On the way back to Voorhei, I came across a mountain lion’s tracks at the village’s border. They showed the animal pacing at the boundary before heading into the woods. I followed for a quarter mile, just to make sure it wasn’t lingering in the area, and found a helter skelter of slashes in the bark of a cedar tree. I took a chliapp lion’s razor and fit it perfectly into one of the grooves.

“Shazbot.”

Time to withdraw. I clung more closely to at one with the land, while the ukiesheile watched my backtrail. The rest of the trek back was tense but uneventful.

I found Inneioleia at the Hunter’s Lodge. He was surprised to see me, since the initiation ceremony wasn’t due to start until sundown. The surprise turned into a frown when I told him about the chliapp lion. That frown turned into consternation when I then told him about the deaths at Fort Sugar Shack.

He grabbed a couple of the children outside and sent them running for the Village Head and the Reeve. I was mid-story when Koda and Dwilla arrived, one after the other, and I had to start over from the beginning.

“Tomorrow,” Inneioleia said. “The lodge will send hunters into the forest. A chliapp so close is a danger to the farmers. Eight will go to show them the way and learn from his Hunt Brothers and Sisters.”

“Will you need the Land Knight’s soldiers?” Dwilla asked.

“If it is one chliapp, then no.” Inneioleia looked to me for confirmation.

“There was only one set of tracks. The scars on the tree were a mess, but they all looked of a similar size. I think it was only one.”

“Then no,” Inneioleia said. “We will not need the dog rider.”

“I’ll send a message to the Land Knight,” Dwilla said. “With Bindesei’s death, the license to harvest maple sap and make sugar is open.”

“A shame,” Koda said. “There is no one else in the village with a Talent for making sugar.”

“Kalda Tuulsson has a Talent for cookery,” Dwilla said.

“Kalda is afraid of the moon’s shadow. His taste for sweet things is not as strong as his taste for life.” Koda pats me on the shoulder. “Not all of us are as brave as Eight here.”

I fight to keep from snorting. Look at this guy, buttering me up.

Koda stroked his beard. “Eight, maybe your Family would like--”

“No,” I said, cutting him off. “We will not leave Ikfael Glen.”

“But there is money to be made. You can still hunt, and your children can grow into making sugar.”

I shook my head. “We live in the forest, because of Ikfael Glen, not for money. If we were willing to leave Ikfael Glen, then we’d live in Voorhei.”

“I understand,” Koda said. “Then we wait to see who will step forward. We have time. The first flow of maple sap is not for fourteen weeks.”

“The Land Knight will not want to wait that long,” Dwilla said.

“She will not have to,” Koda said. “The lure of money will eventually overcome a Family’s fear. They will find their courage, as well as the taak to pay for the license. All we need to do is wait.”

“I’ll trust your judgement.” Dwilla shook her head. “What I don’t understand is why Bindesei took his own life. He was stubborn, like a rock is stubborn. Nothing could move him from his Family’s path.”

“That was also my understanding,” Koda said, “but perhaps it was because of this other dead person Eight found.”

“Do we know who it is?” Inneioleia asked.

“None of the Families have told me of anyone missing,” Koda said. “I will walk the village tonight to ask.”

“And who will investigate the bodies?” Inneioleia asked.

Dwilla grimaced. “It will be me. I will need to report to the Land Knight.”

“Then I will send hunters to escort you when the danger of the chliapp lion has passed. Eight will also go, to guide you to the second body.” Inneioleia turned to me. “It will be part of your training. Is that acceptable?”

“As long as the chliapp is dead, then yes.” I didn’t mind. The hike was easy enough, and I was curious to see Voorhei CSI in action. “But I have a question first. Why do you think Bindesei killed himself?”

Koda sighed. “He was a troubled man, and you said there was fire.”

“Cleansing fire,” Inneioleia said, clarifying. He left to retrieve a small round cake of coal. “Hunters carry these when alone in case they are deathly injured. The fire eats the light of their core, so that they do not rise after death. People who live outside the village do the same, as well as those who kill themselves. There is no reason for Bindesei to use it except to kill himself.”

I frowned at the implications. My desire to live in Ikfael Glen went against all that was wise by this society’s standards. Bindesei had done it, but it killed his Family and broke him.

