CHAPTER 11: The Huntress

*ting!* "Level 1/2 titles are now available. Level ½ quests are now available." Still lying on my back, I open the 'Quest' page first. After what the previous quest has done to my world, I'm anxious as I read. If it's not about solving my parent's nearly twenty-year-old murder, it will probably be something equally insane – find your long-lost evil twin, or something like that. The quest is not what I've expected, though. "Objects of Power: Acquire a Common magic item." I slowly release a breath that I didn't realize that I'd been holding in. I'm relieved and a little disappointed that it's nothing about my parents. Maybe if I ever do find out why Tyrna killed them, that quest will update. Until then, heck, I'm HAPPY to look for magic items! I even know where I have some close by. The Shield of Expression that I discarded while fighting with Dorn is face up on the ground no more than a dozen feet away. I look at it for the first time and see that 'face-up' really means 'face-up': it's stylized to look like a human face with a blank expression. I'll pick the shield up in a moment. First, I'm excited to check out the Titles page. There are three new titles available, and they read like this.

Scout. Successfully track a creature through the wilderness

Thug. Bandit title, Complete a successful assault.

Skulk. Spend 10,000 hours in the Shadowfell.

Scout. That one catches my eye. I'm imagining tracking an elk by footprint. In my mind, I can see the crossbow bolt soaring through the air, high and wide off target. I sit up and stare off towards the distant wood. If I get a chance like that again, I'm not going to miss. Willow's Edge is only a few days trek away, I figure. But if I can just take a day to bag that elk, I'll be eating hearty. If I can't then it'll be an uncomfortable few days if I don't have food. Suddenly my eyes shift over to the body of Dorn. He has a quiver with more than a dozen arrows left, and his bow is nearby. I also get my axe back, and my shortsword, along with the human-faced magic shield. These all I store in my Inventory, but as nice as they are, they're not what I'm after. Dorn has a rucksack, now torn somehow in our fight. Maybe some things spilled out, because he doesn't have much. He has two waterskins, but they both turn out to be filled with something alcoholic. Better than nothing, I guess. He has a club and a dagger, and I'm grateful. But what I'm really looking for is food.

Underneath a bedroll, with a tinderbox, are some torches, but beneath that are his mess kit and four days of rations. I'm saved! There's just one little mystery left in hi bag; three little berries on a side pouch beneath a sturdy coil of rope. I have no idea what they are as I squeeze and smell them. Suddenly, the smell of the berry – a surprisingly savory smell – makes it all clear. "Goodberry!", I think aloud. These are magic berries. They only last a day, but they're enough food for the whole day if you eat them while they're fresh. But why would Dorn have bothered keeping three of these? I guess he could have fed one to the dog. I don't waste time thinking about it, since my stomach has started growling, sensing the food. I pop one of the little berries in my mouth, and barely have time to chew before I swallow it. I sweep all the supplies into my inventory and take stock of my surroundings. It's time to go after that elk… but maybe not while I'm clanking through the woods in scale mail. As I'm taking off the armor and donning my lighter and stealthier leather armor in its stead, my eyes are on the bodies of Dorn and Oak. I could bury them. But I don't really have a shovel. I could burn them. The way I see it, though, the animals around here can use their bodies better than the earth can. If you'd asked me a few days ago whether anyone should get a proper burial, I'd have said yes. Right now, though, the laws of nature seemed just as important. Maybe even more so, out here in the forest. I finish strapping into my leather gear and drag his body by the heel over towards the body of Oak, his former Mastiff. I sit there and think a moment as I cast 'Mending' to repair the scale mail. One piece at a time, I'm mending individual sections of the armor, where the arrows shot through. Lost a little in the repetitive task, my gaze and attention land on Dorn. Dorn has his leather armor on. Even though I could mend its holes and tears, I'm not interested in undressing a dead man, especially when I'm already wearing leather armor.

Maybe the tracker was just doing his job, but there's no way I'm going back to stand trial for what happened to Tyrna. What should I say? That a voice in my head told me that she killed my parents? That sounds like the fastest way to get the headsman's axe. At any rate, there's no going back now, even if there was before. The bodies of Dorn and Oak have made sure of that.

I push myself up from the ground. I could use a bit more of a real rest, but I'm not going to do it next to a corpse. I'm determined to rack down that elk – more for the 'Scout' title than anything else. The 'Cultist' title got me the Ruby of the War Mage, and the 'Guard' title got me the Shield of Expression – which saved my life. As the come to mind, I think a little more about the Ruby. When I first learned of its powers, it was when I was in church.

"System, I'm not really sure how I figured out what the Ruby of the War Mage does. Do I need to be back into church to use it? Or to figure out what this shield does?"

*ting!

Ruby of the War Mage

Wondrous item, Common (requires attunement by a spellcaster)

This ruby allows you to use a simple or martial weapon as a spellcasting focus for your spells. For this property to work, you must attach the ruby to the weapon by pressing the ruby against it for at least 10 minutes. Thereafter, the ruby can't be removed unless you detach it as an action, or the weapon is destroyed. Not even an anti-magic field causes it to fall off. The ruby does fall off the weapon if your attunement to the ruby ends.

*ting!* "The spell "Identify" is the fastest way to reveal the properties of a magic item. Other means include focusing on the item while resting. After 1 hour of dedicated focus on a held object, the properties and uses of one (1) item can be revealed per day."

