“What was that?” Mika asked, not unfriendly.

  “Hm?”

  We’d never spoken alone before, so I was curious about what got him talking to me now.

  “Emell, the little girl, never seen you smile before.”

  “Oh. She reminded me of Helena.”

  Mika looked like he had forgotten I had a daughter, something I tried not to take offense at.

  “How old is Helena again?” He asked, his eyes cast quickly off in Ellen’s direction before they flicked back to me.

  “A little under a year. Why?”

  “Just curious.” Again, his eyes moved to Ellen’s back, but they lingered this time. “What’s it like having a kid so young?”

  “It’s exhausting. Even with both of our families’ help. Rebecca and I have gotten like a third of our usual sleep. But, no matter how tired I am, there isn’t a moment I don’t look at my little sapling and thank the Grace Mother that a man like me could help make someone as wonderful as her.”

  ~~~***~~~

  I could tell why Emell called the [Huntress] stinky. Her home was a modest one-story abode, the outside littered with tanning racks and hides that reeked of offal and tanning solutions. Nora, with a hand half raised to cover her nose, had to push aside a bundle of dried herbs to approach the front door.

  She knocked for a while with no answer. The gentle thump of her fist barely rattled the iron-bound door. Each time she knocked, Nora stepped back to wait for an answer of any sounds from within.

  “Bran, you try it.” Nora said, and she stepped back from the door. The bundle of herbs held up out of the way.

  I put all of my strength and weight behind each knock. To the left and right, bright runes flared yellow and red before they seeped back into the material of the doorframe. We waited for a moment again, but when we heard nothing, I raised my hand to try again.

  “Alright!” A groggy voice shouted from within.

  Footsteps echoed within the house like a wooly rhino on the charge and I stepped away just in time for the door to swing open and impact the wall with enough force that a spiderweb of runes flared and faded back into obscurity.

  A large woman emerged from the shadowed interior, only a couple of inches shorter than me. When her eyes finally adjusted to the sun and she saw us, she mumbled. The only words I could catch being something about ‘comfy clothes’ and she reentered her house.

  The woman moved in a way that reminded me of the big cats in the forest. Not in the lithe danger sense. She more reminded me of a panther who overindulged the night before and was eager to rest. When the [Huntress] came back into the light, she wore a stained white top that’d seen a lot of use, and a pair of loose fur trousers that did, admittedly, look very comfortable.

  “What do you want?” she said and stepped past her herbs.

  Several knives made outlines in her pants as she moved. She hid them well, but I’d trained for months on spotting concealed weapons like that.

  “We’re here about the quest.” Nora said. She stumbled over the words as the large woman loomed above her. A pale obelisk in the midmorning sun.

  “Gotcha. What’d the little say about me?” The [Huntress] asked, a smile hidden behind angry features as she spoke.

  “Nothing too odorous. Just that you could lead us to a dead tusk north of town.”

  I snorted at Nora’s pun, impressed at how quickly she recovered her composure. The snort turned into a laugh at the confused look the [Huntress] shot me. The woman studied me briefly, her expression now fully panther-like.

  “That’s good.” She said, suspicion laced her words. “I’m assuming that since you’re here, you want a guide.”

  “We do.” Nora agreed. “Would you be willing to tell us about the dead tusk as well?”

  “Sure, for a small extra fee.”

  “How much are you looking for?”

  “A silver to be your guide, and another for the information.”

  That was cheaper than expected. On the rare occasion when I’d dealt with local guides from other Cults in the Emerald Ocean, they’d always charged exorbitant amounts. Information on the local wildlife alone often cost a dozen gold pieces, and being led to something’s den often tripled the price.

  It was so much less than what I expected I paid the woman with my own funds. I’d received plenty of gold and silver when I’d left and an expenditure like this was hardly worth notice. Besides, Maggie wanted us to participate in a war when we got to the Under Tunnels. I’d make up the lost coin easily with the [Looter’s] rights.

  “Mighty generous of you, big fella. I was ready to negotiate. Might’ve even got me down to eight coppers if you were good at it.” The [Huntress] laughed.

  Okay, maybe I’d been overzealous.

  The fact I could feel Ellen’s glare on the back of my neck told me I had, in fact, been overzealous.

  “Bran’s officially out of the running for party treasurer.” Mika said with a small laugh.

  “I’m assuming you’ll want to get to slaughtering this beasty as soon as possible. Follow me. I’m Ruby by the way.” The [Huntress] called over her shoulder as she cut a path through the center of the group.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  It was subtle, but I saw her pat each of places where I’d seen the outline of a knife, likely to reaffirm to herself they were there.

  Ruby was amiable enough and answered all the questions we fielded to her about the local area. Past her rough exterior, she was gregarious as they came, especially when she was teasing Mika and Ellen about their flirting.

  “What is a dead tusk?” Maggie asked irritably, the question aimed at us, interrupting an answer from Ruby about where their firewood came from.

  The pure frustration in Maggie’s voice made me realize how stupid we were being. We’d paid a [Huntress] to tell us about the local wildlife and instead had spent the last hour and a half pestering her about the logistics of living in Hearthome.

  The first thing that should have come out of my mouth was questions about the dead tusk. It was literally half her fee.

  “I know a couple of things.” Nora said sheepishly, shoulders pressed up to her ears.

  “Oh?” Ruby asked, a teasing smile on her face. She knew we’d messed up too.

  “Yeah, I think I read a passage about them in a bestiary in Woodsedge’s library.”

