HUNTER OR HUNTED?

              They all soon began their journey to the northeast part of the Raven kingdom where the weather was unstable and coldest. It was the border of the Raven Kingdom with the Falcon Kingdom which was separated by an ice-cold ocean named 'Rose'. As they travelled further, the colder temperature was and the more gloomy the weather was. It was a place where there was no chance for survival if one got lost. They travelled for five hours before finally reaching their destination.

      King Raleigh stopped and looked at all of them.

"Let's rest for a while. We all can have something to eat and leave. Set up a tent in that area and maids with two soldiers will stay here. Commander Wesley and two soldiers will be leaving with me."

     "Yes, your highness." 

All of them soon set up tents for everyone. The maids were busy cooking the foods while commander Weshly and other soldiers were preparing the weapons. King Raleigh stood up far from them and looked at the mountain he would soon be climbing. The mountain was neither too tall nor too small but what made it dangerous to climb was it was very steep in some parts and sometimes the weather may not favor them. But today was his day. The weather was clear and there showed no signs of snowing and blizzards. He would not have to worry about avalanches or massive storms. He smiled slightly. He would conquer that mountain and hunt the snow leopard because no one had ever succeeded in climbing this mountain and hunting the snow leopard.

     The maids finished cooking the food and served it to everyone. Everyone had enough meal as they didn't know how long they would be hunting for. They also carried enough warm water and some food in case they took a long time hunting and got hungry. They had enough weapons like bows and arrows plus some guns. The horses were also taken with them in case of some emergency or hunting becomes dangerous. The life of the king was most important than anything in this world. 

       They were standing at the base of the mountain. King Raleigh was in the front sitting on his white horse with a bow on his shoulder and arrows on his back while the others stood behind him. They all looked up at the mountain full of snow and some steep rocks with boulders in some parts. The top of the mountain was surrounded by fog and was covering the whole area. They couldn't go much at the top because they may suffer from hypothermia or frostbites. As they reached here, the weather started getting cloudy and cold breeze started to blow. King Raleigh was pissed off as the weather was just clear now. They were fooled from far when they saw the mountain but when they came here the weather was the exact opposite. It would be really bad if they went hunting in such circumstances. They may get lost easily or suffer from severe consequences.

     "Your highness, I think we should return back to camp. The weather is going to be very bad." Commander Weshly suggested.

     King Raleigh was just looking at the mountain silently. No one knew what he was thinking. As for king Raleigh's personality, he was definitely up to no good. Commander Weshly knew that and was worried. He was silently praying for God to make king Raleigh agree with him. 

    "No, I will go."

Yup, if King Raleigh agreed with commander Weshly's decision then he wouldn't be king Raleigh. He was very stubborn and does the things once he decided to do no matter what. King Raleigh was very brave and wanted to hunt no matter what. He loved facing difficult challenges. He only used to feel alive when he was near to death. He always felt great satisfaction in completing those daring challenges which no one could.

  "But the weather..." Commander Wesely tried to persuade him but was stopped by king Raleigh.

   "Weather may change once we start climbing. I want to hunt the snow leopard today no matter what."

   "But we can come tomorrow too, your highness."

   "No, I will go right now. If you all don't want to then you can leave."

How can they leave? It was not possible, alright. Someday the king would also die and make them die with him too. Commander Wesley was crying internally.

    "How can we leave without you, your highness? It is our duty to protect you and die for you." 

    "Hm, then this matter is close. Follow me."

King Raleigh started climbing the mountain on his horse followed by commander Weshly and two soldiers. "Guard your backs and each other. Don't get lost too."

   "Yes, your highness."

As they started climbing, the place looked the same everywhere making them lose their way to get lost in this mountain which they never wanted to happen. Why was it so difficult to hunt the snow leopard? They stuck some sticks with the royal insignia as a mark for their way to return back. As they climbed higher into the mountain, the small wind started to blow. The wind was carrying snow with it making their vision difficult. The fog was also starting to surround them. 

     "Be close to each other." King Raleigh said in a loud voice.

Then they all were riding horses close to each other so they wouldn't get lost in this fog and wind with snow. To make their condition worse, the weather was starting to get even worse. The wind started blowing strongly than ever. But these difficulties couldn't stop king Raleigh. Instead, he was feeling more excited. He felt adrenaline rushing all over his body and his head. The more difficult, the happier he was. Ah... He couldn't wait to hunt the snow leopard. There was a smile on his lips. Would you even call it a smile?

          After some hours of climbing in a strong wind and fog, everyone finally heard a loud roar. King Raleigh got even more excited and looked for the direction where the roar came from. Within a minute, they again heard a roar and could finally get where the roar came from. It was coming from the east. King Raleigh turned his horse to the east and started to chase the sound. 

    "FOLLOW ME!!"

Commander Wesley and the two soldiers started following king Raleigh. Snows were starting to fall down and the wind was getting even fiercer. But king Raleigh's heart was beating even faster and louder because of excitement. Finally a snow leopard. When they finally reached the place where they had heard the roar coming from, the snow had started to fall heavily and a blizzard was forming. Because of the blizzard, their vision was disturbed. They couldn't see properly the way they were walking. The horses were also starting to get restless. King Raleigh was blocking the blizzard with one hand while the other was holding the halter. He was looking here and there for the snow leopard but couldn't see anywhere.

