“Do… we have to go… so fast?”

“Yeah, this is a bit much…”

Jeph panted, and Terin groaned in agreement as they reached the forest’s edge. Jeph was smaller than everyone except Imira, and Terin simply seemed unpleasant. Marken remained silent, but likewise he looked flushed from exerting himself. Only Imira and Johan looked unaffected by their forced march.

“This isn’t an extended trip, we need to maximize the use of our time. There will be plenty of time to rest once we get into position. We’ll use the scent killers now.”

Marken quickly nodded and took out a few small ceramic jars from his satchel. Apparently he specialized in tracking and other facets regarding the influence of the environment, so Johan delegated the ‘responsibility’ of carrying the mixture.

Marken did not verbally respond, or make eye contact with anyone as he handed out the jars.

Imira could only psyche herself up in preparation for her own over-analyzation of the situation— but was it really over analyzing things? As stated that morning, these four hadn’t gone hunting before, so the group dynamics were unformed. And of them, Marken was the least likely to integrate on his own.

So part of her personal task needed to be pulling him into the fold.

When she could barely handle herself.

Marken’s focus was allegedly information and observation— but only to the extent a child could be focused on such things. Even if there were holes in her knowledge, Imira doubted that he would be aware. Not to mention if he could, or even would, attempt to communicate what he knew.

Somewhat similar to what she was doing now. Just thinking instead of talking.

“Ehem… what’s the proper amount to apply?”

“?” His surprise was so quiet, Imira couldn’t even make out what noise he made. He coughed once loudly, as if to reset himself “A single daub per area, it should thin out enough to only leave a dull coat that fills your skin, if you can scrape it off, there’s too much.”

Off to the side, Jeph surreptitiously wiped a thick brown glob back into the container.

“I see…”

“Underarms, neck, face, and anywhere else you sweat are the most important.” Johan added, needlessly. Although Imira wasn’t actually sure why she knew that already, Alric hadn’t actually gone over the specifics of masking one’s scent.

“Understood.”

The paste had a strange tackiness and permeability to it that made Imira’s skin feel slightly stiff as she applied it. Daubs weren’t exactly a proper unit of measurement, so a second dot needed to be smeared on her left arm before understanding the portions.

It darkened the tone of skin by a shade, an effect that may or may not have been intentional on the herbalist’s part to help disguise the user. Of course it also had a faint aroma of recently stirred earth. As for the taste, it was more sour than bitter, starting off astringent, then—

“What are you doing?” Terin asked with contempt. Imira froze with the back of her hand towards her mouth, much like a cat.

Actually, thinking about it from a normal perspective, tasting herbal and alchemical mixtures was unusual.

“Uh, rhuvine sap, hansberry, bound with shade bean extract… do you know how it’s made?”

“What? You just ate some of the paste! Why would you do that?”

Talking to Terin felt so difficult when he obviously was biased against her. Besides, it wasn’t as though it would cause any harm. His face had deep brown streaks of misapplied paste, if there was going to be any reaction, he would have had one by now.

“It’s… practice.”

“What are you practicing?” Oblivious, or perhaps simply irreverent, Jeph got closer, ignoring Terin’s hostility.

“Identifying herbs. Alric is an alchemist, but he’s only taught me how to identify so far. One way to test for toxicity is long-term skin exposure, however for a commonly used topical ointment, barring individual sensitivities there should be no problem.” Imira began pulling out whatever she could remember. Only being able to clearly talk with the youngest child(excluding herself) wasn’t much of an accomplishment, yet it was something. Although she wondered if any of them could understand what she was talking about considering their confused faces— she no longer had to help with menial chores unrelated to training, an advantage common people wouldn’t receive.

“Huh, so I can eat—”

“Don’t.” Johan let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s more expensive than two skewers, and definitely doesn’t taste as good. Lucy, don’t give him any ideas. For now, be quiet and look for tracks. Let’s go.”

The three followed Marken’s lead and shut their mouths before following Johan to the forest.

“Hm, as I expected, thenk tracks. These hairs mean it’s healthy, but probably traveling alone.”

Johan felt the depression left by the hooves, rubbing some of the dirt between his fingers. Then he stood up and started examining the edges of the trees.

Imira, wanting to form her own opinion, knelt down as well.

What… exactly is a thenk?

