Laska and Nirou made their way to a corner of the village that seemed not to have anyone around, then waited to make sure that was indeed the case. Nirou remembered what Laska had said before about the two of them also being subject to Anjdrahm's law about revealing the tribute ritual. It only made sense to be cautious, since the fate of that executed man was not one Nirou would like to share.

"It seems the coast is clear. But stay alert." Laska points to her ear as she gives the warning, obviously in reference to Nirou's heightened sense of hearing. He still wasn't completely used to it, but he figured that as long as he put in the effort to keep his ear out then he should be able to notice anyone just walking up normally. Whether he could detect someone actually hiding was a question he hoped he wouldn't have to answer anytime soon.

Laska used her sword to poke a small hole in the skin of her arm to get to the blood. Nirou winced at this as usual, but was quickly distracted wondering about the sanitary aspect of the act. Laska cleaned her rapier quite often, but methods for that here were probably pretty rudimentary. If she was going to be using her sword for that regularly, then he should probably come up with an easy way to properly sanitize it. Maybe they could get one of those boiling stones from the bathhouse and use that.

"Alright Nirou, I need your help for this one." At this request, Nirou let his train of thought go for the time being. "I wanted to try something, and if it turns out to work then it could be standard procedure for us going forward. I'd like you to be the one to form the sigil with your blessing. Thanks to your ability, we should be able to narrow down the exact amount of blood necessary for tribute and prevent any waste."

Nirou realized that this must have been what she had been thinking about from the moment she learned what his first gift had been. Nirou's eyebrows raised and his head tilted to the side, impressed with Laska's forethought. His face scrunched back up soon however, his expression changing to one of embarrassment at not having had the idea cross his own mind already despite the ability being his own. Well, he had been busy getting used to everything here. His mental energy was being used up just making sense of everything. He just hoped Laska didn't think any less of him for not being on the same page.

However after taking a quick look around, he noticed what seemed to be a problem.

"What surface were you going to tribute on? The side of this house?" Nirou asked as he pointed to the nearest building. "Probably not the ground, since the blood would all just seep through."

"Actually, that's the main reason I decided to try this." Laska grinned and began explaining while completely ignoring the fact that she had already cut herself open. She was keeping her arm steady and not bleeding much at all, but Nirou still worried that she should probably have done the explaining first. "Some blood will basically always be lost, no matter what surface you use. Either some will seep in, or it's a surface that blood will run right off. It can't be helped. For anyone else, that is."

"I see. So using Bloodshape, we can consistently use the least amount of blood possible." Nirou nodded his head, already trying to remember the shape of the sigil he would have to form. "It won't be a lot, but at least it should mean that we stay healthier over time than if we used too much. But you didn't mention where you want me to put it. "

"We're going to try it in the air." Laska replied, with a slight wavering in her voice that even Nirou could recognize. As confident as she wanted to seem, she herself had no idea whether the idea was genius or idiotic. "We don't know for sure that one has to be touching a surface that the sigil rests on in order to tribute. It could be that just holding your hand under the suspended sigil could work. At the very least, I want to try it. Having it hanging in the air lets us make it as thin as possible to see how little blood we can get away with using. The depth of the sigil is the one dimension that has no proper measurement, so that's where any saving we can do will happen."

Nirou was amazed yet again at how much this girl had thought things through. Most people wouldn't even think of the sigil as a three-dimensional figure. Rather than let his companion stand with her arm out any longer, Nirou took a deep breath to steel his nerves and then carefully began to draw blood from Laska's wound.

Nirou wanted not to draw too much, but he didn't have a great idea of the sigil's size in his mind. He formed the blood into a circle in the air as he pulled it out, expanding the circle until Laska told him to stop. Then he made the circle as thin as possible, or at least as thin as he had the ability to right now. He had practiced controlling blood for a while now, but he still wasn't all that used to it. At a certain point, he wasn't able to keep it still. What he could comfortably manage still seemed to be around a millimeter from what he could tell though, which felt impressive to Nirou. That was probably significantly less than what people usually used when they would tribute.

Leaving the sigil at that thickness, the next several minutes were spent with Laska telling Nirou exactly what shape to put all her blood in. It was a painstaking process, as she had to use her finger to trace each and every bit one line at a time. Writing it down to show him probably would have worked better, but that might be a faux pas kind of deal with the laws here. Keeping the blood suspended didn't cause any direct physical strain on his body, but the intense concentration required did. It was strange just how much his arms were shaking despite not holding up anything. Nirou just had them slightly in front of him to help gauge distance, but they were still getting tired. His head was aching too, a feature that he hoped would pass with more practice. Nirou made sure to shift his focus to his ears every once in a while to make sure they were still alone, and luckily no one happened across them the entire time. He wasn't sure what they were supposed to do if that happened anyway.

Eventually the sigil was complete, and Laska looked it over a few times to make sure that every bit was in place. Nirou had only seen it twice himself, but it was still weird to see it suspended in the air. Though if this actually worked, it might become the more usual way to for him to see it.