  “Well?” Maggie demanded.

  “From what I remember, they’re some kind of lizard that uses necromancy to empower themselves.”

  “Correct. Ruby, care to share any more details?” Maggie asked. The weak smile she gave the woman, and the amused one she got in return, told me there was at least some familiarity between the two.

  “Nasty things, solitary though, which is lucky for you.” Ruby said flippantly. “They use their inherent necromancy to add the bones of their prey to their tusks and horns. Hence dead tusks. Not the most creative name, but you Telesians have straddled yourselves with the Trade Tongue so that’s what you get.”

  The Trade Tongue was a useful language, but Ruby was right. It stripped down a lot of nuances and artistry from its parent languages to be as learnable as possible.

  “Is it able to use necromancy for anything else besides adding to its extremities?” I asked.

  “Not till it’s older. Even then, it can’t use its magic too far from its body. Most of the adults just use it to create an exoskeleton or some armored plates. The one you’re contracted for can’t be much older than a couple months, though, so you’ve got the next decade to kill it.”

  “How do you know it’s that young?” Mika asked, his grip tight around the hem of his robes.

  “Size. The babies all start out around the size of a warhorse, allow it to grow enough, however, and you’ll be lucky if it’s just the size of a building.”

  “So, we’re dealing with a solitary lizard that uses necromancy to enhance itself. Anything else we should know?” Mika asked. His eyes had taken on the far off look he got when Maggie made suggestions and his grip on his clothes had turned into a white knuckled one.

  Mika’s tone sounded dismissive, and Ruby must have taken offense because she lost all her lazy panther-like grace and shot a look over her shoulder that would have frozen Mika solid if he had been paying attention to her.

  “Is there anything else we might be able to use to our advantage?” I asked politely, trying to save what I could.

  “There isn’t.”

  I shot my own glare at Mika that he didn’t notice and turned to Maggie. She’d picked this quest in the first place, so I figured she’d have done some research on dead tusks. Maggie gave me a helpless shrug and pointed back at Ruby when I caught her eye. It seemed she was content to leave the information to our guide.

  Ellen and Nora each made their own attempts to extract more information. Each time Ruby answered with one or two words until the girls gave up and slunk back to where we walked.

  Half an hour later, the terrain deviated from the plains we’d been on and into small rolling hills. Just dips and rises in the elevation at first, but eventually we traversed across hills tens of meters in height. As the elevations got higher, caves appeared, and soon cave entrances dotted every hillside.

  “What’s with all the caves?” Ellen asked.

  “Titan ants.” Ruby replied.

  Her mood had improved over the last half hour. Nora bombarded her with questions during that time. Like a mom with her teenage daughter, she’d refused to be shut out. Most of the questions were about whether she liked life in Hearthome. During that time, I occasionally caught Maggie giving Nora proud smiles as she listened.

  “There used to be a hive here about a century back. The tunnels stretch all the way back to Hearthome. I don’t know if it was the corpses, but it was only after the hive got eradicated that the land became fertile enough to sustain a village.”

  “Neat, who cleared it out?” Nora asked, her tone still like a mother’s.

  “The Grey Wolves. The crown hired them from the Academic Council specifically to clear the hive. Their members change all the time though, so I couldn’t tell you who was leading then.”

  Nora’s smile widened, and for the next ten minutes, she asked question after question about Hymeri’s state mercenary band. According to Ruby, the Council founded the Grey Wolves to foster unity between the academies. It worked for a while, but now it’s become a dick measuring contest to see which academy can produce the most combatants for the band.

  We’d just crested the largest hill yet, the sun already well past its mid-day height when Ruby held up a hand to stop Nora’s questions and pointed to a large cave on the nearby slope. The grass on the hill was sparse. Large sections of granite shone through and glittered faintly. At the base of the hill, the ground was entirely bare of any plant life. All the vegetation rooted up and long furrows dragged through the earth.

  “Stay here. I’m going to check something.” Ruby said. I blinked, and the woman vanished. One moment she was standing amongst us and the next she disappeared entirely from sight.

  Instinct kicked in and I searched the surrounding area for any sign of her passing. I breathed deeply through my nose to catch the faintest smell. Tried to tune out the buzz of conversation from the rest of the party, but it wasn’t until I saw sections of grass compress from Ruby’s boots that I relaxed.

  Several animals in the forest had some limited form of invisibility. We often trained against ambush predators like them by trying to spot senior members of the Order of New Growth who could turn invisible themselves after the Fourth Tier.

  Five minutes later, I watched as footprints compressed the grass back up the hill. I tried not to make it too obvious as I watched the prints walk behind Mika and stop only a foot behind.

  Ruby reappeared with no warning, grabbed Mika by the shoulder, and spun him around to face her. On instinct, Mika let out a high-pitched scream. I was sure anything within a kilometer had heard.

  “Quiet!” Ellen hissed; her eyes darted to the cave mouth.

  “No worries. There’s a fresh set of tracks leaving. The thing’s out hunting. Won’t be back for a couple hours yet.” Ruby said nonchalantly.

  “How do you know?” Mika asked, doing his best to regain composure while he shot a sidelong glare at Ruby.

  “I’ve watched the thing since it wandered into the area. It always takes hours to come back from a hunt.”

  “Would you mind giving us a tour of the area, then? Since we’ve got time.” Nora asked.

  “Sure.”

