Life had settled down into some kind of rhythm. Each morning Ai got up, ate, hunted, came back, ate, learnt more of their language and then slept. The other hunts weren’t usually as successful as her first. Either because of what they were hunting or where they were hunting. Daggers were all well and good, but wielding them meant she had to be close to her prey in order to kill it. Unlike Tal, who found a convenient place and simply shot them down.

Coming back empty handed wasn’t a good feeling. If they finished a hunt early, then Tal would teach Ai other things. She now knew how to make her own fire, and even a shelter. Even if it as somewhat…rickety.

She felt happy. Fulfilled. Life didn’t get much better than this. There could be a little improvement on the living arrangements but…well, she wasn’t going to complain. Other than occasionally seeing Kele at the gate, he was like a ghost. Always back after everyone went to bed, and up before anyone woke.

XP seemed to be based on the challenge of hunting the creature. The horses were shy creatures, easily startled. They gave the most experience.

The other creatures ranged from rodents to larger creatures.

Much larger creatures. Ai and Tal never had the misfortune to run into predators in Ais few weeks of peace. But nothing lasts forever.

Ai inhaled slowly, then exhaled as she moved another small step forwards. The twigs on the floor were hard to avoid. The leaves were her nemesis.

Her target was a hairy red pig, collapsed on its side. Tal had already clambered up a tree, safe off the ground. If Ai messed this up, she would shoot the pig. Whether that shot would kill it or not was guesswork. This particular type of pig had much thicker skin than most of the creatures in the jungle. And a fiery temper.

Jagged yellow tusks jutted out of its jaw, either side of its pert pink nose.

Fat, short and angry it was not a pretty creature. And right now, it was asleep.

Ai didn’t want it to wake up. She wanted to send it into the next world without giving it a chance. Pig was delicious. She could almost taste it already.

She rocked another step forwards. Nothing.

Another. Another.

She was only about four paces away now. If she got any closer it would smell her for sure. She was going to have to dash at it, not die, or get gored.

Inhale. Exhale.

Ais tail swished silently in the air behind her.

One swish, two, three-

Two steps then she launched herself at the pig. One hand held its snout to the ground as her other drove the dagger into the back of its head. The creature only managed to let out half a squeal before it was in its death throws.

Ai checked it was dead (you can never be too careful). Slowly she released her deaths grip on its snout.

Congratulations! You have killed a Red Pig and earned 7XP! Progress to next level 98%

Tal whistled from somewhere behind her.

“You hunt good. Lots al food!” She practically skipped to Ais side.

“Pig taste damn good.” Ai replied with a grin.

Tal had made sure to educate Ai on the worldly use of swear words. Ai was pretty sure she had one for every situation. At least she would never have to worry about understanding the village elder again. The old lady secluded herself to her hut, swearing day and night. Whenever Ai walked past, she was pretty sure she could hear the woman swearing through the walls.

“You do-”

Grrrrrrrrrr

Every muscle in Ais body froze up at that sound. Her swivelling ears quickly told her the beasts location. Slitted green eyes, and a long tawny body made for hunting. Two long tails twitched behind the crouched creature.

It was similar to a big cat, except it had no lips. Its teeth were always visible, pointed and curved as they were. It moved more like a ferret than a cat too, with its long body and flexible forpaws.

It was not the kind of creature Ai was prepared to face. She had no armour, and she was pretty sure it would be faster than she was.

“Back away slow.” Tal breathed without moving her lips.

So slow it was excruciating, Ai raised herself off of the Pigs corpse, dagger still gripped in her hand.

She took one step back. Two.

She had only just cleared the Pigs body when the beast lost patience, it lept in her direction. A cry caught in her throat as she stumbled back. Don’t fall over!

Somehow she managed to keep her balance. Out the corner of her eye Ai noticed Tal had somehow moved far further back than her. Apparently, she didn’t want to wait around for Ai to get clear of the cat.

The cat growled again, crouched protectively over the body, its long claws had sunk into the pigs hindquarters. Claws that Ai did not want to get intimately acquainted with.

