Just Another Day

"So, how did you go hunting with Ryoichi back when?" Katari asked quietly as they tread lightly through the jungle.

"Four foot, actually," Shanku replied lowly. "He was a cat, I went feral."

"Now would be a really convenient time to have learned how to do that already," Katari grumped.

"Allow me to serve as your hunting hound," Shanku said and shifted to her feral form. She tucked in the draping parts of her tunic and began to skulk through the underbrush, sniffing the ground for any useful scents. Katari crept along behind her, keeping an eye and ear out for game. They came up on a small family of pigs at length, and silently agreed to let them be.

Farther along, the pair found a lone grazing deer with tusks in a small clearing. Katari gestured to Shanku, who then slipped around to the other side of the grassy area. When the ambush was ready, Katari burst out of the trees and attempted to chase it toward Shanku. She startled when the strange deer started barking like a mad dog, but managed a successful leap and tackled it to the ground. It proved to be a fierce prey and left a good gash on Shanku's arm with its teeth before she and Katari were able to kill it.

"Perhaps the Skihva don't hunt here because all the eating things might eat you back," Shanku said gingerly as she inspected the wound. "Is this thing a dog or deer? Bloody fanged goat..."

"It's definitely a deer, not a goat, but let's move it in case that fit it threw attracts something with bigger teeth," Katari said. "How's your arm?"

"Sore, but I'll live. It's not that deep," Shanku said. "Do you need help carrying it?"

"Nah, it can't be more than five stone, I can manage," Katari replied. "Let's go up in that big tree there to dress it."

With a little help of the long vines growing nearby, they managed to haul the deer up into the canopy before setting to work. Both had packed their daggers and set in to cleaning the deer.

"Anything you wish to leave for scavengers?" Shanku asked.

"The lower organs," Katari replied.

Shanku nodded and after carefully gathering up the unwanted parts, she glided down a fair ways from their tree and disposed of it. Katari was leaned back against the trunk and resting with the deer carefully draped over a limb when Shanku returned.

"We'll take off when it has finished draining," Katari said as he got comfortable. "You watch that direction, I'll watch this one, and if anything tries to come up, this thing is light enough now we can both fly off with it in a hurry." Shanku nodded and settled down, and carefully licked her injury clean.

After a candlemark, they descended from the tree, tied the deer to a stout stick, hoisted it onto their shoulders, and made their way back to Ina and Hilael. It was getting close to dark when they arrived, and Hilael already had a fire waiting for them. Katari withdrew his skinning knife and quickly removed the deer's hide and Shanku began butchering the rest for roasting. Hilael went out and cut various lengths of sticks to use for spits, and before long they had a delicious smelling supper cooking over the open flames.

"It is so unladylike to drool, but, I can't help myself," Ina said as she wiped her mouth while watched dinner sizzling. "May the Skihva fates forgive us."

"We honored Scissortail fates by using what we could and leaving some for the other animals, so I'm not overly worried," Katari said as he staked out the hide and began scraping it.

"What could you possibly do with that tiny thing?" Ina asked curiously.

"I don't know," Katari replied. "But I never waste a hide if it can be helped."

"Are we on sinew duty again?" Ina asked cautiously.

"Nah, not this time," Katari replied. "This thing is barely the size of some of the piglets back home."

"Does that mean it's so small you don't need help with tanning it then?" Ina asked hopefully.

"Yes," Katari chuckled.

Each of them relished their supper when it had finished cooking and settled down for the night. As usual, they took turns keeping watch during the night and tending the fire to keep away potential predators. They stayed out in the jungle long enough for Katari to fully tan the small deer hide before he rolled it up into his pack and they began to return to the village. Innugati trilled and nipped Hilael's ear, to his surprise and annoyance.

"I'm getting the distinct feeling of being watched," Shanku shuddered.

"Likewise," Katari agreed. "I haven't seen or heard anything yet, but we're being stalked by something."

"You don't suppose it's one of those big cats, do you?" Ina asked worriedly as she glanced around.

"With all the tracks we've passed by, no way, there's tastier and easier things for them to eat than us," Katari frowned. "We're only a few days from the village by foot, and if we stick to the thinner parts of the trail, we can fly out in a hurry if necessary."

"We have to go through a really thick area though, and there's no good place to land and rest in the canopy," Shanku warned.

"I'm hoping it will lose interest by then," Katari said.

The Sylvans remained quiet and apprehensive as they trekked through the jungle. Innugati was more relaxed during the day, but at night she would not sleep and stayed perched on the shoulder of whomever was keeping watch. Halfway back they had to enter a very dense portion of the jungle, full of towering trees, twisted vines, and tangled brush. Shanku and Katari exchanged a concerned look before he lead them single file and she guarded their back. Innugati left Hilael and landed on Shanku's shoulder, facing behind them. Shanku looked down at her and raised an eyebrow at the little fairy dragon. When Innugati started to get restless, Shanku reached down and loosened the ties on her pack as she flicked her ears around to listen for any cracking twigs or disturbed leaves, but the birds and insects were too loud for her to detect anything helpful.

