A cloud of dust blew through the pathways of the village of Atem; the villagers bustling to process and store the last of their harvest. Though paltry, the villagers were in a swell mood as the harvest would greatly alleviate their food concerns for the better part of the remaining half year even if just barely.

Atem like a large part of the duchy was arid, rain seen only once a year and for barely two weeks. The reprieve for the villagers was the seasonal river that flowed for about six months, enough time to plant fent - a favourite draugeran grain known to be more energy dense and nutritious than wheat. Although primitive, irrigation is widely employed as a desperate move by many villages in the duchy to fend off starvation. With food prices being more than fourteen small coppers for a kilo of fent and a damning twenty-five small copper for a kilo of wheat few could afford to buy grain when most village households earn less than sixty-four large copper. Therefore all villages that were not blessed with regular rain hurdled next to any descent sized river for sustenance.

…

“Father!” came the frustrated voice of a young draugeran villager from within one of the larger houses in the village.

“You can’t do this! It is about time I distinguished myself among other youth and complete the hunt - and you know this.”

“Mind your tone Leikan!” a hoarse voice hissed, “ There is no need for you to participate in this hunt.”

“But-”

“No buts…. just…just try to understand.”

The young Leikan glared at his father before stomping out, leaving behind two seated persons.

“The boy is right Hegor, he is a promising hunter more so than my own son, perhaps it is time to let him make a name for himself, and earn recognition among his peers. Besides…”

Cough. cough. cough.

Elder Seitana looked on his face a mask of worry as Hegor went into a coughing fit.

Hegor sighed, his health had deteriorated far too much and the future uncertain; as much as he wanted to refute the words of the elder he could not especially those that had been left unspoken. He looked at the smidgen of blood on his palm, his face a a mask of unwillingness.

‘it’s too soon, he’s not ready.’

…

‘Once again I am going to miss it. Dammit! Dammit!’

Leikan swung his practice spear with all his might at the dummy pole and a loud echo filled his small compound.

His built up frustration is one empathized by many ambitious peasant youth across the barony; as unlike other normal hunts, this particular hunt, also known as the twin horn hunt, occurs only once a year. The twin horn hunt derives its name from the twin horn python a massive sixty meter long and nearly two meters in diameter snake and the target of the hunt.

Once every year in the Olwal Barony, the twinned horned pythons come out from their burrows to breed, lay eggs and hatch them. Their eggs are considered valuable in the alchemical world and their hide is also fancied among the upper class. Successful hunts have been known to bring the hunt parties incredible wealth. Female twin horn pythons are considered the prize as a single female python can yield approximately three thousand kilos of hide and about fifteen eggs. Merchants purchase the hides at roughly twenty large coppers a kilo and fifty five large coppers for an egg; for many draugerans this is a lifetimes worth of wealth.

Hunts are usually carried out in teams of seventy but the fatality rate being more than half whereas the success rate, paltry, at only one in more than a hundred participating teams. Repeated successful hunts of a twin horn python are exceedingly rare but those blessed few who do end up achieving such feats amass respectable wealth in the barony; one such person being Leikan’s great grandfather and founder of the Atem village the only champion hunter the village ever had.

As such, though dangerous, the profits and prestige of being a champion hunter is irresistible for most youth. Atem participates in this hunt as the Ajak baronetcy part of the Olwal barony has a small section to which this snakes can be found.

As the only son of Hegor, the village chief, Leikan is slated to take up the hereditary mantle of village chief and as with any youth the thirst to prove himself by leading a successful hunting team during annual twin horn hunt burns within him: success mostly considered as making it alive with a few eggs. Leikan’s lilac eyes,typical of the draugera, were thus filled with frustration and impatience as he was twenty four and had yet to participate in any hunt.

‘Why is father being so difficult? This should be important to him as well.’

His father had been incredibly overprotective ever since his mother’s untimely death eight years ago due to a bandit’s ambush; an event that pains Leikan as well years later. However,for the longer lived draugerans Leikan was still rather young, he was still no child and many youth had started participating in the twin horn hunt once they turn twenty. Thus his father’s stubborn stance on his participation baffled him as much as it frustrated him as his future claim for the chief’s seat would be questioned.

Evening light pulled Leikan out of his contemplative state as he went to prepare his tools for the regular hunt for barzis. Barzi hunting was a staple for most residents in the baronetcy they were hunted during the night as they were nocturnal in nature - a negligible fact for most draugerans as they had night vision.

Farming could hardly supply food to the villagers with the seasonal river two hundred meters away, as such hunting was the main economic activity for most villagers. Many hunters would barter their hunts for grain back at the port town - the only town - of the Ajak baronetcy and on rare occasion if the hunt was good would they sell for some coin.