Because the first time she met Alric, he did not speak Derrish, so any creature he didn’t know the name of, he just referred to with his own language without pause. Is a thenk something he never encountered, or could it even be one of the several creatures they dissected when moving through the woods?

Johan’s desire to hunt it meant it was approximately the same weight category as a deer, however the placement of the tracks seemed too close together. Actually, was it a hexapod? With more even weight distribution, that could also explain the slightly shallow impression for the width of the creature. Plus short fur, that only left two creatures she’d seen before.

Having seen them only once each, Imira didn’t actually remember much about them— but it was probably the one with a long, canine face and nubs for tusks. Alric held onto it with great difficulty as it tried shedding fur to slip loose, although it was forced to stay until he was done talking about perpetually growing teeth.

“Can ya tell anything about it? You got any other secret techniques?”

“No. I can only tell it's a larger creature with a cloven hoof. I can infer the rest, but…” Imira trailed off as Marken shuffled closer to her and Jeph. He cleared his throat several times before managing to speak.

“Thenks can’t use their snout to dig, so their front hooves are more spade-like to dig for tubers and that sort of thing.” It looked like he was talking to a small sapling that was struggling to survive. Should she say something? She should.

“Well, ehm, why would they not eat? It passed by that patch of wild carrots right there.”

Right along the tracks, several distinctive green frilly tops that looked relatively unmolested.

“Uh, I don’t know.”

“Haven’t you been out here before Marken? How can you not know?”

“It’s not that simple…”

“H—” As the three of them gathered around the tracks, Terin began to call out from Johan’s side, who immediately smacked him in the head.

“Are you daft, what part of ‘be quiet’ don’t you understand? All of you, follow along and shut up.”

No one was willing to directly contradict an adult, so they obeyed.

Hunting wasn’t a quick process. The quintet moved through the rich forest for several hours at a much slower pace than before. Johan occasionally pointed out some things, mostly at the level of predicting the thenk’s path when the tracks became unclear, or an occasional plant that could help mask their scent further.

While she learned a little, such as thenks rubbing their coats along trees if they hadn’t shed a particular area recently, mostly it was little reminders for the things Imira had learned on her journey. She could even tell that this wooded area was substantially younger than the primary forest due to the abundance of shrubs and a lack of apex predator markings. All the herbs were practically weeds as well, the energy level of the ecosystem was quite low.

Imira wouldn’t have considered any of this before leaving the village. She was clearly learning. And she was supposed to learn how to… do something with other people, but Johan dominated the lead and cut off further conversation.

It was the right choice to maintain politeness, after all. She only had Alric’s name, not his ability. Wait…

“We’ve made it to the stream. There’s a clearing about an hour further, it’ll be dark then. That’s where they nest. Lucy, you and Terin cross here. Marken and I— and Jeph— will take a shot. If it doesn’t go down, it will make a run across a shallow part of the stream. You use your spear, Terin, you can try landing another shot.”

“I’ll fell the mark!.” Terin nodded with entirely too much self assurance.

“Understood.” Waiting a moment to see if he had anything more to add… he didn’t. Imira readied her spear and moved as quickly as she could while remaining silent.

“Good luck—” It took a moment for Johan to cross the distance, but he soon clamped Jeph’s mouth shut.

“By the Patriarch: How. Many. Times—” And that was all Imira heard from the group.

Not to mention the fact she spent her whole life hopping back and forth across the little river in her village, with a spear to act as additional support, Imira easily cleared the brook. Holding up the group and not reaching the location on time would reflect poorly on her skills. She hardly had a habit of wasting time.

However, looking behind, Terin was struggling to even make it across the river.

‘People have different skillsets. Teammates can cover areas where you are lacking.’ As Terin dipped his foot into the stream and stumbled back onto the shore, Imira repeated to herself. The only thing he seemed to be adding to this expedition was a pair of hands to carry a bow.

“You’re alright?” Still, it was appropriate to show some concern for her ally, unpleasant he may be.

“I’m fine. Let’s go.” Hurriedly moving forward to catch up with her, Terin didn’t slow down as he passed by, the crackling of branches and leaves showing an even greater lack of care than before.

Were her standards too high? Maybe he was just too inexperienced. Imira wished she interacted more with the hunters back in the village to get an idea of what was expected— although this was likely Alric’s intent.

