CHAPTER 1
It had been a long day of walking along this forest road, the brightly burning orbs in the sky were beginning their dive below the horizon. There wasn’t much time before the stars would be our only source of light. And although my vision in the dark was superb, my passenger would need to rest, and I was getting mighty peckish after doing all this walking. The road we traveled upon was neglected for the most part, and rarely traveled, these concepts worked in tandem in a feedback loop to ensure travelers grew ever more scarce. Which meant I would need to clear a space for my companion to rest for the night.
I signaled her with a soft rumble in my throat. “Ahhh, Brutus, what is it boy?”, she asked rhetorically. I stopped walking and laid down so as to allow her to dismount easier. “Is it already that late in the day? Well, I suppose you must be rather hungry”, she mused as she collected her satchel from my flank and disembarked. She placed a hand on my flank, signaling she was ready, and I lead her to the side of the road where a fallen tree lay so she could have a place to sit and wait while I fetched a meal for myself. “Thanks Brutus, try not to wander too far now. Go ahead and get some food for yourself.” With her settled in for the moment and permission granted, I took off at a light run into the depths of the forest.
Within a few kilometers I caught the scent of a fresh kill, and adjusted course. I wasn’t sure which predator had made the kill, but I was sure I could make short work of them between my sharp retractable claws, mouthful of sharp teeth, and wickedly barbed tail. I slowed down when I could smell I was close, and zigzagged through the trees to try and obscure my stalking approach. I caught sight of the predator as I took a peek from behind a thick trunk, it was bearlike, but with stone embedded into the skin to serve as armor. A boulbear it was called, if I heard the description right. Supposedly it could shape stone like mud, an ability that helped the bear make its home in the mountains, but I didn’t know if it had this ability due to physical strength or supernatural means. Looks like I was about to find out because the bear had caught my scent and was zeroing in.
It Stood on its hind legs and let loose a mighty territorial roar. I stepped into the open, shedding the concealment of tree and shadow, unafraid. This moldy furball may have earthen magic or strength or both, but I had pokey bits and the balls to the wall aggressiveness of my hellhound species. I whipped my tail and sounded out a low growl, letting the chew toy know what was up, and promptly charged. I closed the distance in a blink and leaped for the bear's throat. But fuzzy wuzzy was ready and he batted me to the side with his paw, leaving seeping gashes in my shoulder. I managed a quick swipe with my tail, but it barely drew blood, a mere consolation prize for my failed attempt. He still stood tall, with, what I could have sworn was a smug look on his dumb face. No matter, tis only a flesh wound, I charged again, aiming for his hind legs. I would eat that smug looking smile right off his face. I was just able to sink my teeth into his tasty leg, when he dropped his forepaws on top of me. I dropped to my back and put my claws between us, ready to shred. Unfortunately his forepaws landed right on my ribs, I felt one or two break as he firmly pinned me in place. Powering through the slight discomfort, I used my claws to gouge whatever was in reach. I was tearing holes in his stomach, sawing through the soft parts of his armpits and using my tail to stab wherever else there was a lack of his stony armour. He opened his jaw wide to take a bite right out of my face, I opened my mouth in turn, separating my lower jaw into mandibles, allowing my jaws to open wider. I snaked my head out of the way and his mighty jaws snapped nothing but air. I took the opening and sunk all my jaws into the side of his face. My jaws weren’t powerful enough to crush his skull so the fight wasn’t over. He tried to jerk his face out of my mouth but my teeth were well anchored and held fast. My hind feet had managed to tear off enough abdominal skin to start working on the soft organs contained within, I exploited the weakness by using my tail like a harpoon and stabbed the fugly beast in the gut. My victory was inevitable now, I just needed to deliver the finishing blow. With a vicious shake of my head I tore off half his face. He tried to use this window to crush my skull in his jaws but he was weakened and slow, I counter bit into his throat, and tore it out. He collapsed in a heap, defeated and dead, right on top of me.
It was painful to wriggle out from underneath the fat lard, my ribs would be sore for a good while, but gorging myself on victory and raw flesh put the discomfort to the back of my mind. My teeth and jaws made quick work of all the soft bits, getting at the marrow took some chewing, but the bones eventually crumbled. Triumph tasted sweet, and within an hour I had eaten my fill. It was time to go back, and I used my nose to navigate back to my rider.
CHAPTER 2
I was definitely slower on the way back, just a little tired after the fight was all. My cuts had scabbed over and my ribs would be fine. I would have to take it easier next time, no more apex predators for a little while. Another hour of backtracking and I was back to the side of the road where my companion had set up a small camp for the night. I sounded out a soft rumble from my throat to let her know I had arrived.