Swallowing she retreated slightly faster, still not willing to turn her back on the cat. As soon as she could, she turned and sprinted after a quickly and quietly disappearing Tal.

She looked over her shoulder at least ten times to see if it was following.

Tal was the first to stop, bent over and panting. Ai ran past her and almost carried on before forcing herself to a halt. She was pretty sure it hadn’t followed.

Still, she kept her ears pricked as she made her way back to Tal.

“What was that?” Ai hissed, her tail still poofed up.

“Aitast.” Tal gasped.

“What?” Ai snapped.

“No. It was a Aitast. You name from them.” Tal elaborated.

“My name from them?” Ai repeated. She didn’t know she was named after something. She just thought it was a name like any other.

“You have sharp ears and long tail, like Aitast. Kele say you hunter, broudoar.”

“Broudoar?”

“Animal that hunt.”

Ai wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Maybe she could take it in later, when her heart was beating slower.

“You no see track from Aitast?” Ai questioned, a little freaked out they had managed to wander into a predators territory without noticing. They’d managed to stay out of the way of the terror birds.

“Aitast new. Not here doularou.” Tal gave a strangled laugh. “No make track. Use pee to mark territory. No scratch.”

It only used urine? So they only knew where to avoid based on word of mouth? That sucked. Majorly. The only other way to notice them would be to see their paw prints. Pigs were remarkably easy to track, with the way they turned earth over, so neither of them had been watching the ground that hard.

Clearly, that was a mistake to learn from. Just remembering the low growl made a shudder go down Ais spine.

That had been a predator. And her namesake.

She had a lot to live up to.

Tal straightened up, releasing a long breath.

“We no find Aitast again, yes?” She grinned.

“No find.” Ai agreed, feeling an odd urge to laugh.

She did, and felt the tension flood from her body.

Ai allowed herself to relive those moments the Aitast had appeared. Glinting green eyes, the tawny coat that shone gold where the sunlight hit it. Powerful muscles, long sharp teeth. The Aitast was a beautiful creature. Beautiful and deadly.

She liked her namesake.

“Need hunt. Need meat to dry.” Tal told Ai.

All they seemed to be doing lately was drying meat. The leaves had begun to turn green, and Ai got the feeling they were preparing for winter.

Of course, usually leaves turned red and yellow for winter, but seeing as they were already red, Ai reasoned they would go the other way and turn green before they fell off the trees.

She hadn’t yet tried to ask Tal with her limited vocabulary. In fact, she hadn’t asked most of the questions she wanted to. Just another day without worrying, she kept telling herself. Just another day out in nature, feeling the thrill of the hunt.

22 days had passed that way.

She was a long way from being fluent, and was well aware that people had to dumb down conversations around her in order for her to understand. But she was far, far better than when she first arrived.

Anyway, more hunting.

“Move closer to village?” Tal nodded.

The prey there were fewer, and smaller, but vastly safer.

On the way there, it occurred to Ai that not all animals in the forest were grey. She wasn’t, and nor was Tal. Some of the younger members of the village were, though. It had almost given her a heart attack the first time she saw a small child. Only 5 or 6 he had been crouched playing in the mud, and looked far too much like a goblin. These days Ai spent the majority of her time ignoring that the murder had ever happened.

“Tal?”

“Yes?”

“Why no…grey?”

“Strong ralou largou. Small animal weak ralou largou. Old and big animal strong ralou largou.” Tal paused pulling a face. Ai didn’t envy her job of trying to explain words.

“Ralou largou…hunt take ralou. Kill take ralou.” Life then? Life force?

“Life force. Why strong life force no grey?”

“Grey no important. Small life force, grow important, eat important. Big life force more energy, so…important no important…fix.” Tal was frowning and biting her lip.

Ai thought she more or less understood.

“Thank you.”

“No thank you. I help.”

