“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Yamo held up a fist and they all came to a halt after traveling for a while through the desert. He quickly hopped off his horse and touched the hard desert floor. “Let’s camp here for the night.”
“It’s still a bit early to start setting up camp now, isn’t it?” Volgan rubbed his sore neck and cracked it, turning his head side to side.
“I’m taking Enron hunting.” His eyes grew wide and shimmered with excitement. “Come on.” He urged Tsugi to follow him.
“What are we hunting?” Tsugi quickly chased after him, glancing over the ground, but he couldn’t see anything different.
“You see this right here?” He knelt down and pointed at the ground. Tsugi looked at where Yamo was pointing, but he didn’t see anything different from all the other dirt around it. “Here, give me your hand.” He carefully placed Tsugi’s open palm onto the ground. “You feel how soft that area is compared to this?” He placed Tsugi’s hand on another area of the ground.
“Yes, it’s very faint, but I can kind of feel the difference.” The first area of dirt was slightly loosened, soft and a little powdery even. Whereas in the second spot the dirt was still hardened and rough. “How were you able to see it though?”
“Experience. After learning how to track for so long, you will be able to distinguish the different tracks.” He continued to follow the tracks over the hill and crouched down before reaching the top. Tsugi followed behind him and peeked over the rocky hill.
There was a herd of giant armored creatures the size of elephants, with a huge hump on their back like a camel.Their face was smashed in like a bat, but with two huge tusks sticking out of their bottom jaw like a wild boar and their nose also had armor surrounding it. They brushed the needles off the cactus with their snout and munched away feasting on the delicate juices of the meat inside the plants.
Tsugi was amazed to be able to see an amorusk in person. Seeing the monsters from the books come to life excited him that the worlds he had read about in the books…were in fact real.
“Let me see your weapon.” Yamo held out a hand and Tsugi placed the chained weapon in his hand. He unclasped the chain from the kunai’s, handing one of them to Tsugi. “Alright, so you see that little one right there?” Tsugi glanced over and could see an adolescent amorusk hopping around happily. “Now look behind it, you see the big guy behind it?” The amorusk that stood behind it, had a giant scar across its snout. “I’ll get him this time, but next time I want you to try it. When you kill them, go straight for the cervical spine. It takes extreme accuracy and precision, but if you get it right, you will down them immediately.
These guys have armor though, so you need to position yourself perfectly. You need to come behind them at an angle, so you can get right under where the armor overlaps. Watch and learn.” He readied the kunai in his hand, and breathed, slowing the energy around himself into a calm steady state. The kunai swiftly launched, slicing through the air and slipped perfectly between the armored plates and pierced right into the cervical spine. The amorusk collapsed to the floor with a loud boom, throwing up a cloud of dust, and provoked all the other amorusk to go stampeding through the desert.
“Woo! Let’s go!” He grinned and made his way down the hill.
“That was fast.” Tsugi ran behind Yamo, still trying to grasp the event.
“For novices, these guys are hard to kill. They will run you over if you approach, so the safest way is to get them from afar, but their armor makes it very hard to do so.” Yamo climbed onto the amorusk's back, rolled up his sleeve and pried apart the armored plates. “Obviously, for an experienced person, like myself…” He reached his arm in between the plates, all the way up to his neck. Swiftly, he yanked out the kunai, his arm dripping of blood. “...this guy is an easy target.” He swung his arm downward in one quick motion, and the blood on his arm and weapon splattered across the dirt. “Here.” He handed the kunai back to Tsugi.
“This guy is great, if you are able to take him down though. The armored plates are great for armor, the meat is super tender and delicious, and…you see this hump right here?” He gestured at the giant tortoise sized hump on its back. “It’s water.” He pulled out his razor sharp knife and sliced away. “Oh!” He reached into his cloak and took out a second knife and handed it to Tsugi. “Here, I’ll show you.”
He dissected and explained to Tsugi the full anatomy of the monster: the organs; different layers of skin; cartilages, bone, fat tissue, muscle tissue and showed to him how and where to go for the perfect kill. Tsugi listened attentively to Yamo’s lesson, soaking in all the information like a sponge.
“There is way too much to go into detail, but that’s the basics of it anyways.” Yamo wiped his bloody hands on his cloak and dragged the armored plates, full of meat, back up the hill. Tsugi also dragged an armored plate, full of meat, behind him. Although he slipped fairly often and wasn’t able to move as smoothly as Yamo did, nonetheless,Yamo was impressed by Tsugi’s strength at such a young age.
“Yes! Fresh amorusk meat!” Volgan cheered when they finally reached the campsite. The fire was already lit and roaring wildly. They cooked the meat over the fire and tied the armor to the top of the carriage, before going back to drag the sack of water.
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“When we get back, I’ll teach you in more detail about anatomy.” He carefully sliced the thin tissue layer off the sack, in a surgical precision, careful to not puncture the thin membrane protecting the fresh water.
“The way your mind works creeps me out sometimes.” Volgan’s whole body shuddered like a cold chill went through him. “I mean, I have a strong stomach but sometimes, I question your morals.” He stretched his legs toward the fire and leaned his back against the carriage.
