A screeching roar echoed across the mountainside, and Bellona snarled back at the beast. She’d actually tried to avoid the damn thing, but the ursaviane had cubs and Bellona had accidentally gotten too close to them before she’d known the trio was in the area.
The bear-like creature’s charge was going to happen soon, and the champion carefully set herself. She could probably just take the hit without being knocked over, but why take the risk? She was angled slightly with her shield pulled in close, making it look like simply a part of her body to an animal that didn’t know better, and her axe was held at an angle behind her to hide the weapon from her foe’s vision.
The creature began running at her, rearing up at the last moment to swipe at her while it was still moving, and Bellona moved forward at an angle, taking that swipe as a glancing blow to her shield. The momentum aided the half spin she already started, giving even more momentum to her axe blade as it sunk into the back of the ursaviane’s leg.
Even as the leg gave out, the beast was turning to lunge at her with its owl-like beak. She ducked behind her shield to let the beak impact against it and was forced back several steps, but the metal held against the monster’s bite. She knew it wasn’t going to stop just because it was injured, so Bellona continued to step back to regain the balance she wanted to have before it could charge again.
She’d not completely severed the hamstring, though she’d obviously lamed it. That was going to be enough to slow it, and it was bleeding. That was enough, Bellona knew that she could win a war of attrition here as long as she was careful. It might have more endurance than her, but Bellona wasn’t the one bleeding, even if her arm had briefly felt numb from that second impact.
This was the strategy she continued to use, drawing it out to attack her and leaving it with a bleeding cut after every exchange. It was tiring and she picked up a few bruises, but those would be easy to take care of. There was a point in the fight where she probably could have safely retreated, but leaving a wounded ursaviane was no better than, and possibly worse than, leaving a wounded bear roaming about. So with grim determination, she wore it down until it collapsed, then very carefully approached the heaving form and finished it off with a blow to the back of its neck.
Once she was sure it was dead Bellona checked the area again, but there were no signs of other animals, not even the cubs. Looks like she’d have to find them later, but they’d probably not wander far and might come back this way. So she set about the task of cleaning her axe, then gutting and cleaning the owl-headed, bear-like monster. Once that task was done, she shuffled around some of her gear and freed up a spatially expanded bag to shove the monster’s corpse into. The natural stasis of the bag should keep the body from going bad, but no one was going to want to deal with gutting an animal inside of a settlement.
Some of the gear she’d moved to make room was ropes and nets, which she’d left out for her next task. She neither wanted to slaughter young creatures nor leave them to either starve or possibly grow up to become dangers to future travelers. Capturing the cubs took the rest of the daylight hours, and left her even more tired as well as a bit disturbed. That they had eagle heads wasn’t too strange, ursavianes came in many varieties, but they had a mane-like ruff of fur at their shoulders and small wings. Bellona decided that it was best for her sanity to assume that this was some strange mutation as she refused to speculate on how else this could have occurred. Some things were best to not dwell upon too deeply.
Once she had them secured and semi-subdued for a bit, she finally took the time to clean up her armor and shield. Then it was time to move again, despite it being after sunset. Thankfully the sky was clear and there were not many trees, so there was enough light for the cubs to trail reluctantly behind her, tied into makeshift rope harnesses and connected to a lead. Orcs could see very well in the dark, so it didn’t bother her at all.
It was a bit cruel, but she also couldn’t risk sleeping with them like this, not without being able to better secure them. So she forced them to walk with her until they were exhausted, and then wrapped them back up into a net to haul them on her back like a giant rucksack.
Thankfully they seemed to only be about six months old, but it was still a lot of weight when combined with her armor. And her destination was two days away still. She forced herself to continue without proper rest, stopping only long enough to feed them and herself and either leading or carrying them the rest of the time, but they slowed her down enough that her total travel time didn’t change much.
Eventually, she stumbled over the edge of the caldera and into the outskirts of Aleanhaven, the home of the genie-kin and other elementally blooded humanoids. Her arrival only created a slight stir, as they had been expecting her arrival soon, but her appearance and her ‘guests’ caused more commotion.
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Before long a seasoned-looking hunter with hair that looked like literal fire showed up and took in the situation with a quick glance. “The mother?” The flame-haired man asked.
“Dead, cleaned, in a sack.” She was too tired to say more than was needed. Bellona wished she could have stuck the cubs in the sack as well, but they’d have just suffocated.
