Lon'thul was back on the hunt again, and it felt good. As nice as hanging out with everyone back at the outpost was, here in the wilds, he was free to turn himself off and just do whatever came naturally. There was no worrying about what might lock Jack up in another painful memory, or give Em'brel that haunted look in her eyes, or even stress out an already exhausted S'haar. Not that he blamed them for what they were dealing with, he wouldn't trade places with any of them, but it was a lot to constantly keep track of. However, out here, Lon'thul was free to forget all that and lose himself in the forest...and the hunt.

Right now, he was stalking a kovaack. He'd picked up the trail a while back and had been closing the distance for the last half hour. Judging by some of the fresh signs of its passing, he wasn't far behind now. So some of the noises he was hearing up ahead may very well be his quarry. But, of course, if he could hear it, there's a good chance the kovaack would be able to hear him soon as well. So the hunter slowed his pace to adjust accordingly, being sure to watch the placement of his feet and arms to generate as little noise as possible.

All this was second nature to Lon'thul by now, leaving his mind free to continue to wonder. Their new guest, To'brel, was a pretty decent kid, all things concerned. Sure, he was a bit naive and maybe a little too gullible, but that was something he'd probably grow out of.

Lon'thul shook his head as he wondered how blind the kid would have to be not to realize his father was involved in such shady dealings. Sure, power plays were common enough. The strong naturally rise to the top, but going after his own brother like that, and using raiders as well? That was a whole different level.

On the other hand, maybe it wasn't so easy to see fault in the people you naturally trust most. After all, you spend the first portion of your life entirely dependent on them. So it's easy to convince yourself that the ones you trust and depend on are simply good people. It made Lon'thul wonder just what he might be missing in his own life. Was there anything in his life obvious to the people around him that the hunter was blind to simply because he'd never thought to question his own little world?

Lon'thul could now smell the kovaack in addition to hearing it. He slowed up a bit, pulling an arrow from his quiver and readying himself to draw it before easing around the next bend. He was moving slowly now, not wanting to attract any attention to himself now that the hunt was almost at its end.

Looking around the corner, the hunter could just make out the Kovaack. It was a female, but something was off. It was far too fat for this time of year. That's when the hunter realized she must be pregnant...

Lon'thul considered his options. The calves wouldn't be fully grown by winter. Odds are they wouldn't survive the cold, and even if they did, they'd be stunted for life, never able to properly measure up with the healthier competition born earlier in the year. But, on the other hand, if a female did manage to survive against the odds, it could still breed, providing a more populated hunting ground in the future...

Lon'thul returned the arrow to its quiver. For now, he decided to leave her be, though he made a mental note of the kovaack's location. He'd track it down later and see what it gave birth to. If they were male, there was little chance of them adding to the population, so he'd be sure to cull them before winter could do the job. After all, he didn't want to let the meat go to waste. But if any were female, he'd give them a chance to challenge their fate. Even if the odds were against them, the potential benefit outweighed the risk of losing one underdeveloped calf.

With a barely audible sigh, the hunter turned away. Sometimes the hunt was like that. When the result seemed inevitable, some unexpected detail could pop up and complicate things. Then, of course, life was much the same. Unexpected events had an annoying way of derailing everything.

Take Em'brel, for instance. Lon'thul'd been sure the two of them had been just about to become something more, then that damned assassin had to go and ruin things again. Now the poor girl was a nervous wreck. On more than one occasion, Lon'thul himself had startled Em'brel with a casual touch, causing the girl to react in ways ranging from blindly attacking him to cowering with panic-filled eyes. It was painful to see her react that way to him.

Honestly, the hunter felt the assassin had gotten off far too lightly. A part of him wished he could take out more of his frustrations on the miserable cur. But that line of thinking wasn't going to get him anywhere.

It was with more than a bit of annoyance that Lon'thul realized his relaxing hunt was turning out to be anything but...

A sudden muffled sound off to his side attracted Lon'thul's attention. He started to reach for an arrow again, wanting to be ready for anything but stopped at the last moment. Instead, he grinned and snuck up on his new prey.

She was so lost in her own hunt, she never even realized the danger she was in until he popped out behind her. She spun around with a knife at the ready, but Lon'thul just stood there grinning. He was confident she was more than capable enough to keep from giving in to panic before she made any mistakes she'd regret and confident in his own abilities to react at the last moment if she did.