As the forest grew dark, Terin slowed his pace. Dwindling vision came with a dwindling ability to keep silent, so overall he remained too loud. Imira didn’t hear anything darting away from their obvious position; calling animals complacent also felt wrong somehow.

She considered saying something, a criticism, a tip, a comment, some ‘small talk’, ultimately deciding against any of it. Words can’t be taken back, so it would be better to wait until she was more sure of herself. Trying not to overthink it, Imira fell back into analyzing her surroundings.

A sparse canopy let plenty of starlight illuminate the forest, as much light one could hope for in the dead of night. The nocturnal cacophony filled the air with the low hum of bugs and a small share of hooting and chirping. As for smells… something seemed different than the other forest, but she couldn’t quite tell what.

The world grew ever more still as Imira approached the clearing’s edge. Not wanting to draw too far ahead of Terin, she moved at an incredibly relaxed pace throughout the night. Looking closely, she spotted several routes she could hide along. Naturally a somewhat difficult task considering the forest’s openness. Luckily the herd of 18 settled completely on the far side of the stream, the viable paths across the water limiting their choices.

Gesturing, she pointed at Terin, the ground, herself, then another point further away. When, no, she should say if he missed, then the prey should be driven in her direction. Judging the brown boulder’s sizes from across the stream at night, Imira thought that even the biggest was four times her weight at most. Her hand gripped her spear.

It could probably take that much force?

No, she could always simply target a different creature. Even if it wasn’t the one Johan shot, Imira could catch one of the others without worry. Spears were meant to hunt larger prey after all.

However her ‘mission’ wasn’t to catch prey. Imira was supposed to work with others. After indicating Terin to ready himself at one corner, she would simply wait until Johan made his move first.

Dark shapes began scuttling across the way. Of course the largest of shapes stirred, almost following along with their movements. Imira didn’t think Alric made any mention of this sort of social characteristic from herd animals, but it made sense, other than how complacent it seemed.

Actually, would it stand and fight? Did something else give it confidence that she hadn’t thought of? Was it simply a stupid animal?

She should have asked for more specifics. That would have helped establish her relationships in the team. How well was she actually doing in this test? Alric might not even be anywhere nearby, and the specifics of this situation weren’t important. She should find—

Instinctively her eyes were drawn to movement in a split second. Like vipers from a bush, two arrows flew towards the herd, and a third planted itself in the ground several meters short. With a low bellow reminiscent of a fog horn the herd leapt up in unison. Even with a six-legged gallop that only provided something more to catch themselves when they blindly plunged through the river.

The hunt entered its climax, Imira drew in as many details as she could.

Johan considered his limits, not aiming for the largest thenk, however even with two arrows in its flank, it had plenty of stamina to spare. A few hours of pursuit would lead to an easy catch, but their target wasn’t going to drop just yet.

Terin had his arrow nocked and looked calm enough. From Imira’s angle she predicted he failed to lead the target enough. However if she shouted, that would just alert the prey and be even less likely to succeed. He could at least spook the creature towards her.

Trying to see where his arrow would go, Imira’s gaze paused on the creature behind the target.

A wolf in sheep’s clothing— she didn’t have time to be thinking about stories!

“Terin, don’t shoot!”

Aside from the burning red eyes fixated on the wounded creature ahead, it heavily salivated through sharp canines, obviously not an herbivore. Whatever it was, if struck by Terin’s arrow, it would lash out and get a much easier meal.

It wasn’t as though she could evaluate the world in an instant or see 10 steps ahead; even as Imira shouted, Terin’s arrow stuck into the beast’s flank.

Anatomy is vital. Aside from slightly flinching, a predator that size wouldn’t slow in the slightest. Nor would it do something as wasteful as rearing back to let loose an intimidating roar, it had no reason to try and intimidate Imira, it simply charged right for her.

Hold on a second!

She simply gave Terin a warning, and this stupid beast associated the attack with her?

Backing to the side a few steps, she maintained eye contact using a root to help steady the weapon. Fully hiding behind a tree might prevent it from charging, but she would still be disadvantaged. Landing a deep blow with this meant at the very least she could turn things into a matter of attrition.

What else could she do?

What else was there to do??

The distance between her and the beast halved already, Imira felt grateful to her brain she managed to plan this much. Heart pounding faster than the oncoming hooves, there was a mysterious feeling of anticipation, drowned out by fear, which in turn got washed away by the realization she wasn’t paralyzed. Imira could face this creature, despite the odds.

