The Siege Hunters

• Sam Varian, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2009

The Siege Hunters

A Cow:

It was early Saturday morning and Michael heard quite a loud unusual sound, unlike anything Michael had heard before. Michael got up and perched his head outside of the door, there was nothing there except the waving shadows of the night and his dog.

So Michael went to the kitchen to find an exceedingly large, grotesque shape in the next room. It seemed to be moving, and the shape’s sounds and motion reminded Michael of something, though he just couldn’t remember what. He leaped towards it to have a better look but the shape lightly stomped in the opposite direction, towards his mum and dad’s room. Michael quickly scurried behind an antique chair and stared blankly at the huge figure in front of him, it was finally clear what it was, a massive cow. It was a real trivia for Michael to find out how this cow even found a way to enter the house. Michael quietly retreated from the chair and grabbed a straw broom out of the nearest closet without the cow noticing him. He slowly approached him as he made a rational plan in his head, he was going to herd him back through the door, around the gate and into the paddock.

“Go on! Through the door!!!” whispered Michael as he tried to push a cow that probably weighed about 590 kilograms. The cow slowly made its way through the thin doorway until a deafening roar of thunder scared the cow out of its skin and made its instincts go wild. Michael watched as the cow ran like a cheetah passed the gate and around the corner where sight of the cow was lost for Michael. All of a sudden Michael was knocked to the ground by a blow to the legs. He looked up and saw Xavier, a Siege Hunter, a group that Michael had never wanted to run into.


The Tree:

Michael felt the rope tighten against his wrists, as he was being lead by Xavier to a beautiful, tall thick tree that looked like a city lifted high into the air. There were rooms, connected hallways, balconies, lifts, doors and windows that were all made out of decent looking wood. Michael only knew the Siege Hunters from the stories his grandfather would tell over and over again because of the popular demand of the incredible stories. Michael’s grandfather had been captured by the Siege Hunter’s himself but escaped, creating history as no one has ever been seen after entering the massive base tree. They supposedly live for eternities, as long as their tree does.

Michael finally found himself on the top level of the tree where he saw, through the traffic of people, a sergeant heading towards him. He was carrying a bow and arrows. Michael was confoundedly confused until the sergeant said,
“Welcome to the team”, then left.