part0024

I SHOULD HAVE PAID more attention when the wolves started using the words ‘faraway forest.’ At least I should have asked: how far away exactly? This treacherous path, drowning here and there in grass or pine needles, stretched around two and a half miles through the ‘nearby’ forest, crossing streams and dodging around impassable deadfalls. I ran as fast as I could, but it was still obvious that I was seriously slowing down the werewolves. On the flat sections, all the veichs, including Shelly, dropped down to all fours and ran as fast as a small car. I couldn’t do that. And I had my backpack on. Even with most of my things in the workshop, it was still heavy.

My second skill level up in this exhausting run… I gained a little speed, but that didn’t change the situation much. The werewolves could move at least twice as fast as a man. They also never seemed to get tired. They could run like that for miles without stopping. For me, my heart was about ready to explode already. Even in the army, there were only a couple of times when we went on long-distance cross-country runs over uneven terrain in full equipment. And that wasn’t in the scorching heat.

Enough. I can’t take this! My Stamina points ran out. I switched to walking, then just stopped, asked for a break.

“Shelly, tell the others I need a rest. Let’s make a stop!”

The answer from the Hunter group’s leader came almost instantly. My long-tailed companion translated:

“Dangerous to stop here. This is terrritorrry of Mirrre Mistrrress. You stop, you die! We must at least crrross valley floorrr and climb to big bluff on otherrr side. Can rrrest there.”

I didn’t know who the Marsh Mistress was. I was also in no hurry to find out. So, having regained only a few Stamina Points, I gritted my teeth and ran on. My boots untied in the black mud. My lungs burned from the acrid swamp mist. My tiredness brought colorful circles dancing before my eyes. I remember pushing our way through a bush that smelled medicinal. But I have only the vaguest recollection of climbing the steep stone cliff after the veichs. I nearly fainted and fell off the cliff, but the veichs caught me and dragged me up to the high bluff. As soon as Shelly told me we could rest there, I just fell to the stone, empty.

“Look, Serrrgeant,” the furry Huntress drew my attention, pointing a paw at the valley floor we’d left not long before with its sucking mud.

I turned, froze solid. What the..!? Among the thick cover of cattails twice as high as a man, there walked a gigantic creature bristling with legs and spikes — a massive overgrown mix of scorpion and spider. A true elephant on eight chitinous legs. The monster was only twenty paces from our viewing platform.

☠ Marsh Mistress. Cruel Arachnoscorp. Level 88 female.

The bright red name and skull symbol before it made it clear that this was a beast best avoided. I could also tell by the werewolves quietly cowering in fear behind rocks that the Marsh Mistress was far too close to our cover, and nothing prevented her from scrambling up our cliff and eating her fill. Fortunately, the monster didn’t see us. She continued down her path through the waving red-green sea of cattails, its shores lost in the swamp mist.

“Therrre is an island of ancient rrruins somewhere in this marsh,” Shelly said, as the Marsh Mistress departed and disappeared in the smoky mist. “A shining arrrtifact for summoning a Cruel Arrrachnoscorp appears on the altarrr after everrry storrrm. A young Hunterrr from village of Orrrshi-Urrr once got hold of one. Shaman keeps it now. But all attempts by otherrr veichs to rrrepeat same feat end in death. Marsh Mistress and her children prrrotect rrruins fierrrcely.”

The senior Hunter in the group growled something and Shelly translated.

“We rrrun on. We are halfway. We must make stop beforrre farrraway forrrest. To pick berrrry and tasty rrroots as gift for chimerrric monkeys that live in forrrest. So they let us through their terrrritorrry.”

Huh… I wondered, had Washington and the other human Hunters from Pan’s Landing tried to communicate with the monkeys? Or had they just stumbled into another creature’s territory and then got all surprised when the forest beasts pursued them?

We climbed higher up a crumbling slope, then ran again. I saw the ‘faraway’ forest now from afar — a solid wall of ancient tall trees, mostly pine. Fifty paces from the edge of the woods, our group stopped. Without a word, all the veichs split into groups and started plucking at the bushes growing in the meadow, picking red berries and bundles of leaves that looked like wild garlic, pulling them out by their roots. I didn’t just sit there. I started gathering a donation for the forest dwellers, and put what I found on a big flat stone like the others did. Although I did put a handful of berries and some wild garlic in my backpack — we could check it out back at Pan’s Landing. Maybe it was edible for humans.

I saw the chimeric monkey myself, without any nudging from Shelly. A large female with low-hanging teats and thick brown fur watched us closely, carefully peeking out from behind the trunks of gigantic trees and running from cover to cover. It was definitely a monkey. Something like a large gorilla. Only the creature also had a long scaly tail at its back, ending in a thick barbed nub. One hit on the head with that would kill a human. Peering into the dark forest, now I spotted a second chimeric monkey, then a third… there was so many!