Stepping outside of the house Leikan’s eyes narrowed slightly as he bumped into two familiar faces.

“Heya Leikan,” Allysia greeted cheerfully.

“Hi,” Leikan returned shyly.

“geh!..what you acting shy for young master,” Leroy hateful voice butted in.

“Nothing that concerns you,” Leikan retorted sharply. Leroy’s eyes narrowed slightly at that. Their relationship had always been bad more so the last five years.

“Stop it Leroy, we aren’t here to fight…you’re heading out to hunt right? Want to tag along?” came the orutound voice of Moknar.

Leikan wanted to reject the offer but the expectant gaze coming from his crush Allysia made him say otherwise.

…

“Took you long enough,” Head hunter Malik said with a slight frown on his face as youthful group reached the usual meet up point.

“Sorry, Uncle Malik, we were kinda held up sorting ourselves…” Moknar quickly stated .

Malik held his retort lest they miss their prime hunting time, much to the group’s relief. He turned his attention back to the gathered group.

“Gather your stuff we settin’ out!”

…

Leikan lay still, his breath slow as he waited for the elusive barzi to leave its burrow. His small crossbow locked on to fire at a moments notice should the barzi somehow slip past his carefully laid trap. His eyes were calm a testament to his experience in this activity.

Hunting barzis was routine for most villages in Ajak as this small creature were their only source of meat and money. Docile but incredibly fast hunting barzis was an activity that requires skill, patience and fast reaction times ; things that Leikan excelled at, which made him considered a hunting prodigy. His glory however had dimmed quite a bit over the last two years due to the fact that he had yet to participate in any twin horn hunt; this was further exacerbated by the fact that Moknar had participated in two relatively succesfull hunt in the last six years. Despite being the chief’s son, Leikan could perceive that his reputation had been steadily on decline especially among the youth despite everyone still giving some face, of course with the exception of Leroy whose already aggressive attitude towards Leikan had only gotten worse.

Thinking of this Leikan could only suppress another sigh.

Rustle. Rustle.

Leikan’s eyes sharpened as the soft sound of a barzi coming out to forage reached him. A soft smile adorning his face.

‘About time.’

The target barzi poked its nose out sniffing around before it warily left its burrow, its head swiveling around in an attempt to spot danger.

Whoosh! Whimper!

A head shot; the barzi flopped dead unaware of how it died; Leikan jogged to his prey and dislodged the arrow from its head.

‘I should stop here.’

The freshly killed barzi was his only kill for the night; barzis had been getting harder to hunt, it was end week and this was only his second successful unlike previous seasons where he could hunt as much as five, according to his father this was a sign of impending drought.

As it was approaching midnight and for reasons unknown to Leikan bandits have been prowling the baronetcy more frequently than usual a fact that made his mood grow dark as he remembered his slain mother.

He lightly jogged back to the meet up point with the rest of the team. He found a few hunters had returned including the head hunter; barring Malik with his two kills, only three others had similar success with the rest of the team having one like himself or no successful kills much to their displeasure. Leikan was fairly certain that the situation was the same for other teams.

Malik gazed at his hunt and nodded approvingly but otherwise didn’t comment. After a few minutes Moknar, Leroy, Allysia and the remaining team returned as well. Moknar expression warped briefly before going back poker as he saw Leikan’s hunts, he himself being unsuccessful.

“Damn barzis they have become so sparse... How did Leikan manage to a kill while I couldn’t even spot a single one??” Leroy lamented.

“Wrap up everyone witchin’s hour upon us and these are dangerous times,” Malik voice boomed.

…

Back in his house, Leikan skinned and butchered his kill after which he began preparing akari, a special meat preservation paste made by mixing salt, oil and two drops of the achar potion, that allowed meat to stay fresh for two months before beginning to rot. Drying the meat and putting it in a slurry of this mixture allowed the meat to be consumable even two years later but required more oil which is boiled for at least three days before adding salt and the potion. The method was not widely used and few knew how to prepare akari . Moreover, as with all potions the achar potion is expensive with a vial retailing at for one small silver. Leikan had learnt this technique from his mother.

‘Mages huh,must be nice being one.’

His mother had told him that it is they who were behind all talismans, runes and potions; though Leikan did not know what runes and talismans were but he understood, at the very least, that they were likely prohibitively expensive items more so than potions and it was quite likely that only the baronet had it.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

These special class of individuals apparently had something called a mana core and they could use it to mould the imperceptible mana to cause changes to the world. Many of them were either alchemists who brewed potions or rune-smiths who created the fabled talismans and runes.

