CH22

Since there were still staves from yesterday Ben hadn’t bothered to make any new ones that night so after he gathered the supplies they would need he actually got some sleep in his home before meeting up with Thera the next day.

When they met up at the shop Falk ended up asking them about how yesterday went and Thera instantly got quiet, becoming more apparent it was a tell for when she wasn’t interested in talking about something. Presumably she wanted to keep their little encounter a secret from Falk so Ben stepped in.

“It went okay. The new staff didn’t work as well as I had hoped but we were able to get two shots off at least so we’re going hunting today.”

Falk gave Thera a quick glance but decided not to broach the subject either and instead focus on their hunt. “You sure you’re ready boy? Two shots isn’t a lot. You could always take another week to try and make a better staff. Heck, I’m sure you’ll improve their use when you get a bit more comfortable with how you manufacture them.”

“I’m sure you’re right but that still won’t be enough to get us to three shots. Don’t worry though we’ll be hunting these my way.”

“Well if it’s your way it should be fine, but will Thera get any practice with her magic?”

“Not to worry, I have a simple strategy that’s going to rely pretty much entirely on her magic, with just a little help from me.” He told them, grabbing the staves, a small sack, and a shovel.

“Um, what exactly is your way?”

Ben was going to explain but Falk cut him off. “The boy’s just going to play to his strengths, try and learn what you can.”

“You’re really overselling me here Falk but it’s going to be a pretty simple plan. It will be maybe an hour of set up tops when we get there so let’s go.”

“This doesn’t really feel like adventuring,” Thera said while on top of a tree branch.

“If it gets the job done that’s all that matters. Now don’t be too loud, don’t want to scare anything off.”

Ben explained the strategy to her on the way there, while also giving her a rundown on how he would usually hunt in general. The plan was focused on the only way he could hunt any creatures, trapping them.

As soon as they got there Ben asked her to use her magic to pull a ball of earth from the ground, making a hole about six feet deep and wide, then carefully placing the dirt in a pile beside it. It took more work to pull a mass of earth to make a hole than it did to gather loose earth into a bullet, but it was still within the abilities of both Thera and the current staff. From there it was his turn to get to work. Just having a deep hole wasn’t enough, it wasn’t like the scrells would just throw themselves inside it for no reason, so he had to dig out one of the sides, making a small ramp in for any curious creatures. That’s what ended up taking the greatest bulk of the time. In hindsight he should have brought another shovel to get Thera to help with the digging since her earth magic wasn’t precise enough to make a ramp, but what’s done was done, no point focusing on it.

Once his digging was finished and he found himself a fair amount more tired he started a small fire with a magic lighter he bought and began roasting some flail bird he got from a local butcher at the bottom of the pit. If the archive records on them were right then this should be a scrells favourite prey, and the smell of it cooking should attract any others that were in the area to come try and grab some.

It ended up being pretty similar to his amarok hunt but ultimately an animal was an animal, food would always be a driving force. Not to mention that they had a good chance of grabbing a bigger number of scrells this way.

Once set up was done they both climbed some nearby trees and sat on their own branches. All that was left to do was wait.