"An hour of focus…" My mind goes back to holding the ruby and wondering what it was worth and how to sell it. "So, is that what I did with the ruby? It's Identified, so can I "attune" with it?"

*ting!* "Correct. Some magic items have requirements including a mystical bond. To meet the 'attunement' requirement, a short rest focused solely on bonding with the item while being in physical contact with it will do. Once attuned to an object, its use will be intuitively comprehended by the user."

I'm not going to focus on the shield now. I need to track down that elk first. Dorn's motionless figure isn't just a reminder of the life that I left behind. He's a reminder of my own mortality. If someone even a little bit stronger had come for me – or if Dorn had brought backup… well, I didn't want to think about it. Every time I fought, I felt stronger, and "stronger" is what I need to be if I'm going to stay alive out here.

But somehow the woods don't seem so scary anymore. Maybe it's just the sense of my victory – or maybe it's the pride I feel in my new Class, "Ranger", but the forest doesn't seem so hostile and isolated. The sounds of the creatures around me… the feel of soft earth beneath my tread… The terrain seems almost… …Favorable. I can't think of a better word. I find myself moving at my normal speed, instead of slinking through the woods, but I'm still sensing more about Nature around me than I did before. I've been moving for an hour or so, following not just the tracks of the elk, but also, it's spoor. It's a subtle difference, but I feel like I know what to look for. Once, I see a pile of droppings, but they're old, I can tell by the dryness. I don't bother investigating. But as I track onward, the sporadic tracks lead towards a pungent smell. It's coming from a muddy circle on the ground, and I'm wondering what I'm looking at. Suddenly the answer comes to me; his bed.

My eyes dart up and around. I should be moving slower. I should be looking around, so the creature doesn't see me before I see it. My heart beats faster when I find strange lines scraped into the ground, that smell as bad as the muddy little bed that I've passed. My heart starts beating faster. Walking slowly, with the longbow of Dorn Mattock drawn, I pass in between two thin trees. Some of their bark has been stripped somehow, starting a foot or so up and going almost to my head. That's when something flashes into my awareness. He's here.

My senses are focused. I can hear the gentle sound of flowing water nearby, and I slowly move towards it. I can't trust the tracks anymore, not really. There are too many of them. The big bull elk has probably been sleeping here every night for a while. There is no way to be sure, but I creep towards the sound of the water. My own throat feels dry, but I don't swallow. Somehow, I feel like if I do it will echo through the whole forest if I do. So, I just creep around the corner, slow and silent as a cloud at night, until I see clearly the elk.

He's beautiful.

It's not the one from this morning, though. It can't be. I can see retreat of the elk from this morning in my head as clearly as if it were happening before me – and I realize that the female that got away isn't what I've been tracking. She got away, and it's been a larger set of tracks that I've been following this whole time. I move forward more slowly than the cold sweat that drips down my face, and my doubts assail me. What if I don't get the 'Scout' title? Hat if to do that, it had to be the female? What if I just haven't tracked this male long enough for it to count? What if-

But as I'm closing the distance – less than 50 feet now, I step on the dry wood of a fallen limb. The sound might as well have been a church bell for the clear, crisp noise it makes. The buck is suddenly a blur – moving on instinct. Yet, I am, too. I let go in every sense. I let all my thoughts and worries slip away and I release the bowstring that was already taut. The arrow whistles through the air, headed just in front of the moving animal. It's where he's going to be, not where he is. As soon as the arrow flies, suddenly we're both running, the elk to fly into the woods, and me to stay close enough to bring him down. That is to say, the first arrow found its mark. The great majestic beast makes a bleating sound, almost like a strange musical instrument, as the shaft connects near his front shoulder. My future dinner is getting away, though, trying to move perpendicularly and take cover and concealment amongst the trees. It won't work. It can't! but he's faster than I am. A LOT faster. He's more than a hundred feet away when the third and last arrow sails into him, and he drops.

*ting!* "Congratulations on earning a new title! Quest complete."

I'm elated, but not distracted by the system's announcements, as well as some rustling that reaches my ears. I hear more noise in the brush as I run to him. I'm fairly sure that it's another elk quickly and noisily moving away. Maybe it's even the female from the morning, but I don't care. I'm too fixated. As I take the small knife out of my pack that I got for becoming a 'Sage', I can't help but think that this is almost certainly NOT what it was meant for. But it helps me clean the carcass all the same.

I've eaten coyotes (technically jackals, I guess) and frog since I entered these woods. Even though I don't know a thing about cooking, and the skin was still on each time, I was hungry enough to stomach those things. This is different. The big chunks of meat are delicious, and they even seem like they'll keep for a few days. I look around as I cook and eat and rest. It's beautiful here.

*ting!* "Congratulations on earning a new title!"

Scout. Successfully track a creature through the wilderness

REWARDS; Boots of false tracks, Potion of Climbing

*ting!* "Quest complete."

Objects of Power: Acquire a Common magic item

REWARDS; 1 Attribute point

*ting!* "Quest update."

Objects of Power: Acquire an Uncommon magic item

I'll figure out what the boots do soon enough. They look comfortable and durable, and I immediately don them, before making camp for the night. I'm still not far from the small stream where I found the elk, and there are more of them out here. I have game to hunt, and fresh water close nearby. I'm ready to leave these woods - finally – but the thought I'm pretty sure that I'm going to come back here. Maybe I'll only return to camp out occasionally, but this place is too beautiful not to come back to, once I'm settled in the nearby town of Willow's Edge.