“Brutus, you’re finally back! What took you so long, you’ve been gone for hours? Wait are you wheezing, what kind of a fight did you get into? Are you alright?” She sounded off you questions rapid fire as she attempted to make her way to me. I walked up and sat in front of her, I started licking her face to let her know I was okay, but she pushed me back squealing, “Ewww, stop, you know that's dangerous, and your breath is rancid.”
When she reached out and patted my side, I flinched at the contact, only because it tickled of course. “Oh Brutus, you are injured, is this your blood? You’ve got to let me clean those wounds.” I led her back to her meager camp, and promptly laid down ready to relax for a time. My rider, who somehow always smelled of Lavender, retrieved stips of cloth and some liquid from her satchel and set about applying both to my wounds. The liquid caused my cuts to flare in pain, a burning sensation fire could never inflict upon me, and I involuntarily hissed. But she held no sympathy, and quickly admonished me, “Hold still, I wouldn’t have to do this if you didn’t make a habit of biting off more than you can chew, always picking fights with things you have no business tanging with.”
She finished up by gently pasting the strips of cloth over the cuts. I tried licking her hands but she pushed me back with more complaints, “Stop that, now I won’t even be able to get close to the fire for fear of becoming a human torch” She wandered back over to her collection of sticks, “Brutus ignite”, she stated, while pointing at her stick pyramid, “let's get a fire going”. I hacked up a small bit of phlegm like substance from the back of my throat, and clicked my teeth, creating a spark which ignited the phlegm and saliva in my mouth, before spitting the bit of phlegm at the sticks she had gathered. The phlegm burned hot and slow, and it wasn’t long before the bundle of twigs was alight as well. Lavender carefully washed her hands with water before warming herself in front of the gently crackling fire.
While she sat by the fire, I gingerly got to my feet and wandered the perimeter, making sure to mark a few trees with my claws as a warning to whatever may be curious about our presence. I also took care of business and buried it before stepping back into the firelight, though I had to keep my distance from the flame itself. I found a nice patch of dirt and grass, where I pawed at the ground to make sure it was nice and comfy before laying down to sleep.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
I awoke the next morning to find myself curled around Lavender, who was still sleeping soundly snuggled into my fur. The brother and sister suns were each just barely peeking over the horizon, and the sky was ablaze in reds and oranges. The air carried a cornucopia of scents native to the forest, and just a hint of smoulder from last night's fire. A change in Lavender’s breathing signaled her stirring from rest, “Well good morning to you too Brutus, you do make an awfully soft pillow, it's too bad there's so much oil in your fur that my clothes get saturated with the fuel. Let me change real quick and I’ll get you saddled up to leave.”
A half hour later and the camp was packed, I was all loaded up, and we were ready to go. Another dull day of walking ahead, I couldn’t wait. But Lavender was on a journey, and her mission was my mission, so off we went. It looked like the whole day would be uneventful until the twin suns reached the zenith of their dance, and I scented creatures not native to the forest. Humans, several of them, and those four toed lunch bags they called horses. The day was looking up, considering their number of at least four, and the relative rarity of humans on these roads, it was unlikely finding them was a happy coincidence. I sped up to a trot, eager to meet the tasty toed morsels, my companion felt differently, “No Brutus, wait, something isn’t right”. I begrudgingly stopped, but I was consoled by the sound of hoofbeats which were growing louder by the second, company was coming. “Brutus get off the road!”, but it was too late, the incoming riders had rounded the bend in the dilapidated road ahead and caught sight of us. I stood my ground, flexing my claws and tail, ready and waiting.
They hailed us with shouts of “We found her!”, “There she is!”, and “You there, surrender!”.
Lavender’s breathing was accelerating with her heart rate, it was an obvious tell of her otherwise concealed distress; well now it was war. “Brutus, we can escape into the woods, their weird horses would never be able to catch up to you, and we can detour around anyone they have waiting in reinforcement.” But the decision was already made, I would never back down from a fight, and these smelly two leggers had declared war. I laid down and gave a low rumble from deep in my chest, but she refused to disembark, “No Brutus, you are injured and outnumbered, this isn’t a fight you need to win.” I wrapped her within my tail and hoisted her off and onto the ground by the side of the road. Then used my tail to manipulate the latch that held the saddle and bags in place, dropping the dead weight to the ground.
The horse riders were upon us now, they stopped some twenty paces short. I could smell the greed that rolled off of them in waves, but there was a hint of fear as well, just a trace. A few drew their shiny short sticks while others leveled long sticks with pokey bits on the end. They all wore a shiny skin made of tiny rings, cutting through to their soft and gooey insides would be difficult.
The shiniest man called out to us, “lay down yer arms and call off yer ‘airy beast!”, he demanded.
Lavender was quick with her riposte, “Why sir, you might be blind, otherwise you’d see that my arms are down, and my steed here is just a common horse.”
“I’d watch yer tongue if I was ye lass, the reward is for bringing ye back live, they ne’er specified on the condition o’ yer ‘ealth. And if this monster be a ‘orse, my wife is a demon from the second circle o’ ‘ell.”
