After all the mild regrets and questions he couldn’t fathom the answers to; The Chemist went back to his appreciation of the countryside. For the most part he was thankful that none of the plants were flowering and letting their pollen get taken on the breeze. Fritz couldn’t imagine how unbearably uncomfortable this whole walk would have been or how often he would get sick from it. That was another thing to add to the list: antihistamines, if there were any to find in this world. Surely there ought to be a few medications knocking around the odd medicine cabinet or in the back of some pharmacy.
He was about to pull out his book to add this new thought when Sage gave a unintelligible shout and pointed into the grass. An animal had already risen up from where it had been laying and let out a distressed bleat before it took off towards the rising sun. It was a goat, it’s kin also leaping up out of their recumbence and prancing away in their caprine ways. It was probably the closest he had been to a goat, save for the stories that his sister had told him while she was studying.
Recovering from his initial jolt of surprise, he let out a chuckle and pointed to the small herd bounding into the distance: “Those are goats.” Fritz said, presaging his companion's question: “Do you hunt those as well?”
Sage shook her head: “Mam ‘n Da. Too many… ‘n jumps a lot.”
She paused in the track that cut through the field and pointed to a spot on her shin. The Chemist’s attention was brought to a pale scar that stood out from her tanned skin; two small semi-circles that were once cuts on the side of her leg: “Kicks too.”
“Ahh, I see. Must have hurt.”
Finally the pair arrived at their destination. At the base of the eastern side of the hill there was a stone overhang; wide and so deep into earth that the dawn sun was unable to pierce the depths. Downhill from the subterranean maw there was a rather wide creek-bed, but, the water was either standing in small depressions in the ground or slowly trickling down from them. It was more of a wash rather than a permanent watercourse, but - with how much it rained - that was a moot distinction.
Any other puddle of water wouldn’t have been of much interest to Fritz beyond filling a bottle. However, the scene at the edge of the miniature pond dissuaded him - and only him - from drinking of it. A couple dozen of the odd and naked people were clustered in the natural pond, either with cupped hands to drink or wading in and bathing their bodies. Fritz recoiled at the malodorous smell of sweat and wet fur, wondering if he had actually smelled that rank just the other day. The moment Fritz and Sage emerged from the thin copse that grew on their side of the creek every pair of eyes locked onto them and, save for the birds and the water, everything was quiet.
Fritz mirrored their statuesque reaction while Sage coolly strode through the water into the den of her people. As she was halfway across the water, the tribe-folk started chattering too each other, making glances at Fritz and gesturing to their returning member. It was a very different reaction compared to their unassuming and rather apathetic attitude from a couple days ago. They were… agitated, clearly, at such a foreign individual being so close to their most protected territory. The Chemist was quite apprehensive about stepping any further than the tree-line, yet Sage still turned and waved him forwards.
“Ah, Sage. I don’t think that is much of a good idea.”
“Heh?” She murmured, apparently not understanding his concerns.
“I don’t think your… people would like me being in their space.” He tried to explain.
“Ohhh,” Sage vocalized before assuring him: “Fitz okay. Sage tell about Fitz.” She then finished her fording of the puddle and hastily spoke to the small crowd: “Odd-Ear is Fitz. Fitz know great and many things. Fitz knows all odd things and is good.”
The reaction, however, was mostly disbelief and confusion at what Sage was saying and Fritz could hear a few common phrases being muttered. As the group began to disperse, there were hushed barbs being grumbled: “Odd-Her. Odd-She. Odd-Skins.” It was all rather perplexing to Fritz; he didn’t quite understand how her explanation would protect him or how the group had interpreted it. Though, Sage didn’t seem too worried about the attitude that her own people had with her; turning back to smile and wave to her companion to follow her once more.
Without the group acting as a deterrent The Chemist crossed the wash, joining his companion at her assurance. He had thought that Sage would be heading towards the cavern-mouth, but, she passed it by and was heading towards another patch of woods; noble and fat trunked oak trees shading the far-most corner of the opening. At the base of each tree there were two or three families sitting and chattering in their own queer manner, both vocally and with exaggerated body language. As he followed his guide and passed by each group, the children would stare in a dumbfounded way at Fritz and the parents would quickly go quiet and regard his presence with obvious suspicion.
