7 Heroes 3: What is Right

          The woods of Marnix were vast. A majority of the planet was covered in the many hues of green that came with them. Lush trees towering in height spread over the landscapes and stretch out for miles and miles, the end unseen to the eyes. Unfortunately many of the forests have been removed as Master’s territories would strip the lands of all of their trees. Many of the trees in another of the three countries had been removed to make space for cities. However, most of this remaining woodland area belonged to a group that believes in a more natural way of life. Amongst this group, it’s not surprising to know that the native tribes of Marnix reside here. One tribe in particular, no acceptation to this rule, is the home of a new hunter who went my name of, Namito. He is an extremely tall man, with his long oak hair swaying behind him as he strides past the gates of his tribe. Almost immediately after he steps outside of the wooden gate, he pauses at the sound of quiet laughter. Behind him he could hear two men chuckling to themselves. They whisper to each other about Namito.

“Did you hear that Namito publicly announced at coming of age that he would become a guard like us?”

“Haha, what an idiot. Someone of his family’s class being in charge of protecting the people? Yeah right! It’s impossible.”

“I know! His father was a measly farmer! He’s lucky he even got to get a position as a hunter really. It’s unreasonable to think he could get anything higher.”

“Even if he’s a hunter, only the highest family’s sons get the role of a guard. It’d be shameful if someone of his status ever achieved our positions.”

“No kidding! Only a fool would think he ever had a chance!”

         In response to this Namito just grimaces a bit, scratching the back of his head. Then he proceeds into the forest. He’s heard these kinds of rambling from the guards before. However, nothing they ever say would deter him from his goal to become one of them. Even if they don’t respect him. He thinks little of the current guards, they do nothing and know little of their own craft, meanwhile he’s the best hunter in the tribe and with his arrows he believes he could protect his people. He worked hard for the position than they did, they were undeserving. Alas, this was how his tribe lived, family lineage mattered and he couldn’t argue that. All he could do is work his own way up rather than tear others down.

          As Namito heads into the trees, the guards at the wall question him. Most hunters came in before nightfall, as the woods become significantly more dangerous to traverse at night, albeit teeming with life of valuable beasts. The later, however, is exactly was exactly why Namito is now heading out. There is a beast in mind that he aims for, and it only comes out at night. It is a beast large enough to feed the entire village and neighboring villages for at least a month. Many died perusing this monstrous thing, but Namito was confident in his skills. Besides, perhaps if he brought back this legendary beast, it might be convincing enough for the heads of his tribe to promote him to that guard position. It’s with this thought in mind that Namito trots confidently into the dark woodland maze.

              Winding through the trees, traversing invisible paths, Namito guides his way around the massive forest. Looking up, the trees appeared to scrape the sky they stand so magnificently tall. He makes his way through it all with ease, knowing the land well. He passes the watering hole and traverses farther out than normal. Sticking too close he would be in commonly hunted areas, he wants to find the beasts in hiding. He spends hours out searching but finds nothing. Finally, he gets the sign he wants. The ground shakes with each step of the enormous beast as it’s nearby. Namito is so happy in this moment he practically breaks out in dance. He remains silent however, even though his heart flutters with joy inside his chest. He couldn’t give it any reason to run…or even worse, attack. So he crouches low and moves behind the safety of the vegetation around him, sticking behind bushes as he got a closer look at his grand prize. There it stood, and grand it was. The thing walks on all fours, covered in long white hair, massive black claws on each toe. The shoulder blades of this thing brush against the canopy of the woods it stands so tall. It’s nose more ape-like in appearance. It’s certainly a creature to behold. As he appreciates the appeal of this mighty beast, Namito studies its movements. Figuring out where it would go, he proceeds ahead of it moving quickly and silently along the sides. Getting up ahead far enough, he positions himself in a bush located in a more central position of the beast. Here it would walk over him, and with his amazing bow, he could penetrate its heart no problem. As the thing came closer, he pulled his arrow on the bow, his heart thundering in his chest with excitement, a grin adorning his face.

“Just a bit closer…” He mumbles to himself as the creature comes straight for his bush as predicted.

         Right at that moment, two guards whom had been on patrol and wandered too far, walk into view, mid-chat. With their interrupted noise, the beast immediately stops and snaps its head towards them. They startled it and so it growls a deep growl as it lowers itself towards the ground, ready to attack. Angry with the situation, Namito stands up from his hiding spot and shouts angrily to the guards.

