Summer 30 124
Sjal and Lumina sat boredly at the side of the road, looking out for flying fat birds to pass by overhead. The'd been there for hours. Every time a fat bird flew by, Sjal would shoot at it and every time she would miss. On occasion she would graze them but she never caused injuries that would make them die. It was annoying, especially given the cold weather they had to deal with. All she wanted to do was to get inside, but she was determined to at least kill one of these damned fat birds.
Thankfully the heat from a large fire they made helped protect them from the cold that persisted in this region despite the season. They even bought some supplies from people who passed by. They were about to continue their journey when a group of hunters hurriedly rode by. Just as they did so, a group of fat birds broke through the clouds, moving in the same direction.
"Hurry or we'll lose them!" shouted one of the passersby. They looked desperate like they had been searching for quite a long time. Sjal understood that struggle, having spent time hunting them herself.
"To the field!" shouted another. "Try to ride between the trees! We don't want to spook them!'
"Lumina, let's go!" Sjal shouted as she mounted her horse and started riding behind the group of hunters.
"Huh?" the woman said, having clearly dozed off. "Shit, okay, I'm coming!"
Sjal urged her horse forwards, though it only wanted to go at a trot at first. She had to really shout and dig her heels in to make it speed up. Yet, despite her efforts her horse couldn't catch up to the others. It wasn't entirely necessary to catch up as she could trail them from a distance. She prayed that she would be able to catch up without messing things up.
The hunters rode in unison with the fat birds flying above. More and more started to show up as the clouds blew away. There were dozens of them in total and they all seemed to be headed to a field in the distance. It made sense to head to where they were landing as shooting them out of the sky was a royal pain.
"This is our chance," Sjal thought, but the hunters complicated things. "Damned horse doesn't want to cooperate today. I'm going to have to do this myself." She began waving her hands to make a portal. She signaled for the horse to slow, and once it did so she leapt from it, landing gracefully on the ground and taking off in a blur down the road. She leapt through the portal with bow and arrows in hand and she passed the other hunters, making them stare at her questioningly.
Sjal sprinted from portal to portal, eventually arriving at the field where the fat birds were headed. Her mind took time to catch up and realize that she was already at her destination. She slowed to a stop and tried to focus. "The birds," she said, as if reminding herself of why she was there. She looked up at the descending birds and took her chance. Sjal lifted her bow, drew an arrow and fired. She accurately accounted for their current movements this time and didn't even think as she let her reflexes do the work. She fired arrow after arrow, using up every bit of ammo that she'd brought with her.
These were much easier to hit than the ones she'd tried to fire at before due to the decreased distance. She was a shitty archer but the birds were so large and she was so close. She hit four of them squarely and grazed another four. All her other shots missed terribly. The fat birds that weren't too injured stopped descending and took off in random directions.
"I… did it," Sjal said to herself, watching as some of the fat birds began to fall to the ground.
"Those were our kills!" called an angry hunter as the group approached.
"I got to them first, it looks like," Sjal said haughtily. "And you would have been late. There's no chance they would have landed if your group came at them like that.
"You didn't get hardly any of them! You're a bleeding idiot, you are! We could have laid traps to catch nearly every single one if you'd have just let us!"
Sjal paused, having not expected the conversation to go the way it had. "How could you have laid traps if they were flying right over you???"
"Cooler heads, boys," said a tired looking older hunter. He looked at the bodies that fell from the sky and landed on the ground. He waved a calming hand to his companions then had his horse trot up to get closer to Sjal. "You're a mage and I'm guessing you're capable of defending those kills. I don't see how you're going to transport all of them so let's cut a deal. I can admit that we would have probably gotten here a little late, but we could have probably shot a few down."
"I guess you could have," Sjal said, feeling a little embarrassed. She had enough common sense to realize that these fat birds weren't worth getting into a fight over. Not when these hunters didn't seem to be the bad sort. "I don't even need most of the bodies. I'm only after one part… and I don't know what kind of organ has what I need them."
"What part did you want to harvest, exactly?" asked the who had no idea that the fat birds could have wells in them.
"I don't know," Sjal said after an awkward pause. "I guess I need to cut them open and see. I'm looking for wells. I heard that some of these fat birds have a special organ inside of them."
"Wells… we haven't heard anything like that coming out of one of these birds. We're after them for their meat and because they're a damned nuisance. Tell you what. We'll butcher these to be transported and if we find anything like that then it's yours."
"That works for me."
Sjal stepped aside and allowed herself to calm down. The majority of the hunters were still upset with her for ruining their plan but they were somewhat satisfied with their deal. Lumina rode up a while later, and eventually by Sjal's horse who's owner had completely forgotten about it. She really hadn't thought things through.
"Did you find any?" Lumina asked.
Sjal was about to say no, but one of the hunters shouted, "I think I found that thing you're looking for!"
Sjal jogged over and looked at a stomach that had been cut out and placed on the floor. Sure enough, there was a glowing vein running right alongside it. "Yes, that is precisely what I'm looking for. Is this the only fat bird that had one?"
"I think so," said the hunter, looking around at the others. "You lot find anything?" he asked but everyone held up the stomachs, showing that it was indeed something all the birds shared.
"I'm glad we were able to come to an agreement, Sjal said as she wrapped up the stomach and tucked it into her bag. "You don't mind if I tag along for a while? I'm heading in the same direction as the rest of you and would love to hunt down some more of the birds."
"I don't see anything wrong with that, but you're going to have to be part of the group. No running off ahead on your own."
"Fine, fine," Sjal said with a small smile. "Hey, Lumina. Take this would you? Take it back to the inn. I'll see you when I can make it back there… it shouldn't be too long. I'm planning a longer trip, as you know."
"Got it," Lumina said as she took Sjal's bag. "It'll give me some time to do some research." She left with a wave while Sjal and the rest went on their way.
The group of hunters travelled along for about an hour. They weren't more skilled than Sjal, but they had been hunting these birds for a lot longer than she'd been. They had a general idea of where they liked to eat, and staking out their food was their go-to strategy. Sjal thought it was a good idea and that other animals might be able to be caught in a similar manner.
They came across several more birds and they took positions behind trees. The strategy was to slowly creep up on the fat birds until they could get good shots off. Or, if they arrived before the fat birds they could try laying traps around their food. Sjal learned how to make a bait trap that would ensnare a fat bird's leg so that it would be prevented from flying away.
They were successful in hunting and by the end of the day they ended up killing a good ten fat birds in total, including the ones Sjal had killed on her own. Still, they only found the one well. Sjal counted herself lucky that she had even found one at all and thought that it wasn't worth going out of her way to hunt them down. It would have taken her days and days just to catch ten, hardly a good use of her time when she was in a rush to get somewhere. She resolved to try again when she eventually travelled back to the inn, if the birds hadn't been thinned out by then.
Sjal camped with the hunters, then the next morning she continued alone. She wouldn't find another of the birds for the remainder of this part of her journey. It would make sense, as the birds would surely become more sparse the further she got from where they were currently gathering.
