“Let’s go over what we’ve managed to figure out by talking to everyone so far,” Ric said as the Party gathered around him outside the latest farmhouse they’d stopped at.
“There’s a bunch of bears in the area,” Stella said with a serious nod.
“At least one of them,” Ally agreed as she scratched Kalexia’s chin again.
“They’re mean and brown,” Brand said firmly.
“I want to go home,” Ric sighed as he massaged his forehead and the three finally cracked and burst into juvenile giggles.
“Let’s get through this first before we go running off,” Markus said, giving Ric’s shoulder a sympathetic pat before continuing. “You guys aren’t wrong, but let’s be a bit more specific. We know that the bears are brown bears and that means that they’ll tower over us all if they get on two legs. The quest says there are four of them, but it also says there could be more. All the bears sighted have been very aggressive, but they haven’t killed anyone or pursued them when they ran away. Everyone we’ve spoken to has said that the bears tend to come from a western direction and they go back that way before disappearing. Have I missed anything?”
“No,” Ric said gratefully. “You’re right about all of that too. I think it’s best that we find the place where Farmer Alma’s son encountered his bear. From what he said, it made a racket and crushed a lot of the plants and brush in its way; I think we’ll have the easiest time tracking it from there.”
“Alright,” Brand said. “I guess that means I’ll be taking the lead then, as far as I know I’m the only one with the tracking skill at Common. Where did they say it happened?”
“According to my notes here,” Luna said before reading from her notebook, “‘half an hour’s walk along the road away from the city before turning west and going a short distance away from the road.’ I think we can do that. Does anyone have a watch?”
“No money,” Ally said as she shook her head.
“I thought most of my work would take place in the dark,” Stella said.
“I have a similar problem as Ally,” Ric said with an embarrassed cough. “Sorry.”
“Haven’t had a chance to look into if they have them or not,” Markus admitted.
“And I haven’t earned enough money for one either,” Luna said. “I guess we’ll count then.”
“I’m not counting that high,” Brand said. “Besides, I got this! Have some faith.”
“I watched you throw up before we left the city,” Stella told him bluntly. “Those were beautiful flowers you ruined. Kind of hard to keep faith in you after that.”
“Ouch, harsh,” Brand said, clutching at his chest in mock hurt. “Anyway, I’ll have you all know that I was a Boy Scout.”
“What rank did you make?” Luna asked curiously. “Eagle? Life?”
“That’s not important,” Brand said evasively. “What is important is that I learned a bit of bushcraft, is that the word, whatever, anyway! I learned how to keep time with no clock or watch using only my fingers and the sun! You may bow in praise.”
“Even if you did know that,” Markus said delicately, “how can we guarantee accuracy? We’re going to be moving and the road turns to avoid certain areas. You might think you’re facing the right way, but if you’re wrong and we think we’ve gone thirty minutes and instead we’ve only gone fifteen or twenty, then we’ll be in the wrong area..”
“Okay fine,” Brand said in a sulking voice. “I guess we could just pay attention to the murder-lizard that’s already caught their scent then.”
“What?” Markus asked, whirling to look at Kalexia and seeing that her nostrils were flaring widely every few seconds and her tongue was flicking in and out of her lips. As he watched, Kalexia opened her mouth slightly and tasted the air more heavily as she shifted her feet and faced a direction that pointed her westward into the forest.
“She does look like she’s got something,” Ally said. “Reminds me of one of those dogs they use in movies. All menacing and growly, but you just know they’ve got a scent to follow.”
“So how does this work?” Stella asked, shifting out Kalexia’s line of sight. “Do we just let her go and try to keep up with her?”
“I’m not telling my Drake to hunt bears for us and then expect her to keep a pace that we can follow easily,” Markus said. “I’ll ride her and keep her from going too fast. Everyone okay with that?”
As the others all nodded, Markus swung into his saddle on Kalexia’s back and waited as the others all prepared themselves for a walk through the woods.
“I think I’ll leave Storm here,” Luna said after a moment of thought. “Think I can ask the family that lives here if I can tie his reins to a fence?”
“You can ask,” Ric said with a shrug as he inspected his staff before nodding and looking at her. “Doesn’t mean they’ll say yes.”
“I guess that’s true,” she said as Stella held a wooden staff out to her and Ally removed her halberd’s sheathe from the blade before returning the large weapon to her back.
