The Hunter’s position suddenly turned to face Ilya, his eyes locked on the Okotan’s, his whole body trembling. He had a small knife in a sheath on his hip, but outside of numerous small furs to represent the animals he had hunted, there was no additional pocket or pouch where a weapon could have been stored.
“Are you kidding?” Tussul hissed out of the side of his mouth. “I have too few Okotan friends to even consider knowing a Hunter.”
Cheshie’s step forward caused the Hunter to react even more violently, his legs almost fusing together with his staff as one static pole, with even his feet claws curving towards and partially onto the staff in an attempt to grip it further. Tussul responded by dropping his bow and placing both palms outward.
“Whoa, whoa, we won’t hurt you.” Tussul motioned, the Hunter’s attention drawn in shock towards the bow lying on the ground. “Uhh… Boss, what do I do now??”
Ilya’s mind was already moving ahead, to fast, irrational. Hunter, hunter, tracker, forager, teach us-
“Of course it could be dangerous.” Ilya snapped out in a whispered tone. He let out a long hiss of a breath. “But we can’t just … kill it.”
Ilya frowned grimly at that, and then grimaced as Tussul addressed him. He supposed that this was where that whole leadership thing came in.
He didn’t want to take another step towards the Hunter. It seemed to Ilya that he wasn’t dangerous, right now. But maybe it was deceiving them. If it was, Ilya doubted there was any more chance to back out now. But if it wasn’t, scaring it more could cause it to turn aggressive. It was only a child, but who know what dark power it held?
“Can you speak?” No. That was a stupid question. How could he communicate? Why was he trying? What would happen if he did? He didn’t want to be friends with this Hunter. He didn’t want to kill it. He didn’t want to have come across it in the first place. Maybe it’d be better to kill it. Forget it happened, make the others afraid of him. That’s what Makuta would want, what Makuta would do.
Ilya didn’t want to do what the Makuta would do.
He didn’t know what to do.
He didn’t know what a leader would do.
He didn’t even know what Anya would do.
Ilya opened and closed his mouth twice, before tapping himself on the chest.
Cheshie glanced between Tussul and Ilya. Great, it looks like we’re going to trust this, kid, I guess.
With a sigh, Cheshie warily moved to drop her javelin, fighting every urge to cling to the weapon like her life depended on it, which it probably did. Shield still in hand, pressing down her many reservations, Cheshie tapped on her own chest.
Palios nocked another arrow, “Palios.” He responded with a scowl as he pulled the arrow into position. “ In the case that a Hunter approaches and subsequently ignores your warning you are to drive it off posthaste.” Palios recited with an almost religious vigilance as he aimed his bow at the Hunter’s feet “That means drop the knife!” Palios backed up till he was beside Ilya, “rule 12: in the unlikely event that a Hunter tries to communicate always have a plan to dispatch them. Your lead, Ilya, but if this thing tries anything this arrow is going to fly.”
“Whoa, whoa whoa whoa,” Tussul quickly stepped directly into Palios’ line of fire. “No no, no no no.” He threw his arms out to give the appearance of covering the entire range. “Um. Um. Tussul. Tussul.” He tapped himself on the chest, trying not to look like he was panicking. “Tussul. Tussul. I’m probably overdoing this a lot. Uh um…”
He looked back, partially to give the evil eye to Palios and partially to look at Ilya for some kind of direction. So far the attitude of the young Hunter had not changed.
Palios returned the glare and lowered his bow. “You may know the rules of traveling alone, but here you’re with a pack and I don’t know if you noticed this, but no amount of knowledge of the dark is going to keep us alive if you don’t take all potential risks into account. Even If It’s A Child.” this was a dangerous situation and no one but him seemed to care.
On one hand, Cheshie was relieved to not be the only one with enough sense to see the risk they were taking. On the other hand, it should have been her who insisted on staying vigilant with this creature.
You want to protect them, yet you’re one of the first to cave and throw down your arms. Do better, Cheshie.
Cheshie slowly began lowering her free hand, keeping it at her belt, not so near that it seemed like she would draw her blade, but near enough that she could get it out quickly.
“Palios is right, it’s too big a risk, and we can’t afford them right now.”
Katau had been standing in a battle-ready stance this whole time, waiting for the newcomer to make the first move, but apparently his companions had spiraled into trying to communicate with the juvenile Hunter.
“Maybe, we… shouldn’t kill it?” The blacksmith suggested awkwardly. Katau had a sword and knew how to use it, but he didn’t want to hurt a child. Resigned to the alternative, the nervous Okotan mimicked the other members of the party and pointed to himself while saying his name.
“Katau.”
She had followed his lead. A wave of relief, gratitude, and then apprehension washed through him. Although he could still feel - or at least thought he could feel - the waves of disapproval twisting through the air between himself and Cheshie.