Luckily, his faith hadn't been misplaced, and Chal'ac stopped short of actually attacking. Instead, the hunter woman glared daggers at him. Lon'thul knew his grin annoyed her, but she was kinda cute when her lips twisted into a snarl.

Eventually, the huntress sheathed her knife and addressed him. "How do you DO that?"

Her attitude shifted slightly, and she sighed in annoyance. "Let me guess, you already killed the kovaack I was hunting a moment ago."

Lon'thul shook his head. "Nah, she's pregnant. I'm gonna wait and see what pops out first."

Chal'ac looked surprised. "Pregnant? This late in the season? They'll never survive the winter!"

Lon'thul nodded sagely. "You're probably right, but I wanna wait and see what she gives birth to anyway. I figure if they're male, I'll take care of them before winter, but if they're female, I might give them a chance."

The huntress reflected Lon'thul's nod a moment ago. "True, females are much more useful than males..."

Lon'thul knew that was a dig directed at him but delighted at how much playing innocent frustrated his fellow hunter. "Well yeah! Female kovaack's can give birth to more calves next year! Gotta keep the populations up with an expert hunter like me around!"

Chal'ac rolled her eyes, clearly assuming he was just being naturally dense. Lon'thul wondered if she even realized she moved her lips a little when she was grumbling to herself under her breath.

Instead, the hunter slapped the woman on the back. "Don't worry about it! Not even I can keep up with all the prey around here! I haven't been south recently. You might find some unattended dens down that way!"

The glare the huntress directed his way made Lon'thul think she was considering pulling her knife back out and finishing what she'd started. Right about now, she was probably wondering what a Lon'thul rug would look like.

-

Em'brel looked at the lever nervously. "Are you certain it's safe? What if I miscalculated somewhere? What if one of the beams aren't properly attached? What if everything comes crashing down as soon as I pull that lever?"

Jack just grinned and patted her shoulder. A feat he had to reach up slightly to accomplish these days. "Everything will be fine. Fea'en, Tel'ron, and Angela have checked and double-checked everything. You did a great job."

Em'brel still hesitated. "But, something could still go wrong. What do I do if after all this time it still doesn't work?"

Jack shrugged. "Maybe it won't. If that happens, you find out why, you learn from it, and you try again. Life doesn't end just because of an unforeseen complication. We learn more from our failures than our successes."

The human leaned back against a wall, rubbing his leg as he did so. Obviously, it was bothering him at the moment, but he kept up his speech nonetheless. "It's natural to feel fear and anxiety when a major project like this is coming to an end. You might fail, and everything you've done might have been for nothing...except, that's not true. Simply undertaking something like this and seeing it through is a significant accomplishment, regardless of the outcome. Be proud of your successes, but be proud of your failures too! They represent the progress you've made and the lessons you've learned."

Jack grinned and nodded toward the lever. "Now go ahead and turn this thing on and find out which this is!"

Em'brel took a deep breath, grabbed the lever and eased it into place. There was a loud thud as the gear settled into place, and soon the room was filled with the creaks of straining lumber and grinding gears as moving parts as the windmill came to life.

There was a loud cheer from outside, and when Em'brel looked back, she was met by the grinning face of Jack. Then, one of the emitters they'd placed in the windmill flared to life, and Angela floated in the room in her old light-based form. "You did it! I knew this would work! Way to go!"

Em'brel was starting to look a little bashful. "Well, I mean, this is as much you as me... You're the one who's been teaching me all these lessons..."

Angela floated over to Em'brel, her hands on her hips as she looked annoyed with her student. "Nope! You don't get to do that. All I did was teach you the principles and offer a few pieces of advice. This here? This is you! You poured every lesson I ever taught you into this place, and now it's going to be the lifeblood of our outpost!"

Em'brel looked thoughtful, but Angela wasn't done driving her point home. "Do you have any idea how significant this is? To my knowledge, this is only the third time in the history of this galaxy that anyone has learned to harness and generate electricity! And I'm not even sure if AI count since we're kind of made of electricity... Anyway... This is huge! You've done something amazing, now go celebrate a little! Lon'thul and Sare'en are waiting on you, so get out there!"

Em'brel started to turn as S'haar ducked inside. "Everything ok in here? You're taking a while..."

As S'haar looked around, her eyes widened in surprise. "Ok, this is a lot more impressive with all the moving parts doing their thing..."

Jack grinned at S'haar's reaction then nudged Em'brel. "Go on! We'll be along shortly, but this is your time to shine!"

