"Welcome to this year"s Hunter"s Compet.i.tion, my name is Chronos Lynwood and I will be hosting this compet.i.tion," he said.

The spectators roared in excitement and even some of the hunters clapped enthusiastically.

"We received word from the River Village Clan hunters saying they would be here soon and we should begin things without delay," he said.

"We"re here already," a voice said next to Chronos.

Chronos was so surprised he actually jumped away from the voice. This was very embarasing for Chronos who was a mighty hunter. He was well known for his nerves of steel. The reason he was so scared was because the person appeared next to him and he never noticed him. Chronos never stopped sensing his environment yet this person was able to sneak up on him.

Looking around he noticed there were Rive Village Clan Hunters all around. Some were in the field, others were in the stands, and some were peaking around guards who were still unaware of their presence!

The person who just spoke was the Clan Chief of the River Village Clan, River Boat. Standing next to him was River Snake. Atlas and Xena Lynwood were just as shocked as Chronos. Perhaps even more shocked because until River Boat spoke, they didn"t even see him or his hunters.

"How did he do that?" Xena asked.

"It"s just a trick."

"Now Atlas and Xena jumped slightly. Standing in between Atlas and Xena"s chairs was a little boy with a bored look on his face.

"Who are you?" Atlas asked.

"I"m River Mist, sir," he said.

"River Mist? You"re from the River Village too?" he asked.

"Yes, sir, River Snake is my father," he responded.

"How did you get past the soldiers?" Atlas asked.

"The soldiers, the big guys who are standing like statues? I don"t think they were really paying attention. They were staring straight ahead and I tried to figure out what was so interesting to them, but it just looked like they were staring at air, so I came in," Mist replied.

"Staring at air?" Atlas thought about it for a minute. He guessed if you looked at the soldiers a certain way it looked like they were staring at air.

"Do you mind if I compete with the adults," Mist asked?

"Huh?" Atlas was confused.

"My father said kids weren"t allowed to play in the compet.i.tion unless they got permission from you. I came to get permission," he said.

"Sure," Atlas responded blankly.

Mist was extremely excited. It was then he looked to his right to see Xena who was staring at him.

"Would you like some candy?" he asked her.

"Candy?" she asked confused.

"Here, take a few, Mother said I should bring you a good greeting gift. As far as I can tell candy is the best gift you could ever get. I wanted to share some candy with you!" Mist said.

"What"s candy?" she asked again ever more confused.

"It"s a kind of fruit I guess, here" a bag of it. I picked out the bag and candies all on m own!" he said proudly.

Taking the bag offered to her, Xena looking in the bag saw a collection of shiny things wrapping something. Each wrapper had a picture of a fruit.

"Thank you, Mist," Xena said.

"Ok, I"m going to go and play I"ll see you guys later." he said.

Nodding their heads, Atlas and Xena watched as Mist excitedly ran off. Suddenly both of them felt they weren"t alone. Turning their heads to their right.

A young man was sitting next to them.

"He"s such a little kid. Look at him running off like he doesn"t have a care in the world," Tik said.

Atlas Lynwood scrunched his face in confusion once more.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I"m Tik, I made that knife do you like it?" he said.

Atlas was once again surprised, this kid made this amazing knife? He couldn"t get his head around it. He didn"t look much older than his daughter.

"Are you a forger?" Atlas asked.

"Yes, I"m just an apprentice right now, but Master Koos thought I was ready to try doing some work outside of the village. He let me come with Uncle Tok," he said.

"Who is uncle Tok?" Atlas asked.

"He"s the Master Hunter who has been training the River Village Clan, he"s also Mist"s teacher.

"M-M-Master Hunter?" Atlas cried out.

"Yes?" Tik responded confused.

"Did he teach the River Village Hunters to appear out of nowhere like that?" Atlas asked.

"Yeah, it"s just a little hunter foot technique. It"s called Ghost Hunter Steps, not bad right?" Tik said proudly.

"I didn"t know there was a Master Hunter in these mountains," he said.

"He"s just visiting. He"s helping the River Village Clan win the Hunter Compet.i.tion and then we"re going back to our village with his disciple. Both of his disciples I suppose," Tik said.

"Who are his disciples?" Atlas asked.

"River Snake and his son River Mist, the little kid from before. Anyway, I guess you should get things started otherwise people are going ot get bored. There"s way too much chit chat going on without much action," he said.

Atlas nodded his head and sent Sebastian to tell Chronos to get things back on track. Sebastian went to pa.s.s Atlas" order to Chronos and soon he found his footing and once again begain explaining the compet.i.tion.

"We will hold hunter events over the next five days. On day one we will test your knowledge of plants and animals inhabiting the Forbidden Forest. On day two we will test your skill with the three hunter weapons, the spear, the bow and arrow, and the knife. On day three we will test your skill at processing game. On day four, we will test your knowledge of trapping. Day five will be the ultimate test. The contestants will enter the Forbidden Forest and all of their skills will be put to the test. The team which can hunt the best game will have a significant chance of winning the entire compet.i.tion even if they did poorly on the previous days. It"s all up to your skill!" Chronos announced to the audience.

The spectators and hunters were looking forward to the compet.i.tion. There was one man and girl who thought the winners of the contest were a foregone conclusion. Atlas and Xena were the only ones who knew the River Village Clan was trained by a Master Hunter.

Master Hunters were legendary beings. Atlas was aware of them only because he came across stories of them as a merchant. To his knowledge there shouldn"t be any Master Hunters in the mountain region. In fact the entire continent of Xulo shouldn"t even have Master Hunters. They tended to exist in the areas where the strongest Demon and Divine Beasts lived.

They weren"t sure how long the Master Hunter trained them, but the River Village Clan"s entrance was enough to demonstrate their astonishing capabilities. Even knowing the outcome, Atlas couldn"t wait to see the skills of the River Village Clan and make plans for the future.