Cost of a Crown (Book 1)
Two Brothers
Chapter Five: Many Meetings
Keldor stared at the open, hissing mouth with its dagger-sized teeth and thought for a moment that he was about to die. Eaten alive by a Dylinx without ever even reaching the first artifact.
Desperately, he kicked up. His boot catching the massive cat in the abdomen.
The blow barely phased the animal. Keldor's foot connected with mostly solid muscle and thick fur. He certainly didn't cause any kind of damage. But it did make the creature flinch enough for Keldor to crab-scuttle backwards on the heels of his hands. Getting out from under the Dylinx's jaws.
Once he was clear, he jumped to his feet and drew his swords. Unsnapping the hilts, he held one blade in each hand.
The cat jumped at him and Keldor slashed at it with both swords, slicing into the animal's paw. Blood spattered on the ground.
When the Dylinx landed, it fell with a whimper of pain and lashed out at Keldor with its other, uninjured, paw. The abrupt and jerky action causing more blood to gush from the opened paw.
He jumped out of the way.
And the animal took off running. Limping, and leaving a trail of blood behind it. But Keldor had successfully frightened it off.
No Dylinx would be eating him this day!
Keldor dabbed at his own injuries with salve from his pack and continued on his journey.
As he headed into the jungle, he noted the trail of blood and bent underbrush. The direction he was going, he was also inadvertently following the injured Dylinx. He already fended the creature off once, but animals were more vicious when injured. He would have to be careful in case he crossed paths with it again.
Then he heard an odd little animal cry Keldor had never heard before. Like a little house cat, but gravely. More rolling than a straight meow. And urgent in some way. Like it needed something and didn't understand why its needs weren't being met.
More curious than anything else, Keldor followed the cry.
Then froze when he came upon the exact same Dylinx that had attacked him earlier.
The massive cat was laying on its side in front of a large tree with a hollowed out segment of trunk. …and it wasn't moving.
From the injured paw, blood soaked into the soil. Apparently, Keldor must have cut an artery. The Dylinx bled out uncontrollably until it died.
But, if the animal was dead, then what made that strange, urgent little mewing sound?
Toeing at the Dylinx with his boot, Keldor prodded at the animal to make sure it was in fact dead. When the injured creature made no move in protest, he concluded that, yes, it was dead.
Then something moved behind it.
In the hollowed-out segment of the tree the massive cat was stretched out in front of. A dark colored something. A tiny little ball of fluff with ears. Then another desperate mewing cry. Opening a mouth to meow with another one of those rolling meows, showing a pink tongue and needle-like white teeth.
A cub.
The Dylinx Keldor killed had a cub.
Damn it!
Climbing over the body of the mother cat, Keldor reached into the hollow and grabbed onto the scruff of the cub's neck.
It was small. Tiny, in comparison to the parent's body. The only one in the litter, since Keldor didn't see any other cubs in the hollow with it. It was a cute little thing. More fluff than body. A dark color, almost black, but when the few rays of moonlight that managed to stream between the trees caught it, the fur shone a dark purple rather than a true black. The cub opened its mouth again for another desperate, begging meow. Showing tiny thin kitten teeth and a very pink mouth.
Everything about it was so cute. It was hard to believe that this was a creature that was going to grow up into such a massive and ferocious beast.
Keldor held the cub close to his chest, tucking it into the crook of one arm and tucking his cape around it.
"I'm sorry I killed your mother, little one." He muttered to the cub. Keldor also knew what it was like to grow up without a mother. At least he had a father to care for him. "I guess I'm kinda honor-bound to take care of you now."
The cub did not respond to this. In fact, he was not even listening. Instead, he tried to bite Keldor's nipple which was exposed between the bandoliers holding his cape on his shoulders.
Keldor yelp and held the cub away from himself, staring the tiny creature down.
It only made another one of those desperate, needy cries.
"Guess you're hungry, huh." He concluded. "Well, I'm not a lactating female, so I can't feed you on my own."
But if he made it to the Fantos village, maybe someone there would know how to feed a Dylinx cub that hadn't yet been weaned off its mother.
"If you can just hold on for a few more hours, I'll get you something to eat, little one." He promised the cub.
He wrapped his cape tighter around the cub, making sure the fabric was also between the animal and his chest in case it decided to try for his nipple again. Then continued walking. All the while, the cub kept making that same desperate, needy, little cry.
