One week later

I dragged my exhausted ass out of my bunk and headed to the training grounds to work with the hunters again. During our first outing, I had asked Jackson if most patrols saw as much combat as our first one did, and relaxed a bit when he revealed that even finding a group of ghouls tended to be a rarity. I didn’t detect any lies at the time, which meant the last week of hell showed an increase in the vampire’s activities.

Several patrols had lost people, and there was one that was assumed wiped out to the last man. Every patrol now seemed to run into a group of ghouls, and everyone was starting to become on edge. Even the hunters were showing signs of fresh wounds, though nobody had the gall to question them about it. Even so, they never shirked their aura training, and I always got up to help them.

“- know that! But I can’t tell my commander no!” Came a hissed voice on the breeze, one that I thought I recognized.

“And if you don’t tell him no, something is going to happen! You can’t keep running low on sleep and be expected to scout the enemy camp!” I recognized Alfred hissing back, peaking my curiosity. Instead of confronting them, I simply headed to the training ground and took my seat.

“I’ll do what I have to, just like you will. Now let me go so that I can do this. It’ll help keep me alive, and you know it.”

“I know Brandon will do his best, he always does. But there are some battles that can’t be won, and you are getting ready to run toward one!”

“If that’s what the gods have in store for me, so be it.” The voice hissed. “But if I can save a single patrol with the information I bring back, it’s worth it.”

“Damnit.” Alfred groaned, taking a moment. “Damn scouts. Always jumping into the greatest danger just to protect everyone. Fine, I’m going back to bed.”

Everything was quiet for nearly a minute after that, before I heard footsteps approach. The person gently coughed from the outside of the training area, then asked, “Hey Brandon? I was wondering if you could give me a hand with something.”

“Hmm? Oh, hey Paul. What do you need?” I asked.

“Aura training.” He replied, sitting down as a few of the hunters took their seats. “I can get my aura down to that of a small animal, but I just can’t quite get rid of it completely. I was hoping that you could help me with that.”

“Absolutely.” I said, indicating he should take a seat. “We have a few guys working on similar things, so it’s no problem. Go ahead and start doing what you normally do, and I’ll see where everyone’s at.”

To my surprise, Paul sat down and almost immediately dispersed his aura until he was about the size of a rabbit. It wasn’t just how fast he did it, but he also managed to change a bit of his aura’s flavor, if I had to put it into words. All auras are unique, but are such a subtle blend that it takes a true master to decipher everything. Something I was far from. However, it is easy to tell the difference between a rabbit, someone hiding as a rabbit, and someone who isn’t trying to hide at all. There’s a complexity to the flavor that just isn’t there for something as unthinking as a rabbit. Paul had somehow managed to remove some of the complexity from his aura.

“Wow, that’s impressive Paul.” I said, choosing to use him as an example for a moment. “Everyone, feel Paul’s aura for a second. See how he managed to remove that complexity I was trying to describe? Feel his next to mine, compare the two.”

As I was talking, I was also feeling everyone else’s aura. Immediately two others grasped the differences, and within seconds of each other had dropped down their own complexity for a fraction of a second. One immediately opened his eyes and spoke, “Calm, simple thoughts. Food. Hide. Danger.”

“That’s how it was taught to me as well.” Paul said, and I noticed the complexity returning once he spoke. “The less you have on your mind, the less complex your aura is. If you can bring two or three things to the front of your mind and focus intensely on them for a bit, you can use that intensity to mask everything else. Then for a few seconds in every ten, flash back to your mission. I haven’t been able to try that yet, as I can’t get my aura small enough.”

“Paul, you’re the size of a rabbit.” I said, “How small do you need your aura to be? Not only that, you feel like a rabbit too.”

“That’s the problem. You don’t ever go out scouting or hunting, so you wouldn’t understand. Hunters, could you tell Brandon here why hiding as a rabbit isn’t a good idea?”

“Ain’t no rabbits around.” One hunter spoke up. “Most of the wildlife here is birds and bugs. He’s too big and too landbound to be a bird, and way too big for a bug.”

“Exactly.” Paul agreed.

“Ok, I can see how that would be a problem.” I nodded. “Tell you guys what. Everyone else, go ahead and work on making your aura feel bland like a rabbit’s. Paul and I are going to work one on one to figure out how to make him feel like a bug.”

