Chapter 3: Early Morning Hunt
Callum yawned as he walked down the steps towards the dining room. He could already smell breakfast waiting for him.
As it turned out, it wasn’t the only thing.
Callum walked into the dining room to find his family seated around the table. To his surprise, Uncle Devon was there as well. Neither he nor Callum’s parents looked particularly happy. Nicholas was the only one present eating his meal, all with a rather bored expression on his face.
Their mother, Ivy, eyed Callum nervously as he sat down, wringing her hands as she looked from him to his father.
What did I do this time? Callum wondered. He brushed a few strands of messy red hair aside as he picked up a forkful of eggs. I didn’t sleep in that much, did I?
“Callum,” his father, Wallace, said, his voice carrying the gruffness that told the boy he wasn’t going to like was he was about to hear. “There was a report of an incident last evening. It would seem a pair of children were chased by some mana beasts .”
“Anyone hurt?” Callum asked, swallowing his eggs.
“Thankfully, no,” Wallace replied. “I doubt we’d be able to keep things as quiet as they are otherwise. The guard is already organizing a hunting party to remove the beasts. Your uncle came to ask for your assistance, which I have already approved.”
Callum decided to ignore no one asking if he himself approved. Gods knew he shouldn’t go expecting that. Best just to eat his eggs while his father finished. At least he could have a full stomach before whatever he was being signed up for.
“Devon thought it’d be a good opportunity for you,” Wallace continued. “Frankly, I’m in agreement. About time to see you put some of that education I paid for put to use.”
“Fine,” Callum remarked. This is what he gets for taking an interest in something at school. “When do you need me, uncle?”
“As soon as your done eating,” Devon said. “Get your hunting gear and meet the party in the southern district in an hour. They’re meeting at the Split Helm before leaving the city.”
The southern district? Figures mana beasts would be skulking around there.
“I’ll send a messenger to inform them that you’ll be joining.”
Devon gave a quick bow before taking his leave.
“Hey!” Callum called after him. “Send a message to Insuke while you’re at it. Tell him to meet me there.”
With that bit of business done, Wallace finally dug into his plate of eggs and sausages. Nicolas didn’t look up from his own meal, having largely ignored the conversation. Ivy reluctantly began eating, casting glances towards Callum between bites.
Callum sighed as he took a bite of toast.
Such was a typical morning in the Caravet home.
* * *
The Split Helm was a small, if old, tavern. a block off the main road through the Elven Quarter near the city gate. Drinks on tap were decent and the food was nothing to write home about. It sat tucked behind a few workshops a stone’s throw from the district’s guard barracks.
So, naturally, it was one of the most envied watering holes in the city.
The guards were regular customers, often dropping by to drink a portion of their day’s pay after serving their shifts. Brawls were kept to a minimum as even the routiest drunk would think twice before throwing hands in a pub that had at least three off-duty guardsmen being served at any given moment.
Fights would have been non-existent if not for two factors. The first being that guards themselves weren’t above the occasional overindulgence after a long patrol. The second factor was simply marketing. A pub that had no fights at all tended to garner a certain reputation. Not necessarily a bad one, more like one that was a little too good. It attracted the wrong sort of customer, that being the sort of customer that ended the day with a single mug of cider and a quiet meal. A little routiness was good for business.
At least that lot ordered refills. Lots of them when they got going.
Currently, the requisite trio of guards sat at the bar, nursing mugs of ale as they killed time for the rest of their team to arrive.
“Why’d we ‘ave to get stuck with ‘im?” one of them, a dirty-blonde fellow with thick stubble, grumbled. “We gotta ‘unt and they stick us with babysitting duty.”
“Ah, it aint that bad,” the other guard, his mustache weighed down with the ale it had absorbed, assured. “Lil highborn’ll just stand at the back while we’re doing the work. Old man probably stuck him with us to get him out of his hair for a bit. We just gotta make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. Tell ya, Evans… play our cards right and we might get a few extra coins outta this.”
“Yeah?” Evans remarked. “You might ‘ave a point there, Dillan. What about you, sarg?”
The third guard lowered his mug as he looked over at his peers. “I’d say the two of you talk too much.”
“Why’s that?” Dillan asked.
“Ahem.”
Evans and Dillan snapped around in their seats, nearly spilling their drinks in their haste. Standing not a half-dozen paces away was a young man in sturdy hunting garb, a rough-spun olive-green cloak wrapped around his shoulders. It wasn’t quite the attire they expected the son of a lord to be wearing. Perhaps more resplendent clothes were reserved for the first heir instead of the eldest son. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest and a cheeky grin on his face, though the smile didn’t seem to reach his eyes.
Beside him stood an elf in similar attire, his black hair tied back in a short ponytail. Evans and Dillan ignored his crimson eyes and pretended to take interest in the crow perched on the Yoru’s shoulder.
Scrambling, Evans and Dillan stood at attention. “Lord Callum, sir,” the latter exclaimed. “We didn’t hear you come in, sir.”
“Obviously,” Callum remarked with a chuckle as he approached the third guardsman at the bar. “Sergeant Leon, I’m here to assist with hunting the mana beasts.”
Leon drained his mug before looking at the lad. “The commander already informed me. Says you want some experience in the field instead of the classroom, that right? Well, not my place to question who he wants to saddle me with. The knife-ear behind you his idea, too?”
“Insuke’s the best tracker I know,” Callum replied. “Been serving on my family’s hunting parties for years.”
“That so?” Leon remarked, eyeing Insuke. “Well… guess this what they’re supposed to be good at. So, tell me: what do you know about our assignment?”
