I continued to run, or more accurately, half stagger. I had been working all day in the quarry, stress and climbing all night and I was exhausted. I had a long way to go. At least the first half hour was on a downhill slope. I was out of the quarry, but I was not yet free. I had nothing on me but two sharp pieces of stone, a couple of crudely made snares and Pip. I doubt I would have gotten this far without the four extra points in Physical Agility, but I had no options there either as I had no free points. I looked at my status as I ran / staggered.

Class

Hunt

QW

Spy

Total

Type

Attribute

Level

4

9

4

Constitution

Physical

Strength (PS)

19

2

18

1

40

82.0

Agility (PA)

14

4

4

22

Poison R +4

Perception (PP)

11

8

1

20

Crush R +11

Mental

Strength (MS)

20

2

22

56.0

Agility (MA)

13

2

4

19

Pain R +9

Perception (MP)

11

0

4

15

Spiritual

Strength (SS)

11

0

9

20

46.0

Agility (SA)

8

2

2

12

Perception (SP)

10

0

4

14

Totals

117

20 27

20

184

Free points

0

0

Bond: Pip, Desert Viper. Skills: Venom Bite, Quick Strike, Granite Bones, Crushing Resistance +11

Skills:

Novice: Fishing 3, Small Blades 4, Skinning 4, Cooking 1, Tracking 2, Butchering 1, Spear 1, Lock Pick 4, Far Sight 2, Truth Sensing 1, Camouflage 2, Unarmed Combat 1, Granite Bones 1, Throwing Weapons 1

Apprentice: Identify 7, Trapping 8, Hearing Aid 9, Animal Bond 5, Bow 5, Deceive 7

Journeyman: Stealth 12, Hammer 12

Affinity: Granite

No inspiration. I kept running. The grasslands were very different to the forest where I learned to hunt. The grass varied from knee height to over my head. There were scattered copses of trees and rock outcroppings. I generally kept a straight line, occasionally veering to a group of trees. I had no idea what animals were predominant in these lands.

Just as the pre-dawn glow was starting on the horizon I crossed an animal trail. A smallish herd of hooved animals had been through recently. I crossed straight over and kept going. This was going to be cutting it finer than I liked. About half an hour later I burst out onto a farm track. I went a little way in each direction to see if I could see any signs of civilization. Then I very carefully back tracked to the animal trail. I was using Tracking like mad to try not to show any signs that I had backtracked, and it started levelling for the first time in three years. I guess it was a form of tracking myself? I wanted the hounds to lead them to the farm track, but if they had a tracker in the group … well I was doing my best to not give any sign. The Physical Agility points were working overtime here.

It took me twice as long to make it back to the animal trail and dawn had definitely arrived. I then used the animal droppings to mask my scent, hopefully. I rubbed them especially on my legs and feet at and below the height of a hound. Pip was definitely of the opinion I had over done it. I then very, very carefully made my way along the animal trail, hopefully leaving no clue. I went in the opposite direction to the herd as it wouldn’t help me to hide if I startled a herd of mid-sized beasts. I just kept going, keeping low and stealthy and using tracking on myself.

After a half hour of this and Tracking hitting the Apprentice levels and Stealth was inching closer to the master level, I decided distance was my better bet. I broke into a careful jog, still trying to keep low and leave as little trail as possible, but getting some distance from where I knew they would be. My mind was starting to get foggy with fatigue, hunger and thirst. I got a burst of motivation when I heard barking in the distance behind me. Hearing Aid told me they were not getting closer. I needed somewhere to hole up and rest.

Eventually I crossed a small trickle of a stream. After drinking my fill I followed it downstream for a while. We came to a rock outcrop near a copse of trees and I found a ledge mostly out of sight. I lay down on the bare rock (granite actually, so my affinity told me) and went to sleep. Pip understood he was on watch. After all, the only help he had been, so far, was extra weight. No help!

It was dark when I awoke. Pip wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He had left me an offering of two dead rodents and a bird's egg. There was no way I was going to eat the rodents raw. I had no easy way to light a fire and I wasn’t going to do that while still this close to the quarry. I cracked the egg and ate it raw. Pip then arrived out from under one of the bushes holding a second bird's egg delicately in his jaw. He placed it on the ground and I could see his belly was extended, so he had eaten. I thanked him with grateful emotion through the bond, and picked up the second egg while offering him the shells of the first. I ate the innards of the second egg while he then scoffed down both sets of shells. I definitely got the impression eggs were his favourite food.

I bled the rodents in the same spot I slept and then used my snares to tie the carcasses to my belt. This might attract other predators, but at this stage I felt it more important to keep confusing my smell. I had no idea where I was in the Empire. I didn’t even know how big it was. Was it a huge multi province entity or was it some small tin pot wanting to be a huge multi province entity? I hadn’t seen any maps, not even in the Captain's office. I knew the wagons took about two weeks to get to the nearest city, but I didn’t know which direction that was and I intended to stay far from any road. I decided to continue to follow the creek as this was the general direction I had been heading and anywhere away from the quarry was good enough for now. It would be annoying if I was heading deeper into the empire, but we will deal with it when we have to.

We walked through the night. Well, I walked and Pip rode on my shoulder. At least I could keep my thirst quenched. We had one incident with a hunting cat of some sort attracted by the rodents. It was not much bigger than the size of a domesticated cat and was easily chased off. Throwing Weapons was a good skill and I kept a couple of rocks on me. I ditched the rodents about an hour before dawn and started looking for a place to sleep for the day. I was starting to feel a bit more confident with no sign of any patrols. I figured maybe two more nights travel and I might risk a fire and day travel.

The next two nights were similar. My hunger was getting worse and raw egg and water were my only sustenance. As we walked I observed the local wildlife. There were a lot of bird life, which varied from small to very large. Most nested on the ground using camouflage to hide. I figured with my throwing skill I could kill a medium sized bird and had been eying them up for my first cooked meal. Pip was really good at locating nests. There was one very large species of bird, and by large I mean taller than myself. It couldn’t fly but flapped its wings when running for more speed. It was quite fast and its feet had sharp claws. I stayed out of their way, but did manage to raid a nest. They had really good sized eggs, for me. Pip was pretty confused by them, though he happily devoured the leftovers after I had broken them up.

There were a lot of hoofed beasts as well. Most ran in herds and some of those were very large. There was a deer-like creature which looked similar to ones we had in the forest. There were these huge bull-like creatures, bigger than the domestic bulls with more fur. When a herd of them ran by the ground shook. There were big hunting cats, some of which hunted in groups, and packs of smaller hunting type dogs. There were a myriad of scavenger type beasts. It was actually a dangerous place for a lone human, even more so for me, as I was unarmed and unarmored.

The nearest I came to other people was spotting a campfire in the distance one morning with Far Sight. I kept watch for a while, and spotted a bunch of horses with riders, but couldn’t tell if they were an Imperial patrol or just locals. I figured one more night and then I would cook my first breakfast and start actively looking for civilization and some gear.

That last night was really scary. I was actively hunted by something fast and stealthy and I almost became its meal. It was a cat type and my sharp rocks barely scratched it through its fur. Fortunately before it could do more than scratch me Pip had it limping away with a leg full of venom. I doubt it died from that. It was a very close call. Definitely time to walk during the day and hide at night. At least till I got some gear.