Chapter 14: The Hunt

The wagon rolled to a bumpy stop. “We're here,” The driver said as he looked at his pocket watch. Me and the group got up along with Harold and we all made our way off the wagon.

We were in the middle of the only dirt road in a massive clearing. On both sides of us were fences. Several of the fences held different plants, many of which I hadn't ever seen before from a large blue squash-like plant to what I'd thought could’ve been corn stalks but had bumpy, potato-looking plants growing out of the top. I felt like I was in an alien world, exploring where no human had ever gone before. Though, I suppose the first part of that was true.

“Harold?” Hazel asked. “Why does a small farm clearing such as this mean so much to the Empire?”

“Ah, that’s an easy one madame,” He sounded nearly like a butler. “The soil here is filled with stentine, making the crop here grow much better than anywhere else. Royalty have quite the affinity for this farmland as the food is excellent and it helps babies grow better. That’s why we have a cattle farm here,” he pointed down the road and began to walk toward it. “I’ve heard it even makes their meat sweeter, but I wouldn’t know. They export it directly to all royalty that order it.”

“Wow,” She took on a truly awed expression that I knew was genuine. “Seems you know quite a bit about how this business works, how long have you been performing this duty?” She said.

“Many years, madame, probably since I was ten. I work here for the Astis season.”

“So you are seasonal?”

“Just like most of us here. I live in the inn while here,” he turned to her excitedly. “Are you all in the inn?”

“When will the bird we’re looking for attack?” Finn interrupted.

Harold tore his excitement from his face and answered. “Well, around early lunch time. So, maybe fifteen minutes?”

“Great, hopefully, we didn’t need to prepare,” He said mostly to himself.

“It’s only medium-sized,” Harold said. “I think you can handle it. I mean, you’re Adventurers!” He threw his hands out toward us and then put them down quickly as if realizing he was putting too much excitement into the air.

“We’ll have to see how it turns out,” Finn muttered.

Harold stopped at one of the gates, “We’re here.”

I felt my eyes go wide. Inside, there were a few dozen creatures that I wouldn't have ever called cattle. They had four legs and fur, but that's when the similarities to cows ended. All of their fur was brown, they each had long, pointed ears, long tails, and a neck that seemed stretched out. In a way, they almost seemed as if a llama and a horse had a baby.

I leaned toward Hazel. “What the hell are those things?”

“Your planet does not have Trints?”

I shook my head. As I did, I felt the motion slow to a stop and words come to my vision:

Trint:

Simple, passive creatures with furry bodies and tasty meat. The only thing better than the food they make is the milk they produce. They prefer to live in groups and eat mainly grass but can eat berries and leaves too. They have two stomachs and an extra sack that stores food. With a full sack, they can live up to two months without any food, though the sack does not store water.

So, they're like backward camels. Interesting.

“But I thought you knew what cattle were?” Hazel asked.

I snapped in her direction. It was going to take some getting used to the whole freaking world stopping every time I encountered some new creature. “Your cattle and my cattle are apparently very different.”

“A shame, they're quite tasty,” She said and nudged me. “I saw how you were earlier, eating all of that food. If you think that was good, you've got to try a steak.”

A steak. So the steak she ate yesterday comes from these guys? Does steak here taste like my steak?

“You don’t have trints? Where do you come from?” Harold asked as he went to the closed gate, unlatched it, and opened it.

Shit, how am I supposed to explain everything to this guy?

“He hails from an island not too far from here, Natonia, right?” She asked me.

“Oh uh, yeah, Natonia.”

Thanks, Hazel!

Harold looked at me for a moment, analyzing my whole body. “Huh,” He shrugged. “Okay. Well, you can all come in, my boss is pretty friendly so he won't mind me letting you guys in.”

We walked through a small gravel path, surrounded by the grassy field where the trints were grazing. One of them was eating the grass right next to the path. As we passed it, it let out a soft, but high-pitched whiny, a bit like a horse. I took a step back from it, realizing I was next to its hind legs. Getting kicked by this thing wouldn’t have been a highlight of my day.

