New Arc's Eve

[Vega]

93rd Trial of Zi'da during Arc 716

The dawn would bring with it a new arc. If she were at home, they would be celebrating by eating and drinking, sitting on the deck of the boat and sharing stories and songs. She smiled as she thought of that, walking to the tree she looked up at the late afternoon sky. It was clear, and bloody freezing. Vega picked a star she couldn't see, but which she knew was there even in the light and touched her index finger to her mouth, her forehead and her chest. "કએઝઝબ ૭ઌળમકઈએબ, ઊએમકઇળ" she whispered in the Rakahi language. She'd agreed to meet Arlo here, the irritating but quite handy young farm boy who she'd met a few trials before. In fairness, he'd been a good sport when they met and went hunting and he gave as good as he got in terms of banter. That was very much the Biqaj way of being and it was a welcome break from the sheer wall of polite that was here. She'd never met so many polite people.

It was unnerving.

So, they'd agreed to meet here at his tree, with the aim of collecting some wood and stuff before the real cold of Cylus dropped in. She'd purchased a few things in preparation and she had, of course, her bow slung at her back and her longsword buckled at her waist. Her clothing was the same as it had been before, with one noticeable exception. On her head was a warm, woolen hat with flaps which covered her ears and which tied beneath her chin. It was thick and warm and she had to admit that it did work. She wore it, unashamedly, under the hood of her cloak. She had a bag slung over her shoulder, as always, which contained all her belongings.

"Ibiti sarkin," Vega grinned at him, sitting in the tree and she had to readjust her previous assessment. He wasn't swinging his legs and he still looked twelve. "That means 'good trial' in Xanthea, I've been taught. I know that and thank you, so if you're fluent, don't go further. How are you?" She didn't mention the hat, not because she didn't want to but because, in fairness, she thought he'd earned the right to raise the topic himself, all things considered. "So, I brought a sack to carry things in. Did you bring rope and stuff, like you said?"

As he joined her on the floor, Vega said, calmly, "Catch," and flicked a silver coin to him, watching it spin. "It's the eve of the new arc. Biqaj tradition is that you gift somene younger than you something that shines, before the darkness falls. Silver is best, it's like our blood. So happy eve of the new arc, Arlo." Bright green eyes regarded him and she gestured to the forest. "એઠઠ ૧ઌ૮કઇ૮, ૭એળ શરઇ," she said, the Rakahi language clearly very different to the Xanthea word she had spoken early. "It means, 'all wishes, bar one.' That's what we wish each other. All your wishes next arc, bar one. Keep that for the arc after. Do you have traditions for the new arc?" Vega glanced and raised a slightly skeptical eyebrow.

Off Topic

કએઝઝબ ૭ઌળમકઈએબ, ઊએમકઇળ = "Happy birthday, father"
20gn for the bottle of whisky (she'll pull that out later) + 1 gn for the hat deducted from ledger + 1sn for traditional gift.

[Arlo Creede]

They'd met just a short time ago by happenstance. And Arlo supposed they might be considered friends. Or associates. Acquaintances that might become friends maybe. He didn't think too much about the details or what to call it. But since Vega had come to think of the tree by the path, the branch a short distance off the ground as his, that's where he waited for her, up where branch met trunk with his back rested against it, one foot propped up and the other left dangling.

He wasn't exactly alone though he'd appear to be. Ever since Jesine had come along and marked him, he'd been followed by a small creature that apparently only he could see and hear. A fairy, he guessed, and while at first he found the little thing's chatter and enthusiasm distracting, Lyova had proven herself to be fairly good company during those long stretches of traveling alone. And in a pinch, she made a good nightlight to read by. "Where are we going? Who are we going with? Is it the lady with the red hair and the colorful eyes? I like her! What's her name again?" Lyova prattled on while buzzing about his ears and distractedly, Arlo reached up and brushed his own ear in response.

"You know, she's already accused me of being a kid. She sees me talking to the air like this and she'll say I've got an imaginary friend too," he grumbled. And Lyova's laughter in response sounded like something between a tinkling crystal bell and its echo. "Well you don't need to talk aloud, silly! I can hear your thoughts, remember?" Arlo shook his head and then shrugged. Right, he'd forgotten.

But luckily he remembered before Vega came along and found him there. "Nice hat," he said, and grinned as he dropped down from his perch. "Xanthea, is it? Ibiti sarken, then," he repeated, hoping to do the phrase some justice. "I brought the rope and more," he started, then she tossed him the copper and he caught it mid-flight. "Your blood is silver?" Now that was a new revelation and he'd want to write that down in his book. "Happy new arc to you too," he said when she told him what she'd said, and moreover, what her wish for him meant.

