The forest wasn't far from the city. Being high-ranking soldiers from the army, nobody bat an eye when they saw lieutenant Thom and captain Valta casually strolling out of the city with their full equipment on.
They took the northern exit. As soon as they walked away from the walls surrounded by barricades and soldiers, their feet slowly took them to the forest. Thom didn't know if they should have brought a horse or similar, but he was fine with the space they had been given to talk. Although he already knew it, he further confirmed that evident trait of hers.
Valta Lockhart wasn't great at communication.
She was honest, nonchalant, short on words, and cold when expressing any sort of feelings. This led Thom to ponder if she would be fond of cute things, flowers, for example. He wondered if she would like to receive a bouquet together with candy, or if she would rather go to a field and pick them herself. What kind of color would someone like her like on the flowers? Would it be the same one as in clothes? What kind of clothes did she like the most, actually?
These questions didn't go unanswered. As Thom had surmised, she was an honest person. If she didn't have any heavy reason to hide something, she wouldn't. And even if she tried to, the awkward silences in her lies made it all too transparent.
"I like the ones along the coast." She answered. The wind seemed to blow against their face as they walked downhill towards the forest. "I don't know their name. But I like them."
Ah... How cute.
When they entered the forest, their first priority was to search for something they could hunt. If they were to have dinner over it, it would have to be something big. A deer, perhaps, but they weren't sure if they would actually find them there.
"I mean, deer are pretty common everywhere." Thom said, hopping on a stone, and balancing his feet to stay steady. "Even back home. And their meat is soft, too. Ah, if we're lucky, we may find a boar. I'm fine anything, really, but those are nice."
Valta agreed to his thoughts.
"Should we set a trap?"
Thom jumped and landed beside her. She seemed to shake her head. She pointed to her back as if signaling to a bow, but there was nothing there.
"I see. I'm sure killing the animal won't be a problem. But what about finding it?" He asked, closely and consciously looking at the ground. He was probably trying to find clues of an animal passing by, or something similar.
"We'll sense their aura." Valta muttered.
"...?" Thom raised his eyebrows and stopped. "Their aura? The definition of aura in Kuulkiam is: power emitted by the spirit of an intelligent organism or physical influence of an individual. It's uses vary depending on the subject, but every living being possesses one of a least a small size."
"Bookworm." She turned around and said.
"Me?" Thom quickly hopped to her side with a smile. "Oh, come on. I have not read nearly enough books in my life to be called that. I wish I'd read more books through the years, really! Maybe I'd know how to use or find that aura then."
Valta stopped and looked at him. She seemed to have been struck with a rock in the back of her head. What was so surprising about Thom's statement? Perhaps she had expected him to be able to use it from the start.
"Impossible. You've gotten this far without using it?"
Thom felt extremely embarrassed after hearing those words. If he thought about it, back then, even the soldiers from the lower battalion had managed to find him behind those crates without him making a sound. Could it be they had sensed his aura and pinpointed his location? If that was the case, he could only feel extremely embarrassed again, losing to the stationed guards at the headquarters' prison.
"Ah... Haha." He nervously laughed. "I was never properly taught, actually."
"Hm..." Valta pressed her finger against her lip, looking to a side as if thinking of something. Then, she lowered her hand and raised her head.
"What is it? Do you feel extremely disappointed in your lieutenant now?"
She shook her head. Thom was relieved that was the case.
"I bet you can feel it." She said. "It wouldn't make sense if you couldn't. Stand still."
Valta took three steps back and closed her eyes. She took her hands across her chest, and then down at her belly, gliding as they parted away at her navel and were put beside her waist. Then, abruptly opening her eyes, she looked at the mesmerized yet confused Thom, three feet away from her, and frowned.
"Hmph!"
She made a cute noise that blew Thom away. He felt a giggle coming up from his throat, as well as his cheeks redden. However, when the poor young man was about to tease the captain, he was literally blown away.
Bang!
