Son of a slave

"Yes. I appreciate it though, Alistar." Looking around at the limited amount of footprints that had been left behind after the most recent snowfall, she said, "The others haven’t been by?"

Corrie shook his head, getting up to retrieve some frigid wood from the snow-covered pile that Zech had gathered earlier in the week. Without speaking, he took his time extracting as much moisture as he could from each piece, at which point he melted all of the snow atop the fire pit and moved the water elsewhere. Suddenly pale, he nodded toward Alistar, who picked up on the silent que and set the logs aflame with an exertion of his will.

"Do you know when the boys plan on going out for another hunt?"

"It shouldn’t be more than a couple of days," said Alistar, who noticed a little brass badge that was tied to Helen’s belt with a frayed string. "So you registered, then?"

She nodded, a bright smile on her modestly pretty face. "The buck from before didn’t count towards my contribution points, but if I can complete ten more tasks of that level then I’ll be promoted."

"How does that work, exactly?"

"Well, each badge has three little slots where steel stars are attached after each promotion. See here? So, after completing ten more assignments, I’ll get a little steel star inlaid into one of these slots, and I’ll be able to take on more difficult tasks."

"And after you get three stars, your badge changes to another colour?"

"I think so. There are a lot of different types of badges, but they all have the same amount of slots, so I figure that’s how it is. I’ll have to ask Zech about it later."