[SpringsSong]

To say that Fortunali hated the forests of Roraldi would be a horrid, terrible lie to say—the Treasure Hollowheart loved the forests dearly, and loved nothing more than to escape there when he wasn’t escaping with her ladies in Jawan or some other coastal town, as they seemed to be the best place for Aila to be.

What she didn’t like was the fact that her ability to sense when another member of the Pantheon was near was going crazy, and that the presence of said Pantheon member was not that of Sairahiniel, or of Aila, or even of Yáviel.  No, this presence was masculine.

Not only was this presence masculine, it also felt a little too familiar for Fortunali’s tastes right now, for it was the last presence she wanted to sense.  However, she supposed that she was only asking for him to be around; after all, it seemed to be the hunting season, and that was when Quenaz was the most active—for obvious reasons, as well.  The gold-clad Goddess sighed as she took her human form, perched high in a tree.  She glared down at the ground, knowing that the God of the Hunt would be there soon enough.

“Let him come and beg me for my luck,” Fortunali spat.  “I’ll let him have some—just not necessarily favorable luck.  He has to learn that it is a two-sided coin.”

[1.2]

[SpringsSong]

He was clothed in his usual hunting garb; a cloak around his shoulders to keep off the chill, but an otherwise-exposed chest with three particularly horrid gashes from an encounter back in Re’klet, and a ceremonial tribal robe that only clothed the bottom half.  He was truly a magnificent sight to behold, if women liked men who wore no shirts and had scars.

“May Fortunali bless us on this hunt,” Quenaz said to his companions as they headed in their separate directions, while the human-form Aries headed straight for the tree where he knew he would find the gold-clad Goddess.

“O fair Fortune,” he said softly as he approached the tree, seeing three of her pendants hanging from a branch.  “How much longer will you evade me?  Why do you turn your face from me and hide your beauty?  Why do you continue to treat me as though I were nothing but pond scum?” he asked, hoping to catch her attention.  Fortunali had never really liked him, which was a shame—he was rather taken with her.

[1.2]

[SpringsSong]

Fortunali had not expected Quenaz to make an immediate beeline to her; she never moved from this tree when she ended up here during the hunting season, so she supposed that it was long past time to find another tree to hide out in and make Quenaz hunt for her again.  She sighed as she looked down at him, rolling over onto stomach as she kept her eyes focused on him.

“Oh great God of the Hunt,” she replied in a similar fashion to him.  “I shall continue to evade you as long as you continue to seek my favor and expect blessing instead of accepting that fortune can be either favorable or ill.  Until you learn this, you must accept that just because you are another one of the Pantheon does not, in any way, entitle you to blessing from me.  We were once mortals, Quenaz; we must not forget this.”

As she said this, she rolled back onto her back and looked up through the trees to the skies, which were a bright blue on this particular day.  She knew that Quenaz would not like her response, but that was not her problem.

[1.4]

[SpringsSong]

Quenaz sighed as Fortunali said this.

“I had a feeling that you would say something like that, Fortunali,” he said.  “You must understand, I’m only trying to help a tribe of people that live in this forest, and they are on the brink of famine.  With the winter setting in, they need this hunt to be bountiful, or else, their tribe could starve.  If not for me, then do this for them, Fortunali… please.”

Quenaz knew that she was not looking at him as he said this, but he hoped that his plea would not go unanswered.  If it did, then who knew what the tribe would do to to him when he had assured that they would not go hungry this winter.

“Please… if you do this, I promise I’ll stop hunting you down and asking for your favor every time I go on a hunt, Fortunali,” he said, bowing his head low as he said this.

[1.4]

[SpringsSong]

Fortunali tilted her head in interest when Quenaz said this, sitting up and looking down at him with slight scrutiny as she tried to see if he was being sincere about this claim, and when she heard the sincerity in his voice, she gave a slight nod as she leapt down from the tree, extending her wings out of seemingly nowhere to aid her descent.

