The hunt for the enigmatic Forest Guardian continued. River had come across another footprint, and as far as "leads'' went, these were the most credible. After that, we would set off in some direction, with River claiming she was hot on his trail. Whether or not this was true, I had my doubts. It was possible she was following subtle signs that went beyond my notice, such as a snapped branch, or displaced grass, but I think she was just chasing windmills.

This time, River had taken us on a circuitous trek. I get that a creature might not take a straight path, but River usually preferred the straight and narrow for her exercises in futility. That combined with her looking around agitated, caused me to wonder what was up.

"Hey Indigo, let's keep a low profile." By that, she meant, literally, stay low to the ground.

"Are you onto something?"

"Hmm... I just have a feeling."

"A feeling?" It was unlike River to be so obscure. I had to believe something was going on. But if River didn't want to say, I felt there was probably a good reason for it, and withheld any further inquiries.

A short while later, we found ourselves at the edge of a small clearing. River made the equivalent of a tongue-clicking noise and was now clearly perturbed. It had been a bright day, but now gray clouds were beginning to roll in. These two facts started to give me an unease, though the latter only indicated that we were in for some rain.

River was hesitant to enter the clearing for some reason and her ears were perked up straighter than usual. "Is something wrong, River?" She turned her head this way and that.

"Did you hear that?"

"No..." Clearly, something was wrong. I perked my ears up as well.

"There it was again!" Could this be the Forest Guardian? I doubted it. For one, I don't think we were likely to come across him, also, River wasn’t pleased with whatever was going on.

"Wait, there is more than one of them! A lot more..." There was some additional sound, and I heard it clearly this time. I felt my heart rate elevate. I'm no expert, but whatever these things were, they were approaching, and they wished to remain concealed. What approaches under concealment? Nothing I wanted to meet, that was sure.

"Oh damn... Looks like our straying too far from the village has caught up to us." I tried to swallow my increasing sense of peril.

"Don't say that... We'll be fine." She said that, but I think she might have been trying to convince herself. As the rustling grew louder and closer, we were eventually forced into the clearing. This was bad. I could probably fly us both out of here, but it would be slow going with a passenger; they might get us before I could get out of harm's way. Plus, could these things climb trees? I don't think I could get very far flying. Would they give up pursuit?

It was during these thoughts that the bushes started to rustle. I couldn't help but think some prehistoric beasts were going to lunge out and tear us to pieces. But I wouldn't go out like a gazelle; I steeled myself to launch whatever attacks I could muster. And then they emerged into the clearing.

Thinking quickly, I immediately grabbed the pepper concoction I still habitually carried from my counter-bullying days. I charged the first creature to emerge and launched it right at its face.

"AHH!!!" He went down... Wait, he...? Uh-uh.

"Indigo? What is going on?" It was my father. As it would turn out, we were not being hunted by a pack of velociraptors and merely pursued by the village hunting party. And now I had just gone and blasted one of them in the face with that spicy concoction. He was still rolling around in pain. At least I know it works…

Despite this blunder, I heaved a sigh of relief as several years fell off my life. Here I thought I was about to meet my second—though more manly—end. However, I was only going to get reprimanded by my father, and probably the entire party... Wait! I didn't like the sound of that either! And I had attacked one of them as well. I grimace. "Sorry about that," I apologized nervously, scratching my head. "I thought you were a pack of man-eating bipedal reptiles."

"And River, you too?" Seeing that his son was involved, it looked like the party would leave handling this situation to my father. River looked down, chagrined. "Well, I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that River would find her way out here, but Indigo, I would have thought you would know better than that. Your mother would be absolutely furious if she found out about this. I imagine it would be the same for you River."

Maybe his thoughts would have fallen more heavily on me if I wasn't distracted by the guy still writhing in pain on the ground. "Um... Don't you think we should be concerned about the guy on the ground?" A few turned their heads to look at him, my father included.

"He will be fine. Don't try and change the subject." Their complete lack of concern for their fellow hunter was… well concerning.

"Well, maybe... but don't you think somebody should help him?"

"It's his own fault for charging in. It's a learning experience. Now what do you have to say for yourselves?" The fact that the guy I had maced was being summarily ignored, took all the credibility out of my father's reprimand.