Under a night sky beneath the forest’s canopy, there was little light, but the beast still cast a large shadow over Imira and her hopes as it lunged forth.

Terrifying. Fast. But… while stable and powerful, six legs gave it a slightly strange gait. Letting go of her trusty spear, she leapt behind her tree.

A slight crack could barely be heard under a warbling shriek. Her spear only dropped a few inches; she naturally accounted for that, but looking at the length of the spear compared to the creature from afar, Imira felt as though she should have simply stood her ground longer and aimed for the throat. Dodging wouldn’t have been out of the question, and—

Unable to continue thinking, Imira leapt backwards again as the beast twisted around the tree where she stood, trying to strike at her with its hooves again. It let out another strange wail; her spear hung out of its chest, so advancing and retreating both aggravated the wound.

Keeping a hunting dagger raised, Imira looked for an opening. Keeping her distance to reliably tire it out was the safest, but what if that wasn’t enough? If she overestimated the lethality of her wound, or it had one last burst of energy for death, she might not have the energy to react.

That was what she thought and was taught.

But other than the quickly fading gallops through the trees in the distance, only a labored breathing could be heard in the dark as Imira kept her distance.

It would occasionally lurch forwards, and after taking a few steps back, she could formulate a path to attack. Not that she could go back in time and act on that plan. Then it would move in a similar way again, she just needed to dart forward along its flank. She could deal a lacerating wound while remaining outside of the creature’s range of motion.

Or she could continue weaving through the sturdy trees.

“Get back!”

She’d taken too much time. Now Johan called out to her and hoped to get a clear shot at the creature once she backed up and kill-steal.

Well, they were a team. Perhaps Alric would think of this as a success since they worked together? No, Imira hadn’t counted on anyone else helping at all, this was incidental, not teamwork.

What would Alric want her to do?

Learn from experience.

So she fell back a little further and let Johan shoot. The beast cried out again as an arrow struck its chest. Now it turned its attention to the side where the attack came from.

This meant she was sharing the credit, but that was teamwork. With it distracted, Imira confidently ran along the side, hamstringing two of its legs with her dagger. Tired, wounded, and drained of blood, the creature collapsed onto its side, futilely kicking.

Imira patiently waited several feet back. It would die momentarily, then she could safely retrieve her spear.

“Lucy!” Johan shouted, clumsily running through the night “Are you alright? Keep back!”

“I’m fine, and aware. I’m waiting to retrieve my spear.”

“I see— that the Green Ascetic has taught you your composure well… I’ll finish it off.” As a hunter, he retained enough focus for the task at hand, aiming an arrow at the beast’s head from just a few feet away.

“Woah, that's a big one! You stopped it, I bet even Disciples aren’t strong enough to do that!” Despite his little legs, Jeph reached their side before Marken and even Terin. From the way his head panned around, he was well adapted to the dark.

“No, I missed several opportunities. Johan finished it off.” No one present could see in the dark well enough to note her stern expression relax slightly. A crane stands out among chickens— being a bird isn’t impressive, but it was impossible to completely harden her heart against compliments.

“Not at all, you did well. Especially making sure that it didn’t go for Terin. Although impaling it like this must have been quite risky, Terin would have been much worse off. This, alpha thenk, will also provide a good hide. Do you know how to assist in butchering?”

“It’s been demonstrated, but not in practice.”

“Then just observe. Jeph, help Marken cross the stream and bring the torches. We might as well camp here.”

“The scent of blood?”

“There’s nothing aggressive like that here. We have a bloody carcass on our hands, we won’t be able to rid ourselves of the stench anyhow.” Imira immediately felt cold water doused over the thought of having reliable teammates, such complacency. Hopefully she could find a safe spot to rest.

While helpful in a small sense, Imira certainly didn’t feel any sense of security. Maybe the real lesson was to only trust her weapon.

Imira did her best to wipe the blood off the haft. She lightly poked herself on a splinter that came from near the head of the weapon.

She couldn’t even trust that in the end.

Imira shook her head. She knew that wasn’t the lesson at all. Still, it felt that summed up her experience today.

“Hey Lucy! Help tie this!”

“You’re going to have to learn how to tie knots if you’re going to keep hunting with us.”

“I’ll show him how. You can teach them how to gut.”

“Thank you.”

Imira could only sigh to herself. At least this was better than wasting away in that village.