This was embarrassing.

Whether Evaliena had agreed, planned, or relented to Cedar’s pestering. Jace had to go on a hunting trip with Cedar. Taken deeper into the heart of Eweron with farstep. Past forest, grassy steppe and soaring mist covered mountains traversed only by the occasional Therian clan seeking new pastures for their cattle.

He trotted alone in his travel form in the middle of a grassy savanna broken up by woodland and heaths of purple flowers with powerful scents, during the middle of spring.

He was the bait. Or the tracker?

The full strength of Jace’s olfactory senses was overwhelming to use. And that was removing the suppression he kept on his nose. He could tell Cedar was behind him half a mile away, just the old fox’s scent alone. He could also smell the myriad of scent from the different animals that called this uncharted place home. Some scared, some hunting. He did his best to keep a low profile as he walked through the brush.

“Look for some deer for us to hunt,” Cedar told his ward, with the old fox presenting a piece of deer hide for Jace to learn the scent of. Jace found himself less disgusted with that idea than he thought he would. Being forced to remember it.

So he tracked the scent of deer down this well-trodden trail. The scent was getting fresher and fresher. He was close. He stopped at the cover of some bushes and performed a quiet signal for Cedar to come near him.

“Good job Ashwood.” The old fox in his travel cloak and kilt praised. Jace only had his fur. Cedar had taken his clothes and Topaz’s gemstone for safe keeping. The only thing left on his person was the bracelet Evaliena gave him years ago. She had replaced the hemp binding as it was falling apart.

Jace felt his pride swell, but he craved a drink. “I need some water, Cedar. I’ve been walking for nearly an hour.” He panted.

“You should have signalled to me earlier that you were thirsty.” Cedar sat down, rolling his eyes as he produced a basket held bottle. Jace could tell the bottle sloshed with small beer from the slight bubbling and pale yellow colour of the liquid inside. He released his glamour slowly and sat down, taking a swig of the contents. The bitter taste no longer bothered him. “How many?”

“About four or five.” Jace counted the slight variations in scents as he got closer. “Probably a few fawns as well.”

Cedar closed his eyes and tested the air. He made a grumbling noise. “This may be a bust.”

Jace lowered the bottle and frowned. “No, young bucks for us to hunt?” The longer they stayed out here catching nothing, the more annoyed he could feel Cedar get.

“Usually we try to avoid hunting the females, but in this case…” Cedar looked thoughtful. “I’ll pick one out. But you’ll be taking the shot.” Jace’s afraid heart quivered at the prospect of taking a life. But he had to reframe this as hunting for food for himself. At the end of the day, while he could eat a lot of different things when properly prepared, he still had the body of a carnivore. “Come, let’s go deeper into the thicket, boy. There’s a watering hole ahead.”

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“Now, like I taught you.”

Cedar had given Jace something that could be best described as a stave merged with a slingshot. The closest thing he could relate it to was a crossbow. If a crossbow appeared as if someone had carved and smoothed it from a tree branch and powered it with spellcraft and enchanted gemstones. Cedar called it a bolt caster.

The pair had crouched themselves behind a log shaded by shrubby. Part of this trip was learning how to suppress his scent, his pheromones. The time between Jace suppressing his scent and the feedback of it happening greatly annoyed the young Reynard. But he managed it enough so those deer that they were upwind of did not notice him.

“That one there. That one, there to the far left of the group. The young buck. Prepare your shot.”

He rested the bolt caster on the rotting log and steadied himself. This was the first time he was this close to a wild critter. Outside of a zoo. And he was going to shoot it. The buck had no horns, its coat still had the camouflaging spots and earthen colouring of a youngster. Slender and toned for running at a full pelt. Their eyes were closed as they lapped at the surface water. Jace didn’t lie to himself that he was going to regret what he was going to do. Despite the assurances, this was a normal, everyday part of life in this world.

“Breath, pup.” Cedar rested his hand on the back of Jace. “Slow deep breaths.” Jace calmed his heart rate. “Do it.”

The bolter caster lurched as it let out a supersonic crack of sound. Mana surging through the wood and turning the carefully carved runes white. Launching a high speed crackling bolt of hard yellow light.

Ka-chuck. Jace closed his eyes. There was a whimpering cry. A thud. Several panicked scampers and a dead quiet. Jace felt sick to his core.

