A new chapter for you. School is back in my world and will take away a lot of time I Would normally use for writing. There will be another Chapter up tomorrow.
Untill then, lets go hunting!
Chapter 5: The Hunt
The three of them were sitting by a campfire Warrick had managed to make himself. Jack and Nell were talking to each other secretly. Warrick didn't mind this. He wanted think about what to do to quiet his hunger to explore. The image of the beautiful Grisha had been replaced by the image of Grisha the orcish female whom they had rescued.
He had been thinking about going to travel to Mulgore himself, but because his sense of direction and poor ability to defend himself he had buried that thought. Maybe another part of the world, but that had the same problems. He would have to rely on Jack or Nell for protection to. That didn't leave a lot of options. Suddenly a more probable thought entered his mind.
"I want to hunt!" He nearly shouted.
Jack and Nell looked up from their babble. "Hunt!" Jack started.
"Hunt what?" Nell finished.
"Those zefra Jack found. There must be more out there."
"Hunt with what?" Jack asked, looking like he was seriously considering it.
He hadn't thought of that. He made something up quickly. "Wooden throwing spears that I will make myself with my knife. So you wont have to come with me to shoot it Jack." He smiled at Jack with that last statement.
"Without me you will follow the wrong set of tracks, you might end up in a centaur camp." Jack stated. "And when you try to get back you might end up by the sea instead of here."
Warrick had disappointed himself by not thinking of that. But he could use Jack's statement to his advantage. "does that mean you will come with me when I decide I have enough spears?"
"Sure, when you go, I will be there to help you track."
Warrick was satisfied and the next day, after conjured breakfast, immediately began searching for straight pieces of wood. He returned with a lot of them and began shaping them in to straight poles. After that he would sharpen the tip.
"Do you think those spears will penetrate a zefra hide?" Jack asked Warrick while eating an apple.
"Sure, a zefra hide isn't metal or something. The tips are sharp and hard enough to penetrate. I have tested one on a tree." Warrick pointed at a tree a dozen feet away.
Jack walked over to it and took a bite from his apple. He inspected the surface and found a hole. It wasn't deep but deep enough to make sure the spear would be stuck in the tree and wouldn't fall down.
"Ok you confinced me it is possible. But what are you going to do with anything you do kill?"
"Then I am going to eat non-conjured meat." Warrick replied instantly, without thinking. "no disrespect meant to Nell's conjured food."
"And how are you going to get the body here? Those zefra will weigh a lot I think."
"WE will think of something when have a kill."
Warrick continued his spear production and by the end of the day he had a dozen wooden throwing spears.
They sat by the fire that evening and were eating conjured food. "This, my friends, is our last conjured diner for a while. Tomorrow we will eat real meat." Warrick announced proudly.
Jack picked up the spear lying next to Warrick. "Don't you think they're a bit light?" and short?"
"To me they are just fine." Warrick said while ripping the spear from Jack's hands
"I'll go with you this time." Nell announced. "to make sure you'll get out alive when you run into a full centaur patrol."
Jack was walking in the field surrounding a hill top. The hill was practically on fire from impacting artillery shells. All vegetation that once existed there had either been cut down or had evaporated in the explosions. Under the hill, he knew, was a bunker. He also knew that he was in that bunker although he was watching from the outside. At the time this happened he was a major.
On the opposite side of the field he could see the cannons firing the artillery shells. They were maybe three miles away but of heavy calibre.
The explosions rocked the ground and every time he would nearly fall down. He knew it was much worse inside the bunker. In there the sound would be earth shattering and you would not be able to stand, you had to crawl your way through the rubble. He remembered how he seen the cracks in the wall how they had seemed ready to form into holes and let a shell through and kill him.
But that never happened, or else he wouldn't be here looking at the spectacle. By now everybody would have moved to the lower part of the bunker which was evenly more fortified.
The cannons ceased firing. A army now moved to the bunker. They stopped by the main gate which was now exposed. The hill surrounding it had been detonated, burying the gate. Soldiers began to place a device that would pry the gate open just enough so a squad could go in and open the gate.
When the gate opened after minimal resistance from the soldiers left in the upper part of the base he heard Nell's voice in his head urging him to wake up again. He complied and performed the ritual.