"I'm afraid not. I can only remember my parents having too much wine on the eve of the new arc, and headaches with the morning after." But reminded of the supplies they might need, and where they'd be going, he returned to the subject of the rope. "Like I said, I've brought that and more,"[/i] he told her, pointing just up the path where a shaggy brown mare was hitched to a small cart. There were a couple of rucksacks in it, one of them sure to hold a good deal of rope.

"I figured if we're looking for wood, and wanting to bring back a good amount of it, we'll need a way to haul it. Peg and that cart can help with that. She's steady, level headed and not given to flights of fancy. She ought to do fine," he told her as he walked to Peg's head and picked up her lead in order to pull her along. "Ready?" he asked. And if she was and they headed out, then sure enough there'd be a tiny teardrop shaped little creature floating along behind them, keeping up a string of chatter only Arlo could hear as she bobbed along on the breeze.

[Vega]

At least he wasn't swinging his legs this time, she thought and Vega wondered if he'd purposely not done so. When he complimented her hat, she couldn't supress a wicked smile. "Thanks. I thought it looked jaunty and proved that my head is, at least, functional. Not funny shaped." He caught the coin and she noted it. His reflexes were sharp, she hadn't doubted it but it was interesting to note. "Yes, all Biqaj have silver blood. In the night, you can see it under my skin. I glow a bit I suppose. So does my father, but it depends on your skin tone." It all seemed so normal to her and he seemed fascinated by it. But then, he was human and, so she was told, they didn't really change one from the other. At least he had the good grace to be interesting alongside, though, with the dreamwalking and the travelling and the touchy teen vibe he had going on.

"Well, we drink the new arc in, though not so much that we suffer next trial. Can't afford that when your wits keep you alive or make you dead. I've bought a bottle of whisky for this evening. You old enough for a swig?" Vega glanced at him with a slight frown and eyes which mixed vivid blue and dark green. "In Biqaj society you're considered an adult, for sure at seventeen and have been a few arcs now. What about with humans? Or come to that, this lot? If I offer you some whisky will a bunch of Sev'ryn armed guard leap out at me and haul me off for hangin'?" She didn't think it likely, but it was a fair point. "Though, a Biqaj doesn't leave the clan until they're twenty arcs. Then, they often take a new name and either join a new clan, stay with the old one or start a new one." It was why she had left, after all.

"Hello Peg!" Vega grinned at the horse and made her way to just gently introduce herself, her manner calm and apparently quite comfortable around the mare. "We often carried horses as cargo, I love them, I'd go spend breaks with them if I could." She'd never ridden one, of course, but such was the nature of cargo. "You're well equipped, that's great. I'm ready, aye."

So, into the forest again and she glanced over as they walked. "So, what have you been up to since I saw you last? Found anything interesting to keep in your hat?" The cold was biting and there was no doubt that Cylus was about to descend on them. As they walked, Vega looked out for good branches and bits of wood which might be collectable. But she kept her eyes out for other things, too, plants or herbs, moss or fungus. The woods were deep and darkness was soon to be a constant for them, so these last breaks of light were important. Vega knelt next to a set of tracks, unlike anything she'd seen before. "Arlo? What are these, do you think?" He might not be an expert, but he was the closest to one they had.

[Arlo Creede]

Arlo wasn't sure the hat looked particular jaunty on her, what with the ear flaps. But he could appreciate that she'd taken his advice and found it to be sensible. But when Vega explained more about the silver blood, his interest was piqued all the more. "You can see it at night?" he asked, just to make sure she wasn't teasing or making fun. But it wasn't unlike the blessing Jesine had given him. Under the moonlight, if the hair on the back of his neck didn't cover it, others might catch a glimpse of the silvery, web-like tendrils there.

"You brought whiskey?" he asked, nearly under his breath just in case there were others close enough to hear, maybe disapprove. Clear enough, he approved. "Of course I'm old enough" Did he know exactly what the proper drinking age was among humans, she asked? Not really, but he couldn't be bothered to care. "They've got some funny rules and laws here, that's for sure. But what they don't know won't bother them any, I don't think."

