"I hit its horns, therefore it counts as my kill!" Tenumre argued.

"But I weakened it, I hit its eyes, that's harder!" Nixal countered

Venenti stepped out of the trees, bow in hand. "Calm down, boys, what's the matter?"

"We were hunting and we came across a buo, and we decided to kill it using our combined forces. I hit its eyes, he hit its horn." Explained Nixal. He continued, "But he thinks because he hit the horn, it means he killed it."

"I did kill it,"

"You only delivered the final blow! I did the harder part,"

"The final blow killed it, it doesn't matter if you did more damage when it was I who delivered the killing blow."

"You both killed it," said Venenti. "You weakened it," she pointed to Nixal, "and you delivered the killing blow." She pointed to Tenumre. "You killed it using teamwork. You both get 1 point."

"Actually, I get 1.5 points since technically I was the one who killed it." Argued Tenumre.

"Well then I get 1 point and a bonus point for doing extra damage!" Countered Nixal.

"Well then I get half a point for hitting the horn."

"Well then I get-"

"Boys, boys!" Venenti called out. "You can banter at camp. We are still in hunting grounds, tone it down!"

They made their way back to camp, and gave a visit to the laid-out trap they set yesterday. "None took the bait," Complained Venenti. "Are there no rabbits here, or are the rabbits just very smart?"

"You can't get 2 points for hitting the eye," Argued Tenumre, "You can only get a point for killing!"

"Then why did you get a point for hitting the horn?" Countered Nixal.

"Because hitting the horn killed the buo!"

"But you already got a point for hitting the buo!"

"But-"

"What's the commotion?" Came in Vernon.

"He thinks he killed the buo because he delivered the final blow, but I was the one who weakened it. I deserve the credit!"

"Delivering the final blow is what kills the buo, you puterelle coxcomb!"

"I'm not a puterelle coxcomb, you're a puterelle coxcomb!"

"Stop arguing like little girls, and settle this like a man!" Shouted Vernon. "Tenumre is staying for 4 days, so you will play a game with 4 rounds. Whoever wins all 4 is the true winner. The first round starts today. Kill 4 buos and mark them, then show them to us and we'll bring them to camp." Said Vernon. "If you can't do this in half an hour, you lose." He ended with a flourish. "Your time. Starts. Now!"

Nixal shouldered his bow and ran into the forest. Tenumre went to Breys horse, took his spare bow and quiver given by the Venari siblings, his gifted scimitar and robe, and ran behind him.

Tenumre and Nixal walked crouching. "I can barely see anything with all these trees!" Complained Tenumre.

Nixal looked around, and walked up to a tree, then climbed it in the space of 5 seconds. Tenumre considered climbing the tree, but it was too much effort. If they could find a buo by climbing trees, Nixal would find one.

Nixal continued the path on top of the trees and Tenumre beneath them, "I see one!" Said Nixal in a low voice. "No, I see two."

Tenumre tried to shoot one of them, but Nixal shot first. Both its eyes were penetrated and before the buo knew what was coming, its horn was broken.

"You snooze, you lose!" Said Nixal, snickering.

"I wasn't snoozing!"

The buo next to it ran away, it was quite fast. Tenumre seized the opportunity by its balls and ran after it the buo stopped running after a couple seconds, which Tenumre was thankful for. He readied his scimitar and walked slowly to the buo. But he wasn't content doing that. Nixal shot one on top of a tree, he had to do the same.

He climbed the tree, which took five whole minutes. That's four and a half minutes later than Nixal.

Nixal marked the buo by cutting its horns and ears. He had seen Tenumre and the buo run south, so he ran south. He didn't climb the trees so he could run faster. Eventually he saw Tenumre climbing the tree. His climbing wasn't bad by any means, but it wasn’t good by any means either.

Tenumre got on top of a high branch and took aim. He shot two arrows, both of them missed the eye and hit the skin instead. It barely did any damage, but it did anger the buo. He decided he needed to go a little closer to the buo before hitting it again.

Nixal decided to climb the tree, just in case. He wanted to see how good Tenumre was with the bow

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Tenumre jumped to the branch of a nearby tree and held on. But his hands were too small and slipped. He fell just a couple feet away from the buo.

Nixal took aim to shoot the buo, but a thought crossed his mind. He aimed in between Tenumre and and the buo.

The buo turned and saw its attacker. It looked enraged. Buos are peaceful, until you attack them. The buo grunted, and ran. Tenumre quickly stood up and reached for the scimitar.

Nixal let go and the arrow shot forward. It hit one of the buos eyes but missed the other one. The buo fell down mid-run causing it to roll towards Tenumre.

Tenumre moved last second just as another arrow pierced the other eye mid-roll. The buo hit a tree and made grunting noises. Tenumre ran to it with the scimitar but he barely took two steps before another arrow hit it's horns.

Nixal jumped down the trees,

Ow

"No need to thank me," he said, cutting its ears and horns.

Tenumre narrowed his eyes, "You were waiting for it to run, weren't you?"

"Of course not," he responded.

"Right," said Tenumre, unconvinced. "Well I'm off to hunt more buos."

"How many buos have you killed by now?"

Tenumre glared at him.

"It's a joke," said Nixal, defusing the situation.

Eventually Tenumre spotted another buo. He sneaked up to it-

Why am I sneaking?

It's not like the buo would attack him, it doesn't know Tenumre intends to kill it. So Tenumre casually walked up to the buo and patted it. No reaction. So Tenumre took two arrows and impaled the buos eyes, then immediately punched its horns. The buo flung Tenumre and he fell. But the buo lost its horn, so it fell too.

Impale eyes, break horn, buo dies, get thrown. Good strategy.