He suddenly realized he had never asked anyone of their names. He hadn’t exactly payed attention during the sham of an introduction that the Makuta had put them through.
Ilya felt his face heating. His heart rate increased. He should cave. He wanted to cave. He was being irrational, and there wasn’t any way to twist this circumstance to any other narrative. Irrational thoughts, irrational thoughts-
But maybe…
Irrational thoughts, irrational thoughts, calculate, irrational thoughts- Focus. Leadership, survival, supposedly in that order.
He glared at Palios. “I said, don’t hurt it yet.” He hissed out the words in an edged whisper. He didn’t quite have the courage - or the time, maybe - to stare down Palios, and maybe that would be interpreted as weakness what would a leader do what would Anya- “Shut up-! Everyone shut up. You … you all realize that there could be others nearby? And if we scare it anymore that they’ll come running?” Blood was pounding in his temples. The roar of it felt like it was drowning out his thoughts. “I don’t want your zeal to get m … to get us killed. And … and we don’t even know what it’s capable of. Attacking it now could get us killed anyways.”
Ilya paused to gather his thoughts. He was about to lose all of their respect and probably his own life. “Maybe … maybe we should take it with us.” He didn’t pause this time. “Because, because … because if we can learn anything about it … or from it,” Ilya blanched as images of … interrogation … flashed in his mind, “we might learn how to … to avoid more of its kind. In- in the future.”
The Hunter had stood silently during the other introductions, but at the mention of Katau’s name he jolted and took two steps backwards.
Tussul’s head was drawn in surprise. He opened his mouth, but then slowly closed it again. His eyes made it obvious he was genuinely considering the concept.
However, the Hunter kept making sidelong glances back into the forest. It seemed as though he was considering running away, possibly to tell the other Hunters what had happened. Or maybe he was just too scared? Whatever his reasoning, he had slowly stopped shaking and seemed to notice a particular section of the immediate treeline.
That’s odd, the fire Okotan thought as he noticed the young Hunter’s movement at the sound of his name.
“Hey Tussul, exactly where do we need to head? Isn’t there some way we can, oh I don’t know, go around these Hunters?” the blacksmith suggests nervously to the tracker leading the group, still keeping a wary eye at the shadowy forest ahead of them and keeping a hand on his sword.
Ilya flicked his head in the direction of the Hunter’s attention.
Did I just kill us? I just killed us. We’re going to die. Don’t panic, but-
“Cheshie …” Ilya whispered. He looked behind him, to assess the positioning of the group, moving to get out of the way of Palios and Tussul - and their bows. He slipped his heavy knife out of its leather sheath at his side. He was more accurate with bombs and potions, but maybe something as loud as that wasn’t to be advised. Not here. “If it comes to it, we’ll distract and you get behind it. And if it comes to it … threaten the child. And Katau, watch the kid. This could be a setup.”
Idiotidiotidiot they aren’t going to listen to you everyone needs to run get out get out idiot-
Cheshie shot Ilya a glance which seemed to say “You’d better know what you’re doing, even if I doubt you do.” But, she nodded, slowly sidling to the side, eyes still on the trees.
Seeing Cheshie’s reaction Palios raised his bow again. “At least allow Cheshie and I to set up a defensive perimeter when that ambush happens because at the rate we’re goin this is all going to go to Karz and all of us are going to end up dead.” Palios chose to ignore Ilya’s blatant ignorance of caravan rules, clearly he was never suited to be a leader, The guard on the other hand.
In spite of the one Hunter’s presence, there seemed to be absolutely no sign of anything living beyond the line of trees. Tussul, who was making a grumpy face because everyone kept talking during his attempts to hear, also didn’t appear to pick anything up, still standing in Palios’ line of fire, and still trying to use his arms to calm the Hunter child.
“Boss, I don’t know that this formation is going to calm him very much…” Tussul whispered out of the side of his mouth at about the same volume everyone else was ‘whispering’ at.
The child, noticing the sudden spreading out of the party with weapons drawn, jolted and slammed the base of his staff into the ground, placing one of his clawed feet halfway up its height.
Jaawu was watching this interaction with interest. Once the child made its move, he made sure to stay out of the way. He would wait and see how the rest reacted before he made any choices he couldn’t reverse.
Katau sighed wearily.
“Come on guys, he’s not trying to kill us, so can we get going?” The fire Okotan was clearly impatient at waiting here while nothing seemed to be happening, except for the appearance of the young Hunter.
“That sounds like a good idea to me.” the blacksmith replies, and then sheaths his sword, but keeps his walking stick handy. “It may be a Hunter, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to kill us…for now…” Despite his supposed confidence, Katau’s voice trails off at the last sentence, clearly showing his trepidation and nervousness at traveling within the shadowy expanses of the Dark.