The Hunter

Since reluctantly joining the girl’s forest village, Nehmen became distracted from the glow—her life-long mission. The young girl turned out to be the granddaughter of the tribal “Elder.” The most senior Tribe member—at the ripe old age of 42—granted Nehmen a high hammock, in the thickest part of the forest canopy.

Although human, Nehmen understood the Tribe to simply be primitive. Their verbal communication was developed only enough to facilitate a very basic tribal hierarchy. Highly superstitious, they held regular chants and rituals designed to bless their food—a barely edible paste made from the various plants that grew in the forest—and to ward off the brummen. Nehmen hunted the prairie at the forest edge, bringing back meat for herself and malnourished tribe. Eventually, she told her “story” and became accepted into the tribe.

She told them how she followed the glow literally every night of her entire life. Carried in her father’s arms, before she could walk. “Follow the glow,” he would say. “We will be safe there.” That’s all she knew of her mission. Father promised to explain the glow when she was “old enough to understand.” And he probably would have, if not for … Changing the subject, she showed them the foil tent she carried to protect her from the daytime sun. Here, the forest was so thick, one could scarcely tell day from night, but the Tribe understood the futility of being out in the open at daytime.

Whatever the forest hid, it wasn’t likely to be good.

The Tribe lived in constant fear of the brummen, staying in the thickest part of the forest, where the flying beasts seemed to have the most trouble navigating. They explained to Nehmen how the beasts hunted them down, attacking quickly despite the loud buzzing announcing their arrival. Once close enough, the brummen would bite, rendering its victim unconscious, with two puncture wounds at base of the neck.

Victims rarely survived after an encounter. The ordeal would leave them sleepy, with little appetite until just quietly passing away. On occasion their condition would improve for a time, but death was inevitable. Stranger still, in the rarest of cases, the victim would simply vanish, never to be seen again. Some tribal members believed their spirits returned as the flying beasts themselves. Nehmen was skeptical but kept her distance all the same. Noting their speed and agility from her brief encounter, she wasn’t eager to face one again.

Over time, the Tribe became stronger and healthier thanks to Nehmen’s hunting skills. Still, she heard the occasional screams—always at night. She knew the members living further from the canopy’s center were more vulnerable, but she was no hero.