A hunt based only on trophies taken, falls short of what the ultimate goal should be.

- Fred Bear

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Taurus won the argument that night, and after a few more bites to eat, the three of us turned in. My stomach folded uneasily as I listened to the sounds of the night creeping closer. I tried to convince myself that we were safe where we were. That the Easterners were long gone. Taurus felt we were secure enough to light a fire so we must have been safe, at least for the night.

Yet my nerves refused to settle as I buried my face into the blanket. The cloth was rough, but thick, perfect for the frigid mountain climate. It also had that warm earthy smell that reminded me of home.

My teeth sank down painfully into my bottom lip. The blanket would probably be as close as I ever got to a home again. The thought came down heavily against my chest as I pulled the fabric over my head and settled into a dreamless sleep.

[[]]

I awakened at the crack of dawn, feeling more drained than I had when I laid down to rest. The embers of last night's fire were dark and suddenly I could feel the cold mountain air rushing to meet us. I wrapped the blanket around my shoulders and looked around. Aldyth and I were severely underdressed for a winter in the Káscad mountains, but there was nothing much we could do about it.

Our things laid beside us in a neat pile so I quickly grabbed my bag and rummaged around for anything we could use to keep warm. With a small exclaim of relief, I pulled out the cloaks I swiped from Aldyth's house before it burned. They were worn, but thick and long. One was obviously smaller than other, which I assumed belonged to Aldyth. With a start, I realized that other cloak had at one time, been wrapped around the shoulders of her older brother, Noah. I folded they both back and set them by Aldyth's feet. It would be her decision on whether we used them or not...not that we had much of a choice.

I slowly pulled myself to my feet and found after a few steps that I could not only stand again, but I could walk as well. Though my tunic was thin and the morning was cold, I grabbed my bow off the ground, slung my quiver over my shoulder and went to go find us some breakfast.

It was nice to be hunting again, away from everything, I could pretend that nothing had ever happened and that maybe when I got back, everything would be the way it was before. Aldyth laughing, Ismay smiling, and Barric rolling his eyes.

A subtle movement caught the corner of my eyes and I quickly strung an arrow to my bow. With an out breath, I let the fletchings slip from between my fingers and shoot off into the brush. The bush jerked sharply and a rabbit cave barreling out from beneath the branches. I cursed under my breath and strung another arrow before it could get away. It flew over the rabbits ears, missing it's shoulder by a hair's breath. It was gone before I had time to draw another.

I begrudgingly retrieved my arrows in defeat and continued on. A little ways off, there was a stream cutting through the woodland. Faintly over the sounds of the forest were the loud squacks of water foul that were late in their migration. I pulled another arrow from my quiver and pulled back the wire. Finally I had some luck as the duck snapped on impact and fell down into the water.

I quickly rolled up my pant legs, unlaced my boots, and jumped into the frigid water before the current stole my kill away. With my face set in a tight grin, I carried the duck by the neck out into the forest and tugged out my arrow from where it had pierced it in the breast.

With my kill in hand, I quickly made my way back to the camp. My feet felt as if they were frozen from their dip in the stream, but despite that, the cold felt invigorating, like the taste of the air after a heavy rain. As I approached the camp my ears picked up the low hum of voices chatting quietly.

Aldyth and Taurus were talking calmly in front of the newly awakened fire, over which hung a spit with a small rodent. Aldyth was the first to notice me and beckoned me over with a hint of her old gusto. "Eli! Where have you been? We were worried? Taurus shot us a rabbit!"

Taurus chuckled and looked up at me, his glowing irises much less intimidating in the shallow light. "You should have seen it, Eli, the thing was running off like someone was shooting at him."

"Someone was shooting at him," I said sourly as I took a seat next to Aldyth. Suddenly all the fun from the morning was gone. "It was me."

Taurus raised his eyebrows into his hairline. "Was it now? It's an unusual technique you use."

"I got a duck," I replied and motioned to the bird that I was just short of wringing the neck of. "And my name is Elias, not Eli."

"But she -- "

"I know," I glared at him. Only my friends and family called me Eli, and I was not yet ready to call the elf a friend.

Taurus's face broke into a wide grin that showed off his top row of dagger teeth. "Ah, ii lārro, I understand."

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing," the elf chuckled as if it were some joke that only he could understand. "It was good of you to go hunting, and the fact that you caught anything at this time of year, impresses me. There will be less and less to eat the further north we go, so it's better we find what we can carry."

I nodded at him and pulled a knife out of my back pocket to start cleaning out the bird. Taurus kept watch over the rabbit on the spit while Aldyth came to sit closer to me. "Morning, Eli," she said gently. Not many would hear it, but I could just make out the fragile cracks in her voice that never existed before.

"Morning," I replied and didn't look up. "How are you?"

"I will tell you when I know," she sighed and looked down at the fire. "Noah would know what to do..."

I had not a clue what to say so I remained silent with my eyes trained on the duck innards, careful not to get any blood on the tail feathers which would be useful later. Aldyth was moving beside me, I could tell what she was doing until she set her brother's cloak down by my leg. "The weather is cold," she said. "And your clothing is thin. You remembered to grab this when I remembered none. Noah was glad I had you as friend, and he would have wanted you to have this."

I looked up and found that her gentle brown eyes were mere inches from my face. I smiled slightly and blew a lock of her dark hair away from her eyes. "I am honored to carry the memory of your brother. And I will wear it proudly."