01-25-2018, 07:19 AM
It had been three months now since Karil had last checked on the human settlement. Their presence, however brief it may have been, had resulted in an out-of-season migration of the herds of game and forced her to follow. She had left her burrow behind, promising to return in time for the winter months. During the cold times there was no better place to stay warm, concealed deep underground and stuffed with furs and dried leaves. And she had gourds made of hollowed-out fruits to hold water in, to avoid going out as much as possible. The only thing left to consider was to eat enough to put on a little fat, both to stay warm and to scrape by through the winter months when the amount of available game would be at its lowest.
It may be better to double up on the fat actually, considering that the human pack might try to hunt too.
This Karil thought as she knelt in the shallow river and sunk her snout into it to drink. The cold, pure water quenched her thirst as it ran through the inside of her neck to her belly. She could feel how it made its way down, cooling her from within. Her teeth hurt a little. Yet she kept drinking. It was time to hunt, and she could not risk getting thirsty again in the middle of it. But it would not be good to drink too much and be weighted down, either. The middle ground was important.
After that came the washing-down, though it was difficult in a small body of water as this one, and getting herself covered in mud. Lacking the washed-up sludge here, she instead used a muddy hole near the river which didn't smell as strongly, but would do what was needed to mask her presence and smell. Then she began her search for traces along the side of the river. Animals of all shapes and sizes came here to drink just like herself, it would only be a matter of time before she found some fresh prints.
Instead she found human prints. Clearly and indistinguishable, they were the prints of the leathery wrappings that the humans used to protect their hindpaws. She leant down and sniffed. Fresh leather still carrying the scent of the ugly horned animals that the humans called "goats". It would be easy to track this scent back to its origins, but she had a hunch. The human settler pack was sending its hunter-males out to pursue the game that had fled. They were hungering for meat, like she was.
Closer inspection of the human prints yielded that they had not stayed here long, and had not stayed still. She noticed how one area had a particularly large amount of prints, so many that she wondered how she had initially missed them. They seemingly belonged to one human who had inspected the area before her... soon she understood why.
Bear tracks.
And not just regular ones... they looked small, as if belonging to a young animal, old enough to reach maturity but not yet as dangerous as a complete adult. And the right prints had speckles of a red substance next to them that smelled of blood. The humans believed that they had found the tracks of an easy quarry, did they? Sure enough the prints followed those of the bear. Karil knew better though. The scent of the blood was too intense and a bear would not venture to such a small river. These were bait-prints... laid out by a Catoblepon. With the body of a cape buffalo and the ability to mimic the pawprints of other animals while secreting a blood-like substance from glands near its legs it created the illusion of an injured creature to be easily killed, whether its 'hunter' saw the prints or the Catoblepon itself, only to reveal its true nature as a dangerous predator when it had lured its prey in. And the human hunter-males had taken the bait like a pair of cubs. It was inconcievable that they would pursue the Catoblepon knowingly - its meat was stiff and dry like a carcass's and its skin too brittle and dry to be used as leather.
If the hunter-males were killed it would cause the rest of the pack great trouble... perhaps even enough that they would move to one of the big settlements and allow themselves to be taken in by the large packs of humans that lived there, as she had suggested. Or perhaps they would not make it through the winter days. She would have her forest back to herself.
And yet she followed their tracks, cursing herself for coming to the aid of her rivals. She had no idea why she did it. She had nothing to gain from it, and a lot to lose. The humans did not like her and she did not like them. Helping them would change nothing.
The silence draped over the forest was pierced by a shriek so loud that Karil’s ears rung. Only someone experiencing pure terror could scream like that. She ran faster, until she saw before her a small clearing and a gruesome picture before her:
The Catoblepon’s paralyzing gaze had stopped the two hunter-males in standing positions. One of them was violently thrashing his arms and head about, to absolutely no avail. His upper body seemed to have been spared the magic creature’s curse, but his legs refused to move, and thus would not carry him one bit from where he was standing. The other hunter-male was laying on the ground before his comrade, doubtlessly dead. The Catoblepon had snapped its neck and was in the process of feeding from…
Karil averted her eyes from the horrible scene. She was not unused to gory carcasses but the paralyzed human, forced to watch, was sending a chill up her spine. Luckily for her both the predator and its to-be prey were focused on the carcass, giving her the opportunity to strike.
