“That’s where we found the body,” Syl told Lorac as she pointed into the bushes from the road. “Just a few feet in.”
“To be clear, it’s where I found the body.” Kule puffed out his chest. He was obviously quite proud of himself. Nobody paid attention to him.
“I don’t see any tracks,” Lorac stated, kneeling down and examining the soft ground.
“Kids probably ruined them with all their fussing,” another hunter, Vacksin, said. “We’ll pick up the tracks deeper in the woods.”
“We didn’t ruin any tracks,” Rogar said, putting himself right in front of Vacksin and locking eyes with the older man.
“Now’s not the time,” Lorac said in his usual, even voice. The man rarely shouted, but everybody had learned to listen when he spoke. He turned to address the group, fifty-strong. “Vacksin, I want you to take your group into the woods here and head to the north. Gudar,” Lorac called to one of the other hunters. “Same thing, but you go south. I’ll go straight west from here.”
“There’s a river not far from here, on the other side of the road,” Edar spoke up, several hunters raising eyebrows at his boldness. “That may be obscuring its tracks.”
“It’s an animal,” Vacksin shook his head in disbelief. “It doesn’t hide its tracks. It doesn’t even know we’re hunting it.”
“I didn’t say it was actively hiding its tracks,” Edar clarified for the older hunter. “But I believe a Lake-Wolf is a creature of the water. It would make sense for it to stick to what it’s comfortable with.”
Before Vacksin had a chance to respond, Lorac stood. “Edar has a point.” His eyes shifted to Vacksin and made it very clear the time for arguing was at an end. It was time for hunting. “Falow, you know the river? Good. Follow it up-river. Hensel, you go downriver.”
The two hunters nodded and each began quiet discussions with their groups. With the five groups of the most experienced hunters given instructions, Lorac turned to Syl and the others. The seven almost-adults hadn’t been put in the hunting teams with the veteran hunters as Syl had expected. That only meant one thing: they weren’t really going to be involved in the hunt.
“I want you to comb every inch of this road and treeline back to the village,” Lorac instructed.
“No, we can help,” Rogar stated. He saw it the same way Syl did; Lorac was simply getting them out of the way.
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Lorac didn’t lose his patience with the younger man. “This is you helping,” he explained. “If the Lake-Wolf followed the road back to the village, what do you think would happen? With us out here, and all the other hunters spread out around the village, it would be defenseless.
“For us to do what we need to out there,” Lorac pointed to himself and the other hunters, “we need to know the people we care about are safe. You make sure we have a secure path back home. And that we have a home to come back to.”
Syl’s fist clenched at the dismissal. She could help. They all could. But they wouldn’t be able to change Lorac’s mind, that much was clear on his face. What’s more, he was probably right. “We’ll do what we have to,” she pushed aside her pride and told the lead hunter. A hand on Rogar’s shoulder, and the young man grudgingly nodded he’d follow her lead.
“Thank you, Syl,” Lorac said. To the rest of the hunters, he said loudly, “You all know what to do. If you find the creature, and you aren’t positive you can safely bring it down, send for help. I don’t want to see another pyre tonight.”
No other words needed, the hunters dispersed into the woods to follow their assigned trails. When only Syl and her friends remained, Rogar finally turned to look her in the eye.
“Why’d you let it go so easily?” he demanded.
“You know Lorac as well as I do,” Syl answered simply.
“You wanted to be part of the hunt as much as anybody here. As much as any of the adults,” he went on. He wasn’t going to let it drop.
“That’s not true,” she explained, and had to hold up her hands to get him to wait until she finished. “I want to protect the village. If Lorac tells me my part in that is to follow the road back, then that’s what I’ll do.”
“I agree with Syl,” Leeze said.
“That’s because you’re a coward,” Rogar said harshly. His face said he regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth, but he didn’t take them back. Instead, he stormed past Syl and stomped down the road. “We should get to it then,” he called without turning back.
“You’re not a coward,” Kule said, surprisingly gently to Leeze.
“No,” Leeze shook her head. She was fighting to hold back tears and her knuckles were white around her pendant. “He’s right. I am.”
Kule turned an angry look in Rogar’s direction. “Somebody should really teach Rogar how to speak to a lady.”
“He’d kick your ass, Kule,” Leeze said, but her lips turned into a soft smile.
“I said, somebody. Namely Syl. Rogar scares me,” Kule replied.
“Let’s get going,” Leeze said as she thumbed away an errant tear. “As much as it pains me to say it, Rogar’s right.”
“Doesn’t happen often,” Kule admitted. “Almost cause for another feast!”
“Didn’t you eat enough candied boar last night?” Reylo asked in astonishment. “One minute I saw you with a whole leg of it, the next all I saw were bones!”
“I shared,” Kule shrugged.
Syl just shook her head. Some people never changed. And that’s why she loved them.
“Leeze,” she said seriously, and everybody turned to look at her. “You’re in the middle. Reylo, Edar, and Kule, take that side of the road. Don’t spread out more than five or six feet from each other. Dena, we’ll take this side with Rogar. Same deal.
“Any objections?” Syl specifically looked at Rogar when she asked the question. He shook his head. Thankfully. “Good.”
Syl hooked her short bow on the quiver on her back and took her Sho-Val in both hands. “Be careful and watch out for each other,” she said, and then ducked into the woods.
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