When he woke up Warrick was already preparing to leave. When Warrick passed Jack on his way to get his spears Jack asked. "Shouldn't you eat something first?"
Warrick barely noticed Jack being awake. "He already ate." Nell replied in Warrick's place. "I suggest you eat now before he leaves without us."
Jack quickly ate something. Warrick nearly stared the food into Jack's mouth. When Jack was done Warrick announced it was time to go. "Now that you are finally done, we can go."
"You should a few minutes after diner before you do anything, Warrick." Jack began but Warrick would here none of his protests this time and was already in his way. Jack and Nell shared glances and then followed Warrick.
The trip was cramped with jokes about Warrick's poor sense of direction since Warrick had decided he was going to lead them to The Barrens. It took them an hour just to reach where they were supposed to be. There were no zefra in sight. So Warrick turned his attention earthwards. He pointed at a track and said: "we should follow this track."
Jack took one look at the track and asked: "In which direction do you want to follow this track?" Nell produced a grin on his face but Jack looked as serious as ever.
"That way of course." Warrick shouted at him, pointing in the direction the tracks were leading.
"Then I'm not coming." Jack replied. "I would rather go that way." He said, pointing in the opposite direction.
"Why?" Nell looked surprised while Warrick blurted.
"Because I don't want to run into any centaur. Those are centaur tracks. Over there are more tracks just the same and equally as fresh. This is a patrol."
Nell took one look around and a closer look at the track by his feet, then nodded to Warrick. He agreed with Jack. Warrick looked considerably sadder than just a few moments before.
Jack looked around a bit more and spotted something. "But you may follow this one." He said while pointing at another set of fresh tracks.
Enthusiasm returned to Warrick's visage and the followed the new tracks. They followed it a long time but Warrick's enthusiasm didn't seem to fade anymore. After some time a different set of tracks came into sight that moved parallel to that of the zefra tracks. These had imprints from claws in the front.
The sun had risen until it was almost at its peak when they saw the zefra grazing in the brown grass. It seemed an almost idealistic picture, sun high in the sky against the blue sky, the zefra grazing in a field of relatively long grass, a big tree in the distance. Almost like a painting.
"Those this fine creature really have to die so you may eat non-conjured food, Warrick?" Nell asked, pity for the unknowing creature in the distance plane on his face.
"Predators hunt for food." Warrick wasn't going to be discouraged by anyone right now. He had to do this so he may prove he could do something that was of value in this world, just like Jack could track. Nell gave up as Warrick walked to his prey, spear in hand and bent low.
Nell glanced at Jack and Jack walked up to Warrick. Nell stayed where he was so may watch blunder about, or kill the zefra. They were lucky that the wind was in their favour, it blew their sent away from the zefra. The two of them moved as silently as they could and as low as possible, which meant for Jack going down on his stomach and crawl. But in the nearby bush another set of eyes was following their movements.
They were two dozen feet away from the zefra now and Warrick began choosing a spear. But before he could even get his spear ready another form burst from the brown grass. This one was perfectly camouflaged to live here. A sleek muscular brown, almost orange, body in the form of what Jack first thought was a raptor from those old movies in the twentieth century and early twenty-first century. Darker brown stripes ran over it's back like tiger stripes. What really made it look different from the movies was a horn on the tip it's face, above it's nose.
The creature opened it's mouth and let out a screech announcing this was his/her kill. It quickly closed in with the zefra. Before the zefra could do anything the toothy mouth had closed around the zefra's neck. The teeth were locked into the neck and the zefra began moving frantically, finally registering what was happening. The moving only made the teeth rip at the flesh and blood began streaming from the many wounds. The force of the new creature running into the zefra made the two topple over, zefra below.
The raptors back claws dug into the zefra's side and began tearing deep wounds along the side. The front paws grabbed the head and the shoulder. The raptor now had firm grip on it's prey and jerked the neck around making it turn a-hundred-and-eighty-degrees, snapping the neck. The zefra went limp and stopped moving besides. Only the legs twitched a bit but this soon stopped.
