57 Tracking the Prey

Uncle Harlin and Jira left after a few days, but uncle Ulon remained with us. Besides practicing my sword, the control of my energy saw some improvements. The ability to split my energy into four was on the horizon, but not quite there yet. Moreover, my body slowly adapted to the pose my father introduced to me. I was able to last about twenty seconds in that pose. The rate of improvement wasn't that fast, but that didn't deter me.

Like that, the two weeks passed rather quickly. Tara made a trip back to Apium for her task, before we could leave for Sedon. We also decided on another thing. My uncle's idea to hunt on our way wasn't bad at all. Though hunting was a bit hard for me, I had to do it. Placing it to the side, wouldn't solve the issue.

Tara and Dawn agreed to my idea, but we would take water and some food with us. We of course had to take the supplies for our Tauruses, otherwise they'd starve to death. Once Tara returned from Apium, we prepared for our trip. Besides the necessary supplies, we had to take all the items for sale. I managed to finish all of them, which was of course a good thing. That meant our profits would be better. "Here you go. Make sure to sell all of them", I said while handing her all the items. "Sure, we have loads this time. I'll surely sell all of them, don't worry too much", she assured me.

I decided to pack a few books on Formations, just in case something unknown popped up during the project. The project wasn't overly complicated either, but obviously I couldn't use water. Instead of that, my options were rather limited to wind and earth. The Wind Element was ever present in the North, as was the Earth Element. Combining the two I could make the slides and tunnels, while the wind would push someone through them. Similar concept, but the execution was totally different.

Moreover, I got to wear my leather armour. Turry also received his armour that Tara gifted me for my birthday. "Heh, you guys look like some sort of warriors now", Tara commented. "The armour looks really well on Turry. Moreover, it doesn't seem to obstruct him, and he doesn't seem to mind it either", I replied. Next, uncle Ulon handed us our supply of plants and herbs. There were plenty of them, more than enough for a journey one way.

"Are you sure there's nothing else you need? You took almost no provisions at all", uncle Ulon asked, concerned. "That's on purpose, since we want to hunt. Sorry you have to stay here all alone, that father of mine is useless", I replied. "Hehe, don't worry about it. Your father promised to teach me something new about medicine, so it's not exactly for free. Besides, there are a few new herbs here. I'm happy to take care of them, and witness their growth", he said. "Doesn't matter, thank you for helping us out anyway... We'll be back as soon as possible, take care until then, alright?", I added. "Sure, I wish you a safe journey as well. Stay well you guys!", uncle waved us goodbye, while we rode away.

"So… What's the plan? You guys are much better at hunting than me. We will need food, since our supply will last us a few days only", I asked. "True, we need to look for Ognars. Dawn is very good at tracking, since her work requires that. You want to gain hunting experience, right? That's why we will act as support. We will be there just in case, or step in when necessary", Tara said.

"Finding prey in the North is not that easy. For one, Ognars' population isn't large. I will teach you about animal tracks, and how to find the clues in the environment surrounding us. If we can't find anything, the plants master Ulon gave us are also edible. Though keep in mind that our Tauruses eat as well. We can technically make it to Sedon on plants, but it would be tough on us and Tauruses. We need to find Ognars", Dawn added.

"Alright. In that case, what should I do?", I asked. Dawn explained to me how tracking works. In simple terms, we had to look for the presence of life. All creatures left some sort of marks behind them, even we did while travelling on our Tauruses. That was also how she illustrated the tracking method. Tauruses left hoof marks in the ground behind us. If someone were to follow these tracks, they would find us. She mentioned that people she tracked were not stupid enough to leave such tracks, but animals didn't think like that.

"Ognars are big and leave deep imprints in the ground. They feed on plants, Dead Trees as well as other creatures. To find a group of Ognars, we will need to search for those imprints, any bones or carcasses left on the ground, or even their excrements in some cases. Be on a lookout for anything that stands out from the rest of the environment", Dawn explained. "Alright, we're searching for irregularities in the environment. Got it", I replied. Thanks to my somewhat improved sense of vision, that shouldn't pose too many problems.

During the first day of our journey, we found nothing useful. The supplies would last us three days, then we would be relying on plants. "Don't worry, we can't rush this. Just be on the lookout tomorrow. The further inland we head, the larger probability of encountering recent tracks. Since our journey just started, it's normal we found nothing useful yet. Patience is the key, hunting requires loads of it", Dawn reassured me.