Peg though seemed pleased with the extra attention. She explored the newcomer with a few huffs out her nostrils, then nibbled at Vega's sleeve for good measure. "She's decent company out on the road," Arlo said as he picked up the lead and pulled the mare along. "Of course she's never got much to say, but she doesn't complain much either." No question he was well enough equipped. Had to be, when what he carried in that cart as a rule, made for as much a home as others had ceilings and walls.

Not much, was what he'd found to do since last they'd met. As for his hat, Arlo grinned and shrugged. "A couple of unusually colored feathers. That's about it." Now he thought about it, he might stick them in his hat on the outside. "You know much about plants and herbs?" he asked as they went along, and she paused now and then while he collected dry bits of wood and tossed them into cart. "I know some that are good for cooking, but not much else," he admitted.

Those tracks though. Now those were interesting and he crouched down beside Vega to have a look. "They're strange, aren't they? They must have been left by something heavy. Look how deep the depression is. And big It would have been some big feet to leave those. It doesn't look much like what a bear would leave, but I'm only guessing." He didn't have much experience with bears after all. But it wasn't a hoofed animal either.

"They look a lot like dog tracks. Or a wolf maybe. But considering how large they are, it would be an uncommonly large one to leave those tracks." And there were unmistakable claw marks too that left deep impressions in the ground. "It looks to have been going the same way we are now. But I can't say I know how long it's been." Arlo wasn't sure he wanted to meet up with whatever it was that left those tracks. But then his curiosity was a powerful thing. "We might want to keep an eye out as we go," he advised, just for good measure.

[Vega]

"Yes, you can see it. Just about. Tell you what," she said, when he seemed quite that interested in her silver blood. Strange boy, there was no doubting it. "I was going to say, when we're done, do you want to sit together and drink a wish to the new arc? My camp is not far, I imagine yours isn't either. You can teach me some of those signs, and I'll tell you about Biqaj traditions and tales. It's good luck to do that, drink a wish under the stars for the arc ahead." She grinned and shrugged, it was up to him she had no concerns one way or another. The way he whispered the word whiskey, though, that gave her a second thought and she looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Have you ever actually drunk whiskey before? Some people die the first time they drink it and, if you're one of them I'm going to get into awful trouble if it's my whiskey what killed you, you know." She looked amused, yet seemed to be making a serious point.

As for Peg, Vega smiled and stroked the mare confidently. She didn't mind the slight chewing of her sleeve, that was alright. "Sounds like the perfect companion. No wittering, no complaining. That's right, isn't it, Peg?" When she spoke to the horse, her Biqaj accent, which was normally pretty thick anyhow, really showed through. She shook her head when he asked about herbs, "No, I don't. I'd like to though, I'm rubbish at cooking, I'd like to learn more about it and what herbs are good. I reckon this place is probably good for learning about plants and herbs and stuff. Bet you they love it. There's a library, I was thinking I might do some studying" Study wasn't exactly Vega's favourite pastime, she was more of a doing kind of person, but sometimes, needs must she knew. "But then, I thought it might be better to pick a load of things, and try and find them in a book rather than just sit and try to memorise things. That sounds about as interesting as that funny school thing you landlivers do. Did you go to a school? Was it Immortals-awful?" Schooling was not done the same way for Biqaj and Vega's image of rows and rows of human children, sitting and reading was a very vivid one for her.

The tracks were interesting and Vega looked at them with him, examining them carefully, "So, the deer left deeper tracks when it was running and injured. But this isn't blurred like that so it was standing still and it's deeper. How heavy? Bear heavy? Great, lets not run into that then. What are these? Are they it's claws?" She pointed to a very obvious indentation next to one of the tracks, alongside the pads. If she was afraid, she didn't look it and her eyes shone suddenly purple with interest.

It wasn't long, they continued on and as they did, every now and then there was a rustling in the trees. She heard it once or twice, he might well have heard it more often than her. Vega turned to Arlo and was about to ask him if he thought that maybe there was something there when, from the forest appeared what looked to be, at first glance, a large, hairless dog if it didn't have quite so many horrific additions to it. From two vestigial legs, dangling uselessly, the tough to the point of almost armour like skin patches, the bone spurs which covered its back, neck and front of the legs. It's tail looked like the back end of a cockroach and then, of course, there was it's head. It had to be said that, even as she stepped forward, just slightly and drew her longsword, Vega noticed the other things, but it was the head which really caught her attention.