The Catoblepon’s snout was too deep in its kill to smell much more than blood. Karil’s smell was washed off from her bath and obscured by the earthy scent of mud she had bathed in. The hunter did not notice that it was about to become the hunted. Karil snuck around along the edge of the clearing, readying for her kill. She only had one opportunity. If she missed she would join the hunter-male as prey.
Catoblepons had two weak points. The first was their hearts because their boney bodies had little meat on them to form a barrier. The other was their eyes, who held in them the magic to maintain paralysis on its prey. Karil began her attack on the latter, leaping onto the four-legged animal from behind. Before the Catoblepon realized what was happening, blindness set in and a moo-like howl came from its emaciated throat. It tried to swing around to bite Karil, who had already leapt off anticipating a counter attack, and in doing so exposed its chest. Its suffering was cut short when the wolpertinger’s claws dug into its flesh, slid between the ribs and struck their mark. The beast’s pained howl quickly lost its energy and it toppled over next to its prey. Its suffering lasted only a few seconds before it had bled out.
The man who had been paralyzed had screamed again when Karil jumped to his aid, but feeling the paralysis disappear from his limbs as the wolpertinger broke the spell with her first attack, then seeing the massive beast topple over after she struck the killing blow made him shut up. Wide-eyed, he stared at his savior, at the gory carcass of his comrade, at the prey that had deceived them.
“You… free of curse”, said Karil as she cleaned her bloodied claws on the grass. “Danger is over.”
“You… you…” was all the man responded. The shock was keeping him paralyzed, but slowly it withdrew. Karil said nothing. She waited.
“You… monster!” the man then suddenly blurted out. His widened eyes narrowed to slits and he bent down to pick up a piece of curved wood that he had apparently dropped. His other hand jabbed in Karil’s direction, his finger accusingly pointed at her. “You killed Frank!”
This confused the wolpertinger. Had this man not seen what had happened? “Kato-Blepon killed human. Kill you too, if Karil not help.”
“Lies!” he spouted. Shakily he reached for the leather tube on his back. Only now did Karil notice that there were feathered sticks inside. “You… you were in cahoots with that beast, weren’t you?! You want us gone! You killed him!”
Karil snarled. “Human not belong in forest. Karil help so human live. Human tell to pack that humans not belong in forest.”
“Hah! You admit to it!” the hunter-male put a feathered stick onto the curved wood and pointed it at her. A maniacal grin spreaded across his face. “Just you wait. I’ll rid this forest of you, monster!” He pulled a string that was attached to the curved wood, still shakily aiming the feathered stick at her.
Karil knew that the stick was dangerous. And she saw that the human was beyond reason. A moment before he loosened his hand his eyes widened and Karil leapt to the side. The feathered stick darted forward faster than the eye could follow, passing where Karil had stood moments ago. She leapt onto him and knocked him to the ground with her paws, then without giving him time to grasp at her leapt and ran back into the forest. His enraged screams followed her for a while as she put as much distance as she could between him and herself. She only stopped when she arrived at the river again, near the spot where she had first seen their tracks.
Another surprise awaited her there: a water-lizard was laying by the shore, dead and with two feathered sticks in its tough hide. She got closer and sniffed it. Yes, they bore the two hunter-males’ scents. But why had they not eaten or brought back that which they had hunted? Did they not know that it was good food?
Going back to get the Catoblepon was not an option. She had no idea if the human would be around when she returned and its meat was inedible anyway. But this water-lizard saved her the need of looking for new prey. Carefully she pulled the feathered sticks out and tossed them aside, then she passed the dead water-lizard over her shoulder and stepped into the water, so as to mask her scent from the hunter-male and avoid leaving footprints behind that they could track back to her lair.