The raptor looked up to the pair that was looking at it and began screeching, it almost sounded like laughter. Warrick stepped, spear in hand. "you think that's funny, huh? Well how about this." He threw the spear at the raptor. The raptor catched the middle of the spear in the it's mouth and slowly dropped it down, after which it laughed some more.
Warrick became red from blood pumping in his face he stepped towards the raptor. Certain Warrick was going to try and take it out with his hands, jack grabbed Warrick's shoulders to stop him. Warrick only ripped himself loose and picked up a spear and began charging the raptor.
Nell quickly came hurtling towards Jack and urged him to do something. "WARRICK! GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!" He shouted at Warrick. But Warrick didn't hear him, he continued in his charge.
The raptor only lamely looked at the spear and the form wielding it, then sidestepped Warrick and slammed it's tail into Warrick's back. Warrick went flying through the sky from the force of the blow and landed hard on a rock. Jack pulled out his gun and ran towards Warrick's fallen body. He kneeled besides it and glanced at it one time, to look for injuries, then directed his attention to the raptor, which was now charging him.
The raptor was coming to him mouth open wide. He aimed his weapon and only succeeded in putting it into the Raptor's mouth. The raptor quickly tried to rip the gun from Jack's hand but Jack didn't let go, the teeth scratched a few wounds on his hand. They ended up in that position, raptor standing still in it's charge, mouth open. Jack kneeled down, still holding the gun in the raptor's mouth, ready to fire the raptor's brains out. Nell came running towards the display and was a bit lost about what to do.
Jack noticed a spot on the raptor's chin which was continuously drawing his attention. But he looked up, directly into the raptors eyes. The raptor's eyes met his and that moment seemed to last forever.
The raptor suddenly withdrew from the position and ran back to the zefra. It began dragging the corpse away to it's lair.
Jack was left in his position, arm raised and gun in hand. Nell ran to him and then turned to look at the raptor quickly dragging the zefra away. He then turned to Jack. "Let her go." he directed his attention to Jack's hand. "Hmm, a few gashes but nothing else. This wont need healing spells, just time. Just hope it doesn't get infected."
"Her? You saw in those few seconds that it was a she?" Jack turned to Warrick who was still lying on the ground, eyes closed. He shook the still body and hoped the impact wasn't lethal or otherwise serious beyond knocking him out.
Warrick's eyes flew open and he jumped up startling both Nell and Jack. "Where is that damn beast!"
"SHE is gone." Nell answered.
Jack sat there staring of into the distance. "Uhm, guys. I think we have a problem."
Nell followed Jack's gaze and found what he was looking at. In the distance a large four legged creature was standing. It's low to the ground head was decorated by a two pronged horn. Behind the head the short neck ended in a body the form of an elephant, only with shorter legs and a more hunched back. The tail was long and thick. The whole animal was covered in an almost scaly thick brown yellow hide. The noises they had been making had attracted it's attention and angered it.
"KODO, RUN!" Nell shouted at both of them. They got up and ran away as fast as they could. Behind them they heard the thundering noise of heavy feet striking the ground. They ran in the direction of the tree in the distance.
The kodo was closing in very fast with Warrick who was walking behind. Jack had already at the tree and helped Nell up. He waited for Warrick. He began shouting encouragements to run faster and Warrick accelerated slightly. With only a few seconds to go Jack helped the short Warrick up and then climbed up himself.
The kodo continued to charge and rammed the tree. Loose and dead branches began raining onto the trio. The tree made dangerous cracking noises but held. The kodo turned around and then charged again.
"SHOOT IT, JACK, SHOOT IT!" Resounded the panicking voice of Warrick.
"Nell, use a spell or something!" The calmer voice of Jack came.
"I can't, the tree might come own on top of us!"
"Isn't this a protected species?" Jack shouted.
"A WHAT!" Nell replied.
That was enough for Jack and he turned to the charging kodo. The kodo struck the tree that moment and Jack nearly lost his grip, but he held on to a branch. He decided to wait for the animal to charge again so he might try to hit it in the head. The beast turned and charged again. Jack took aim and fired, he missed and hit the left front leg and did nothing to slow the beast down. He shot again and this time was more successful. He hit the jaw and the beast staggered for a moment but continued to charge.