Small eyes, small ears, she noticed. That was good. The mouthful of jagged teeth and two lower mandibles on either side however, were not. Her eyes, which had turned into a swirling rainbow of colours noticed the mandibles and she whispered a curse in Rakahi. Not getting in the way of his bow, Vega nonetheless stepped so that she was between Arlo and it. There was no sense of chivalry due to age, it was simple logistics to the young woman. She had a close up weapon, he had a ranged one. They couldn't both use ranged, it needed one of them to be engaging it whilst the other shot it so she dropped into a defensive stance as she realised that it had weird tentacle-like things on the side of it's mouth, Vega raised her sword and said, quiet and decisive. "Arlo. Shoot it. Keep shooting it no matter what and if I fall, run." Unless, she considered, he'd already run. She couldn't really blame him if he had, but then she also wasn't going to check behind her. Lifting her sword in a defensive position, she locked eyes with the thing, which she had to figure was about 75 to maybe 100 kg, she spoke. "Come on then. Nice doggy."

[Arlo Creede]

"I do," Arlo responded when she suggested whiskey and stories once they were back from their trek into the woods. Wishes were something he'd never thought much about. But the young man didn't really have any traditions of his own, and wouldn't mind a bit. Though when Vega asked if he'd ever had whiskey before, he considered the truth but decided it was overrated in this case.

"Of course I have. Plenty of times," he said. "And I can't imagine anyone dying from a first drink. Unless they were to have too many of them and stumble in front of a carriage. I appreciate your concern though," he said, grinning and referring to her concerns about finding herself in trouble.

"Right, the Bakan Isorosi, I think its called." The library, though he'd only been there once himself. "There's an old man who keeps the place. Bo'kuna is his name. Very friendly, helpful, he'll push a book into your hands when you walk through the doors," he told her as they went along, and he found himself a few mint leaves to drop in his pocket. "Good with rabbit on a spit over the fire."

"I went to school. There weren't many of us, mostly just from surrounding farms. I was in trouble more than I wasn't though." Always dreaming, looking out the window and somewhere else when his head ought to have been in his studies.

The tracks that they'd found implied something large and heavy had left them. And not so long ago, maybe. If he was being honest, the rustling in the trees unnerved Arlo a little when ordinarily, he might have dismissed them as birds in the foliage or rabbits or foxes in the underbrush. It was enough that he was extra cautious. And Peg, with some senses better attuned than them, grew skittish and jumpy.

It wouldn't take long to discover the reasons why. The mare nearly bolted when the most grisly looking creature Arlo had seen before, emerged from the trees. She would have, if he hadn't held tight to her lead. The monster couldn't be anything else but what had left the tracks and glancing slowly at Vega, he patted Peg's neck to soothe her before releasing the lead. If she had cause to bolt after that, he'd let her rather than see his mare become the creature's next meal.

But as luck would have it, it appeared more interested in them than her. It snarled, it growled, drool dripped from the side of it's mouth as if it was eyeing it's next meal. They were being stalked, and probably had been for some time. And if Arlo hadn't realized why she'd done it, he'd have objected when Vega darted in front of him. He wouldn't bother telling her though that should she fall, he wasn't about to abandon her.

But she didn't need to tell him twice. He un-slung his bow from his back, nocked an arrow and placed it on the rest, drew back, took aim and let loose his shot. The beast was a hard target to miss considering its size, and the arrow found its mark close to where he'd intended, somewhere near the middle of the thing's broad chest. But the hide was much tougher than Arlo had expected and while it stuck, it didn't do nearly the damage he'd have liked it to.

In fact it only made the thing angrier as it howled in pain, shook its great head in rage and bared its razor sharp teeth at them both. Arlo had already reloaded and he took another shot, though by then the outsized hound had started to charge them. He took that shot, glancing off a shoulder. And while for the moment the young man stood his ground and dragged out his knife, he was fully prepared to grab Vega by her collar and roll away from the charge as best he could, should it come to that.

[Vega]

"Good. Sounds like fun." Vega looked at him and her eyes swirled colours as he said that he'd drunk whiskey plenty of times. Did she believe him? Not entirely, no. In fact, she was bordering on not believing him at all, but it didn't matter. "Well, if you die, I'm going to bury you and keep the horse, ok?" She smiled at him and shrugged. "That way, there's no risk I get in trouble and I get the horse, too. Win win." He'd been to the library, though and that was helpful to know. "Bo'kuna. Bo'kuna. I really should write these things down." She kept a notebook where she made notes on things, people, places and what she termed useful stuff.