He crashed against a tree behind him, feeling like a hundred arrows had hit his skin and none of them had failed to pierce it. He squirmed down to the ground involuntarily, puffing out in a complete loss, and ended up sitting on the grass. Surrounded by bushes and leaves falling down after the impact, Thom comprehended what aura was.
Preparing for the barrage of sounds in my head. He said, and half-opened his eyes to see Valta worriedly staring at him.
「Learning successful. The passive skill [Detect Aura] has been acquired. The user can now feel the presence of living beings nearby by receiving small strands of residue from the environment.
Learning successful. The dormant attribute [Aura] has been awakened. Trough the understanding of the living concept, the user has awakened the use of aura. All living beings possess their own distinct aura, which represents their physical influence in the plane they reside. Although originally a shapeless concept, aura can be used as a mechanism to exert your influence into the plane, and as such, become a conduit for energy.
Attempting to learn aura-related skills from the Forest's Repertoire. Attempt successful. The user is qualified for 3 out of 14.259 aura skills.
Learning successful. The active skill [Search Aura] has been acquired. The user can extend his aura outwards to explore the surroundings and find aura belonging to other creatures. The user will be able to tell them apart, but also gives away their own position.
Learning successful. The active skill [Aura Concealment] has been acquired. While using this skill, the user will be almost impossible to detect with passive perception, and others will need a high level of ability in active searches to find them. The user cannot make full use of his aura while in concealment.
Learning successful. The passive skill [Aura Control] has been acquired. The user can exert the power of his aura as deemed fit.」
"Are you okay?" Valta asked while lending him a hand to stand up.
"Yeah." He returned a weary smile and went back to his feet. "I think I get it now."
「The user cannot choose the color or presence of his aura, as he is meant to represent the will of the Fifth. The user's aura shall take the shape of one of the Forest's denizens.」
"Can we really use this for hunting?" He asked with a twist of his face.
"Yeah." She replied and nodded.
「The user qualifies for one color out of over five billion possible elections. Will you choose this color?」
What else could I do? Tsk, one out of five billion?
Valta didn't notice his sigh as she turned away from him.
「Aura acquired successfully. You have obtained the aura of The Heart.」
Thom sighed without having a clue of what any of that meant.
"Let's go." Valta pulled from his arm. "I think I found a boar."
They followed the track of what they thought to be a boar's aura through the forest. The further they traveled, the more often they started to see markings of destruction around the scene. Scratches on the trees that seemed to be made with massive tusks, footprints on the grass and the bushes, and even remnants of other smaller animals.
"Are you sure we're dealing with a boar?" Thom felt a bear was more probable to be the maker of such ruckus.
"Boars are omnivores. Very aggressive." She stated. Although short, her words could serve as enough information to tell him these were indeed made by a boar.
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It wasn't long until they started hearing pig-like noises a few meters ahead. From afar, the both of them could see a pair of tusks moving up and down with the animal's movements. Its tail flailed around like bait for other smaller animals in an almost hypnotic way. This much, he had already seen time and time again. However, Thom was surprised at its size— since when were boars the same size as a carriage?
"Valta, we may have found a demon and I wanna go find a no-demon, preferably." He whispered as he lowered his head.
"It's a giant boar."
"Yes, that much is clear." Thom said. "... Well, I'm new to this aura thing, but there seems to be more than one creature there, behind the bushes. Do they go around in packs or something?"
Valta looked at Thom as if he was spewing nonsense. She didn't seem to believe the same. That much was clear from her gaze.
The boar didn't seem to have noticed them yet, however, so Thom could be sure that those four auras would not be a problem. The boar was very busy chewing on plants and animal remains that were laid on the leaf-covered grass, he wouldn't be bothered to look behind.
Well... She can look at me like that, but I'm certainly feeling four other presences behind the bushes.
"It hasn't seen us yet... I definitely feel something behind the foliage. Maybe my aura sensing is just messed up?" Thom scratched his head.
"No. This is why hunting is in groups. Different senses. Different results. Let's hide and wait."