“Are you certain you can keep to this claim, Quenaz?” she asked, her eyebrow raised with a great amount of scrutiny.  “You need to learn that, sometimes, fortune is not always favorable.  I know that there was once a song that said ‘Fortune favors the brave’, but as one that is the embodiment of Fortune, I do not favor anyone.  Learn this now, and maybe you will see some of my favor rather than if you just keep asking for it, for it will not come to you that way.”

Even as she said this, she was pondering what Aila had told her, about how members of the Pantheon were starting to form saiken with their kin again, and she was trying to shut all thought about the possibility of Quenaz being the other half of her saiken.  She patiently waited for Quenaz’s response, for it would indicate how easy this trip would be—for both of them.

[1.6]

[SpringsSong]

“I understand, Fortunali—however, as a God of the Hunt, it is only natural that I pray to seek your favor before the hunt starts.  I will always be asking, but I will try to understand that fortune does no favors for the brave or the meek; that Fortune is as fickle as a woman of high class,” he said.  However, as he said this, he quickly added, “That’s not to insult your heritage, Fortunali; that’s just the best analogy that I can come up with for describing it.”

He closed his eyes as he looked around the forest carefully, trying to see which way would be the best to go.  After a few moments, he opened his eyes and pointed in the direction that they were to go.

“This way,” he said finally, nodding.  “We will go this way first, and then, we will go from there.”

[1.6]

[SpringsSong]

“You certainly seem certain of where we are supposed to be going, Quenaz,” Fortunali said, trying to sound as unimpressed as possible.  However, in all honesty, the Goddess of Fortune was actually slightly impressed by his intuition to pick a direction to go in; she knew these forests from above, and she knew that he was heading to where there was a clearing where there would doubtless be a few Gyrophants gathered there, or maybe even a few Gyrraptors.  Those alone would be enough for a few weeks for a tribe, but it was cornering them and catching them that would be the trick.

“I noticed that you’re heading towards the clearing where there are commonly a lot of Gyrophants and Gyrraptors,” she said nonchalantly, trying to keep her tone as distant as possible.

[1.8]

[SpringsSong]

“You’d be right, Fortunali—I’ve frequented that clearing enough to know when they’re there, and I’ve also been able to talk to the leaders of their herds, and they understand the danger that the tribe faces if they do not get enough food,” Quenaz said.  “They did say that they would not surrender themselves willingly, but that if they were brought down, they would be glad to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the tribe.”

He walked along in silence from that point on, occasionally moving behind a tree and trying to see which way they needed to go next.  After a few minutes of this, the two Gods arrived at the clearing where the Gyrophants and Gyrraptors were grazing peacefully.

“Now, all we have to do is wait for the opportunity to reap the greatest surprise…”

[1.8]

[SpringsSong]

Fortunali listened carefully to Quenaz talk before she nodded slightly, looking at the herds of the two different animals.  While she understood what the tribe could lose if this hunt did not go well, she still needed to teach Quenaz a lesson about fortune.  She looked at the beasts with a slight bit of pity, and then, she looked back to Quenaz.

“Why can the tribe not harvest berries and crops?  You know that Yáviel is a sucker for these kinds of stories, Quenaz; while I may have sympathy for them, I cannot always control when my powers work to the benefit of people or to the disadvantage of others,” she said quietly, frowning as she flicked her hand subtly.  In this single action, the two herds of animals suddenly snapped to attention, chirping and giving other such sounds, quickly fleeing into the forest.

[2.0]

[SpringsSong]

Quenaz gave a slight growl as the animals fled, but he did not look to Fortunali when this happened.  Instead, he merely sighed as he lowered his bow and arrows, which he had only just barely prepared to fire when the Gyrophants and Gyrraptors had fled.

“We’ll just have to track them down again,” he said in a low voice, not noticing the smirk that was forming on Fortunali’s voice.  “And this time, I won’t let them flee that easily.  Even if it’s only a glancing blow, I will not allow them to escape unscathed.”

[2.0]