Ch 11

R&R because it would be lovely if I had reviews besides "waffles" and "porkchops." (Just click on the reviews.)

P.S. No action quite yet.

The air felt of a strange mixture of crisp but damp air that tingled as he inhaled deeply. The air was still heavy with wet smells from the rain last night. He repositioned his shoulder pack and absentmindedly gave it a pat, reassuring himself that it and its precious contents were secure, his gift to the higher-ups. (Besides his reports.) His other hand slipped his map out and, with little difficulty, unfolded it with one hand by simply letting it unfold with gravity just enough for his purposes. He tightened his backpack's straps and turned his attention to the map hanging rather limply in his hand. Briefly viewing it for a moment, he already knew where he was going but needed to check the direction that destination required, he then quickly folded the map back up. Once the map was secure he hooked the thumb of his now free hand under one of his shoulder straps in an attempt to lessen the biting pressure from the weight of his packs and finally stepped off the low step into the moderately busy morning street.

Once at a steady pace, he mused over how to write this next section of his report, working between concentrating on his surroundings and his work. His mapping of the area to the second mountain range beyond the one that towered in the distance was almost complete. While the gathering wouldn't be until the area was mapped and secured (thus having no official date until it was physically being set up and even then the date could be changed if the location was compromised) the sooner the area was mapped the better. A radius of several hundred miles around the gathering was designated to be mapped and secure and that was a lot of ground to cover. This village was barely past the halfway radius. Good thing so many clan members had been employed to sweep this extensive area that was set out.

He should check out these rumors just in case there is a need to be more careful of this area.

"And that is when we noticed the man standing at the far boundary to our corral. The invisibility and warping charms around it were functioning properly so he did not see our khalkotauroi and our other magical livestock - just our normal cattle and the sheep. We hadn't thought too much of it at first but when, at the shop, Fla'q had told me about apparently the same man's . . . strangeness . . ." AiWen [a/n: of the satyr couple not the child] clasped her hands together in an attempt to focus her thoughts.

Fla'q walked over towards the low scrying pool in the middle of the room, respectfully past the several elders seated around it who had been gazing into its water for some time now, observing the man. She mumbled inaudibly, fidgeting horribly as she dared to edge closer to the gleaming surface and the images that rippled across it. A hunter - possible hunter - walking right by others of the village. Many of them she recognized - some of them were her friends! - and they continued on not realizing any danger was nearby. (Possible danger, she forced herself to check herself again. They didn't know for sure.) Feathers began to flutter lose from her agitated movements. She shifted nervously as she stared horrified at the images, now unable to pull herself from them as they played fearing any moment that the hunter would appear beneath the mask of a man and suddenly start shooting and slashing. She swore that every time the man even motioned to scratch his nose there could have been a knife in his hands, ready to be dragged across flesh and taste blood, its handler likely relishing in its victims' sudden terror. She had heard the news reports before - of massacres.

"We must identify whether he had a purpose or not to come to the village," Lao Shi spoke somewhere in the distance.

"We still have yet to definitively identify him as a member of the Huntsclan. Until then the man will receive some doubt to his actions . . . but we will assume that he is a possible danger and act as such," one of the older members of the village present said.

"He may have simply been passing through," another villager suggested.

"I sure hope so," Fla'q frantically chirped. "Oh~"

One of the more silent elder spoke up: "we may hope but we must also prepare for the worst to come." She sat on a low stool near the gazing pool and mused. "We must continue on with the festival - for the village's current stability and the future harvest."

"And to maintain an atmosphere that there is nothing 'suspicious' going on," said another, one of the cervitaur representatives. "Things must continue to appear normal. If the man is leaving we cannot allow anything to pique his interest - at least not here. There would be panic if it was found out that a possible hunter was in our midst." His attention fell on Fla'q. "Relax, child. Your attempts may have worked out in our favor. As Mai said, we must maintain the village's cover. You managed to throw . . . suspicion on another village. When he finds that the village that these rumors are floating around holds nothing of interest he will leave the area and move on. As for the Kludde pack, we can fold them into the village for a while. We have the supplies to support them until this man has safely traveled far enough away."