It was late by the time he reached something that resembled a settlement. And the cub had cried itself into exhaustion and was asleep wrapped up in Keldor's cape.
It was a semi-circle of buildings. With private homes up in the trees, supported by the thick branches and interlocking vines. But communal buildings on jungle floor; council champer and meeting hall, Goddess' shrine, and travelers' inn.
Keldor didn't know if it was the Fantos village or not, he didn't see anything that looked like an ancient temple, but at that exact moment, he didn't care. His main priority was the tiny cub who's mother he killed and was now responsible for. Keldor burst into the travelers' inn, startling the innkeeper and the handful of few patrons that sat around the tables in the inn's tavern.
"Does anyone know anything about Dylinx?" He asked of the room.
All eyes in the room looked up at him.
"What've ya got there?" Asked a male Beastmen. He was easily the tallest person in the room, even hunched over as he was. With thick, reddish-brown fur, wearing a teal loincloth, with a whip coiled at his hip.
Keldor crossed the room to him, assuming his answering meant that he did, in fact, know about Dylinx. Keldor laid his bundled up cape down on the table the Beastmen had been sitting at, and unwrapped the tiny cub. It gave a little whimper at no longer being wrapped in warmth or cuddled close to a warm body, and pawed at the cape, trying to burrow back under its folds. Then the cub opened its eyes and gave another needy rumbling meow.
The Beastmen blinked at the cub. He was not expecting the stranger to plop down a whole ass cat in front of him.
"It's so young." The Beastmen picked the cub up and examined it. "Must be only five weeks! Too young to be away from the mother." Then the Beastmen turned suspicious and accusatory eyes on Keldor. "How did you get a cub this young away from the mother?"
Behind the bar, the bartender set down the rag they were using to wipe at a glass, and instead reached for a cleaver concealed under the bar. "You another poacher?"
Keldor was keenly aware of a change in the air.
He jumped back from the table, but not fast enough. The Beastmen reached across the table with one massive arm and grabbed Keldor by the shoulder, slamming his face down on the table next to the tiny Dylinx cub. The Beastman's other hand grabbing Keldor's arm and pulling it flat over the table.
The bartender came out from around the bar, cleaver in hand. "We don't take kindly to poachers in our jungle."
The Beastman's grip on Keldor's arm tightened and he was keenly aware that it was also the hand closest to the advancing cleaver.
Eternos did not punish crimes with dismemberment anymore, that was old justice from a different time. But other territories outside the city still kept some of the old ways, and the penalty for kidnapping, or poaching, was to sever the villain's snatching hands.
"I'm not a poacher!" Keldor shouted into the wood of the table.
"That's what every poacher says when they're caught!" Snapped the bartender.
"I can't stand bastard who mistreat animals!" Added the Beastmen.
"I command you to release me!" Keldor roared, still unable to lift his head. The Beastmen holding him down was so strong. Keldor tried to put as much regal, princely command into his voice as he could when half his mouth scraped across the table as he spoke. "In the name of King Miro of the House of Volnar, you will-"
The Beastmen silenced him by shoving his head harder into the table. Squeezing Keldor's face into the wood, making his skull ache under the pressure. "It's Miro's law."
But dismemberment was not Miro's punishment.
From another table, near the back of the tavern, half shadowed, someone else stood from their table and walked slowly up to them.
They leaned over Keldor, examining what he carried on his back. Bracing one hand on the table, close to his face. The hand, the only part of the other person Keldor could see, was shaped like a human hand. Four fingers and a thumb. But the skin covering it was blue. Almost the exact same shade of jewel-blue as Keldor's own skin.
"You'll be wantin' to release 'im." Said the newcomer, addressing the bartender holding the cleaver and the Beastmen holding Keldor.
"He with you?" Acused the bartender.
"Not all Gar know each other." The newcomer informed them.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't end this piece of shit right now!" Demanded the Beastmen.
"Here's a pretty good reason." The newcomer, the other Gar, pulled the sword from the harness on Keldor's back. He tossed it on the table so the others could see. A dual bladed great sword. Large and heavy, but with a trick to it. The dual blades snapped apart to become two separate but identical swords. "Fancy weapon. Like the kind they only make in Eternos. Not many can afford such fancy work. Ain't never heard o' no Gar rich enough to afford an Eternos blade." A pause. "'Cept one."
