Tobias glanced back even though he couldn't see anything but a boulder, then scrubbed at his face. "I don't know. We heard you chasing us, so we picked 'good ground.' Well, Gideon did. They think you're going to fight like Dragons, but... Ayla, there's a lot of animals."
"Dogs. Horses," Rymar said.
"Yeah," Tobias agreed, reaching into his shirt.
But Rymar grabbed a knife from his belt and his tail whipped up. "I will kill," he growled.
"It's okay!" I assured him.
"Callah's letter," Tobias explained even as he slowly removed the paper from inside his shirt. "Ayla, we were told about this last night. We left just as the lights came on this morning. Same as last time."
"And the meat?" I begged.
"So, you did do that?" he asked.
I nodded. "We hoped it would keep you from attacking the camp again."
Tobias shifted so he was sitting on his ass, clearly relaxing. "I don't think that's why we're hunting."
Beside me, Rymar was holding out his hand to Pepper. "Come," he whispered in Vestrian as if trying not to interrupt.
I ignored him and asked Tobias, "What do you mean?"
"You gave us more meat than the elders know what to do with," he explained. "Ayla, they're freezing it. We haven't been able to do that in..." He blew out a breath. "I don't even know how long. Never inmymemory. So if we have that much meat, why are we hunting?"
"What they say?" Rymar asked. "You olders."
"Elders," I corrected without thinking about it, but he had a point.
"They said the demons are knocking at our door now," Tobias explained. "They said we must destroy the evil at its source. When Gideon gave us the orders, he said we will go where the enemy isn't waiting, because this isn't a battle evil can win, God called upon us to do this, and those sorts of things." Then he paused to lick his lips. "And they want us to bring back women."
Rymar cursed under his breath, clearly understanding all of that. "And they go to Lorsa?" he asked.
"This time, yes," Tobias said. "Most of the hunters are boys. Not even twenty! They graduate at eighteen now, just like the girls, and Gideon said they need to learn where the food's at. Ayla, I can't be sure, but I don't think this is about hunting anymore. We don'tneedmeat right now!"
"Then what is it about?" I asked, having a few thoughts of my own.
"I think this is war," he breathed. "I'm not sure of that, but the more you push back, the thinner their excuses become. We need to save the women. We cannot let the Devil win. We must reclaim the world…" And he lifted a brow.
"Which sounds like that's the real goal," I told him. "If no one is up here to fight back, no one will be up here to offer a better option."
"Yeah," Tobias agreed. "But I'm not sure they want to be up here at all. They simply want us to come on a schedule, get the food and things they desire, and return to suffer under their control."
"Becausetheirlives are comfortable like that," I agreed.
"Fuck," Rymar grumbled, speaking in Vestrian. "Ayla, do the thing with Pepper. She doesn't know him yet, and if both dogs can find him..."
"Yeah," I agreed, reaching for my training treats. But I used English for Tobias. "You're going to have to let the dog smell you," I said. "Just like with the first one. Give her treats."
"Are they all girls?" he asked, catching that part but accepting the dried meat I passed over.
"No. Mine are, but not all are." Then I told Pepper his name and he offered some meat.
We repeated that three times. On the fourth, I told her to find Tobias, and Pepper nudged him with her nose and looked at me. I hurried to give her a treat, then sent her to guard again, but Rymar was looking off toward the battlefield.
"Little guns," he said - in English this time - pointing out the lack of gunshots.
"We were ordered to retreat instead of die," Tobias explained. "We can't afford to keep losing hunters like we have been. Ayla, I think they're starting to understand how you fight, but our guns are no match for these dogs. We can't see them coming half the time, and nothing stops them. When they try to shoot them, they're hitting each other and not the animals. We just can't aim as fast as they move!"
