Safe, warm, protected.

I hunt, but not the star. New prey, new task.

Must keep promise, must protect my kin.

Howl, call, begin the endless hunt!

When I woke up this time, I smelled the remnants of the campfire's smoke. The fire itself had dimmed considerably, barely more than a few flickering flames poking out beneath the logs. A small gust stirred the embers, sending the smoke wafting away and up into the canopy.

I blinked and noticed Devon staring at me from across the fire, his back pressed against a tree.

"Nothing came?" I asked.

"No," he answered.

I shifted my head to look at Alice, sleeping against her own tree, her eyes closed and breathing steady.

At least one of us is getting some good rest.

My back popped as I stretched, and I released a light groan. "I don't understand how you think this is normal. Why not bring something you can sleep on, at least?"

"Why does it matter if you'll be fine within the hour?"

Because it still sucks to wake up with a kinked neck.

I said nothing and stared at the fire, enjoying the chill wind against my cheek. The woods smelled fresh, like nature, neither bad nor good. And unlike the creepy forest with glowing blue ponds, I heard the sound of birds and insects filling the night with their calls.

Devon met my eyes again, and I sighed. "Is she asleep?"

"Yes."

"Then answer me this. Would you have really said no to saving the child?"

"I already answered you."

A rumble began to build, and I clawed at the dirt. "If you could, if you could actually save the child and they don't have the payment for it, would you have said no?"

Another gust blew, almost perfectly timed to raise the tension. The fire died so low that the light almost entirely disappeared before the wind let up, and it flickered back to life.

Answer me, Devon.

He grabbed a stick and stuck it in the fire; the leaf attached to the broken branch caught light instantly, adding a modicum of fuel to the struggling flame.

"Yes."

My muscles tensed. I opened my mouth to speak, but he shook his head and tossed in another stick.

"I would have said no. It doesn't mean I wouldn't have tried." He met my eyes, and I clenched my teeth. They were crimson, bright, and ethereal in the fire's dim light. "I owe only two people my life and no one else. What I do or decide to do is my own choice. I'm not a protector, Cain. I'm a hunter with only one task."

To find the prey!

"To continue the endless hunt?"

His eyes narrowed. "Yes."

There was a lot more I wanted to say, but a glance at the calm on Alice's face and the trill of a bird made me choose to enjoy the silence instead. I didn't miss it when Devon answered. The surprise came first, quickly morphing into something else.

Anger. You looked ready to burn the world, Devon.

I let that fall to the back of my mind while I enjoyed the smell of bark and ash.

The rest of the hour was spent with me unsuccessfully trying to fall back asleep. Eventually, I gave up and stretched, ready to stand up. My stomach took the opportunity to growl, and I exhaled exasperatedly.

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"How long am I supposed to go through this?"

"It lasts a few weeks. It'll keep extending when you go through massive stat changes."

I froze. Turning slowly, I looked over and found him glaring. "How did you know?"

"You leveled yesterday?"

"Yes, actually," I answered. I leaned back and motioned towards Alice. "Her too. Apparently, it might be because of Granny."

Honestly, I half-expected him to react to the news of her leveling, but he showed no outward reaction that I could see. Instead, he pulled up his hood, covering his long hair with a sheet of red.

"You're moving differently. You must have gained stats in agility."

"You sure she's asleep?"

"Yes." He looked past the fire at my face. "Why?"

"You already know my strain is different. Did Elias ever tell you that he could assign his stats directly? That he can choose where to allocate them?"

His eyes were back to glowing red, and I could see the stone beneath his hand reduce to bits of powder and fragments.

Yeah. I thought you would react like that.

"No," he bit out.

A part of me wanted to admit the extent of the stat changes, but I decided to keep it close to the chest for now. If he never asked, I had no reason to potentially alienate myself further. Despite Neina's warning, I trusted him. Maybe not with my life, but he had shown a willingness to at least care, whether for me as a pup or just because he felt obligated to the pack; I didn't know, and frankly, I didn't care.

"We heading back to the city?"

"Yes. But food first."

Hmm?