Valta pointed to the trees, and Thom sighed after he understood what her intentions were. Without an ounce of difficulty, Valta hopped against the trunk of the tree, and then pushed down on the bark. She jumped another six feet up and got ahold of a branch, pushed her feet back, and then upwards in an inhuman motion that made her land with her two feet on the branch's base.
"Come." She signaled him with her hand.
"Yeah... I think I might just stay behind the bushes." He whispered while pointing to the ground.
Thom covered himself behind the foliage in an angle where he could still see the boar's back clearly. At this point, he wondered if the beast really hadn't seen them, or if it just didn't care enough to tackle them. What mattered the most to him right now wasn't the boar, but the strange presences he was feeling and yet couldn't see.
Valta was whispering something to herself, but he couldn't catch what she was saying. He could only make a line between her eyes and the boar fifty feet away, and determine what she was looking at: the food the beast kept chewing on.
It was an unnatural amount of garbage. Rotten fruits, meat, bones, dirt, everything that a human wouldn't eat was sprawled and laid for the boar to rejoice himself. Thom squinted his eyes after having a spark of lucidity. Why would such an unnatural mountain of garbage be placed in front of the boar to eat? It couldn't have done it alone, could it?
That leaves the four presences behind the bushes as suspects. Could it be someone had planned to hunt it before we did? If that was the case, anytime now...
Just when Thom was starting to get impatient, he saw movement on the bushes.
"Ah!" He looked at Valta, who nodded at him.
Swoosh!
With a wet and disgusting sound, four spears exploded out of the bushes, and the boar was impaled from four different sides. All spears were tied up to a hemp rope at the end, looking extremely sturdy although crude, making the animal's hide be highly wrenched. The boar let out a pained wail and started to thrash around while trying to get the spears out of its fat, as it dug up dirt and threw it around.
"Hmph!" Thom stood up, but Valta quickly signaled him to stop. He had been about to jump at the scene thinking someone was going to steal their kill, but having set his impulse aside, he figured they would be the invasive party if they stopped the hunt now.
"Tie, tie!"
"Got it! Now, rope!"
They both started to hear voices. Voices so wet and hoarse that they sounded like rolling spit in your mouth instead of talking. Thom could discern every worn they spoke, but also immediately understood that it wasn't Kuulkiam what they spoke. It was a much more savage and dirty language than Kuulkiam.
"Goblins." Valta said.
"Should I go, then?"
Goblins. In Thom's lexicon, these beings belonged to a humanoid race with intelligence comparable to an elven child. They possessed weak bodies and were often enslaved or abused by other races, but this didn't mean they couldn't form communities, rules, and even families of their own. They were simply a race that had lagged behind in the social growth process.
However, in Thom's practical knowledge, which he had received from the missions he had to impart to his subordinates, Goblins were a fowl race that survived from theft and plunder. They often had to be forcibly chased down and exterminated like a plague, as they also possessed high reproduction rates. An average goblin gave birth to three or even five other goblins every year, and they reached sexual maturity after two years of being born.
So, as members of Pontya's army, the adequate reaction to this encounter would be hunting the boar and the goblins all together.
"They stopped hiding their presence." Valta frowned.
The goblins started to throw weighted nets at the boar, which ignored them and still crashed himself against the trees and the bushes trying to exterminate its assailants. However, because of their nimbleness and small bodies, they were hard targets and the boar started to frustrate very quickly.
"Snort! Eeeeeek!"
The boar tried to turn around to start running, but the goblins were quicker and threw more spears at its hind legs. The boar had begun to lose too much blood and was visibly dizzy. The goblins held each one rope. The boar, with weighted nets on it's back, had started to lose too much speed and the goblins did not have any trouble holding it back.
"I see. Lexicon may describe them as unintelligent creatures, but I don't think a child could do such a thing."
Thom was fascinated with the view of a humanoid creature he had never seen before besides crudely-drawn pictures. Valta, however, had already started to mutter some sort of incantation under her breath, and an orange bow had started to materialize itself in front of her.
