We returned home before sundown after a fruitful day of hunting and adventure. I wanted to do more, to stay the night and brave it out in the wilderness, but my parents refused. They told me that I was too young and inexperienced, that I wasn’t ready.

I argued that I’d had plenty of experience in the matter back on Earth. I loved nature and the peace that it brings, though admittedly I didn’t have to do the same level of fighting, nor were the dangers present quite as extreme. A single gun gave me a huge advantage against most animal encounters.

My parents agreed to consider it, and I was sure I’d be allowed to rough it out in the wilds eventually. There was no rush.

I talked more about Earth on the way back, feeling a rare comfort in speaking about my old home. I spoke of the life I lived before, who I was, and who were the other people with me. I kept the topic on the good times, the friends I loved, and the fun that we had. Minus all the adult things, of course, I didn’t need to tell my parents about that.

I couldn’t help the realization that I’d had such a better time here in Varyala than I did back on Earth. It was certainly exciting, what with the fantastical possibilities, but I reminded myself that things here weren’t necessarily better. Far from it.

‘Haell’ was simply far more fortunate than ‘Lucyfer,’ the person I was before. I was not blind to the many problems I’d already been forced to bear witness to, in the years I’d spent in this singular town of Latarus.

My mom showed a particular amount of interest on that topic, so I told her more about it on the condition of giving me more time to hunt and adventure. It was an intense negotiation that resulted in me securing outings every other day, instead of just once per week.

~~~

We made it back home, but instead of going straight to my house and into the bed that called out to me, I went instead to the building that housed Moonwash’s forge. The exterior of the house still had that strange lopsided look, but it actually felt a lot more fantastical than the well-made homes. I liked it.

“Hey Moonwash,” I greeted as I entered inside. I made it through the small living room and toward the larger workshop beyond. Moonwash was hard at work at the forge, and I could somehow tell that she knew I was there but the older girl was too busy to attend to me right now.

I smiled, found a bench nearby, and sat.

The sounds of a hammer hitting metal echoed in my ears as I closed my eyes.

~~~

“Haell.”

I stirred. The afternoon had turned into a deep night before I realized it. Moonwash was sitting right beside me with a steaming plate of food.

I accepted it gratefully and began eating.

“Owh rigsht,” I said, my mouth still full of pork and bread. “I havfe shomething fhor ysou to makte.”

Moonwash’s cooking was actually some of her weaker creations. I gathered that she preferred to make more ‘permanent’ things, and those that were more ‘beautiful.’ Which wasn’t to say that it wasn’t still bloody delicious, because the meal definitely was. She was an overachiever through and through.

“What is it?” She asked, unsurprised. Moonwash was still dirty from working the forge so long, and so was I filthy from the activities of the day. I was still wearing my armor, cloaked in dried blood in many places.

I rummaged through my bag and produced a couple of small pieces of hide.

“This is from my first ever successful hunt, and the first thing I ever butchered. I want you to make me something, like say gloves, or maybe socks.”

Moonwash accepted the wolf pelt and looked it over.

“These were harvested very poorly.”

“I just told you it was my first goddamit!”

“Oh. Right. That makes sense.”

“Wow. Why does that make me feel even worse?”

“I don’t know.”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

…

“Right… So are you going to do it?”

“Of course. I would be happy and honored to do it.”

“Nice!”

~~~

A new dawn arrived. I had fallen asleep on the couch instead of ever returning to the home just up the hill.

Today, my friends had all gathered in the living room of our house, and we had a great and amazing chat about my first hunt. Angerly was actually taken by Luine and Salaire a few months prior on a similar excursion, so I wasn’t the first of us to go out there and test ourselves against the monsters beyond.

“Wow…” Therick looked at his fist and clenched it. “That’s so cool. Just like in the stories. I wanna do that too!”

I snorted. “Most of those stories are probably embellished.”

“Is that what you did too?”

“Of course not! I am honest about how amazing I am!”

“You should learn how to harvest monsters properly for the next time,” Moonwash chimed in. That was her takeaway from it, apparently.

“You already said that yesterday! I get it! Geez.”

“I also did terribly with that, Haell!” Angerly flashed me a thumbs up. “We’re the same!”

“Hell yeah!” I high-fived her.

Granuel laughed. “I would fire you both if you were my employee!” A bit of his humor left. “Then again, you can’t be my employee. I can only be Haell’s. Why is this idiot allowed when I’m not!!??”

I grabbed him in a side hug as I saw tears threaten to spill out of his eyes. I didn’t even protest being called an idiot, choosing to be mature enough to not try and correct my friend on how ill-misinformed he was on the topic.

A few more hours passed of us just hanging out and enjoying each other’s presence. Even Moonwash didn’t start on a new project, watching us and occasionally interjecting with her own comments.

We talked about my plans for doing another excursion tomorrow. I was taking a very rare day of total rest today, not bothering to do any of my daily training. My friends expressed an interest in doing the same thing as well, going out there to hunt, maybe as an entire adventuring party. The idea also appealed to me greatly, mixing friendships, camaraderie, and sheer fucking violence! Those are some of my favorite things!

“What should we call ourselves?” I asked innocently, and that was when all hell began to break loose.

“Moneymakers!” Granuel suggested.

“Makes us sound like that’s all we’re after,” Therick complained.

“I like money!” Angerly said.

“Yeah!” I raised a cup of juice in a toast. “Money is important.”

“How about Elegant Sword?”

“Well, I use a sword, and so do you, but that makes only two of us.”

“Ooh! I got an idea! Smasher Smushers!”

“I don't like it,” Granuel complained. “Not catchy enough. Makes us sound like children!”

“We are children,” I pointed out.

“No I’m not!”

I patted his head. “Sure, sure.”

The debate continued for a few more minutes until an amazing idea came to me.

“Shit Hunters! As a homage to our origins!”

“It makes us sound like we suck at our job!” Granuel denied.

“That’s one thing we shouldn’t copy from them!” Therick said.

“Even I don’t like it!” Angely smiled brightly.

“Oh come on! Don’t gang up on me!!” I whirled around to Moonwash who had only been watching us so far. “You think it’s great, right? Being the artiste of us all.”

She looked at me, at us. Seconds passed until she finally spoke.

“The Harvesters.”

I raised a brow. “Hey. I like that. We harvest the life from our foes. Sinister.”

“Harvesting gives more money!”

“I like it!!”

“I don’t have problems with it either.”

“So, The Harvesters?” I asked.

My friends, The Harvesters, all echoed their assent.

For the rest of the day, we made a sign together, containing the name we just decided on, and plenty of other designs, mostly of the various monsters and other things we aimed to harvest in the future.

Granuel, we’re not making farms, come on! Nor are we miners, Moonwash! I grumbled in my mind, but I decided that it only added more personality to the sign that varied so greatly in quality. The parts Moonwash made stood out like an island of jewels amid a sea of filth and shit.

It would've looked far better if we just asked her to make it, but it meant something for us to have made it together.

We fixed the sign over the door, and created a home for ourselves.

The Harvester Home.