“Good day, Tim. I’m sending this vox recording through one of my contact’s iLac. I need a favor. My hunting team had encountered a snag in one of our hunts. I’ll be busy finding a lost kid’s mother and I won’t be leaving my current hunt immediately. If you’re currently stationed back in your guildhall, you would be the fastest to respond to this. The mountain village south of the Phoenix Mountains have been attacked. Few cases of civilians getting injured already reached my ears when I read about the job. I won’t take a single jewel from the reward; I just need that creature dead in its tracks before an actual casualty surfaces.”For once the job is only a few hours by sled. Or, if by Wolf, under an hour.
Tim had been contacted by the Hunter Leader he had worked with hunting the Astral Hind back in the Spooky Forest a few days back. They have not been in contact since then. Tim must’ve had given a good first impression to the veteran hunter considering he made an effort to contact him directly. He didn’t know what the hunter exactly meant by
finding a lost kid’s mother. It sounded like he had something else on his plate. Tim didn’t have anything better to do, so there wasn’t any incentive for the young man to
not go and help the people.
The mountain village itself was already a place Tim found himself quite familiarized already. It was the closest settlement to Silver Wolf’s guildhall and the literally the only town which provided a commuting route to the hall not counting riding Wolf like an impromptu horse. Not to mention entering the mountains from anywhere except from this village guarantees you getting lost unless, again, you’re with Wolf who just lets Tim ride it back.
The village was an amalgamation of its local aesthetic of round semi wooden and stone huts and the more modern influenced buildings. The buildings were mostly the transport warehouses and inns, the shops and residential huts retained their heritage, as the put it. There was an ongoing conflict of interest between the old and new, it seemed like. Tim had mentioned the inn looking off from the houses when he waited for the scheduled sleds and it derailed the eavesdropping locals into debating about the town. It was one of the few landmine-topics Tim learned to avoid whenever he was in the village.
The inn he had offhandedly mentioned looking off was the one he had been staying in as he waited for his contact, one of the village mushers whose sled Tim first rode towards the guildhall.
“What’s with the ears?” The musher asked when he finally arrived. “Fancy yourself a Joyan now?”
Tim shrugged. “It was made
by one. It’s magic, so it might not stay in effect if I don’t wear the entire outfit.”
“Mages and their weird tastes, I tell you.”
“All of the mages from Silver Wolf and you complain to my wardrobe?”
“It’s always the newbies who look normal and every day that passes they slip past that line of normalcy.”
“You think I have?”
“Had you plugged a tail along with the ears, you would’ve slid past that line beautifully.”
Tim’s new armor, the outfit he fittingly called Servant, was a butler’s uniform: complete with a black double-breasted vest, trousers and shoe complimented by a white dress shirt and a pair of white gloves. The aforementioned car-ear headband was completely aesthetic, but Tim could tell the care the one who tailored the outfit took and decided to keep wearing it. He didn’t mind getting ridiculed because of it.
Tim had a drink served for both of them. The musher’s mead mug was keeping him company when he finally talked to the issue at hand. Tim took a sip off his rhum glass as he told his story.
“This thing’s smart, Tim.” He began, his eyes betrayed personal experience. “It ripped the head off one of my dogs like it were made of paper. I was sleeping like a log when I heard the damndest thing, my lead dog’s whine. You ever heard of an alpha wolf whining in the middle of the night?”
Tim looked at Wolf who huffed at his direction. Tim shook his head with a snort. The musher was looking at him, but continued when Tim nodded at him. “I get what you mean.”
“It was short and painful to hear. I’ve only heard it whine twice in its life, when my daughter fell over playing with it and when one of its little tykes died.” The musher looked at his mug. “If I hadn’t screamed like a damn Icebergian, it would’ve eaten more of my pack. Probably me too, if I had been any smaller.”
“How big was it?”
He scoffed. “Bigger than your wolf.”
Tim let out a breath. Wolf was already as tall as Tim, if this thing was any bigger Tim would need more help. “How many were attacked since then?”