He stood up, and I watched him reach up to pull on a piece of rope attached to the trunk of a nearby tree that I hadn't noticed before. Following the rope with my eyes, I watched as he tugged again, and a deer corpse strung up by its feet dropped down to swing above the dirt.

After undoing the knots, the deer lowered to the ground, coming to rest on top of a pile of leaves. He reached down, grabbed it, and slung it over his shoulder. The deer looked heavy, smaller than the moon elk, but bulky enough.

He walked over to where Alice slept and lightly prodded her with his boot. When she sprung up like a cat ready to attack, he swiftly grabbed her by the wrist and spun her around, sending her stumbling away.

She whirled around and looked ready to pounce but stopped when she noticed the two of us staring at her. Devon had a neutral mask while I leaned away. Her shoulders relaxed and stretched as if what just happened was completely normal.

"Oh, you hunted breakfast. Are we heading out?" she asked after grabbing her axe.

"Yes. Back to the church."

Alice quickly went to work and doused the fire by kicking dirt over it until it went out. For added measure, she stomped it down and then sprayed it again, leaving nothing but a dirt-covered pit.

Together, they set off, leaving me behind, suddenly exhausted from their ability to easily switch focus.

Hopefully, the priestess can do something with the deer.

------------------------------

The deer barely fazed the church residents. If anything, they looked excited to have a bunch of fresh meat to use. The breakfast we ate sported several dishes using some of the meat, and I ate my fill and then some.

Devon gifted them the rest of the deer, and we were once again in the room having a sit-down with the head priestess. Except this time, she was joined by the busty lady and her daughter. The daughter, in particular, stared at the three of us with wide eyes that glimmered with what looked like excitement.

"Okay dear, can you please explain to these heroic hunters what happened?" Thelassa asked.

Seyenna looked to Thelassa and then back to us, smiled, and nodded.

"I was playing with Do'lby. We stayed near the walls! I promise," she began.

Thelassa nodded for her to continue while lightly patting the girl's arm. "And then what happened?"

"We were looking for a bug, but then he decided to scare me," she continued. Then she puffed out her cheeks.

"Then Do'lby scared me, and that was mean, so I chased him. He ran fast, but I was faster! So I caught him and tackled him!"

It would have been a cute retelling of a child's playdate if it weren't for the heavy breaths she kept taking between each sentence. Her mother rubbed her back and looked ready to cry but managed a smile when Seyenna looked to her for approval.

"Good job, honey! Can you explain what happened next? Did your chase take you away from the walls?"

Her bright smile became downtrodden, and she raised her shoulders in a guilty expression. "Yes. I'm sorry."

Soft, like a whisper, she looked afraid, but her mother sighed and hugged her shoulders. "It's okay. Just keep telling these kind people your story, and we'll talk about it later. I promise I'm not mad."

With those magic words, she brightened and nodded. "So I won, and Do'lby was defeated, so I said he had to find the prettiest flower as my prize, and then he went deeper into the woods. He then came back with a bright pink one! But he said there's more, and I needed a crown because I'm the winner."

Thelassa and the mother shared a look. They seemed to communicate silently, and eventually, Thelassa lowered herself to meet eye-to-eye with the girl. "Dear, are you sure? Do'lby made you follow him deeper into the forest?"

For a second, she looked scared again but regained her smile and nodded with tight lips.

"No," she said while shaking her head. "He didn't make me. He's my friend."

"Right, dearie. And then what happened when you went searching for the flowers?"

"Well. He acted strangely, and when the wall disappeared, I got scared and said we should go back, but he didn't want to go back and grabbed my arm. I'm… sorry. I told him to stop, but he wouldn't."

She began to sink lower, her face scrunching up. "I remember smelling more pretty flowers, and he stopped pulling. I… I don't remember after that. I'm sorry."

The mother wrapped her arms around the child and gently shushed her. Nobody said a word as she led her out of the room, leaving the three of us once again alone with the head priestess.

Thelassa grabbed a cup of tea and sipped at it before setting it down and placing her hands on her lap.

"What she isn't able to tell you in that story is that Do'lby, her friend, never did such things. In fact, he went back to his parents when he couldn't find the girl," she said wearily, her body drooping into her chair.