Beck had somehow gotten stuck with Tephra.

The boy was certainly good with his crossbow, and though it had originally annoyed him, Beck had to admit he was glad to have the boy with him. The kid just seemed to notice things that he never would have.

One time, he'd stepped on a sand moccasin, and Tephra shot it just before it struck him. The kid started to draw his skinning knife, but Beck stopped him.

"Let me. Least I can do is take care of it, after you saved my hide." The boy had smiled at him at that, nodding and letting him collect the snake. The smile grew brittle when he realized that he didn't know how to skin the thing, and sheepishly asked the boy if he'd teach him once they returned to camp.

Tephra had agreed though. A simple nod and a "Let's move on."

Another thing Beck realized about the boy while they were out was just how quiet he was. Between the dark grey of the boy's skin and hair, and the silence with which he moved, the boy would make an excellent assassin. He also pointed out which plants were safe, medicinal, or poison whenever they came across them.

Some of the poison ones were also medicinal, somehow. Tephra didn't explain, so Beck decided he'd ask later.

Eventually, the pair came to a ridge overlooking a grassy area around an oasis. That was a bit of an overstatement, though. It was more of a natural dip in the land that just so happened to be right on top of a spring.

The muddy water was surrounded by creatures of all different affinities, from tortoises with grass covering their backs and boars with metal manes, to rats with flaps of skin between their limbs that he knew let them ride air currents, to even a great Thunderbird.

The sight of the massive, sparking bird set the two hunters on edge, and the two of them huddled down into the tall grass. It didn't take too long for the overgrown eagle to drink its fill, thankfully, and it took off without a fuss. It seemed nothing wanted to tangle with the creature.

They took that as a sign that nothing too strong had taken up residence here. So they picked their targets. Tephra claimed the biggest of the tortoises was coming home on his back, and Beck weighed the options in his head. The rats would be good target practice, but there wouldn't be enough to fill even just his stomach.

He might've tried for a razorback, if he hadn't heard the stories. You didn't use a ranged weapon for those, no matter how prudent it may seem. They were hunted with western spears. Nothing else would penetrate deep enough or stay in one piece when they took on the charge.

Eventually, he settled on a pronghorn that had arrived after them. It's fur was a dull brown, blending near perfectly into the tall grass. Its black horns and the white markings on its face were the only reason he had been able to spot it.

The little dot on the crossbow scope fell onto the space in between the top two ribs. Laying prone, Beck breathed in slowly, checked the distance, and squeezed the trigger on the exhale. Right before the last of the air left his lungs, the mechanism clicked, and the string was released.

The bolt flew true, punching through the flesh and between bones to pierce into the lungs of his prey. The pronghorn let out a short, strangled sound, and the surrounding animals exploded into movement.

The big tortoise was too slow to react, its slow movement earning it a bolt through the eye. The creature's legs gave out from under it before it collapsed to the ground.

The hunters emerged from the grass to claim their prizes.

Beck approached the pronghorn to find it still alive, ragged breathing racking its body and blood trickling from its mouth. He drew his knife, and almost took hold of the horns, drawing short when he felt the intense heat radiating off of them. He settled for holding it down by its muzzle, its struggles futile as he drove the blade into it's spine.

The cut was clean, and the animal died quickly in his hands.

You have slain a Scorchhorn!

The young man sighed, before hefting the beast onto his shoulders. He struggled to stand. The Scorchhorn had to weigh at least a hundred pounds.

He looked to Tephra, who had fashioned a carrying harness for the tortoise. Once he was sure it would hold, the two set off back to the tribe.

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They returned triumphant.

Many of the tribe congratulated the pair on their first successful hunt, some of the men occasionally clapping them on the back. They made a beeline for the dismantling area, which was situated on the other side of the kitchen tent from the dining area.

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Beck hung the pronghorn by it's legs on a pole, while Tephra had borrowed one of the pickaxes he had seen Kenna working on. While the youth chipped away at the shell, Beck was getting instruction from one of the tribe's old hunters, Aiden.

It was quickly apparent that without the old man, Beck would have made a multitude of mistakes. The big one being that he very well could've punctured the gut and let its stomach acid fill the body and destroy the meat. Thankfully, even when he wasn't close enough to physically correct the young man, Aiden was able to point out where he was going wrong before he had even touched the knife to the carcass.

Everything that could be harvested was set aside, the hide being used to keep everything else they pulled from the body onto the ground. Once the majority of the meat had been cut from the bones, they lowered the remains onto the ground, where the head was separated from the shoulders with a saw and hung from the same pole, a hook now holding it up by the jaw.

