The dawn had not yet fully broken when Li Yuan heard a gentle knock on his room door at the Miller Inn. Marcus's familiar voice sounded from outside.
"Yuan, sorry to disturb you this early. Are you awake?"
Li Yuan opened the door and found Marcus with his full hunting gear—a bow on his back, arrows in a leather quiver, a hunting knife at his waist, and a small bag filled with provisions.
"Good morning, Marcus. Is something wrong?" Li Yuan asked, seeing the serious expression on his friend's face.
"Nothing urgent," Marcus replied. "But I need to go hunting today. The meat supply in the village is starting to run low after the harvest, and winter isn't far away. I thought... maybe you'd like to come along?"
Li Yuan frowned. "I have no experience hunting, Marcus. Wouldn't I just be a hindrance?"
Marcus smiled. "That's exactly why I want to take you. As a village guard, you need to know the forest around Millbrook better. And as a friend..." he paused for a moment, "I want to share something that's important to me with someone I've come to consider a brother."
Those words sent a warm feeling through Li Yuan's chest. "Give me five minutes to get ready."
They walked out of the village just as the sun was beginning to peek over the eastern horizon, the cool morning air making their breaths puff out in thin clouds. Marcus led them through a different path from the usual patrol route—deeper into the forest, to an area rarely visited by the villagers.
"First things first," Marcus said as they walked, "hunting isn't about killing. Hunting is about understanding."
"Understanding what?" Li Yuan asked.
"The forest. The animals. The cycle. Our place in it." Marcus stopped at a large tree with scratched-up bark. "Look at this. Bear claw marks. But look at the height—this is a big, strong bear. We have to know where he usually roams so we don't encounter him unprepared."
Li Yuan observed the marks with attention. Without using any supernatural abilities, he tried to see with ordinary human eyes—but eyes that had been trained by thousands of years of experience to notice details.
"The marks aren't fresh," Li Yuan observed. "Maybe a few weeks old."
"Good," Marcus said with approval. "And what else can you see?"
Li Yuan observed more carefully. "There's a tuft of fur caught in the bark. And... a footprint on the damp ground below the tree."
"Exactly. This bear is a large male, and from the direction of its tracks, it's moving north. Likely looking for a place to hibernate." Marcus began walking again. "Information like this is important not just for hunting, but for the safety of the village."
They continued to move deeper into the forest. Marcus taught Li Yuan how to read different tracks—deer, rabbits, even birds. How to recognize signs of a water source from the vegetation. How to determine the wind's direction and use that information to move undetected.
"Marcus," Li Yuan said after they had walked for two hours, "how did you learn all this?"
Marcus was silent for a moment, his green eyes staring deep into the forest. "My father. He taught me when I was very young. He said hunting is a conversation with nature. If you don't listen, nature won't share its secrets."
"And your father is still alive?"
"No. He passed away five years ago. A sudden heart attack." There was a long-held sadness in Marcus's voice. "He never got to meet Lila. That's what hurts the most."
Li Yuan felt his friend's deep grief. "I'm sorry for your loss."
"Thank you." Marcus stopped in a small clearing. "This was my father's favorite spot. He always said this place had the right 'feel' for hunting."
Li Yuan looked around the clearing. There was something tranquil about this place—the way the light filtered through the trees, the sound of water flowing from a small stream nearby, even the way the wind blew gently.
"I understand what your father meant," Li Yuan said. "This place feels... balanced."
Marcus looked at him with a little surprise in his eyes. "Yes, exactly. My father used the same word—balanced." He sat on a rotten log. "Yuan, may I ask you something that might be personal?"
"Of course."
"Where are you really from? And don't say 'a distant place'—I've heard that one enough." Marcus looked at him with serious but not hostile eyes. "There's something about the way you look at the world, the way you talk about things... it's like you've lived longer than you look."
