Verdania was skeptical about Ciaran's plans so she stayed an extra two days. On the first day, the duo hunted two Lynxes. They were close to mountain lions in physiology so the duo decided to try their luck with them.
This hunt turned out a lot harder. These cats were a lot more cautious and never went for difficult hunts. It took a whole night of stalking for one of the cats to go to sleep while the other watched.
Ciaran didn't like to use poison in front of his sister, as the effects were a lot crueler than those of the paralyzers, and he didn't want her to see him like that. Alas, it was the most efficient method and so it was chosen.
He once again aimed his powder at his victims. The winds here were stronger, but Ciaran had gotten the hang of it. He willed the wind to do his bidding and it carried the poison right to the sleeping cat. And then they waited.
Ariadne suggested they poison the one keeping watch too, but Ciaran refused.
"It is on full guard now, if the wind suddenly blows powder at it, the scaredy-cat would run for the hills, literally. We need to eat Ari, and de-poisoning the carcasses will take time too. We can't afford to be careless, remember. Never again!" The boy said. When on a hunt, his clownish persona seemed to vanish in thin air, replaced by one of a ruthless hunter.
It was what got them this far, and it was what the boy believed would get them home safe with a few gifts even. The boy still remembered his tasks. Even tho, he gave up ascending the mountain, at least the higher zones, he was going to get the damn horns of the damn goat.
That had to wait, however. Ambition always made way to revenge in his book, and neither could be achieved on an empty stomach.
They waited until the sleeping cat stopped breathing, then the boy climbed on top of his familiar and they slowly started to crawl toward the other cat.
The surviving lynx didn't miss that its companion seemed to lose its breathing ability, so it quickly went to investigate.
'Darn, the thing is smaller than the mountain lions but it sure has some speed in those tiny legs.' The boy observed as he aimed the itchy powder. This one only needed to make contact with the skin, so it was much less noticeable.
When the lynx saw its partner lifeless, with blood coming out of its still-closed eye, its nose, and its ears, it ran. Without looking around it just ran as fast as it could.
~No, After it~ was what Ciaran ordered the Wind, and to his surprise it actually did.
The cat was fast, but not as fast as the Air around it. Soon the powder got on its head and its stomach. It tried desperately to avoid scratching itself, but in the end, it couldn't resist. It stopped for just a moment, but that was enough.
The duo deployed the usual tactic, Ariadne went for the legs and Ciaran for the eyes. The cat had one paw already close to its head so it chose to attack the boy.
Thanks to their pray making a swift decision they weren't in a perfect position, so the boy couldn't evade its attack fully.
Ciaran rotated his upper body forty-five degrees to the left, simultaneously preparing a right kick to the stomach. While doing that he blocked both of its paws with his left hand and hit its neck with his right.
Not of his hits packed as much of a punch as he would like them to, but they all struck vital targets. His defense crumbled in less than half a second, but it blocked the majority of the damage. His body was pushed to the ground by the weight of the cat, but he used that kick and the force behind the cat's pounce to reposition himself to the right.
That whole exchange happened in less than a second, and before the lynx could follow the boy, or run away again, it came to its attention, that it was missing its left rear leg and a chunk of its hips.
Ariadne was furious her partner took damage and pounced on the now crippled and poisoned cat, and Ciaran would not miss an opportunity to kick an opponent when he was down, especially one he knew couldn't fight back.
A few animals saw their antics but didn't bother with them. They were close to the safe zone, and no one wanted to push their luck by starting fights here. The duo got a pass because they weren't starting a fight, they were just chasing down their prey.
When they finally beat the life out of the cat they took it back to its now-dead partner and returned to their home with their new task. Ciaran now had to remove the poison from the meat, before they could eat.
The time for the detoxication varied depending on the size of their prey and the amount of poison used, but it usually took from one to three hours. Thankfully it only took them fifty minutes this time and another two hours to cock the meat properly.
Ciaran just told the smell of the meat, or more precisely the air that carried it to go trap itself in a chamber deeper in the mountain. The kid had specially built it with one entrance so he could block the smell when he cocked.
"Pain is bad, but bad food is so much worse." Was what the boy told his partner when she asked why he spent a whole day building his prison for odors.
Verdania watched all of this and was about to cry, but she waited until the kids had their dinner before sharing with them how stupid they were.
"You don't even know do you Rany?" She asked, her voice defeated.
He had a smug look on his face. He puffed his chest out and looked her dead in the eyes, not that he could see them, but he had Ari tell him where he should look vie their mind link.
"Who do you think I am Sis? I know I am about to enter the Novice Rank. I felt the Air or the Wind, you guys just use both terms it's actually kind of confusing. Whatever, I guess they are interchangeable, probably something to do with the region maybe. Ok, yes yes on point, so I felt it right? And then I tried to figure it out, and I stopped feeling it. So I just stopped questioning it and started ordering and now I am here. So now I just have to figure out how to cross into the beginning of my magic path. I was actually going to –"
"Enough, please enough." Verdania pleaded as she plummeted, ass-first to the ground.
Her head was in her hands and her spirit was broken. She didn't speak, she just stayed like that, and the two watched her not knowing what she was all depressed about.
Ari had an idea, and Ciaran voiced it out for her.
"She asks if this was once again supposed to be the unobtainable goal I should have strived for in this campaign." He turned to Ari. "Really, 'campaign', you take after my bad traits I swear." He teased her, and she was puzzled about what his 'good' traits were.
Seeing the two banter mentally and not give a single damn about the mental breakdown she was suppressing she decided to clue them in.
"You aren't ABOUT to become a Novice Ciaran. You ARE one, you no good clueless, sister blackmailing mother-"and for about thirty she enriched the vocabularies of both children with the nasties curses known on Dyrta.
They were of course in shock. Hearing the ever-calm Verdania curse so much was an eye-opening experience. If they could drive her to such madness, imagine what they could do with normal people, or even better, the ones with a short fuse.
'Oh yeah, and the Novice thing is kind of surprising too.' They thought in unison.
To them, whether he was a Novice or close to becoming one was more or less irrelevant for now. To make full use of it, he needed guidance from Eleftherios. As for what he could do on his own, he was probably reaching the peak.
The magic ranks were on average stronger than their counterparts, but that was only true for the created Warriors, Eleftherios had said. For those like him, and now Ciaran there was virtually no difference, so his new unpolished skill, was going to come in handy sure, but it was nothing to lose sleep over.
Naturally, if anyone of the older students of the Academy knew what he was thinking they would strangle him, but they didn't and he was safe.
Verdania rarely slept, but she had to admit these kids exhausted her more than any battle ever could, so that night she spent sleeping in their underground base.
The second day of hunting went largely successful. They hunted some elk. Those things were a lot stronger and a lot more tenacious, but they lacked the perception of the cats, so they just got poisoned to death.
Verdania had seen enough, and she went back home to complain to Eleftherios about their unreasonableness.