"Hey!" Thom called for her in the lowest voice he could. "What are you doing?"
"Killing goblins." She said, and grabbed the grip of the bow.
"Ah... Right, they're monsters." Thom remembered the real reason why the army issued constant goblin-removing missions, and forgot all about his former fascination.
"Call their attention. I'll snipe them."
"With the boar that close?" Thom had already started unsheathing his sword, with a nervous face nonetheless.
"Yes."
"... Aye, aye, captain."
[Dash]!
Thom activated that skill he had recently acquired and rushed towards the group of goblins and the trapped boar. He covered a distance of fifty feet in less than a second, which made Valta feel reasonably surprised. He had lagged behind in the test, but now just so happened to be able to match her speed that easily? Valta felt lied to, but suppressed those feelings as she started to pull back the ethereal cord of her bow.
Thom jumped over five feet in the air with the high acceleration he carried, and before he could feel his balance lose up, he unconsciously activated his skill, [Vertical Slash].
And he chose to do what was the smartest— to attack the boar instead of the goblins at first. His blade struck against the flesh and dug deeper, cutting hard tissue without trouble.
Valta mentally gave him a thumbs-up as she saw the blood fountained out of the boar's thick nape, and saw the perfect opening for a good shot.
Splurt!
Faster than the eye could see, her ethereal arrow pierced through the air with a sharp and cutting noise, shooting trough the boar's eye and hitting the ground behind it. The boar fell to the grass with a limp tongue and a thunderous thump, completely dead.
Thom smiled as he turned around and saw the face of four red-colored beings staring at him with deep hatred and rage. They started to move against Thom with their weapons at the ready and bearing their sharp, ugly teeth.
"Stole! It stole the boar!"
"Dashed and killed it! We should kill it!"
The goblins were growling at each other, unaware that Thom could understand every word they said. Then, having a sudden idea, Thom didn't charge at them, but spoke.
"You fools!"
He shouted in a weird, gurgling noise. He could see from afar that Valta had immediately lowered her bow in confusion.
"You dare say I stole the kill from you, when you measly weaklings couldn't even secure it from others! I killed this boar, and it is mine!"
At that moment, Thom deliberately tried letting go of his aura for the first time. The goblins were all pushed back by the sudden change in atmosphere, and their legs started to tremble and their faces to cower.
Kek! I can't believe they fell for it!
"It talks! It talks!"
"And like chiefs, he talks! What do we do?"
"We can't kill him! He may be a chief! If the others find out, we die!"
The goblins all started talking with each other. Thom could see Valta getting down of the tree, and quickly walking towards him.
"What is this?" She asked.
"Just roll with it." Thom shrugged and smiled as he answered in Kuulkiam.
"Is this one a chief, too?" The goblins all looked at Valta, trying to discern any difference between her and Thom.
"Indeed!" Thom exclaimed. "And a very fine chief! Do not bother her, or I'll cut your heads right off."
The goblins all compliantly retreated, and put their weapons down. They showed Thom their empty hands while wrapped in fear and tremors, looking with sheepish eyes at him from below.
"You have interrupted my hunt, but I forgive you. Go look for another boar! Scram!"
He yelled, and let go of his aura again. This time, even Valta opened her always-narrow eyes, feeling Thom's aura exploding from so close.
"Yes! Yes! The chief is merciful and has let us go! Let's go!"
"We're grateful, we're grateful!"
The goblins all grabbed their nets and ran towards the same direction, leaving Thom and Valta alone with the dead boar on the bloodied grass. Taking the opportunity to break an awkward silence, Thom leaned against the body of the boar while crossing his arms, and looked at Valta with an impish grin.
"Sup." He nodded towards her. "Like my boar?"
"... I didn't know you could speak goblin."
Thom couldn't hold it in any longer and started laughing while covering his belly with his hands.
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Valta's Seventh Morning Coffee
by me