The beast was closing in fast, even more angered. Jack abandoned the attempts to aim and began emptying his clip on the beast in rapid succession shots. He loosely aim for the head. The first shots landed in the legs and shoulders and did nothing to slow the beast down, but as it got closer bullets began hitting the head. One hit where the nose should be, another a scant inch from the eye. One went into the open mouth. The beast let out a pained ear stunning roar and tripped over its own feet.
It slammed the ground and the tree seemed to uproot from the tremor it created. It didn't die yet and tried to get up again, only to find it's legs and shoulders had been hit several times and didn't allow that kind of strain anymore. The kodo's breathing became ragged and shallow as blood began pouring from many wounds, both external and internal.
The trio climbed down and walked over to it. When got to close it sill tried to slam them with it's horn. They were close enough to see now that it wasn't just some rampaging animal but a magnificent noble creature. "And this is just a small one." Nell said saddened.
"you mean they can bet bigger than this?" Warrick asked, knowing what the answer would probably be.
"Yes, much bigger."
The animal let out it's last breath and it's head slowly lolled sideways. The ground was soaking wet with kodo blood.
Warrick already knew what to do now. "Well, not exactly what I wanted but a kodo will do fine instead of a zefra." Jack smacked him against the back of the head. "What! What! We shouldn't let anything go to waste of this kodo."
They had to agree with his arguments and so just nodded. But Jack already saw one problem. "But how do you want to get it to the cave?" He was almost amused by the face Warrick made at his latest statement.
"I think I might be able to teleport it there." Nell offered.
"Great fresh meat tonight then." Warrick said laughing.
Nell began teleported the fallen creature just outside the cave and teleported themselves with it as well. Nell explained that before they could even begin making a meal from the meat they would have to skin the creature. That was a problem, the two of them had never skinned anything before. Nell had been surprised by that, he had thought they knew at least how to do that. Warrick wasn't going to just leave it to Nell, or Jack, because it wasn't him who killed diner, in his eyes he still had to prove himself.
He took his own knife, it was smaller than Jack's knife which was also custom-made to fit his hands, and began making an incision where he would start skinning. He made it across the stomach so he would get a symmetrical piece of skin like he always saw on TV. He was sitting in front of the lower stomach when doing that. He cut deep, a bit to deep, and made a large cut.
Jack and Nell were watching as, under pressure, the intestines of the kodo came out, falling on Warrick. Warrick was covered in blood and intestines almost immediately and the two watchers burst into laughter. As warrick was able to pull the guts of his face he shouted. "Don't you dare laugh at me!" Jack and Nell only had to laugh more at that. Warrick got up and tried to remove most of the intestines and announced he was going to wash the rest of by the lake.
When he got back he saw the ground had already been cleaned and that a beginning had been made to help Warrick finish the skinning. From that point Warrick didn't have any real trouble skinning the beast further. As the day progressed he had skinned and gutted the beast completely without anymore help.
Nell walked up to Jack who was sitting in his chair again, watching Warrick work. "Yesterday Warrick and I had a little conversation about you, Jack" He began. Jack looked up curiously. "It was about you wanting to be called general again and again. He told me you didn't like that when you were still on that base of yours." He waited for Jack to respond, but when he didn't he continued. "Are you doing that intentionally, or what?" He was going to wait now until Jack was going to say something.
A minute passed between them, in which Jack was thinking hard on how to say it. "I don't know, I just suddenly felt it should be that way. Maybe it's…" He stopped.
Another moment passed. "You think it could be that demon influencing you?" Nell didn't wait for an answer, he already saw it in Jack's eyes. "Yes you think that. I think you are right. That is one of their characteristics. And as the demon's influence grows greater over time you will begin to show more and more of those characteristics. Until he takes control completely. Don't worry, I am already communicating with some other mages and healers that I know we can trust. And when they find something to reverse the effects or completely destroy the influence, we will go to them and see what we can do."
"Does Warrick know?" Jack asked.
"No he still doesn't know. I will leave it to you to decide when to tell him."
That night they had their first piece of kodo meat.
It tasted good.
I have to say that when I uploaded the first chapter I was quite nervous about the first review. But I seem to only get positive reviews so I will keep writing this. At this time I am writing Chapter 11 so I can afford some delay (if any).