Calf looked up and traced the residual lights of the lightning with his eyes. He clasped his hands and clapped thrice in thanks, bidding farewell to the Hunter. As the lights faded, he turned to the sleigh and picked up the ropes attached to its front. He ensured his haul was securely tied down for the upcoming journey and then used the ropes to fashion a harness around his waist and shoulders. Something glinted in the corner of his eye, and he remembered the shard that had fallen from the blood-red rooster.

He bent to pick it up, admiring the designs on the outside whilst noting how warm it felt to the touch. This one, like the 2 amber ones that had been gifted to him; had an alien feel to it. It looked like a shard from a huge broken clay pot but weighed no more than an ostrich's eggshell. He tried to break off one of the flimsy-looking edges, but the material held, and the shard remained intact. He decided to leave the matter for when he got to the river and added the shard to the contents of his new pouch. He looked to the ground and traced the Hunter's trail up the slope, noting how it meandered. Given how it glowed all-so-obviously, he assumed there was a reason for that.

Trusting he'd be best served by following it, he started his trek towards the slope and followed the shining footprints up the incline. As soon as he got to tackling the slope, he understood the logic of the trail. The prints highlighted the best path out of the valley, easier to traverse albeit winding and long. That path was devoid of dense stumps and sudden steep stretches, comfortably accommodating him and his haul as if the Hunter had accounted for it as well. In half an hour, he'd gotten to the top, ending his sojourn into the valley. He took a moment to switch from pulling his load to guiding it from behind, taking full advantage of the decline whilst using the long spear and ropes for banking and steering. The glide more than halved the time he'd taken to ascend previously, and he arrived at the bottom before long. He walked the rest of the distance between the slope and the eastern bank, his sleigh in tow.

⯁⯁⯁

As he approached the bank, he noted how the trail disappeared abruptly. He looked to the bank for signs of conflict and when he found none, he blew out a breath of relief. He couldn't help but smile at this despite the slight pressure that assaulted his head in drawing his conclusions. When he was within a few meters of the bank the River King surged out, the water from his appearance flowing over the bank up to the middle of his shins. He sniffed the air audibly and growled at whatever he'd discovered. Rising to the fullest height he could manage on all fours, he waddled over to Calf, and had Calf not interacted with him before this, the display would've been intimidating. He went to his belly once he sidled Calf and side-eyed him before addressing him.

"I see you survived. Now, it's time to see if that luck will hold. What do you have to offer for passage?" he asked, and Calf responded, "The flesh of the seasoned one."

The River King burst out in an uncharacteristic but familiar bout of laughter that resolved some of Calf's doubts about the Hunter and the River King. He'd hoped to try at least 3 times to trick the crocodile into revealing himself, but it seemed he'd overestimated the effort required to do so. He'd initially worried about the River King's safety given the presence of the Hunter, even to the point of foregoing his curiosity about the outcome of a potential battle between them. But as more and more thoughts on the similarities between them were continuously met with debilitating mental blocks, he gathered there was something there he'd just have to tackle when he met the River King again.

Now that he was here and had resolved his questions about who he was bargaining with, he went on a limb and presented all the uncooked flesh from the rooster save for its heart and a boneless drum. The River King inspected each piece before quirking a brow at Calf and asking,

"Is that all?", to which Calf responded with a simple question,

"What is missing?"

Just as the River King opened his mouth to respond, he spotted the confident grin plastered on Calf's face and stopped abruptly. He looked up and Calf could see he'd entered a contemplative daze. When he looked to Calf again, he bared his teeth in a menacing grin accompanied with a rough chuckle.

"Well met!" he finally said, and Calf knew he had him.

⯁⯁⯁

The River King accepted the price and gestured for Calf to load his belongings onto his back. Calf obliged, and as his conveyance entered the river, he asked for a slower journey and information about the weird shards dropped by the blood rooster in exchange for the boneless drum he'd held back. The River King accepted the trade, however instead of verbally delivering the information as the Hunter personage had, he opted to impart it mentally.

