05-05-2017, 02:56 AM
As Karil was on her way back to the place she called home - little more than a roof of sticks and leaves with a bedding underneath, really - something struck her as odd. The smell of the forest... it was different. She put her snout to the ground and sniffed.
Humans.
There were several... five or six? No, more than that. A dozen or more. Could it be a large hunting group? But why out here? This area was away from the other villages and cities. The closest she could think of was the portal... to that place with the bad smell. She sniffed again, and made out the smells that she had not paid attention to earlier. Metal. Cured meat. Whetstones. Freshly cut wood. Horses. Human pups. She followed the scents and soon reached the path leading to the gate to the Pale Moors, though she did not know that name. There she found tracks of people in the dirt, belonging to nine or ten humans, and the tracks of a carriage. The children had probably sat on the carriage because she could only see one or two tracks but smelled them clearly.
This wasn't a hunting party. It was a group of civilians. Townspeople coming with their tools and their children to... what? Visiting someone wouldn't require them to bring tools along or to cut wood in such quantity. She noticed a pair of tree stumps in a thinly forested area where felling them wouldn't have been too hard. They smelled freshly cut and sawdust was laying on the ground. Then they had transported the timber somewhere. But why? Humans used wood for all sorts of things, from protective clothes to tools to houses. But they would only need this much wood for one thing.
No, these weren't just civilians. They were settlers. And judging from the path they had taken, Karil had no doubt that they were coming from that portal. And if they had cut timber around this area they were probably looking to settle somewhere nearby. Transporting so much wood was hard and they were surrounded by forest, so they could have cut elsewhere if they'd wanted to go further away. She sniffed the air again, but the slowly rising fog was making it difficult to pick up scents. Well then... time for a little scouting. She pulled off her clothes and hid them in a hollow tree where she could find them easily, then dropped to all fours and followed the scent as if she was a wild wolf or dog. Now her antlers: those she couldn't hide, but with any luck they'd mistake her for some strange hybrid, or a feral wolpertinger.
Within an hour she arrived at her destination. The scent was getting stronger, intermixed with the smells of human settlements. They had made a small fire that they were roasting meat at, some of them were cutting branches off the timber, yet others were setting up makeshift tents between the trees, hanging the tissue from the branches or driving hooked nails into the trunk to attach the tent to. A few were collecting fresh water from the stream that passed through the center of the clearing. Even the children were helping, she noticed. Everyone looked pale and thin, worn from the long journey and whatever hardships they'd endured in their previous home.
Karil hated the sight.
This forest was wild, one of the few remaining places undisturbed by the hunters. If these humans settled here they would chop down the trees to create houses and fields, they would hunt the game and chase away the predators until none remained and they would corral noisy, smelly and bad-tasting animals that would then eat away the grass and leave only barren land behind. They needed to go. Well, let's see if she couldn't...
"Mommy! Mommy look! A doggy!" a child exclaimed and pointed to the edge of the clearing. The mother took a brief glance while trying to tell it that there were no wild dogs, when she noticed a strangely colored canine with antlers between the trees, eyeing the settlers. She yelled something and two men immediately readied their bows, aiming at the creature. But the oldest of the group, a man in his fifties, stopped them. "Don't shoot it. Wild wolves don't come alone."
"That ain't no wolf... look at it. It's got horns", one of the two men said, still keeping his bow drawn. "Looks like a timber wolf."
"A timber wolf? Nate, you need to get your eyes checked. That's a husky if I ever saw one, but I've no idea how it would get to such a warm climate. It might be a tamed dog." He took a small bit of dried meat from a stack and approached Karil with it. Karil waited, pretending to be one of her feral cousins, and when he came closer got up and approached him.
"Oi. That dog's got something between its jaws", the old man said. Karil lowered her head and let the large piece of bark drop to the ground before snagging the piece of meat from the old man's hand and returning to the edge of the clearing to eat. The man picked up the piece, turned it over, and saw what Karil had carved into the surface of the wood using a pointed stone: a vague picture of a human surrounded by trees, then a picture of a human laying down, with sticks in their chest like the ones she had once seen on that merchant. She also had added a vague shape of a very large creature of some sort surrounded by trees. Below that, a second set of pictures, neatly separated by a line: a human surrounded by little houses with a smile on its face, far away from the forest, where again a very large creature surrounded by trees stood, which also had a smile on its face.
"It's a message of some sort", the old man mumbled. "I'm not certain I catch everything, but I believe we are not welcome here. Someone wants us gone." He looked at Karil. "And that, lads, is a feral wolpertinger. They're not dangerous unless you attack them first, but steer clear of it - they're vicious as a wolf and a stag put together. If someone was able to tame that thing and sent it to deliver this message, that person's not to be trifled with."
"Well, I don't give a bloody damn 'bout if we should or shouldn't trifle with some shithead who wants the forest to themselves! We left Darkshire to find a new home after those bloodsuckin' Primes destroyed it! And now that we found a good place to settle we're told to leave?! Well, tell you what: that wolperthing can go back to its owner and tell 'im that we ain't movin' an inch. There!" He let loose an arrow but missed Karil. She hid among the bushes and backed away as the hunter continued to shout profanities while the old man looked at the pictures. It seemed that it wouldn't be that easy. They wouldn't leave over that warning, she realized. And the longer they stayed, the harder it would get to drive them away. She needed to plan out something more elaborate...
