Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 55

The outfit was fantastic. Xun stared at it for a good long while, as Owen beamed with pride. The entire outfit was covered in fur from the bird/bear creature, with the feathers hanging down along the back shoulders. It even had a hood that could cover his head during blowing storms. The beak of the creature was incorporated into the hood, so that when it was on, it would look like he was peeking out of its mouth.

“It’s beautiful, but I’m not sure how practical it would be if I was hunting or fighting monsters,” Xun said apologetically.

“I thought of that,” claimed Owen, moving over to another set of leather clothes. They looked well made and functional. Xun was impressed.

“This set was made from the leather of the cat you brought me. Unfortunately, when I went to finish tanning it, there was too much slip occurring to keep the fur on. I was pretty upset. I was able to keep a little bit of it and made you some nice gloved mittens for your hands.”

The mittens were gorgeous. Xun tried them on and chuckled softly at the thought that they fit like a glove.

“Wow, those are so beautiful! I wish I could have a pair!” exclaimed Willow, gazing at his mittens.

“Go kill your own monster,” Xun said, carefully pulling them off and handing them back to Owen.

She frowned then stuck her tongue out at him as everyone laughed. Even Xun smiled at her.

“I should have the arms finished on the fur outfit tomorrow, the stitching takes longer to keep the fur looking nice. You can take the leather outfit now. Is there anything else I can do for the hero among us?” asked Owen.

Xun stopped as he was pulling his bag off, and looked at him. “I’m not a hero.”

“Of course you are! Do you know how many people would have died if you hadn’t done what you did? No one even knew that those things were flammable!”

Xun frowned. But Rick laughed and threw an arm around his shoulders, being very mindful of his ribs.

“Oh, we all know he’s a hero! He just doesn’t like to be reminded of it.”

Owen laughed, as if that was actually the case. Xun wasted no time placing the leather clothes into his bag. He did not like being called a hero. It made him feel awful. First, he was an outcast, with no hope of fitting in, and now he was a hero, clear on the other end of the spectrum.

Thanking Owen again, and promising to return the next day for the other outfit, he led everyone towards the auditorium. When they got there, he saw that Max and Jerome were very busy seeing people. The auditorium was full of people waiting to get to speak to the council. When they noticed him, they started whispering amongst themselves.

“I don’t think I want to stand around watching you work for the rest of the day,” said Willow, looking out over the crowd.

“We’ll be back at the library, looking up more stuff on werewolves if you need us,” said Rick, following Willow and Hayden back outside.

With a sigh, he ignored the many looks and whispers of the people and made his way up to the stage. As he climbed the stairs, the whispers grew silent.

“Ah! Xun! It’s good you could make it! Come have a seat.” Max patted the seat next to him, where Lisa used to sit.

“We’re listening to the twenty-third complaint on housing and job placement today,” said Jerome looking down at his notes. He looked very tired as well.

Sitting in the seat, he placed his bag on the table beside him, so it wouldn’t block his view. He was very self-conscious of all the people he was looking out at, and the fact that he was so small next to Max.

When he had first come to the compound, he had been very impressed with the muscles of the men who worked out here, but after seeing how slow and uncoordinated they were, despite the immense strength, he was starting to think the big muscles weren’t all that impressive.

“What’s the problems with housing and jobs?” asked Xun turning to Jerome.

“When the werewolves attacked, one got into the barracks where the transplants live. No one who was currently in there, survived. So now, everyone wants to live in an apartment. The problem is that we don’t have enough apartments for everyone to have their own.” Max seemed to think this was a ridiculous request, but Xun could understand their feelings.

“Then give them the option to bunk up with someone else. If there’s not enough room for them to have their own, depending on the size of the room, you could have three or four people share the same room. It wouldn’t be as nice as having your own, but it would be far better than sleeping in the barracks.” Xun didn’t understand why this was such a problem. People had always bunked up in every compound he had ever lived in. In fact, he felt putting people in the barracks was a huge waste of space.

“Then how do we go about ȧssigning rooms? We don’t really think it would be right to force women to stay in rooms with men.” Jerome seemed to be genuinely interested in his opinion.

Xun blinked a couple of times. Were all these people helpless? Surely, they couldn’t be serious! But as he looked out over the crowd, he was surprised to see the interest in their eyes. Then he realized just how pitiful this place must be. So much was going for it, and yet, so much was wrong.

With an internal sigh, he turned to Max and Jerome. He had to teach them this stuff? Then he was going to try his hardest to do it right.