Akhmin and his friends scour for a good ambush site. The scent of their prey is lingering amongst the dew of the grass. One of the trackers spots a subtle silhouette of a big fowl, feathered and spread tail with a large toothy beak becomes clear through the mist and fog.

Akhmin motions a hunter with a red-beaded necklace to scout ahead, toward the destination, as more bugs swarm peacefully around them. Finally, they form a kill circle. A hunter from behind scares the large bird as the other two shoot arrows of their own feathers. It thumps to the ground, the other three surrounding it. One of the hunters is a bit younger than the rest and starts tearing in one of their eyes, closing them and biting their lip. Akhmin notices this but proceeds with the ritual of release. He takes a sleek and tooth-like dagger with metal tip and juts it into the bird's side, piercing its heart. He murmurs a settling and softspoken farewell, "On this day, your soul lives on. You will rise above the stars and someday be free. As of now, your vessel remains our food. Thank you, great beast."

One of the hunters hoists the bird's toothy beak. It has shining metallic ends to them, silver in color. Akhmin assists in tying up the game as the other two hunters find more quallix to hunt. Akhmin looks at the young hunter tying a well-positioned knot and smiles. "New?" The hunter nods. "I... don't like killing things but... I thought if I went with my father to prove my worth as an overseer, he'd spend more time with me on other things..." Akhmin phases his smile to bittersweet, upturned mouth corners. "Killing isn't for everyone. I will tell you though, there's a lot of things your father would be proud of, I'm sure of it." The child starts to smile as his dad comes back over to meet the two in conversation. "Ah Elkhra, very fine work! I taught you well." He congratulates his son on the knots he made. Turning to Akhmin he exhaults a tremendous hobby of Elk's, "This finch is a pure genious when it comes to weaving." Elk blushes in embarassment but accepts that it isn't wrong."

Akhmin and the crew wheel their haul back to town. As they do, Akhmin picks up some cylanta along the way as well as other herbs. Achiin is back at the cabin, staring at the village as they eat a jerky made of dried prisma berries, crystallized, sweet and tart. The townsfolk are quarreling and spot a creature they’ve never seen before. The vendor from before spots an opportunity to catch it due to its wrecking of personal space. Achiin sees this and spreads their wings to float over to the commotion, rain now ceased. The creature has two pincers, a hard body, 8 legs attached to the thorax, and a tail with a pronged tip. Its carapace is brass with a tint of textured, cubic lattice. The creature also has green eyes, glowing. “A Mekan!” Achiin spat as he exclaimed its presence and kneeled down at it while chewing his jerky. The mechanical arachnid jittered and rotated, staring at the boy. The vendor quivered in its presence and jumped from it. “Stay back Achii! It looks dangerous. We haven’t encountered this thing before!” Achiin stares back at the vendor and replies "I've encountered plenty of Mekan, Sully~ Pretty sure this one isn't any different" Sully scowls angrily and retorts “Because they were dead! They're only scrap now, ruins! Extra parts! Also, I dislike bugs… The crunchy ones, especially...”

Sully holds his cart close like an infant while Achiin stares, humored and shrugging, staring back at the bug bot. “This thing doesn’t seem dangerous, it would’ve attacked already.” He takes another piece of his candied jerky and pokes at the bot. “Are you lost?” The robot stares at Achiin, a noise coming from its body, muffled and high pitched. Achiin looks at it and picks it up, spotting a broken panel. “Hm. I’m gonna take this.” Sully stares back at him saying, “Sure kid, do what you want I’m just trying to sell my goods here. Now please get it away from me...” Achiin giggles and puts the metalloid menace under his arm, walking back home. A shadowy figure is lurking in the distance watching them as the sun is setting slowly...