Fla'q quietly chirped restlessly. She really wasn't liking the idea of not informing anyone right now but if the man was leaving at that moment . . . "ooh~." She really wasn't sure.

"Should we continue to spread rumors about the other villages? Or at least villages farther out?" Chang asked, her gaze never leaving the man framed in the large, low rimmed bowl.

There was a pause.

"No," the elderly Mai finally added. She rubbed her hands together to soothe her own nerves that were flaring under her poise. "It may be traced back to our village - by the man or the other human villages - if we start such a campaign. It may harm our relationship with our human neighbors."

Lao Shi finally took a seat. "We have yet to truly determine if he is a hunter or, more dangerously, a huntsmaster, either."

"We must monitor him," one of the council members suggested as he leaned in closer towards the bowl. Most nodded at this solution, an attempt to stop this atmosphere of repeating essentially the same questions. "Perhaps we should continue to trail him as he moves on."

"We must not trail him in person. It is too dangerous. If this man is of the Huntsclan he may catch on and the one trailing him will be in danger. Likely those around - magical and non-magical - could be in danger as well. He may think that any humans nearby were involved. As far as we know, this man could be the type to attack humans as well," Lao Shi said.

"Another scrying pool perhaps?" an elder standing nearby asked. "We'll need to set up a stronger one for when he moves farther out."

"It should work," Mai answered.

"He could still discover something - or someone - on one of the outer farms . . . or the forests," Chang interjected. "Where is the cervitaurs' range? Are there any others living on the outskirts besides the farmers, the cervitaurs, and the Kludde pack's camp site?"

"There are a few fairy settlements in the man's current heading but they are extremely good at hiding their presence."

"We must find out why he was here. It's too far from any known Huntsclan base to be normal."

"A hunter you say?"

"All evidence currently point to it."

". . . how many are in this village?"

"Approximately a hundred with the fairy settlements in the outlying parts of the village. About forty live in the village itself and surrounding farms. There are two small human settlements closer to the main road that runs through the mountains about a quarter of a day car ride from here."

Inky purple mists tainted with a shifting shiver of red swirled in her cup.

"For a hunter to be so far from any known Huntsclan base is disconcerting. Only higher level huntsmasters travel alone. This man is either a dangerous enemy or not alone."

"What the human is doing I will have the Kludde handle. And the Chinese Dragon? This is where he has hidden himself from the spotlight for . . . 'defeating me' . . . and with a daughter never the less?"

"Yes."

A smirk formed somewhere deep down in the bottomless swirling mists. "Well done," the deep voice cooed. "Leave sometime within the next few days."

Chang frowned harder.

"LaoShi has asked me to provide him support. He seems to have caught on to a degree that something is stirring." There was a low grumble from the cup. "So far he has told me about having witnesses to a growing Huntsclan presence in the region and mentioned that something is stirring certain magical species but said he wasn't sure if it was . . . what would be doing it," she let the sentence on her tongue become barely audible as she finished.

A long, drawn out rough sigh eased out of the cup.

Fine. Be smart about what you get into. I would hate to have to find another subordinate so efficient.

Knock! Knock!

Chang's attention jerked towards the door.

"Pardon me, Miss Chang! The scrying pool is ready," she paused, thinking. Miss Chang had been in there for a while. "Are you ill?"

The beaked harpy. Chang upturned her cup and let the mist fall and billow against the floor and dissipate. "No," she swallowed quietly as she took a patch of paper and wiped any shimmering residue from the floor, "everything's fine." The wipe soon found itself in the bottom of the squat toilet and flushed as she reached over and turned on the sink.

The running water churned rapidly in the porcelain sinkbowl and down into the drain. She leaned against the sink's edge for a moment, watching. She didn't know something, huh? She never liked that feeling.

[a/n: Hunter - basic huntsclan member. Huntsmaster - has slain a dragon. One of these huntsmasters is the head honcho but other, lower huntsmasters exist.]