The hunter nodded, then looked at the two bedraggled cubs. “Your intentions with them?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t want to kill young ones, but they are too dangerous to leave to grow up near the road.”
He grunted at that. “Alright, I think we can keep them for a bit, let you talk with the elders and figure things out.” He eyed her for a moment. “Bellona, yes? I’m Dhossun. Normally I’d take you to meet your host, but I think everyone would be happier if you got a bath and bed before anyone has to spend too much time near you right now.”
He handed the cubs off to another hunter and then led her to one of the many hot springs that dotted the caldera, where she gratefully scrubbed clean and pulled out fresh clothes. Once she came back out from behind the partitioning wall he led her to a small, single-room house where she gratefully collapsed on the loose straw mattress.
When she finally awoke, Bellona found that someone had removed her boots for her. Her memories were a little fuzzy, but she knew where she was at least, and took the time to look around. The house was only more than a hut by virtue of the solidity of its design and the quality of its craftsmanship. It would be pretty damn cozy even if there were only three people in it. It also looked unoccupied, with only some basic furniture and no personal effects other than her own gear. There were some small, paneless windows with closed shutters, and a small central fireplace with a metal pipe chimney above it.
With that thought, she turned to her bags and pulled her shield and armor out of storage to examine them. Her shield had taken the worst of the fight, and she was going to have to spend some time getting it back into shape. Huh, that section had a thin crack, she was going to need to get some forge heat involved to bring it back to pristine condition. The rest of her armor had nothing worse than some scratches and a couple of minor dings. Well, time to figure out where to empty out the bag containing the ursaviane and find out who she was supposed to meet.
When she stepped outside she found that it was after sunset and that the small house standing in a clearing set behind a larger, two-story house. The borders between this home and the others nearby were demarcated by some bushes, but while the plants were obviously well-tended there was a looseness to their organization that made Bellona a little uncomfortable. They looked more like guidelines than strict rules about who owned what and while she understood that some communities worked well like that it didn’t fit well with her sensibilities. Still, not her place to judge what worked for others, so she did her best to ignore it.
She’d only been outside long enough to get her bearings before the back door of the larger house popped open and a rugged-looking older woman stepped out. “Hah, you’re finally awake I see. Well, I’d best see you fed, your training starts at dawn tomorrow and you’re going to need to be ready. Oh, I’m Asti, your host for your stay, your first teacher, and overall guide while you are here.” Asti showed strong signs of mixed elemental bloodlines; her skin resembled cracked earth and her crystal-like hair crackled with sparks of electricity. “Come on in. Ah, just to make sure, you eat meat, right? If you don’t I can find something else to fill you for now and get something better for the long term.”
“Thank you for taking me in, Asti.” Bellona replied as she followed her host into her home. “And yes, I eat meat, thank you for your consideration.”
The woman grunted and showed the way to the kitchen, and before long the orc got to eat her fill of a thick stew and some fresh bread, and gave her thanks to Amirume as well as Asti before digging in with enthusiasm. Her host seemed delighted at her appetite and encouraged her to eat more until Bellona was feeling stuffed.
When the meal was finished Bellona decided it was time to get more information. “A few questions for you if I may,” she waited a moment for Asti’s nod. “First, I have an ursaviane carcass I hope someone might want. The hide is a little damaged, but should be good enough to make something out of. I am less certain who might want the meat.” Much like bear meat, ursaviane meat tended to be strongly flavored and tough, not everyone would enjoy it.
“Hmm. Well, we can stop by the hunter’s lodge on the way out, they can get it skinned properly and get the hide to the tanner and the meat to the butcher. We can probably throw together a small feast with that as the start. Might get a decent price for that hide too, depending on the condition it's in.”
Bellona shook her head. “There’s no need for that. I know it’s technically your clan’s duty to support me during my training, but I’m happy to be able to provide a bit of service. Though maybe you can help with a bit of favor trading, my shield and armor could use some repairs.” She could get everything in serviceable shape by herself, but it was always better to have such things done by a professional. And that crack would be a weak point until a proper smith fixed it.
“I can probably see to that. Anything else on your mind?” Asti looked like she knew what Bellona was going to ask, but there was no point in not asking.
“If you don’t mind, what is my training going to consist of?”
The older woman cackled. “Why, we’re going to start you off with endurance training of course! Physical endurance is one thing, but resisting and enduring the forces of nature is another. Once everyone is satisfied with your progress, then we’ll move on to actually working with elemental energy.”