I grabbed onto the nearest trunk as I felt something pulling me backwards. Rather, it wasn’t just me as random leaves and loose branches started flying past me. I forcefully shifted my head back towards the other two, my brain working to process the current situation, however seeing the two’s faces, everything clicked.
Resisting the strong tugging sensation, I dug my heels into the ground. I loosened my left hand from the trunk as I tried to reach towards my pouch, before I instantly grabbed the trunk again. The suction was too strong.
“HEY! YOU TWO! CAN YOU COME OVER AND GRAB ONTO ME?”
“AHH?...CAN’T……YOU!” I couldn’t hear them clearly, but whatever it was-
CHUU!!!
I felt a blast of air hit me as I was suddenly sent forward into the tree, my arms barely cushioning the impact. Stunned, it took me a moment to realise that the ground was rapidly trembling…as if something was stomping. My ears were still ringing, but looking back, I spotted the baby Bellower thrashing in pain, bleeding from its right front leg. Noticing a flicker at the edge of my vision, I spotted a foxes tail disappearing into the undergrowth. Thanks Suticat.
Calming down, the baby Bellower raised its trunk again aiming at us. The injury had been a mere flesh wound, amounting to barely a scratch. Unfazed, I grabbed my pouch, pulling open the drawstrings. Checking that the contents were still inside, I closed it again. I had been hoping to save this pouch for later, but there was no point keeping it if we were to suffer serious injury or even death instead.
“Hide behind the tree and hold on.” The two were panting, but gave tired nods in response.
SHUUUUUU!!!
I tossed the pouch at it, the strong suction pulling it into its trunk. Thankfully, it hadn’t shot a blast of air at me; it had deemed us harmless prey, which was why it was mainly sucking us in. It would be hungry right around now, so seeing it was nice enough to not blast us into smithereens I had generously decided to feed it. I watched it carefully making sure it had inhaled the pouch before sighing in relief when a sudden thought crossed my mind- what if it was a mutant and became immune? No, that should be unlikely, I was just overthinking things. Calming down, I carefully positioned myself around the other side of the trunk.
SHUUMPUU!!!
A few moments later the leaves around me settled down. Sitting down, I cautiously peered around the tree. The bellower was lying, sprawled on all four limbs; it’s trunk fell powerlessly resting sideways. Its eyes bulged as white foam frothed out of its mouth and trunk. Then starting from the head downward, it’s skin started shrivelling as if all the moisture had been sucked dry from it.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Turning around, I couldn’t see either Shiara or Sarratina…surely they were still here…
“We’re good…you can come out now…” Sarra cautiously peeked out from behind a wide tree trunk slightly further back.
“What happened?”
“It’s dead.”
“Dead?”
“Can we eat it?” I spun around at the new voice, to see Shiara crouching a few steps away. When did she even get there?! Was I getting sloppy? It was probably just because I was distracted. Or maybe…she had always been very good at moving quietly and just chose to be noisy?! “Hello?” I looked at Shiara, salivating openly and felt the urge to honestly blurt out.
“How did you get there?”
“Hm…? I just walked.”
“…”
“What she means is that she got there by simply walking over during the gaps between the attacks. You were probably preoccupied with the Bellower and failed to notice her.” Ah, of course, even with my heightened senses it would be impossible to hear her movements above the roars coming from the bellower. Still, that begs the question…
“So…why are you over there?”
“Oh, I thought you were having trouble and was planning to flank the bellower-“
“And do what exactly?”
“Well to help out…as the situation demanded…anyway, that’s beside the point. More importantly, can we eat it?” I couldn’t help but mentally sigh at her food orientated mindset…in what world would that look edible.
“Obviously, it’s not edible because-“
“-You used the gendershrooms didn’t you…but I still don’t understand, how did you know it’s gender? Is there some obvious key difference with their species-“ I glanced towards Sarratina. Her inference was quite accurate…I definitely shouldn’t underestimate her attentiveness and intellect in the future.
“I didn’t.” Seeing Sarratina frown at me as well as Shiara’s blank look, I explained, “But you are right Sarra, I did use the gendershrooms, and as you have already deduced, I fed it to the Bellower by taking advantage of it trying to suck us in. However, I didn’t know it’s gender so I-“
“FED IT BOTH TYPES! GENIUS!” I stared in shock at her outburst. Seeming to pick up on my surprise, she shyly lowered her head in embarrassment. Wow, princesses really were made of different material. She somehow made the whole action seem graceful; though that may just be my bias speaking. I spotted Suticat glancing over from further away, reminding me of our more pressing issue.
“Yeah. So let’s get away from here first before we start talking.”
“Ok, lead the way.”
…
“Ok, we should be in the clear now.” I raised my hand signalling for a stop only to hear two tired sighs of joy. I turned around to be met with the two of them lying on the ground, Sarratina already preparing to nod off. Whilst I had been busy leading the way and watching Suticat, I had noticed the two quietly chatting with each other, probably afraid of distracting me or attracting monsters.
“I understand how Sarra might be tired, but I’m quite surprised you are so tired as well.”
“Pssh, who wouldn’t be tired after being awake for so long, running and walking constantly. Most importantly, we haven’t had the chance to eat tonight! Only a monster like you wouldn’t be tired yet.” Honestly though, I was very tired. I had even ended up relying on Suticat for danger cues, only focusing on navigating the right route.
“What happened to the mushrooms I gave you to eat from before?”
“That was breakfast, and I shared it with the princess.”
“Oh…Sarra, would you like some food?” I looked over towards her, but she happened to be facing away from us, having rolled over at some point during our conversation. An unsettling feeling started to form in me. “Sarra, you ok?” I cautiously walked over, Shiara a step behind me. Walking around her to the other side…
... I saw nothing amiss. Calming down, I realised I had probably just been overthinking things. Reaching out, I felt her rhythmic breath- she had just fallen asleep. The long day must have tremendously tired out Sarra. I looked towards Suticat, before giving up. He was clearly just as tired and in no shape to go foraging.
“She’s just asleep. Seeing as we are all so tired, I guess we aren’t going to get food or climb up.” I passed her a quarter of my remaining mushrooms. “Here’s some food if you want to eat. I’m going to rest now as well and you should too. No need for night watch.” Seeing the sun about to set, I sat down next to Sarratina. Stringing the bow methodically, I checked the remaining three arrows, making sure they were all at hand. Pulling out a spare cloak, I covered Sarra and me with It. Suticat immediately squeezed herself next to my head curling up as I felt Shiara do the same near our legs. Clenching the bow one last time, I nodded off with the vague feeling I would need it real soon.