Loch followed the line of tracks through the snow with his eyes. The prints were large and oddly shaped, almost round with a couple nubs on the front. Loch wasn’t sure what made a print like that. It kind of reminded him of an elephant’s feet, but that made no sense.

  Ahead, Kyle raised a hand in a closed fist. He then moved his fingers to the left. Loch looked over his shoulder, seeing the other hunters move slowly in that direction. They moved as quietly as they could, each step careful onto the crusty top of the snow. The feet broke through the snow into the powder, only going down six inches or so. It was a long process, moving so slowly, but they barely made a sound.

  Kyle had said that one of the Hunter’s Abilities was in moving silently through almost any condition. It had taken them a bit of time to get used to walking in the snow. Kyle had all the Hunters out every day practicing in the week since the first snowfall. They got about a half inch of snow every two days or so. Not enough to make things difficult, but enough to keep them removing snow from the clanhold constantly.

  The Adventurers kept up their Dungeon rotations. There were enough in the Clan’s territories that each team could move from one to the other almost constantly, just resting between when they needed it. Loch needed to run some Dungeons but was no longer in rotation with any of his people. His bannermen were running in their own teams, along with Harper and Piper. If he did runs with anyone, his higher Level would hurt their experience gains. He didn’t necessarily want to run any Dungeons solo, but had a feeling that he would be soon. He needed to keep Advancing.

  Knowing he couldn’t move as quietly through the snow as the others, Loch let them get ahead. He moved forward, going slow and letting the Hunters do their job. He wasn’t sure what they were tracking but it had to be big judging by the footprints and spacing.

  Loch was glad that there were still monsters roaming the woods even in the winter. That would mean a somewhat steady supply of fresh meat and hides. Meat had never been their biggest worry, it had been fruits and vegetables. There would always be water and meat could be gotten from the forest and the dungeons but they needed more than just meat and water to survive.

  Shouting came from ahead, Kyle’s voice loud, directing the others. He heard the snapping of branches and some strange trumpeting noise. Loch ran forward, crunching through the snow. Loch passed some trees, the land sloping down.

  “Lead it this way,” Kyle yelled out.

  Loch passed another tree, seeing an arrow sticking out of it, blood along the ground. The large footsteps grew closer together, more of the snow being trampled. Broken branches littered the ground, some of them thick. As he ran past, Loch made a mental note to return and collect the bigger ones. They could be used for firewood.

  The noises got louder.

  “Look out,” one of the Hunters yelled.

  “Shoot it,” another shouted.

  “Look out,” Kyle yelled.

  There was a loud splinter, cracking, as a tree was knocked down. It crashed through other branches, snapping and breaking more as it landed with a thud. More crashing and shouting and then a single loud trumpeting noise. Silence fell.

  Loch came to a stop, looking into a clearing. A tree had fallen on the other side, branches covering the snow. More broken branches and snow pushed aside, revealing the brown ground below. The Hunters stood around the clearing all looking at the thing in the middle.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Loch asked.

  “Yeah,” Kyle answered. “Not as big as the movies showed it.”

  “Nope,” one of the others. “Barely bigger than a bear.”

  Laying in the middle of the clearing, arrows sticking out of it in a dozen places, was a Mastodon. It looked just like the pictures and movies Loch had seen. An elephant covered in thick shaggy fur, long tucks and nose. Except the Hunters were right, the thing was just a little bigger than a bear.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Was it a child?

  “Is this what you’ve been looking for?” Loch asked, walking down the slope.

  He reached out, feeling the heavy fur of the Mastodon. Multi-colored sparks drifting up from the large beast, flowing into each of the Hunters. One of them walked forward, drawing a skinning knife from a sheath at his waist.

  “Yeah,” Kyle answered, walking over to stand next to Loch.

  Once the snow had fallen, all the teams heading out from the clanhold had reported that they’d seen new tracks and even new monsters. The size of the Mastodon tracks had worried the Hunters. They’d seen a lot of them in the woods around the school. Kyle had asked if some guards or adventurers could go out on one of the hunting trips to help with the new monsters. Loch had nothing to do for the next couple of days, and honestly had gotten tired of shoveling snow, so he’d volunteered to go out with the Hunters.

  “This one wasn’t so bad,” Kyle said. “But if we run into a bigger one…”

  Loch nodded, understanding.

  “This might be the big one,” he said, pointing around at the trees. “If it was found in the woods, doubt there’s a bigger one. It wouldn’t be able to walk through the forest.”

  “That’s true. There’s no plains near where this guy could have wandered in from.”

  “You have it under control?” Loch asked, turning away as the Hunter started cutting into the Mastodon hide.

  “Yeah, we’re good,” Kyle said, watching the work, the other Hunters watching the woods. “Thanks.”

  “No problem.”

  ***

  Loch didn’t head straight to the school. It was late afternoon, he had a couple more hours to explore the woods. He hadn’t been out with no tasks since the first snows. Others had gotten to go to the Dungeons, but he’d been stuck dealing with non-stop issues. There was always something.

  He let Ed and Kristin deal with most of the stuff, but there were things only he could handle. Loch spent most of his time outside, helping shovel snow or repairing things that had been damaged in the heavy snow. Parts of the pasture fence had broken, the animals not leaving. He had to spend time at the chicken coops, helping clear the area of snow and help repair some of the structures. He’d gone out to the wall by the old brewery, making sure the people there had it under control.

  But now, Loch had nothing pressing calling for his attention. He’d planned on being out all day and into the next. Now he had a couple hours to waste. Opening his mental map, Loch plotted a course. He was a couple miles from the school to the northwest. If he swung to the east, he could take the long way back to the school, coming out on Bow Lake Road.

  The area had been relatively heavily traveled, but Loch didn’t mind. He wasn’t out to explore new areas, just looking to enjoy a hike through the woods. He’d always enjoyed winter hiking in the trails behind their house. Snowshoes and cross country skis, or just breaking through the snow. Working his way through the snow pre-Connection had been tiring, a good workout, but now it wasn’t that bad. He still wished he’d brought some snowshoes with him.

  Snow covered the pines, mixing the white and green. The woods were silent, but he saw the tracks of dozens of small animals, seeing a white rabbit quickly hopping away, hiding under a bough heavy with snow. Loch ignored it. The rabbit hadn’t been that big, it wouldn’t have given much meat. The mastodon was going to give the Clan a lot of meat and the leatherworkers would be overjoyed to work with the thick furred hide. There was no way that was the only mastodon in the woods. Loch wondered what else the winter would bring.

  He saw a couple more tracks he didn’t recognize, crouching down to study the shape. It was long, with three toes that had long claws. Some kind of raptor Loch thought. But the shapes next to it caught Loch’s attention. They were more humanoid, barely breaking through the snow. Where his steps broke through the crust and sank four or so into the snow, the other tracks broke the crust but didn’t sneak much further into the powder beneath.

  Standing up, Loch traced the trail. It looked like they had come from the east, following the raptor’s tracks to the north. He wondered which way to go. There was no question about not following the tracks. Raptors were common in the woods, but he didn’t know what had made the others. He hadn’t heard anyone report tracks like those.

  East where they had come from or north where they were going?

  North, seeing where they were going.

  It could be a raptor nest or even another Dungeon.

  Loch glanced up at the sun. It would be night soon. He reached into the pouch at his waist, wishing he could get his own Spatial Bag, pulling out one of Kristin’s notebooks. With a pencil, he wrote Kristin a quick note. He didn’t think he’d be coming back to the clanhold before it got dark.