Hunger came long before exhaustion.
After several hours spent hiding in the gloom of the crevice, the need for food finally began to make itself known. Emily was the first to break the heavy silence, running a hand over her stomach.
—I'm hungry.
No one answered immediately. Kara slowly lifted her head from the stone she had been sitting on, her ears twitching.
—Me too.
—That's normal —Isabella sighed, resting her back against the rock wall. —We've been trapped here for hours.
Elizabeth glanced around the group, then at their belongings.
—Do we have any food left?
The answer was a deathly silence.
They looked at one another as reality finally sank in.
They had nothing.
No dried meat, no fruit, no rations of any kind.
They had crossed into Zarhama with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Lusian remained at the back of the cave, leaning against the stone wall with his arms crossed. His figure was barely visible in the gloom. Although hunger did not seem to bother him, he knew perfectly well that the others would not last much longer without food.
—We need to hunt —Lusian said, his calm voice breaking through the cave's murmurs.
Nyra's head snapped up, her eyes widening.
—No.
The blunt response was so sudden that everyone turned to look at her.
—No? —Elizabeth asked, raising an eyebrow.
Nyra shook her head emphatically.
—You can't just walk out onto the savanna and hunt the first thing you see.
Kara twisted her mouth into a sarcastic grin and crossed her tails.
—Why not? Do the animals here have lawyers?
Nyra did not return the joke.
She did not even blink.
—Because they're not animals.
Kara's smile vanished instantly.
The young gatherer struggled to her feet and walked toward the mouth of the crevice, pointing toward the vast reddish horizon.
—The creatures that inhabit this land may look like beasts from a distance, but they aren't. They think. They speak. They build settlements, raise families, field armies... —her expression darkened—. And they defend their borders fiercely.
Elizabeth immediately put the pieces together.
—If we hunt on their land...
—They'll consider us invaders —Nyra nodded. —And if we kill a member of their community, no matter how savage they may look... they'll come and exterminate all of us.
Isabella crossed her arms, unfazed.
—Then we'll hunt outside their territory.
Nyra turned toward her.
—The Great Expanse.
—What's wrong with that place? —Isabella asked.
Nyra took several seconds before answering, swallowing hard.
—There are no laws there.
Silence once again settled over the refuge.
—None? —Emily asked in a whisper.
—None —Nyra repeated, pointing toward the distant stretch where the red grass turned golden beneath the scorching sun. —The Great Expanse belongs to everyone and no one. Any creature can hunt there freely. Any creature can die there. No one can claim a kill as their own, and no one can demand revenge.
Kara's sharp smile returned.
—So that means we can hunt.
—Yes —the girl nodded.
However, her next sentence erased any trace of relief from the air.
—But it also means anyone can hunt us.
Dayana narrowed her eyes, measuring the distance from the crevice.
—You mean the beastfolk?
—The beastfolk... and the true beasts that roam the plains. —Nyra clenched her hands tightly. —In the Great Expanse, it doesn't matter if you're human, Leontari, orc, or anything else. If you can kill, you eat. If you can't...
Her gaze drifted toward Zarhama's blazing sun.
—You become the food.
Kara rested one hand on the hilt of her greatsword and gave a quiet snort.
—Doesn't sound that complicated.
Nyra stared at her in silence for several seconds, her face marked by years of frustration.
—You still don't understand.
She pointed toward the distance with a trembling hand.
—A wild animal instinctively flees from a predator. A beastfolk can track it for days, chase it for miles, set elaborate traps, or patiently wait in the shadows until the prey collapses from exhaustion.
Her gaze swept across everyone present, lingering on Elizabeth, Emily, and Isabella.
—And they can do all of that because they think.
No one in the group answered.
The weight of the young woman's words hung heavily between the cave walls.
—The beastfolk inherited their bodies from beasts —Nyra continued, her voice growing hoarse. —Their raw strength, their sharpened senses, their hunting instincts. But they also learned how to organize themselves into communities, devise strategies, form battalions, and fiercely defend what they consider their territory.
Lusian slightly raised his gaze, listening in silence.
Nyra gestured toward the vast savanna.
—A field lion sees a buffalo and thinks only of food.
Then she pointed in the opposite direction.
—But a leonid sees a group of beastfolk buffaloes and sees food, territory, and a declaration of war all at once.
Emily frowned, tightening her grip on the staff between her fingers.
—Then... how do humans get food?
Nyra lowered her gaze toward the stone floor.
—We don't.
The answer fell like a gravestone.
—We steal it when the opportunity presents itself. We gather what the great carnivores leave behind. We trade what little we have between the underground shelters. And only on rare occasions...
Her voice faded into an almost inaudible whisper.
—...do we hunt.
Elizabeth stared at her, eyes narrowed.
—And what do the other races do when they discover you?
Nyra took a long moment before answering, swallowing hard.
—They hunt us.
Kara let out a low, dry whistle.
—What a shitty continent.
For the first time since they had rescued her, Nyra almost smiled bitterly.
—Yeah.
Lusian straightened in one fluid motion, rolling his shoulders until they cracked.
—Then we'll go to the Expanse.
Nyra's eyes widened, what little color remained in her cheeks draining away.
—What?
—We need food —Lusian said simply.
—I just explained why it's extremely dangerous!
—I understood —he replied, already walking toward the mouth of the cave without slowing down. —But we're still hungry.
Nyra stood frozen, watching him leave.
For the first time since meeting him, she realized there was a problem far greater than that man's strength or sword.
Lusian did not understand Zarhama's rules.
And worse... he seemed to have no intention of learning them before breaking them apart in his wake.
It was not long before Lusian returned.
Barely an hour had passed when his silhouette appeared once again at the entrance of the crevice.
Not a single drop of sweat covered his forehead, nor did he bear any sign that he had fought a fierce battle.
When he reached the center of the refuge, under the stunned gazes of the tribe and his own companions, Lusian channeled a faint pulse of mana into the dark jewel embedded in his storage bracelet.
In the blink of an eye, the air vibrated, and the stone floor rumbled beneath a massive impact.
One after another, three colossal kills began falling from the bracelet's spatial dimension.
The first was an armored beast resembling a gigantic boar, the size of a freight wagon, with black-ivory tusks taller than a man.
The second was a golden-feathered bird of prey with iron-like talons, large enough to feed dozens of people.
The third was a reptilian creature covered in bluish scales, still radiating the dense aura of wild mana characteristic of the deeper regions of the Expanse.
The silence inside the cave became absolute.
The tribe's children emerged from their hiding places, eyes wide, while the adults stared at the mountain of fresh meat, unable to process what they were seeing.
This was not a simple hunt for survival.
It was more food than their community had seen gathered in one place in years.
Nyra stepped forward, trembling as she looked back and forth between the dead creatures and Lusian's expressionless face.
—You... —the girl whispered, barely able to form the words. —It took you less than an hour...
Lusian brushed a speck of dust from his sleeve and looked toward Elizabeth and the others.
—Prepare the meat —he said calmly. —We don't have all day.