Tenumre amputated the buo and stacked the amputated arms on top of the amputated legs in front of the buo.

"Good job kids," Vernon sounded genuinely impressed. "didn't expect any of you to win but you boys really exceeded my expectations. You were a little brutal though, Tenumre."

"Nix cut off it's ears. Isn't that brutal?"

"Listen, it doesn't matter. You both passed, good job."

"No, I passed. I killed 4 animals first." Argued Tenumre.

"No you didn't‌, I had 2 kills when you had 0." Countered Nixal.

"Then I made a comeback."

"But you still have no proof you killed four before me."

"Yes I do,"

"Well where is your proof then?"

"My superiority."

"Don't you mean your narcissism?"

"I'm not narcissistic!"

Vernon sighed, "You still have 3 more rounds."

"What's the next round?" Asked the two boys in unison.

"I'll think about it tomorrow. For now, let's go eat." And so, they ate.

"It's a good thing this place is dominated by buos." Said Venenti with her mouth half-full.

"It would be better if you ate with your mouth closed," said Vernon.

"Shut up you scallywagon,"

"Man, I'm tired of eating buos. It would be great if we had some spalous meat." Said Vernon.

"What's a spalous?" Asked Nixal.

Venenti began to explain "Spalous are big white animals with their top covered in colorful spots." Well its spots look more like those colorful sprinkles in Baskin Robbins. That's actually how I got the idea

I was eating vanilla ice cream from McDonald's and I was like "Man I wish this had some colorful sprinkles," and that's how I came up with this animal. Anyways back to the story,

"It has a neck the size of a newborn baby." Added Vernon, "Its head is slightly heart shaped, not exactly though. It has big purple eyes, no pupils."

"And when it feels a certain emotion, certain spots glow." Continued Venenti, "If it's fearful, the red colored spots glow. If it's happy, the yellow ones glow. If it's sad, the blue ones glow. If it's alert, the orange ones glow."

Vernon nodded, then he was struck with an idea, "I'm sick of eating buos, so for your next challenge you'll have to bring us spalous meat. Whoever brings it by tomorrow night wins."

"Whoever brings it by tomorrow night first," said Nixal, emphasizing 'first'

"Whoever brings it by tomorrow night first," said Vernon, mimicking him, "wins."

The two boys nodded, and continued eating.

The next day Vernon and Venenti woke up early. But Nixal and Tenumre woke up even earlier, they were already again.

"It was very dirty of you to send the boys to bring you spalous meat. You're taking advantage of their determination," said Venenti.

"Taking advant- what? You're such a drama queen." Said Vernon

"Well atleast I'm a queen, you peasant!"

"I'm actually the king!"

"That would make us a couple,"

"Stop making it weird!"

Nixal didn't know where Tenumre had ran off to,

Doesn't like teamwork, I suppose.

Well to be fair, teamwork wouldn't really help. It's either Tenumre kills it first, or Nixal does. Betrayal would most likely take place.

Nixal was headed up the hill. This sounded like a mysterious and rare creature, he doubted he could find it walking in the trees.

So he made his way to the hill. It was pretty big for a hill, but then again, the journey to finding a rare creature probably isn't supposed to he easy. It took a couple hours to reach the hill, and he started climbing.

He saw many unique sets of footprints, but he didn't follow any of them. Who knows what dangerous creatures lay in wait?

In the midst of climbing, a creature suddenly jumped in front of him, and hissed. It had a tongue like a snake, a head like a tiger, it was as black as his bow and had its fur ran backwards. It ran towards him. Nixal quickly took his bow and shot an arrow at the creature. The creature jumped back and Nixal shot multiple other arrows. The creature ran away.

Nixal didn't shoulder his bow again, it was ready at hand. He came across a couple snakes and large spiders but he easily killed them. The spiders did make him a bit itchy though. Whilst walking he saw a dark shadow sitting in the bushes of the tree. Nixal didn't want to take any chances, so he shot it. It turned out to be sleeping, and it looked like the animal that attacked him earlier except this one was white.

But i saw a dark shape at the tree,

Probably just the shade, he thought. He continued his way until he was nearly at the top. He was so close, just a couple more steps and-

Four of the black furred creatures surrounded him, it looked like the one that ran away had called for reinforcements. One behind him jumped forward but Nixal quickly shot an arrow. It tried to jump backwards but instead he just fell and rolled down since they were nearly at the top, the hill was pretty steep. It clumsily rolled down the hill. Nixal shot another arrow at the one behind him and the two in front of him. The creatures ran up trees and hid in the bushes. Nixal aimed at one of the trees but one of the animals jumped at him from the tree behind. He quickly shot it but it was already pretty close so it's corpse fell on him. He pushed the corpse aside but before he could do anything, another one jumped at him. He couldn't take an arrow from his quiver in time, so he pulled a hidden dagger and impaled the beast. Before he could pull the dagger out, another beast jumped from the right of Nixal. He couldn't pull the dagger fast enough, he couldn't pull an arrow from his quiver fast enough, he couldn't do anything fast enough.

Suddenly an arrow pierced through it. He looked at the shooter, it was Tenumre, his long dark robe bellowing behind him.

"Were you following me?" Asked Nixal.

"You're welcome," said Tenumre, walking up towards him. "and I killed the one that was rolling down so you don't need to worry about it. Now, are you going?"

"You're hoping that I find it and you can steal it from me, aren't you?"

Tenumre simply stared at him. They heard a rustle towards the top and both of them looked left,

There at the top stood a white creature with its top covered in colorful spots and black hooves. Long neck, large purple pupils, and its head was shaped slightly like a heart.