Lee runs in through the back door. Sue and Kenji, who are in the living room, jump in alarm.

  “Lee, what’s the matter?” asks Sue. “What is that on your shirt?” she says, pointing at the red stain on Lee’s shirt.

  Lee, with a smile on his face, says, “It’s only blood.”

  “Blood?” both Sue and Kenji ask, stepping closer to Lee. Then Sue continues, “Are you injured? What happened?”

  Lee recoils from Sue’s touch. “It’s okay, the blood is not mine.” Lee takes his t-shirt off, showing his torso to Sue and Kenji. They see that there are some scratches but not deep enough to bleed. Then, with an even bigger smile, Lee says, “The blood is for tonight’s dinner.”

  Lee walks back out the door. Sue and Kenji look at one another, processing what Lee just said, then they follow him. When they approach Lee, he shows the four rabbits he caught.

  “Lee, did you really catch these rabbits?” asks Kenji, taking one of the rabbits and examining it. Lee nods. Kenji notices the fatal wound, then shows it to Sue. “How did you kill them? What did you use?”

  Lee smiles, his heart only now starting to calm down from the adrenaline and running home. “I shot them with my bow and arrows.” Lee finishes, pointing to the bow against the house wall.

  Kenji and Sue had seen the bow, but having seen Lee making it alongside the arrows, they thought it was only a harmless toy. Kenji grabs it and examines it properly for the first time, then he inspects the arrows and sees the blood on them.

  Then, looking at Lee, Kenji says, “Can you show me how you shot them?”

  Lee nods, taking the bow from Kenji and an arrow from the bag. “I was on top of a tree, and I saw movement in a bush, when the rabbit came out.” Lee nocks the arrow in the bow, steadies his arms and aims. At the same time, he explains what happened. Then, as he finishes, he lets the arrow fly; it impales itself on the fence, ten metres away from them.

  Kenji approaches the fence where the arrow is and finds that it landed between two nails. Then, looking up, he asks, “How accurately can you shoot?”

  “I have been practising,” says Lee, “but because I made the arrows with what I could find, they don’t always go straight.”

  Kenji looks around and grabs a stone half the size of a fist and places it on top of the fence. “Do you think you can shoot this stone?”

  Lee tilts his head to the side, looking at the stone, then at the trees, then he licks his finger and taps his nose. “I can try to get close to it. But you need to step away, Dad.” Lee then reaches into the bag and takes an arrow with a white tip. He stands straight and loads the arrow, then before shooting he licks his finger again and taps his nose.

  Only to shake his head and replace the bone-tip arrow for one with a stone tip and white feathers. Lee loads the arrow and smiles as he aims, then he lifts the bow slightly and aims to the left. Then, making sure that Kenji is not near, Lee lets the arrow fly off. It starts to make an arc, but it seems it’s going to miss; then a soft wind starts to blow and the arrow veers slightly to the right and hits the stone right in the middle.

  Kenji picks up both arrows and takes them back to Lee. He then sighs and looks at Sue. “Lee, thank you for the rabbits.” Kenji then rubs his eyes. “But your mum and I need to talk. We thought this was just a toy, that you were just playing.”

  “But I never said I was playing. I always said I was practising to hunt,” says Lee.

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  “Lee, you are five years old,” says Sue. “We always thought you were playing and just using your imagination to pretend to be hunting.”

  Kenji nods. “So for now, don’t use the bow.”

  Lee’s shoulders slump. “Can I use it in the storage to practise?”

  Kenji debates for a bit, then nods. “Sure, just make sure your sister is not in the way. You can only because it was our fault for thinking that you were pretending to hunt.”

  Lee starts to nod but then shakes his head. Sue and Kenji are about to speak but Lee says, “I always make sure no one is in the way, not just Saki, unless it’s my target.”

  Sue shakes her head in amusement. “Go take a shower while your dad helps me prepare the rabbits.”

  “Can I help first?” Lee asks.

  “You wouldn’t know what to do,” says Kenji. “In fact, I think I need to research what to do.”

