Hours later, Valen arrived panting like a drowning sheep caught in a raging river. The moment he saw Tessa by the fire, he laughed triumphantly, his face lighting up with so much joy.
"Told you that useless eagle was all mouth and no show. See? I beat him first."
Thinking he had won, Valen proudly dropped his catch to the ground. Tessa turned to look, but her mouth fell open in disbelief when she saw it was just one bony fish—so tiny it wouldn't even satisfy one person, talk less of three.
"Where are the others?" she asked.
From the way he was acting, she genuinely thought he had a whole pile of fish hidden somewhere behind him. Surely he had to be joking. Maybe this was one of his silly pranks.
Valen gave her an innocent look and glanced down at the fish as if it were some grand treasure.
"This is all I got. Catching fish in the river was really hard work, and it wasn't convenient for me, so I couldn't get much," he explained without shame.
