Inch by Inch

They started off their patrol by visiting Margaret. Though shouty, she had been a lot more helpful than her old neighbor, Romwell.

This proved to be a wise move. Margaret put on an attempt to seem reluctant at their questions, but Jay got the impression that the farmer was tickled pink by the implied authority. She might have been able to control her blush and avoid a smile, but her eyes were proud, and she stood half an inch taller. It didn’t sound like much, but Margaret was already well-built. Her happiness made her powerful.

Margaret’s help amounted to a declaration of ‘No change’. It was something that could have been communicated through a note on her gate or even a flag outside her window, but devolving to that was something Jay wanted to avoid at all costs. It would be too easy for an update to be missed, or for the first hints of a deadly problem to go unnoticed. That said... if Romwell had been their only source of information, a system like that would be at the top of his list. Something remote, out of the scent radius.

Saying farewell to Margaret, they set off on their patrol. Kane led today, the first of an ongoing rotation that Jay had planned. Navigation and map reading was a basic skill, but an important one for an adventurer. It might not be difficult in the vicinity of a Wonder, where the world remained steady, but it was life or death in the wilds.

Jay was a little nervous about ‘training’ while they were out on patrol. The knob encounter, though harmless, had left an impression. Ultimately, it came down to a realization that this might be the only place they could train these skills. The patrol was not risk free, but it was close to the city and likely one of the safest tasks they could take. Some day they would have to adventure further out. When they did, they would encounter situations like today.

He turned an eye to the horizon, where a vast blue-gray cloud hovered. It had appeared overnight surrounding the southern half of Lauchia’s Wonder’s mana domain. By the time morning had arrived, the city had already investigated and posted notices. This cloud was benign and ordinary, but under different circumstances, they could have been woken during the night by alarms. As it was, the outer edge of the mana domain was likely damaged or changed by whatever substance sustained the cloud. There were good reasons why that area was not farmed or inhabited.

Someday, he and his team would need to enter clouds like this, to provide a warning for a city, or to survive the wilds. For the first time, Jay felt a bit leery at the thought.

“Who are the guilds in Lauchia?” Ana asked, shaking the groove that they had settled in.

“Eh...” There were more than he could name. “In what context?”

“Some of them seem to be special. Like how Peter’s and that other one start the dog track each day.”

Jay rolled his eyes. That she could refer to Bedrock, one of the larger guilds in all the city states as “Peter’s,” was absurd. “Bedrock and Marching Orders are the biggest and most important guilds in the city. There’s a lot of others, but they aren’t nearly as important.”

“Hunters,” Kane added absently.

“The hunters as well,” Jay agreed with a nod. “But they don’t really count.”

Ana remained silent for several steps. “I thought that was a profession rather than an organization.”

Kane grunted in agreement, but didn’t deign to provide an explanation. He left that for Jay.

“They are. Hunters don’t have an adventuring guild, or any at all that I know of, but are allowed to claim oddity hunt rewards if they are posted through the bureau while not being a part of it. It’s some agreement or law that goes back a long time. All the tasks they complete get rolled up under one ‘guild’ as part of the accounting.”

“Why wouldn’t they just join the bureau?”

Jay shrugged, knowing that Ana, who was behind him, would see. He would need to be delicate about how he phrased his answer to that. No one wanted to listen to their mother being insulted. “Hunters can be a bit... particular.”

Kane snorted, which was probably a good sign that’d he’d gotten some of his wording right. “If someone can kill a dangerous oddity, do you want to be the person arguing that they shouldn’t get paid?”

That... is a good point. It also sounded too sensible for it to be the real reason.

Ana chewed her upper lip for a moment, a thoughtful tilt to her brow. “Makes sense. What about the Marching Orders and Bedrock then? What do they do?”

“Bedrock is famed for its scouts. They have a large contingent that leaves the city daily searching for stone deposits. They have caravan scouts too, of course. Oddity extermination is a big thing for them. If there’s advance warning of a dangerous oddity incoming, they usually get the job. Speed, distance and shock force are their specialty.”

He couldn’t avoid his grimace before he spoke about the next guild, but neither of his teammates were facing him anyway. The reminder still hurt a little.

