I needn’t have worried. The squirrel edged its way out into the open, ears twitching, nostrils flaring. Warily, it approached Gneil’s outstretched hand and sniffed the cleric’s fingers. Then it reached out its own paw and placed it on Gneil’s hand.
It moved along and did the same with Ris’kin. Then, to my surprise, it scampered up my avatar’s arm and perched on her shoulder.
Ket’s laughter tinkled out, and sparks rained from her, bright against the growing night. “It seems the tribe has gained another new member.”
“What are we, a traveling circus?” I grumbled.
Satisfied that the squirrel was safe, Gneil hiked back over to where Bruce was being unyoked from the chariot. The badger whined in delight at the sight of him, as though he’d been gone for days rather than minutes. Gneil placed a hand on either side of Bruce’s striped head, lowering his forehead to touch the badger’s in greeting. Bruce tolerated this for an entire second before he broke away to lick Gneil’s face furiously.
The high cleric fended him off and went to check on his acolytes. They were attempting to continue his task of feeding the owlets (accompanied, of course, by the usual encouraging chorus of “Hoot-hoot! Hoot-hoot!”), but were facing an obstruction. A belligerent, black-and-white obstruction.
Every time an acolyte held out a worm to one of the hoot-hoots, Flea the badger would barge in and snatch it away, butting the gnomes aside and provoking indignant wails from the little owls.
Before he could steal another piece of wriggling candy from the owl babies, Gneil took a firm hold of Flea’s halter and led him away, leaving the acolytes to feed their new charges in peace. While they walked, Flea’s head was bowed; this was a badger who was fully aware he’d been naughty and was about to face the repercussions.
From the trunk of a nearby tree, Binky watched them pass. It was hard to tell, but the way he waggled his pedipalps made it seem like he was chuckling.
Gneil led Flea away from the bustling camp and over to where the other two badgers were rooting for insects on the outskirts. They huffed sullenly at him.
Wait. Are they… jealous? Of the owls?
Gneil stayed with them awhile, talking softly to each one as he picked fleas from their ears and combed their coarse silvery fur, and it wasn’t long before the badgers forgot their sulkiness.
Ket’s right. He really does have a way with critters of all kinds.
I wonder if that’s the real reason he doesn’t get along with Longshank. Perhaps Gneil’s natural affinity with animals—Bruce, Binky, the hoot-hoots, and now the squirrel—gives him an aversion to anyone with the scout or hunter vocation. After all, their purpose is to kill creatures, not protect them.
Even now, Longshank and the scouts were out hunting for more food to sustain the tribe throughout our journey. The one-legged hunter still limped, but his experience in the new terrain, along with the cloth padding he’d wrapped around the sole of his wooden leg, meant his stealth skill was no longer in negative numbers.
Still, the prosthetic limb was no substitute for muscle and flesh. Longshank still stumbled every now and then, usually when he tried to move too quickly or turn too sharply, and I was worried this might prove problematic should he find himself embroiled in melee combat. He had a wicked spear arm, but a big part of fighting was footwork, and a stumble at the wrong moment could spell disaster.
He and the scouts were all equipped with slings, but those weapons were generally ineffective unless used by someone trained in their specific use, like Hoppit. After some pondering, I decided the armorer’s next project should be something that would help us compensate for that.
Luckily, I had just the thing in mind.
Thirty-Five
Too Many Cooks
Corey
Advanced vocation unlocked: Bowyer
Advanced vocation unlocked: Woodwright
Yes!
The notifications meant my carpenters must have finished their latest project. I zoomed over to inspect it.
Stonebow
Ranged Weapon
Also known as a ‘bullet crossbow,’ the stonebow is specifically designed to launch stone ammunition rather than the more traditional wooden bolts. Its light weight and easy-to-use loading mechanism make the stonebow a popular choice for new soldiers and trainee hunters, though its range is limited compared to more specialized weapons such as slings and longbows.
There were relatively few slingers among my warriors. Despite how basic it was, the sling was a difficult weapon to master, not to mention dangerous for anyone unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity while training was taking place. Since everyone was in the vicinity right now, we needed ranged weapons that were relatively safe and simple to master, even for those who hadn’t trained extensively in their use.
The new stonebows fit those requirements perfectly. No more wild slinging, rogue bullets or concussions; just ‘point and shoot.’
We’d gotten the blueprint for the stonebows after I’d instructed the carpenters to Upgrade the net-shooters. I’d been pleasantly surprised that I could assign them to work on weapons; I’d assumed that was exclusively the armorer’s domain, but it turned out the carpenters could craft anything so long as wood was somehow involved (though of course the quality would not be as good as with an armorer’s skill bonuses).
The woodwright vocation had apparently unlocked only for Tenon and Dowel, the two most recently assigned carpenters; the original two, Dovetail and Groove, had spent more time repairing wagons than crafting new things, and so hadn’t yet met the prerequisite, which was to have crafted complete objects using three different types of wood.
Meanwhile, I’d instructed our armorer to craft a basic shortbow after she gained the blueprint from inspecting some dried rabbit intestines (which apparently were the perfect material for strings). I’d deemed it prudent to have something with a longer range than both the