As the impartation began, Calf could feel a familiar build-up of pressure at the back of his head. That pressure was quickly countered by the River King's booming mental voice and remained at tolerable levels throughout most of the process. Within a few sentences, he knew why the mental block had kicked in. The amber shards were proof of favor from one of the First, and thus a form of valuable currency wherever the patron-First was favored. The clay-like shard was aptly named a 'Shard', and it represented an avatar's essence, a coalesced mixture of residual energy tainted by the former owner's will and nature.

When Calf had asked about avatars, he'd experienced a sudden spike in the pressure despite the River King's protective measures. Instinctively, he walked back his statement, asking for the River King to rephrase the shard definition slightly. That request was met with a brief spike that quickly decreased to just above what he'd been handling so far.

The River King lengthened the definitions a bit, replacing the previous mentions of avatars with 'non-primary personage'. The use of domain in some of the sentences suggested to him what, or rather who, personages were, and the concept of 'extensions' intrigued and frightened him at the same time. Given how domineering the rooster had been, he couldn't fathom what the primary personage would be capable of.

What scared him, even more, was the thought of the Wily Old Hare's machinations in retrospect. Despite the rooster’s favor with the proof of favor, he still feared he'd been tricked into a lose-lose situation in his trial and the possible retribution for challenging a personage. He asked if that was forthcoming, and the River King responded with a phrase he'd heard before in the valley, twice marked and yet to be suborned. He guessed that was as much of a No as he was going to get and resolved to find out more about this 'suborning' that was associated with personages.

The impartation continued and the contents touched upon 'Strays'. They'd hit the highest number of mentions of domains in this explanation and from what he'd gathered, Strays were non-primaries caught out of their element or sphere of influence. Whoever made sport of them would be tested and when found wanting, incur wrath, whilst their saviors would qualify for a blessing. As checks and balances, the benevolent and vindictive sides of their consideration had a canceling-out effect, discouraging disingenuous plays for blessings by way of catch-and-release.

He committed all this to memory and continued to listen as they moved from simple definitions and explanations to practical uses. It seemed it wouldn't be possible for him to personally extract the benefits of the clay-like shard at his level given his marked status. The domineering essence, though minuscule in comparison to the departed personage's, would war with his own essence and eventually lead to his death. He either needed to improve his constitution or reduce the resistance of his essence to allow assimilation whilst having enough willpower to avoid being taken over. He mentally added the shard to the long list of future considerations seeing as he couldn't think of a feasible and timely way to accomplish either of the approaches. As for the proof of favor, he would find a use for it if he ever made it to the Avian Lands.

⯁⯁⯁

The impartation ended just as they arrived at the western bank. Calf alighted the River King and set his load onto the sandy bank. He bent at the knee to thank the River King, offering the heart of the rooster as a farewell gift. The River King readily accepted with an emphatic ‘Yes!', followed by a 'Thank you!' before releasing a fierce roar. Two juveniles answered the call and rushed to stand near Calf on the bank.

The River King gestured for the first and smaller one to accept Calf's gift for him, and for the second to stand next to Calf. The first juvenile accepted the load on its back and headed further inland. As Calf stared at the juvenile at his side, the River King growled orders to it and the juvenile rested obediently on its belly in front of Calf. To Calf he relayed what he'd ordered the juvenile to do, how to command his loaned steed, and also communicated the message Calf would need to relay to the elder council of his nation once he got back.

The juvenile was meant as his escort to the boundary of their village, and Calf was meant to be the juvenile's escort from that boundary to the village circle. The presentation of the juvenile at their square would be the conveyance of the River King's message.

The River King then cautioned Calf to always keep his eyes open and to be wary of boundaries. This statement had been in the puzzle he'd received for his Final Rites and unsurprisingly, hearing it for the second time didn't give him any more comfort. He nodded his thanks and sat on the new mount, which sidled the River King's snout, allowing Calf to face him over his right shoulder.

After a brief silence, the River King beat his tail on the river's surface and the juvenile lurched forward as if prompted by this. It steadied its motions while maintaining its speed and they were off the beach in a matter of seconds. As they left, Calf wondered if he'd get to see the benevolent River King, or should he say the Hunter; again, resolving to reach high enough that their next encounter would become an eventuality.