“Dude, just sprint!” Chaele yelled over at Kodish, watching him walk slowly between each berry-less bush. “You’re taking forever!”
“I don’t know how,” Kodish called back. He stared at shrubbery, walked around it, then doubled back to check the one he’d just been at. A berry had just sprouted and he plucked it happily. “That’s my third, what are you at?”
“Three? HOW?” Chaele checked her bag. “I’m only at ONE.”
“You’re just standing there yelling at me,” Kodish pointed out.
Chaele kicked the ground, then winced when she remembered she didn’t have boots yet. “Well someone already got berries here. There’s too many berry collectors. Stupid place should grow more berries, or stop asking people to get them.”
Kodish shrugged and went back to hunting.
“I’m going to check over there,” Chaele told him, then ran to the east. There were less bushes, but maybe that meant less people. She raised a cheer when a bush right at the start of the cracked ground had a big ol’ berry. She stuffed it in her pack and looked around.
Something wasn’t right.
She pulled her bow off back, then strung an arrow, moving slower and peering around. Just when she’d decided that she’d imagined something, she saw him. Among the spotted hyena-like creatures roaming around was one that was twice their size. He didn’t seem bothered by her, and like the rest, his face was a dull yellow that didn’t register any kind of threat, but still. She knew.
Her first arrow made him yelp and grow in size as he wheeled around. He lumbered toward her, and she fired again, and again. Just as he reached her, an arrow took him down. She crouched next to his corpse and patted him down.
Two pebbles, a gray bandana, and — YES! One of his teeth was jutting out, just asking for her to pull it and take back to the village. She yanked it, stuffed it into her bag with the rest of the junk, and yelled, “KODISH! OVER HERE!”
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Kodish ran over, huffing and puffing. “What is it? I got seven berries, just need one more!”
“Take a tooth,” she told him.
“A tooth…?” he gave her a startled look. “We’re warriors, not dentists!”
She rolled her eyes. “Someone wants it.”
“How do you know?”
She showed him hers. “See? It’s special. Look, just take it, it dropped into our laps, may as well.”
Kodish reached for the tooth, shrugging, but the hyena-thing’s body rotted away too quickly and he groaned. “Oh come on!”
“He’ll be back,” Chaele told him, squinting her eyes knowingly. “Guys like this always are. Just stand here and get him with your axe, okay? I gotta get… six more berries.”
She left Kodish there and ran back to the area he’d been in. Enough time had passed that the berries had grown in fresh. She darted from one bush to the next, stuffing them into her bag. When she had all eight, she checked on Kodish.
“Still no tooth?” Chaele asked.
“Someone else attacked him first,” Kodish admitted. “I couldn’t take HIS tooth, you know? It didn’t belong to me.”
“Good god,” she groaned. She was about to complain more about the principles of looting dead hyena-things, but then she heard Kodish let out a war cry, and watched him charge forward. She stared as he hacked and slashed at the big guy, taking a bite in the arm before he got him down.
“You okay?” she asked.
“I will be,” Kodish grunted, yanking some stale bread from his own bag to eat. He chowed down, the wound on his arm slowly knitting. After twenty seconds or so, it was like it never happened.
“Ready to go back to town?” Chaele asked.
“Gotta get the tooth,” Kodish told her.
“You didn’t grab that first?”
“I WAS BLEEDING,” Kodish said, shocked at the suggestion. He reached for the hyena-thing… but it had already vanished away. When Chaele groaned, he assured her, “He’ll be back. Besides, I still need another berry.”