Every step was reinforcing the notion that he had to be as non-aggressive as possible or risk something quite unfortunate and untimely. Sage, on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice this air of mortal tension. She kept her casual and whimsical demeanour, turning every so often to look at Fritz before bounding a few steps forward and looking back again. Perhaps, he had thought, this was the regular response to a stranger. Of course they would be suspicious, but he was brought in by a member of their tribe and there hadn’t been anything obviously hostile towards him.
Then they came to a small oak towards the edge of what seemed to be a kind of folkmoot. Each family unit had one or two members leave and talk with other members and there was seemed to be a sort of unspoken agreement that each of them did this at the start of the day. At this particular tree were four people: Sage’s “da,” “mam” and the “her and him,” Fritz realizing that she had meant her younger siblings. Oddly enough, Sage’s parents seemed to be one of the few that shared all of their animal features with their children. There was a very strange amount of variety with the many different ears and tail combinations the tribe-members had. It was rather common to see parents with their children having different ears to them and each other. He wasn’t sure of how this was significant, but, it was an interesting detail to him.
While he was doing his best to look around without appearing to be a snoop, Sage was filling her family in on who he was. Most of her reasoning was missed by Fritz but his focus was quickly stolen from his pseudo-anthropology when he heard the mention of ‘fire.’ Whipping around, he saw Sage grinning with excitement while there were exchanged glances of shock between her parents; her siblings looking to their parents to make any sense of what their elder sister had said.
“Sage? What have you been telling them?”
After a prance over to him, she waved at her parents who gave each other a last look before they stood up and approached, stopping just short of Sage. Her father was a tall, sinewy man with a great, bushy beard and a matching mane of russet coloured hair. His face was stony and creased with suspicion at Fritz, but, it wasn’t altogether unkind. Meanwhile, her mother was rather graceful and slight, her hair colour a close match to Sage’s own vibrant orange hair; perhaps a shade or two darker and twice as long as her daughter’s.
Sage’s ears flicked once and she explained: “Told them other… day, about Fitz’ fire. Da and Mam don’t… understand. Sage wants Da and Mam to.”
Fritz let out a sigh that nearly came out as a grumble over inconvenience. One of his concerns was looming and he would have the uncomfortable task of potentially letting his companion down: “What do you want them to understand?” He couldn’t handle teaching another person, much less a whole tribe of roughly two hundred people once word spread around. They seemed pretty incurious, lacking all ambition or desire above their foundational needs. However, if a good portion of their own developed a curious eye, it could spread from one to another till everyone had to know about it.
Sage started to speak, but was interrupted by her father, who had taken a further step forward. The phantom of kindness in his face had vanished, replaced by a scowl for The Chemist while he boomed out a torrent of questions: “Whas Sage? Why odd-ear here? You show her odd-thing? Who’r you!?”
In the next moment he lunged forward, his muscled hands seizing upon Fritz’s shirt and yanking him forward. In the quick grapple, several of the shirt buttons popped free and a small shout of surprise escaped from him. Sage’s Father leaned forward to glare into The Chemist’s eyes; yellowed and befanged teeth bared in Fritz’ face, to which he flinched away, hands coming up in reflexive guard.
“Da! Fitz is kind. He knows things!” Sage said in shock, the commotion starting to draw attention from those sitting at the base of the other trees. The men-folk were starting to hush their own families as they stood in case a fight broke out.
Fritz’ fright was forming into something deeper and he had to do something to get out of here, his arms sinking down slowly till his right hand wrapped around the grip of his gun. He didn’t want to use it and he prayed that he wouldn’t have to harm these people to save his own skin.
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Thankfully, an opportunity of a bloodless escape presented itself as Sage grabbed onto her father’s arm. He could feel the banded-iron grip start to loosen as the man turned in a bit of confusion at his daughter's small rebellion. As Fritz tried to wiggle free, The Fox Man turned sharply to regard his captive before a thunderous frown creased his face, realizing what the odd-eared man was trying to do.
There was a minute pause and Fritz thought he would be released by the man at his daughter’s insistence. Then everything went black for a moment and he felt like the very earth itself was boiling up to swallow him. He awoke the moment before he hit the ground, dirt mixing in with the saliva and fresh blood that was suddenly in his mouth. A throbbing pain from his jaw arrived a moment after and he let out a guttural groan as he tried to pick himself up off the ground. It was something of an undertaking; vision blurrier than usual, stars popping and fizzing across the ground in a kaleidoscope dance.
