Towering, thorn-covered trees provided shade to the young hunter stalking through the wild. Well, as wild as the forests can be near the city of Tusc. Aliose thought about the stories his grandfather used to tell him as we wandered along a small game trail. Before the fracture this land used to be desert, crisscrossed with stone and metal roads, made so great metal beasts could carry people from place to place.
He smiled, his grandfather liked to tell tall tales. Really, metal dragons with fire in their wings? He chuckled, then focused up ahead as birds took flight, their indignant screeching disrupting the midday silence. The brush rustled about thirty steps ahead of him and out hopped a rather fat grazing rabbit, a wild buu. Coming up to his shoulders in height, almost five feet tall, the furry animal likely weighed three times as much as the twelve-year-old, luckily it was a docile creature unless protecting its young. Aliose, slowed his breathing, focusing intently, and using the small amount of qi within him he began to tamp down the scent coming from his body. The rabbit had taken no notice. Vigorously consuming juniper branches, only occasionally sniffing the air, and adjusting its ears in response to the sounds of the forest. He felt a headrush sensation from the use of qi through his only meridian. The river of energy he had carved looped through his large intestine and awakened his ability to control qi to a small degree. His grandfather wasn’t here when he had cleared his first blockage, only his mother knew, but she was too sick to have much of a reaction. I wonder what he would say about my meager imitation of him, Aliose thought to himself.
His Father and grandfather were gone, his mom sickly, and food nonexistent, much like their wealth. All this pushed him out here, a half day’s walk from the city. If he could take this beast down, they would have enough to last till the first spring vegetables, and maybe afford to apprentice at a local smith. In his hands he gripped his spear tightly. A gift made by his father before being swept up into the army. Blacksmiths were in high demand, especially blacksmiths who had minor success in cultivation. The solid iron spear was much shorter than the ones used by adults. Having been made by metal scraps the local guilds often had in abundance. Aliose shook himself from his stalling, he needed to end this before he startled the rabbit.
One foot in front of the other, Aliose positioned himself slowly to throw his spear. The throw itself was nothing to be proud of. Putting too much weight forward during his throw he stumbled, alerting his target. The metal struck a hind leg causing the fleeing rabbit to crash into a tree before tumbling down a ridge. “Gods remember me.” He cursed, chasing after the dumb animal. Weaving through the foliage he crossed the distance at a sprint.
Looking into the valley below he could see blood fur and his spear at the base of the ridge a fresh path of broken plants led his gaze towards the now shuffling animal. He sighed in relief and took his time descending, grabbing his spear. Hunt completed in his mind; he took his time following the rabbit until he heard the laughing bark of a yote. A scavenger coming to steal a meal, and worse ruin the fur. Instead of trying to throw his spear again and risk missing he built up speed, and held his weapon closer to the spear tip. Up ahead he watched as the yote clung to the rabbits neck its jaw convulsing as it tugged the prey towards the earth, the thin beast looked the very image of disease and rot. Angry, he collided with the scroungy dog, spear briefly grinding against ribs until finally finding purchase in between. Slamming to the ground, he tried to extract his weapon only to find teeth, made for shredding rotten flesh, clamping into his left forearm. Good sense overrode instinct as he screamed in agony, struggling to pull his weapon free. A flash of inspiration and he gave up on trying to remove the spear, choosing to press the metal deeper into the yote. The animal released his arm yelping, spraying blood. He weakly punched at the side of its too long snout dazing the creature. Giving him enough time to pull his skinning knife out and strike over and over again.
The yote and rabbit finally lay still. Thoughts of previous hunts filled with laughter and triumph hung heavy in his heart. He wrapped his forearm in his shirt and started meditating. Hoping he could stop the bleeding fast enough to take his kills back towards civilization and safety. Breathing in and out he guided his pitiful qi towards the wounds on his arm and allowed it to be consumed by his recovering body. Unguided, the qi erratically gave vitality to his injury, most of the energy burning off while one part in 100 actually restored his body. For an hour he focused like this as he allowed months of cultivation to slip away because of a stupid yote. Concentration broken he stood up, his arm still bled but much slower, the pain lessened now. He could begin the journey back, and hopefully avoid attracting something stronger.
~~~
The sun set fast, and Aliose set his burdens down. The four-hour hike home had turned into an ordeal. He had never had to carry his kills back alone, and injured at that. After butchering the animals, it had taken him five hours just to reach the halfway point to the city. He knew he wouldn’t get much for the furs or meat. Lucky for him a small fingernail fleck of a spirit stone was recovered from the grazing rabbit. Depending on the stone’s attunement; if it was in demand, it could make the whole trip worth it. He focused on starting a fire and preparing dinner.
Distracted, he never heard the pair of hunters approach from behind, until they were already sitting down next to him, helping themselves to the cooking meat.
“Bah, is this yote meat? What is wrong with you boy?” a burly-faced hunter asked. His companion, midway through taking her own serving, stopped and made a disgusted face.
“I wanted to save the rabbit meat for the market tomorrow, sir.” He bowed his head until he stared at the ground, at the mercy of the adult hunters. Heart rate pounding, he could sense the hints of a wild, no a primal aura in the air around them. He briefly wished he could sense their cultivation, but then realized it didn’t matter if he knew specifics. The strength their aura projected was leagues stronger than him.
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“Isn’t that nice Tance? He saved us the rabbit meat so we could take it to the market tomorrow.” The other hunter said, she sat against a tree relaxing with one hand on the fur wrapped meat. Her wiry defined muscles, and tanned skin hinted at a lifetime of roaming the wild.
