By now, he was used to rising early, and he woke in a better mood than he expected. Sure, he had no guide to baby him through his mental block against electricity, but he didn’t ache as much as the day prior, his hand was on the mend, and he didn’t have a hard day of sparring ahead of him.

  Today was all about hunting. He was understandably nervous, but he trusted Luran’s judgment, even if he kind of despised the guy. If he thought he would be safe, then he almost certainly would be. With a party of Luran, Krag, and Elarissé, he was probably the safest of anyone, including those within the walls. Their party was the only one composed entirely of True Warriors save for him, so the strongest without question.

  Although it initially seemed that Akesh had placed him in Elarissé’s band to dial in her animosity towards him, it soon became apparent to him that this was merely a bonus to Akesh, not the cause. Thomas was an asset to the ekari, and Akesh couldn’t have him dying. What better way to keep him safe while training than to place him among the most powerful war band the village had to offer? If he were in charge, he would have done the very same thing.

  Luran had instructed him to be ready to depart by the 9th hour, but he was eager to get in a run and breakfast before they left. His cardio was severely lacking. The result of a sedentary office job, but he knew he could improve it quickly with some training. He used to do cross-country in middle school, and his mixed martial arts training in college elevated his cardio to a level he was very pleased with. With some hard work, it shouldn’t take too long to return to this previous level.

  Yet he had some reservations regarding how he would fit in with everyone else. Watching the ekari fight and work, he suspected they were biologically predisposed to superior endurance—they just never seemed to tire. But he figured if he trained consistently and improved his skill with the sword, he’d at least be able to hold his own for a short while.

  Perhaps he was thinking too much into it. Besides, that was training; he wouldn’t actually be fighting ekari, he’d be fighting everything else. And he only needed to be better than them. At least, for now.

  To his annoyance, he still couldn’t tell the time very well using the sun. He suspected it was springtime, so he used that as a gauge. Sunrise should be no later than 7:30 a.m., or midway through the 7th hour as the ekari called it, so he rose with the sun. One hour to run around the outskirts of the village, and just shy of 30 minutes for breakfast. That was the plan.

  Putting on his clothes, he stopped at his shirt. It would be better to leave this off so that it doesn’t get drenched in sweat. He stood for a moment, looking down at his physique. The pink scars snaked down his body, seemingly leaving no sizable area unmarked. He sighed.

  He certainly didn’t like them; they were scars after all, but they were a part of him now, regardless of his opinion, and he couldn’t spend his time worrying about something so insignificant, given all that he faced.

  What was it about them that bothered him so much? That they tainted his good looks? He was average-looking. Regardless, there wasn’t a human woman for miles around, and he may never see one ever again. His physical attractiveness had never mattered less.

  As he looked closer, he realized that the scars weren’t exactly grotesque—at least, not to him, but they did shift the perception his appearance gave. They kind of made him look menacing. Surprised by the realization, he supposed that with the right demeanor, these scars could help him invoke fear. That could certainly come in handy if he could improve his acting skills.

  Next, he turned his attention to his physique. It was remarkably unimpressive compared to the build of the ekari warriors, but it was nothing to criticize among humans. He was 5 ft 10 inches tall, and last he checked a few months back, he weighed 155 lbs. He was lean with notable muscle mass, especially on the arms from his MMA days, where he favored striking with his fists.

  There was no doubt he needed to size up to improve his odds in combat, but he had a solid foundation. He only wished he hadn’t grown lax in his training since leaving college.

  With that, he left his abode and commenced running. He was careful to pace himself, as an hour was a long time, and he hadn’t gone for a long-distance run in several years. There weren’t many ekari up initially, but the sight of a half-naked human running the outskirts of the village drew plenty of attention. He did his best to ignore it. Focusing on the task at hand.

  By around 30 minutes in, sweat covered every inch of him. It glistened on his skin, and drops of sweat flicked away from his fringe as it moved back and forth in time with his stride. Ditching his shirt was a good call! He was glad he had set a manageable pace, because while the run was difficult, he estimated he could go for the full hour.

  In the 30 minutes he had been running, much of the village had come alive. Some went to the village reservoir to collect water to bathe, others went straight to breakfast. It was odd seeing such a lively atmosphere so early in the morning.

  As he approached the village gates, he stopped abruptly, running into Elarissé. She appeared half asleep. Her side-tails hairstyle had a serious case of bedhead. Wearing what appeared to be pajamas, her eyelids were hanging low. She turned her head, seeing him, and froze as if caught doing something she shouldn’t be doing, eyes wide. She quickly looked him up and down before promptly making her escape outside the village.

