“Well, North of the Espriss you’ve got to keep a look out for pursuers,” Alloha continued. “They scratch up trees to mark their territory so it’s rare to just wander up to one, but most of them range near the Maw. That’s why nobody goes out that way. That’s also why there aren’t any farms North of the Espriss until you get closer to the coast. Pursuers won’t cross running water.”

Not for the first time, I was reminded of the strange errand Ferrith had taken me on shortly after I arrived. I’d never gotten an explanation why those pine needles were so important to him. Now here I was, hearing that he must’ve intentionally led us into pursuer beast territory to reach them. There was no chance such an experienced adventurer wouldn’t know the warning signs. It just made me all the more curious why he’d taken such an absurd risk.

“You ever think about how pursuers first showed up in Earris?” Grant asked. He directed his question at Alloha.

“My dad always said he thought someone’s Skill summoned them from another world,” Alloha said.

“Yeah, that’s what most people think. I’m not so sure,” Grant replied. He finished up his soup and rinsed out the bowl with a waterskin while he spoke.

“How else would they get here?” Torra asked.

“I’m not saying it’s wasn’t a Skill,” Grant said. “I’m just not sure it was a simple summoning Skill, like what Ferrith does with ogres. Think about it. If the guy that summoned pursuers didn’t control them, he should have died immediately, right? I mean, they kill anything.”

“Yeah,” Jay agreed, “first one he brought over should have killed him. That’d be the end of it. How would they keep breeding?”

“See?” Grant said. “Jay gets it.”

“Ferrith’s Skill makes the ogres he summons friendly,” I interjected. I should know. He’d used it on me. “Maybe that’s how it worked. They were friendly to him, then went feral later.”

“Then why did we never hear about this guy?” Grant challenged.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve been here a week.”

“Well, I’ve never heard of this pursuer-summoning-guy. Have you, Torra? Have you, Alloha?”

“Why would we have to hear about him?” Alloha asked. “It’s not like every summoner gets famous. I bet over in Gaelmir you couldn’t find a single person who had ever heard of Ferrith.”

“Yeah, but he’s not even a steel ranked adventurer,” Grant countered, “and it’s not like he’s the source of all ogres. They’ve been around for thousands of years. No, my point is if there was ever a guy that could control pursuers, he could have ruled the world. Hell, even if he wasn’t ambitious he would at least be famous, wouldn’t he? Pursuers only popped up like… what was it, Jay?”

“Four generations ago,” Jay supplied.

“Right, see?” Grant said. “How did we never hear about this guy?”

“Who said it was a guy?” Victoria chimed in. I hadn’t even realized she was listening in, but it seemed she hadn’t slinked back into the woods yet.

Grant looked at her and nodded. “Sure. Could’ve been a girl. My point stands. With even a medium-sized pack, you could probably take over a city.”

“What if there was only one?” Alloha suggested. “It could have killed the summoner, then if it was a pregnant female, it had a litter of pups. Presto. You’ve got an infestation.”

Grant scratched his ample chin. “Huh, you got me there. They do breed pretty fast. Remember that failed crusade in the 800’s to wipe them out? They bounced back to the same population levels in two cursing years!”

“Talk about luck,” Torra said with a laugh. “The one and only rissian to summon a pursuer happens to get a pregnant one? Wow. Marketh’s sure got a sense of humor sometimes. Makes you wonder what she was trying to teach us.”

“Maybe they can reproduce asexually,” I suggested. “There are a few creatures like that on Earth. Then it wouldn’t just have to be bad luck.”

“Nah,” Grant said. “They’ve been studied. I feel like the scholars would tell everyone if they were doing that.”

“Could be a dragon summoning them,” Jay suggested. “They get Skills, and there’s no way a pursuer could kill one.”

“Yeah, what dragon would be doing that?” Alloha asked. “We know what Skills Corpsemaker and Screecher have. Unless… you know of some other adult dragon?”

