Hara shook her head and bit back a tired groan as the trucks drove down the road, the overworked engine complaining loudly and noticeably as the truck rumbled loudly, she already knew that today was going to be a long day.
Shaking her head she focused on the road ahead, waiting to see the fork on the road that would take them to the delivery trucks. The radio abuzz with curses and threats as they got out of vegetable throwing range.
The last stretch of the drive was a nightmare for the overworked forester and she could nearly feel the last strands of her precautions patience slipping through her fingers. Lyth was, with the influx of her emotions getting skittish, the growing beast hidden in her jacket, the small lump underneath gaining the odd looks from her companions.
The Ignotant was itching to get this over with and take a long nap, already fantasizing about a boiling hot batch, Her partner prodded at her, questioning her humans sanity to add herself to the equation of boiling and water.
The girl had the feeling the concept of bathing was lost to the beast now sending her feelings of mounting bewilderment. The radio crackled back to life and Hara refocused on her job, nudging her beast to pay attention.
She mused that, while her partner had ample intelligence, she missed the wisdom and experience that should go along with it. Not a problem per say, just something Hara would have to keep in mind to avoid misunderstandings.
The convoy rolled to a stop in an open field covered in grass and various flowers, heavy trucks a bit further out, the shapes of people blurry from the distance. The delivery men perking up and the shapes moving closer.
"Heavy machinery first, be careful not to overload the trucks." The gruff voice of their temporary leader sounded and Hara cracked her hands, hearing the joints pop with satisfaction, her beast sending her feelings of alarm once more as the human cringed at the idea of explaining that particular habit she had.
God knows her mentor hated said habit and cursed her out whenever she did it. Stating that only one of them was old enough to sound like an unused crack-light. Hara tried to explain it to her beast but said creature chided her for willingly harming herself, even if she really didn't. The topic was shelved and the conversation of racial differences forgotten in favour of duty as Max greeted the representative of the delivery company, the man was fairly tall and had a glint in his eyes that told Hara that he and Max would get along swimmingly.
Biting back a yawn, the woman jumped out of the truck as Krill slowed the vehicle down to a halt and went over to Max, waiting for an instruction from the gruff and annoyed man.
He glanced at her and waved her off to the tree lines with a look that told her all she needed to know. The grin that crossed her face was anything but kind and the cruel tinted eagerness from her partner echoing back at her told her that should they find anything amiss, the beast would gleefully follow any order that resulted in the Sinnwell dwellers regretting getting out of bed.
Lyth might not know much about the deep seated hatred between the village chiefs, but the beast was content to follow the judgment of the human.
The feeling of anger and fury mounted and sharpened into a slew of thoughts best kept silent. Lyth eagerly responded to her bloodthirst and the human was reminded that beasts and humans had quite a different view on morals, rules and punishments.
With her beast at her side, disappearing from under her jacket to hide in the knee high grass while stalking over the grassy floor with her sickles flashing and gleaming under the light. The human copied her beast with an ease that was newly developed, her posture changing to be silent and swift on her feet, no blade or leaf making a sound as the human stalked around the sparse woods. Normally the human only bothered to make her steps silent when she went to check up on the skittish deer herds, but sneaking was a universal skill in nature. And best used whenever needed.
Slinking off into the tree line and backtracking to the "mudslide" that was a 30 minute walk from the north entrance, she began snooping around where Sinnwell would never allow her to without a fight. She inspected the scene with a keen and trained eye earned from years of taking care of a dense forest filled with countless species and plants, always on the lookout for sick plants or animals, well practised in spotting sick trees before they became problems.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Everything from the hill down looked natural enough the she decided climbing the hill from behind and looking down at the mess that now blocked the road would give her more to work with. With Lyth stalking around and assassinating any creature that came too close, the human was free to stalk around to her hate filled hearts content.
The ground beneath her feet was muddy and squelched underneath her boots, she hummed and tilted her head, running her fingers over the edge that looked far too rectangular and smooth to be natural, she snapped a quick picture and sighed deeply.
The girl was not left idle as she too stalked around and looked for any evidence of foul play, finding nothing but the unnatural marks in the end. Just as she was about to surrender and hope for her beasts better fortune, she spotted something else.
Bingo. Footprints left behind in the mud leading towards Sinnwell, not conclusive on its own but coupled with her former findings, far more than enough to get Ignota on a bloodhunt. Not that that was particularly hard to do in the first place.
So Sinnwell wanted to play dirty? Now did they?
The Ignotant felt darkly amused as she took the scene in, noting the aborted dents left behind, seen plainly in how the footsteps retraced or left deeper prints behind.
They must have run around like headless chickens once they saw headlights, she mused. Conveying her conclusion to her partner, she felt a dark amusement at the prospect of playing with her food return at her. The idea of toying with prey feeling right and proper.
Hara wondered if she'd always been that vengeful of if linking her mind with her partner had changed her beyond her initial conclusion.
Her thoughts and plans only darkened with malice as her partner called for her attention with a prod in her mind not seconds after. She turned to look, finding her beast holding open a shrub a few feet away, sickles carefully angled as to not cut through the brittle branches. She spotted her partners find, the ropes and hastily discarded tools hidden inside it hastily thrown inside, some tool or the other scuffed from the rough treatment.
Her smile was as sharp as that of a knife as she thought "Mistook how quickly the convoy of cars would arrive, did they? Well, all the better for Ignota." The sharks- Hara shook her head, the lawyers of Ignota would just love this development.
Briefly she wondered if they would grin in that tight manner of theirs or if they would go stone faced as ideas milled around in their heads. Beheading people or drowning them in pig cages had long since become illegal, she wondered if they would deem to ignore that piece of modern law in favour of a 'what they don't know won't hurt them' like manner.
Blood would spill, and Hara would enjoy the slaughter no matter how it ended. With a smile as foul as her current mood, Hara stalked back to her convoy, watching from the sidelines as everyone busied themselves with the deliveries from hell. She sneaked back to Max's side and whispered her findings to the paling man who had stilled completely only three words into her verbal report.
Of course he wasn't afraid No. Max was a man who would pale in anger and soon after gain an unhealthy shade of red that would overtake his face.
His eyes glowed with fury as he nearly snarled at her, a single command that made her blood sing, the feeling only heightened as her partner echoed it back at her. Forming a bloodlusting feedback loop.
"Make them regret it." The man snarled, deep but quiet as the crate in his grasp cracked as his fingers tightened in his anger. The girl all too eagerly nodded in agreement.
It was time to hunt.
___________
Hara gave a sharp grin and a salute as she parted from the group once more, now on a mission. She began to inspect the trucks from the delivery company for any unnatural defects, like...a slashed tire? Unsurprisingly for her, she found her mark not three trucks in. Her grin turned mischievous, and now here she'd thought she'd have to do it all alone.
Now, she was no mechanic, but she knew what a slashed tire looked like, and a photo on her phone would be evidence if nothing else. It seemed Sinnwell in their shortsighted attempt to finally do Ignota in, had been far too hasty for their plans not to backfire under the right pressure. Albeit Hara had to admit, the situation was unfavourably enough for Ignota that any more problems could end them, but it seemed the situation was about to turn around once more.
If Hara could get the delivery company to also sue Sinnwell for foul play. After all, then no curt of law could claim that the matter was a village dispute. It would turn into something nastier than a "he said, she said" situation thereafter.