Humans.
There were several... five or six? No, more than that. A dozen or more. Could it be a large hunting group? But why out here? This area was away from the other villages and cities. The closest she could think of was the portal... to that place with the bad smell. She sniffed again, and made out the smells that she had not paid attention to earlier. Metal. Cured meat. Whetstones. Freshly cut wood. Horses. Human pups. She followed the scents and soon reached the path leading to the gate to the Pale Moors, though she did not know that name. There she found tracks of people in the dirt, belonging to nine or ten humans, and the tracks of a carriage. The children had probably sat on the carriage because she could only see one or two tracks but smelled them clearly.
This wasn't a hunting party. It was a group of civilians. Townspeople coming with their tools and their children to... what? Visiting someone wouldn't require them to bring tools along or to cut wood in such quantity. She noticed a pair of tree stumps in a thinly forested area where felling them wouldn't have been too hard. They smelled freshly cut and sawdust was laying on the ground. Then they had transported the timber somewhere. But why? Humans used wood for all sorts of things, from protective clothes to tools to houses. But they would only need this much wood for one thing.
No, these weren't just civilians. They were settlers. And judging from the path they had taken, Karil had no doubt that they were coming from that portal. And if they had cut timber around this area they were probably looking to settle somewhere nearby. Transporting so much wood was hard and they were surrounded by forest, so they could have cut elsewhere if they'd wanted to go further away. She sniffed the air again, but the slowly rising fog was making it difficult to pick up scents. Well then... time for a little scouting. She pulled off her clothes and hid them in a hollow tree where she could find them easily, then dropped to all fours and followed the scent as if she was a wild wolf or dog. Now her antlers: those she couldn't hide, but with any luck they'd mistake her for some strange hybrid, or a feral wolpertinger.
Within an hour she arrived at her destination. The scent was getting stronger, intermixed with the smells of human settlements. They had made a small fire that they were roasting meat at, some of them were cutting branches off the timber, yet others were setting up makeshift tents between the trees, hanging the tissue from the branches or driving hooked nails into the trunk to attach the tent to. A few were collecting fresh water from the stream that passed through the center of the clearing. Even the children were helping, she noticed. Everyone looked pale and thin, worn from the long journey and whatever hardships they'd endured in their previous home.
Karil hated the sight.
This forest was wild, one of the few remaining places undisturbed by the hunters. If these humans settled here they would chop down the trees to create houses and fields, they would hunt the game and chase away the predators until none remained and they would corral noisy, smelly and bad-tasting animals that would then eat away the grass and leave only barren land behind. They needed to go. Well, let's see if she couldn't...
Quote:Two hours later
"Mommy! Mommy look! A doggy!" a child exclaimed and pointed to the edge of the clearing. The mother took a brief glance while trying to tell it that there were no wild dogs, when she noticed a strangely colored canine with antlers between the trees, eyeing the settlers. She yelled something and two men immediately readied their bows, aiming at the creature. But the oldest of the group, a man in his fifties, stopped them. "Don't shoot it. Wild wolves don't come alone."
"That ain't no wolf... look at it. It's got horns", one of the two men said, still keeping his bow drawn. "Looks like a timber wolf."
"A timber wolf? Nate, you need to get your eyes checked. That's a husky if I ever saw one, but I've no idea how it would get to such a warm climate. It might be a tamed dog." He took a small bit of dried meat from a stack and approached Karil with it. Karil waited, pretending to be one of her feral cousins, and when he came closer got up and approached him.
"Oi. That dog's got something between its jaws", the old man said. Karil lowered her head and let the large piece of bark drop to the ground before snagging the piece of meat from the old man's hand and returning to the edge of the clearing to eat. The man picked up the piece, turned it over, and saw what Karil had carved into the surface of the wood using a pointed stone: a vague picture of a human surrounded by trees, then a picture of a human laying down, with sticks in their chest like the ones she had once seen on that merchant. She also had added a vague shape of a very large creature of some sort surrounded by trees. Below that, a second set of pictures, neatly separated by a line: a human surrounded by little houses with a smile on its face, far away from the forest, where again a very large creature surrounded by trees stood, which also had a smile on its face.
"It's a message of some sort", the old man mumbled. "I'm not certain I catch everything, but I believe we are not welcome here. Someone wants us gone." He looked at Karil. "And that, lads, is a feral wolpertinger. They're not dangerous unless you attack them first, but steer clear of it - they're vicious as a wolf and a stag put together. If someone was able to tame that thing and sent it to deliver this message, that person's not to be trifled with."
"Well, I don't give a bloody damn 'bout if we should or shouldn't trifle with some shithead who wants the forest to themselves! We left Darkshire to find a new home after those bloodsuckin' Primes destroyed it! And now that we found a good place to settle we're told to leave?! Well, tell you what: that wolperthing can go back to its owner and tell 'im that we ain't movin' an inch. There!" He let loose an arrow but missed Karil. She hid among the bushes and backed away as the hunter continued to shout profanities while the old man looked at the pictures. It seemed that it wouldn't be that easy. They wouldn't leave over that warning, she realized. And the longer they stayed, the harder it would get to drive them away. She needed to plan out something more elaborate...