I do not own Octopath or any of its characters.

For those who have noticed, this is the same story as before but MASSIVELY cleaned up. I had thought I had fixed it, but it must have slipped my mind with how busy I am. Either way, this one should be a bit better than the last. Thanks for the review for the previous one telling me how bad it was. Happy new year!

Another kind of Hunt

The night is a cool and quiet one. Young in its age, and bright with a full moon looming kindly over the eight travelers. As they sat around the campfire however not many of them were enjoying the night.

"Ohhh…"

Mostly due to their growling stomachs.

Tressa groaned as she draped herself on the log that Cyrus sat on. While his nose is stuck deep in a book his face strained to concrete on the tome.

~gggrrrooowwwllll~

Given the fact, his stomach sounds like a ravenous beast.

"By the gods….what is taking them so long…" The scholar groaned in despair.

"Hunting is an art." Obleric nodded sagely. Folding his arms as she sat next to the lovely dancer Primrose, who is hunched over almost lifelessly next to him.

"It is not something that can be rush. Do not worry. H'aanit and Therion will return victorious-"

~GGGRRROOOWWWLLL~

"Is that before or after your stomach comes out to eat us?" Primrose grumbled at the sound of her own hungry belly. Much to the knight's embarrassment.

The odd mix of travelers has taken to camping in the woods before reaching the next town. While the rest stayed at the campsite, H'aanit, the experienced hunter went off on a hunt for food. Dragging along a brooding Therion with her for support.

"It sounds like even you can't wait any longer huh Sir Oblfirc?" Alfyn gave a weak chuckle. Laying sprawled out on the ground looking up at the stars. Although it was more to keep his mind off his own roaring stomach.

"Maybe something happened to them," Ophelia said with worry. "I hope nothing happened…"

"Well. This has gone on long enough." Primrose sighed as she stood up. Dusting off her clothes. "I am going to find those two fools. And if I am not back in a few minutes, except me to have eaten them out of spite."

"Ah! Hold on I am coming too!" Tressa dashed after the dancer. Leaving the others to their stomachs.

-OOO-

"Therion! H'aanit!" The young merchant called out into the woods. The light of the moon shining through the thin trunked trees while she walked through the ankle-high grass.

"Oh great!" Tressa sighed. "Not only can we not find them, but I am also lost too!"

The young merchant sighed as she had spent the past hour searching for the thief and the Huntress. She had lost sight of Primrose and is now thinking of making her treck back.

~Gggrroowwlll~

On a severely empty stomach.

"And I am starving….huh?"

The merchant paused in her musing when her foot came across something hard on her foot. Looking down she saw a very familiar bow on the ground.

"Ah!" Gasping in shock, Tressa picked up the weapon. "This H'aanit's!"

Looking around more she found the hunter's tunic tossed on the ground as well.

'She's never without her bow! What happened to her!?'

Growing more worried, Tressa yelled even louder for her friend.

"H'AANIT!"

"T-Tressa!"

The young girl turned her head towards a bush to see H'aanit's head poking her out form the top of. Her hair is a mess of leaves and twigs, her face is oddly flushed but she looked alright. An odd sight for the normally calm and stoic hunter.

"Oh, you're ok…" Tressa relaxed but then she noticed that the huntress was poking her head out of a bush. "And in a bush?"

"Why are you in a bush…." Tressa then looked at the tunic in her hands. "Without your tunic?"

"Ah, tis an um h-hunter technique." H'aanit coughed to regain her normally stoic composure. "Without thine clothes, I am lighter and more feelt footed."

"Oh. Makes sense I guess." The fledgling merchant nodded in understanding. Not seeing the sigh of relief escape H'aanit's lips.

"Have you seen Therion? He's still with you right?" Tressa asked. Making H'aanit jump a little. Her eyes not looking at the young girl as she tried to explain herself.

"Ah yes. He is currently tracking our quarry. We should be back at the camp with it soon. Do not worry."

"Oh ok. Well, good luck! And tell Therion to hurry it up! We're staving over there!" With a cheery smile, Teresa left the hunter. And as soon as she was out of earshot, there was a sigh coming from the bushes.

"Wow. Your almost a better actor than me."

But it wasn't formed H'aanit.

Therion poked his own head from out of the bush. His cloak and shirt long gone as looked up and the huntress with a haughty smirk. Who is currently straddling him.

