Time flew so fast and it was time to go home. Drev and I took the alternative way back home instead of the highway. We got out from school through the back gate, and took the path in the forest.
"Aren't you afraid to meet tadalsi along the way?" He asked, struggling to not let the bike pedal hit him in the knee as he walked holding it by his side.
"No," I lied. I was, but it was impossible to meet tadalsi here because they live in the heart of a dark and humid forest and this forest was the opposite, but I won't tell him. To make fun of him. "Are you?"
He groaned as he lifted the Iris when there was a root as big as the body of the tree peeking out from the soil. "I am." He put down the bike on the ground again and catched up with me. "What if we meet one?"
"Then you hit it with Iris."
"Could it really kill three people easily like what Mr. Lacna said?"
"Yes."
It all happened quickly in a second, in just one breath. My wrist was yanked and the next thing I know, we were behind the tree that we passed by a while ago, the one with a big root poking out from the ground. And Iris was abandoned right behind us.
I was wide-eyed. "Ho--"
He placed his index finger to my lips and shhh-ed me. "Ten o'clock, single, estimated 9 meters far," he whispered using the hunting language Mr. Lacna taught us. "Hunt or run?"
I glanced to the direction he mentioned and gasped, covering my mouth with my hands. It was my first time to see a tadalsi in person. It was taller than Drev, with a shiny coat of black and a brown mane, it had a face of hard shell though with an appearance of a horse. Its hooves were as thick as my wrist. It sniffed a bark of a tree, and wailed showing shark teeth that were very slimy. Two small ones appeared with the same color but of lighter shade and shorter mane - its two aroams, what a baby tadalsi was called.
"Triple, family, estimated in need of ten people," I replied, surprised that I still remembered the discussion despite panic. I gulped. "Run," I said, responding to the hunting partner's question to avoid loss of life.
He pinned my wrist to the tree to hold me from running. "We can't. Now that they're three, we'd be dead." His voice was a loud whisper. Although in times of danger, I can't believe he could still hide his full voice. I mean, not that I want him to use it because we'd be dead if they hear us.
"We'll die if we hunt them down. I can't believe Mr. Lacna didn't include 'hide' in the question," I hissed.
"It's no time for joke, Grassi." He glanced to the tadalsis. I can't tell if he is pale scared or not because he's pale to the bar line of pale limitation that there's no way he could be paler.
I noticed the sudden change of his personality. Now, I hear someone who is alert and informative, not someone who didn't know how to flush a toilet.
I glared. "I'm not joking. I'm saying that we should hide until they walk out." I could hear the thumping of my heart like they were located in my ears.
"Too late, the parent saw us. Now they're waiting for us to make a move before they attack."
"Because you keep peeking with your geshing head!"
One of the tadalsis wailed. It's wail doesn't sound like a horse, it sounds like a dragon from the movies. Loud and feisty.
I quickly covered my mouth although it's too late. "We're dead." I glanced at the tadalsis and my head felt light when I saw the smaller ones walking their way to us. Now they appeared to be a parent tadalsi teaching his or her aroams to hunt. It's either we kill them or they kill us.
I looked up to him, teary-eyed. I am scared. "What do we do?" I don't know if he is calm or trying to be calm so I won't breakdown, but right now I'm taking my strength from him to not run or pass out.
"You stay here. You said if we meet one, we hit it with Iris, right?" I nodded, and he took Iris in his arms.
"But they're three. You'd die you geshing ass!" Normally, I don't curse but I couldn't help myself.
I wasn't sure if he moved but there was a blurred motion of black and white and he was gone, no more pale guy towering over me behind this tree. I was left in the spot with my mouth agape. Where is he?!
A dragonic wail from a tadalsi enveloped the forest. I let out a terrified breath, the wail ringing in my ears. A short moment after the loud cry echoed and died out, I took hesitance before I finally decided to glance over the tree. I was shocked of what I saw. I held my hands to my chest and let a single tear fall from my eye.
Drev appeared to have snapped the body of my bicycle in which he drove the sharp metal into the heart of tadalsi. How he managed to get near the tadalsi within a nanosecond without a scratch is a mystery to me. He dug the metal deeper until its glassy brown eyes turned into white, a sign that it is dead. He pulled out the metal and let the tadalsi fell to the ground with a loud thump.
The parent one growled with its remaining aroam. They galloped towards Drev, their hooves creating a sound of a gong hit by a clothed paddle on the tip, only that it was a dull sound but solid.
And this time I saw how he did it. How he just disappeared and how he could get near to a tadalsi without being hurt. He moved in blur, barely getting caught by my keen eyes. The parent tadalsi seemed to be surprised too to see Drev suddenly infront of it. It growled at Drev a little late from the appearance, showing its shark teeth that could snap his head off from his body without difficulty. There was a loud snapping sound, I didn't saw how it happened but Drev's hand was bloodied. He was holding the sharpest shark tooth of the tadalsi. The tadalsi cried in pain, but before it could attack Drev, its own tooth was driven into its chest.
It all happened in just barely a second that when the aroam turned its head, its parent was already down in the ground, crying in agony. It didn't hesitate a second to galloped towards Drev, with its mouth wide open to attack first with a bite. Drev's reflex was as fast as his movement that he dudged the bite in ease, then he snapped the neck of the aroam with his bare hands. Its eyes turned white. Drev looked down at the dying parent tadalsi and kicked the tooth in its chest inwards. It let out a deafening cry, echoing throughout the whole forest, and was muted buy another kick from Drev to push its own tooth further to its flesh.
He looked at me, his posture out of glory and exhaustion yet I wasn't even sure if there was a single bead of sweat. And his eyes...his eyes were all black.