But then what about the other body? Did Bindesei kill that person and then himself, and therefore unrelated to the forest’s dangers?

Inneioleia put the cake of Cleansing Fire into my hand. “A gift for you. Tomorrow is sooner than I expected, but you will hunt. Then after, you will take Dwilla to the place of Bindesei’s death.”

###

The Hunter’s Lodge initiation ceremony was separated into two parts. The first was in public, and everyone in the village was welcome to attend. The hunters went out earlier in the day and brought back a moose bull to slaughter and share with those attending. He was a beauty--easily nine hundred pounds.

A big cookfire was organized in the large open space in front of the pyramid. The smell of grilling venison drifted between the buildings and called people to the celebration.

The bull was apparently a good sign. The animals caught the day of the initiation were supposed to be a measure of the initiate’s future luck as a hunter, and people came up to congratulate me, even though I had nothing to do with bringing the moose down.

While the meat cooked, the hunters sang. Their songs were very different from the children’s songs I heard from Billisha and Aluali. The words were long and drawn out, both intense and wavering at the same time, somehow perfect for a bright fire and dark night.

Before we could eat, they brought me in front of the crowd and anointed me with the bull’s blood. I walked around the cookfire in a circle with his head and showed it off. Every villager present reached out to touch the bull’s head and brought their hands back to their hearts to bow.

Inneioleia met me at the end of my circle to take the bull’s head and hand me my spear and bow. I went around one more time, and this time, the villagers kissed their hands before reaching out to bless the weapons.

Then it was time to eat. In addition to the venison, there were pots of corn porridge and grilled fruits and vegetables. Someone broke out a barrel of corn liquor, and the singing became more lively. As people finished eating, they got up to dance around where the hunters sat.

About three hours later, things finally started to wind down. All the villagers who’d attended came up to wish me well. Billisha and Aluali sat next to me and received their own congratulations. A hunter stood nearby to hand out portions of venison for the attendees to take home.

People were apologetic that the celebration was so short. Normally, it ran until dawn, but that was in the late winter/early spring when all the lodge’s new initiates joined at once. But it was summer now, and everyone was busy in the fields, not to mention there was a dangerous hunt planned the next day.

It wasn’t until after the last guest left that the hunter Families began to clean up. Meanwhile, the hunters themselves led me into the lodge. The doors were closed and barred.

Inneioleia unlocked the trap door inside, and led us down a set of stone stairs to a large circular room. The air was smokey from the braziers burning around the edges. There was an iron tang from the pot of moose blood Inneioleia brought with him. The ground was hard earth in the center, with carpets and cushions on the floor elsewhere. I was asked to disrobe and kneel in the center of a circle of gathered hunters.

And then the second part of the initiation ceremony began. Inneioleia cupped his hands in the moose blood and poured some over my head. He ran his fingers through my hair to make sure it coated my scalp.

I still had blood on my face from when I’d been anointed earlier, but now he used a fur brush to spread more over the whole of my body. The only parts of me not red were my eyes.

Inneioleia chanted the entire time. He’d done it earlier too, but underground, surrounded by the hunters, the words took on a different quality. I must’ve been running hot, because the blood steamed on my skin.

Then the Lodge Master told a story--a harrowing tale from his early years when he’d gotten separated from his hunting party; of being counter-stalked in the middle of the night by a fang worm. When he was done, he dipped his hand in the moose blood once more and left a palm print on my already red chest.

He traded places with another hunter--Mulallamu, who I’d met my first day in the village--and she told a story about climbing a cliff for eagle’s eggs. She also left a bloody handprint over my heart. Every hunter--twenty-three in total--told a story and left a print. All the stories were instructive, even the lodge’s other apprentices did their best to share what they’d learned as hunters.

My head started to spin, and I felt myself getting hotter and hotter, sucking in the stories and the blood on my skin. The uikisheile inside me paid close attention to the flow of qi.

Suddenly, pain flared, a needle stitching the surface of my heart, a spike through my brain. My breath caught. I bent over, clutching my chest and head. Distantly, I heard Inneioleia’s chanting. He put his hands on my shoulders to keep me falling over.

