Diara nodded in approval as she looked over the retly-structed smokers. The lumber yard had been turned into a makeshift processing pnt over the past few days, and their kills were being butchered as fast as they could hunt them down. The meat was mostly smoked, as Amilya had requested that they produce as much preserved food as possible for their fellow vilge of Floatspire.

  Having finished her observation of the produ area, she turned back to the farmers she was temporarily w with, waving for them to follow her into the forest. With practiced ease, each of them flowed across the ground with barely a sound, their steps fading into the noise of the wind.

  Fortunately, they all knew how to be quiet, which would help avoid spooking their prey, whatever it may happen to be. Yesterday they had run into the first predator in a while, a lone wolf, which rapidly moved to avoid them. Otherwise, they had been entering the first herbivores to return to the area. While the boar were troublesome, at least they provided a lot of meat, typically. The deer teo be much easier to hunt, as while they may bolt at the first sign of trouble, they weren’t as aggressive.

  Earlier in the week, one of the hunters was gored quite badly by one of the boars they had failed to kill on the first attempt, resulting in several days of healing being required. Diara hoped to avoid such things today, and made sure to keep her eyes and ears attentive for any signs of life.

  It was unlucky, however, that the first animal they came across was a skunk. While most didn’t live long enough to bee twisted by mana, those that did ended up being quite dangerous, often exging their foul smell for actual poison. Due to this, Diara stopped for a moment to kill it, hurling a sling sto it from far enough away that it didn’t feel threatened. Leaving the body there, they tinued onward, not wanting to risk getting the sten them.

  The several animals they entered were also not worth bringing back, a number of squirrels, small birds, and a somewhat oversized samander. After a few hours of fruitless searg, however, they came across the trail of a herd of deer, exactly the kind of thing they were looking for. More carefully now, the group followed Diara’s lead as she tracked the herd.

  Ohey came into view, she instructed the farmers to encircle the herd at a distahose downwiing into position first. A few moments ter, several of the deer perked up, alerted by the st on the wind, and Diara began her part, immediately downing oh a shot to the lung. The herd scattered, and she mao take down two more before they were out of her range. Out of the er of her eye, she caught one of the farmers sprint towards a deer before it realized he was there, smming his staff into its skull, dropping it in one swift motion.

  Diara o herself, certain that more had been taken down elsewhere as well, and waited where she stood. A momehe group vened again, several of the farmers hoisting the corpses of deer, totalling seven in total. Satisfied with the results of the hunt, far more than they would normally aim for, Diara directed them to return to the vilge’s makeshift preparation area, joining them as they rapidly jogged back.

  Upon arrival, they quickly strung up the bodies to drain them of blood before beginning to prepare the smokers with plenty of fuel and making sure the racks were properly arranged.

  Satisfied with the preparations, Diara headed back to town, several others following her as they waited for the time to e to prepare the meat.

  Several days ter, Diara assisted in the loading of several carts, filling them with siderable quantities of cured and smoked meat. Volunteers from the vilge then begarip t the preserved food towards Floatspire Vilge, after a message from Lord Jerald had stated to take ara directly there. There would be more hunts in the ing weeks, but Amilya had decided that the bination of other vilges sending food would allow them plenty of time to rest between hunts.

  Shard