  What a strange encounter. Where was she going so early? They didn’t have to leave for at least another hour. Weird. He continued with his run. Lap after lap, more people trickled out of their huts and gave him an appraising eye before commencing with their day.

  While sunrise served as a good marker for when to commence his run, he had no such clear indicator of when he should stop. Guessing when around an hour was up, he beelined it straight to the Eating Hall and tucked into breakfast.

  He was happy to find eggs were on the menu today. Finally, something he was familiar with! There was no sign of Luran, Krag, or Elarissé at the Eating Hall. This was a little concerning as he imagined they would be eating at a similar time to him. More than likely, he had mistimed his run and was late.

  Piling all the remaining eggs on his plate into his mouth, he rose, barely able to chew at all. A little bit of egg slipped out, but it didn’t appear that anyone noticed. Racing to the village gate, he arrived to find an unimpressed Luran, who stood arms crossed, tapping his foot, with Krag and Elarissé behind.

  “Well. Where have you been?” Luran probed.

  “Sorry!” he apologized. “I must have lost track of time. I went for a run this morning and didn't give myself enough time to eat.”

  “You didn’t eat?!” Krag said, mouth agape, “You need to eat, Tommy!” Luran looked from Thomas, who had bits of egg around his mouth, to Krag, narrowing his eyes. The large man didn’t seem to notice the evidence, so Luran stood beside Thomas and flicked a small piece of egg from Thomas’s lip to Krag. It fell short of its intended target, ricocheting off his hulking chest.

  “Oh! Ha ha,” he laughed.

  “Next time, be on time,” Luran commanded, “or we’ll leave without you.” Thomas apologized again.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to tell the time here. You see, back where I’m from, we have these things called watches. We wear them on our wrists, and they tell us what time it is. Using my fingers and the sun is difficult,” he protested.

  Luran sighed and pointed to a large wooden device opposite the reservoir. Thomas squinted to get a look. What was that? A large circular slab with a protruding rod? It took him a moment to realize. It was a sundial. Drat. There had been an easy way to tell the time ever since he got here! Damn it, Fizo! He’d skipped over far too many important details during his tour.

  “Right. Won’t happen again,” he muttered, turning to Elarissé, who was staring at him with her usual glare. It seemed her strange attitude towards him before was just a one-off.

  “Where did you run off to earlier?” he asked, genuinely curious.

  “None of your business,” she snarled, looking at him like he was a meal.

  “Elarissé!” Luran scolded. “Behave. We all need to get along.” She didn’t acknowledge the sentiment, turning on her heels and walking through the open gates, spurring the others to follow.

  “Oh, don’t listen to her,” Krag bellowed in a mocking voice, jostling him playfully. “She goes outside to bathe.” Thomas raised an eyebrow, and Elarissé whipped her head backward.

  “Krag!” she snapped.

  “What? That’s what you were doing, weren’t you?” he responded, confused.

  “Yes,” she answered in exasperation, “But I don’t want this human knowing my business.”

  “Why not?” he asked earnestly, “We are a team. We are supposed to look out for each other.”

  “We were a team,” she corrected, “And then this one joined,” she said, pointing an accusing finger at Thomas.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “I can’t defy Akesh’s wishes and kick him out, but I’ll be damned if I fight alongside him. The second we get complacent, this one will stick a knife in our backs. Mark my words. You really shouldn’t be so trusting, Krag,” she said, slicing through a branch with her tomahawk. “It’s one of your worst qualities.” Krag gave him a defeated smile.

  “That won’t be happening, Elarissé. Thomas isn’t that stupid,” Luran said, glaring at him. In all honesty, it wasn’t clear to him if Luran believed the words coming out of his mouth.

  “Here, take this,” Luran said, handing him a plain-looking sword with a scabbard. “You won’t be needing it, but just in case.”

  He took the sword and slotted it into his belt. It was comforting to have it at his side, even if he didn’t really know how to use it.

  The forest was vibrant and beautiful. It was a far cry from his impression on the night of his arrival. He supposed everything foreign became scary in the dark, no matter how beautiful it was. And to be fair, he was more than a little terrified, having died and come back to life and all.

  At first glance, it was easy to mistake his surroundings for a forest back home, but the closer you looked, the more evident it became just how different it was. Giant carnivorous plants, flower petals that responded to sound, alien-looking skeletons. In truth, there was little that actually resembled forests from back home besides the trees and generic greenery. But who knows? They may be different, too. His knowledge of such things was next to non-existent.

  “So, what are we hunting?” he inquired as they moved through the forest.

  “Nothing in particular,” responded Luran. “It pays to be adaptable. We pursue anything of use. We can’t afford to be picky. We have a village to feed.”

