Mythology: Ragnarok

Izzy's father shook his head and said, "Impossible. The Church of Light isn't stupid. They must be certain of the value of that thing to be willing to risk mutual destruction to attack our Shadow Council."

Izzy's mother remained silent for a while, then suddenly spoke up: "Anyway, it's useless for us to keep it. Why don't we use it to give Izzy a better future?"

The atmosphere instantly turned somewhat tense upon hearing this. Izzy's father did not answer but simply sat to the side. After a while, he asked with a serious expression, "Do you think that with the methods of the Church of Light, we will have a way out if we hand over the goods? They've done plenty of things like discarding a donkey after it has served its purpose."

Izzy's mother was speechless. Yes, she knew all too well what kind of people the Church of Light were, but her son was innocent and she didn't want her child to have to live a life of hiding like she did.

Just as the two were silent, Izzy finally stopped what she was doing and came in, saying, "I'm done. The fragrant roast meat and rabbit soup will be on the table in a little while. Mom and Dad, don't look so gloomy. It's a rare good day. Grandma Lina once said that a smile makes you ten years younger."

The mother could only laugh and reply, "You, you're always learning to talk a good game."

"Alright, let's talk about other things after dinner." Izzy's father smoothly ended the previous topic, and soon the family atmosphere became lively under Izzy's leadership. Izzy may be a troublesome child, but there is no denying that he is the only light in his parents' almost bleak life.

Dinner was delicious, both in terms of atmosphere and taste. After finishing dinner, Izzy, who had been running around in the mountains all day, wanted to go to bed early. But just as he returned to his room and lay down, his father suddenly and quietly walked in and said, "Izzy, I have something to tell you."

Upon hearing this, Izzy immediately sat up. His father rarely spoke to him in such an authoritative tone, which meant that what he was about to say must be very important. Realizing the seriousness of the matter, Izzy quickly and respectfully replied, "I'm listening, Dad, please go ahead."

Izzy's father solemnly instructed, "We're moving away in a few days, but there's something very important that I've left here. If anything happens to your mother or me, run! Run without looking back. After that, if you can, go to the northeast corner of our backyard. Take this crystal; it will lead you to what I left for you."

As he spoke, Izzy's father took out a black, irregularly shaped stone that was threaded onto a rope and put it around Izzy's neck. Izzy held the stone in her hand and examined it repeatedly, but she couldn't figure out what this thing that looked like a lump of coal could do, and she couldn't believe that this thing could be called crystal.

After Izzy's father finished speaking, he left the room without saying another word. Izzy lay on the bed with a heavy heart and gradually fell asleep. Meanwhile, Izzy's parents spent the whole night packing things to leave the town the next night.

The next morning, Izzy woke up in bed and, seeing that it was already bright, excitedly put on his clothes and shoes, grabbed his bow and arrows, and ran out. Izzy had a feeling that he would be able to hunt some excellent prey today.

Arriving at his usual hunting grounds, Izzy once again discovered the tracks left by the wild boar he had been tracking for so long. When he saw the footprints and droppings, Izzy was so excited that he almost shouted out loud. Wild boars are valuable from head to toe; their fur and tusks alone can fetch a good price. Thinking that he had only been a hunter for less than a month and was about to earn his first pot of gold, Izzy was extremely excited.

Following the wild boar's tracks and traces, Iz slowly pursued and soon found the boar munching on berries in the roadside bushes. The boar, engrossed in its meal, was completely unaware of Iz's presence. Iz cautiously moved to another spot, nocked an arrow, aimed, and fired in one swift motion. Uncle Reiler had taught him archery: once you've identified your target, you must act decisively. Drawing the bow fully requires far more strength than you might imagine, so no hunter wastes time aiming. If you haven't released the arrow after three seconds of drawing it fully, the hunt is essentially over. As the saying goes, "Hesitation leads to defeat, decisiveness to victory." Please ignore the second half of this statement; I'm mainly talking about the first half.

Izzy's arrow struck the boar squarely in the left eye. The wounded boar immediately went berserk, squealing and charging toward where it could still see. Izzy watched as the boar ran off in another direction and a smug smile spread across his face. Izzy knew his arrows couldn't penetrate the boar's thick hide. Izzy's goal was to drive the boar into the trap he had set long ago.

The one-eyed boar, guided by instinct and its limited vision, raced forward. Whenever it strayed from the route Iz had laid out, Iz would shoot an arrow to scare it back onto its original path. Soon, the rampaging boar reached a trap Iz had dug—a pit covered with leaves and humus. Iz would come here every day to check the harvest, so the camouflage was still intact, and the one-eyed boar certainly wouldn't be able to spot it.

The wild boar fell into the trap pit as expected. The sharp wooden spikes buried inside immediately pierced its belly, and the boar was instantly covered in blood. However, the boar's thick skin prevented it from dying completely. The dying boar struggled and thrashed around in the deep pit. Its small limbs made it impossible for it to climb out of the pit, which was at least 1.2 meters deep. Meanwhile, Iz watched the boar's dying struggle from the edge of the pit.

Izzy isn't stupid; the boar is currently in a frenzy, so he just needs to wait. Although experienced hunters would kill the boar immediately to ensure its hide isn't damaged, Izzy is still too young, and his weapon isn't even strong enough to break through the boar's defenses. So, he can only wait for the boar to bleed to death before he can go down and carry the prey out.

As time passed, the wild boar gradually calmed down and lay down on the ground. Seeing this, Iz did not make any further moves, but simply drew his bow again and shot an arrow, blinding the boar's other good eye. Unexpectedly, after the arrow pierced the boar's eye, the boar immediately roared again, got up, and ran around wildly. This beast was indeed playing dead. Uncle Reiler had told him before that he should never approach a prey without being sure it was completely dead. Many hunters had been ambushed and killed by these cunning beasts.

"You can be the hunter, and you can be the prey." This was Uncle Rael's last piece of advice to Iz after teaching her how to hunt, and he told Iz to remember it for the rest of her life.

Iz watched silently as the blind boar rampaged through the trap until it collapsed helplessly again. Then Iz stepped down. Iz wasn't afraid that the boar was playing a trick of feigning death. After all, if it were really that smart, it would have already reached the level of a magical beast and wouldn't have fallen into the trap like this. And if it were really a magical beast, Iz would have killed it when it ambushed it, so why would it have gone through all this trouble?