"It took me a while to realize I didn’t like the person I had become but when I did, I apologized to all the people I hurt and I’ve done my best to change. To be honest, it’s still a work in progress." Trion said.

"I hope you’ll learn from my mistakes and become a better person than I will ever be, lil bro."

"Thanks, big brother." Aran gave Trion a small bow. "For what is worth, I think you are doing fine. Without Lith telling this story, I would have never thought you were such a bad person."

"Aran!" Lith and Raaz said in unison while Onyx stifled her laugh by putting her paw on her snout.

"What? I was giving him a compliment! Trion was a jerk and now he’s less of a jerk. He’s making progress." Aran said, making everything worse.

"Thank you, little brother." Trion caressed Aran’s head, smiling. "I need you to keep an eye on me so that I don’t go back to my bad habits."

"You can count on me." Aran nodded.

They resumed walking, advancing in an embarrassed silence. Life Vision allowed Lith to spot game from a distance and it took him only one shot to make a bloodless kill.

He mostly used water magic to hit a vital spot and then freeze the area of the wound.

One boar, and two stags later, Aran was in awe of Lith’s skill while everyone else was utterly bored.

"No offense, son, but this is too easy. What do you say we try the old-fashioned way and you let us do something?" Raaz said.

"Please, be my guest." Lith dispelled Life Vision and moved to the back of the group.

Minutes turned into hours as they moved around, no one with the faintest clue about how to track wild animals.

"I stand corrected." Raaz said after failing to even spot an animal in the distance despite the Hush Zone still enveloping them. "This is even more boring. We need a tracker. Onyx?"

"With pleasure!"

"Just one thing. No magic. Let’s keep things fair." Raaz said.

"Who needs magic?" The Utgard scoffed. "I hunted way before I Awakened. Just follow me."fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

She left the Hush Zone and sniffed the air, quickly finding a trail.

"Quick question." Onyx put only her head back inside. "Aran, can you shoot bunnies or are they too cute for you? I don’t want you to have nightmares again."

"Onyx!" It was Aran’s turn to be embarrassed. "That was supposed to be a secret! I mean, I’m not afraid of anything."

"That’s not an answer." The Utgard replied. "Yes or no?"

"Yes!" Aran turned bright red up to his ears.

"No it is, then." Onyx nodded. "How do you feel about stags?"

"I have no problems with them." This time he managed to maintain a level voice.

"Then follow me." The Utgard moved like a shadow, her steps made no sound as she stepped over the lush grass and took a roundabout route to keep herself upwind not to alert her prey.

Despite her size and mass, Onyx avoided bushes and twigs without even looking at them whereas Raaz and Aran kept making noise as they moved no matter how hard they tried to be stealthy.

If not for the Hush Zone, the stag would have heard them coming from a mile away.

"Dad, Aran, before taking your shot, align the crosshair with your eye and once you have your target in sight, raise the crossbow a bit." Another advantage of the Hush Zone was that Trion could talk freely and give them advice.

"Why?" Raaz asked in puzzlement.

"Past a certain distance, air resistance and gravity affect the trajectory of your shot." Trion replied. "The more distant you are from your target, the lower from where you aimed the dart will hit."

Aran and Raaz nodded without truly understanding what Trion meant but they trusted him and followed his advice.

"Okay, now, to keep your crossbow steady, take a deep breath, aim, exhale, and pull the trigger." Trion said while nocking his arrow.

The longbow offered no resistance to his Demon strength, feeling as if it was frailer than a toy.

Aran’s shot went too high, scaring the prey. The stag bolted forward so Raaz’s shot struck the body instead of the neck. Trion’s arrows hit the beast’s head before it could take a second step, piercing through its skull and killing it on the spot.

"Nice shot, big brother!" Aran offered his fist that Trion bumped.

"It seems Lith is not the only one with a talent for hunting in the family." Raaz patted his shoulder.

"No, Dad. It’s this body." Trion looked at his hands as if he saw them for the first time. "My strength and eyesight are hundreds of times better than when I was a human. On top of that, my mind and body are one, giving me perfect hand-to-eye coordination.

"In other words, I too am cheating."

"Let’s do it like this, then." Raaz proposed. "You don’t shoot unless Aran and I hit something. If it survives, you put it down. What do you say, son?"

"Deal." Trion nodded.

"Cool!" Aran said as Onyx collected the carcass before he could get too close.

"What’s cool? Unless you were aiming at the sun, you got nowhere near the target." She playfully mocked him.

"It was my first time using one of these things." Aran shrugged. "I didn’t expect the recoil to be so strong."

"Then use magic to keep yourself steady." Lith said. "As long as you don’t influence the dart, it’s fair."

Onyx and the hunting party made no noise as they moved onward, but the dying deer lost enough blood to alarm the nearby animals. It took the Utgard a while to find a new trail and the humans even longer to find their next target.

"You know, Lith, you have changed a lot since you were a kid." Raaz talked whenever he could divert his focus from not stepping over snapping vegetation. "You had me and your mother worried for a long while."

"What do you mean?" Lith moved with the lithe grace of a predator.

Gravity magic made his steps light while his heightened senses allowed him to avoid touching anything that would have revealed his presence even if the Hush Zone had not been in place.

If not for the fact they could see him, Aran and the others would have easily forgotten he was there with them.

"Son, have you ever looked at your reflection in a mirror as a kid?" Raaz asked. "And I’m not referring to your physical appearance. We all had it rough back then. Except for your mother. The gods know why but even then, she looked as hot as-"

"Dad!" All three sons shared a dislike for passionate descriptions of their mother’s beauty.

"I’m sorry for rambling on." Raaz cleared his throat in embarrassment. "The point is your glare was hard to miss, Lith."

"You noticed?" Lith had always believed to have a good poker face so the news took him by surprise.

"Everyone did." Trion sighed. "It was how Meln and I knew you disliked us as much as we disliked you."