“You didn’t miss this time.” Cedar lightly patted Jace on the shoulder.

“Give me a moment.” Jace choked out a response. He cursed to himself. He really did it…

“You have a moment. It’s your first kill. It won’t be the last.” Cedar continued. “As tradition, we help maintain the balance. We take from nature what we need and thank her for her bounty. Never killing for sport.” This was cold comfort for Jace. How many more lives will he cut short on this trip? Cedar broke him from his pensiveness. “Up, I’m not breaking down this kill alone.”

“I just… murdered him…” Jace looked up to Cedar with tears forming in his eyes, his hands gripping the caster tightly.

“It’s a clean kill. We will pay respect to that by making use of the whole carcass, wasting as little as possible.” Cedar got up from the cover of the bush with a sigh. He helped Jace to his feet. “If it makes you feel any better. In the old days, we would have had to carry that buck all the way back to the settlement as we didn’t have storage constructs like the Lemis.”

Jace groaned. “That does not make me feel better at all.”

Cedar muttered something about being too soft, then the old fox took the bolt caster from Jace and put it away. He then gave Jace his dagger with its sheath. “I hope you haven’t suddenly forgotten all those times you helped Sandal skin, gut and break down a carcass. Otherwise, this will take much longer.” Jace took the dagger.

He had not forgotten how to break down an animal carcass. The only difference this time was the body was still warm and likely still twitching, too. It was a good thing the only food he ate that day was in the morning. He was not getting the smell out of his nose any time soon.

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Later, the pair were sitting back at camp, which was located a small ways away from a beacon with its eerie, slowly rotating diamond of stone just out of sight. Jace himself was resting against a bedroll with a small burlap filled with wild rosemary and thyme. The horrible smell of a ruptured intestine just lingered in his nostrils. A crackling fire was burning between them.

That fire intrigued Jace about how Cedar had built it up. The old fox had made Jace dig out an egg-shaped hole in the dirt. Then Cedar stacked dead branches and sticks in a square with the thinnest on top and just set fire to the top, letting it burn down. Barely a whiff of smoke, however, it wasn’t a very warm fire.

While Jace was dealing with the smell, Cedar casually was carving a wooden figurine from some old wood with a dagger. “I know that casing splitting was unfortunate, Ashwood, but you need to get over it.” Cedar pointed the dagger at Jace before going back to the carving. “The smell is honestly not that bad.”

Jace rolled his eyes and turned over to avoid looking at Cedar. He was not in the mood to explain his predicament. The old fox was right, though. This was going to become a regular occurrence once he became independent and on the road. He’d just have to get used to it. He could also still hear and feel the shot in his mind, filling his stomach with butterflies. Maybe he was really as soft as Cedar commented so many times.

Sleep slowly took Jace’s mind. Scrape… Scrape… Scrape… Scrape… Cedar continued to crave away at his wooden figurine. The sizzle of the fire going out and the shuffle through dirt. “Ashwood, wake up!” Cedar said quietly.

“Wh-what?!” His body shuddered awake as Cedar pressed his hand over Jace’s mouth to keep him quiet.

Cedar held a finger from his other hand to his lips in a sign of silence with stern eyes. “Someone is coming,” he told briskly. It took a moment for Jace to realise the gravity of the situation and shook himself awake. “You’ll remain quiet and follow my lead.” Jace nodded and grabbed his travel cloak to throw around himself. Blending in with the dreary surroundings and at least making him look presentable.

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“Do you have an idea who it is?” Jace asked quietly.

“Hard to tell.” Cedar was looking concernedly past the Beacon. “I picked this place as it is not well travelled.” At least this trip would be interesting outside of the hunting, Jace thought to himself. “We’ll hide for now. I can far step us out if I judge the encounter unsafe.”

“Why not now?” Jace mumbled. Cedar waved his hand to silence him, then the old fox took Jace’s arm to pull to cover behind some thick foliage.

“Not every encounter will be hostile.” Cedar kept his voice low as they hid in the brush. “Besides, I have a couple of obligations.” Cedar had told Jace of his various ties and obligations to different therian clans. He guessed this was just one of those. The pair didn’t have to wait very long. Jace could smell the trio minutes before they were close.

He could smell the scents of other Reynards. Of three males, one felt…. Older. The sun had dipped behind the mountains, darkening the area Jace and Cedar were camping, with only the white hot embers giving any light. “Be quiet for a moment.” Cedar warned as the first emerged and two more followed shortly behind.