Another member of his band responded then, “Bossman sir, yer wife is the devil ‘imself.”
“Shut your blabberin’ gob, or I’ll shut it for ye. And ye lass, surrender now, o' there'll be not'ing left o' that 'orse o' yers.”
Lavender must’ve had enough, “Brutus, flamecloak!”
Oooh, now these crunchy snacks were going down. I clicked my teeth, igniting my saliva, and brought the end of my tail to my mouth; upon licking the end of my tail, the oil buildup from my skin caught fire. The fire spread from my tail all the way up to my face, cloaking my entire body in flame. The pores in my skin opened to secrete enough oil to feed the hungry flame but it would only last about an hour; more than enough time to take a bite out of these pests. I opened my jaw into mandibles and let loose a mighty roar. The scent of fear was strong enough to be detectable even through the black smoke that rose from my flames.
“Oi Oi, it’s an ‘ellhound, don’t touch it or ye will burn with it.”
“Quit pissin’ yerselves, get at it with spears!”
That got them moving, a couple riders launched their spears at me, I batted the majority away with my flaming tail, although one sunk into my shoulder I quickly batted it with my tail and broke the shaft. My turn. I hacked up a large chunk of viscous phlegm, which immediately went alight, and spat it at a rider charging me with a spear. It landed on the rider and horse, covering both with fire that spread when you tried to put it out. Both the rider and the horse fled screaming. One down, many to go. I leap at the next charging rider, making sure to bat the spear sideways with one paw while lining up my jaws on his face as the distance closed. I sunk my teeth into his face and he died on fire and screaming, my nimble tail maneuvered around the spear of the next rider, moving the point off target while simultaneously aiming for his heart, there was a bit of resistance from the shiny skin of rings, but my fiercely pointed tail barb punched through, and picked him right off his mount. I launched the man into the legs of the next rider’s charging horse, tripping it, and sending both to the ground. I was quick to press the advantage and pounced, crushing his chest beneath my smouldering paws. Just the guys with swords left now.
These guys were more coordinated, they attacked like wolves, in tandem, circling and striking as one. It was best to break the encirclement, I charged for the weakest looking man, he froze in fear of my sudden and burning onslaught, and batted him off his steed, breaking his body in the process. The other riders used the opportunity well, and the shiniest man landed a heavy blow to my thigh, crippling me to a limited extent, I used my tail to slash at him in retaliation, but his shiny skin prevented any blood from being drawn, unfortunate. Though with both his body and sword lightly aflame, he was forced to temporarily withdrawl. With another rider coming at me from the side and another still from behind, I could only admit I might have made a poor strategic decision. In a hasty bid for defence I waved my tail at the flanking rider, and kicked out with my hind legs at the rider approaching from the rear. My tail was deftly deflected but my food caught the other rider’s horse in the face, pulverizing and singeing the dumb animal’s brain, and the rider was thrown to the rocky ground.
“Oi, We’ll fall back and get the others, we can’t take the beast in a fight anymore.” The Shiniest man called.
“Yessir!”
And with that the remaining riders fled with haste back from where they had come. The fight was over, I had won, yet again. Almost too easy. But all too quickly the rush of combat left me while the pain of freshly inflicted wounds made itself known. But we weren’t done yet, the last fallen rider still lived. He was currently doing a terrible job of picking himself up off the ground. I stepped near and beat him back into the dirt with a paw. He landed screaming, trying to put out the fire my paw had imparted to him. He was rolling around in the dirt, like some kind of mindless slug, and my jaws opened in a display of smug assuredness. To my surprise though he was able to put out the flames, though it didn’t look like he could much more than lay there wheezing and waiting to die; it would be rude of me not to grant his wish. I placed a paw upon his chest and felt his skin sizzle and pop upon reignition, he wheezed a little harder. I roared an announcement of victory into his face, and his skin melted under the heat of my breath. And he lay dead.
With the loose ends singed off, it was my turn to wheeze in fatigue, and I limped over to Lavender. But I realized I was still on fire, with her skin so susceptible to flame I would be unable to check her condition until the oil burnt off. But I recalled the lesson of the freshly melted man, and I tried rolling in the dirt. It was incredibly uncomfortable to rub dirt into my wounds and agitate my ribs, but if it allowed me to assure Lavender’s safety even a few minutes faster it was worth it. I was pleasantly surprised when rolling around eventually extinguished the flames, with the tradeoff being me totally covered in dirt. I announced my victorious return with a soft rumble, as I approached the fragile human.
I was immediately bombarded with questions, “Oh my goodness Brutus you’re still alive, are you okay, how badly are you injured, where are you injured, come and lay down, are you still on fire?” I laid down and curled around my human, who was most definitely safe and sound and wheezed a breathy sigh of relief.