“When did you name him?” Brand asked curiously as he checked his shortsword that was strapped to his back and strung his recurve bow.
“The other day,” Ally answered for her before turning toward Markus. “Do you want me to carry your shield or something so that you can get it ready faster?”
“Thanks, but I’ve got it,” Markus assured her. “I had to spend most of the last month working on getting my shield into the right position and, not to brag, I think I got pretty good at it.”
“Calling it now, he drops something as soon as we see a bear,” Stella said, holding up an Iron coin. “Who’s in?”
“I’ll keep the faith, boss,” Brand said, holding up his own coin. “Give you half when you win me some extra money.”
“I’m siding with Stella,” Ric said quietly as he held out his own coin. “Ally? Luna?”
“Sure, I’ll throw one in,” Ally said with a grin. “Don’t know how we’re going to divide Brand’s coin into three, but I’m in.”
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“I’ll be impartial in this, I guess,” Luna said, taking everyone’s money. “Winner takes all.”
“I hate all of you,” Markus said with a sigh as he held up an Iron coin of his own. “But I’ll win if one of you drops something instead. Except Luna.”
“If we’re all ready, then lead the way,” Luna said. “I think that Brand and Ally should be at the back and Stella, Ric, and I be in the middle.”
“Works for me,” Markus said with a shrug before tapping Kalexia with his heels. “Lead on, girl.”
With a joyful hiss, Kalexia reared her head back and studied the edge of the forest before lunging forward and nearly unseating Markus as the others attempted to keep up with them and Markus tried to slow her down while avoiding the low hanging branches of the trees. Almost as an afterthought, Storm, Luna’s Warcharger, followed after Ally as she led him by his reins.
Heedless of the people following her, Kalexia made her way deeper in the forest as she moved west, hunting whatever had caught her attention. With almost serpentine grace, the large, scaled, quadruped moved through the trees and snaked her way through the denser patches of brush as Markus tried and barely succeeded in slowing her enough that the others were able to keep the ice-blue Drake in sight as they followed her.
After several minutes of travel through the trees, each step a test of Markus’ skill in controlling his mount, Kalexia came to a stop and searched the air for the scent she’d been tracking as the rest of the Party caught up to them.
“Damn!” Brand said, breathing heavily as he looked around them all for anything that might be sneaking up on them. “Your lizard can move, man! I want one!”
“It might have been easier to keep up with her if we all had mounts,” Ric agreed as he leaned forward, hands on his knees as he caught his breath. “Do we have a moment?”
“I think so,” Markus assured him as he looked through the trees and paid attention to Kalexia’s tracking efforts. “I think she’s looking for the trail again.”
As Markus finished speaking, Kalexia let out a reptilian hiss and began to move again. Behind Markus he could hear his Party members curse quietly as they were forced to move once more. Thankfully for most of them, Kalexia sank lower to the ground and seemed to stalk across the forest floor, moving more slowly than before as she climbed a hill and eventually came to a stop at the top, giving Markus an excellent vantage point to see two large brown bears forage through the ground on the other side of the hill.
“Two of them?” Brand demanded in an angry whisper. “Dammit! What’s the plan?”
“I’m thinking that we let Kalexia deal with one while Ally tries to back her up and the rest of us take care of the other one as quickly as we can,” Ric said. “She is capable of holding her own in a fight like that right?”
“Oh yeah she is,” Markus said with a nod before dismounting as quietly as he could. “I don’t want to let her try for two at once, but she’ll be okay against one, especially if Ally’s helping her.”
“Anything I should watch out for?” Ally asked as she drew her halberd from her back. “Aside from the teeth, claws, and getting in her way.”
“Kalexia has a breath attack,” Luna said. “If she uses it and it touches you, you’re probably going to die. It comes out as a flame but it freezes whatever it touches.”
“I really hope she doesn’t do that then,” Brand said. “It sounds like it’ll ruin the hides.”
“If she’s going to try eating it, then she’ll avoid freezing,” Markus said. “If we’re all ready, then let’s get to it. Stella, normally I’d want you to watch Luna and Ric’s backs, but this time I want you to stick close to me and let me know if Ally has trouble. Can you do that?”
When nobody answered him, Markus looked over the rest of the Party in confusion.
“Where’s Stella?” he asked.
“Probably in Stealth already,” Luna said. “She’ll have heard you, but if she breaks it to speak, then she’ll be easier to detect.”