“Of course,” Aliose choked out. He tried not to be too bitter about the situation. As long as they didn’t take the spirit stone the trip wouldn’t be a complete failure.
“Come don’t be like that. We’ll make a trade with you, young hunter. For this meat I will give you some advice. Look at me.” The women said. Tance, stood gathering up their spoils, choosing to leave the yote meat and fur behind. Aliose had slowly looked up, his instincts telling him to run, but unable to because of the qi imbued in her command. For the first time Aliose was acutely aware of his mortality. Something inside him had curled up into a ball, protecting itself.
“The only things you truly own are the things no one stronger than you cares to have. Get stronger, lest you continue gathering for others.” She smiled, a cunning, devilish grin. With that she left the campsite moving amongst the thick vegetation with inhuman grace, completely silent.
Aliose breathed easy for a moment, he ate his food mechanically, while his mind raced and his bruised soul throbbed. It felt like heartache. The hunter’s parting words stuck in his head. He thought about his family’s small shack, a snuffed-out forge, their pitiful garden plot, and the uncertain future they all faced. Nobody who could really cared to take any of it. When he finally laid down to rest, sleep came easy, his thoughts drifted off into dreams about his father’s forge, and the safety he hadn’t felt in so long.
~~~
The road to Tusc was quiet this morning. No one else would rob me at least, Aliose glumly thought. In the distance he could see the towers and masonry of the city. Unlike other cities his grandfather had told him about, this one didn’t have a wall all the way around, but a fortified central seat of government that was the center of sprawling streets and buildings. The building materials becoming more mundane and cheaper the further one was from the center. His pace picked up, he adjusted the pack of yote meat and fur. He sighed, save for the spirit stone this trip was a complete waste.
Reminded of his potentially huge prize Aliose sped up a little. If the attunement worked out, he could get the tools and materials he needed to fire up and use his father’s forge again. That area of their property had become an unacknowledged, lost fixture in his families lives. Grandfather will find him and bring word back, or maybe even bring father back. Aliose mentally prayed to Kezzen, pleading for his father’s return, if it wouldn’t trouble the god of fate too much.
Beneath his feet the worn dirt track turned into qi poured stone. Along the road he could see fields in various stages of growth. Some industrious farmers were already on their 3rd harvest this year, while most were still in the beginning stages of growth for their 2nd set of crops. Being able to guide the growth of fields using qi always fascinated him, he watched a father, son team meditating in their field. He could feel a slight pull on nearby environmental qi. If he was a real cultivator, he would probably have the means to see the flow of energy he felt and see how they diffused it into their fields. He smiled, his relatively small city may have been lacking in those on the path to immortality, but there were plenty of Qi users amongst the craftsmen and laborers.
Another hour of walking, and his path diverged off the main path into a large cluster of shops and houses. Most had a decent amount of spacing between them, something his grandfather was often vocally grateful for. Alongside the road workers were clearing a drainage ditch, with one of those workers being Gent. Upon seeing him, Gent tossed down his shovel and jumped into the street. Aliose had never seen the seven-foot-tall fifteen-year-old doing anything but work.
“Aliose! Is that a yote?” Gent demanded, looking unimpressed.
“I took down a decent sized buu as well. But there were much stronger hunters out there. I had to give it up” I shrugged, it was a bit embarrassing to admit, but the idea of coming back with only a mangy yote pelt felt worse.
“This is why you should work in the city like me. I Don’t have to worry about my hard work getting stolen. And there are way more beautiful women in the city” Gent laughed to himself. Aliose barely stopped himself from pointing out that this was his punishment for peeping on the aforementioned “beautiful women” at one of Tusc’s many travel lodges. Aliose, baffled again by his friend’s apparent lack of remorse.
“Once I have the funds gathered for an apprenticeship, I shouldn’t need to worry about venturing out anymore. Are they letting you go to the hall for classes tomorrow?” I asked him.
Gent instantly looked bored “They’re was no getting out of it sadly.” The city magistrate provided free and basic courses for children across the region. Many places provided the same sort of courses to improve the population and teach basic cultivation practices. It didn’t compare to the cultivation resources provided by more prestigious institutions, but it was better than nothing for those still finding their path. With Gent being an orphan and delinquent, he was likely forced to attend.
“Anyway, enough of that I’m challenging you to a spar tomorrow. I’ve thought up a new martial technique I want to try.” Gent said as he went back to work hefting his flat shovel with a gleeful look in his eye. Nearby workers shook their heads in exasperation.
“I look forward to gaining firsthand experience with the shovel arts.” Aliose smirked, mock bowing, and walking away. Gent had yet to find a weapon he wanted to specialize in. For someone his age that was also pursuing a career in combat, it was more than odd, it was completely unheard of. The visiting masters at the hall had long given up on trying to convince him of his folly.
Walking again, Aliose reflected on his own martial specialization. It was a decision he would need to make soon since he would be turning thirteen in a month. Really, he wished he could focus more of his time on forging. It just wasn’t something the halls could cheaply instruct people in, and without his father here he couldn’t afford the fuel and metal to practice. He clenched his fists, wondering what the point of this war was.
Arriving home, he checked on his sleeping mother, it didn’t seem like she had gotten any worse while he was gone. After he hid away the spirit stone in his room, he noticed an open letter on the table. The handwriting was instantly recognizable to Aliose. He snatched at the writing scanning the words as fast as possible. Relief washed over him. Well, this changed things.