There was a pregnant pause.
The unnamed Gar let the implication hang in the air around them.
"What one?" The Beastmen finally asked, not being able to put together the Gar's insinuation.
The bartender dropped their cleaver. "Prince Keldor!" They, at least, could figure it out. "Oh, I am so, so sorry, Your Highness! Raq, let him up! This is the future King!"
Keldor felt the pressure disappear from his head as the Beastmen listed his hand. He stood back up, massaging his shoulders and neck. "Dismemberment was ruled unnecessarily cruel and was declared illegal." He reminded them. "If you had taken my hand, my father would have taken your lives."
"Sounds 'bout right." The other Gar mutter, so softly one would have to have pointed ears to catch it.
Keldor turned to ask him his meaning, but the other Gar was already walking back to his half-shadowed table against the wall. His back was to Keldor. Even after he sat down, his face was mostly in shadow so that all that could be seen on him was the lower half of his jaw.
The cub on the table gave another desperate cry and everyone's attention returned to it.
The Beastmen, Raq, wrapped the cub back up in Keldor's cape. "He needs to stay warm." He explained. "Dylinx cubs can't regulate their own body temperatures. They need their mothers to keep them warm or else they die. They also need near constant feeding to support rapid growth. How long has he been without his mother?"
Keldor thought. "It was early evening when the mother attacked me." He began, talking through his math. "I found the cub not long after. Then it took us a while to get here. Four hours maybe?"
"That's not bad." Raq decided. He passed the bundle back to Keldor. "Hold him against your chest. Make sure his body is against you skin and his other side is covered by the blanket. Keep him warm. I have to mix something up with the right vitamin balance."
"Wha-!?" Keldor barely had time to react before his arms were suddenly once again filled with tiny, needy Dylinx cub.
Raq left the tavern.
"So, I'll just wait here then!" Keldor shouted after the swinging tavern door.
He flopped down in a chair at the table Raq just abandoned.
The bartender placed a tankard of frothy beer on the table next to him. "On the house, Your Highness. Sorry for almost maiming you."
Keldor looked at the beer. It did look inviting. But he had been traveling for days now. Hard nights sleeping on the ground or in trees. Drinking water from wild streams, or stale from his waterskin. Eating the dried and preserved foodstuffs from his pack. Beer was not what he needed right now.
"Water, instead." Keldor told the bartender. "And something hot to eat, if you've got it."
"I have a vegetable stew, Your Highness." Nodded the bartender, then left quickly to fill the Prince's order.
Still holding the cub against his chest, Keldor looked back to the shadowed table against the wall. The table the other Gar sat at. He'd never met another member of his race before. …of his second race. Keldor grew up among humans. He had never even seen another Gar within the walls of Eternos. Standing, Keldor crossed the room to him.
He pulled out a second chair and sat down without being invited. "I hope this isn't a private table."
The other Gar just looked at him. "Wouldn't matter if it was, Your Highness." Somehow, he managed to make 'your highness' sound like 'you entitled bastard'. "Fancy lad like you, I 'xpect you're used to getting what you want."
For half a second, Keldor was about to argue and explain the nuances of growing up a half-breed in a mostly human court, and inform the other man that, no, he was not actually used to getting what he wanted all the time. Anything he wanted that wasn't superficial like what he preferred to eat for dinner, had to be explained and justified before he could have it.
But then, Keldor realized, this other Gar who grew up away from the capital and didn't know anything about him except that he was a Prince probably wasn't interested in the nuances of growing up a bastard non-human in a royal court.
So, instead, Keldor just said, "I've never met another Gar before."
"Well, I ain't never met a Prince before." Said the other Gar. "Guess that makes us some kinda even."
He seemed very standoffish and cagey. And he was still sitting mostly in shadow. Even up close, all Keldor would see was the lower half of his jaw. A wide jaw with a square chin and thin lower lip.
Lifting his free hand, the other still clutching the cub to his chest, Keldor muttered a short spell and formed a ball of witchlight in his palm. He set it floating above the table, illuminating the both of them in soft warm light.
The other Gar's features were different from what he expected. Keldor had never seen another Gar before, and his father refused to talk about his mother. Keldor, when he was younger, would sometimes spend hours staring in the mirror looking at his own reflection, trying to discern his non-human features from his human ones. He had his father's brow, nose, and cheekbones. But Keldor wasn't sure what he got from his mother aside from the obvious skin and ears.