If someone had wandered the forests of Camelot, and if that someone had left the path and come to the forest a dozen or so miles from the Pale Moors gate, they may have been greeted by the sight of a wolf walking on its hindlegs and with antlers on its head, carrying the carcass of a dog-sized Axolotl on its back, off to its lair. But only a few people stray from the beaten paths of the forests of Camelot, because most of them fear the predators.
It may be better to double up on the fat actually, considering that the human pack might try to hunt too.
This Karil thought as she knelt in the shallow river and sunk her snout into it to drink. The cold, pure water quenched her thirst as it ran through the inside of her neck to her belly. She could feel how it made its way down, cooling her from within. Her teeth hurt a little. Yet she kept drinking. It was time to hunt, and she could not risk getting thirsty again in the middle of it. But it would not be good to drink too much and be weighted down, either. The middle ground was important.
After that came the washing-down, though it was difficult in a small body of water as this one, and getting herself covered in mud. Lacking the washed-up sludge here, she instead used a muddy hole near the river which didn't smell as strongly, but would do what was needed to mask her presence and smell. Then she began her search for traces along the side of the river. Animals of all shapes and sizes came here to drink just like herself, it would only be a matter of time before she found some fresh prints.
Instead she found human prints. Clearly and indistinguishable, they were the prints of the leathery wrappings that the humans used to protect their hindpaws. She leant down and sniffed. Fresh leather still carrying the scent of the ugly horned animals that the humans called "goats". It would be easy to track this scent back to its origins, but she had a hunch. The human settler pack was sending its hunter-males out to pursue the game that had fled. They were hungering for meat, like she was.
Closer inspection of the human prints yielded that they had not stayed here long, and had not stayed still. She noticed how one area had a particularly large amount of prints, so many that she wondered how she had initially missed them. They seemingly belonged to one human who had inspected the area before her... soon she understood why.
Bear tracks.
And not just regular ones... they looked small, as if belonging to a young animal, old enough to reach maturity but not yet as dangerous as a complete adult. And the right prints had speckles of a red substance next to them that smelled of blood. The humans believed that they had found the tracks of an easy quarry, did they? Sure enough the prints followed those of the bear. Karil knew better though. The scent of the blood was too intense and a bear would not venture to such a small river. These were bait-prints... laid out by a Catoblepon. With the body of a cape buffalo and the ability to mimic the pawprints of other animals while secreting a blood-like substance from glands near its legs it created the illusion of an injured creature to be easily killed, whether its 'hunter' saw the prints or the Catoblepon itself, only to reveal its true nature as a dangerous predator when it had lured its prey in. And the human hunter-males had taken the bait like a pair of cubs. It was inconcievable that they would pursue the Catoblepon knowingly - its meat was stiff and dry like a carcass's and its skin too brittle and dry to be used as leather.
If the hunter-males were killed it would cause the rest of the pack great trouble... perhaps even enough that they would move to one of the big settlements and allow themselves to be taken in by the large packs of humans that lived there, as she had suggested. Or perhaps they would not make it through the winter days. She would have her forest back to herself.
And yet she followed their tracks, cursing herself for coming to the aid of her rivals. She had no idea why she did it. She had nothing to gain from it, and a lot to lose. The humans did not like her and she did not like them. Helping them would change nothing.
The silence draped over the forest was pierced by a shriek so loud that Karil’s ears rung. Only someone experiencing pure terror could scream like that. She ran faster, until she saw before her a small clearing and a gruesome picture before her:
The Catoblepon’s paralyzing gaze had stopped the two hunter-males in standing positions. One of them was violently thrashing his arms and head about, to absolutely no avail. His upper body seemed to have been spared the magic creature’s curse, but his legs refused to move, and thus would not carry him one bit from where he was standing. The other hunter-male was laying on the ground before his comrade, doubtlessly dead. The Catoblepon had snapped its neck and was in the process of feeding from…
Karil averted her eyes from the horrible scene. She was not unused to gory carcasses but the paralyzed human, forced to watch, was sending a chill up her spine. Luckily for her both the predator and its to-be prey were focused on the carcass, giving her the opportunity to strike.
