"Age of adulthood is a tricky topic. Most races define it as the age where a child sexually matures, but this age itself varied greatly between races. A goblin matures as early as seven, and an orc at twelve on average. Humans, Therians, and Merfolk usually mature between fourteen to eighteen. On the other hand, dwarves rarely mature before their sixties, and most elves mature after they are over a century old." - Garth Wainwrought, professor of socioeconomics at the Levain Institute of Higher Learning.

As they travelled through the plains and forests in the goblin lands - Cal learned since that the locals called the plains Ougad'ougou plains but decided to just use "goblin lands" rather than twist her tongue -, Fheeri proved to be a capable hunter, especially for one so young.

Her sense of hearing and sight was better than Cal's own, probably close to par with a full blooded elf. Her sense of smell, probably only Willa came close. Then again, none of the civilized races had particularly good sense of smell other than certain types of therians. The superior senses combined with her experience in hunting since young honed her into an efficient and effective hunter.

Which she proved again that night when she walked out for a hunt into the woods while Cal set up a bonfire just at the edge of the woods. Not twenty minutes later the girl returned, a dead lizard dragged behind her. Cal recognized the lizard, it was the same sort she ran into when she was accosted by bandits nearer the borders. The lizard with the brilliant plumage.

When she took a closer look at its injuries she was surprised and impressed to have found only a single injury. The lone injury the creature suffered came in the form of a lead ball the size of a baby's fist that had punched through the lizard's left eye, broke through the socket, and turned its brain to mush. An instant death with a single shot.

That the girl had struck a likely moving target in the eye with a sling was what impressed Cal the most.

They plucked the dead lizard clean of its brilliant plumage - Fheeri told Cal that while they aren't that precious, most would still trade happily for them - before they butchered it. The offal they wouldn't use - Fheeri pointed out one organ which she asked Cal to remove carefully, since it was a poison sac - were dumped into a shallow hole to be later buried, while the skin, claws, bones, and fangs were collected for trade.

Most of the sizable creature's meat was simply stored in Cal's storage pendant so they would not have lacked for food for the next week or so. A few slabs she skewered on branches and broiled over the fire after she rubbed them with spices.

The scene where Fheeri dragged the lizard's corpse through the woods reminded Cal. She asked the girl how large her storage was, and the girl obediently showed her. The storage necklace she wore had only a small space inside, a cube roughly half a meter to a side, which explained why she always had her knives out by her waist. Fheeri said most of the adults had storages of the same size, with larger ones usually reserved for elders.

Cal would have none of that, and after she fished inside her own pendant for a moment, she pulled out her father's old storage ring. Storage artifacts could only be stored in another storage artifact when they were empty, which the ring was since Cal had moved all its contents to her pendant. She eyed Fheeri's clawed fingers and thought the ring - made for a slender elf's finger - would be far too small, so she looped some string through the ring and made a makeshift necklace out of it.

"Use this instead for storage for the time being," Cal said as she tossed the ring to Fheeri. "Try not to lose it though, it used to be my father's."

Fheeri was surprised but still deftly caught the ring, as she looked over it and pondered. "I promise to keep it safe with all I can," she said somberly.

Cal busied herself with the meat as it cooked while Fheeri transferred her sling and its ammunition and various other items from her necklace to the ring, her two Hunga Mungas included. When she saw that, Cal mentioned that Fheeri should get herself used to pulling a knife out of the ring and instantly throwing it. She demonstrated with some of her own throwing knives.

The Hyena-therian girl practiced the maneuver with one hand - though she merely tossed the knife right next to her - while they ate. Judged by how the girl ate with her left and practiced the knife with her right at the same time, Cal suspected the girl to be ambidextrous, so she thought up some ideas while she ate.

As the food went, the plumed lizard's meat tasted similar to the tyrant lizard's, but much leaner and far less unctuous to the tongue. She also felt some very slight discomfort in her stomach as she ate, and suspected it to be another of the goblin foods that were unsuitable for foreigners.

Between her elvish lineage and her being a blood mage though, the meat failed to bother her at all, and she happily munched on the gamey meat. Fheeri also munched on the meat ravenously, and they finished up their meal only after all the cooked meat were finished.

Fheeri patted her slightly swollen belly with satisfaction as she gave a loud burp.

After the meal, Cal had Fheeri do a few exercises so as to have her conjecture confirmed or disproven. When the girl drew out a circle with her right hand and a square with her left with minimal difficulty though, Cal knew she was ambidextrous for certain.

For the rest of the evening she had Fheeri trained to throw her knives with both hands at once, at different targets. The girl had some issues at first, as she often missed one or both of the trees she uses as targets, but as the hours passed, her accuracy improved.

By the time they were about to turn in for the night, Fheeri landed both her knives at the exact spots she aimed for nine out of ten times. The darkness barely bothered the girl, as her kind in particular had excellent night vision. Cal praised her for the effort before they tucked in under their tents to sleep.