I nearly blacked out, but I held on and slowly the pain faded. Inch by inch, the spike receded. Point by point, the stitching slowed to a stop. I was left gulping air, trying not to hyperventilate.

I looked up and realized Inneioleia was smiling, as were the rest of the hunters. “Welcome, Brother,” he said.

Gained Soul Mark: The Way of the Hunter

###

Later that night, after I’d washed away the blood, and I’d caught my breath. After meeting up with Billisha and Aluali and being warmed by their giddy excitement. After seeing how pleased even Biheila was for me, and I laid down to finally (finally) rest. I checked the notification.

Soul Mark: The Way of the Hunter A Soul Mark fundamentally changes the deep silverlight and soul of the recipient, thereby modifying the application of the World Spirit’s systems. Henceforth, when opportunities arise to evolve your path, the options presented will hew towards the Way of the Hunter.

S-Eight? Is that you? There was none of his trademark snarkiness, but I caught a whiff of him from the dialogue box.

He “flipped a table” out of frustration the last time he tried to read behind my Soul Marks. I imagine he’s feeling gratified right now. I checked the other Marks, just in case there were descriptions now. There weren’t. What I found instead was: “Loading…”

The three dots of the ellipsis filled in one at a time, disappeared, and then filled in again. Over and over. I waited twenty minutes, but the information was slow to load. S-Eight was probably still digging for it.

I sighed, careful not to disturb the others. It’d just be a matter of time. If nothing else, S-Eight was persistent. He was me after all.

I fell asleep wondering if I’d made a mistake and thinking about all the ways necessity pushed these people to develop tools and traditions to exert agency over their lives.

###

The hunters operated in teams of five for small hunts, ten for dangerous ones, and twenty for hunts that affected the village’s survival. In this case, the hunters included Haoleise and Mulallamu, who I’d met on my first day. Haoleise was the Natural Archer, and Mulallamu was Scout-born. They were joined by Integnei (Human, Braveheart, Patient) and another apprentice, Teila (Human, Wood-wise). Mulallamu led the team, while Integnei was responsible for teaching the apprentices and keeping them safe.

We met in front of the Hunter’s Lodge just after dawn. My eyes were gummy from the long night before, but the excitement of the hunt had me wide awake. A shot of adrenaline hit me every time I thought about going after the chliapp lion.

The village gate was opening just as we arrived. Koda oversaw the process and chatted with the villagers getting ready for the day’s work. Mulallamu led us out and through the fields west of Voorhei.

Integnei talked the whole time, his voice soft but confident. He shared what he knew about chliapp lions. They were solitary, except in the spring and summer when they mated and reared their young. Then in the fall and winter, they separated; the cubs staying with the mother through the winter.

They almost always had five tentacles protruding from their shoulders, each tipped with a sharp razor. Chliapp who became Dusk or Dawn (Level 5) were often larger and had more tentacles. Those that were Dark or Silvered (Level 10) were usually faster and more clever. Much faster and much more clever.

Integnei had never seen one himself, but there was a story from two generations ago of a Dark chliapp lion ripping through a team of hunters. A full twenty set out after it, and only thirteen came back alive. It was a bad time for the lodge.

He explained that these were only guidelines, since darklight mutated animals in unpredictable ways. That was what was most frightening about it--that every enemy could have hidden cards to play; cards for whom the ancestors’ wisdom didn’t apply.

And then if that Dark animal should breed, then its offspring had a chance at those cards. The children wouldn’t be born high-level, but they’d have a head start on the tools and abilities that made their parent successful.

The lecture reminded me of the batshu turkey alpha. In its flock were a handful of smaller turkeys that shared its coloring. I hadn’t seen them shoot heat waves from their beaks, but if they got a few levels under their belt? Maybe.

Integnei transitioned into the Lodge Master’s efforts to rebuild after the Dark chliapp lion incident. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one ever to get a tax break for joining.

The hunter team went silent once we reached the village’s boundary. We switched to Scout Talk, a sign language that shared vocabulary with Trade Sign. To me, they looked like two parts of the same language, and the World Spirit was kind enough to confirm the theory.

Communication, Trade Sign 3 -> Communication, Signed Diaksh 2

Communication, Signed Diaksh 2 -> 3

I led the hunters to the chliapp lion’s tracks. From the size of the prints, Mulallamu was confident that it was under Level 5 and decided that we should continue. She had me take them to the tree our prey had marked. From there, we tracked it further northwest.