“Don’t be jealous just because you don’t know how to appreciate art.”
Tsugi watched as Yamo carefully peeled the slimy tissue layer back, exposing the clear membrane that enveloped the water.
“Now this water inside here is pure and fresh. The amorusk has a special filtering system before the water reaches here, so you can drink it as it is.” Yamo pulled out the water skins and poked a small hole into the membrane allowing the stream of water to flow through it and caught the stream with the waterskin. “Here you go, have some.”
“Filtering system?” Tsugi was puzzled as to how its body was able to purify the water. He lifted the waterskin to his lips and took a sip. The water tasted very fresh, even better than water from a spring.
“It’s pee kid.” Volgan stared intently at Tsugi’s face.
“What?!” Tsugi aspirated the water and coughed up a storm. “The amorusk must have an awesome kidney to be able to filter it perfectly.” Tsugi didn’t seem phased by it and took another sip.
Yamo’s sinistrous sneer grew wider. “Man! I love this kid!” He laughed thunderously and filled the rest of the waterskins, before filling up the leather pouches for the horses. “I can never stop saying it, but…you just keep impressing me more and more, kid.” He threw Volgan's waterskin to him, before taking a sip from his.
After watering the horses, Yamo went over and knocked on the carriage door. “Why don’t you ladies come out and join us?” He opened the door, but the women huddled in the far corner away from Madam Maligun. “Are you scaring them, Madam Maligun?” She just kept her mouth shut and leaned her head back onto the wall, folding her hands in her lap.
“Come on ladies. We won’t hurt you. Come out and stretch your legs.”
“Are you crazy? What if they run?” Madam Maligun sat straight up and glared at Yamo intensely.
“Then I will bring them back. We are in the middle of the desert. If they run, they won’t survive anyways. It’ll be smarter to just stick with us.” He shrugged his shoulders and glanced toward the women. “Right ladies? You’re not going to run right?” They hesitantly shook their heads. “See? Come on, come join us by the fire.” He held a hand out and helped the women out, one by one.
They shook and shivered, unsure of where to look or what to do.
“Please have a seat.” Yamo gestured to the blanket he set on the ground for them. “Don’t worry, no one here will hurt you.” He pulled the skewers off the fire and handed one to each of them. “You can trust me. I haven’t hurt any of you right?” They glanced at each other and nodded their heads in agreement. “See? Oh, and don’t worry, the one that did hurt you…well, let’s just say you don’t have to worry about him anymore.” Yamo pulled another skewer off the fire and handed one to Tsugi, propping himself beside him and munched on the juicy tender meat.
“I’m Enron.” Tsugi broke the silence and everyone turned their heads to stare at him, but he ignored them. “May I ask for your names?” The women were still unsure and didn’t say a word. “I…I’m new here too. I know it can be scary, but it would be nice to get to know someone.” Tsugi wasn’t sure how to work his facial muscles and ended up forcing on an awkward smile.
“Keena.” The blond hair one shifted uncomfortably closer to the other two.
“Hayle.” The brunette twirled the skewer in her hands and stared at the fire.
“I’m Ylaine.” The red haired one pulled her knees to her chest and exposed her bare bottom underneath her long tunic. Yamo stood up and nonchalantly walked over to the women. He pulled his cloak off and draped it over the front of them, before returning to his seat.
“It’s nice to meet you all.” Tsugi nodded his head politely.
“My apologies ladies…” Yamo scratched his head and furrowed his eyebrows apologetically. “...I have yet to introduce myself, I’m Yamo and that is Volgan.” He leaned in closer to them and whispered loudly, “the crabby woman in the carriage is Madam Maligun.”
“Yamo?” Volgan said his name, almost in a warning-like tone and looked sternly at Yamo, shaking his head.
“What? We still have to travel for at least another week. It’s not going to hurt to get to know each other a little.” Yamo threw another log into the fire, sending embers flying into the air.
“I already know what this means.” Volgan rubbed his forehead and sighed loudly. “Welp, looks like it’s back to hunting.” Volgan laid down on the dirt floor, supporting the back of his head with his arm.
“No, it’s not going to be like that.”
“Yeah, you say that every time.” Volgan closed his eyes and adjusted himself to get comfortable.
“Enron started it!” Yamo’s behavior turned into that of a whiny child.
Tsugi’s eyes widened and he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Wha…what did I do?” He had no idea as to what they were going on about.
Volgan chuckled and turned his head to look at Tsugi. “Nothing. Yamo’s just being Yamo.”
“We still have a week. You never know what could happen.” Yamo shrugged and poked at the fire with a stick.
“Yeah, we will see.” Volgan’s voice turned into a whisper and he started snoring.
“You ladies can head back in the carriage and get some shut eye too.” He grunted as he stood up and opened the door for them.
Tsugi pulled the rest of the cooking meat off the fire and packed them away.
“Get some sleep Enron. I’m on watch tonight.” Yamo returned and stretched his legs toward the fire, placing his sword on the ground beside him.
“It’s okay, I can stay up with you.”
“No, you’ll need all the sleep you can get. We still have a long way to go. Maybe next time bud.”