“Could be a dragonling founds its way into some cave,” Jay guessed. “I don’t know. It was just an idea.”

“No way,” Torra said. “No dragonling is going to slip past fledging season.”

“Screecher did,” Grant countered in defense of Jay’s theory. “There could be others. Maybe it just got really good at hiding. A pack of loyal pursuer beasts is a great way to keep adventurers away.”

Torra laughed. “So you imagine some little dragonling snuck off to a cave and started summoning pursuers? Ha! How is that more likely than a pregnant female?”

“I’m a little lost,” I said to Alloha. “Why didn’t you mention dragons and dragonlings when you were listing the other monsters?”

“Because you’re never going to run into either. Dragonlings only come around every twelve years or so. Hey, Grant. When’s the next fledging season?”

“Two years is the best estimate for the next one,” he answered confidently. “And we’ll be ready for it! The Flying Aces will be the next dragon coterie in Haemir.” He and Jay high-fived. Nobody else seemed to be as excited about the prospect as them. I had a sneaking suspicion that the composition of their party would be wildly different in two years’ time.

“And dragonlings are… juvenile dragons?” I guessed.

“Pretty much,” Alloha confirmed. “There’s this terror of a dragon way, way up North. They call her Corpsemaker. She raises broods of new dragons and whenever her new eggs start to hatch, she kicks the older siblings out of the nest. That’s what we call fledging season.”

“Fledging season is a gold rush,” Grant explained. “All the biggest and baddest adventurer parties from around the world flock to Kamenor to take part. Your party takes down a dragonling? You gain the title of dragon coterie. They drown you in gold. One dead dragonling is worth millions. Their bones have the most potent magic available and their scales are not only indestructible, but can negate any magic used on them. Guildhalls will even compete to have you all move to their city until the next fledging season, just for the prestige. It’s life changing!”

“Sounds like it,” I agreed, mostly just to be polite.

Alloha discretely rolled her eyes where Grant couldn’t see. “It’s also extremely dangerous,” she pointed out. I couldn’t help feeling she was right to be apprehensive. Nothing that I’d seen out of these guys convinced me they possessed “world class” Skills. It didn’t even seem like anyone but Grant and Jay shared this dream of becoming a dragon coterie.

“Well, I doubt I’ll even be alive when the next fledging season comes,” I said, “but I’ll happily climb to steel rank with you. That’s what I’m here for.”

Torra stood up and got started cleaning out the cooking pot he’d used for the soup. That broke the spell of our fireside dinner conversation, and the others all started standing up. “I guess that was enough chatting for the evening,” Grant said. “Jay has first watch tonight,” he reminded everyone.

“Yup,” Jay confirmed.

“I’ll go second,” Victoria volunteered.

“Last!” Alloha and Torra both said at the same time. They laughed, then Alloha shook her head. “It’s fine,” she said. “You can go last. You did most of the work making dinner.”

“When should I go?” I asked no one in particular.

“No way,” Jay said. “I’m not trusting our lives to the new kid.”

“I second that,” Victoria said.

“We only need four shifts,” Grant said. “If there’s an objection, he doesn’t have to watch.” That seemed to settle things. I certainly wasn’t going to complain about being allowed to sleep in, even if it was only because some others thought I was incompetent.

Grant pulled out a blanket from his pack and laid it by the fire. “We need to make good time tomorrow if we want to reach the nest before sundown. Everyone get some sleep.”

I really hoped Grant’s plan wasn’t to march all day, then fight spiders, but I didn’t say anything. He seemed to know how to manage the team. While we’d talked and enjoyed our dinner, the sun had dropped away to be replaced with the faint blue glow of Heaven’s Bridge, which was just rising at the edge of the horizon. The fire pit had become the primary source of light. A few people bustled around getting ready for sleep, some taking trips out to the woods. I took one of those trips myself to take care of business. This time nobody followed me, thankfully. Just as on Earth, my phone turned out to be a super handy flashlight to find my way.