  “I see. So you’re basically opportunistic hunters, then?”

  “I suppose you could say that,” Luran responded.

  “But you only go after unintelligent animals, though, right? I hear there are other races like you around.”

  “You heard correct,” Luran answered.

  “And what happens if we run into one of these other races? Are they hostile?” Luran looked at Thomas out of the corner of his eye. “Some are hostile, but we shouldn’t run into any out here. Besides, the three of us can handle them if they do show anyway, so don’t worry.”

  As the liveliness of the ekari village disappeared from earshot, the atmosphere gradually became more tranquil. He was never much of a nature man, but he could appreciate it as much as anyone. They passed countless strange plants and critters, but the latter were too small to be worth taking back. He wanted to inspect these strange new flora and fauna, but he resisted the urge for fear of his safety and slowing the group down.

  While they looked unthreatening, he knew all too well that appearances could be deceiving, and he wasn’t planning on perishing a second time from picking up some random poisonous plant. That would be lame. So instead, he marveled at their existence from afar, mentally cataloging what he could. With any luck, he would have sufficient time to visit the library when he returned, and he could research some of his discoveries from memory.

  Elarissé stopped up ahead and crouched down by the forest floor.

  “What is it?” Luran asked, joining her side.

  “Blood,” she answered, touching the small pool with her finger, and rubbing it against her thumb. “Cold. Trail goes that way,” she said, pointing in the direction they were already headed. Luran inspected the various footprints on the ground.

  “There was a struggle here. It’s a bit of a mess, but there’s no mistaking these triangular prints. It’s a shorlus. I’m certain of it.”

  “A shorlus? But they’re disgusting!” Krag groaned. “We don’t want to bring something yucky like that back to the village.” Luran continued, ignoring Krag’s plea.

  “Looks like at least two nightspawn caught up with it. Injured it real bad, but not enough to kill. It may have gotten away, and if it did, that’s an easy meal for us,” he said, looking forward to the direction the tracks headed. “Right then, we continue onward,” Luran asserted. Krag threw his head back like a petulant child.

  The further they pursued the injured beast, the more elusive the trail became. At one point, the trail seemed to die completely, and the three ekari debated abandoning the search to look for another beast to hunt, although Krag’s opinion hardly counted for anything as he never wanted to pursue the beast in the first place. Fortunately, Luran spotted fresher tracks partially obscured by shrubs, so the search continued.

  “We are getting close,” Elarissé said, examining more droplets of blood. “Still warm,” she said. This caused the group to fizz with excitement—even Krag. He didn’t like shorlus, but he certainly loved hunting.

  “No more talking,” Luran instructed, his voice low. “We don’t want to spook it.” The group advanced like a silent hit squad, darting through the brush, listening out for any signs of the beast.

  Luran led the way, and his luscious black locks flowed majestically against the wind. A cry echoed nearby, and Luran held up his hand, indicating for the group to hold. He reoriented them in the correct direction, and after a short while, motioned the others behind a particularly wide tree.

  “There it is,” he whispered. Thomas peered around the tree trunk. So that was a shorlus.

  It was a strange-looking creature. It had short gray fur and a rounded midsection with four thin, triangular-shaped hooves. As for its face, it was bug-eyed with a small snout. Although he had yet to taste the beast, he could quite easily imagine it being foul.

  The shorlus appeared to be on its last legs. The source of the injury they had been tracking were three deep claw marks near its rear, sustained courtesy of a run-in with several nightspawn, Luran had surmised.

  He winced at the injury. That was close to being him on his first night. Yet the three deep claw marks weren’t all that ailed the odd-looking beast. It had a variety of injuries from top to bottom, claw marks, scrapes, and even teeth marks. Frankly, it was amazing that it had survived.

  Luran studied the beast intensely, which seemed to rock its weight from left to right, barely able to stand. Thomas imagined even he might be able to take it down in that state, but Luran wasn’t going to take any chances. He shot some hand gestures to Krag and Elarissé, and the pair encircled the beast on both sides, limiting its options of escape.

  They were impressively quiet traversing the forest floor, which was riddled with plants, twigs, and other things of nuisance that might give their position away. He was particularly impressed with Krag. How could a man of such size be so stealthy?

  When the pair got into position, they held, remaining ominously still. This seemed to signal to Luran that it was time. He withdrew his bow that he kept situated on his back and drew a single arrow. He held it drawn but for a moment and released, causing it to whizz through the air. His shot was true, and with a faint moan, the shorlus fell to the ground, and then was quiet.

  “Another excellent shot, Lurry!” praised Krag, bursting out from his hiding place.