  “It’s easy!” says Lee as he runs inside the house, grabs a bowl, a plastic rubbish bag and a sharp knife. He gives the knife to his dad and opens the bag on the floor. “Cut here all around, but softly so it only cuts the fur,” Lee says, indicating the middle of the rabbit. Then he holds the rabbit by the middle section to make it easier for Kenji to make the first cut. Once an all-around cut is made, Lee says, “Now hold that side and I will hold this one, then we pull.” Lee says, placing his fingers between the rabbit's pelt and the meat. Kenji does like Lee, then they pull like in a tug-of-war game, and the sound of the pelt coming off the rabbit is heard as they pull the pelt and it gets turned inside out.

  Sue gets pale at the sound and the ease with which the pelt got removed. “Lee, how do you know how to do this?”

  Lee looks at his mum with a smile on his face, and somehow he feels nostalgic doing this. “It was…” Lee’s smile vanishes from his face and gets replaced by a confused look.

  Sue nods with a soft smile. “You just know?” she asks, having seen this same look on Lee’s face for the past two weeks. Lee nods, looking up to his mum’s face.

  Kenji looks at his wife and smiles. Then he looks at Lee and asks, “And do you know what to do now?”

  Lee looks at his dad and nods. “Yes. Now we cut the paws off to separate the skin from the rest of the body.” Kenji does just like Lee explained, then Lee looks up at his mum. “Do you want to cook the head too?”

  Sue looks at the rabbit and nods. “Yes, I can always give it to the dog.”

  “Okay,” says Lee, then he looks at his dad and grabs the rabbit upside down by the back legs. “So now just cut it open to clean it.” Lee places the rabbit over the bowl and Kenji opens up the rabbit to clean it. As Kenji is cleaning, Lee gets a shiver as a memory flashes in the back of his head. “Wait, Dad,” Lee says, and Kenji stops. “There is something here! Don’t cut this; it will ruin the meat,” Lee says, indicating something on the back end of the rabbit.

  As Sue is selecting what is edible and not, she lifts her hand off the bowl. “These are not regular rabbits.” Kenji and Lee look at her. Then she reaches in and removes something like a crystal. “They are beasts, at least this one is. You can keep this one, Lee,” Sue says, giving the nail-size crystal-like stone to Lee.

  “What is this?” Lee asks, looking at the stone.

  Kenji shakes his head. “No one knows exactly, but after beasts die, these stones are formed in their body, just above their stomach and below the heart. They can be of different sizes and colours.”

  “They have a few names,” continues Sue. “Beast cores, beast crystals, beast power stones. But no one knows how they form or why. But some beasts eat them, then they become stronger.”

  Lee looks at the stone in his hand. “So if beasts eat them and become stronger, can humans eat them too?”

  Kenji shakes his head. “No, for some reason only beasts can eat them. If humans or aliens, even the ones that look like beasts, eat the crystals, they become very sick.”

  Sue looks at the remaining three rabbits. Then, looking at Lee, she says, “Now go take a shower; we will finish preparing these rabbits.” Lee nods and heads to the bathroom to take a shower.

  As soon as Lee enters the house, Kenji washes his hands under the outside tap and looks up how to clean a rabbit beast. Then, after looking through a few ways, he shakes his head. “Unbelievable!”

  “What did you find out?” asks Sue.

  Kenji shows her his phone. “I found the way Lee showed how to clean the rabbits. Not only is it the easiest, but it is an almost forgotten method; apparently people that had livestock in the nineteen-nineties used this method.”

  “So, yet again, he knows something that is online; almost forgotten, but online,” says Sue.

  Kenji nods with a smile of relief. “Yes, the only thing that wasn’t online is that name and insignia he does when distracted.” Kenji then grabs the bow and the arrows. “I’ve noticed he uses the insignia to mark his belongings.” He shows Sue the carvings of the Greek zeta and delta on the bow and arrows.

  What day of the week will I post the second chapter of the week?