This Gar had a wide face and larger ears. A high forehead like Keldor had, but the hairline was hidden under a curtain of messy black waves. The eyebrows were thin, and the eyes beneath them even thinner, very narrow and sharp. They didn't look quite right on such a square face. But then, Keldor also realized that he was viewing this Gar's features through a lens of what humans found attractive. This other Gar might be very handsome by full-blood Gar standards.
"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage." Keldor announced. "You know who I am, but I have no idea who you are."
"Leaving." The other Gar informed him. "I'm leaving."
He stood from the table, reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out two silver coins and tossed them on the table. Keldor noticed that while they were Eternos standard mint, they were older coins. From his grandfather's rule, King Volnar the Bold. He supposed lots of old coins stayed in circulation the farther out from Eternos one traveled.
The Gar paused before leaving the tavern, though. Turning back to Keldor.
"Funny thing 'bout poachers." He said, "they don' poach what they can't sell. An' Dylinx don' go down easily. 'Course that grit's what make 'em so attractive to the buyers. Lotta rich sorcerers willing to pay pretty coin for a powerful Dylinx, or even just their parts. Use 'em for their spells and such." He paused meaningfully and locked eyes with Keldor. "I heard tell you was a sorcerer. Being a fancy Eternos Prince ya gotta be rich too."
Unconsciously, Keldor clutched the tiny Dylinx cub closer to his chest. It was so small and cute. He could not imagine anyone wanting to hurt such a tiny and fluffy little thing. "That is dark sorcery."
The other Gar only shrugged. "Wha'do I know. I ain't no sorcerer."
He left.
The bartender came up to Keldor's new table and set a glass of cold water and a bowl of hot stew in front of him, and a separate plate of fried plantains.
"I'd be careful about associating with other Gar outside Eternos, Your Highness." The bartender informed him. "Anwatd Gar is just off the coast here and we occasionally get one or two of them trying to escape their island."
"You get many Gar here?" Keldor asked.
"A fair few." Nodded the bartender. "On clear days you can even see across the water to the mist that shrouds their cursed island." A quick pause. "I mean- that's not to say that Your Highness is cursed. Just that the island's been cursed."
It was not the first time Keldor had heard the Gar referred to as a 'cursed people' and it probably wouldn't be the last. In fact, he would likely be hearing it more and more the farther out from Eternos he traveled.
"Breaking out of the curse and getting through the mist is hard," continued the Bartender, "only a few Gar have been able to do it, and those that have are hard and mean. Like Kronis." They nodded to the door the other Gar just left through. "Can't say for sure that Kronis is doing any crime, but nobody ever sees him work, but he's always got plenty of silver to for his drink."
The other Gar, Kronis apparently, was certainly standoffish and cagy. But that didn't mean he was a criminal. We Anwat Gar really was cursed and he had to break through a magical barrier to get off the island, it would certainly explain why he was hostile and repellant, trying to keep people at a distance.
It occurred to Keldor then that neither his father, nor Count Marzo ever shared details of how they got off Anwat Gar. Just that father was trapped there and couldn't escape on his own and stayed long enough to have an affair with a native, father a child, and have his lover carry that child to term and give birth before Marzo showed up to rescue him.
Being a sorcerer, Keldor supposed Marzo could have used his magic to punch a hole in the barrier. But that also depended on the nature of the curse.
Keldor didn't actually want to know.
Instead, he decided to change the subject. "How far from here is Fantos?"
"Fantos?" The bartender wiped their hands on their apron. "Just a bit farther inland. Jungle's not very big. We're all pretty close together in here. "Maybe 'bout a morning's walk west."
"Then I'll leave for Fantos in the morning." Keldor nodded. "I'll need a room for the night, do you have one available?"
Keldor reached for his purse, pulling out a handful of shiny new Eternos mint silver coins. Kronis put two silvers on the table when he left, so for a room for one night and probably breakfast tomorrow Keldor put five silvers on the table.
The bartender did not haggle over the price. They just swiped the coins off the table and deposited them in their apron pocket. "I'll make a room up for you immediately, Your Highness."
They vanished up the stairs.