Thinking about those esteemed figures Leikan could only shake his head, many did not even know of them as they were reclusive and did not interact with those of the lower class, though according to his mother they were quite a bit more common in the more prosperous human nations.

Leikan had long figured out that his mother was not native to the baronetcy as her knowledge and stories of the wider world seemed to have been much greater than even the few towns people he had met when tagging along with his father. He had always been curious how she decided to settle with his father.

Leikan suddenly drew a dagger hidden in his left thigh, twisting his body as he swung his dagger only barely stopping at the neck of the intruder.

“Not bad,” Hegor commented dryly stated.

“Father?”

“Your hunt appears successful.”

“Hardly, the barzis are getting increasingly sparse.”

“So I’ve heard.”

Hegor walked to a nearby stool and sat, gesturing to Leikan to do the same to which he complied.

“I am going to allow you to participate in the upcoming twin horn hunt.” Hegor cut straight to the point.

Confusion turned to elation in quick succession for Leikan at the sudden news.

“Really?…No I mean… I won’t disappoint you father you’ll see.”

Hegor expression mellowed at his son’s excitement before growing sad.

“What changed your mind…not that am complaining.”

“hah… look at you, you think I haven't noted people’s change in attitude.”

“Then why…”

Hegor looked at his son with a complicated gaze. Eventually he sighed.

“My health is failing son… I may not live long enough to see you marry to the missy you’ve set your eyes on.” Hegor smirked.

Hegor raised his hand stopping Leikan’s interjection before continuing.

“Matters are a bit complicated for you to know now, you’ll have to prove yourself by having a successful hunt first before I can tell you any more.”

“Just remember to be careful during the hunt, things are not all as they seem.”

Having said his piece, Hegor stood up and briskly left Leikan’s house, Leaving his son to digest the meaning of his words.

…

“Halt!”

‘here we go.’

“Trying to sneak in are we?”

“I would never,” Leikan said putting a meek disposition, the guard captain scoffed.

“Hmm? brought your haul for the month,” guard captain spoke all while unceremoniously opening his carefully wrapped meat much to Leikan’s chagrin albeit keeping his face neutral.

“But you know we cannot let such things in to this town without inspecting it,” the guard next to him snickered at that.

“I feel we should take a bigger sample Cap’n, have been feelin’ like quality of the brat’s good been droppin’ - for the towns sake.” the accompanying guard was blatantly ogling his meat.

“mhm, I noted that too - brat you’ve been getting negligent,” the captain nodded sagely, “I agree we need to be keen on the town’s health safety, deal with this officer and report to me later.”

“Yes sir!”

As the Captain left to attend to other people, the guard quickly pounced on his hard earned game.

‘This damned bastard is taking one third of my stock!!’

Leikan had to breath deeply lest he blows up in fury at such callous extortion. They would normally take a fifth or a quarter but their appetite has seemingly gone up.

“What you glaring at boy?” the thieving guard asked threateningly.

“Nothing,” Leikan hastily replied.

The guard snorted in satisfaction at the response before leaving with his loot. Leikan’s cold gaze followed the retreating figure of the guard, while the onlookers merely gave him a sympathetic glance.

Corruption was rampant within the Ajak town garrison; being notorious for harassment, extortion and even disappearances on extreme cases. Hegor believed that the guards had some unspoken agreement with the town criminals, however, Leikan was of mind that they were one and the same. With their seemingly growing appetite, the future of the baronetcy grew all the more grim.

Leikan was nonetheless not very surprised by the state of affairs considering that even the baronet, lord of the land, was considered by many villagers to be very greedy, taxing a heavy thirty six large coppers per year to every villager thirty years and above women and elderly included.

With food and water prices being already very high the situation was only alleviated by the scarcity of livestock products in the eastern side of the Duchy. This scarcity allowed villager to cash in on their hunts and just barely be able to weather through each year from the earnings. The more skilled a hunter the more coppers you pile up; this was the driving force behind Leikan’s popularity particularly among the ladies, as his looks were passable in comparison to the charming Moknar and even Leroy, instead, he was believed to likely have descent financial capabilities.

Leikan hastened through the decrepit down-town streets, his trolley in tow, heading to the market place; his guard was up and hand close to his hidden dagger wary of any stalker.

‘Ridiculous.’

This was his regular assessment of the situation, where he felt far more safer in the village prone to bandits than in the town where deadly thieves prowled day and night and were certainly not mild in their approach.

As he approached his target stall in the market place a loud merry voice reached his ears.

“Leikan, I was of mind that you wouldn’t come this month~ ~,”

Leikan suppressed a shudder, dealing with this shrewd woman was always a hustle.

