Chapter 108: Cultural Exchange
The hike out to the lake itself took almost an hour as they crunched through snow or scrambled over rocks. Several times, early in the hike, Hauke attempted to be helpful and offered to carry Ashlynn over a rough bit of terrain, only to be surprised as she effortlessly hopped from one rock to the next, crossing the treacherous ground with ease.
"Thane insisted I learn to do this," she said, landing lightly on a boulder before leaping to another rock outcropping. "As a method of avoiding trackers and hunting dogs. I didn’t realize it would be so handy for avoiding mudslides though," she said, looking back at Hauke and Virve as they carried the sled of supplies over the thick gray mud and slush of melted snow.
"Lady Ashlynn is just missing a set of horns to pass as one of us," Andrus said, matching her movements and hopping from one stone to the next with his powerful legs.
For much of the hike, Andrus had chatted eagerly with Hauke, asking about life in the High Pass. His questions seemed almost random, covering topics from how the Frost Walkers traveled when the weather turned bad to which fish were best to eat.
"So you hunt alone?" Andrus asked, his hazel eyes wide as he bounded from rock to rock. While he looked playful as he moved and his tone was light, his eyes constantly roamed over the terrain for anything that might be a threat.
If anything were to threaten Lady Ashlynn, he made sure that he was close enough to help protect her from it, even if he thought she was strong enough to protect herself.
"Even in winter?" Andrus said, pausing to glance back at Hauke.
"Most hunters do, most of the time," Hauke replied, carefully picking his way through the soggy slush with Virve until they passed the mudslide and he could start dragging the sled again. "The cold doesn’t bother us much, and prey is easier to track when you’re not part of a large group. I, I haven’t earned the right to hunt alone yet though," he said, his horn dipping as his head hung low for a moment.
"I’ve been following other hunters to learn though, and I join the fishing parties every autumn," he said, shaking off the moment of gloom. "When winter is close, we need to stock up in case the weather turns bad enough to keep us indoors so we’ll form into large groups to fish all the lakes nearby. The rest of the year, though, most people hunt and fish alone."