He picked up some mint and she followed suit, sniffing it and asking "Mint?" before storing it. But then, looking at the leaves she wondered. "How do you keep the leaves on the rabbit on a spit? Don't they fall off when you turn it?" She grinned at him when he said he was in trouble more than he wasn't. "I always thought school sounded awful. Like, torture. Or something worse than that. I remember one time, I was a young child and we'd stopped somewhere to pick up and sell off. It was early in the morning and we were walking through the town and there were this line of children about to go in to the school. It looked like a line of slaves, just shorter and without the shackles. They all looked so miserable and beaten down." Shooting Arlo a glance she shrugged slightly. "I said that to my father and he pointed out that the teachers looked worse. He was right too. Seems like a way to keep people in their place, to me." Vega's thoughts on it were clear and, though he'd attended one she didn't think Arlo was likely to argue.

It was, she considered, a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. That was until that hideous looking thing burst out and there in front of them it stood. Sword drawn and ready, she didn't move. Arlo would shoot it, then it would move and that was the best thing to happen, so she stood, waiting.

She didn't need to wait for long. Arlo shot it and it howled and charged. Vega stepped forward and, bizarre as it was, when she moved with a sword in her hand she was a sight more graceful than at any other time. She had expected Arlo to step back and continue shooting, but instead he pulled out a knife. He wasn't going to achieve anything with that pig-sticker, she thought and she stepped and cut with her longsword with the aim of piercing the thick skin and slicing it open. Again, like his arrow, she did it to an extent, but it was thicker and more difficult than she had anticipated, but she stood, putting her weight forward and she sliced deeply into it's hind quarters. The beast howled and then, only in that moment, did Vega realise what the tentacle-like things were for as they shot out and wrapped around her. She gave a yell of surprise as it did that, wrapping around her sword arm. She knew, in that trill, that she couldn't now move the sword in a slashing movement of her own violition and so she wrapped both hands around the hilt, twisted it so that the was pointing it at the beast and put all her weight behind her as she pushed in the hope of embedding the sword in it's already pierced hide.

[Arlo Creede]

Dry the mint leaves, crush them and sprinkle them on while the meat was cooking and the fat would keep them in place, Arlo had told her when she asked. Push them under the skin, and though he rarely had it, mixing them with a little oil or butter would do the trick too.

But that was before they stumbled across the beast. Or more likely to his thinking, the thing had revealed itself after stalking them awhile. Two arrows into the snarling thing failed to bring it down, and in fact made it angry on top of hungry, apparently. And they, the two of them, must have looked like a better meal than Peg did. Then again, Peg had bolted back down the path by now, and Arlo didn't blame her a bit. Every creature for itself, she must have thought.

Meanwhile, Nyova who'd followed them out expecting a lark, swarmed around Arlo's ears, her enormous eyes narrowed and though she didn't actually have them, what might have been her tiny fists were swinging, as if willing herself to land a mighty punch on the beast that threatened her companion, and his. "Get 'im Vega! Oh, look out!" And while Arlo appreciated her tenacity, she was like so much buzzing round his ears at the moment while Vega rushed in.

He'd dropped his bow in favor of his knife by then. He wasn't an experienced enough shot to aim true while she was thrashing about with that thing, and he wasn't about to risk striking her instead. And then it had hold of her arm and with all the bravado of youth, Arlo rushed in, and so did Nyova while the young man gave a war cry of sorts and called on some of his tumbling skills to haul himself up on the creature's back. He was an annoyance, at first, at best. But it served to distract the thing and it loosened it's grip on Vega just a little while twisting and trying to swipe him off with it's tail.

But he held tight, gripping with every part of him capable of gripping, and plunged his knife into the back of the thing's neck, just beneath the back of it's skull. It didn't go easy. In fact it drew up in the process, howling with rage and sending him tumbling to the ground again where he rolled away and back to his feet. But between the two of them, the beast was bleeding quite a lot by now, faltering, and it might take just one more hole in the creature to finally bring it down.

[Vega]

Of all the stupid, hot-headed, irresponsible things to do, Arlo rushed in with a knife roughly the size of a half eaten bread roll with some kind of whooping sound. If they survived this, Vega vowed to herself, she and he were going to have a talk about his role in combat. Boys. She swore, loudly, as he climbed up it's back and then plunged his knife into the thing. It howled, relaxed it's grip on her arm and Vega did not think, just reacted.

