exercise #12: getting back into it

 Topic: Returning

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Jarek sighed, hefted his long, maple bow back on to his back, and slung his freshly caught game under the crook of his arm. Looking down from the hill that returned to his murky home valley, his thoughts over the last few leagues of travel coalesced into a key, resigned understanding.

He was back.

Back to the verdant hills of his youth, somewhere he hadn't seen for more than 10 years. Any sense of familiarity came not from memory, but the surprising regularity of tiny villages tucked away at the feet of mountains, hidden in forests, and separated from the world.

The patina of age already painted his torturous future - the dreary life of the commonfolk who he had spent his years saving as a Hunter. He'd become the same as them, he knew - glassy eyes blazing with the adoration of a thousand suns, switched off as soon as you asked for a bowl of soup or a warm bed. They'd run and hide and panic and get in the way, fall over themselves to thank the Guild when the job was done, and then turn their backs once the danger was done.

And the Guild did nothing about it. Pah.

He rubbed some warmth into his shoulders as the wintry chill started to blow in, and hopped back on to his horse. The creak in his elbows indicated a potential night of restless sleep, but Jarek wouldn't need to worry about that for a while. Hiding out in caves on his way back had meant sleepless nights, but he was looking forward to a warm bed if there was one ready for him down below.

What was that going to be like?

Was he to be heralded as a hero? A Hunter of worldwide renown?

Or a disappointment that never made it up?

There's no recourse to aging out other than moving up; your skills become outdated, your reflexes are slower, and you become a liability to the Guild.

No-one wants to work with the 'old' guy when you're going out to hunt, and he hadn't learnt how to play the game until much too late.

He started down the achingly-familiar path that led down the village, softly guiding his horse down the way.

Returning...home.