After the last of the meat had been separated from the beast's neck, Aiden lifted the head from the hook and took it by the horns, seemingly unbothered by the heat still radiating from them. With a grunt of effort, the old man tore the horns from the skull.

Beck was staring at the old timer as he wrapped the horns in skin from the beast's neck. The spell broke when Aiden shoved the bundle into his arms on his way to where the meat and organs lay on the hide, next to where they dumped most of the bones. A blue screen was hovering at the edge of the vision, which he quickly minimized.

Tephra had broken the shell horizontally, and some of the burlier members of the tribe were helping to haul the top half off so that they could harvest the meat inside. A group of women stood to the side, carrying short hoes and sickles.

Beck returned his attention to the bundle in his hands and the harvest on the ground. Aiden was preoccupied inspecting the bones, breaking the largest of them. Unfolding the hide roll, Beck waved his hand over the horns and found that they still gave off the same heat as they had when the pronghorn was still alive.

The hide didn't seem to be damaged from the heat, so he wrapped them up again and set the bundle on the ground beside the rest of the hide. He made to rise, before he felt a wrinkled hand on his wrist.

The old timer had picked up the bundle and was once more pressing it into his hands. "Take it back to your tent, then you can come back. Don't want it getting mixed in with the rest of it."

Beck stared a moment, confused, before nodding and doing as he was told. When he made it to his tent, he found Kenna waiting for him, a grin plastered on her face.

"If it isn't our newest hunter. Heard you bagged a Scorchhorn." Her eyes went to the bundle in his hands. "Those the horns? Lemme see." The large woman surged to him, her eyes focused purely on the hide and reaching out for it.

Beck was barely able to avoid her, stepping to the side and pulling his bundle behind him. Kenna seemed to get more troublesome the more time he spent with her...

At least he wasn't awkward anymore. "Maybe if you asked nicely, I'd let you hold them."

Kenna pouted at that. It looked funny on someone as big as her. "C'mon, Beck," She drew out the vowels unnecessarily, "You still owe me for saving you life, yknow." Her grin and the fingers digging into his ribs conveyed her meaning as much as her tone. Beck didn't hold out long against this onslaught.

He laughed and swatted at her hand until she stopped trying to tickle him. "Okay, okay. C'mon."

The two of the them ducked into the tent. Beck laid the crossbow on his old clothes, which were clean now, but still torn. Kenna had taken a seat on his bedroll, so he took the other end and unrolled the hide.

Kenna focused on the horns, grabbing one as soon as his hands left the piece of hide. Beck exclaimed at the sudden motion, even though he half expected it, before realizing that it wasn't burning her.

She was running her fingers across it. She didn't say anything for a minute, then looked up at him, eyes wide. "Let me keep this one." The sudden change startled him, but it didn't take him long to recover.

"Why?"

"They're good for training [Heat Resistance] when its low-level, but I want to add it to my Poksh. Most people just use them as firestarters, though." She was already cradling the horn in her hands, holding it close to her chest. Anytime they made a "p" sound in Ignan, it came out as a pop. It didn't register most of the time, but it was particularly prominent when she switched from common to Ignan like that.

"What would that add to it? Its not exactly straight." Despite his incredulity, he filed the bit about [Heat Resistance] away for later.

She blew air through her lips, laying down across the bedroll. "Its... kind of hard to explain. The crabs are fire aspected, same as the Scorchhorn. Their shells keep a bit of that energy they had when they were alive, but the horns hold a lot more concentrated energy. If I can meld the two right, I can use my mana to make the head punch through the shell a lot easier."

Beck considered for a moment. "Alright. But I wanna watch."

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The bones were fed to the biggest of the Kode's lobsters, along with ore they purchased. The things apparently had smelters for stomachs, and anything that didn't directly provide sustenance was turned into shell material. Half the meat had been cooked fresh, with the rest having been prepared as travel food.

The hide was tanned and made into gloves, boots, and the like. No part was wasted. Even the tortoise shell was formed into armor for some of the larger kids, who would be acting as frontliners in the upcoming crab hunt. Kenna had said it would be a "trial by fire", but with the Kode, that could very well have been literal.

That night, Beck checked the notification from before. He was pleasantly surprised.

[Knifework] has leveled up! +1 Dexterity It is now lvl. 2

He hadn't noticed the Skill's effect during the butchering, but it had likely played a role in how well it had gone. He didn't want to think about what it would've smelled like if he had punctured an organ during the process. The thought alone made him shiver slightly.

With that thought still in his head, he turned his attention to the remaining horn, still wrapped in the hide from the Scorchhorns neck. The hide itself would probably be good for a pair of gloves, but his mind was focused on the horn.

He burned himself quite a lot that night.