“Marching Orders are the opposite. They aim for the steady, consistent tasks and always get the job done. Deep patrols and security are where they thrive. If Bedrock fails, or doesn’t have enough warning, Marching Order steps up. A task with them is as good as a guarantee. Both guild’s specialties are apart from the other, and it keeps them from competing too often.”

Though she was behind him, Jay could almost see Ana chewing her upper lip again. It was a habit of hers when she was deep in thought, though she rarely did it in public. “Both do oddity extermination?” It was a statement as much as a question.

He nodded, his helmet shifting a little with the moment. “At the highest ranks it’s what pays best. All hail the savior.”

“So they start the dog track because they are the stronge-”

“Knob,” Kane interrupted, gesturing off into a paddock on their right. He went eerily still after alerting them.

Jay’s bow dug a weight into his shoulder.

“Can you hit it from here?” Ana whispered, as if they hadn’t been talking normally seconds before.

It might have been the sudden death of their voices, or the break in movement, but the knob bolted.

“Chase it?” Ana asked at a more reasonable volume.

“No,” Jay said. They were nearly back at Slow Keeping from their first figure of eight of many in the vicinity. “Let’s remember this point and see if we can track it down later.”

Her disappointed agreement was followed several ticks later by Kane’s, and they set off again.

| i i i ¦ i i i | i i i ¦ i i i |

Margaret closed her gate with a thud, and their morning patrol was officially complete.

Groaning with relief, Jay rolled his neck. Task finished with no issues.

“Time to track that knob?” Kane asked. Like Jay, he was stretching, but his movements were suitable for preparation rather than relaxation.

“Ana?” Jay asked. They had agreed that lunch and the afternoon were individual time rather than the team’s.

“We get paid ten bronze for each one. How many do you think we can catch before the evening patrol?”

Both Jay and Kane looked at her in surprise. One of Kane’s eyebrows was arched most of the way to his hairline. It was a surprisingly mercantile answer for Ana, and more evaluating instead of her usual eagerness. Was she learning prudence?

She made a face at them. “What? That’s five days of the dog track! And, none of us have been paid yet.”

No then. Attempting to avoid running made more sense. Then again, Ana was the only one of them who hadn’t brought savings with them. Had she run out of… whatever she had?

How do I ask without getting stabbed?

“Do you need anything? We still have funds for... stuff.”

Ana rolled her eyes. “Not urgently, I just want my share. I know that we’re starting up, but we aren’t doing this for free. How many knobs can we catch?”

“It’s only been a week. I don’t think we’ve finished starting up.” Jay said with reproach in his tone. They hadn’t even completed his planned two weeks of training yet. “Besides, we shouldn’t discount knobs yet. They’re still oddities.”

Kane nodded. “The more important question is how many we can carry.”

Ana winced. “Right. Three then? Thirty bronze.”

The two of them started walking out of Slow Keeping towards where they’d seen a knob earlier.

“I’m serious.” Jay started to follow them. “Those ears were sharp like stakes and there’s the whole glowing color thing. We need to be careful.”

Kane tilted his head. “I think I could carry two myself.”

“I was counting that,” Ana replied dryly.

| i i i ¦ i i i | i i i ¦ i i i |

Between jagged wooden splinters, a tuft of hair shook in the gentle breeze like a tree in a storm.

“Is it from the knob earlier?” Jay asked.

Kane shrugged. The wooden fence was twenty meters from where they’d last seen the creature, but Kane had found the tuft less than a minute after arriving back at the spot.

“Alright.” He drew his bow off his shoulder, shuffling his spear around in a manner that he hoped Ana wasn’t paying attention to. Bad habits were all too easy to form. “Do you want to lead again? Ana and I will try to stay quiet as we follow.”

“Yes.” Kane hopped the fence and began... whatever he did to find and follow the tracks. It involved a lot of crouching down and intense examination of the ground.

“When we find them, we’ll do the same as last time. Prepare for a fight while I take a shot. They seem to be faster than us, but we can track them down one by one.”

Kane grunted his assent. Ana did not.

“And?” she asked, her mouth pulled back in a flat line.

“... and?” He didn’t think he’d forgotten anything.

“What do I do?” She was scowling now, and that agitation was reflected in the movement of her hands. She didn’t lose her grip on the spear, instead rolling her wrist around and drawing in the air with the tip.