Rippling sounds of water were ahead. Large rocks jutted out of the ground far above their heads and a creek cut through nearby. The Sylvans stopped to rest and have a drink in turns. When Shanku leaned down to the water, Innugati leapt off her shoulder chattering maniacally. Shanku snapped her head up to see a very strange squealing boar come bursting out of the bushes toward them. She released her grip on her pack straps to let it fall to the ground as she shifted to her feral form and met the boar head on. With a heavy slap, Shanku managed to knock the aggressive hog toward the water as Katari lead Ina and Hilael up into the branches. Undeterred by the gashes left from her claws, the boar righted himself and continued his rush, tossing his head and trying to dig his sharp tusks into her. Shanku took quick steps back whenever his head came close, trying to figure out how to either incapacitate him or escape. He was an active beast that darted about and made several passes at her.

Innugati dove at the boar, spitting fire and trying to distract him. This only enraged the hog further and he finally took a swipe at the little dragon with a foreleg. Shanku noticed he wasn't a proper pig and was instead some sort of boar-like monster that frequently stood on its hindlegs. She quickly dropped to the ground and with a sweeping kick she knocked him off his feet into the mud. Squealing angrily, he was upright quickly, and charged Shanku again. She was used to hunting and fighting with much slower creatures, so while she managed to deflect him again into a rock wall, his head was much faster than his feet and with a jerk of his snout he managed to gash her arm open on the way by. Shanku yipped and jumped backward a few paces.

The hairy hog shook his head and turned to face the kurach. Shanku had dropped to the ground on four feet, her wings flared out around her and all her fur was on end as she growled viciously. One of his back feet pawed the ground as he prepared to charge again, and this time Shanku was waiting for him. As he made his run, Shanku leapt into the air and landed on his back. The frenzied boar began to buck and squeal, kicking up mud and leaves as Shanku dug her claws into him and began biting whatever she could reach. An ear landed between her teeth and with a quick yank she tore it to ribbons. Enraged further, he managed to throw her off into some nearby thorny vines. One of her feet became entangled and she was trapped.

Shanku flared her wings out around her as far as they would go and growled as viciously as she was capable, hoping to deter the incorrugible beast. The boar stopped, noticed her predicament, and chuckled evilly as a cruel grin broke out across his snout.

"Well if you can talk, then explain why you're attacking us," Shanku snapped.

He did not deign to answer her, squared up, and charged her a final time. Shanku managed to catch part of his snout in her hands and did her best to hold his head still and keep his tusks away from her vitals, or twist his head away enough she could sink her teeth into his neck, but was quickly becoming overpowered and receiving injuries from his jerking snout. Shanku rested against the rocks behind the thorns, ignoring the painful pricks in her back and trapped leg as she braced herself against the boulder and kicked her free leg into his chest to hold him away as they wrestled. Little Innugati was clinging to Shanku's uninjured arm and was burning as much of the hog's nose and face as her small flames were able.

The malevolent hog was suddenly wrenched out of her grasp and went bowling hooves over head as a very nervous, tuck-tailed kurach stood in his place. Shanku recognized the green shirt and tilted her head over to the side. "How the hell did you get to the true form before me, Hilael? You haven't even gone feral yet!"

Hilael glanced at his sister, whined, and took a step back toward her, keeping his wings half spread beside him as the boar got back on his feet and glared ominously in their direction.

"For the luv o' fluff, fly off," Shanku hissed at him. The boar snorted and shook his ears, sending a small spray of blood from his torn ear, preparing for another run and deciding which one he wanted to target. Hilael backed up into Shanku as the boar charged again, but would not fly off and leave her. Shanku shoved Hilael forcefully and knocked him away, hoping the boar would entangle himself in the thorny vines in his eagerness to gore them. In a flash of grey feathers, the boar gave an awful squeal as Katari managed to skewer him and pin him to the ground just before the hog had reached the trapped kurach. Shanku pounced as soon as the boar was down and quickly dealt a lethal blow to his throat with her fangs.

"I am so sorry I took so long Shanku, but it took forever to taper this stick enough to spear him," Katari said, talking very quickly, still visibly shaking and pacing. "I thought you two were done for."

"So did I," Shanku sighed as she began to try to remove the thorns from her leg to free herself. "Congrats on your boar hunt. You're a full-fledged buck now."

"There's more to that than just taking down a hog, there's ritual and ceremony and being properly prepared beforehand and..." Katari continued to pace and ramble as he attempted to work out his nerves.

Hilael crept over to his sister, his ears still laid back as he nosed at her injured arm.

"I'm fine, 'Lael, don't worry," Shanku laughed and winced as she irritated her sore and torn muscles. "Congrats to you, too. I didn't know anybody could skip feral and go straight to true." Hilael hung his head sheepishly and started to sniff at the gashes around her ribs.

"That looks bad," Katari said as he started coming back to his senses. "I'll start getting up some water and stuff to get that cleaned up."

"Campfire first," Shanku said.

"Oh, right, yes, fire first," Katari mumbled and began to gather kindling and firewood.

"Is Ina alright?" Shanku asked as she gingerly made her way over to where Katari was accumulating wood. Hilael pointed with his muzzle to the tree where Ina was still clinging dearly to the trunk high up in the branches. "Go see if you can get her down, 'Lael. I'll be fine."

Hilael turned and trotted over to the tree. He looked up, crouched, and sprang, beating his wings to gain altitude and land on a branch nearby where Ina was sitting. Ina was huddled up with her knees drawn to her chest and leaning against the trunk. Hilael tilted his head one way and then to the other, and then cautiously nudged her arm with his nose. Hilael nearly staggered out of the tree when Ina suddenly latched on to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face into his fur. Hilael stood there awkwardly as Ina cried herself out and tried to come to terms with witnessing her first serious fight, and subsequently, first attempted murder.