She pulled her sword out of it, where it was embedded. It took quite some strength to do that and the young woman felt her muscles crying in pain as she pulled with all her might, but she was quite a lot stronger than she looked and she pulled. As the sword slid out of the creature, it drew up and from Vega's point of view it threw Arlo off its back. "Damnit all!" Vega stepped forward, aiming for a place on the underside of the briefly upright creature and she pulled her sword back and then stabbed forward with as much momentum as she could get.

It howled once again and then fell. At which point Vega realised that she hadn't entirely thought this through as she, and the creature, toppled to the floor. She let out a yell of surprise and landed with a thump. A stream of Rakahi came out from under the beast as Vega disentangled herself. It probably didn't need translating, considering how inordinately unhappy and angry she sounded.

Having landed on her, by nature of that it had also landed on her sword and that had pierced it straight through. She rolled it off her with a grunt and scrambled to her feet. Leaving the sword in the obviously dead beast, she jumped up and moved over to check that Arlo wasn't dead or injured. There was a look of worry on her face as she moved but as soon as she saw that he was alright that turned into a frown. "What were you thinking?" Her voice sounded angry and the stream of Rakahi which she half-yelled at him was accompanied by big hand gestures which included tapping her head, pointing at him and gesturing to the area where they had just walked through.

She turned on her heels, still breathless both from the battle and the yelling and she moved over to the creature, pulling her sword out of it with more force than she needed to. "Shoot it, I said. Shoot it." Vega glared at him then suddenly her face burst into a grin. "If you're going to be a lunatic in battle, you might want to learn to use something longer than my fingers, you know. You've got to get uncommonly close to use that."

She cleaned the sword and looked down at the beast with an expression of consternation on her face. "If we come across anything like that again, I mean for you to shoot it and keep shooting it. Move and shoot, that will distract it. Or learn a weapon where you don't have to scale it in order to get a shot." Still, she couldn't deny one thing. "Good work, though. Arrow and knife both."

Vega breathed out and her grin was genuine as she looked at him. "You're a special kind of mentalist, that's what you are. I'd never forgive myself if you got killed so young and all, especially since I was threatening to bury you and steal your horse. Shoot and move, or learn a longer weapon, Arlo. You'll live longer."

Looking down at the beast, though, she couldn't deny, it was an interesting thing. "I'd say, lets take it back to my camp. We can break it down, and make a wish to the new arc? What happened to your horse?"

[Arlo Creede]

If Arlo hadn't picked up some tumbling skills along the way, and wasn't as able as he was to use them without thinking, it would have hurt a great deal more being thrown off that beast's back. Reminded him of the first time he'd tried to ride Peg, who wasn't as taken with the idea as he'd been back then. Except that this thing was bigger, meaner, and had much sharper teeth and claws than his mare. Never mind that back then, Peg had gone so far as to come back and try to stomp him for good measure, just for trying it.

He tumbled and rolled out of the way, in spite of jarring his shoulder a little in the process, and came back to his feet. Only to find that Vega was still grappling with the creature. Arlo wasn't done either. Determined not to let that thing be the end of his new friend, he found his knife, grabbed up and rushed back in. But by then the over-sized aggressor had toppled over on her, and the last thrust of his knife probably wasn't necessary, since her sword had already done the rest of the work.

"What was I thinking?" he asked, incredulous when she turned back to him, finally. "I was thinking that I'd rather not stand by and do nothing at all while you wrestled with that thing. I told you before, I hit my mark only a little more often than I miss it. You were in the way," he said pointedly while picking up his hat that had toppled off his head during the scuffle and he pushed it back on and put it in place. She seemed a fit away, the young man thought, from twisting his ear like his grandmother used to do when he crossed her.

"Fair point though," he added as an afterthought. "I don't have the nels. But when I do I'll buy a proper sword and learn how to use it. And you didn't do half bad yourself." He agreed though, when she suggested they haul the carcass back with them and break it down. "The flesh probably isn't much for eating. But I wouldn't mind getting some of those teeth and claws out to keep." He'd string them on a leather strand, wear them around his neck as a souvenir. Maybe set aside some for an offering to Cassion. As a fellow traveler and adventurer, those ought be something to strike the Immortal's fancy.

As for Peg though, Vega made a good point. "She was the smartest of us and bolted, headed towards home. She wouldn't have gone far though," Arlo considered. "She's probably just past the bend in the path." He'd go get her, and true to his word the mare hadn't gone far. And though she'd spilled some of the wood out of the cart when she bolted, there was no more damage than that. And so he led her back, and the two of them together could load up their prize to haul back with them.