“Hey there,” Harold said, petting the trint’s back as he continued onward. “That sound is her saying hello, she doesn't mean any harm. They're actually pacifistic creatures.”

“Huh, I only thought sheep were pacifists,” I said, putting my hand on the animal. It let out another one of its low yet high-pitched whinnies.

“What's a sheep?” Harold asked.

Oh yeah, not on Earth. “It's just something from my home, in Natonia.”

“Huh, interesting. We have quite a few pacifistic animals here in District One, but these are by far the most popular because of the taste of their meat.”

“Are you going to eat that one?”

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He chuckled. “We don't eat the females, their milk sells for a better price than their meat does.”

We were coming up on the ranch house and just as we were about to get to the patio, a man with ashy gray hair and a long, wrinkled face that had clearly been out in the sun for many long days walked outside the front door. “I see you brought visitors, Harold, are they Adventurers?”

“Yup, they plan on hunting down our killer bird.”

The man looked toward us with a wide smile, “Good! You guys all have a seat here on the patio, I'll come out with fresh drinks, does iced tea sound good? Except you, Harold, I've got a few boards needing to be replaced on the back shed, I'll come to bring you your drink.”

We all said yes to the tea and Harold waved goodbye to us as he went on to do his job. Once at the patio, Gronan stood, leaning on the fence of the patio and the rest of us sat on top of it. The man came out soon enough and brought us our drinks. “Here you all go,” He said, handing each of us one. “Thank you all for agreeing to come by here, I'm sure Harold has told you all about our little bird problem?”

“Yeah,” Finn said, taking a sip of the tea. He apparently trusted this guy enough to take a sip so I did too. It was cold and very sweet. Do they have sugar? “So the bird really isn’t that big?”

“Not really, but it sure can hold a lot. It can still take off into the air too with a trint in its claws, I've never seen a bird that could do that before.”

“Anything else we should know about it?” Gronan asked.

“Not really, seems to just be a bird. Hopefully, it'll be an easy job for you guys.”

“An easy job is always a nice hope,” Hazel said. “We will get it sorted out for you.”

“Thank you in advance then, I'll be in the house if you need anything.”

The man went inside, leaving us on the patio alone. I flipped my legs over the side of the railing, looking out to the field. The nature here was so different from home, but as I sat there, drinking my sweet tea in the sunny heat, and watching the trints eat their grass, I felt a smile creep on my face. I took a deep breath, soaking in the grassy air.

“What makes you so happy?” Hazel asked.

“I'm so far away from home,” I said. Just then, the trint we had passed looked up right at me. “So far that there's no way I could even measure the distance.” The trint began to walk slowly toward us, its long ears twitching. Its tongue came out, licking the grassy bits off its small lips. “Yet, sitting here, it feels almost like I'm back home on the farm.”

“You had a farm?”

“Huh,” I shrugged, “I guess I did. It was big, filled with wheat.”

“That's nice, I think living on a farm would be nice. All that land,” Hazel's eyes seemed to look past where we were, somewhere else. Toward a dream. “The freedom.”

“I don't get what'd be so special about it,” Finn said, flipping his dagger. “We could be in nature in the forest, why confine yourself inside a fence? Doesn't seem like freedom to me.”

“The forest is nice,” Hazel agreed. “But you don't own it.”

“Why not own a house in the city? It'd have more value.”

“Ugh, we lived in a city for so long, don't you enjoy being out here? Imagine being able to wake up every day out here?”

He shrugged. “I didn't mind the city.”

Hazel looked at him for a moment, silence fell upon us. We sat there, sipping our drinks, me looking out toward the field as the trint slowly wandered toward us. It was near to us now. Hazel looked away from Finn and back toward the field. She didn't have the same glint in her eyes anymore. Now didn’t seem like a good time to ask what was going on between her and Finn.

Gronan broke the silence with a sigh, “I'd like to have a house in the mountains, back where I grew up. I miss the cold, rocky ground, and the caves. I used to explore them, getting lost in their twisting, turning paths. One time, I found kolgard. We made a killing off of it.”

“What's that?” I asked, downing the rest of my drink.