The veich Hunters apparently felt they’d collected enough. The group leader lifted a horn rolled up from tree bark to his lips. He blew into it three times and waited for an answer.

Then a gigantic black male with an important air about him sauntered out of the forest. He was nine feet tall and must have weighed near nine hundred pounds. His dangerous tail was twelve feet long and ended in a spiked flail bristling with a multitude of sharp and bony blades two hands long.

Apparently, this was the new chief that took over after the last one was killed. Casting a frowning eye on each of the veichs in our group in turn, he stopped by Shelly and grinned, showing mighty yellow teeth. The chimeric monkeys must have had some funny story related to the luckless huntress. I’d have to ask her about it later.

Then the chief came to me, loomed over me fearsomely, studied this human oddity. Although… I was wrong. It wasn’t me that interested the strong male. It was the ginger kitten sitting on my shoulder. The chimeric monkey slowly stretched out an arm and carefully, as if fearing a burn, poked my pet. Whiskers hissed in displeasure. The gorilla looked surprised and suddenly fell to his back, rolling on the ground and emitting strange broken laughter. Whiskers had somehow amused the fearsome beast.

“Monkeys like yourrr kitten. This good sign. We can go,” Shelly translated the group leader’s growl.

The breakneck pace continued. Through dark wilderness, tripping over the sharp branches of fallen trees and pressing through narrow passes overgrown with cobwebs. Across glades overgrown with unfamiliar mushrooms in the middle of an ancient forest. Along the leaning trunk of a stooping wooden titan, then across its hundred-yard-long crooked branches. We jumped from branch to branch, and, as a separate bonus not for the faint of heart — jumped from a forty-five-foot high cliff across a deep ravine into some thick springy bushes on the opposite slope… I have no idea how I survived that half hour… I made it to character level nine, but that wasn’t much consolation for all the bruises and frayed nerves…

Finally, we made it across the ‘faraway’ forest and arrived at the spot. The big field to which the Hunters had brought me stretched out from the woods to a broad river — maybe the same one that flowed by Pan’s Landing, although I wasn’t sure. There were all kinds of wild grasses here, with sprays of bright flowers, countless fluttering butterflies and big speckled insects. A beautiful place. My sister Julie would have liked it.

But I was more interested in the three massive armored reptiles curled up into balls in front of us. Bony, spiky spheres about six feet in diameter. I didn’t know what moron had called the creatures ‘giga-komodos.’ These overgrown lizards didn’t look much like komodo dragons at all. They were more like armadillos or huge pangolins, creatures that could curl up and leave only scaled armor exposed.

Veich Hunters wandered around the giga-komodos, Shelly’s uncle among them. They were scaring the reptiles with loud roars and occasionally poking sharp spears through the cracks in their bony armor, inflicting pain on the creatures to keep them curled up. Not very humane. I’d hoped the beasts had been chased into a trap and couldn’t get out, not just curled up in a ball, ready at any moment to haul ass away from their hunter torturers. But it did explain the speed at which the veichs caught the giga-komodos. And I was so surprised that they’d managed it so quickly…

“You took yourrr time,” Shelly translated her uncle’s displeased growl. “Serrrgeant, you must hurrrry. A storrrm apprrroaches,” the Huntress turned and pointed to a barely noticeable dark cloud on the horizon. “And this is not our land. The veichs of the Un-Talavi trrribe could show up any time and ask us to leave.”

Took our time, wow… It seemed Ugmai had an unjustifiably high opinion of humanity’s ability to traverse rough terrain. I didn’t bother objecting. I approached the nearest giga-komodo. The kitten jumped off my shoulder and wandered among the gigantic creatures with interest.

How could I tame these frightened giants? What did they even eat? Maybe herbs or flowers… That would explain why they spent all their time in this green meadow with its lush vegetation. I had no doubt that I could find the right food. But how to calm and feed such a huge reptile? I strongly suspected that if the veichs stopped prodding with their needles of pain, the giga-komodos would unfurl and run as fast as they could away from their torturers. Still, while they were rolled up, I saw no way to feed them. Their mouths were inside the ball of bone. I guess we’d have to uncurl them after all. But first…

“Shelly said that veichs can make a concoction from red villus mushrooms that can weaken and even knock out strong creatures.”