  “Yes. Nice shot,” affirmed Elarissé. Thomas felt the need to join in.

  “You’re pretty good with that thing,” he said. Luran sent him a cheeky grin before approaching the corpse of the shorlus. The others joined him, all inspecting the dead beast.

  “I’m sure we could have found something more tasty, you know,” Krag moaned.

  “Right, Thomas. First lesson of a successfully completed hunt, we use every part of the animal we can. This not only prevents waste, but it is also a sign of respect. Life is precious, and we must honor the fallen by harvesting as much as possible. Therefore, it’s not just the meat we are after. The hide will become clothing or armor, the bones will become tools or fertilizer, even the teeth will be used for weaponry and ceremonies. So if you can get the entire carcass back to the village, that’s what you should do,” Luran explained, walking around their kill.

  “However, this is not always possible—especially if you’ve felled a hefty beast. When you find yourself in that situation, you should harvest what we have the greatest demand for and what has the most value.” Thomas quickly interjected before Luran could continue.

  “Why don’t you just bring a cart or something so you can bring whatever back?” Luran shook his head.

  “The terrain isn’t cut out for it. And how are we supposed to pursue high-speed prey while lugging a cart around? It’s not viable.” Thomas looked down. Perhaps he’d been a bit overly keen to suggest that. Luran continued.

  “Top of this list is always any parts that contain enhancement properties. We can use these ourselves or offload them in trade to obtain items we can’t source. The bonus with these parts is that they are often small and therefore easy to carry. Think horns, pelt, claws, you get the idea. You’ll soon develop an eye for the arcane, but I recommend stopping by the library to read up.”

  He’d certainly be following that suggestion. It was, after all, where he had intended to be today had he not been yanked onto this hunting trip.

  “The next most sought-after part is the meat. We have a lot of mouths to feed, and one sizable kill could feed the entire village for a few days.”

  Thomas looked at the shorlus. It was indeed pretty big. Almost the size of a zebra. Instinctively, he assumed the meat would last for at least a week, if not several, but soon came round to Luran’s way of thinking.

  The village housed almost 200 ekari, and their appetites far surpassed humans, so it made sense that such a kill would only last a few days. But gosh. That was a hell of a lot of meat! No wonder warriors went out hunting so often.

  Luran tilted his head with a studying gaze. “This shorlus is pretty weighty, but between the four of us. I think we should be able to get it back.” Thomas creased his brows. He admired Luran’s faith, but he wasn’t sure they were up to the job. It looked heavy. Really heavy. Luran seemed to notice his doubt.

  “Don’t worry, Krag and I will carry the bulk of the load. You and Elarissé will take what we can’t manage. The top and the rear will have to go,” he exclaimed, unsheathing his sword and severing the head of the shorlus. There was no spray of blood like he expected. Instead, it was a single smooth, clean cut that parted flesh and bone. How on earth had he managed to part the head in one swing?

  As for the rear, it took four strikes, which was more aligned with what he had expected. Nonetheless, it was commendable given the narrowness of Luran’s sword and the thickness of the meat. It was the first time he had seen Luran’s custom weapon in its proper metal form.

  It was a long and skinny sword, and at first glance, reminded him of a rapier. However, it was quite different on closer inspection. It didn’t bend like a rapier would and lacked the circular knuckle guard. Instead, the guard was short with a slight upward curve towards the blade. It was clear that this weapon was not suited for brute force, but rather, for a swift and technical swordsman, making it the perfect weapon for Luran.

  He flicked the blood-drenched sword against the grass, causing blood to spray out. Following this, he wiped the blade on the shorlus’s gray coat, leaving a red smear, before sheathing his weapon.

  Krag returned with a very long tree branch, which he dropped on the ground. Thomas hadn’t even realized that he had left. The three ekari then hog-tied the beast to the log, and Krag and Luran hefted the log onto their shoulders, suspending the beast off the ground.

  The pair heaved under the strain. They had to be carrying over 300 lbs between the pair of them. They were strong, but this was kind of nuts. At around 7 ft, Krag was significantly taller than Luran, which caused more of the weight to shift to Luran’s side. Despite the unfair distribution, Luran didn't complain, he simply gritted his teeth and bore it.

  “Here. You get the head,” snapped Elarissé, throwing it in Thomas’s direction. He managed to catch the spinning head, but was left with a substantial spray of blood on his face and shirt. He scowled.

  “What?! Afraid of a little bit of blood, are we?” she snickered.

  “No. Of course not,” he defended, brushing the worst of it off his face. He needed to get used to this. As a warrior, being covered in blood would soon become a regular occurrence for him. The blood of a shorlus he could manage, but the blood of humans, he wasn’t so sure.