Gil'Goin'!

The duo leaves Das'ju to continue skinning pelts, instead heading off in search of Zul'meshi and Gil'ga. Both were pretty sure they'd either be out hunting or scouting for Karaskir, regardless it was better they check before venturing out to the hunting grounds.

They wander around the tribe for a while, taking a look at the places you'd usually find Zul'meshi or Gil'ga, they also asked around to see if anyone had seen them, sadly even the flint knappers hadn't seen them, and those guys spend all day sitting in the middle of the village!

Sarr'ina looks to Luca and sighs, "They must be out hunting, we should look for them."

"You sure? I can't imagine finding them will be easy, hunters don't usually want to be seen..." Luca mutters, feeling like they'd have a better shot just waiting for them to come back. "Plus, we gotta watch out incase the Karaskir try anything again..."

She nods, "The Karaskir have not bothered us recently, the hunters feel that they are preparing a large attack against us, but for now we are safe from them." she adjusts her bow that's resting on her back, gesturing for Luca to follow her as she heads towards the most bountiful hunting grounds.

There's a well worn track that'd been accidentally made by the thousands of times the tribe had tread over it, this made it easier to locate the separate popular hunting grounds, but also made the wildlife warier of their presence.

Only the most experienced hunters would use these sites, not because they are difficult to hunt in, but because they needed to carefully select their pray... Killing pregnant or young animals was counter-intuitive as they'd eventually lead to more animals being born, the hunters mainly targeted older animals or weak males.

Hunting effectively was already a difficult task, adding other restrictions to it made it all but impossible for anyone but veterans... This was also partly the reason why the Karaskir wolves were so bad for the territory, their indiscriminate hunting usually led to them killing the strong males that'd try to fight them off, or the young and pregnant ones that were not able to flee.

The duo crept around the hunting grounds, making sure not to disturb the wildlife incase a hunter was stalking it nearby... Last thing they wanted was to annoy the people they needed help from. They met a couple curious people during the trip, most more likely to immediately report what they were doing to Sarr'ina's father.

Eventually, though they stumbled into the furthest bountiful hunting ground from the tribe, the path was there but grown over due to disuse... However, there had been rainfall recently, which allowed Sarr'ina to spot a relatively large human footprint on the path. It'd almost been obscured by other animal tracks but not completely, the duo immediately started heading in the direction the track was heading in, crouching low when the tracks start to seem relatively fresh.

...

Their mood was getting better and better the fresher the tracks seem, they'd wandered into a relatively dark part of the forest, the foliage around them still dripping slightly from the recent rainfall.

"We should be close now, these tracks seem very fresh." Sarr'ina mutters quietly.

Luca nods in response, closely observing the tracks, how Ina found and determined what they were. This skill would probably come in handy in the future, so he might as well get started. He was already relatively familiar with tracking animals, but people were another matter... Though, something about these footsteps was off, they were unlike how he expected a hunter to move, they seemed almost... Clumsy?

Sarr'ina had followed the tracks but they stopped facing a tree which confused her momentarily, however she'd already drawn her bow and knocked an arrow when a shadow jumped off of the tree above them.

Luca's body froze when he heard and felt something drop from behind and grab him, placing a flint knife to his neck. He sends a wide-eyed look at Sarr'ina, hoping she'd stop yet another death.

"You should really be careful who your following, never know who you might stumble upon." the intruder whispers to them, however upon hearing the voice Sarr'ina drops her guard and glares at them.

"Gil'ga! You should not scare us like that! What if I shot you!?" she exclaims, mad that he'd pranked them, and that they'd fallen for it.

The knife comes away from Luca's throat as the man lets him go, letting Luca turn to look at them. Gil'ga was the same as always, 6ft with long brown hair, tanned skin, and makeshift hide clothing. "I didn't think you were the type for pranks Gil'ga..." he mutters.

Gil'ga shakes his head, "Pranks? Pranks are the things children play on each other... No, this was me teaching you survival skills!" he looks to Sarr'ina, "I thought we taught you better than that, I know you want to show off your tracking skills to Lu'ka here, but following obviously deliberate human tracks will get you killed!" he says, causing Sarr'ina to blush slightly at the mention of impressing Luca.

"Whatever... Look, we actually came to ask you for help." Luca says, hoping to convince him disobeying Sarr'vuln's orders was right.

Gil'ga tilts his head to the side, wondering what they could need help with. Eventually shaking his head at them, "No, I will not help you ask for Sarr'vuln's daughter. He'll skin me!"

...

"W-what!? No! That's not what we're here for!" exclaims Luca as he turns his head towards Ina to see her reaction, finding the atmosphere becoming awkward when she quickly glances away.

"Hahahahahaha! Of course not! You will need more accomplishments before he acknowledges you a suitable for her, even if she feels the same." he says, sending a knowing look to Luca.

Luca sighs, he knew Gil'ga was trying to help him understand his situation, but being reminded of it right now was pretty annoying and slightly disheartening if he were honest. "Look, we need some help doing something quite... Dangerous, something Sarr'vuln definitely wouldn't approve of." he explains.

Gilg'ga sends a glance to Sarr'ina to see if she's on board with it, feeling that it was weird for the usually loyal and dutiful girl to suddenly get a rebellious streak. "Go on?"

"We're recruiting help to try and hunt the monster in the cursed waters... Sarr'ina has already fought against it and come back as you know, but that only means that it isn't impossible to kill."

...

Gil'ga stays silent for a moment before speaking, "Why?" he asks simply.

Sarr'ina steps forwards, "We... I want revenge against the beast that almost killed me, and has killed many of our tribesmen in the past, I fear that me and Luca are not enough to face it." she mutters.

Gil'ga sends a look at Luca, wishing to hear his answer...

"...Exactly what Ina said." he states, feeling that any lie he could come up with wouldn't match hers.

"Heh, so this is how you want acknowledgment then?" Gil'ga mutters to himself before straightening his back, "I will come with you, if only to keep you from doing something even more stupid and reckless."