JAIME FONTOYA

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After spending an hour going from house to house with a wagon and collecting every single book in the village, I found Ilias pondering in the common lodge with a quill at hand. The piece of paper in front of him lay blank.

I pulled the wagon in and piled the books on the table. “Delivery of eighty-eight books for Ilias Van Payne.”

He didn’t respond.

“A thank you would be nice. I’m drenched in sweat.”

He ignored my question. “Jaime, if you were to give me a unique ability, what would you give me?”

What’s this about?

I scratched my temple. “The ability to be stronger than me. You’re the boy, but I’m the stronger one? With that skinny body of yours, you can grow out your hair and look like a tomgirl.”

“I’m never asking you anything ever again.”

“What’s the question even for?”

“Except for the two of us, every one of the sentinels has their own unique ability. It’s even more embarrassing for me since I’m a State Jynxist. So I’m trying to come up with my own.”

I nodded in thought. “Yeah, I don’t know.”

“You’re of no help.”

He picked up a book and began flipping through it, making two piles. If I had to guess, one pile was for books he found useful and the other was for ones he did not. I grabbed the quill he had been fidgeting with, wiped off the ink, and began cleaning my nails by picking off the dirt that was stuck under them.

After a couple of minutes, Ilias stopped what he was doing and stared at me. “Could you stop that?”

“I’m trying to keep my hands clean. I’m picking out the dirt from my nails.”

“Do you have to do that here?”

“You’re the one that’s complaining that I should start acting more like a maiden.”

“I know what I said, but do you have to do that here?”

I rolled my eyes and put the quill back where it belonged. I then rested my chin on my arm and stared at Ilias, who went back to reading the book.

He’s nice looking, but if someone were to describe us, most or all would assume the wrong genders. He looks way too cute for a guy.

However, even though he wasn’t masculine, there was something about him I found endearing—

“What?” he asked.

“What?”

“What? What? Why are you staring at me? It’s weird.”

“You don’t want me cleaning my hands to be more maidenly and you don’t want me staring at your pretty face. Why am I here?”

“Askeladd told you to stay inside the village. Yesterday night, you said you’d help me. I’m planning the defence of this village. The bandits will come any day now.”

I stood up and paced back and forth, picking up a book. “And one of these explains how to beat them? Look at this one—The Tales Of The Peddling Bard. These are fairy tales.”

Ilias flipped over the book he was reading to reveal the cover. “The History of the Great Battles of Armestis.” He picked up another one. “The Great Sieges of the North.” He showed another. “Dwarven Advancement.”

I pointed at the bigger of the two piles. “There are more fictional books than historical ones. I’d say we take all of these books, sell them, and use the money to buy better equipment.”

“I doubt these books would go for much. What would you do?”

I thought about it for a second and grabbed one of the smaller books. “We can throw books at the bandits.”

“We don’t have many books.”

“We don’t have many capable people throwing them either.” I pointed outside. “Right now, most of the villagers are working on that wall and they won’t be trained until it gets built. How long will that take? A month? Three weeks at the very least?”

“Okay, you’re clearly just going to keep distracting me.” Ilias sat straight. “I heard Hanzo and his friends are going hunting. Why don’t you join them?”

I attached my sword to my belt and went out the door. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Ilias went back to reading before glancing back at me. “Wait, did you just say I have a pretty face?”

I marched around the village and found Hanzo and two of his friends practicing with their bows. They had a target set up on a stack of hay.

“Hello, Jaime,” Hanzo said. “What do you need? By the way, these are Yumi and Toya.”

“Nice to meet you,” I bowed to them “Ilias told me that you three were going hunting. I want to join.”

“Have you ever hunted before?”

“Nope.”

“You were pretty good when you fought Askeladd, so sure.” Hanzo sighed. “Let’s go. We were just about to leave.”

The three of them gathered their things and began making their way along the main road.

“Can I see your bows?” I asked.

Hanzo handed his. I wasn’t trained as a bowman, but I could tell this bow was well-crafted. Even Yumi and Toya’s. Back in Gilead, I got a lot of chances to see the military’s issued bows. The ones these three had were even better. The wood was much lighter but also stronger, the string was flexible, and the handle was smooth. Even the arrows they carried were crafted with the same quality.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“It’s pretty nice.” I gave the bow back. “It’s better than the bows the military issues for its soldiers. It must’ve been expensive.”

Hanzo laughed nervously. “Yeah… We traded about five beaver pelts just for these three.”

“Are these all you have?”

“Unfortunately.”

They’re lying. I can tell. They just might be scared that we’ll take them. I’ll stalk them and find out where they hide their things. I might be able to surprise the other sentinels if I presented them with equipment.

We went up the hills and stood there for a couple of moments. Apparently, Hanzo and the others were gauging the direction of the wind. Prey animals had a good sense of smell and they’d know where we were if the wind blew our scent in their direction. We had to make sure we were hunting in a way that the animals’ scent would blow towards us. We had to hunt downwind.

After about half an hour of walking through the woods, Hanzo found tracks heading upwind—which was a good sign. It meant whatever we were tracking hadn’t noticed our scent. The four of us stayed low, moving quickly but quietly across the forest floor.

We stopped about halfway up a hill. Hanzo and the others pointed out what I couldn’t see. Our prey was camouflaged and someone who wasn’t used to hunting couldn’t spot it.

It was a wild boar eating mushrooms.

Hanzo drew his bow. “Alright, you two, practice your shots.”

His two friends did as they were told. Yumi and Toya both pointed their bows at the unsuspecting boar.

“What do I do?” I asked.