"I'm sorry I attacked him." I went over to try and clean this guy up. I decided to ignore my father if he wouldn't take this seriously. The man I had maced, or boy rather, was young. My guess is that he was still an apprentice. He had removed his mask and was trying to rub the substance out of his eyes, not realizing that would only make it worse. You would think that the mask would have helped shield him. But the eye slits canted inward and perhaps directed more of the capsaicin into his most sensitive facial feature.

"Indigo, Don't ignore me!" It was unlike father to get heated, but I suppose being ignored by your son while disciplining him might do that.

"I need to help him. It's my fault, I need to take responsibility." Father scoffed at this, but he merely crossed his arms in resignation. I turned my attention back to the victim. Fortunately, it was a muggy day; I was able to condense a good amount of water from the atmosphere, letting it drip into his eyes. I used my shirt to absorb as much of the residue as I could.

"Are you finished yet?" His eyes were still puffy, but he was functional at least.

"Yes, but I do find your lack of concern for your fellow tribesman concerning."

"Sigh..." Father drew his hand down his mask. "This is how we do things in the Hunters. Experience is king. You need to feel the full weight of your mistakes."

"Even if it would kill them?"

"That's different." He looked tired from having been detoured from his chiding and forced to explain internal Hunter politics. "This isn't even the worst thing his actions have caused on this hunt." Was that true? Maybe he wasn't cut out for this line of work.

"I see..." Far be it for me to criticize their methodologies, presumably, he agreed to them when he enlisted. Still, I would have to live with the guilt of my actions if I had left him writhing in pain.

"Wait! Did you say you were on a hunt??" River who had remained silent throughout these exchanges suddenly perked up.

"Well, yes. Why else would we be out here?"

"What are you hunting?" She had returned to her usual spunky self, plus interest. "Can I help??"

"No you can't help, we have already been over this River!" It was one of the other Hunters this time, and it sounded like they had a history.

"But you can tell me what you are hunting, right? Right?" She was practically jumping up and down like a child half her age.

"We are hunting ****."

"Damnit Tree-Sap!" Someone rebuked and slapped the guy I had maced upside the head.

"Sorry..." he meekly uttered as he clenched his head.

"What!? You are going after ****!?" River was now at full throttle. The creature in question was some kind of quadrupedal-hooved animal, but that was all I could get from their quick thoughts. The entire party was visibly chagrined.

"Um... Forgive me for asking, but what is a ****?"

Father took a deep breath in and let out a long sigh. "What a day... Guess there is no reason not to tell you." He went on to describe this creature. It had large wavy horns that ran back and even the females had short horn-like protrusions. Unlike many hooved animals, it had a long tail. What was of relevance though, was its elusiveness. Outside of being hard to find, they were incredibly fast, and could not be outrun or endured. It apparently had superbly sharp senses and no hunter had ever successfully got to within 200 paces of it without it noticing. The only way to successfully hunt this creature was to trap it against a natural barrier, so needless to say, these hunts almost always ended in failure.

"If it is so difficult to hunt, why bother?"

River jumped in. "Because it is so tasty! It's like nothing you have ever had before!" As she transmitted this, the members of the hunting party readily nodded in agreement.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"You have to take me along!" She was back at it.

"River, we have been over this, you are too young, and this is difficult and dangerous work. Give it another 3 cycles and we can talk." It did appear like she had pestered them at length, and for their part, they seemed immovable on their decision.

"Have you tried encircling it?" I had a proposition for them.

"Encircling?" They looked around. To my astonishment, it looked like they had never actually tried to do this.

"You know, so when it tries to flee one set of hunters, it will run into another set of hunters." It is an incredible feeling to see the light bulbs start to go off in someone's head, especially if you are psychic.

"Yeah, that way it would be trapped, but there would still be gaps..."

"So here is the idea, you form a large circle of hunters around the target and slowly move in. You can use the whisper to keep everyone current on the intel and they can make adjustments to their position accordingly. As the circle closes it will be harder for the creature to exploit any gaps." That was the jist of it. There was a sense of excitement in the party, as this plan at least promised increased odds of success.

"One more thing." Their attention was readily directed back to me. "Is this creature dangerous?"

"No, not really. Not more so than any other."

"Then I request that you let River and I assist." River perked up.

"No way! Out of the question!"