Over the light whining in his ears he could hear Sage screaming among of chorus of disquieted muttering from the growing crowd. His companion was shouting and smacking at her father’s shoulder, demanding to know why he struck Fritz. The whole tribe was well and truly riled up. Rumour had spread quickly in the moments after his arrival and this sudden disturbance was reason enough confront the outsider.
Fritz did his best to shake the daze from his head and he knew that there wouldn’t be a chance to reason his way out of this situation. He would have bolted away if he wasn’t so sure that he would meet with the ground again. As the odd-ear approached the glade he could see the cave mouth and the stream again, but, several of the men-folk were shadowing his shuffling retreat, with Sage’s father at the head of the pack. Every few paces The Chemist shot a glance back over his shoulder and was dismayed to see the group was inching closer to him. Most of them were still jabbering in confusion, but there were a few faces creased in anger and were making frequent, threatening salutes.
The worry that had developed inside him steadily morphed into a great shadow of fear that gripped at his heart. It was like some kind of cosmic trap; this was the most dim-witted move he could have made. At this point, it didn’t matter if he was a friend of Sage, he’d followed her into the most mortal danger possible. This would not be a swift death by some reptilian creature or a mercifully quick execution; perhaps something more like a bear attack if there was any relation to their animal features and sensibilities. He over-trusted the confidence of another and his good-sense relaxed far too much in the presence of a friend.
Taking a deep breath and gathering himself, Fritz picked up his pace and waded through the washing pond. The majority of the mob matched his speed, but, a few were starting to peel away from the pack; throwing a last glance over-shoulder before reconvening with their families. By the time his muck-caked feet reached the opposite shore, nearly half of them had given up the chase for something better to do. Leave the conflict to those with the most to prove.
He couldn’t stand it any longer, the tree-line was only a few great strides away. It was the edge of their home, maybe the mob would stop if he crossed that threshold? Now that his balance was able to take the risk, Fritz broke into a mad sprint; an applause of splashing water behind him as his chasers kept pace with him. His heart nearly stopped when he couldn’t see the trail that Sage had lead him down, but, there was no other direction he could go.
Before he formed a second thought he tore through the brush, battering away the branches and saplings with his forearms. Thankfully, just a couple more strides through the undergrowth there was a freshly wind-thrown tree and just beyond that he could just barely see the farm fields.
How he managed to stay upright as he sprinted across the fallen trunk Fritz didn’t know, but, he burst through the shattered branches and into a small clearing. Already his regrettably poor stamina was fading away and he couldn’t help but throw a worried glance over his shoulder. The sounds of shouting and dozens of strides turning into a sprinting stampede were echoing through the forest. His heart was clattering loud in his chest amidst the din of the mob; realizing that perhaps he made a mistake trying to dart out of their sight.
He trundled along for a few more paces, seeing the pack emerge from the brush as he faltered in his flight. There was a moment of clarity as he stumbled to a stop: for all his shortcomings in this world even an athletic man would be run down and mauled by such fit predators. It was a particularly primal flavour of fear, later becoming the subject of his nightmares much of the time.
There was one last option. Fritz turned around and propped himself up against a small tree, presenting the weapon towards the chasing pack. As he tried to focus he realized the dot sight was more fuzzy than normal. Significantly so.
His glasses… they had flown from his face when he was punched.
He had no other option than to commit to squeezing the trigger, a flash blooming from the muzzle. Sage’s father was still at the tip of the pack, the projectile smacking into one of the undulations in the ground just to the left of him. The report echoed through the woods and the sound of it worked just as Fritz had hoped, stopping the hunters in their tracks as if it were a spell. Every person flinched mightily and the more faint of heart stumbled to the ground in their shock.
“Away! Or Die!” Fritz shouted, doing his best to communicate that the firearm was just as lethal as it sounded.
Through squinted eye he saw that they were certainly hesitating, but his nerves were taunt to breaking and The Chemist wasn’t willing to take another chance. Two more bullets smacked into the forest floor, kicking up small sprays of soil into the air.
“Let me leave!” He shouted, lowering the handgun as he backed up a pace.
Thankfully, most of the crowd had been convinced to back off, save for the handful of the most hearty hunters in the tribe. The small group regarded Fritz for a moment, Sage’s father at the head of them. It was a terrible second of tension; he could hardly fathom the consequence of this whole event. It was best that he didn’t linger any longer and he continued to back away, clearly showing off his weapon until he lost sight of them.