“No one’s dead, if that’s any consolation.” He chugged the rest of the drink down. “The animals? I could count with my hands how many are left, the village’s taken a blow.”
His face suddenly softened. “Silver Wolf promised to resupply the livestock.”
“I was told before coming.”
He nodded. “But getting rid of the thing was something we needed to do ourselves. Our pride’s already in tatters, son. We’ve always been in tandem with your guild, a favor like this is one hell of a blow for us.”
“Is that why you asked for hunters instead?”
“At first, but it turned out they had their hands full with a search. And what did they send in as back up? A Silver Wolf mage of all things!” He laughed at himself. “Can’t fault him, I heard the good you’ve done since you popped up here…”
“Want me to leave the guild before killing that thing? Then you can say you dealt with the matter on your own.”
The man laughed heartily. “Dumbass.”
The hunter who contacted Tim did leave some information about the creature he was hunting:
“I figured you wouldn’t have a clue how to approach this sort of hunt before. And if our only job together was any indication, you’ll just be relying on your Wolf. Don’t. I know it’s a ways from what mages would usually deal with, not that I know what count as usual for you lot. What I do know is you’re dealing with an oversized Mountain Lion; they are apex predators. I know most of the Phoenix Mountain’s territory have your usual oversized wolves and astral guardian wolves that tops the food chain, but these creatures aren’t too far down in the list. Be careful.”The hunter gave three pieces of advice: the creature hunts at night, when it kills a prey it stuffs itself full then bury the remains and, finally, it rests till it goes hungry and digs up its last kill to eat the rest.
Tim had been led by the mush over a dug-up pile of animal carcasses over the edge of the village. There were people around, pinching their noses or wrapping clothes around their faces. There was a guard who caught sight of them and walked over.
“It’s not looking good. There were other regular sized Pumas who found the carcasses. We planned on burying them properly, keep the village from turning into a hunting ground.”
Tim took the smell in, and spat out to the side. “Mind leaving one in? Just keep it like how you found it.”
“You’re luring the thing back?”
“If what that hunter told me was true, that thing will come back when it goes hungry again. I’ll stake it out.”
“The missus isn’t going to appreciate this…” The guard sighed.
“It’s his house.” The mushed supplied.
Tim gave an ‘Ah…’ in response and hummed. “I’ll help you clean the place up afterwards.”
The guard wasn’t even listening, half muttering ‘wonder if she’ll let me sleep on the couch’ as he walked towards one of the huts. Tim winched for the man and looked at the workers transferring carcasses away. Tim asked one of the workers to keep a sheep carcass as is when it was found.
The sun had already set when Tim had kept close by the barn just a few meters from the hole. The musher also kept watch, he wanted to see through getting revenge for his wolf. Tim didn’t protest, something in the back of Tim’s mind said he would’ve done the same if Wolf was suddenly killed. Not that Tim knew how an astral being would get killed in the first place. Wolf huffed at him, as if knowing what Tim had been thinking.
“This is taking too long.” The musher complained.
“Yeah…”
“…and here I’d thought you’d disagree?”
“I’m no hunter.” Tim admitted. “I can mindlessly work hours on end, but not actually doing anything is freaking me out.”
The musher nodded in agreement. “You sound like you’ve done your fair share of labor work.”
“You could tell?”
“It’s either that or pencil pushing.”
“I did. In the Hargeon docks.”
“I’ve got a nephew who started working there a week ago now!”
“That’s already way after I left-”
Tim was feeding his nightlike skin’s blotches to Wolf while talking to the musher when their little banter was cut short. It sounded like a shrill sounding scream coming from the woods away from the village.
“Someone’s in trouble?!” Tim tried to run, but the musher pulled him by his shirt.
“No, it’s not from a person. That sounded like…”
It looked like his instincts were correct. It was the oversized Mountain Lion, standing taller than Tim was slowly keeping up the village. It stopped to sharpen its claws in one of the trees and was sniffing around. It stopped when it arrived at the reburied carcass. Tim didn’t like how it reacted to the carcass, it sniffed and looked around.