"Tis not something I am proud of…." H'aanit hung her head in shame.

Both hunter and thief had originally gone looking for meat to eat. However, H'aanit was looking for another type of beast to tame.

"You could have just waited until we were at the inn you know," Therion said. A little surprised by his lover's forwardness. The older woman had pushed him down in the bushes suddenly and practically ravaged him with kisses. The red marks on his chest are going to take weeks to vanish.

The huntress isn't normally so assertive. A mix of shyness and the lack of knowledge when it comes to a relationship, H'aanit isn't exactly forward when it comes to affection. Something Therion doesn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Sometimes she would go days with even touching him. Then suddenly, on days like this, she would all over him.

"We're tyring to keep this a secret remember." Therion scowled with disapproval. "You don't want people getting the wrong idea about you when they see you with me."

H'aanit titled her head curiously as she looked at the thief. "Tis is wrong fore me to spend time with thee?"

Therion turned his head away to hid his blush. To say the Huntress is a little naive to relationships is a bit of an understatement. It took all his wit to convince her to not shout out to the world that the two of them are seeing each other.

"I see no shame in it." H'aanit said plainly. "Ture thou besth a thief but thou aren't evil nor black-hearted.

The Huntress honestly has always hit Therion like an invading army. Sudden, and quick, he can never defend against how fast she makes his heart race. And how crazy she makes him.

'Well, it's not like I dislike it…' Therion grumbled in his head as avoided H'aannit's cool gaze.

"A-Anyway. We should be heading back. Or someone is going to get a nasty eye full of us." Therion started to move his way from under his lover.

"Actually…" However, the stronger woman pinned him back to the ground with her arms. A predatory hum rumbled from her throat as she peered down him.

"Could we not continue where we left off…." H'aanit leaned down to nuzzle the crook of Therion's neck. Making him blush at her forwardness but he didn't pull away. Only sighing as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Mmmm. Well…The others can wait a little while longer." The thief said as he bit playfully at his ear before leaning up to kiss the huntress. Until a large cat's tail tickled his nose. A cat tail with a ribbon attached to it.

"Oh please don't stop on our account~."

The Huntress and the thief bloated their heads around to see Primrose looking at the two of them with the biggest sadistic grin on her face. Along with H'aanit's loyal panter Linde. WHo was meant to watch the area while the two of them….chatted.

The cat and dancer mirrored each other with their cocky looks and haughty smiles. It Primrose had a tail, it would be waging rather happily right now.

"Thou are a treacherous feline Linde…." H'aaint glared at her partner who meowed back at her. The panther was meant to watch the area around them so no one would walk in on them. However, it appears both her and Therion were betrayed.

"…. How long have you been watching us?" Therion resigned himself with a weary sigh.

"Oh, long enough…." The dancer looked at her nails nonchalantly. "I wonder how scandalous it would be if everyone found out that, instead of hunting, you two spend most of your time frolicking with each other…"

"It wouldn't." Therion sighed. Giving the two conniving cats an agatized glared. "If we bribed certain someones to keep quiet…"

"My Therion." Primrose gasped in mock shock. Her smile louder then Linde's purring. "You really do know the way to a woman's heart."

-OOO-

"Hm. Is it just me…." Cyrus noted from his bowl of stew to Primrose's. "Or do you have a lot more meat then everyone else?"

The dancer merely swallowed her dish. "It's just your imagination."

The hunter and thief had finally returned with a skinned and fat boar ready for cooking. After Therion had distributed the soup every began to eat. however, they noticed there is rather slim picking in the amount of meat given out.

"….Even Linde has more meat than us." Alyfn noticed the bowl of the large feline was stuffed to the brim with the flesh of the recently caught bear.

"That's because she dealt the killing blow so she gets her fair share," Therion said eating his soup.

"Yet that doesn't explain why I have a bone…." Oblifre looked at the offending item in his spoon with a curious brow.

"Oh yeah did your hunting technique work?"

"Ack!?" Therion coughed and gagged on his soup while H'aanit turned a little red.

"A-ah well..." H'aanit couldn't find the words to explain herself as Tressa looked at her so honestly.

"You ok there Therion?" Asked the young doctor.

"Y-Yeah! Just...went down the wrong pipe..." The thief grumbled while Primrose and Linde quietly ate their soup. Both of them enjoying a hefty amount of boar meat.