Once she was satisfied, Laska held out her non-punctured arm. She put her hand as it would usually be, palm flat and fingers splayed out just below the sigil. She tried very hard to make sure she was level with the sigil, though Nirou wasn't sure how much it would matter with a setup like this. Couldn't hurt to be careful, though. After making sure she was in the position she wanted to be in, Laska spoke the incantation with her eyes trained intensely on the sigil.

As Nirou had seen twice before, the blood vanished in a flash of light. Said light formed into two points before disappearing. With the blood gone, Nirou was able to relax a bit. A heavy sigh gave away just how hard he had been straining himself to keep it suspended in the right pattern. Luckily, it all seemed to work out.

"So it truly doesn't need to be done on a surface at all." Laska noted, still surprised that her own idea actually worked. "I suppose this means distance and orientation of your hand are all that matters there. But beyond that, did you see the thinness of the sigil? It's hard to make out with the eye, but I'm certain the total amount of blood we used must have been only half of what one would normally! It's quite a breakthrough. And of course thank you for your efforts, Nirou. You seemed to be straining yourself a good deal to make this possible."

Nirou instinctively raised his hand to his face in embarrassment to block it from view, but ended up just scratching his cheek awkwardly. It would take a long time before he would get used to being thanked for anything. Though he also thought that he might be able to do even better once he had more practice. Just how thin could the sigil be made and still work? Since the tribute requires blood, at a certain point you wouldn't be able to reduce the thickness while retaining the right composition. He knew from his little experiment earlier that the mix had to be correct for his blessing to work, and what was considered blood for the purposes of his own ability was probably consistent with the requirements for tribute. They were supposed to be defined by the same being, after all.

"So, Laska..." Nirou regained his composure to voice the obvious unasked question. "What did you get? I could see it was two stars, and there's no physical object. So was it a blessing?"

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Why don't you look for yourself?" Laska grinned as she held out her arm and displayed some script for Nirou to look at. He was still having a hard time getting used to the fact that they could just display text in the air at will like that. He wondered if it would ever work as a diversion or something.

Nirou looked closely at the script, but he could make very little sense of it. His studies hadn't done all that much for him yet. But he could kind of make out a couple of things, so it would probably be better if he just went for it instead of saying he didn't know.

"Well at the end of the paragraph I see something about time. A time limit?" Nirou made his guess. "I saw the verb 'to see' in there too, does it have something to do with vision?"

"For as little as you've studied, that's quite good." Laska offered her praise. "Yes, it's a spell: Mirage. It allows me to change what anyone sees in a fixed area to a scene of my own making for a limited time. A useful tool to have in reserve, to be sure."

So it wasn't a blessing. Since spells were only one-time use, you had to be smart about saving them for the right time. Nirou was glad he started off with something that didn't have that strict of a limit, or he would have felt even more useless than he already had. Right now Laska didn't seem to resent not getting something better at all, but Nirou was just glad he never had to find out what she would have looked like disappointed at whatever he received that first time he tributed.

"Anyway, that's that." Laska snapped her companion out of his thoughts. "Let's discuss the situation at hand. Were you able to find out anything from that boy?"

"Oh, yeah. Right." Nirou had to readjust himself to the new topic, having nearly forgotten for a moment what they had been doing. "Well he said not to let any of the adults know, but apparently the Tiger has been around for a very long time. Long before the first official sighting, years even. It would just hide and watch people."

"Is that so..." Laska put her finger to her chin, thinking over the information in context to what she had already known. "I didn't hear that from the village girls, but somehow I'm not too surprised. For the most part, the children are of the mind that the Tiger is not particularly dangerous. A lot of them think it was even trying to talk to them."

Nirou nodded, as he had heard the same thing. They may have only been kids, but if they all seemed to come to the same conclusion, then maybe they were onto something. He wasn't sure what this would mean for the team's plans, but it was worth bringing up anyway.

"Also, a few of them think it's a girl."

"Huh?" Nirou reflexively vocalized his confusion. "How do they know? Would kids be able to tell just by looking?"

"The Tiger started off only showing itself in front of the girls." Laska explained. "All the girls in the group I had talked to were among the first to be confronted by it. Since some of them think it was trying to make friends, the logical step from there to it being a girl is that it began with those that it had something in common with. It makes sense to me."

"I guess it makes sense to me, too..." Nirou had to admit that it was reasonable. It's not like it would be odd for it to be female considering there should technically be a 50/50 chance. He was probably just finding it odd to have to consider the creature's gender at all, given that he had next to no personal experience with animals. He wasn't sure if this information would come into play in the first place, but it might. Maybe it would react better to Laska, for instance. It was something to keep in mind.

"Anyway, we have no more reason to hide here now that the tribute is done." Laska waved at Nirou as she headed back to the others. "We should probably be meeting up with the Captain and Kishaldam soon, as well. The four of us can offer what we've learned to supplement the results of their interviews."

Nirou followed Laska back to the main central clearing to find Ajandi sprawled out on the ground along with all the kids he had been playing against. The kids all seemed to be tuckered out, but Ajandi didn't look all that tired. He was probably just playing along. Hamid was still standing in her spot in the shade, though now she had a flask of something to drink in hand. She probably brought it in the bag she had hanging from her side and pulled it out when she got thirsty.