  ~~~***~~~

  We spent close to an hour in talks about how we wanted to go about this. We briefly debated traps, but didn’t have any prepared and didn’t know how long it would take to make some so scrapped that idea. Ellen asked if we should face the thing head on. I pointed out that was an unnecessary risk. We had both surprise and the number advantage on our side, so why not ambush it? Mika pointed out the flaw in the half-baked idea that we were unlikely to ambush the thing in its own home.

  Fortunately, the surrounding area had a couple of places suitable for an ambush. The first place we considered had been its own cave, or maybe a cave in the surrounding area. However, all the caves were too narrow to be of any proper use. Surprisingly, none of the caves had a back wall to them. They all joined up to one underground network we could’ve used to escape had things gone sideways.

  When I asked Ruby if she knew what was in the network of tunnels beneath us, she said there was a small cistern where the beast got all of its water from. What followed was a brief debate on using the cistern, but it was too dark and any light we put up would just alert it to our presence. Not to mention that according to Ruby, the amount of dry land in there was too small for us to fight with any actual skill.

  The next spot we looked at was a copse of trees at the crest of a nearby hill. We might’ve been able to pen the dead tusk in. But one look at the trees told me they were old and dying, so I vetoed the idea. Those elders could not handle a single hit from something the size of a warhorse.

  After that, Ruby showed us to a cave that ended a couple of meters past the entrance. Deep horizontal slashes filled the back wall. According to Ruby, the cave was a tunnel the titan ants hadn’t finished before they were culled. It was an okay location, but Ellen pointed out that whoever lead the beast into the cave would get stuck with no way out except through a two-ton necromantic lizard.

  The site we chose after three hours of wandering the surrounding hills was a long, narrow valley with high walls on either side and a small creek that meandered through the middle.

  The six of us stood at the crest of one of the valley’s walls, seated beneath a cluster of new growth spruce trees. They were young still, but the ground was fertile and the competition sparse, so I had no doubt these trees would grow ancient if no one inferred.

  “How are we going to lure this thing here?” Mika asked.

  I looked down from the canopy above to see my party mates huddled close together. Each of them wore consideration like a mask as they stared into the valley below. Next to them, Ruby and Maggie were together. Maggie had opened a small journal and furiously recorded something with a preserved eagle feather pen.

  I let the moment linger and did my own calculations about who in the group could handle something like that. Mika’s only option was his golems, Nora just didn’t have the constitution, and Ellen lacked the defensive skill to do it safely.

  It took me only a couple of seconds to realize I had to volunteer, but I waited to see if anyone else would either volunteer themselves or suggest something better. Iron chains of tension hung heavy around everyone’s shoulders as they considered one another in the same manner I had.

  “I can do it.” I said, after it was clear no one would come forward.

  “You sure?” Nora asked. Shoulders hunched up by her ears, the small woman studied me. Her eyes watched me like I was a head of livestock too near the cliff.

  “The forest is a dangerous place. We train all recruits to lure beasts into advantageous terrain. Plus, I’m better equipped for something like this.”

  One of the most common causes of death for trainees in the Order of the Black Hand is poor terrain management. The landscape in the Emerald Ocean varies so wildly that learning how to bait opponents into favorable terrain is something we spend years on.

  “We could always use one of my golems.” Mika offered half heartedly.

  “I appreciate the thought, Mika, but your golems are a couple of feet high and maybe thirty pounds. If anything goes wrong, the dead tusk will simply crush it. I can, at least, defend myself if things go bad.”

  “He’s got a point, Mika.” Ellen said. “Besides, if he’s trained in this. Let him use his skill set. That’s why he’s here.”

  Mika’s eyes narrowed at the woman beside him. During the conversation, Ellen slipped one of her arms around Mika without comment, and now the man looked suspiciously at the hand that grasped his shoulder.

  “Fine. But I’m sending a golem with you. That way, we’ll at least know if something goes wrong.”

  “I’m more than happy with that.” I answered and caught an approving nod from Maggie out of the corner of my eye.

  “Great, what about once it gets here? What should we do then?” Nora asked.