Keldor dug into the strew. Thick cut carrots, wedges of potato, barley for substance, onion for spice, and a tomato base with some spices he couldn't identify. It needed a little salt. It wasn't bland but it was different to what he was used to eating at the palace. But after eating cold and dried foods for three days, being fresh and hot made it feel like the best meal he'd ever had.
He ate one handed, the other arm supporting the cub against his chest.
It wriggled in his hold. Warm, but not comfortable. The scent he was surrounded by did not smell like his mother. It felt 'safe' but not like 'home'. He was still hungry and the furless blue nipple he kept trying to suckle at offered no milk. The cub let out another desperate rolling meow. Where was mama? Why wasn't she coming to feed him? Who was this bald furless creature anyway? He hadn't tried to eat him yet, so he obviously wasn't a predator. But he wasn't mama either…
Raq reentered the tavern, saw Keldor sitting at the table near the back and crossed the room to him. He placed a tiny bottle on the table next to his bowl of stew. "For the cub." He said, then paused. "Do you know how to feed a baby animal?"
"I don't even know how to feed a baby-baby." Keldor informed him.
With a sigh, the Beastmen pulled out Kronis' empty chair and dragged it over next to Keldor. "Open up the blanket, let's take a look at him."
Setting his spoon down beside the soup bowl, Keldor unwrapped his cape from the cub. It looked at both of them with wide scared eyes and made another desperate rumbling meow. Urging them to understand. He was hungry! Where was mama!?
"Hold him level." Raq commanded. "On his belly, not his back. He's not a human or a Gar baby. If you try and hold him on his back while feeding him he could choke and die."
Dylinx cubs were starting to sound so fragile and easily killable to Keldor. It was hard to believe this was the infant form of an apex predator.
But Keldor did as he was instructed. Holding the cub in one hand, the cat's belly resting in his palm. He picked up the tiny bottle and held the nipple in front of the cub's face. It sniffed at the bottle, unsure of what it was or if it wanted to drink it or not. It didn't smell like mama. But it did smell like food.
After a prolonged pause, the cub opened its mouth and started nursing at the tiny bottle. Its paws kneading at Keldor's hand holding the bottle.
It was the cutest thing Keldor had ever experienced, and he felt the oddest feeling of warm fuzzies well up inside him. If Kronis was right and other sorcerers used Dylinx in their sorcery, they would not get their hands on this little cub. This one was Keldor's. Mine. So fuzzy and dark. But with vivid green eyes and sharp teeth. Like a miniature panther.
"Panthor." Keldor decided.
In the other chair, the Beastman gave a short clip of a laugh. "Welp, if there was any doubt left in me that you're a poacher, that got rid of it."
"What?" Keldor looked up at him, confused.
"You've named him." Raq pointed out. "Once you name him, he's yours. Dylinx are incredible animals. They have a reputation for being vicious and difficult to tame. But if you take good care of one, nurture it and don't mistreat him, you'll have a companion for life."
"Sounds nice." Keldor nodded. He felt the inexplicable urge to bend his head down and nuzzle the cub with his face. But he didn't. He was a Prince, and such behavior was undignified. He shook his head; he couldn't keep the jungle cat anyway. If it was going to grow as large as the mother was, he couldn't keep a creature like that in the palace. "But I'll have a release him back into the wild once he'd grown enough to take care of himself."
The Beastmen only flashed a knowing smirk. Like he said, Dylinx could be fiercely loyal. If he took good enough care of that cub that he could be released back into the wild, then the Dylinx would not return to the wild. But the Prince would figure that out on his own when it happened.
"I'm Raqquill, by the way." Announced the Beastmen.
"Keldor." He supplied. "But you already knew that."
"And this little guy is Panthor now." Raqquill reached one of his massive hands out to pet the tiny cub. Just one of his large fingers was almost the length of the cub's whole body (not counting the tail). "He should sleep with you, to keep him warm. And you'll have to wake up every couple hours to repeat feedings. I can give you more bottles of formula. He's already old enough to be weaned off the bottle, but you'll have to do it slowly. Cooking meats before feeding him will help him absorb the nutrients, but his teeth are still small. You might have to pre-chew it for him. And you'll have to massage his hind quarters and his anus to encourage him to defecate."
Keldor blinked up at him. "I have to what now?"
"It's all part of taking care of an infant cat if you want to keep him healthy." Raqquill assured him. "But if you do it for him, you'll have a very strong companion for life."
…