“You...” Stay quiet and follow Kane? It might be the same thing Jay was doing himself, but he knew better than to say that to her. Even he didn’t want to do that after hearing it in his mind. The problem was that there wasn’t much she could do. Ana couldn’t track like Kane or use a bow like him. There wasn’t much left.

Her eyes grew more narrowed.

“You...” Was there anything productive they could do? Learn about the area?

Her hands grew more restless. The spear began to swing around instead of roll.

It came to him. “You practice your spear.”

“The forms?” Ana asked warily, some of that irritation in her stance fading. “I don’t think that’ll be quiet.”

Jay felt his mouth twitch. “The forms and... your Word. We’ll hang back. It’s not like we’d be able to follow quietly after we hunt the first one anyway.” It was probably best to practice out here, far from anyone or anything that could be damaged.

“Cut,” Ana sounded out, her eyes lighting up.

Jay took a step away from her and her spear that had yet to fall still. He regretted this already. “Yes.”

“This way,” Kane interrupted. He shot Jay an almost petulant face and stalked off into the woods.

“This is how we’re going to do this,” Jay began, following after him.

They started with the most basic of basics — turning the effect on and off again. Jay stood behind Ana with his hands poised to catch her spear should she slip. He counted down a beat as she cut small notches into a stump without slicing the entire way through.

“... One, two, three cut. One, two, three cut. One, two, three cut. One-”

“Alright! I can control it,” Ana snapped. “What next?”

Jay stepped back and gestured across the road. The knobs were leading them on a twisting path. “We catch up to Kane.”

She groaned.

“Come on, let’s try to find another clear spot. It’ll keep your Word from being exhausted and ward off the cost too.”

The next exercise was a lot less fun for Jay. He stood in front of Ana, 2.4 m out of reach but still on the wrong end of the spear, and tossed branches at her. Half the time, she would get her spear in place to intercept the stray twigs. The other half was full of frantic dodges to avoid the dirty debris. When she did block the branches, most were batted aside and not cut. The few she did intercept and cut, created another issue — two sticks to evade. Her cuts were so clean they didn’t stop the projectile’s momentum.

For Jay, it was an enlightening exercise that revealed a lot about her progress, limits, and weaknesses. For Ana, it was frustrating and dirty. She spent more time glaring at him than focusing on the branches.

Neither of them complained when Kane arrived back with news and they stopped. He’d found the knobs.

Four of the oddities grazed in the field, snacking on the purple leaves around them and leaving a muddy mess behind them. With a backdrop of purple and brown, the bleached cream-pink creatures were easy to see even without their glowing horns and eyes. Easy to target.

Jay took slow breaths, crawling forward to get within an easier range. He was doing so well until a rumble ruined it all. The sound made him wince.

The knobs stood to attention, searching for the source of the noise. He stood with them, hand drawing the string back.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Release.

Exhale.

His arrow struck a knob’s leg. The rest scattered, leaving the wounded behind. It wasn’t a clean strike and the one he’d hit wasn’t incapacitated like yesterday. It limped away through the leaves at a walking pace. Kane got to it before the oddity could go far.

When he told Ana and Kane what had happened, they burst out laughing, which in his opinion only scared the other knobs further away.

“We should bring lunch next time,” he grumbled. They hadn’t eaten since breakfast. He was going to have to ask Kane to teach them how to remain silent when hunting. There had to be some trick that let the biggest of them remain the quietest.

With the long walk until they picked up the trail again and Jay’s near miss as evidence, Kane was able to bargain an attempt to hunt the oddities by himself. He took the bow and led them to the next group. Two wide misses later, he relinquished the bow.

Jay couldn’t hold back his curiosity. “How come you can track animals, but can’t use a bow? Didn’t your mother...?”

Kane’s arms twitched and, to Jay’s delight, his cheeks grew a little pink. “There were incidents. It was decided that I would learn when I was older, but...”

“Ah.”

Ana latched onto the subject with delighted eyes and an aggression that matched any Oddity Jay had heard of, but Kane clamped up and refused to say any more.

Jay took the bow, able to hide his snickers but unable to disguise a smug smile. He promised to teach Kane as best he could later. It was nice to find something that Kane wasn’t absurdly skillful at. There was also the possibility of discovering more about these ‘incidents’ during that training time.

An hour before they were to start their evening patrol, they returned to the city to hand in two knobs.