Ai just gave an awkward smile. She loved it here, but she wasn’t ready to abandon her manners just yet. Besides, despite spending pretty much every moment of every day with Tal, she still felt that she knew next to nothing about her. It had been shocking when Tal had first snuck out of the house with Ermine. Through the window no less.

The houses weren’t exactly secure.

Unsure what exactly to do about it, Ai had opted to do nothing and pretended to be asleep. Truth be told, she woke up at the slightest sound. The two of them had snuck off at least five times since Ai had arrived. Tal must think she was the deepest sleeper ever.

She didn’t think Ermine was quite as fooled. She had once seen him examining her through the crack of her eyelids. Either he was infatuated her, or he was having his doubts about her sleeping acts. The second seemed far more likely. She got the feeling that she was an outsider when she walked around the village. Because of her ears and tail, based on the direction of peoples stares.

She spent most of her time avoiding crowds, or anyone she hadn’t already met. Being in the bath house with strange woman had been one of the oddest things. Her cowardly tail had wrapped itself around one of her legs. Tal didn’t mind going later, and Ai much preferred it. She had only been subjugated to being naked around complete strangers three times so far, and as far as she was concerned that was three times too many.

A tap on her arm bought her out of her thoughts. Tal was pointing to some tracks.

Recent. A bird. A small one with three toes. Ai had hunted these before. They had pale, fluffy white bodies and ran around on comically long legs. They were adorable.

Monster that she was, Ai had been collecting their feathers to make a shawl. She hadn’t actually started on the making part, she wanted to practice first. It was harder than it looked.

Dropping to a familiar crouch, the two of them followed the light tracks. Ai was nowhere near as good as Tal, and lost the path a few times while Tal never even hesitated.

The system had actually given her a skill for tracking and sneaking. Other than the occasional blue box that told her she had increased its level, there was no more information about it. She hadn’t asked anyone about it either. She was a little worried she might be mad. She hadn’t seen anybody else looking at nothing. Or perhaps it was something she only had, a remnant from a time she didn’t remember. Either way, unless somebody else bought it up, she wasn’t going to.

A soft trill stirred the air around them. The birds must be close. Only a few meters away. Tal gave her the signal and they split up.

Ai kept an eye out for any creepy crawlies. There were colonies of grey beetles that these birds followed, and she had been bitten once. It really, really hurt.

She had spent the rest of her time stamping the buggers off of her, scaring away any chance of catching prey.

Tal had then made them collect up all the squashed beetles in a jar. To this day, Ai didn’t know what she had used them for. If it had anything to do with food she had eaten, then Ai didn’t want to know.

A few moments later and Ai spotted her first bird. She was behind it luckily, they couldn’t see past their fluffy round bodies. In fact, the birds seemed to be basically blind to anything but movement, which they were super attuned to. If they saw her moving, the whole lot of them would be gone in moments.

Ai moved slowly, and the oblivious bird pecked at the undergrowth.

She was close enough to see the details of its feathers ruffle in the breeze now. One moment it was pecking innocently, the next it had been snatched behind a tree. Another moment and its head was separated from its body.

Congratulations! You ave killed a Fluff Ball and earned 1XP! Progress to next level 99%

No alarm cries. The other birds hadn’t noticed.

Inhale. Exhale.

She placed the bird gently on the ground and crept forwards again.

Three birds, all an equal distance apart. There might even be a fourth based on the sounds she could hear further away. There was no way she could take one out without the others noticing.

She would have to wait for the signal.

Perhaps another thirty seconds and a loud cry pierced through the landing.

The birds split, two heading in her direction. She held herself perfectly still until – there!

The dagger found its way into the body of one, and when the other tried to dart the other side of her she grabbed it round its skinny neck. A neck that easily broke under pressure.

Congratulations! You have killed a Fluff ball and earned 1XP! Progress until next level 0% Congratulations! You have killed a Fluff Ball and earned 1 XP! Progress until next level 0% You have levelled up! You are now level 1! Congratulations, access to status and information screens have been granted!

Ai blinked. And blinked again.

You have got to be shitting with me.