Looking at the angle of the sun, it seemed to be getting late in the afternoon. Captain Rashen and Kishaldam had intended to interview every single villager, which would probably take all night, but Nirou could only assume it was an exaggeration. Not everyone would conveniently be around to talk to, and at a certain point you wouldn't really be getting any new information anyway.

Sure enough, Nirou and Laska had only sat down to relax for a few minutes when Rashen and Kishaldam returned to reunite with the rest of their team. They probably started getting diminishing returns on the interviews and decided to call it early. The two of them arrived with unamused faces at the sight of their teammates lazing about.

"Good to see that we've all been productive." Kishaldam opted to open with sarcasm. "I hope we can keep this up when we're combing the jungle for clues tomorrow."

"Well we were able to gather enough to work with by ourselves, so it's fine." the Captain sighed. Kishaldam actually broke into a smug grin at hearing this, which didn't surprise Nirou one bit at this point. She had cemented herself as the kind that was weak to being talked up.

"This time hasn't been a total loss." Laska insisted as she got up from her seat on the ground where she had been relaxing. "It may only be a little, but we have some information to contribute."

"Then we can discuss it over dinner." Rashen declared. "It won't be as lavish as the first spread we got, but the elder surely has something nice whipped up for us all."

With their work for the day formally over instead of just casually, everyone followed the Captain back to the elder's house for the evening where there was indeed a dinner awaiting them. A simple meal of fish, rice, and assorted vegetables. While it's true that it paled in comparison to the earlier feast, everyone made sure to offer Ramajayh their appreciation.

"We've gotten information pertaining to the time and location of all attacks and sightings." Kishaldam started to explain before even trying to eat anything. "By speaking to as many people as we could, I could be sure the information was sufficiently corroborated. With that, I could put together a mental timeline of the Beastmen's movements."

"We'll be using that to check out the surroundings of the village tomorrow." Rashen continued the line of thought. Nirou wondered if he didn't pick up here precisely to avoid more boasting from Kishaldam. "With physical clues from the jungle, we could expect to catch up to the Beastmen at any time. So be prepared to fight."

"About that." Laska spoke up. "One of the Beastmen may not be required for us to fight. The children I spoke to all seem convinced of the Tiger's non-hostility."

"The kids I was playing with said the same thing." Ajandi added. "If it's true, then that makes things a lot easier for us. We can just capture it and bring it back to the capital. No fighting needed."

"Capture?" Laska asked, confused. "Is that standard procedure for non-hostile Beastmen?"

"We've only run into one before ourselves, but yes." Kishaldam elaborated. "At the capital they are willing to study Beastmen that don't pose an immediate threat. Watching their behavior, fighting against them as practice, and eventually studying their bodies when they die. It's useful to develop methods for fighting during the Beastman invasions. They might already have one locked up down there, but another one can only be more useful."

Laska was suddenly hesitant to continue sharing her information. Nirou knew the feeling, as he was in the same boat. Looking at the entire team, none of the four seemed to consider actually trying to work with the Tiger Beastman. Kishaldam's explanation was just met with nods and such. Throwing the Tiger in a cell for study was not exactly what he or Laska had in mind when they learned that it could be friendly. But he supposed that when you're dealing with a creature that has no means of being communicated with, and poses such a legitimate threat, it's only reasonable to settle on something like this.

Even so, he couldn't help but find it distasteful. It could be his status as an outsider that kept him from taking the threat as seriously as the others, but he considered the treatment they described too harsh. He wasn't going to say anything about it in this situation, though. Even if he had the confidence to do so, he wasn't in charge here. There wasn't really anything he could have done. Laska seemed to mirror this train of thought, as she wasn't making any indication of addressing the topic further. It seemed that what the two of them learned was going to be kept between them, at least for now.

"Two Beastmen is a much easier time for us to fight." Captain Rashen went on. "You two can stand aside while we divide into pairs to take them on. As long as we don't get careless, then we should all make it out just fine. I can trust you all not to get careless, right?"

"I hope you aren't asking me as well." Kishaldam scoffed. "I take more care than even you do, Captain."

"I don't joke around when it comes to fighting, Captain!" Ajandi insisted. "Fun times are for fun, serious times are for being serious. I'd never let my teammates down in a fight!"

"You don't need to worry about me, Captain." Hamid stared her superior down with her cold eyes. "I didn't get this far by being complacent. Our team is better than that."

The members of the Four Winds all affirmed their resolve to their captain, while Nirou and Laska felt a bit left out. Sure it would be nice if things went as easily as Rashen claimed, but Nirou had his doubts. Somehow, some way, the two of them were going to get rolled up into something. He just hoped it would be something they could handle.

After dinner, the sun was just getting done setting. The group hadn't gotten a full night's sleep before, so everyone was eager to turn in early this time around. Nirou took his place on the mat that served as his bed and tried to get to sleep as soon as he could. He was hoping he could be as well rested as possible for the amount of hiking he anticipated doing the next day. He tried not to think of also having to fight on top of that.