50th Day of Spring, 512 A.V.
Jaeden sat silently atop of a building, his eyes gazing over the City of Illusion, and the destruction that still remained after the storm that had been unleashed multiple days past. It wasn’t just the storm itself, though it was responsible for some very mass destruction, especially when it had been so close to the source of the storm itself. But the mutations the storm had caused as a result? That presented a whole new problem. As a Wilderness Survivalist, Jaeden had traveled a great deal of the known lands, and hunted(or encountered and forced to defend himself against) countless known species of animal and monster. Now the storm was producing new species, and Jaeden, as well as anyone else in the city willing, was presented with the opportunity to hunt these new beasts for coin.
While Jaeden did hunt for coin during some seasons, most often it was to supply food and hide to shops in the city. Most often he just hunted to feed himself and Red when out in the wilds. He generally had a strict rule about simply hunting for sport. If he hunted something, he never let what prey he killed go to waste. The hide was skinned from the body and sold for making clothing to warm people in the winter. The meat cleaned from the bones and either eaten himself or sold to venders so they could in turn sell it to citizens in their respective cities. Many of the organs were the same. Livers and hearts often made delicacies for certain more “refined” individuals. More often than not though, it was left in the wilds as a free meal to scavenger animals. The bones themselves Jaeden often boiled in a pot of water to make a broth, often good as a quick source of energy on a cold morning. In the end, it was rare anything Jaeden hunted in the wild went to waste, rarely any creature being killed just for the sake of killing it. It went against Caiyha’s dominion of nature and balance, and despite not being entirely religious himself, against Jaeden’s principles as a Woodsman.
But this was not the Wilds, it was a city, and a rather large one at that with numerous citizens who weren’t, for the most part, entirely capable with dealing with threats. Most of the citizens were shop keepers, craftsmen, waitress’ and likeminded individuals. Their skills laid within provided a service of hospitality or items of trade. Most often, all they had to contend with was an unruly or, worst case, violent customer unsatisfied with their service. Most often then, city guard would come and settle the matter one way or another. And far be it for Jaeden to deny the skill that the true protectors of this city possessed, but they were more used to dealing with humans and other races that had similar skills. And more importantly, after the storm and attacks on the city, they were now spread thin as they had contend with defending what populace that had survived and had no skills for combat or hunting. And what these Mutations were capable of was new to them, new to everyone. They would have no drill or standard tactic for dealing with them. In the end, Jaeden assumed that is why this monster hunt had been announced in the first place. They not only needed more individuals on the hunt, so they could concentrate more of their own forces on protecting and rebuilding, but they needed individuals who specialized in bringing down creatures like these. They needed hunters. And hunting was one of Jaeden’s specialties.
Truth be told, considering the risk to the populace, Jaeden likely would have went out and began hunting these creatures without the incentive of coin. If for no other reason than to familiarize himself with these new breeds in case he came across them in the wild. But, if they were offering gold for the hunts in order to make the city safe, who was Jaeden to deny the coin? Still, the allure of riches carried with it its own risks. It brought out those who just wanted, what they thought to be, quick and easy coin. More often than not, these were individuals who had no real hunting experience, and had no real skills to contend with some of these new creatures. They went out blindly with any simple weapon looking to lop off a head and turn it in for gold. For the lucky ones, they would learn the hard way (usually from getting mauled and/or losing a limb), for the unlucky ones? Jaeden had to debate heavily if he would risk his and Red’s own life to save such fools should he spot one being attacked. It had barely been five bells past the announcement and Jaeden had already heard word of at least three bodies being found in some areas, and the body parts of others in another.
No. Jaeden was a hunter, and a experienced one at that. He knew that you just didn’t blindly rush out swinging a weapon and hope to kill your prey. That was conflict. Battle. War. Hunting was about patience. About stalking your prey. About learning their habit, their advantages, their weakness. Then finally, striking to bring it down with a well placed trap or arrow most often. And that was what this entire first day would be about. Simple surveillance and study. He would watch his prey. He would study them, learn about them. Then, when he was finally satisfied with what he had learned, he would feed, rest up over the night, and wake early and rested. Then, he would hunt.
