"That," Theron said, coming out on the Xiltra side, "felt completely different from yesterday."
"You feel thesame way too huh?" Bruce asked.
"Probably the equipments and knowing what we're doing," Kael added. "Yesterday we were stumbling. Today we're hunting."
The guard at the post watched them come out with their loaded frames and gave them the same small nod the food-stall woman had given them the night before. The nod of a working person acknowledging other working people.
They did not stop at the exchange. They set the morning's haul carefully in the room. Kael showed Theron how to stack the hide sacks against the wall in a way that kept the cuts from pressing against each other. They changed nothing about their equipment except restocking the soul-seal paste applicators.
Then they went back out.
This time they turned toward the dark red portal.
The walk to the heat dungeon took longer than the forest.
