I leave the city limits before first light following my normal route to the blind ive been using for 3 days with my bow strapped to my back and my knife at my waist. If there is no sight of any game today I'll have to try a new spot tomorrow, I just hope father can last that long. The land just keeps getting worse and worse as if it is doomed to turn into a desert, the trees and other vegetation are drying up, turning a near brown color as opposed to the vibrant green that used to fill this forest. Rain comes sporadically and in light drizzles, even the river is all but dried up despite no change happening up river. Of course this means it's impossible to grow large amounts of crops needed to sustain the city of Arbourne.

  What's worse is that the change was so dramatic even the Pernwyn Emperor sent experts to survey the area in the hopes of restoring the life of the area, Unfortunately they could never find the cause. All they could do was determine the timeline, it all started just over 17 years ago. Apparently the night I was born the vegetation withered rapidly then slowed down but has continuously withered ever since along with the reduction of water. Causing widespread famine.

  The food shortages weren't the end of the city's problem either. People who should have been able to live for another 10 or 20 years started dying one after the other and over the years people have begun to see signs of age that shouldn't happen till later, wrinkles and weakening bodies which made them seem older than they actually were.

  I don't know who started the rumor but after a few years with no improvement in sight the people who lived near us made the connection that it all started the night I was born, paired with my black eyes that turn white near the pupil, Long blackish reddish hair and the fact that my mother died during childbirth. It's understandable they would look for an outlet to vent their fury and others joined in. It didn't take long before the whole city thought of me as a cursed child and on one day about a month ago a man watched his son die from starvation. Enraged, he immediately went to our house and charged at me with his axe but my father stood in front and took the blow to his shoulder without even trying to fight back. I think he could understand the man's pain and did not want to hurt him further.

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  Luckily due to the angle the wound was shallow but ended up infected, combine that with the lack of food and my father has gotten weaker and weaker since. Now he is practically at death's door having not eaten anything more than sawdust in warm water for a week now. Just as I am worrying about my father and anxiously heading to the blind hoping for a deer, I hear leaves rustling ahead of me. I immediately dart to the side and hide behind a tree completely silent, a skill drilled into me by my father who worked as a butcher that sold only meat he hunted himself

  Along the game trail ahead I spot a boar trudging along while ripping up roots with its tusks. I immediately ready my bow and nock an arrow, hunting a boar without a boar spear and a group is risky but who knows when I'll see any game next. As soon as it turns to its left its now facing me broadside and i wont get a better opportunity, i draw and fire in one fluid motion hitting it square in the side of its chest just behind the shoulder but its hide is too thick for the arrow to reach his organs and it starts looking around and sniffing for the one who just hurt it. After not immediately locating its attacker it turns to flee.

  Silently I draw my bow and fire another arrow at the boar managing to hit it in the right hindleg then immediately pursuing, the injury to its leg slowing it down enough for me to keep up. By now im no longer moving silently and as soon as the boar hears me it slows down and stops fleeing, letting out a loud grunt as it begins to charge at me but i was expecting it and the moment its about to hit me i sidestep out of the way, nocking another arrow i wait till the moment it starts to turn toward me again and i fire another arrow into its side. At this distance its hide cant stop my arrow from driving into its lung. With a squeal that turns into gurgling it falls head first into the ground, its back legs still trying to propel it forward but it only lasts for a moment before it falls completely, never to get up again.

  I excitedly run over to the boar and confirm that it's dead before I begin field dressing my kill, it's much too large for me to take the whole animal back then butcher it so I do it all there in the forest. Just as i finish skinning the boar and start cutting off the meat though i hear a voice dripping with hatred behind me

  “Oh? The cursed child hunted a boar to repay us for all the suffering he's given us it seems”