HUNTER Part I Flower

HUNTER Part I Flower
By Yelena Tylkina

Synopsis:

�Hunter� is a mystical and tragic love story; a complex, fantastic, journey of one young man�s realization of the reality of intangible forces (thoughts, feelings and, most importantly, the imagination) that are the foundations upon which everything is actually built.


Part I: Flower

The young, handsome, hunter entered the forest, but he was too cocky and lazy to look for really difficult prey. He preferred the already wounded and weak, or the young and inexperienced, so that he needed little or no effort in his hunting expedition. He often went alone to hunt, so that, because afterwards he could brag to his friends about how good he was at this manly, risky hobby.

Afterwards, he would host a party and cook his hunting prizes for his friends and while also cooking up stories of his incredible hunting adventures. His trusting friends believed they were gorging themselves on lions or bears but actually stuffing themselves with rabbits, squirrels and rodents.

In the depth of the forest, the young hunter saw a bloody trail and happily followed it, trembling in the anticipation of an easy kill. Preoccupied by the chase, the young hunter did not realized he had entered a maze of a long cave, and only then did he see that the wounded prey slung on the shoulders of some huge, hairy creature was his own nude body, bleeding from a fresh cut in his throat.

The young hunter choked on his scream, biting his knuckles when he was confronted with the beautiful, brown, dewy eyes of a buck frozen in the starting death mask of his own face.

The slain buck brought a lot of cheerful joy to eerie tenants of the cave. The group of mix bread of beings from jelly like aliens, humans, insects and hairy beasts began to prepare for the feast. The big fire lit up the cave and the young hunter searched nervously for a hiding place. He fearfully squeezed himself behind some large rocks. He was not sure whether this bizarre situation was just a wall of hallucination or very real and very deep trouble.

The deer was skinned and cut into pieces: nothing would be wasted. All the deer�s organs were displayed on a big, long wooden table for the different cooks to do their special dishes: soups, goulash, smoked tongue, fresh sausages, brain stew, kidney pie � a seemingly endless combination of delicacies with herbs, spices, wild berries, honey and hallucinogenic mushrooms. The deer�s head was placed on a golden tray. A gentle looking, dark eyed girl about eight or ten years old was petting the deer�s severed head and saying something in its ear. The young hunter concentrated his attention on the little girl face and her pink, moist lips as she pronounced,

�Now you know who killed you, my gorgeous, special pet.�

She then removed the eyes from deer�s head with her fingers and put them on a small crystal plate.

The little girl, dressed in a bright scarlet silk dress with long folds, moved quickly toward the place the young hunter was hiding and blew a kiss at him. The cold chills rushed through the young hunter�s body, but his heart was ready to explode from the hot wave of a hideous fear that he was now discovered. The girl smiled and said,

�My precious, I have made sure that only I can see you, so follow me closely.�

The long folds of girl�s dress enveloped the young hunter and in a few seconds they were in a lavish room of rich shades of scarlet, burgundy, bourdeaux and gold with countless incredible artifacts seemed to be collected from all over the world and many life-size sculptures, paintings and mosaics depicting common life and hunting scenes.

The little girl aged in front of the young hunter�s eyes in to a mature, handsome woman, an Amazon with gleaming gold hair, dressed in hunting clothes.

- �Let�s celebrate this good hunting season and have a drink for the soul of the beautiful, sacred beast we slew today! �- The Amazon exclaimed, as she placed the deer�s eyes in to the bottom of a florescent glass and added a special liquor of fermented honey and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

They emptied the glass and licked their lips in appreciation of the unique, beautiful taste. The young hunter glanced in to the glass and asked the Amazon,

�But who swallows my eyes, I mean the beast�s eyes, you or me?�

�The eyes will go to the one who needs them the most,� the Amazon answered and added, �It is the eyes� choice. They could be evenly divided between us. You will see the effect shortly enough. You will see the truth of things, places and people, beyond the surface, and feel, comprehend this amazing reality, unblemished with influences of any kind. Please excuse me, but I have to attend to some things of immediate importance. Please do not leave this room alone. The entrance door could be different from the exit door. Without guidance, it can be very tricky for an inexperienced person.�

She smiled enigmatically and vanished behind the door.

The young hunter was left alone in a new, strange environment. With great curiosity, he inspected the mysterious, lavish room. He was bewildered when he recognized himself with the Amazon in many images of art work and marveled at the pink marble sculpture of himself as Apollo in the classical pose of Greek masters. The craftsmanship of the sculpture of Apollo was superb and incredibly realistic, full of life and almost ready to speak. The young hunter�s head was spinning from the overwhelming sense of self- importance and a false pride. The effect of the potent liquor was obvious and the aggressive, selfish nature of the young hunter belched out a complaint to the ceiling�s echoes,

�Who does she think she is, this woman, to tell me what to do? I am my own master! I do what I please! She must be insane! There is only one door in this room.� The young hunter barged out.

As he faced the wilderness, the grim wind slapped the door behind him. The young hunter turned around but the door was not there; everything had disappeared. It was snowing lightly and the darkness settled quickly. The realization of his new, equally surprising circumstances was sobering and compelled him to stay put until morning. The young hunter searched for twigs and old branches to use for fire. He made a large circle with what he found, jumped inside it and lit the fire to keep predators at bay. The night seemed as long as an eternity, full of hungry howls, bone- chilling sounds and ominous movements.

But the dawn came and the young hunter moved along, hoping to reach safety. Shortly, enough, he saw a bloody trail unaccompanied by footprints, hooves, paws of any kind and he realized that he was at the same place where his bizarre adventure began. He knew how to get home from this point. The young hunter glanced at the bloody trail, he thought for the last time, and twisted his face with an arrogant smile.

The bloody spots on the snow had the shape of scarlet lipstick kisses against the white paper of a love note. The long chain of scarlet lips moved in a whisper. The young hunter went down on his knees and put his ears close to the scarlet lips which had a warm breath and a lovely voice.

�Follow me passionately, execute me masterfully, and feast on me ecstatically,� the scarlet lips repeated like a mantra. The music of the mysterious voice entered the young hunter�s heart. He sensed gravity free lightness in his body and euphoric happiness of no origin. His hot, heavy tears streamed down into the open scarlet kisses, scrolling around in the fresh snow, covering the ground in frenzy. Scattered diamonds of the young hunter�s tears glimmered in the midday sun, illuminating the wilderness with a magical, unearthly, glow. The tree gushed with perfume blossoms.


4 November 2010
Fantasy Fiction

The editor Charis Warchal