“It's a type of metal. It makes some of the sharpest swords in the world. Sometimes, I wish I had kept it and made it into something but,” he shrugged. “I didn't know at the time I'd turn out to be an Adventurer.”

The trint was here now, its head outstretched toward me to pet. I put my hand out and began to rub the top of her head. The fur was soft but through the hair, I felt something pointy like it was growing a horn.

Only one though. What is this thing, a unicorn?

I moved my hand to rub it under its chin. It really liked that, letting out one of its strange whinnies and its tongue began to hang out like a dog. I rubbed harder and one of its back legs began to stump the ground repeatedly.

Hazel giggled. “I believe you found its favorite spot.”

“I think so too,” I rubbed harder. Its leg began to go even faster. I looked over and saw that Finn was even smiling at the creature.

It let out another whinny and shook my hand away. It took several quick steps away from me. Its eyes had changed from happy, loving eyes to pure terror. It reared up on its hind legs, turned around, and as soon as its hooves slammed back onto the ground, it took off. It ran faster than I thought possible, its body quickly getting smaller.

“What happened?” I asked. As the question passed my lips, I got my answer. A shadow flew past the patio in front of me in the shape of a medium-sized bird with outstretched wings.

Immediately, I slid off the railing and put my cup down where I had sat. I ran toward the trint, my feet tearing up the dirt as I bounded across the field.

I looked up at the sky and just as I saw the hawk exactly as it had been described to me, the world slowed to a pause:

Brown Hawk:

Usually found in the mountains of District One, though, occasionally can be found in forests. They are medium-sized birds that look majestic in the sky and take down any small game they lay their eyes upon.

Even the bestiary says these guys just take on small game! What the hell is going on?

With each stride, I felt my sword clang against my thigh. The bird was just a bird. Even if it could pick up a trint off the ground, it could still be killed with one good strike. I could do that. If I didn't fall on my sword and stab myself that was. And before that, I had to catch up to the bird which soared through the air like a jet. Even with my Adventurer’s body, I knew there was no way I was going to catch up to the trint, much less beat the bird to it.

Suddenly, though, the trint pushed off the ground, going back onto its hind quarters like before. It turned around then, coming back toward me. Maybe there was a chance to get to the trint before the bird. A slim chance.

I saw a blur beside me. With a glance, I saw it was Finn. He was faster than me and was quickly in front of me, his dagger out. I put my hand out toward the trint, it was getting closer. The bird had to be close but I didn't dare look up at the sky to see where it was. I had to get to the trint, I had no idea what'd I do once I got a hold of it but I had to get my hands on it.

I saw Finn's hand flick out and a metallic object flew up into the air. “Dammit!” I heard him shout.

I was almost there, I was inches from the trint. And then I felt a tingle in my finger as it touched its fur. But just when I was about to dig my hand into its fur, the animal was launched into the air, and its leg just nearly missed my head. I didn't have time to be in awe at what I saw, I just did the only thing I could think of. I jumped. My hand wrapped around one of its front legs and the trint let out a cry of pain as my weight was added to it.

As soon as I grabbed hold of the trint, I felt a really strange sensation like I had just lost half my body weight and my head got fuzzy, my eyes watery. I wiped them off with my shoulder but held fast.

The wind whistled around my ears as the bird flew quickly. We were low to the ground and my feet nearly touched the grass.

“La'Quet!” Finn shouted from behind.

I looked over my shoulder to see him running toward us. Finn was gaining on the bird but it was beginning to lift us into the air. Finn kept running as fast as he could, he only had a few more feet to go. If we were on the ground he would’ve been able to touch us but we weren’t. He had no chance, he couldn’t make it.

He jumped and one finger hooked onto one of the trint’s hind hooves.

“Ah!” He yelled and wiped his eyes on his shoulder as he pulled himself further up the trint’s leg. He wrapped his arms around the leg and shouted over at me. “What the hell was that?”

“I think I know how it's able to carry them,” I yelled back. “It uses magic!”

"Great!” He yelled sarcastically and looked down. I watched his eyes go wide. “What the hell did you get me into?”

I looked down and saw what he had looked at. My stomach did a somersault. He had been looking at the ground, which now seemed to be a long, long way down.