As he backed a decent way into the fields the hunters, too, vanished back into their lair. During the solitary walk back into the village, Fritz despaired that he would be hunted from now on in this area, that he would have to vacate his newfound semblance of a home. What’s more: What would happen to Sage because of all of this? She was his only ally in the whole world, save for any grace from God or fate.
“Sage… I hope you are alright.” He fretted as the comforting sight of the town, at last, came into view. The spirit of adventure was slaked and the thought of leaving again brought a raw tremble of anxiety.
Once inside his faculty room turned hideout, he quietly unloaded the bounty from the forest. To add insult to his injury a good third of them had been fallen on, leaving sticky juice and pulp on the rest of them. Around this time he noticed the buttons missing from his shirt, exposing his thin and rather pale torso. Fritz swore, frustrated at how everything was apparently falling apart. For a moment he sat down and attempted to relax, realizing that there was probably a sewing kit in Sage’s room and that he could reasonably figure out how to use a needle and thread. Otherwise he may have to say goodbye to being modestly clothed.
Despite the soreness he couldn’t sit still for long, buzzing as he was from the stress and and adrenaline of escaping death once again. The rest of the day was spent in a sorrowful wander. Fritz surely affected all of those people greatly by his actions, along with Sage. Pushing into the houses that he searched yesterday The Chemist ransacked the rooms for some more supplies that he realized would be useful. It was the kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms that he picked apart, dispassionately transporting dusty pots, pans and utensils. Just about everything he touched needed a thorough washing, the weather creating a perfect culture for the patches of mold he was noticing.
The silver lining to the depressing state of this civilization was that it all but confirmed that Sage’s people didn’t have a habit of entering towns. Why that was turned into another question on top of the countless others on his mind. He had to take advantage of whatever resources he had, even if it was the least musty sheets pulled from dressers and linen closets. There was even a few bits of clothing that he found that fit for the most part; sadly, no shoes that were practical nor of a comfortable size. Even an actual sandal would be better than the cobbled abomination on his foot that required constant refitting.
His tattered button-up was replaced with a simple shirt, there was a small stock of kitchenware waiting for a kitchen to be used in and - though they smelt of damp and slightly of mildew - he now had the comfort of sheets and a pillow. At the very least the day would end with an easy success. Unfortunately, however, the most the bathrooms turned up was the rare bit of dental equipment instead of the drugs he was looking out for. The best he managed was a bottle of anti-inflammation pills that were made ineffective by age, most likely.
Graciously, the evening started with at least two of his worries soothed over. The sky was painted with orange, yellow and the eventual purple as the sun perched upon the horizon when Fritz found himself in front of the institute. As he had been hoping, Sage eventually appeared in the distance, the shallow azimuth of the sun projecting a long shadow down the street behind her.
There was an unusual look of both defeat and weariness on Sage’s face, once Fritz squinted her expression into focus. Although she looked the same as ever, the tone of her voice was dull as she asked: “Fitz… is okay?”
“Yes, thankfully. How…” He paused for a moment, wondering how delicately he now had to tread: “Are you okay?”
She nodded once, despondently looking back the way she had came before she elaborated: “Da yelled… a lot. Want me to not see Fitz again. Sage has to go… but, want to give Fitz his glass.”
In outstretched hand, Fritz found a small blessing: She had found and picked up his glasses. Apart from one of the arms having a slight bend in them, they were no worse-for-ware by being ejected from his face. They felt a bit loose, but, he felt quite a bit better with the scenery being back in focus. With his sight restored he noted with a small bit of sorrow at how red and puffy Sage’s eyes were. He gave her a soft touch to the shoulder, kindly saying: “Thank you, Sage. We can talk more tomorrow, go and get some rest. We both need some rest.”
The Fox Woman nodded again and rubbed her eyes before turning to walk back into the wilderness. He couldn’t be sure, but, she seemed to be in slightly better spirits as she left. Tomorrow he’d know more about the situation, if things settled down enough for her to return to the academy.
Settling into the couch and pulling the sheets over his chest, Fritz let out a tired sigh. The past few days have been far more troublesome than he had the will or resources to continue to deal with it. He needed to stop spreading himself so thin and getting distracted by the wonders and jeopardies of this new world. Focusing on resources and tools would be the smart thing to do. The proper path of survival.
Before he nodded off, he rose and sat before his journal at the table to make himself a small list.
-Medication
-Clothes
-Tools
He pursed his lips and jotted down one more bullet point, hoping that when it became light that he would still be able to read it.
-Ammunition (In case the worst should happen)