“You idiots!”

          The beast then charges for them, the men run, screaming loudly as they sprint faster than they’ve ever sprinted in their lives. However, the powerful beast is much faster than the two and it gains on them quickly. It teeth, baring long fangs, snap close to the two, one of them cries seeing it barely miss, the other pees himself in fear. Having seen the for coming progression of all of this, Namito moves quickly, being a much faster runner than the two men, takes his bow and shoots the beast from behind. Maybe he can distract it so that the other two could get away. The moment is arrow lands, the beast spins around surprisingly fast for its size. Its eyes now bloodshot as it angrily stares down Namito with a rage. It had something to be angry about now. Namito had stops immediately in his tracks when it spins around to face him. Seeing it as angry as it is, he gulps, not too sure how he plans on making it out of this one. The thing then lets out a mighty roar that causes Namito’s long hair to flap behind him in the wind it creates. Seeing the obvious hostility, Namito leaps for the trees and makes a run for it. He looks like a cat, nimbly moving from branch to branch. Angry, the beast attacks the trees, trying to rip them from their roots as he hops from one to another with ease. As the beast takes out much of its rage on the trees, Namito is able to get far ahead of the beast. At one point, he ditches the trees entire and goes for a full on sprint as he gets to the open field of the watering hole. Far behind him, the angry beast bursts out of the tree-line still tailing him. He glances back at the thing, seeing his eyes burning even more intensely. Swipe from the thing’s paws and he would be as good as dead. He had to get away now. So he runs straight for the mudslide. Running up to where the water drained out of the area, he slides down a steep cliff, riding down a narrow and rough mudslide with the water. On the way down, an edge comes out and he smacks his arm on it, stabbing into the flesh of his arm on the rock. Cringing in, pain it is the least of his worries. Once down, he quickly tries to move before the beast would be able to pick up his scent after possibly finding a way around.

         As Namito travels, the sun sinks further into the ground. He notices the bark on the trees of his current location were darker than normal in color. He was close to the black wood, a place he certainly didn’t want to be at during this time of night. However, just his luck, the thing he was afraid of running into appeared. He heard it, behind him, it growled at him, drool dripping from its mouth on the earthy floor. Filled with dread, Namito turned ever so slowly around to face it. There it is, standing right in front of him with yellow eyes staring with at him. It’s body slimy in appearance and thin, it stood as tall as him, with a large powerful dinosaur-like jaw filled with hundreds of needle sharp teeth. The peoples of Marnix referred to these creatures as “Devils”. As the devil leans closer to him, it makes a low clicking sound deep in its throat. With one arm hurt, he’s unable to draw his bow. Instead he just grabs an arrow in one hand, ready to make a last stand with this thing. As the devil lunges for Namito, it draws itself back in the next instant as a torch is suddenly waved at it, in front of Namito’s face. The devil open’s its large bat-like wings and jumps back slightly as this newcomer with the torch approaches it. He waves the flames at the beast, as it rears away, making noises of distress. At some point, this stranger manages to singe the beast, its flammable/oily skin lights instantly. In fit of agony the devil cries as it tries to fly away, a living torch. The, without saying a word, this stranger grabs ahold of Namito’s wrist and pulls him off into the wood quickly with him. Clearly this person knew where they were going.

         This stranger leads Namito to a cave, inside a small fire is burning, there is a pile of collected fruits and nuts, a makeshift bead of leaves and grasses, as well as a wooden bucket filled with fresh water. The unknown person has Namito sit down on the grass bed as he himself moves to the fire. It’s by the light of the flames that Namito is able to get a look at this mysterious person’s face. Upon seeing him, the first thing he notices is the significance of the man’s eye color, a bright yellow.

“You’re a Demon.” Namito commented.

“That I am. I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable.” The stranger spoke.

         Namito is unsure at this discovery. He had no personal vendettas with the Demons, Natives like his tribes shared the land with them in the same country in perfect harmony. There was no ill will towards this man’s peoples. The issue rather lied in the tradition of his own people. The Natives were a strictly neutral group, they were not supposed to side with either the Demons, the Angels, or any of Master’s followers. They had no place in the ongoing war. It is taught that each side contained evils of their own that they should not associate with…but this man had just saved his life.