Relocating to a small corner of the training area, I put my back to the hunters and sat down with Paul. “Alright. Let’s do one thing at a time, and see if we can shrink that aura even further. Don’t bother with making it bland at the moment.”

“Sounds good. Here goes.” Paul nodded, concentrating. His aura immediately dropped in size, but stuck there. I sat there patiently as he tried several things, but he wasn’t having much luck. It took about ten minutes, before he immediately got pale and his aura started wavering dangerously.

“Paul, PAUL!” I immediately slapped him, breaking his concentration and bringing him back.

“Wha? What happened?” He asked, shivering as he sat back up.

“I was just about to ask you that. You went pale all of a sudden, and your aura started fluctuating wildly. What happened?”

“I dunno. I was trying to spread my aura out, focusing on only my aura. Suddenly I was standing by a lake, but a lake is too big. I needed a puddle. The lake started to dry, and everything was getting colder. Then you slapped me, and I’m back.”

“I’ll have to read what Alphonse left me, but I don’t think we can go any lower.” I said. “I don’t like what that reaction did to you, and I don’t think we should keep trying to go smaller. I think we have well and truly reached the smallest your aura can go.”

“OK, that’s fine.” Paul agreed as he struggled to stand up. “Whoah.”

“Easy there.” I said, immediately catching him and helping him stand. “What’s going on?”

“My legs feel like rice pudding.” He said, sitting back down. “I’ve never felt like this before. My arms too.”

“Alright, no more aura practice for you today. Let’s stay here for a minute and let you recover, then I’ll help you back to your tent. I’ll let Clovis know you injured yourself in aura practice somehow and see if we can’t get you taken off of duty for tonight.”

“You alright kid?” I half turned to see all the hunters standing there, staring at us. “We felt your aura flash like that. We’ve felt similar before, but usually right before someone dies.”

“All the more reason not to practice anymore today, tomorrow as well.” I said after a moment. Turning to the hunters, I continued, “Though that presents us a new problem. Let’s assume for the moment that the size of a rabbit is as small as we can make our aura. If there are no natural wildlife around, how do we hide ourselves?”

A few of the hunters started frowning, but they all went back and started working on their own auras. While they were doing that, I concentrated on removing some of the flavor from my own aura, hoping to shrink it down in complexity to that of a normal human. That was another issue that I was running into. Sanguimancers and vampires both had an even more complex aura than a human, so I was going to have to work twice as hard to get to the same point Paul and from what I could vaguely tell a few of the hunters were on the verge of achieving.

As I sat there, time slowly moving by, I tried morphing my thinking. Those auras around me weren’t Paul and the hunters, but they were instead part of our pack. I let that idea float for a while, simply keeping vague track of location and numbers. Suddenly a new aura popped up at the side, and I immediately went on alert. My eyes flashed open as several aura spears hardened and prepared to skewer whoever had just appeared, only when I looked there was nobody there. I wasn’t the only one on alert, as all but one of the hunters had reacted somehow, most with blades in their hand.

“Eugene, was that you?” Someone asked the only one who hadn’t moved, and he slowly opened his eyes as that aura spot disappeared.

“Yup. Wanted to try something, see if we could help our little scout here.” He nodded to Paul, who was sitting there, confused.

“Me?” He asked.

“Yup. You brave the night like we do, so we see the scout corps as hunters in training. Just don’t tell nobody that.” He said before turning to me. “I was thinking about what you said, about there not being enough life out there. So I thought, what if we could create our own? It don’t matter if we are the size of a rabbit if they have a wolf to focus on.”

“A distraction, brilliant!” Someone else agreed as I nodded.

“Impressive. You could even send them off on a merry chase while you did what you needed to do, if you can spare the concentration.” I agreed, seeing the utility in such a thing. “I like it, and I think I have a way to train it. Once everyone has the ability to make at least one aura decoy, we will set up several thick logs for a few people to hide behind. The rest of us won’t look, as you hide yourselves behind the logs and your decoys behind others. The challenge will be to find the actual hunters without falling for a decoy. We’ll shoot arrows into the logs we think you are hiding behind, and award points after.”

“Competition? I like it.” Eugene said before looking at the sky. “Time to go boys. If I can, I need a word in private Brandon.” He said, looking at me.