“Couple of civilians had a run in with some mana beasts last night before final bell,” Callum said. “Council wants them cleared out and quietly before any merchants hear about it. Am I forgetting anything?”
Leon shrugged. “That’s the gist of it. We passed the description of what the guards on the wall saw. According to them, we’re hunting dusk wolves. Either of you got experience with them?”
“Not firsthand, no,” Callum admitted. Dusk wolves… what had the bestiary said about them? If memory served, they were a fairly low-class mana beast. Behaved about the same as normal wolves, just a bit hardier. “Insuke, what about you?”
“Not this particular type,” the Yoru said calmly. “I do have experience hunting mystic beasts back home, though.”
Leon drained his mug and set it down on the counter. “Well, that’s more than my lot’s got,” he said. “We’ll follow your lead, knife-ear.” The sergeant’s words earned a grumble from Evans and Dillan. He quieted them both with a stern look. “Anything we should know before heading out?”
“Yes, no magic,” Callum stated matter-of-factly. “Mana beasts are drawn to wells of mana. Anyone using spells would alert them long before we saw them.”
Leon raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t that make your friend here’s a bit of liability then?” he remarked.
“No. I should only need Kumo to help track the beasts.” Insuke pointed to the crow on his shoulder. “Our bond uses minimal mana. Not enough to stand out amongst the natural currents of the forest.”
“That so?” Leon drawled, his tone skeptic. “Anything else?”
“Be careful where you aim your strikes,” Insuke replied matter-of-factly. “The Ore magic in the beasts gives them strong hides.”
Callum nodded. “Best aim for underneath if you can. Skin’s not as thick there.”
“Maybe we can get ‘em to roll over, eh?” Evans whispered, nudging Dillan in the ribs.
“Then we get ‘em to play dead,” Dillan snorted.
“Yeah, and you’ll be the treats,” Callum remarked, rolling his eyes.
He really hoped these two made a better impression once they got outside the city. Otherwise, he might have some questions with his uncle over how these hunting parties were formed. Short notice could only explain so much.
Leon stood from his stool and made his way towards the door. Callum and Insuke followed, the latter staying close behind the former. Dillan and Evans drained what remained in their mugs before standing, picking up their cloaks and weapons from the rack by the pub’s door.
The barkeep waved them off, collecting the empty ale mugs and preparing a set of fresh ones as a new trio of guardsmen walked in to replace the old.
Insuke and Sergeant Leon lead the hunting party out of the southern gate and down the dirt path through the woods. The crow on Insuke’s shoulder flapped its wings and took to the skies while the rest marched down a dirt path through the woods. The report had said that the dusk wolves retreated this way after they finally gave up on clawing the gate. Pity it didn’t include where the civilians had encountered the beasts originally. No one had even seemed to note their names, let alone take a statement from them.
Callum had wanted to ask about that. He wasn’t ignorant of the reputation some of the guards had, but would it have really been so hard to take down basic information about the incident?
Perhaps half an hour passed before Insuke suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked to the side. A beat later, a series of caws broke the air.
Insuke lead the into the foliage, following the invisible trail of his bird.
The hunting party moved cautiously through the foliage, hands on their weapons. It was hard to tell how much time had passed when Insuke signaled for them to stop. Without a word, he clambered up a nearby tree.
“Wha he doin’?” Dillan whispered, leaning on his spear.
“Scouting,” Callum hissed back before putting his finger to his lips.
Insuke silently slipped down from the branches a moment later. “There are three dusk wolves thirty yards from here,” he quietly announced. “If we stay up wind of them, we may be able to ambush them now.”
Callum and the guards nodded. They began circling around with care. Soon, Callum ended up crouched besides Evans while Insuke lead Leon and Dillan a little further on. Best to have two angles of attack versus one.
Peering through the foliage, Callum could see the dusk wolves. Just as Insuke had said, three of the beasts were laying in the shallow valley of the forest. They had arranged themselves around what seemed to be a hole in the ground.
A part of Callum was more than a little excited to see the beasts. It was a world of difference from reading about them in his bestiary. Pity they were here to hunt them.
Another part of him, though, felt something off about this. Why were the wolves out in the open? Everything Callum had read about them described them as den animals. They used caves and such for shelter. They had no protection here. Not from the elements nor from them.
Callum was pulled out of his thoughts by the chirps of a bird call echoing through the air. Insuke’s signal. He and Evans unslung their bows and nocked their arrows. Pulling his bowstring back, Callum silently counted down from-
Snap!
Callum turned just in time to see a dusk wolve pounce from the bushes and sink its teeth into Evans’s neck. The guard gave a gurgled cry of pain, loosing his arrow as it flew wide of its target.
Callum unsheathed his short sword and stabbed down on the dusk wolf’s neck. The beast gave a weak whimper before dropping still.
Crunch.
Another wolf jumped through the bushes, this one from the clearing. Callum managed to twist around to face it. The world tilted and he found himself on the ground with the dusk wolf above him.
The beast snapped its jaws, flecks of red dripping from between its onyx teeth. Callum felt the pommel of his sword dig into his ribs. From the warm wetness coating his hand around the hilt, he knew that the opposite end was doing the same to the wolf.
Callum twisted the blade, eliciting a pained howl. He used the instant to shove the wolf off of him.
The beast tried to get up only to collapse as the pool of blood beneath it grew.
Panting, Callum got to his feet and kept his sword at the ready for any other attacks. He glanced towards Evans and let out a curse.
The guard laid as still as the wolves around them. His entire uniform was stained red. His eyes were still open, still full of pain and fear.
Callum fought to keep his breakfast down.
Some morning this turned out to be.
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