Li Yuan felt the familiar dilemma. Marcus was a man who had become his best friend, who had accepted him as a brother. He deserved more than a evasive answer.
"Marcus," he said finally, "I have traveled for a very long time. Longer than might make sense. I have seen places that probably no longer exist, met people whose stories are now probably legends."
"How long?" Marcus asked softly.
Li Yuan looked at his hands that appeared to be a twenty-five-year-old man's hands, yet had done more than an ordinary human could ever imagine.
"A very long time, Marcus. But what's important isn't how long I've lived—what's important is that for the first time in that very long life, I feel I've found a place where I want to stop wandering."
Marcus nodded slowly, as if that answer was enough for him. "And that place is Millbrook?"
"Yes. And your family. And this friendship." Li Yuan looked at Marcus with sincere eyes. "You and Anna and Lila have given me something I've never had before."
"What's that?"
"A reason to wake up every morning that has nothing to do with a grand quest or purpose. Just... the desire to see the faces of the people I care about."
Marcus smiled—a warm and understanding smile. "That's what makes life meaningful, isn't it? The people we love."
A rustling sound in the bushes cut their conversation short. Marcus immediately became alert, raising his bow with a fluid motion. Li Yuan followed his gaze and saw a large deer emerge from behind the trees, moving cautiously toward the small stream to drink.
Marcus nocked an arrow with a very slow movement, his green eyes focused on the target. Li Yuan observed the process—the way Marcus calculated the distance, considered the wind's direction, waited for the perfect moment.
"A beautiful animal," Marcus whispered. "A full-grown male, healthy, strong. His meat will be enough to feed five families for a week."
Li Yuan saw the conflict in Marcus's eyes—appreciation for the creature's beauty, but also the responsibility to provide food for his community.
Marcus released the arrow with a smooth motion. It hit the target, quick, without unnecessary suffering.
"Thank you," Marcus whispered to the dead deer, the words more like a prayer than an ordinary utterance.
Li Yuan was moved by Marcus's attitude. There was no joy in the death, no triumph in the kill. Only respect for the life that had been taken and gratitude for the food it would provide.
They spent the next hour processing the deer—Marcus taught Li Yuan the proper and respectful way to prepare the meat, a way to ensure nothing was wasted.
"My father always said," Marcus said while working, "if you take a life, you are responsible for honoring it. Nothing should be wasted, nothing should be for nothing."
When they finally walked back to the village in the afternoon, carrying their game, Li Yuan felt something had changed in his relationship with Marcus. It was no longer just a friendship, but something deeper—a bond between two men who had shared something meaningful, who had trusted each other with parts of themselves they usually didn't show to others.
"Yuan," Marcus said when they were close to the village, "thank you for coming today. And thank you for... letting me get to know you a little better."
"Thank you for trusting me with something so important to you," Li Yuan replied. "Today I learned a lot—not just about hunting, but about what it means to live with respect for nature."
Marcus nodded. "And now you know the forest around Millbrook almost as well as I do. That will make you a better guard."
"And a better friend," Li Yuan added.
When they arrived in the village, Anna and Lila were already waiting in front of the house. Lila ran to her father with excitement.
"Papa! Yuan! What did you get?"
"Dinner for several families," Marcus replied, lifting his daughter. "And Yuan is a good hunter now."
"Really?" Lila's blue eyes sparkled as she looked at Li Yuan. "Now can you teach me to hunt too?"
Marcus and Li Yuan laughed. "Maybe when you're a little older, sweetie," Marcus said. "And after you can write all the words Yuan taught you."
Anna approached Li Yuan with a warm smile. "How was your first day of hunting?"
Li Yuan looked at the family that had become his own—Marcus with his genuine laugh, Lila with her endless enthusiasm, Anna with a warmth that always made him feel accepted.
"It was like finding a part of myself I never knew was missing," he answered honestly.
And for the first time in his eleven thousand years of existence, Li Yuan truly understood what it meant to have a brother.