     King Raleigh and others looked for snow leopard for more than five minutes but still couldn't find it anywhere. Maybe it had already walked away from here. They couldn't even see properly and were only depending on their sense of hearing. Soon everyone decided to end the hunt and come tomorrow. If they don't leave now, they may get lost in the mountain or get caught up in the avalanche. They were just turning back to leave when something suddenly attacked them from behind. Everyone quickly strayed far from each other and looked at king Raleigh because that thing had especially attacked him.

       King Raleigh managed to dodge the surprise attack because of his super reflex and his intuition. He had always been trained since small against the assassination and trained to attack anyone if he got caught in a surprise attack. But his horse got scared and jumped high making king Raleigh fall on the snow and ran away as his horse was not a warhorse which became his weak point. He couldn't see properly which direction the horse ran to. Commander Wesley and the other soldiers tried to shot the snow leopard with guns but the guns couldn't work as the gun powder got wet because of the snow. As they tried to distract the snow leopard, king Raleigh was searching for his bow and arrows which had fallen when he fell from the horse. And if they wanted to stay alive they could only depend on his bow and arrows as those guns were pretty useless now.

           The snow leopard was attacking everyone sneakily in that heavy snowfall and blizzard. Because of the weather condition and uncontrolled attack from the snow leopard, they all got separated into different directions. King Raleigh didn't know where he ended up after avoiding the snow leopard's attack as he also couldn't see properly. He just knew he was in a high place. He heard the sound coming near him. It looked like the snow leopard only wanted to attack him and followed him. King Raleigh was vigilant towards his surrounding. He listened quietly as he heard the low growl from the snow leopard. It was probably very hungry in its cold weather and king Raleigh looked most delicious. He had already retrieved his bow and arrows and it was behind his back.

      Both the snow leopard and king Raleigh were on stalemate for a while. It looked like they were waiting for each other to attack first. The snow leopard was slowly walking circling king Raleigh and it looked like it could jump on him at any time. King Raleigh was also super aware of it and waited on his guard. It didn't look like the snow leopard would be attacking any time soon. Why? Because of its intuition? Strong against strong. King Raleigh bravely shot one arrow towards the snow leopard instead of being afraid. The snow leopard dodged the arrow easily as it was very flexible and the mountain was its home turf. The snow leopard had much more advantages than the king.

    The snow leopard suddenly jumped on him from his right. King Raleigh also immediately turned right and shot the next arrow. The arrow didn't even touch the snow leopard but the snow leopard clawed him. But its claw couldn't touch his body. It only managed to tear his woolen cloak after he saw the arrow didn't hit him and moved a little bit away from the snow leopard. The snow leopard was growling angrily at him and king Raleigh also wouldn't back down. If he had his sword, then this leopard wouldn't still be standing right now. He had to depend on his physical strength and his arrows. The snow leopard jumped in front of him making king Raleigh fall with the snow leopard above him. It was trying to bite him with its fangs and tear him with his claws. King Raleigh tried to defend himself from its attack grabbing both of its front claws with his hands. Its fangs were near his shoulder.

     King Raleigh somehow managed to grab an arrow and inserted it inside the snow leopard any parts he could reach. The snow leopard jumped off from him once it got injured on its chest area. This game of cat and mouse went on until king Raleigh got exhausted and finished up using all of his arrows. He was tired and was breathing heavily. The harsh weather was affecting him and now he couldn't even open his eyes properly to see. Ahh... he should have at least brought a dagger. After all that fight, he had only managed to shot on the snow leopard's right front leg while the snow leopard managed to slash his back deeply and injure his left leg. His blood was flowing heavily from his back and he could feel the snow leopard growling in excitement as it smelled his fresh blood. He didn't have much strength and stamina left. This environment was a huge negative point for him. He was slowly catching his breath as the snow leopard attacked him again. It looked like it was going to kill him today no matter what.

          The snow leopard had slashed his stomach with its sharp claws. The blood immediately flowed out. He knew at this moment that he would die here and the snow leopard would eat him. No, he didn't want to be its food. The mighty king of the Raven kingdom couldn't die so disgracefully. He also wanted to attack but he stumbled back because of his weakness. Before he could regain his balance, he fell off the cliff. He had never imagined that all this time he was fighting on the cliff and he wasn't even aware of it. 

    The cliff was tall and he fell off the cliff swiftly. King Raleigh then finally confirmed he was about to die. Well, at least it was better than being snow leopard's food. Before he fell, he had seen snow leopard looking at him from the end of the cliff. He smirked seeing it. The poor creature couldn't get its prize after fighting for it so long. The end parts of the cliff were full of sharp rocks. King Raleigh rolled down the cliff with those sharp stones making his wounds hurt deeper. Now that he was about to die, he felt alive. He could see millions of hands on the ground trying to pull him to hell. After rolling for some time, he landed on the snow with a large impact. He was too weak to even move an inch or lift his fingers. Every part of his body was hurting. He laid flat on the ground looking at the cloudy sky above him.

     Am I going to die now? Did they return back safely? 

Those thoughts were running inside king Raleigh's head currently. He had never imagined that he was going to die here alone. The brave and mighty king Raleigh Kainz died during hunting. Haha... it was going to be a joke in the entire land- a black mark in the history of the royal family and the Raven kingdom. What a joke!! Haha... he wanted to live longer. He still hadn't fulfilled his dreams. He didn't want to die in this way. If he had to die, he would have preferred to die on the battlefield.

      King Raleigh couldn't take the pain anymore as he slowly closed his eyes and everything became dark for him.