"I'm not that disappointed or anything. Just worried when it comes to… you know", I replied. "Yea, it's not going to be easy when you do it for the first time", she said. "No, I already hunted before. It's just that, it doesn't feel good. Don't worry, I'll manage somehow", I explained. "You hunted before?", Tara asked, confused. "Yes, my mother took me out to hunt once. She said it was necessary, therefore I'm not that scared anymore...", I replied a bit absentmindedly.

"... Anyway, I have to get used to hunting, no matter what… It's getting dark, we should set up a camp, right?", I proposed. "Yea, this spot seems alright. You two get some rest, while I stand on guard. We will change through the night", Dawn replied. "There's no need for that. I will place some Formations around our camp. With them providing an early warning, we should be fine through the night", I said then got to work.

My plan was to use the same Formations from my first trip. A gust of wind that'd create a ruckus, and push whatever getting close outside. The Formations were large on purpose, but not very difficult to write. Dawn was sceptical about my ability to provide safety, therefore I made her test it like the Atol warriors in the past.

"I don't see how this will...Swoosh!", Dawn got pushed away from our camp, but managed to land instead of crashing into the ground. "That's quite strong… I wish we had someone like you on our team. Usually one person would stay awake, to look over the rest. I'm sure master Crow would welcome you with open arms to our line of work", she praised.

"I'm not interested. Anyway, you might be surprised but Formations were mostly used for traps and everyday applications. Traps are self explanatory, but stuff like collecting water or making fire. Those were the everyday applications that people used Formations for… At least the Grey Lizards. I'm not sure who created Formations and came up with the Runes… That must've been many years ago", I explained.

"I knew you'd decline. People who study Formations aren't really interested in fighting, or catching criminals. I mean, you are a bit of an exception to that, but Grey Lizards are not interested in catching bad guys or battling. I know that they can defend themselves, but don't seek battles on their own. That's a shame, since their abilities would really help us", Dawn sighed. "Anyway, let's get some rest already. We need to search for those Ognars tomorrow, otherwise we will eat plants", Tara said.

The luck was not on our side during the following day. The tracks we found were really old, and some of them belonging to Tauruses. "At least we are seeing tracks, we just have to find something more recent", Dawn said. "Yea, we have one more day. Then we eat plants. Anna, no training or practice anymore. We need to preserve our supplies and limit our energy consumption", Tara added. I didn't argue with that, there was no point arguing. We had to find food, otherwise we were in trouble.

Our search continued for the next few days, but we got some leads. We found some more recent tracks left by Ognars. Following them revealed even more recent ones to us. It took us over five days, but we had something. Then, one afternoon, I saw something in the distance. "Hey guys, do you see that?", I said while pointing my hand.

"Hmmm, indeed something's there. Let's check it out", Dawn replied. The something that I spotted turned out to be a carcass. "...These are Ognars' prints for sure, and they are fairly recent. That carcass belongs to a Taurus, and its state seems not that old either. The Ognars must've passed this way not that long ago… They are heading toward the south. See those nail marks? They point to the south. Even though the tracks were eroded a bit, we can use their nails to judge the direction. Anyway, great job Anna, your eyes are really good", she explained and praised me.

"Wait a minute. You said this carcass belongs to a Taurus… How?", I asked, confused. "Oh, that's to do with our new project at Apium. We are trying to populate the North with Tauruses. It's going rather slowly at this stage. Other than Ognars and Scramblers hunting a few, the population of wild Tauruses increases. We actually send most of them towards the south, closer to Tremor, the city owned by Furians. Though we released a lot of them in other areas. No one is allowed to hunt Tauruses, of course besides the wild creatures, since we can't really stop them", Tara explained.

"Huh? I didn't know you guys were doing such a thing", I replied, stunned. "That is part of our large project. Besides Tauruses, we also plant trees and grass everywhere. The small patches of grass that you see, all of that was planted by travelling Atols. As I mentioned before, we are actually starting from the south, so this place's quite empty at this stage. I'm surprised you don't know about that. You mom was involved in that project from the beginning", she added. 'Yea, and that's precisely why I don't know', I thought.

"Anyway, we should head south. The Ognars will be there for sure, we just don't know how many days it will take us to catch up", Dawn interrupted our little chat. "We don't really have a choice, right? The worst thing about it is the direction. South is not exactly where we should be heading", Tara added. "Let's go then. We are still on the lookout for prints and clues, right?", I asked. "Yea, let's be on the lookout. I hope we can find them soon enough, for our and Tauruses' sake", Dawn replied before we left.