They wore dull grey travel cloaks which were tucked behind their shoulders like they were capes, the bottoms of which were jagged and ripped. The younger two had quivers slung around at their hips next to knee high kilts of similar ware. They had short bows in hand, relaxed from what Jace could discern.

“There’s two more braves trailing.” Cedar told with a low voice. Jace didn’t reply back and sniffed the air. There were two more. He went back to watching the trio come upon their campsite. He heard a few barks and yips of communication between braves while the older Reynard looked around. That older one wore a small triangle covering that draped over shoulders and covered the chest. Patterned with earthy colours and a dark blue. And held in his hand a spear. Or was it a stave? Jace couldn’t tell.

Jace closed his eyes and attempted to hear the trio out. “Two of our own kind were just here. An old man who stinks of pipe weed and a young boy who stinks of uncertainty.” “We must have spooked them… looked like they were camping here.” The younger two spoke. “I can smell a fresh kill too…” A few thoughts went through Jace’s mind, if these were the locals. They might take umbrage to Jace and Cedar going hunting on their lands. Or maybe why there was an old fox and a youngster doing this far out. Also, could they really smell his emotions out like that? So many questions.

“They were here for a while.” The older one spoke in a gruff tone as he continued to observe around the area. “They did not go far either.” The older Reynard looked straight in Jace’s direction. Jace felt a familiar feeling crawl over his skin. It meant the leader was a mage that was at least half a century old or more. With the experience to back it up. Jace felt a lingering presence across his body. Next few moments became drawn out. The leader must have noticed Jace was watching, as he didn’t react. The braves accompanying him noticed the pause and readied their bows.

The older Reynard bade his followers to lower their weapons. “I know you’re both there. You can stop hiding. We have no quarrel with you,” he said with a flat and calm voice.

“That remains to be seen.” Cedar cautioned as he slowly got onto his feet from under the bush the pair was hiding under. “Up, follow me and make no sudden movements.” the old fox gestured. Jace did as instructed and put his hood up to shadow his face, and tucked the rest of the travel cloak around his front. He was out of his depth here.

Cedar spoke loudly. “If you excuse the caution. We honestly did not know anyone was out this far into the interior.”

“I can only offer my apologies for startling you. We were tracking some Hume poachers that trekked past here.” The leader replied, pointing the end of their stave toward Cedar and Jace, studying the two. “Now… Who are you two? You’re not ours.”

“Just an old man helping this young ward through his first hunt. My name is Cedar of the Damp wood Silvers.” Cedar explained calmly. Jace wondered if this was the correct thing to say when the party before them was looking for some poachers.

The party leader paused for a moment. “Why don’t you come down here? I would rather not give out my voice from shouting to you.” The leader replied. Jace could see the Reynard’s voice being projected by mana, the liar. But Jace supposed the mage didn’t want to waste their energy right now.

It looked to Jace that Cedar was weighing his options and chose the one Jace was most uncomfortable with, going down to meet the three soon to be five clan Reynards.

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“So what might your name be, young brave?” Ellery of the Lake Scarlets was the name and clan of the leading Reynard of the skulk, with a dark auburn patterning and a salt and pepper orange mane. To Jace, Ellery smelt past his prime. The others, ranging from orange, red and auburn, were just young men. They smelt of sweat, like a long day’s worth of travel. Jace felt uneasy and did his best to suppress that feeling. Being called brave meant that he wasn’t considered a child anymore, but rather a teenager or a young adult. Cedar and Ellery had been exchanging small talk for a while, mostly about Jace’s mishaps of tracking and hunting game. The group had lost the trail of the poachers they were following, so decided to just rest before they trekked back to their clan’s caravan.

“It’s just Ashwood…” Jace replied. He had kept his hood up, while he was clearly some type of Reynard. He knew he looked nothing like everyone else there. Ellery respected Jace’s shyness, the other’s side nothing but their body language when Jace looked around made it plain they didn’t. They maintained a respectful distance, however, scouring the locale with their gazes.

“No clan? No family?” Ellery inquired as they sat around. The leader shifted in place. Jace had relit the campfire.

Cedar spoke in his place. “A good friend of mine has a habit of taking in strays. The boy here only has her as his guardian.” With a practised and rather fake sounding sad sigh. “And has next to no recollection of any family.” Jace found that hurtful.

