The Routine

Hunter opened up his eyes as he stared at the ceiling. He exhaled as he saw it was still dark outside. He looked to his side and saw Cora was facing away from him again. Ever since she lost her sister things have not been the same. She refrained from touching Hunter in all manner. Hunter understood she was suffering but lacked the social skills to comfort her. He wondered if he was doing the right thing by staying with her. She was very depressed and had not worked in a month since the death of her sister. If anything their relationship was just a routine of two people living in the same place. The fire in the relationship, though one sided, was gone by this point.

Hunter sat up and got up as he did his stretches before he washed up. Then he got the fire in the stove on and began prepping the breakfast stew with season, meat and veggies. His knife cuts were spot on since he was a master with any blade. This helped the food cook evenly as he let the fire blend it in the cauldron. Then he left the shack to work out with running, push ups, sit ups, katas and drills. He was glad to be able to work out properly now since his leg injury. With his payment in gold on top of his monthly pay and living a simple life he was able to easily provide for himself and Cora.

Of course he had a feeling he and Cora would not last under these conditions, but she was not ready to let him go yet. Perhaps it was guilt or perhaps it was his money she became dependent on, but she was getting thinner and more pale over time. Since she was not taking care of herself he had a feeling she might give up on life eventually.

After working out Hunter ate breakfast with Cora in silence in her shack. Then he told her he was off to work and he headed out in full gear. He limited what he left at her place in case something bad happened. Since the Duke got greedy he raised taxes and quotas for all farmers and hunters. Hunter was not impressed by the old greedy coot who acted all high and mighty while hiding in his room and using his family's past as an excuse to rip off the people. Hunter was owned by Noble just like him and he had killed several just like him as well so he could careless what the old fart had to say. However he knew the Duke had decent spies, but they were not that good. The Duke only gave Hunter ten gold coins for the body count, sadly that number was higher. Also Hunter had to call bullshiatzu on the Duke when Hunter purposely got the attention of the Preacher and not one soldier went after him. Either the Duke let the cult exist or he didn't care to stop them.

"Typical self centered Noble", muttered Hunter as he took the wagon to the hunting grounds. He used the cart to hunt several animals since he was feeding a lot of people these days. The quota was not a big deal to hunter since he had passed it up all the time when he was working. After the long walk he parked the wagon and tied it off on a tree to keep others from walking off with it easily. Then he prepped his bow and arrows as he went into stealth mode. He moved like a deer with no noise as he kept his senses alert. He was glad for the gold since he could restock in his supplies for arrowheads, poisons, seasons and food.

After an hour he caught sight of a boar and shot a well place arrow into its eye to drop it. After giving it some time to take its last breath he dragged it to his butchering tree and drained it there with a rope as he continued his hunt. A few hours later he had two more boars and a female deer. Once they were butchered he made his way to Cora's place and put the smaller butchered boar in the smoke room that the twins used to preserved their meat.

Once it was set up to smoke for the long haul, he took the rest of the animals to the butcher in town. It was a long walk and he had to get his hunt logged in by the book keeper. The butchers and tanners were glad to see Hunter coming since it meant food and work for them. Since the greedy Duke raised the quota they felt pressured. Sadly not all of the other scout/hunters were able to keep up and Hunters number aided in that part. Hunter heard the red head huntress Islana was also bringing in big numbers from the crew. He was impressed to see she was doing well despite her ordeal with the cult.

Once he was done with the butchers and tanners, he took his wagon to meet up with Voah for his training in religion and some lunch. Sometimes he would help Voah's investigation when she had some leads. It was not hard to deal with them since they lacked skill compared to himself, however he let Voah do the killing this time since it was her mission. He found it interesting how important the gods were to others and he made sure to learn about them but he still struggled to feel a connection to the gods. He kept this to himself since it was a touchy subject with Voah. He also preferred to work with Voah than the greedy Duke since the conversations and expectations were different. The combat training was not very difficult for him as he caught on quick. As Hunter studied the arts of the Inquisition he slowly become aware of what was involved in becoming an Incus, which was an old designation to those that served a battle shields to Arbiters of old. He found it ironic that a heathen like himself was being trained to be a holy warrior.

After his lessons were done he bought some vegetables and took the wagon back to Cora's place. After the long walk he parked the wagon and cleaned up before making dinner as Cora was still in bed. Her depression was still bad and he sighed as he made dinner for them. He did his chores as the food cooked since Cora was not up to it anymore. Once it was ready he woke her up and helped her to the table to eat. Once again they ate in silence before going to sleep like they were strangers. Hunter stared at the ceiling for a while before he closed his eyes wondering how long this would last.

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