“What is your name? Mine’s Chazz.” The man, Chazz, said to Namito. As he faced him he could get a good look at his face. He had black hair that fell in his face, somewhat spiked. He wore a leather jacket over a white tank, and he had an attractive face. Oddly enough, he wore lots of chains that dripped over his body, they looked heavy and completely unnecessary.

“Namito, I’m a native from-“

“I know you’re a native.” Chazz commented with a friendly smile.

“…so why did you help me out then?” Namito asked. Surely this Chazz knew how the Native tribes felt.

“Because I believe in the old ways, when the Demons were supposed to protect the land and creatures native to Marnix. Including you.”

“Oh…I guess I don’t understand. I am not familiar with these, ‘old ways’.” Namito admitted.

Glancing down, Chazz notices Namito’s arm. “You’re injured.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I messed up my arm on the mud slide earlier.”

Chazz searches the place, looking for anything he can to use as a form of bandage, “That’s alright. You don’t have to understand.”

Namito looks at him confused when he says this.

Chazz comes over with some thread, a needle, and some cloth as he works on sewing a bandage over Namito’s arm. “No matter what you think of my actions or what your standing on your feelings of my race is, I still helped you. I did what I thought was right.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Namito wasn’t sure what this man was trying to get at.

Chazz gets up, looking down at the seated Namito. “I also think the time has come for all of us to set aside our differences so that we could fight for a greater purpose, together.”

“You’re referring to Master’s growing strength, correct”

Chazz nods to confirm this as he goes over and picks up some of his berries, popping them into his mouth.

“Look, there’s no way people backed with over a hundred years of war amongst each other are going to set their feuds aside to fight in a war together.” Namito was skeptical, which he wasn’t one to usually be.

“Well, no one would give it up for good. But you have to admit that if all of us teamed up, then we might have a chance to defeat Master.”

“Well…yeah, I guess that would work in theory, if you got the Angels and Demons to work together with the common people and the Natives, then yeah I think we could take Master on. But it doesn’t matter because that will never happen.”

“Never huh? I don’t know. I think people can be persuaded.”

“With the history of death and war between the Angels and Demons? I think I’d take a lot more than some persuading..” Namito pointed out.

“Did I make you re-think about me, even though I’m a Demon, because I saved you?” Chazz asks. This question catches Namito a bit off guard.

“I mean…”

“If I can convince you by showing you, then perhaps if someone could show everyone else that we could work together, than maybe, just maybe, it could work. It wouldn’t have to be a permanent thing. Just long enough to end the war. I’m not talking about solving a long going feud in a matter of days, I’m just talking about setting aside differences for a while to get what needs to be done, done. We all know what’s right, and it certainly isn’t letting Master’s army take over our cities and kill aimlessly while destroying what remains of our world.”

Namito looks at him as Chazz is quite serious about this. He wants to do this. “You know, you might just be crazy.”

In response to that, Chazz just laughs. “Maybe. Perhaps you are too though.”

“Excuse me?”

“I saw you, from the beginning, you protected those men regardless of the fact they may have had that coming. You almost got yourself killed pulling off a crazy stunt, but you did the right thing back there, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess so. You saw all of that?”

“Yes, I did. And you did what you knew was right.”

“I suppose so.” Namito admits.

“Then I think you’d be perfect, why don’t you be the first to join me?”

“Join you in what?” Namito asks, clueless.

“I want to make a group. One that consists of a person who represents each of the many peoples of Marnix. Together we will work as a force against Master and attempt to inspire the people to work together in order to fight back against Master. I want to make a group that will give people hope again.”

“Yup, I was right, you’re absolutely crazy.”

Chazz just smiles at that. “I know. But what do you say?”

Namito thinks about it for a moment, carefully, before he answers Chazz. “They saw I’m crazy to think that someone of my family line could ever be a guard or a warrior..Besides, it’s not like I am doing much for my people as it is, they are perfectly capable of feeding themselves plenty without me. So I guess, why not? I’d rather die trying to protect my people rather than not. That’s what I think a true warrior would do.”

“I agree.”

“Then I’ll join you.” Namito told him.

“Great, now you should get your rest. We’ve got others we have to seek out tomorrow.”

“Yeah, goodnight.” Namito says, plopping back onto the leaf bed. He closes his eyes and falls asleep, immediately snoring.

“Night.” Chazz simply states as he looks at the fire as the flames start to grow.