The trail led us on a meandering path through the forest, over a slight rise and along a crease between the hills. We found another marked tree and a pile of the cat’s scat. Twenty yards north, there was a tuft of fur caught along the edge of a thorny bramble. The occasional paw print and trampled grass kept us on track.

Mulallamu did the tracking, with the rest of the team fanning out to search for signs of the cat’s passage whenever the trail disappeared. More often than not, it was me that found it. There was just something--not a feeling, not a hunch, more a pull on my attention--that drew me to the signs. My Uncanny Tracker Talent at work, no doubt.

The hunters weren’t surprised. Part of working together was knowing each other’s Talents and Skills. Everything of mine that’d been scryed at the pyramid was now common knowledge in the Hunter’s Lodge.

About ninety minutes after entering the forest, we found an area of flattened grass where the cat had spent the night. There was no evidence of it lingering, and we immediately set off after it again. We were likely only two or three hours behind, so we moved stealthily, not knowing when we might accidentally stumble across the cat.

The hunters were impressive, with only the two apprentices making any noise. I could’ve moved more quietly, but not at the speed the hunters were demanding. And I got noisier and noisier, as the early caution gave way to more and more speed. The chliapp lion didn’t meander after its rest. It headed directly back toward the village.

We were only thirty yards from the boundary when Mulallamu signed, “Stop. Hide. Ready.”

Instantly, she faded from my attention. I could still see her, but she was now part of the background scenery; just a minor detail in a broader picture. It was like my at one with the land but on steroids.

Meanwhile, the archer Haoleise camoflauged himself. Literally. I felt a blip of qi, and then his skin and hair changed colors to match the scenery around him. Then those colors slowly seeped into his clothes and his bow. It was so cool! If we weren’t about to face a chliapp lion, I would’ve asked him to do it again.

Integnei didn’t seem to do anything special. He made sure his spear was ready, and that the two apprentices were keeping eyes out on our flanks and back trail.

Mulallamu and Haoleise snuck forward, and once they were in my peripheral vision, they disappeared. I had no sense of them or their location. It was frustrating--I wanted to see their abilities in action, but I had a job to do. I became at one with the land and made sure the chliapp lion didn’t circle back around to counter-stalk us.

Minutes passed with nothing happening. Integnei must’ve been signaled, because he had us sneak on the diagonal toward a large oak tree just shy of the boundary. Its trunk was thick enough that it’d need four people to clasp hands around it. We peeked around the sides.

The chliapp lion sat in the long grass, its gaze intent on a group of villagers haying not forty yards away. A couple of hunters stood guard, their attention on Integnei who was now signaling them while out of the chliapp lion’s view.

I threw some qi and nature mana into my eyes to see the situation more clearly. The guards didn’t panic. Instead, they casually--oh, so casually--moved in between the villagers and the cat.

The villagers paused their work, while the children organized themselves in rows behind them.

Integnei tapped my shoulder and pointed. Hidden in the brush, barely visible even to my enchanted eyes, I saw Mulallamu crouched with her spear ready. Next to her, Haoleise drew his bow. The draw was liquid, the motion as smooth as water.

Inside me, the ukiesheile perked up. Once we were in the forest, they’d run some tendrils through my hair, and now they sensed qi-spiral-straight. I couldn’t feel it at this distance, so they shared their sense of it with me.

The qi grew over the next ten breaths, the bow drawn taut. The air around Haoleise’s arrow distorted, spiraling around the shaft. Then, in a flash, the arrow flew and banged into the big cat’s torso; burying itself fletching deep and shoving the lion back three feet.

The lion’s tail twitched. The tendrils spasmed. And that was all. A heart shot, clean through. It was beautiful. Just beautiful.

Mulallamu waited to make sure the cat was dead and nothing else popped up out of the grass. When nothing did, she moved out, while the rest of us stayed in hiding. Standing above the body, she let go of her at one with the land. When nothing continued to happen, she smiled and signed for Integnei to signal the guards.

She gathered us around to talk about transporting the dead cat to the village. My first hunt with the lodge was done.