“If these two fail to kill it, it’ll charge at us. If that happens, I’ll shoot it. If I miss or fail to kill it, draw your sword and protect us,” Hanzo whispered. “We’re useless up close.”

Yes! I hope it goes wrong. I haven’t been able to use this sword properly. Now that I think about it, I should name this thing.

“On my signal,” Hanzo told the others, waiting for a few moments before slightly nodding his head.

Yumi and Toya loosened their bows at the boar, shooting it through the leg and throat.

“A hit,” the two of them cheered as the boar screeched. Fleeing from the area.

“Aren’t we going to follow it?” I asked.

Hanzo continued to stare ahead. “Not now. Toya nicked an artery and Yumi shot through its throat, it’ll die within minutes. We can follow the trail of blood.”

Hanzo adjusted his aim and loosened his bow, shooting his arrow between another boar’s eyes. It was hidden among the bushes, but now it lay dead.

“I didn’t notice the second boar,” Toya said.

“That’s your mistake.” Hanzo stood up. “You have the skills to kill game. You should’ve noticed the second boar so that both of you could’ve shot two different targets.”

“Our bad.”

“If you two were alone, one or both of you would’ve gotten mauled. A wild boar’s tusk is deadly.”

As Hanzo was lecturing them, I leapt forward, drawing my sword and stabbing it into the bush. There was a sudden clash, but I maneuvered quickly and stabbed my blade into a boar. My sword drew blood and it let out a squeal. I had stabbed it right through the heart.

“There’s no way it’s still alive,” Hanzo questioned. “I shot it in the head. Right between the eyes.”

I wiped my sword on the boar’s hide. “The one you shot is lying over there—dead. This was a third boar that I noticed sneaking around us.”

“I didn’t even notice. How did you know?”

“Do you know jynx?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, there are gates in each of our bodies that allows mana to pass through. Every living thing has this flow of mana and if you focus mana into your eyes, you can sense the auras of living things. I noticed it when it went around us.”

“You gotta teach us that one time.”

“Hehe. I’m just that good, aren’t I?” I grinned with enthusiasm. “It’s impractical right now. But, I bet Ilias can write instructions on how to teach yourself after we deal with the bandits.”

Yumi and Toya ran to where the first boar was.

“I call the mushrooms,” Yumi screamed.

Toya grabbed his feet, causing him to fall as he leapt over him to get to the mushrooms first.

Hanzo wrapped the bow around him. “We gotta skin and gut the boars so we can carry it back.”

“But that’ll waste the organs,” I pointed out. “Shouldn’t we be using every part? I mean, the hide itself could get you some money back in Shoya. Why don’t we just leave the boar we can’t carry and come back?”

“The wolves have already smelled blood and they’re on their way here. Once we leave a carcass behind, the wolves will claim it as their own.”

“Okay, fine.” I returned my sword to its scabbard and washed the blood off the boar I killed with Water Cannon. “Pick up the one Hanzo killed and let’s go.”

They were certainly surprised I could easily carry a hundred and thirty pounds of dead weight. Elves were usually skinny, tall, and thought to be graceful. So when they saw me pick up a dead carcass like I was a dwarf, they must’ve been surprised. There was also the fact I was four years younger than the youngest of them, shorter, and a girl—though that didn’t really matter much.

They had work muscles—muscles they developed while working. They could do things for long periods of time like moving them in one motion and holding a thing in place, but my muscles were something I got because of working out.

Jogging every day, swordplay, exercises. I was stronger than them and this was confirmed when I had to help Hanzo carry his boar by having us both hold one end. But it also meant that I would tire quicker.

I could comfortably hold my boar, but once enough time set in, my muscles would tire. The way around this was to take breaks, and luckily, these three kept asking to stop so they could relax their muscles and catch their breaths.

The villagers gathered around us when we got back, celebrating our hunt. A decision was made to roast the biggest boar. The other two would be cut up into smaller pieces for preservation.

“See? I do much more help if I don’t sit around reading,” I told Ilias. “I’m going to start hunting with them if there’s nothing to do.”

“Yeah, you’re a good hunter. You did a lot, so let the villagers take care of the cooking.”

“Huh? I did all the hunting and you still want me to cook?”

“That’s not what I mean. Just don’t get involved with the cooking.”

“Oh, then okay.”

Ilias sighed, sounding like it was of relief. “Thank the gods,” he mumbled.

“Do you think I can learn the bow?” I asked.

“No. Stick with the sword and jynx. Once you get skilled enough, you can use jynx to do this.” Ilias swiped the ground with his hand and shot out earth spikes from his palm. “Rock Bust!”

“Teach me.”

“You still need to practice jynx more. Also, Askeladd said he’ll teach you the three sword styles. You're a swordsman, so stick to that first.”

The twins watched the boar being roasted over the fire.

“The smell brought us here,” Roxy mentioned. “That smells good. I hope there’s a sauce to go with it.”

“You killed it, right?” Roxanne asked. “Which part are you picking?”

“Whichever one I get.”

“Whoever gets first pickings is special. You killed it, so you get to pick which parts you want.”

“Oh, hmm…” I pondered. “What should I go for?”

Roxanne wrapped her shoulders around me and whispered, “The kidney.”

“The kidney? Eww.”

She sighed. “You like bacon, right?”

“I love bacon.”

“Alright. If you roast a pig, it’s cooked in a way that the belly won’t turn to bacon. The closest thing to bacon is the kidney.”

I turned to Ilias. “Is this true?”

He shrugged, yawning. “The kidney filters out salt, so I don’t see why not.”

I know the look Ilias is carrying. It’s when he’s exhausted from reading all day.

“Fine,” I told Roxanne. “But if I don’t like the taste of kidney, I’m getting your dessert, if we ever have any.”