“It knows-!” Tim summoned his purplish crystal ball and threw it at the creature!
It saw the ball coming and stepped aside, but it didn’t expect for the crystal ball to explode in a bright light. In the span of time the light reached Tim, the young man used his Bastardized Domain and rode the light to circle around the creature. In a fraction of a second, after the blinding light subsided, Tim was now behind the mountain lion. Wolf, Night Clad, dove into the shadows after the light had dissipated. Tim gestured a
finger-gun towards the creature and fired a scorching beam of light.
The oversized mountain lion roared as it was thrown into the snow-covered dirt.
The lion jumped towards Tim but the young man rolled aside. As if it was their plan all along, Wolf suddenly surfaced from the shadows and howled. Its Night Howl drowned the lion in the tarlike matter of pure darkness. Tim hit the lion with another beam of scorching light. But the mountain lion was giving them a hard time. It toughened up and took the hit on, keeping itself steady and swam out of the shadows in complete animalistic desperation.
“Wolf! Hang back!” Tim ordered the Wolf. It looked like it was about to give its usual dismissive huff, but thought otherwise. It dove out of the shadows and stood beside Tim, growling.
The mountain lion stalked slowly, but it looked like part of its back right leg was slightly limped. They got a good hit in, it looked like. It knew when it was out of its league. The creature ran into the woods.
Wolf looked at Tim. “I know.” He patted the guardian wolf’s head. “We won’t let it escape; I was afraid it’d hide in one of the huts if we let it stay any longer.”
The exchange lasted not more than half a minute and the musher had only been able to run into the fray after the mountain lion had escaped. “Were you always that strong, son? That thing didn’t even have any room to breathe!”
“Being its chew toy wasn’t an option.” Tim scratched his chin.
“You’re going out there, right?”
“That’s the plan…” Tim looked at him, brow quirked.
“Yeah, I’m hanging back.” The musher said, much to Tim’s relief. “I can’t keep up with that sort of fighting. I’d be dead weight, or just dead, if I go with you.”
Tim and Wolf set out into the dark snowy woods. The lion’s tracks were fresh, but each minute they spent following the tracks it was covered by a new layer of snow. After a few minutes the tracks were totally gone. Wolf looked at Tim, it was a look that said ‘now what?’
“You’re the one with the astral nose.” Tim breathed slowly, keeping his body warm using his magic.
Tim was then knocked back, the young man felt pain on his back as he tried to turn. The mountain lion already pounced on him! Before the creature could ram him Wolf had slammed its body knocking the oversized creature on a large tree. Tim threw another purplish crystal ball, detonating it and crystalized the ray of light it produced. The three the mountain lion slammed into was cut across by Tim’s crystal blades alongside the creature. Wolf disappeared into the astral plane, trying to find a better opportunity to strike.
The young man could see the creature stalking him, waiting for its chance to pounce. Two sizable burns were present on its leg and sides while the crystal blades were lacerating it. The light spell must have cauterized the wound’s sides, it didn’t bleed as much. But the blades’ damage had been significant; Tim’s prey knew it too. If it could somehow live through their encounter, Tim made sure this thing would be dead by the week’s end through its wounds.
It was only matter of Tim surviving the encounter.
The mountain lion focused all of its attention to Tim. Who was trying to hunt who? It didn’t matter, it was either a pyrrhic victory or it dies. If it was smart it would do the same to Tim.
The mountain lion jumped at Tim. The young man rolled aside again, but the creature threw snow with its paw in Tim’s direction! The move caught him off guard, letting the lion dig its claws at Tim. The lion was on top of Tim. Wolf rematerialized, but kept its distance. It knew what was at stake.
“Eat this.” But Tim made a desperation move: he summoned another crystal ball, detonating it and crystalized the rays of light right under the lion! The creature’s heavy breathing was evident. It didn’t even move, its breath slowly getting weaker and weaker as Tim crawled slowly to his feet. The creature looked at Tim with utter hatred as it slumped to its side.
The young man looked at it with a frown, unsheathing his sword. “If I was alone, you would have killed me.”
Words:
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