"Still picking grass?" Wynblow grimaced.
Ewan did not deign to answer her, surely because the dragoness' disappointed tone, combined with the fact that she considered plants precious for their medicinal use to be vulgar " weeds ", had discouraged the young man from making any remark.
"What's this for?" She asked as she brought her large head to his level.
Still crouching near a small bush, Ewan raised his head to face the creature's huge mouth.
"A lot of things, " he answered without giving more details.
"Um, I see... A lot of things, huh..." Wynblow repeated with a blank look.
It was already the second day in a row that they were harvesting plants for medicinal use, and the big silver Salamander had found it quickly boring and tedious; even though she didn't have to pick them.
"Are we going to be here much longer?" Wynblow asked, "I thought we were going to continue north..."
"I'm waiting for an answer," said Ewan, focused on digging up a plant with its roots whole. "I don't know when it will arrive, but I'll wait as long as it takes."
Wynblow looked at him with what must have been a pensive expression, for she said not a word and continued to stare at him passively.
"What if that answer never comes?" Wynblow ventured to ask.
"In that case, I will act accordingly." Said Ewan, "The situation is rather unstable at the moment, so we must avoid standing out."
With that, he looked at Wynblow as if to accuse him of something.
"I' m hiding in the forest, there' s nothing more discreet than that..." Said she with a casual air.
"Yet I saw you flying yesterday night, in the middle of the sky and above the city," he reproached her. "What were you doing, besides being noticed?"
"Nobody pays attention when the sky is cloudy," she replied to downplay the matter.
"But I saw you anyway. Ewan insisted, "You really have to be careful, especially with the current situation, so why did you fool around doing that?"
Wynblow was about to answer something, but was cut off in her momentum by an explosion resounding in the distance.
The noise startled Pavas, who froze in place with her yellow flowers in her hands; and Ewan, on his guard, immediately stood up. Wynblow, for her part, straightened her head and neck; straining her ear to find out where the noise came from.
"What was that?" She asked with a look of concern.
Caught off guard but focused, Ewan walked over to a nearby tree and began to climb it.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Wynblow exclaimed as she watched him do it.
In less than two minutes, he had reached the top of the tree, taller than Wynblow's height of vision, and was able to observe the surroundings. He could see the tops of all the other trees in the forest, the cliffs in the distance, and the other hills that ringed the main peak of Mount Larshen.
However, it was not the ground and its vegetation that interested him, but the air; for he watched the sky carefully, in every possible direction.
After a few seconds of letting his eyes search for a particular element, he finally stopped his gaze on his left and behind him: there, high in the sky, shone a green ball of light.
No more doubts. A hunter had asked for urgent help. This was not a good sign in normal times, but even more worrying when an individual had a knowledge of the fauna and flora present on these lands. There was normally no creature that a hunter or group of hunters could require sending such a distress signal; and Ewan immediately began to think of the possible cause.
There was indeed a monster, besides the one standing next to him, that could force a hunter and his group to call for help from others by giving his position and that of the prey to be shot.
Sending a distress signal was literally like saying "come and get it, help yourselves" to all the hunters who wanted the same prey and the same reward as you. It meant forfeiting both the reward and your own pride by declaring yourself unfit to take down the creature.
Ewan frowned.
The only beast that could cause such problems for a group was certainly the Behemoth, and he couldn't help thinking of Géandre.
This guy may have hated him, Ewan had nothing special against him. The young hunter wondered if it was him who had sent the signal, or another group nearby.
However, who had sent the signal was not important at the moment. This distress signal could not be ignored, and quickly coming down from the tree where he had climbed, Ewan gave his instructions.
"Someone is asking for help in the middle of a hunt," he said, looking at Wynblow and Pavas. "This could be very dangerous so stay here and don't move, understand?"
Pavas nodded, but Wynblow protested:
"Stay here? Can't we come?" She asked with a disappointed look.
"I don't see myself explaining the presence of a dragon, and one that speaks human language to boot, to other hunters," Ewan argued, "So both of you, don't move from here, understand?"
The little girl and the dragoness looked at him curiously, but the young man said no more. It was not necessary to waste time with useless explanations.
Meanwhile, the blade continued to press against Geander's chest, and the man holding the weapon continued to wait for his answer.
"Where is it hiding?" Androanni asked again.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Géandre exclaimed.
Displeased with this answer, the masked man tightened his grip on his sword. He was surely convinced that the hunter could inform him, which gave Géandre the opportunity he was waiting for.
If the man was too focused on questioning him, he might not notice the monster trainer's stealthy movements.
Slowly, but surely, Géandre reached under his armor to reach with his fingertips for the extra plates he kept in one of his tunic pockets. With a little luck, he could summon one of the creatures to strike back at the enemy. The trick was to figure out which plate corresponded to which name, and in particular which one he wanted to call now.
Trying his luck, Géandre clutched the packet of plates in his hand, and called out a name.