“Okay, let’s do it then,” Markus said, rising to his feet and readying his sword and shield. “Kalexia, go for the one on the left please.”
“Did she understand you?” Brand asked skeptically as Kalexia eyed her master for a moment before charging down the hill and letting out a challenging roar.
“I think she did,” Markus said before charging after his Drake and preparing to use his Taunt skill he’d been training for the last week. “Come get dinner, you mangy runt!”
The skill took effect and the bear he’d screamed at turned toward him in anger, ignoring the charging Drake in favor of the smaller, less dangerous Human, as it charged him with its own challenging roar.
Setting his shield to receive the bear’s charge, Markus felt a warm caress wrap around him as an icon appeared in the corner of his vision. Unable to study the icon in detail, Markus pushed his shield forward just before the bear hit him and was able to keep his balance as an arrow flew too high, missing both of them.
Ignoring the bad shot, Markus took advantage of the bear being pushed back by their collision to thrust his sword out and nicked the beast’s brow, drawing blood and causing a slight warmth to fill his chest.
Angry at Markus’ successful blow, the bear reared back, roaring, before slamming downward on Markus’ shield. Almost forced to his knees by the blow, Markus gritted his teeth before shoving the bear to the side and bashing it in the face with his shield, hoping to stun it for a moment.
Unimpressed by the shield’s hard iron-bound face impacting its eye, the bear let out another roar and swiped outward, managing to hook Markus’ shield and pulling him closer before rearing back again and attempting to maul his shoulder.
Abandoning any attempt to keep his feet, Markus rolled to the side and dodged the bear’s gnashing jaws as another arrow flew forward and buried itself to the fletching in its shoulder. Snarling in fury, the bear made ready to charge at Brand as Markus came back to his feet and slashed a deep gash in the bear’s shoulder, drawing its attention back to him as two bolts of magic flew forward and impacted the bear to little visible effect.
As the bear shrugged off Luna and Ric’s attacks, Stella made use of its distraction to carve her two daggers through the beast’s side and caused it to roar in pain and attempt to whirl around and swipe at her retreating form.
With a quick movement, Markus followed the bear’s motion and blocked it from attacking the Halfling rogue as he lashed out with his sword again and managed to pierce its eye. Rearing back in pain and roaring in fury, the bear stood on two legs again in time for two more arrows to strike its back while a more powerful spear of earth flew through the air to crash into its side.
Before the bear could do more than roar in pain, Ally darted in from the side and cleaved her halberd’s ax blade through the air to bury it in the side of the bears neck before wrenching it out and spinning away to take cover behind Markus as he stabbed his sword deeply into the bear’s gut and wrenched it viciously out, forcing the bear’s intestines to spill across the ground as it fell to stand on four legs again.
Bleeding and mortally wounded, the bear charged forward once more and crashed into Markus’ shield as it snapped its jaws dangerously close to his face. Before Markus or someone else could do anything, Stella fell from a tree onto the bear’s back and began to viciously stab the gushing wound Ally’s attack had left with one dagger while the other was buried to the hilt in the creature’s good eye.
With a final, desperate roar the bear fell still and finally died.
“Good team effort,” Markus said, panting from the exertion of the fight. “Did you finish early with Kalexia, Ally?”
“She didn’t even need my help,” Ally said, nodding to where the Drake was happily ripping into the other bear’s innards. “It was dead a lot faster than I thought it would be and it didn’t even manage to hurt her. I think.”
“Are you three alright?” Ric asked as he led the other two closer. “Anyone hurt?”
“I’m alright,” Stella said. “Markus was a lot faster than I thought he’d be. I was sure the bear had me when I stabbed it the first time.”
“I’ve been training to be a Tank,” Markus reminded her as he flexed proudly. “And no, I’m alright Ric, my armor held up. Thanks for the buff at the start too. What was it?”
“The only one that I was able to start with,” he said, shaking his head tiredly. “Iron Skin. It’s supposed to increase your skin’s toughness; it seemed appropriate for this.”
“I guess I’ll get started on skinning this one, then,” Brand said before looking critically toward where Kalexia was eating. “I hope there’s enough left of that one that we don’t have to find another one to hit four.”
Ripping a bone from her prey, Kalexia looked back over her shoulder at them as she crunched through the bone and swallowed happily.