"Dammit."The moment that Teacher Corvus had felt the poachers move in ambush was the moment that he had left behind his beloved student... and the other one... in order to intercept them, however he had unknowingly come too late. All the display of his ability was for nought in the wake of the beast"s death. It had to be noted, that it was not entirely Teacher Corvus fault. The detection ability which he had taught to Sun, while indeed useful, could only provide a loose map of the area and that which was in it. But if the shape of what was offered could not be determined, specifically, then it might easily be ignored.
In this case, the coeurl had been within its lair, a shelter within an outcrop of rock and thick tree root, thus his ability had failed to detect it. If he had known... well he might have at least tried a bit harder to stop the poachers before they managed to ambush it.
"Teacher," Sun"s voice popped up into his hearing and he inwardly pouted that the youth wouldn"t call him by name.
He never intended to take a student in, but the boy with the root of wind reminded him of himself at that age, fighting to be recognised as one with ability and not just another youth with a "useless" ability. Things had moved on, admittedly, since his time when only primary roots were wanted of immediate disciples and the rest were just to make those students look good, but still... admittedly, the boy was cute, unable to hide the emotions that were pasted upon his face for all to witness and he had a playful streak too. So all in all, Corvus had thought it might be fun to take on a student. He didn"t think that after three days, he"d nearly frighten that student away.
"Teacher!" Sun called again.
"Yes, my dear disciple?" Corvus grinned, brightly at his cute student.
"Um.. the coeurl..." he pointed at the deceased beast, "What should we do now? Should we bury it?"
"Hmmm," Corvus thought the query was somewhat adorable. "Although it was not our intention to let the beast die, it would be a waste to just let it rot in the ground. Its meat can be used to feed the tamed beasts at the Beast Tamer schools and its hide can be shaped into flexible armour for a martial artist. It"s claws too have value and are often used as arrow heads or as spike formations upon armour. Besides, even should we attempt to give it a grave, the wild beasts will soon as find it and scavenge from its body. Best we take it."
"Did the poachers want its hide as well?" Sun queried, which made Corvus consider for a bit. The creature was a reasonable size, at least four-fifths its potential growth, the full growth usually only coming after a hundred years or so of spiritual absorption. Such a creature was no longer favoured as a mount for scouts due to its size, but would also be a ha.s.sle for poachers to claim, especially here on a protected mountain such as this. It was then Corvus noticed something else.
"The coeurl is female," Corvus stated and glanced into its den. Sure enough, there was a nest thick with feathers, soft mosses and gra.s.s. However, he could not see any cubs and the coeurl showed no thickening about its belly. He cursed again. "Dammit. Those poachers were a distraction."
"Indeed," came a voice from the depths of the trees. The three men turned to see a Teacher, with short silvery hair and an amicable smile, appear from within the growth. Following him were a group of five hardy looking young men and women. Each of them carried at least one coeurl cub in their arms. "Long time no see, Corvus."
"Teacher Volun," Corvus bowed slightly with a happy smile upon his face.
Though everyone but Sun towered over the silver haired Teacher, his aura made it feel as if it were the reverse, though Sun remained small regardless. His pale eyes looked down upon the fallen coeurl and the sadness within them was apparent. "We had hoped to return the female"s cubs to her, but it seemed despite our best efforts, that we were too late."
"Unfortunately," Corvus agreed, reaching down to lift the ma.s.sive feline into his arms without effort, though it was three or four times larger than himself. "I will bring it too the school."
"You have my grat.i.tude, Corvus," Teacher Volun said and indicated that the cubs would also be brought there. Although it seemed they were mostly weened, they would be lost to the wilds if they were allowed to remain free. The cubs still retained their hides of soft fur, their protective scales had not yet replaced such, they would easily be killed if attacked. Raising them and potentially taming them was the lesser of two evils in this case.
"Why were the poachers after the cubs?" Sun asked curiously as he fell in step with the others. It was one of Teacher Volun"s students that answered him.
"The cubs can be more easily tamed, trained as mounts or raised for their skin and claws. Though of recent days, they seem to be sold as trophy pets." He said these last two words with utter disgust.
Jin Li began to follow the group, keeping guard. The Hidden Vale Mountain was still filled with wild beasts after all and there might be more poachers. But he had not made more than five steps when he heard a noise behind him. It seemed to come from the coeurl"s den and he slipped back to notice a flicker of movement from within the nest.
Quietly, he crouched down and two large blue eyes peeked out from beneath the mess of feathers and gra.s.s. Jin Li tutted. The poachers had missed a cub, it seemed. Reaching in, he caught the beast by the scruff, the cub"s body curled and it"s paws and whiskers slackened, content to be held. It seemed smaller than the other cubs, perhaps the runt of the litter, and its fur was snowy white with stripes of black. In that sense the cub reminded him of a different small creature. He scooped the mewling cub into his arms and ran to catch up with the others.