Em'brel looked back and forth between Jack and Angela before walking outside. There was a cheer, and Jack could clearly see Sare'en waiting for her friend, for once front and center.

S'haar turned her attention back to Jack and noticed a pained expression on his face as he was rubbing his leg. "You ok?"

Jack smiled ruefully. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just some muscle spasms bothering my leg is all. It's typically numb, but the nerves seem to flare to life once in a while, making life... complicated..."

Angela floated over, eyeing Jack thoughtfully. "That's pretty much what I expected. You're probably experiencing neuropathy, and in your case, there probably isn't a cure. Not on this planet, at least. But we can manage the symptoms. I'll bring the ol' body by the billet later and give you a check-up.

Jack nodded and stood up, the spasm having passed. "Sounds good. But for now, let's go see what people are up to. I understand Lon'thul conspired with Sare'en to make quite the feast!"

S'haar grinned. "Knew about that, did you? Yeah, old Ger'ron had the off-duty guards run everything into place while you all were shut up in here. Now let's get you a seat of honor at one of the tables. This might be Em'brel's night, but that doesn't mean you get to hide in the shadows!"

Jack sighed in resignation. "A man could hope..."

-

To'brel was wondering what this large gathering was about. So they built a building, so what? Admittedly, it was an odd building with several large cloth sails sticking out the top in a cross pattern, but that hardly seemed worth celebrating over.

Soon, the sails started spinning, and everyone cheered. It certainly looked impressive, but To'brel didn't see what the big deal was. Although he had to wonder how it was spinning like that. Obviously, the sails were catching the wind, but how was it turning like that? Of course, the pole couldn't be stuck in the ground, so maybe they had it resting on another wooden block? But while spinning, it would move around in circles and destabilize itself, so it must be braced somehow. But the bracing would rub away at the pole if that was the case...

But what was the point of it all? Why go through this much effort just to make something spin like that? Was it just to show they can? Admittedly, it was an impressive feat, but he still felt like he was missing something...

His current guard was an oversized brute of a male named Orth'kun. He always seemed to be grinning and now was no exception. He was staring up at the building, cheering and stamping his feet along with everyone else, though To'brel noticed one of the guard's eyes seemed to be flicking back to the youth frequently enough he wasn't likely to get far without being noticed.

It was kind of humiliating being treated like his oath wasn't enough, but he supposed a little humiliation was better than being locked up in the cell again. Besides, the guard made sure never to outright disrespect the noble. The only one who seemed to do that was the huntress Chal'ac. Though, in all fairness, he didn't seem to be the only one she treated that way...

A gravelly voice spoke up behind him. "What's the matter, kid? You look like you're working on a puzzle of some kind."

Behind him, an older female walked up. She was muscled in a way that many males would envy, and her eyes seemed to assess everything and everyone around her. When she looked at To'brel, he could feel the weight of her judgment bearing down on him. For some reason, he felt compelled to impress this female, though a part of him warned that lying or exaggerating would have the opposite effect.

He wondered at his reaction, though. Why should he care what this female thought of him? Even if she hadn't been his senior by several of his lifetimes, she still wouldn't have been particularly attractive in any sense of the word. Instead, he felt almost like he was sitting before his father, trying desperately to earn his approval.

He shook his head to dismiss his wayward concerns and looked back up to the building. He could see his cousin exciting to be greeted by the hunter Lon'thul and another female he couldn't quite place until he noticed the wolgen pup trotting up next to her. She'd been at the noble's first meeting with Jack and S'haar.

Realizing the female behind him was still waiting for an answer, To'brel finally spoke up. "Honestly, I was just wondering what all the fuss was about. I mean, it's an impressive building and all, but what's the point? What does it do?"

The older female's stoic expression broke slightly with the most subtle of grins. "That's a good question, kid, but around here, it's also a dangerous one."

To'brel looked back at the female. "Dangerous? I thought they encouraged everyone to ask questions at this outpost?"

The female's grin turned into a full toothy smile before she barked out in laughter. "That's what makes it so dangerous! You go around asking questions like that, and someone'll answer! Trust me, you have no idea what you'd be getting yourself into!"

After a moment, the female's laughter died, though the amusement at her own joke never left her eyes. Then, with a jerk of her head, she pointed over his shoulder with her chin. "But if you want answers about this particular building, the person to ask is the mind behind its construction. Your cousin, Em'brel."

Turning around, To'brel could see Em'brel not even a dozen paces away. She looked as startled to run into him as he was to see her.