“ For you madam Helken, I wouldn’t skip it,” Leikan smiled lightly, “Good business is a two way street after all.”

Helken offered a soft smile at that.

‘The brat has gotten sharper.’

“Come lets see what you’ve got.”

Leikan complied and offload his haul of meat and fur, causing Helken to frown slightly.

…

“Seitana how long will Hegor keep his son from the hunt??” the raspy voice of Isaak reverberated in Seitana’s private room.

“Be patient Isaak. Leikan has been pressuring the old coot, he will buckle eventually…”

“For our sake,I hope your right, word from the town’s healer is that we have less than three years.”

Sigh.

Seitana could relate with Elder Isaak’s concerns. Hegor’s unwillingness to let his son participate in the twin horn hunt has become a thorn on their side. They had initially been ecstatic about his paranoia as that would discredit his son’s claim to the chieftain.

However, over the recent years Leikan had distinguished himself as a hunting prodigy which meant that his chances of pulling of a successful future hunt were pretty high strengthening his claim to inherit the chieftain. This troubled and annoyed both elders to no end as the baronet’s patience was running thin and the damnable Hegor had yet to name his successor.

‘Hegor!! you remain nuisance even at death’s door.’

…

“Your sure of this Helken?” a deep voice resounded in the inn quarters of building with the insignia of a carriage at its door banner.

“Yes sir, I know the kid.”

“hmmm…”

“You can’t be seriously considering this Henry, for all we know this draugeran wench could be fabricating stories.”

“And I suppose you know better than me Felix? For a wench I at least deliver good business something you seem incapable of doing 30 years since you joined this establishment,” Helken sneered.

“What did you say you lowly…”

“Enough!”

Henry hand slammed to the table his gaze sharp as he glared at the duo.

Felix quickly quieted down but his pulsing forehead vein betrayed his anger.

“It is a fact that Helken has been instrumental in the success of our business.”

“Regardless Helken, we don’t have evidence to back up your claims so I doubt HQ will consider this.”

“It’s fine Henry, this was just my preposition and my guts tell me am not wrong.”

Felix snorted at that causing Helken to regard him coolly.

“I’ll see what I can do then.”

With that Henry stood up and left the room Felix in tow.

‘Damned humans and their arrogance.’

Despite retaining her poker face Helken was simmering. This blatant disrespect was common for humans even when in foreign land. Despite her displeasure she was exposed enough to the world to know that humans were the rulers of this world.

Of the six nations in the world, three were almost purely human, one of which was the most powerful nation in the world, two were a mixed composition of halflings and humans, with a minority draugeran population. Their duchy was the only draugeran majority nation and it was hardly worthy of note being even far poorer than the Mojar City state which was a loose alliance of mostly halflings. The most powerful nation Lemada being said to be at a fabulous degree of sophistication and wealth.

Their power however can be backed up by the fact that they occupy the most fertile and resource rich section of the civilized world and most importantly they have a much higher mana affinity than the rest making them produce mages and knights - a rare class of mages - at a rate as high as they produce babies.

Helken shook her head helplessly as she thought of this, had it not been for their superior body constitution which gave much greater strength and life span; they probably would have been overrun.

‘Still Henry should have been smarter.’

Helken had been in the industry with Felix and Henry for the same amount of time despite her more youthful appearance owing to the shorter lifespans of humans. Leikan’s stock had always been of the highest quality and quantity, though the quality has been retained, the quantity had certainly not over the past three months.

This situation was observed on all other hunters of the baronetcy and this had already driven the prices past sky high with only the middle and upper classes being able to afford meat.

‘”hunts’ been getting tough Miss”’

Leikan’s words recurred in her mind. She had interacted with the hunters of the baronetcy long enough to be aware that decrease in hunts are considered a sign of impending drought. A sentiment shared by all hunters of all villages.

Moreover their accounts matched with the available records on drought experienced particularly on the eastern side of the duchy. She therefore felt this was an opportunity to capitalize on the impending food shortage and stack up reserves to sell at higher prices. Her attempts at pushing for this however appear to have hit a wall and her status was too low too do anything about it.

‘sigh. it is what it is.’

…

‘That’s a wrap’

Lekain had sold all his stuff and restocked on the achar potion, sunset was approaching and he needed to leave the town as non residents could not to stay without a nameplate.

Iron nameplates were issued to all residents and needed renewal of 5 large coppers every month as the towns form of taxation, brass nameplates were for the upper class who would pay a staggering fifteen large coppers every month. A special wooden nameplate was given to temporary residents for two large coppers a week and silver nameplate for dignitaries.

