“Team members and registration please?” when Caroline came to the entrance of the hunting ground with a team of four, the ranger in charge of admissions asked them with a curious look on his face: “Daryl’s Hunting Club, I’m assuming?”
“Yes. And it’s the first hunt for one of our new members.” the team leader was a girl in a grey blue hood by the name of Emily Carter, who also happened to be the judge of the first round of club membership eligibility test, and the team lead.
“Oh, you’ll be helping us with the nuisance of Blinker Racoons, thank you! And you’ll be going on an overnight hunt right? Do remember that the maximum time limit is 24 hours.” the ranger looked at the teams’ papers and asked: “And you don’t have your names or photos on these approval papers. Per the new group hunting policies set by the administration, you need to provide me with your names and your respective roles.”
“Why?” Emily Carter asked: “When did this happen?”
“Just last week. Because another group of students were attacked just two weeks before, and all of them were the fighting kind, the few of them who knew first aid knew nothing more than that. And none of them was even remotely experienced in tracking the routes in the woods. We had to go get them with a rescue team and they needed to pay a hefty fine because of the reckless disregard for safety guidelines.” the ranger sighed and answered: “And now the school requires that each team document their team members’ names and roles. If you’re going into a far or dangerous location to hunt, the school will require that you have at least one member who is a tracker and someone who can actually heal instead of just performing first aid.”
“Ugh. Okay.” Emily showed her longbow from her back and said: “I am Emily Carter, I am the team lead on this hunt, and I am the tracker. I am registered in the academy’s regular hunter’s list as a tracker. So you can be certain we can find our way.”
“My name’s Paulo Benjamin. I am the ‘fighting type’, and I am also registered as a tracker.” Paulo, the guy that led Caroline through the hunting tests and the judge of the last round answered: “So you can double sure.”
“I am Michael Cooper.” the third and slightly timid member of the team was a guy in a casual looking blue and white robe: “I am the healer, I am also the one who can perform first aid.”
“And I am the new member. Caroline Baker.” Caroline said: “I am also quote - unquote ‘fighting type’, and I can do a little bit of healing when required. But I am not familiar with first aid protocols.”
“Yeah. It’s roughly the same with the civilian world. But I do recommend checking those out, could be quite useful.” the ranger recognized Caroline, and he just stamped on their paper: “Alright, you are free to go in. Be back in 24 hours, or we’ll have to go in and search for you. The trolleys are on the right side of the entrance. I trust that being old hunters you know how to find them.”
“Understood. Thanks.” Emily nodded and led the team into the hunting ground, and started walking to the right side of the entrance.
“Trolleys? What trolleys?” Caroline asked.
“Well, nothing special, just something hunters can pay for when they will be hunting at a relatively remote location.” Paulo explained: “The hunting ground is a big place, if you spent most of your time trying to find it that would make it quite wasteful. Since this is just an overnight hunt, it would be more cost effective to pay for trolleys.”
“Here.” Emily led the team to a place and waved her hand in the air, a wooden structure started rising from below the ground. And when it came completely to the surface, Caroline could see that it was a trolley made with wood and bamboo, and very little metal.
The team went inside the trolley, and Caroline was a little bit disappointed to find that the interior of the trolley was magically enhanced like the insides of Josephine Wong’s SUV, it was just a normal trolley, at least it looked to be so.
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“The trolleys are fortified against most forms and sources of damage.” Paulo continued to explain: “Common game won’t be able to damage it. But also as a policy, they can’t go in too deep. So this trolley will remain outside of the forest. But it can’t go in any further. And if we are in need of retreat, we just need to go back in here.”
“Understood.” Caroline nodded: “As for the targeted game - Blinker Racoons are just our main targets right? They’re not our only targets? Are we allowed to hunt other game if we encounter any?”
“Yes, all the tagless huntable game in this season can be hunted. If you have your own hunting tags with you, you can hunt specific game as well. A lot of teams they just do as such - each member carries their own tags and collaborates on the hunting activities.” Emily answered as the trolley started moving towards their destination: “Last year I hunted a rogue Electric Worm Drake with Marco, and in exchange I helped him with his hunt for a Brim Toad.”
“A drake for a toad? Doesn’t sound fair.” Caroline chuckled.
“It’s okay. Electric Worm Drakes are not like other drakes, they’re ugly but not vicious.” Emily smiled: “They’re just hard to track down.”
“Yeah, I remember that story.” Paulo laughed out loud: “You guys spent three days tracking it, and you ended up hunting down the Brim Toad first because you just ran into it while tracking the damn drake.”
“Click.” the trolley was stable, but it was quite fast - in just about twenty minutes they were already at their destination - somewhere right in front of a forest.
“Alright team.” Paulo hopped off the trolley with Michael Cooper, who barely said a word the whole trip: “Let’s kill some racoons.”
“What’s that smell?” Caroline frowned as she left the trolley: “It’s like a very light flowery smell, but a little...”
“Dangerous?” Michael Copper nodded: “It’s the Serpentine Lilies. They’re slightly toxic, but they usually grow around the territories of toxic beasts and monsters. Blinker Raccoons are not toxic, but other beasts and animals that roam this place could be. Like Brim Toads.”
“Let’s not worry about Brim Toads.” Paulo laughed and shook his head: “I was still hoping to get back early and have a nice bath and a feast. Oh my gosh, what a week I just had.”
“Dude, you’re not supposed to talk like that.” Emily rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, it’s like the guy in a war movie saying he will marry his girl when the war’s over.” Michael Cooper scratched his nose and said.
“Superstitious, are we?”