My companion translated the phrase. Her uncle’s brow knitted in a frown. Apparently, the mushroom-based sleeping potion was a secret of his people, so the Hunter didn’t approve of his niece blabbing it to another species. Nonetheless, Ugmai untied some pouches on his leather bag and offered me an envelope made of a broad tree leaf folded over. Inside was a dark purple ointment that smelled vile. At my command, Shelly wiped the poisonous mixture on her throwing darts, and the girl and I approached the closest giga-komodo, a level 8 female. She was the smallest and lowest in level of all three, so I decided to test out the weakening effect on her. Ten shots through the cracks between the plates of bony armor and the giga-komodo unfurled, stretched out on the ground.

“He sleeps,” Shelly confirmed.

“We need to try and confine the giga-komodo in this state, without letting it curl back into a ball. So that it’s face is visible and I can feed it,” I told the veichs, explaining what help I wanted — for them to beat a few solid stakes deep into the ground on either side of the huge reptile, then tie its legs and tail to them.

The hunters understood and rushed to work. They made ropes from vines, started cutting the stakes. I climbed onto the armored back of the sleeping overgrown reptile to throw an extra rope across it and tie the creature tight. But then… the giga-komodo suddenly woke up! And galloped off, running straight ahead without a care for where it went!

I couldn’t control the fear-crazed beast. All I could do was keep my death grip on the uncomfortable and slippery bony growths on its back, just try to hold on. But the most amazing thing was that the taming bar had begun to steadily fill up! This beast could be tamed just by riding it!

When the Hunters ran in to help me with their throwing spears, I shouted for them to back off. I wasn’t doing anything in particular myself, allowing myself only to spend a hundred and twenty Stamina Points on one Calming Touch. I didn’t know if that helped or not, but it didn’t seem to change the taming progress. The giga-komodo first ran to the river. First I even thought for a moment that he’d go into the water. But no; the reptile veered off at the last second and crashed along the bank, then span around and galloped the other way, back to the other curled-up lizards. Then he kept just repeating the circuit…

Around fifteen minutes passed and my Riding skill leveled up twice before the fully tamed giga-komodo stopped stock-still not so far from the spot where I first mounted it. I risked jumping down off the reptile and even fed my new pet with some herbs I picked. The beast ate some herbs, turned its nose up at others. The ones it liked the most were blue flowers that looked like little bells. Well, I’d keep that in mind. I returned to the Hunters with my obedient reptile in tow.

“Now the next one,” I pointed at the level 14 gray-green giga-komodo. “Only this time we do it different. No stakes, but I need strong rope to make a harness and reins. And a lot of these herbs and a few chunks of meat.”

Yeah, I wanted to try out meat too — in my world, komodo dragons were predators, and the tamed beast’s sharp fang-like front teeth told me that it was adapted to bite into flesh. After quickly putting the male out with the sleep potion, I didn’t tie him up, but fashioned him a kind of harness so I could hold on a little easier. It was a good thing I did! The new ‘steed’ was much faster and more nervous. He kept trying to throw me off his back and would jump randomly, alternating with trying to buck me off. It took me forty minutes to tame him. And the giga-komodo took me who knows where. It was another half hour before I found the way back to where Shelly and the other Hunters were waiting.

The giga-komodos didn’t seem all that far apart in level; eight and fourteen. But the difficulty and time it took to tame them, not to mention the effort, was almost three times greater. So I looked at the final beast curled up into a ball with great doubt. It was a large and beautiful emerald-black male. Level 40…

Level 52 Hunter Ugmai Orshi-Ur offers you a trade: your pet, level 8 giga-komodo (female, nameless) and your pet, level 14 giga-komodo (male, nameless) in exchange for an iron dagger, ten pieces of meat, a skein of rope and a potion (strong sleep potion, 35 doses).

Uhm… I didn’t get it. What was this? Shelly translated a growl from her uncle:

“The masterrrs of the meadow are herrre. We arrre being chased out. Also, the storrrm is about to begin. The veichs arrre leaving. The thirrrd and best giga-komodo is yours, Serrrgeant. As was agrrreed.”

The sky was already two thirds covered in black storm clouds and gusts of wind bent the trees. Frequent flashes of lightning lit up the darkened horizon. The heavens looked ready to open. It was clear I wouldn’t have time to train the third giga-komodo. I might not even be able to tame such a large and strong bull at all. But then what was I to do? Agree to less, refuse the trade deal and keep one of the two smaller ones?

I glanced at the black sky again, at the level forty emerald-black giga-komodo rolled up into a ball, at the Hunters awaiting my answer. I picked up the ginger kitten, put it on my shoulder. Then I put all twelve free skill points into Riding, leveling the skill up to nineteen, and… accepted the contract.

“Shelly, give the last one a sleeping potion! Then you’ll help me fasten on the harness. You’re going to get up on the reptile’s back in front of me and tie yourself on real tight. This is going to be a long ride!