Jace added to the tale being spun by Cedar. “I wouldn’t forget the day my mentor found me…” And explained to Ellery what had happened that day. Leaving out the part where it began in a library. And letting slip, he was being trained as a mage, much to Cedar’s chagrin.

Ellery chuckled and smiled. “I’m surprised you lasted long enough for someone to notice and save you. Count yourself very lucky, pup. You don’t just simply outrun Orcus like that.” The leader turned his gaze to Cedar as he got up, dusting himself off. “I would ask if you would part with the boy, but he clearly belongs to another. He clearly has a good foundation going on under that fur. It would be a shame if such talent went to waste.” That’s some high praise, Jace thought.

“I don’t think he would appreciate me doing that.” Cedar said bemusedly.

Ellery’s look became stern and more serious as he lent up on his stave. “Anyhow, I suggest that you two leave as early as you can. The other hunt leaders wouldn’t be as… hospitable as me if they crossed paths with the pair of you.” Ellery turned to leave, with the rest of his hunting party starting to follow. He then looked back at Jace. “I suggest you go to Allsmeet, if you ever get the time.” then started walking back they all came. There was no goodbye.

Jace raised his hand and waved politely. Then he looked to Cedar. “What the hell is Allsmeet?”

“Nevermind you that.” Cedar sighed and laid back on the ground. “We need to go. I planned for a month… and I really should teach you how to veil yourself.”

“So we don’t get caught hunting on clan land next time?”

“There won’t be a next time, Ashwood.” Cedar responded sternly. “That could have gone very wrong. I should have just farstepped us away. But no, I had to be friendly, and you spilled your guts.” Cedar had gotten Jace there.

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Cedar had taken Jace elsewhere for the next two weeks. And it was relatively uneventful. They had caught a few more deer. So during that time, Jace learned how to render his own gate and mana invisible to other mages from Cedar. Veiling was like exercising a muscle. It took time to learn. It also had limits. With his senses, when Cedar veiled himself, even with his eyes closed he could hear, feel the barest hint of living mana radiating from Cedar.

That is, if he wasn’t looking for someone, if Jace wasn’t feeling out for Cedar, he would have thought the mangy old fox had disappeared. Leading Jace to wonder how bright Evaliena’s gate was if she unveiled it. She’s always veiling her power, and Jace noticed it dim even more every time they left the keep to buy supplies. Fictional situations from his old world played from his mind should Evaliena lift her veil around him. He did not want to think about the reaction he would have.

When satisfied with Jace’s progress, Cedar’s proposed test with his veil was to trot into the keep ahead of the old fox and see how long it took for Evaliena to realise he was there. Jace didn’t think he had progressed as quickly as Cedar suggested… But Jace, however, was curious about how Evaliena would react, no matter how his gut feelings felt on the matter.

With Cedar Far stepping back to the valley. Along the gravelly path heading up the Keep and its courtyard. Jace glamoured himself and veiled his power. He raced ahead of Cedar on his four paws. Jace glanced back to look over his shoulder. The old fox was taking his sweet time to walk up the path. So he ran, pressing himself up against the courtyard wall and peering around the ajar gate. Normally there were a few out in the courtyard tending to tasks or just enjoying the cold mountainside air. He was lucky, not a single other Reynard insight.

He wasn’t ten steps from the Keep’s door before he became paralyzed from the neck down with a black furred hand grabbing him by the back of his neck. “O-o-oh, Hello Baysil…” He couldn’t see but the scent was familiar.

“Ashwood?” Baysil sounded ever so slightly surprised as he turned him around so she could see Jace’s face. “What are you doing skulking about? And where’s Cedar?”

“H-h-he’s walking up the path just now.” Jace hastily replied as he struggled to move. “Baysil, can you at least put me down? I can’t move!” Baysil rolled her eyes and put Jace down. He shook out and stretched. “I bet the old man is cackling to himself right now.”

“Oh, he put you up to sneaking into the keep undetected, huh?” Baysil curled the backs of her hands against her hips. “Sandal already noticed the pair of you when you arrived.” And sent Baysil out to greet them, Jace assumed. “I’ll wait for Cedar. Go inside and eat.” And the past month of travelling and hunting was soon forgotten once Jace got a bowl of flavourful stew inside him along with a comfortable pillow to lay on.