"You said it yourself, that this creature would try to exploit any gaps. With more members in the hunt, the smaller those gaps will be, and the greater the chance for success." Before anyone could object, I continued, "We wouldn't need to do anything other than be present, to scare it in another direction. There isn't any skill involved in doing this." I could see some of the wheels turning in their head. Their resistance was weakening. "Also, isn't this creature really delicious, a delicacy that only rarely comes along?" Some were nodding in agreement. "Do you really want to decrease your odds, which already only has a Hail Mary chance of success?"

They seemed to agree, but at the same time were reluctant to acquiesce. However, Father was staring intently at me. He was hard to read—I wasn't sure if he was on my side or completely against it. His penetrating stare seemed to bore into me. I wanted to turn away, but I had to show confidence.

It looked like the council of hunters had reached a consensus, but just before they could deliver. "I will take responsibility for River and Indigo," my father declared.

"But…"

"It's like my son said, the more of us, the better our chances, and I haven't been stalking this thing for days to not give it the best shot we got. I have personally been thinking about how good it would taste with a **** seasoning." His declaration was met with the equivalent of mutterings.

"Fine, but it will not just be your responsibility, we will all ensure the "not children" are okay. Anything else that befalls us will be on you though."

"Agreed," my father replied with ease.

Well, the plan went off without a hitch, though it was River's clever trick that won the day. The Hunters had a general idea of where this creature was, So we formed a large circle around the area. There were 15 hunters plus River and I, so 17 in total. There were probably around 100 meters between each of us at the beginning. We were close enough to communicate with the two adjacent hunters, and by relaying messages, we could communicate with the entire team. Father took the position between River and me, so he could keep tabs on us.

Once we were all in position, we began to close the circle, and almost immediately reports started coming in. When one hunter scared it, they and their adjacent teammates would run in and close the circle even more, while those opposite them adjusted to bar escape. As the circle got smaller though, this got harder as this animal could see the layout of all the hunters and make adjustments. There were a few close calls, with Hunters just barely able to close off its escape vector. But then it made a dash for a large gap that had formed. The other Hunters, seeing that it was going to escape, made a hopeless dash to bring it down before it could breach the circle. Just as it looked like hope was lost, River popped up from wherever she had hidden herself and spooked it greatly, causing it to turn abruptly in the opposite direction. However, because all the hunters had given chase, there was no escape. At this point, it was a trivial matter to take it down, as this thing didn't have any offensive abilities.

After the hunt, the entire party was in great spirits. Several of the hunters were jostling for who actually brought it down. Really though, that wasn't any great accomplishment other than being faster than anyone else. I knew who the real hero of the day was.

"I think River is the one most responsible for felling this creature."

"Oh come on kid, what are you on about?" They were not taking me seriously and chuckled at the notion.

"But it's true. River created the opportunity for this guy," I pointed to the one who actually landed the killing blow—I had been mostly useless, so I was just watching. That made the guy, whose name I did not know, ego swell as he straightened a few inches with vindication. Everyone else was not satisfied with my assessment.

"You mean she almost let it get away!"

"Yes, almost. She waited until the last moment to reveal herself, allowing you all to close the distance and finish."

"Maybe, but anyone could have done that."

"Not so. Were you not the ones to say that nobody has been able to get within 200 paces of this creature unnoticed?" That put the brakes on their immediate rebuttals, but I could see them trying to think up a response. "That would mean River has gotten closer to one of these animals undetected than anyone else." I knew that there were some caveats like she wasn't moving, and also this creature was probably so terrified, that it wasn't at its sharpest. I wasn't about to undermine my own argument, however.

They couldn't deny it was true; they had all seen it. "Well, be that as it may, I don't think it mattered much..." he trailed off, clearly no longer wishing to continue this conversation. River for her part was behaving commendably. I thought for sure she would try to use her contributions to solicit an apprenticeship. But she was staying quite humble about it.

As was custom, apparently, the Hunters dressed, and then prepared a portion of the kill for the hunting party. After this, they would send a couple of members—or however many were needed to carry the kill—back to the village. There was no refrigeration in the warm months, and so time was of the essence. However, that would not be the case this time, as the whole party would head back to bask in the glory and receive a hero's return. At least that's what they told me.

