Van crouched in the low foliage by the lake, muscles tense, ready to fly into action at any moment.

An opalescent fin sliced through the surface of the lake.

The boy sprang into action.

Sou!

The spear hurtled forwards.

By a hairsbreadth, the Rainbow Carp slipped past, sliding back into the depths of the lake.

The spear stuck deep into the mud.

Hopeful, Van pulled the spear back. There, at the tip of the spear was a perfectly conchoidal, rainbow scale.

This time the scale was significantly larger. Its color was milkier, pearl-like. Van quickly set it aside.

He felt incredibly lucky.

Large Rainbow Carp hardly ever appeared and were even harder to pin down. Though he was unable to catch it, he felt he had not wasted the countless hours he had spent on the mountainside.

Satisfied that he'd fulfilled Finn's wish, Van turned his worries to the items he was supposed to be gathering.

The situation was grim.

The so-called areas of 'easy pickings' where he usually foraged were completely cleared of all Iron Gra.s.s and Mooncap Mushrooms. Both herbs were easy enough to pick, if you knew what to look for.

Iron Gra.s.s looked like any ordinary gra.s.s, except that they flashed a silver-grey with the right angle to the sunlight. They grew in large swathes in areas where red soil was exposed to the air. This soil was found in pockets throughout the mountain.

Mooncap mushrooms, on the other hand, had perfectly circular, white caps and at night, they faintly glowed. During the daytime, the easiest way to identify them was to visit fallen, rotten logs in clearings, where at night they had plenty of exposure to moons.h.i.+ne.

But all these gathering areas were cleared!

At first, Van wondered if a large herd of beasts from another region had migrated to the mountainside - but careful inspection revealed traces of human intervention.

Besides, which grazing animals ate only one or two species of plant, without touching all the plants around them?

Van spent the rest of the day at the base of the mountain, but his search yielded little results. By the time the sun started to set, he was hungry, tired and suspicious.

His basket contained only twenty clumps of Iron Gra.s.s and eleven Mooncap Mushrooms.

The thing was, he needed over five hundred clumps of Iron Gra.s.s and four hundred Mooncap Mushrooms by the end of the week!

Van returned to the village after dark, his brows knitted and discontent.

Clearly, someone was trying to trip him up. His foraging harvest yielded under one-third of the ordinary.

The only choice was to venture into the dangerous depths of the mountain.

Reaching his tent, he lifted the entrance flap to see his little sister fast asleep, her cherubic face peaceful in sleep. A bun laid, half-chewed, in her hand.

Affectionately, he threw his blanket over her as well, before blowing out the candle.

Wide awake, and staring into the darkness, Van seethed and plotted.

Someone wanted to see him fail, and that was the last thing he was willing to do!

Lets see how I'll slap these ignorant villagers in the face!

________________

In the darkness of the night, a hunter slipped into Blade's cottage and reported his findings.

"He almost caught me a few times." Blade's subordinate commented, sounding almost impressed.

The Chief Hunter grunted, "His progress?"

"There's no need to worry, I was a step ahead of him at every moment. He wasn't able to gain much"

"Good. Now he will have no chance but to venture into the deeper mountain. "

"Do you think he will survive?"

"Even full grown hunters like us fear to tread in the higher mountain. Let alone a boy orphan who hasn't grown a single hair yet."

The big man suddenly laughed, "Let's put it this way... If he can possibly survive this trial, I will consider forgiving him for attacking my son!"

He chuckled to himself for the whole night, obviously not believing that a mere 13-year-old boy was going to come out of this ordeal alive.

________________

The next day, Van packed for a much longer journey.

The Rainbow Carp scale, he placed inside Finn's wooden bowl, so she would find it in the morning.

Van directly began to ascend the mountain.

Half a day later, he was traveling cautiously through regions he had barely ever wandered into before. Along his way, he had been able to harvest a solid fifty Iron Gra.s.ses and thirty Mooncap Mushrooms.

Unfortunately, this was still much less than what he needed to be gathering.

The worst part? He was nearly at the edge of the lower mountain.

Past here, rumours abounded of fierce beasts with an appet.i.te for human flesh, wailing ghosts that latched onto you and fed on your soul, small furry creatures that put on a cute appearance before swallowing you whole.

Van progressed on, extra cautious and sensitive to his surroundings.

Eventually, he reached a towering pine tree that marked the start of the higher mountainside.

The pine was the tallest around for many miles each way. It's thick, upright trunk if hollowed, could fit at least fifty villagers inside. High above, large pinecones decorated the foliage, too high up for Van to consider harvesting. Rather, he was worried that a pinecone would fall from great height and smash his skull open.

Fate works in funny ways. Did Van know that this pinecone would change his life forever? Obviously not.

Van's ears twitched as he heard a crisp sound from above.

Instinct taking over, he tumbled out of the way just as a ma.s.sive pinecone the size of two fists held together slammed into the earth.

BAM!

A cloud of dust obscured all from sight. When it cleared, the gold-brown pinecone lay in the middle of a crater. Van stared at it, baffled.

What was this luck? For an unlucky thing to happen to him just as he thought about it!

He wandered over and picked it up, grunting at the surprising weight. Looking at its slightly opened state, Van grew excited, it seemed the pine nuts inside were already ripe and could be eaten.

Happily, he stuffed it in his bag.

Just as he did, a sharp caw from the pine tree above caught his attention.

Far above, a Red Pinion bird was dancing about in the branches of the tall pine, watching him with a ridiculing gaze.

Red Pinion birds were usually medium in size and commonly found in the lower mountain. However, this one had an intelligent, wily gleam in its eyes.

As he stared at it, it mockingly raised a taloned claw and rested it on a pinecone. It's beady, intelligent eyes seemed to jeer at him.

"Don't you dare," Van warned, glaring at the smug bird, who, as soon as he said this, wiggled its claw.

A ma.s.sive pinecone, heavy enough to smash open a skull and falling from great height, hurtled downwards.

Straight for Van's unprotected skull.

****!