The Catoblepon’s snout was too deep in its kill to smell much more than blood. Karil’s smell was washed off from her bath and obscured by the earthy scent of mud she had bathed in. The hunter did not notice that it was about to become the hunted. Karil snuck around along the edge of the clearing, readying for her kill. She only had one opportunity. If she missed she would join the hunter-male as prey.
Catoblepons had two weak points. The first was their hearts because their boney bodies had little meat on them to form a barrier. The other was their eyes, who held in them the magic to maintain paralysis on its prey. Karil began her attack on the latter, leaping onto the four-legged animal from behind. Before the Catoblepon realized what was happening, blindness set in and a moo-like howl came from its emaciated throat. It tried to swing around to bite Karil, who had already leapt off anticipating a counter attack, and in doing so exposed its chest. Its suffering was cut short when the wolpertinger’s claws dug into its flesh, slid between the ribs and struck their mark. The beast’s pained howl quickly lost its energy and it toppled over next to its prey. Its suffering lasted only a few seconds before it had bled out.
The man who had been paralyzed had screamed again when Karil jumped to his aid, but feeling the paralysis disappear from his limbs as the wolpertinger broke the spell with her first attack, then seeing the massive beast topple over after she struck the killing blow made him shut up. Wide-eyed, he stared at his savior, at the gory carcass of his comrade, at the prey that had deceived them.
“You… free of curse”, said Karil as she cleaned her bloodied claws on the grass. “Danger is over.”
“You… you…” was all the man responded. The shock was keeping him paralyzed, but slowly it withdrew. Karil said nothing. She waited.
“You… monster!” the man then suddenly blurted out. His widened eyes narrowed to slits and he bent down to pick up a piece of curved wood that he had apparently dropped. His other hand jabbed in Karil’s direction, his finger accusingly pointed at her. “You killed Frank!”
This confused the wolpertinger. Had this man not seen what had happened? “Kato-Blepon killed human. Kill you too, if Karil not help.”
“Lies!” he spouted. Shakily he reached for the leather tube on his back. Only now did Karil notice that there were feathered sticks inside. “You… you were in cahoots with that beast, weren’t you?! You want us gone! You killed him!”
Karil snarled. “Human not belong in forest. Karil help so human live. Human tell to pack that humans not belong in forest.”
“Hah! You admit to it!” the hunter-male put a feathered stick onto the curved wood and pointed it at her. A maniacal grin spreaded across his face. “Just you wait. I’ll rid this forest of you, monster!” He pulled a string that was attached to the curved wood, still shakily aiming the feathered stick at her.
Karil knew that the stick was dangerous. And she saw that the human was beyond reason. A moment before he loosened his hand his eyes widened and Karil leapt to the side. The feathered stick darted forward faster than the eye could follow, passing where Karil had stood moments ago. She leapt onto him and knocked him to the ground with her paws, then without giving him time to grasp at her leapt and ran back into the forest. His enraged screams followed her for a while as she put as much distance as she could between him and herself. She only stopped when she arrived at the river again, near the spot where she had first seen their tracks.
Another surprise awaited her there: a water-lizard was laying by the shore, dead and with two feathered sticks in its tough hide. She got closer and sniffed it. Yes, they bore the two hunter-males’ scents. But why had they not eaten or brought back that which they had hunted? Did they not know that it was good food?
Going back to get the Catoblepon was not an option. She had no idea if the human would be around when she returned and its meat was inedible anyway. But this water-lizard saved her the need of looking for new prey. Carefully she pulled the feathered sticks out and tossed them aside, then she passed the dead water-lizard over her shoulder and stepped into the water, so as to mask her scent from the hunter-male and avoid leaving footprints behind that they could track back to her lair.
If someone had wandered the forests of Camelot, and if that someone had left the path and come to the forest a dozen or so miles from the Pale Moors gate, they may have been greeted by the sight of a wolf walking on its hindlegs and with antlers on its head, carrying the carcass of a dog-sized Axolotl on its back, off to its lair. But only a few people stray from the beaten paths of the forests of Camelot, because most of them fear the predators.