As such there was much revelry as dinner was served. With all the hype, I had expected this meal to grant some lesser immortality. I was, however, disappointed by the portion size when they came around.

Thinking that I had been cheated—well kind of, I didn't do much—I resentfully sized up how much everyone else got. To my surprise, the amount I got might have been slightly on the larger side. Perplexed, this seemed like the perfect time to honor thy father by humbly inquiring what was up with the meager portions.

"Haha, so you are child Indigo—uh, sorry, 'not child'." For some reason, this made my father happy. I frowned at him making light of me. "Usually, we would take our fill, with standard fare." He gave it a minute to sink in. "But with rare delicacies, it's only right to share in the spoils." That was very magnanimous of them. Father must have sensed this. "Everyone works to help out the tribe, contributing in their own way, each giving their best. We are all one family Indigo. The family's happiness is everyone's happiness." Sounded very communist to me. It occurred to me then that, that was in fact the case. But unlike your standard authoritarian communist governments, this one worked. Why was that?

Perhaps it took me longer than it should have—maybe coming from a broken home had something to do with that—but after turning what my father had said over in my head for several minutes, I realized that it was exactly because we were basically a large family, that this arrangement worked. Because everyone genuinely cared about everyone else, they could work hard for no direct personal gain because they loved their fellow tribesmen and wanted them to prosper. So this kill was a lot like a grandmother baking cookies for her grandchildren. Sure she would eat one, but the rest were for them.

It was as I was thinking this, that Father added way after the fact, "Of course the praise and glory don't hurt either." There it was, of course, even the kind cookie-baking grandmother expected love and gratitude for her baked treats.

Taking a break from this line of thought, I saw River was thoroughly enjoying the meat she had been given. She kept reaching up into her mask... Was she wiping away tears? Between the conversation with my father and my pondering his input, I had yet to eat any of the portion I had been served. I cut off a piece and place it in my mouth. My eyes went wide, what was it... This reminded me of something from my first life, but I couldn't recall. It had a certain... super stimulus quality, like fast food. It wasn't gourmet—well, maybe by this world's standards—but it had that addictive quality. That being said, it may have been the best thing I have tasted here.

"Well, what do you think? Pretty good, right Indigo?" Father seemed to think I had just had a profound experience.

"Yeah, It's good." My simple and muted response had disappointed my father, like when you get your kid a gizmo you think he is really going to like, only for them to be uninterested. I could feel it.

Not wanting to end on that note, I changed the subject. "River really did well today, didn't she?" I had planned to back River up when she made renewed demands to be given an apprenticeship, but because she had failed to do so, she forced my hand.

"Sure, but I think we still would have succeeded without her, but she did make it easier."

"But she managed to get closer than anyone ever has to a ****."

"Yes, but I know where you are going with this Indigo, she is too young." Father prematurely put his foot down.

"I think she proved that she can hold her own, I think you are all relying too heavily on tradition."

"Traditions are important."

"Yes, but tradition stifles innovation." He didn't know what to make of that. "Three years is a long time, will she even be interested after being turned away so many times? She is a talented girl, she would have no end of other opportunities.”

"..." He was thinking but wasn't convinced yet.

"What would happen if you did let her join, would it cause problems?"

"It wouldn't cause problems unless something happened to her."

"If that is the concern, then it would be a simple thing to only give her safe tasks, like running back the kills. Nobody likes to do that, right?"

Crossing his arms, "Well that is true."

"You could just have her do ‘housekeeping tasks.’” I could see he was really considering it. "And if an easy hunt comes along, maybe she could pitch in if there is no danger." He tugged on his chin. "The objective of a 'not child' is to find their place, to contribute to the tribe. I think she has proven that she can contribute. Would you all deny her that?"

At some point, we had started broadcasting the conversation, so the whole party was looking on. This was unintended on my part, and when I realized this, I was burning with embarrassment. However, Looking around, it seemed that my last statement had really hit many of the hunters. I guess the idea that they were forcing her to be a noncontributor was the winning argument.

After a steady silence for several moments, my father finally announced, "All right. River, if you want, I will take you on as my apprentice." There was no protest, and all heads turned to River, who was somehow blushing through the mask. Only now, did it occur to me, the effect our conversation would have on the person we were discussing. For her part, all she could muster in reply was a resolute nod.