughed hysterically at him running around and then rolling on the ground to put out the flames. Even Arrow gave a horsey, whinny-ing laugh at the flaming queer.

   At last the flames were out and...in the end....Brian's butt was bare. But there was nothing to be done so they got going.

   The trip to the village had no more incidents but they did confirm that as Hunter was hunting that made him a huntsman and since that was his solo mission, he hadn't killed anything! He could make their suit!!

   "You any good?" asked Brian gruffly. His pride was still smarting along with his ass.

   "I made everything I'm wearing," Hunter bragged, "Besides...looks like you're in no position to haggle...Mr. Barebutt!"

   "Laugh it up, Leather-boy!" growled Brian.

   "Uhhh...So, Hunter!" Justin tried to deflect, "I can understand everything you're wearing there, but why the mask?"

   "Keeps the hair outta my face! Plus...it looked... looks smokin' hot!"

   They all heartily agreed.

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   The spectacle of a huge black horse roughly the size of an elephant, with wings and snorting flame did not cause the happy occasion the adventuring travelers had hoped. Actually it had the opposite effect entirely.

   Every villager, man, woman and child, panicked, screamed and scattered. Doors and shutters slammed. Stalls and shops closed faster and tighter than a preacher's ass on Sunday. In a few minutes the main street was deserted and a few seconds after that the outside of the woodland whistle-stop was withdrawn in a widespread way.

   Did I say every villager? Oooops. My mistake. One lone man who was shopping for fruit wondered what the wonder was and furthermore what was going down. The man was muscular and showed no fear as the black horse barreled down upon him because he was only focused on who was riding it. The man had big arms and a deep chest and wore wire rimmed spectacles. They were the only ones to look past the horse and focus on a certain leather-clad lad with long black hair.

   The sack of apples the man was carrying dropped to the ground unnoticed. The bag tipped over and a few luscious red apples fell out.

   Arrow gave a happy whinny and pranced over and ate one of the apples. All the buildings shook a little with every step.

   Hunter jumped off and landed right in front of Ben. "Papa? Do you know me?"

   "Yes. I know you. Or....I know...who you used to be."

   "But....what do you mean?"

   "I had a teenager, a good boy who was leaving his dark past behind. I was teaching him a good trade, to be a leatherworker. But he left me, returned to his life of crime, without even leaving me a note and left me heartbroken. I'm not sure who you are."

   "Papa! No! That's not what happened!"

   "And who are these men? Your gang? Have you come to disgrace me further and pillage the village?"

   "Pillage the - oh Papa, no, of course not! These men are my friends. I just met them. They rescued me."

   Everyone else was disembarking as well and Brian held his hat with the owl feather over his bum. "I wouldn't mind pillaging some pants," he muttered. Everyone ignored him.

   "Papa, I was hunting and I got caught in a time loop. That was 8 years ago. These men just broke the loop and when the dust settled, I was like this. I still feel 15 in a lot of aspects and in every aspect, I still feel like your son."

   "A time loop? Really? So...all this time...that means....Oh God...I'm so sorry, son! I didn't even look...I just assumed...I'm... so sorry..." He began to weep.

   Hunter enfolded him in a gentle but all encompassing bear hug.  "I never left. Not like that. I wasn't in a life of crime. I promise."

   Ben just cried harder. His shoulders shook as he hugged his long lost son.

   Hunter picked up the sack of apples and held one out to Arrow who nickered hopefully. He had shrunk a bit, to what he hoped was the size of a real horse. It wasn't. Hunter smiled and threw it high in the air. There was a flash of flame and Arrow caught it flash baked on the way down.

   He put his other arm around his dad. "Come on....let's go home," Hunter said.

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   Later, at the small apartment over the leather working shop, Hunter was able to tell Ben and the others of all the details that led to his hunt of the wildcat and consequential magical incarceration. Arrow was out back with a nice overhang and a large bag of oats.

   Ben said, "Of course, you all will stay with us."

   "Are you sure we won't cramp your style?" Brian asked, Are you sure we can't stay at the inn or whatever?"

   "There is no inn," Ben replied. "Travelers are few and visitors are fewer. It's mostly just us, this deep in the forest and we support ourselves with hunting and our crops and a few natural orchards. There's us or there are the streets or forest. And you're better off here, if the forest is that riddled with such awful traps."

   "In that case, we accept. Thank you very much," said Justin. We'll try and not make a nuisance out of ourselves." The others agreed. "Besides, we'll only be here long enough for Hunter to make a suit for Brian. Hunter, how long will that be?"

   "Hmmmm. Well, I have to re-learn a few things. And since I can't do it, I might need one of you to go out and catch me a deer or two. And judging by Brian's height and body type....I'd say....about 2 weeks."

   "Two weeks!" screamed four voices in horror.

TBC