“Sure. I’ll be right back Paul.” I said, following Eugene off to the opposite side of the training field. He pulled out a strangely marked stone and pressed it, and I felt a barrier snap into place around us.

“Don’t know how or why, and I don’t care. Somehow there was a message for you passed along through the secret Hunter channels. You ready?” He asked, and at my nod pulled out a small piece of paper. “Letters sent. Caravan is in motion, but starting slow. Orders are to stay alive until help arrives.” He looked at me to be sure I understood, then tossed the paper into a nearby torch and watched as it burned to ashes.

“Message delivered, we’ll speak no more of this. Good idea on the training, Hunters love competitions. You don’t care if we place bets, do ya?” He asked as we headed back toward Paul.

“It’s your money. Do what you want with it.” I shrugged, knowing it would buy me points with the group. To be honest, I truly didn’t care what they did so long as they put their effort into the training. Motivating them with the chance to win money and bragging rights off their friends was just fine in my book.

“You feeling any better Paul?” I asked, watching as he struggled to his feet.

“A bit. I should be able to walk to my bunk.”

“Good.” I nodded. “I’m going to have Terrance drop by as well to see you before we try Centurion Clavis. I doubt he will take just my word for it.”

“No need, I’ll be going with you.” Eugene said, nodding at Paul.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was just after breakfast, and I could tell Eugene was getting pissed at having to wait on Centurion Clavis. Just as he was about to storm into the tent he was using, his aide stepped out and gave the Hunter a once over and disgusted look. “Centurion Clavis will see you both.” He simply said before stepping aside.

“About damn time.” I heard Eugene mutter as he stormed in. I shrugged at the look the aid was giving me, as if to say ‘He’s a Hunter. What can you do?’

Inside the tent was surprisingly empty. There was a desk where Clavis was filling out paperwork and a set of stools stacked in the corner. “Legionnaire Clayson, who is this and why is he here?”

“Hunter Eugene, and I would appreciate if you addressed me directly.” He said, stepping up to his desk. “We have a training injury to report.”

“I don’t deal with Hunters.” He said, turning to me. “Tell me why you are wasting my time.”

“It’s not a hunter, sir.” I said, cutting off Eugene. It looked like he wanted to simply rip off Clavis’ head, which wouldn’t help matters. “Legionnaire Paul took an aura injury while in training today. His physical capabilities have drastically fallen, and he shouldn’t be using any aura for at least a day, probably two.” I said. “Hunter Eugene was a witness to the injury and its severity, and wanted to step in while Paul rested.”

“Paul. He is part of the scout regiment, correct?”

“Yes sir.”

Clavis made a point of looking over several papers on his desk, comparing several of them and making some minor markings. Eventually he shook his head and said, “I’m sorry. We were already shorthanded on scouts, and then something riled up the vampires. We need him now more than ever, and can’t spare anyone their duty.”

“THAT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!” Eugene roared, slamming his fists onto the desk and knocking several stacks of papers over in the process. “The kid couldn’t even walk after it happened! If you send him out, you send a scout to his death!”

“Perhaps that’s the case with an injured hunter.” Clavis said, steepling his hands. “But our scouts are trained better than that. I have every confidence in Paul’s survival. And since the disposition of scouts are not under the perview of the Hunters, I’m going to ask that you remove yourself from my office.”

“I’ll-“ Eugene started, only to stop when I placed my hand on his forearm.

“Enough. Centurion has made his decision, we have to stand by it. Apologies for any inconvenience, Centurion Clavis.” I said, turning and saluting.

“Apology accepted, Legionnaire. Dismissed.” He said, and I could feel the glare Eugene was leveling at me as we headed back to Paul’s tent.

I could feel the moment he hurled me into a side passage between buildings, letting him slam me against the wall and placing the knife by my throat. “Just what are you doing?”

“What I can.” I answered. “That message I received? Was about Clavis. I won’t go into detail, but we need to cause as few waves as possible because he still has the ability to flip our boat. Now, take your knife away from my throat so that I can head to Paul’s tent and give him a dose of my blood. Hopefully I can provide him enough energy to stabilize his aura and keep him alive tonight.”

“Damn soldiers and their damn politics.” Eugene muttered as he put the knife away. “You’d all be better off if the upper ranks swore away family bonds while enlisted.”

“Is that how the Hunters do it?” I asked as we resumed our walk. “Because that sounds like a great idea to me.”