Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 34

Xun once again found himself following behind someone, on his way to an area he hadn’t been yet. This compound was far bigger than any other compound he had seen in his whole life, and yet, he found himself feeling more alone because of its size. He had made a few friends, which was new, but he still wasn’t sure how long he wanted to stay. Could he make it through the winter? Maybe if things continued to be so crazy, he would leave in the spring.

Jerome had been quiet while Xun thought to himself, but he seemed to suddenly remember something and slowed his steps to allow Xun to walk beside him.

“You were brought here by Willow, right?”

Xun nodded slowly, wondering where this was going to go.

“Didn’t you have an animal hide with you when you came? I think I remember someone mentioning it…”

“It was the hide off the big cat I killed just to the east.” Xun had left it under his bed in the barracks, and suddenly wondered if it was still there. He hadn’t bothered with it, with everything else that was going on.

“Why don’t you take it to the tanners? They might be able to do something with it, ȧssuming it’s still good? If they ask, you can tell them I sent you.” Jerome seemed pleased with himself, and Xun wondered why he was being so nice. Could it have something to do with the way the other leaders were treating him earlier?

“Okay, thanks.” Xun watched him out of the corner of his eye, but Jerome seemed content with his good deed for the day, and picked up his pace again.

Shaking his head, he was surprised when they arrived at the manufacturing building that Max had said he should never have to go into. Jerome opened the door for them, then led him down a bȧrė hall to a small room. It had shelves on all three sides, and had just enough room that the two of them could stand in it and shut the door, but Xun chose to stand by the door, holding it open while Jerome rummaged through some boxes.

Finally pulling out a black blocky object, he fiddled with some dials on it until a static noise erupted from it. With a nod, he turned to Xun and presented the object to him.

Xun took it, stepping back so that Jerome could leave the room.

“You will need to wind it like this,” he proceeded to wind a small handle on the side. “Then you push this buŧŧon to talk into it.” He pushed the buŧŧon and said, “Test, test.”

“Test received, and confirmed,” came a strange voice from the object.

“Make sure you let go of the buŧŧon after you speak into it, or you won’t hear the response.”

Jerome continued, showing him how to adjust the volume, so that if he was hunting or near a monster, the sound of someone trying to contact him wouldn’t give him away.

“The distance isn’t much, so if you try to contact us, and no one answers, your probably too far out and will need to get closer to the compound for it to reach.”

Xun nodded, completely confused as to how such magic could exist. He knew there were machines that could do things like this, but he had never seen them, or even understood how they worked.

“Now, as I said, this thing is pretty easy to break. So, try not to drop it or get it wet. If something happens and it doesn’t work, you’ll have to bring it back for maintenance.”

He cradled it in his hands like it was an egg, wondering how they could still have something like this that worked from so long ago. Then a thought occurred to him.

“Is it possible for me to get a message to the fishermen from the ridge with this? I could direct them where to go in their boats to get more fish.”

“There are people at the docks who have one of these in case of emergencies, so yes, you could tell them. You’ll just have to specify who your message is directed at when speaking into it.”

Jerome smiled at him, patting his shoulder and left him standing outside the building, wondering at the marvels of technology. He quickly placed the talker into a pocket on his bag that would be easy to grab if he needed to, but would hold it securely in place, then headed to the gates.

The werewolf had come from the south. They never traveled alone, and where ever there was a werewolf, slavers wouldn’t be far behind. He wanted to get to the southern end of the valley and see what dangers might be lurking there.

The guards nodded at him, very politely, and he shook his head after leaving their sight. He was a little sad that it took killing a werewolf to get their respect, but he was glad that they no longer ignored him. Maybe they would react a little faster if something happened again.

Moving at a fast but steady pace, he made his way south. Thoughts of killing the monster kept trying to inch into his mind and distract him from studying his surroundings. He knew that if he stopped to think, or allowed his mind to roam freely, he might miss something and could get captured by Slavers. As he began to climb a hill at the base of the southernmost mountain, he spied the tracks of the werewolf where it had passed through. He gazed further south and all around to make sure that nothing was about to sneak up on him, but there was nothing.

He would have to travel further south to verify his guess, and with a small shiver, he saw that it was starting to get dark.