Leikan was definitely not going to pay to stay for such an outrageous price and what he considered a relatively unsafe place compared to his village. He had always wondered what made other people obsess about living in the town.

The distance between Atem and Ajak town was about forty kilometers and was generally took two days travelling on foot, horses were for the rich and carriages for the lord of the land. Though rumors among the merchants in town have it that in the great human empires many common people could afford a horse.

Leikan was unbothered as the journey back was relatively safe. Bandits were increasingly a nuisance, but they mostly carried out village raids; the plateau like nature of most of the eastern side of the duchy and scant vegetation made it that ambushes were hard to execute save for a few spots. This made the eastern side of the uniquely safe for caravan travel.

Moreover, being a hunter required basic proficiency in either bow or spears, Leikan being a hunting prodigy naturally knew both these skills adding to the dagger arts and the crossbow he learned from his father. Leikan could already outmatch the weaker town guards.

This combat prowess is not limited to Leikan but most draugerans are comparatively superior in combat to humans. Thus despite being poor and backward in terms of development draugera had survived for centuries due to their stronger soldiers whose strength rivals that of a human knight. Humans, however, countered this by inventing various siege and long range weapons that minimizes direct contact with draugeran forces on the battle field.

‘witchin’s hour is near I should set up camp here.’

Despite their night vision draugerans were even more sensitive to cold than humans hence night travel was not popular.

…

Clatter.

“Those blithering fools!!” Baronet Ajak fumed.

“How hard could it be to deal with a single person??”

Butler Peinan stood meekly at the side his bowed as the baronet threw his cutlery everywhere.

“Perhaps we should give them more time…”

Peinan regretted those words immediately.

“More time?? And how much time should give them? HOW MUCH PEINAN??” Ajak nearly screamed.

“Get out!”

Peinan swiftly left the office and shut the door; before a sigh escaped his mouth. His liege’s mood had been worsening the last three years - due to a certain village and a certain boy. The report from the town healer had been salt on this worsening wound and had made the baronet rage all day. Having read the contents of the letter as well a frown could not help but form on his visage.

‘Seitana what’s taking you so long?’

…

“Seitana! Malik!”

“Oh, Elder Hakim, it’s been a while.”

“Indeed it has, Malik.”

Elder Seitana nodded in acknowledgement to the large framed Hakim. He was the third senior elder who together with himself and Isaak helped Hegor in the management of the village. As the twin horn hunt approached Chief Hegor had, as usual, summoned them at a baraza to discuss the preparation of the village’s participation.

They met with Isaak who had arrived earlier he nodded slightly at their presence, his face wearing its usual frown, though now it appeared a bit deeper than before. Seitana could not blame him though they were in a stressful situation.

They sat in silence as they indulged in their thoughts for a short while before Hegor entered.

“Everyone, I thank for attending.”

“It’s nothin’ chief, it’s the most important event in the village after all.” The rest nodded to Malik’s statement.

Hegor chuckled at that. That much was true, one would describe village life as extremely mundane aside from the brief annual hunt.

“ As the head hunter Malik how do you suggest we carry this out.”

“Firstly we can’t have those below twenty four participate.”

“What? Why??” Isaak exclaimed his face contorted in shock and displeasure, his son Leroy was turning twenty four the following year.

“Lost too many youth last time, we will end up messin’ the villages future otherwise.” Malik said as a matter of fact.

“Mhmm.” Hakim agreed with Malik’s sentiment it was indeed a fact that the last three years were bad, in particular the previous year where hundreds of youth had died.

The population of the male youth - who are the major participants - had declined greatly compared to the female. For draugerans, who hard developed a culture of monogamy, this was likely to cause a social crisis. Moreover, draugerans had terrible fertility, many house holds having no more than one child.

“Moreover I would propose to increase the team by fifty more people.”

“Absolutely not,” Seitana all but shouted, Hegor was also wearing a frown.

“Do you understand what you’re saying?? Our reputation would dip!” Hakim scolded. Many villages in the barony that opted to participate in the hunt kept a maximum member limit of one hundred as tradition as this number was considered enough to balance between risk and reward.

“With all due respect you don’t know the situation of hunters ,” Malik stated.

“What’s that supposed to mean??” Hakim’s voice turned cold, “I was the previous head hunter last I remembered.”

“Was. But you aren’t. Many of the newer batch are not quite as good and the better ones are retiring.”

“Only a few are good enough to participate fewer still who can lead a team.”

“What about Moknar he can try to lead, he did participate in another successful hunt two years ago.”

“Too young… if Leikan were participating, then perhaps the two could just barely steer a team on their own.”

“But he’s not.”

“He will.”

Heads swiveled to face the chief, shock plastered on their faces.