Yarri walked a bit ahead of the others, looking for the most easily passable way through the vegetation. They weren’t far from the sea, but the beach turned into sharp cliffs, which made travelling along the shore nearly impossible. From time to time, Yarri reached out to Shaela, who was now hunting another small animal. Seemed like she wanted to make up for all the time on the ship where she couldn’t actually hunt and kill anything.

The thought made Yarri smile. She would also like to hunt and kill something now, especially after hearing the young hunter talk. She stayed out of their conversation, she had no intention of going inside the city, let alone talking to guards. It was getting darker, sky covered with thick clouds. One of the crewmembers stumbled over a root and ended up with a bleeding cut on his knee. 

Yarri shook her head. “Perhaps we should stop and take a short break.”

“Yea, I agree,” the injured man said and sat down, leaning his back against a tree and hissing quietly when he had to bend his knee.

“Start a fire, I will go look around if we are safe.” She took out her bow and arrows and disappeared into the dense vegetation. Hopefully they can have some fresh meat as well tonight. Carefully observing the tracks on the ground, she circled around the camp. It didn’t seem like anything extremely dangerous regularly passed through this area, but one can never be sure. The last thing Yarri wanted was to get eaten in her sleep. But then again, perhaps it would be the hunter who would get eaten and the world would be a slightly better place.

Though she had to admit, the boy hardly looked like a fearsome hunter, like the ones that were going around arresting people back where she came from. He seemed very poorly trained and overall unprepared, it would be almost a shame to kill him. Almost. But for now, he was focused on actually helping people and so was Yarri, devil knows why.

She got so lost in her thoughts that, for a second, she stopped paying attention to her surroundings, which was almost fatal for her. Quiet growling from behind her was the only warning she was given. Saved by her instincts, she managed to duck and roll to the side, as a long and elegant body flew around her, the sharp claws missing her skin just by inches. Yarri quickly jumped up to face the threat.

The beast was sort of similar to Shaela, but its fur had orange and black stripes. It growled on her. She growled back, reaching out to Shaela, who left her prey lying on the ground and sprinted towards her. But she was far, too far to get to Yarri before this thing tears her to pieces.

Yarri had an arrow prepared, but she had to dodge another attack before she could fire it. The animal didn’t seem injured, more like pissed off. Quickly drawing the bow again, she used her magic, trying not to think about the consequences of doing so this so close to a hunter. The arrow had less effect than she had hoped to, not freezing the beast completely, but at least slowing it down enough so Yarri could escape its attacks. Still, it wouldn’t last long. Yarri knew she had to get back to the others and hope for the best that at least one of her companions was able to build a fire.

She shot another arrow, hitting the animal to the side. It roared in pain and growled on her but didn’t attack. Yarri reached to her quiver and the beast jumped away into the forest. Yarri quickly placed a spell on it so she would be able to track it in case it decides to attack the camp. Unfortunately, the presence of the predator scared all the other animals off, so no fresh meat tonight.

Shaela joined her when she was almost at the camp. “How nice of you to show up,” Yarri told her and scratched her neck. The cougar licked her shoulder and with a sharp sting of pain, Yarri realized that the animal did indeed manage to scratch her a bit. She shrugged. As long as she could move and fight, it hardly mattered.

At least the fire was already burning in the camp. One of the crewmembers ran towards her. “What happened to you?” He pointed at blood, running down her arm.

“There is this large animal lurking around. Big cat, orange and black stripes. Looked hungry.”

The sailor’s eyes widened. “A tiger. There are rarely any around this area. We are doomed.”

Yarri rolled her eyes. “We are not doomed. It ran away for now, we are safe to continue once we have rested a bit and eaten something."

The crewmember didn't look convinced and he ate his food looking around nervously.