Vhalar 73, 718
Today was a big day for both Aetu. For Aetu, it would be her first day of hunting with guidance. She’d went out hunting before but she’d never gotten so much as a single kill. She was usually clueless when it came to killing animals because it was pretty darn difficult to get close enough to kill most things. Not for lack of trying, mind you. She’d spent entire days trying to sneak up on gazelle only to have them flee at the sound or smell of her. And for animals that could fight back, like a rhino, Aetu wasn’t about to try fighting something like that anyways. A rhino versus a herself with a katana was a matchup that Aetu would hand to the rhino any day.
Today was also a big day for Aetu’s mentor, Cane. He had several decades sheltered within the walls of Yaralon with no particular urge to ever leave. It was only to teach Aetu that he even considered it. Having been a mercenary for most of his youth, the old man was wary of the many dangers outside Yaralon’s walls. He wasn’t quite ready to die yet. Not until he’d passed on all the knowledge he could onto his adopted daughter.
Both master and student met up at one of the gates to Yaralon, both riding their horses. They’d have brought enough food for a couple days, all of which would be stored in Aetu’s wagon. She’d bought that wagon a couple seasons ago when she decided to become a mercenary. She somewhat regretted her purchase because forming a mercenary corp didn’t really turn out all that well. She feared that the wagon would fall into disrepair before she finally got her chance to make it big and by that point she’d have to take a loan to get up to date gear.
“What in the world are you doing?” Cane asked with a raised eyebrow. Aetu was more or less tugging at her horse on foot to make it go where she wanted. It was anyone’s guess as to how she actually got it to arrive at the gate.
“I’m trying to control this damn beast,” Aetu replied with much effort, “he just doesn’t want to listen to me when there’s food to be eaten. I’ve had to pay for half a dozen apples already!”
“You’ve had that horse for this many seasons and you still don’t know how to control it? This doesn’t bode well. Stable your horse and we’ll take my horse today. A future mercenary that doesn’t even know how to properly put a saddle on a horse. Did you learn nothing over the years?” Cane waved over someone who would take the horse back out to where Aetu’s tent was. The white haired runewright looked embarrassed but it wasn’t like she was using her horse every damn day. It was expensive enough to feed the thing and she didn’t need it to get around in town.
“So how do I put a saddle on properly if you’re such an expert,” she retorted, “how can I be expected to know how to do it if you didn’t teach me?”
Cane narrowed his brow, “if you’re going to rely on me to teach you everything there is to know then you’re going to have a bad time when I’m gone. As for putting the saddle on, let me demonstrate.” He hopped off of his massive horse and took off the saddle. He put it back on and pointed out all the fastening points then had Aetu do it to demonstrate that she understood. When that was all over they finally began their trip out into the savannah.
“It’s going to be a while,” Cane said while pulling his hood over his head, “You’re going to be learning a new rune today. The rune of weakness. I’ve drawn it here so commit it to memory. And if you try to use it before I tell you to I’m going to beat you senseless. This rune isn’t something you want to ever play with in dangerous territory.” Cane passed back a scroll that had the rune of weakness scribbled upon it. Aetu pulled out a pen and started copying down the pattern while they rode. It was difficult to practice when the horse made her bump up and down with every step but she made do.
“So a rune of weakness,” Aetu said, trying to keep the conversation going, “what’s the point? I thought runes were supposed to enhance our bodies and magnify our senses. Why would I ever want to make myself weak?”
“Oh,” Cane said dismissively, “because there are runes that we want to use on our enemies. I’ve never gone over the more advanced aspects of the Hone discipline and I won’t go much into it today. The basics are that there are two types of runewrights. One side has the ability to place runes on others to gift enhancements to their allies. The other side, like you and I, have the ability to place runes on others to curse them. One such curse is the rune of weakness which essentially makes someone very weak in their affected limb.”
Aetu scratched her head, “I think I’m still having trouble understanding the point though. If I’m close enough and have enough time to scribe a rune into someone, won’t I just be better off skipping that and just finishing them off without taking the risk of failure? This goes against the whole mantra of not using runes in combat!”
“That’s why we put triggers on these runes and place them where they are most effective. Take that pack of gazelles for instance,” Cane let his horse come to a rest and pointed out some gazelles that Aetu would have never seen on her own. “Do you think an old man like me can catch up to those gazelles?”
Aetu responded instantly with a “yes.”
Cane smirked, “that’s besides the point. It’d be much easier if I made them so weak that they’d be easy to finish off. Here, I’ll show you how it’s done and you follow my lead.” Cane etched a rune into the dirt and whistled as he did so. “You must always tie your trap runes to a trigger or they will simply latch onto the closest limb which is probably going to be yours. I’m a particular fan of whistling because it can be heard from far away.”
Cane’s rune marked a circle about a dozen feet in diameter and shone with dark light. He let Aetu get a good look then he absorbed the ether back into himself. “Now you try.” Aetu sat onto the ground and drew out the rune with her finger as a practice run. Satisfied with the result, she traced over it again with her ether and etched the rune into existence. She found that all she had to do to increase the size of the rune’s boundaries just by pumping more ether into it. She found it addictive to feed her ether into the rune and had to force herself to stop before reaching dizziness.
Before releasing the flow the budding runewright let out a loud whistle and closed her connection to the rune. It was a very rushed process which left her with knowledge of how to place umbral traps but not how effective or when they would be useful. She felt rather unprepared for what was about to happen and was worried that maybe she hadn’t used enough ether.
“Uh, so now what?” Aetu asked.
“Now you sit in that bush over there and get your bow ready. Just wait for them to come wander into your trap. I’ll swing around and give them a bit of motivation.” Cane made a clicking sound with his mouth and off his horse went, circling around the large group of gazelle. Aetu sat and waited patiently for the herd to be rallied her way. She took position in a bush a couple yards from her runic trap and hoped for the best.
She couldn’t see Cane from where she was sitting but she could hear that the plan was set in motion. The footsteps if several dozen gazelle could be felt getting louder and louder as Aetu watched the rune intently. Most of the gazelle simply passed by, avoiding the rune entirely. But there was one poor gazelle that stepped into it, and that was when Aetu whistled. The gazelle’s leg shone with a murky black rune and it quickly tripped over itself. It was probably a terrifying thing to have your leg suddenly start giving out on you, especially when running from a predator.
“Shoot it!” Called Cane. Aetu couldn’t have been more than a couple dozen feet from the gazelle who was scrambling to get a grip on its situation. Aetu fumbled with an arrow and put it on the bowstring. It took her a couple tries to even nock the arrow and even then she had no idea how to aim the damn weapon. It was a good thing that she had ten arrows. She fired all ten of them at the gazelle, not one of them hitting or even coming close.
“That’s it, I’m using my swords,” she shouted. Cane tried to object but Aetu was annoyed now. She drew her katana and finished the gazelle off. She hauled her first animal kill into the wagon and must have spent an hour just retrieving her arrows.
“Get better and you won’t have to search for so long,” Cane joked. Aetu narrowed her eyes but she couldn’t be that mad. She’d done it, her first successful hunt!
