Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Hunting and Education, Need to Work Hard!

After today’s agility challenge, we’re not resting one bit. That’s okay. If what Demos told me about the Beast Taming Elimination Tournament is accurate, I need all the practice I can get. I need to work hard! At the moment, we’re hunting for food for ourselves and the family. It’s one of our main tasks as beasts.

[Hunting: Increases skills such as Speed, Strength, Pounce, and Bite. Smaller targets increase regular skills. Bigger targets and magical prey unlock Hunting Sight, Magical Traps, and even greater abilities. These are useful later on.]

Hmmm. Magical Traps? How do I make them? Do I shoot lasers from my paws? That would be amazing. But for now, let’s see if I can master basic hunting. I did well enough in the video game. Grandpa on Dad’s side took Damon and me hunting in the forests outside W City. At first, I wasn’t big on the whole hunting idea. But then, Grandpa explained that he never would hunt for sport, only for food, and that hunting is useful if you like to eat and need to survive.

“Everything needs to eat,” he used to tell us. “It’s all part of the food chain. We’re part of the food chain. We eat animals that eat something else to survive. And in the olden days, animals used to eat us.”

Damon asked, “Would you eat just any animal?”

“Of course not,” Grandpa huffed. “Some animals are endangered. And I’m an animal lover. A lot of hunters love animals and wildlife.”

Now, as someone who is a hunter and who is also wildlife, I get what Grandpa was trying to say!

We’re hunting on a brilliant sunlit afternoon, with the light glistening on the white poinsettia-like flowers in the jungle. Demos shimmies underneath one of the poinsettia-like plants. The air is thick with jungle scents. My eyes dart around warily. After all, I woke up here in my current body.

The game display, ever helpful, reminds me where I am.

[Tanglevine Jungle. A popular spot to find beasts for beast taming. Full of dangers. Novice beasts are born here. Intermediate and advanced level wild beasts are here as well, but taming them is far more of a challenge. For best results, it is recommended that beast tamers start with a Novice beast.]

That’s right. I forgot the name of one of the areas in the game. Tanglevine Jungle. It all seems so familiar now. And the 8k resolution on the screen definitely does not do the lushness of this jungle justice. Wait, hold on. If it doesn’t show what the jungle is really like, then what about the dangers? Remind me of those again, game screen.

[Dangers in Tanglevine Jungle include: Carnivorous Vines (-2 to Strength, -3 to Speed, 20% HP), Feral Beasts (5 Speed and above needed to escape, Poachers (5 Speed and 7 Charisma needed to escape), Poisonous Snakes (lose 30% HP) , and Poisonous Plants (lose 20% HP).]

It figures. The best place in the game to find beasts, or for beasts to be found, is also one that you’d be lucky to escape from with your life. When I played this game as a human, Damon and I always loved going to the jungle because something interesting always happened there. Poachers leaping out with their nets and chasing us. Feral Beasts ready to attack. Carnivorous Vines grabbing at us. Poisonous Snakes slithering after us, poised to bite. Finally, Poisonous Plants that we might accidentally eat as beasts.

[Demos?]

[What?]

I feel silly asking this, but better embarrassed than dead or losing HP.

[Are these white flowers okay?]

He sounds confused. [To eat? Didn’t you get enough to eat today?]

[No, no. I mean are they poisonous? I forget.]

He growls. [Oh, for Spirits’ sake…]

[Look, Kaline has been telling me all about it, and after drinking that potion and getting sick…I know it wasn’t Vedette’s fault, but I was miserable.]

Another growl. [Of course it wasn’t her fault. But look, the white flowers are just pretty and useless. Your Mistress and mine like to pick them to make crowns. Don’t get distracted, though. We’re hunting for rabbits and birds. Because Hunting is important to the family and is one of the events in the Beast Taming Elimination Tournament. Let’s focus.]

[Totally fair.] I breathe a sigh of relief when I stoop to crawl under another bush heavy with white flowers. [And what about the Feral Beasts? I bet the birds and rabbits know how to hide from them, right? And from us?

[If they’re smart, they do.]

I find myself quoting another of Grandpa’s sayings. [Always try to think like your prey. Your prey is smart. Treat them that way.]

Demos stops dead, planting his feet in the candytufts that cover the jungle floor. At least it looks like candytufts. Lifting his snout, he sniffs the air and points to a thick stand of trees.

[There. There.]

Sniffing the air, I definitely smell rabbit. I remember that smell. Also, I smell feathers.

[That stand of trees has our dinner for tonight! Good going, Demos, old buddy, old pal.]

He sprints ahead so fast he leaves me in the dust. [I’m going to get dinner first! You watch!]

[Ha! You’ll see my tail and my smoke in front of you!]

He’s powerful and eager, but I’ve got speed to spare, and Kaline gave me a Potion of Swiftness before we left.

[Potion of Swiftness: Gives a temporary +5 boost to Speed for one hour.]

I didn’t see Vedette feeding Demos a potion or Potency Pills, but based on how fast Demos is going, she probably gave him that edge. So, I need to use that +5 boost.

Zipping through the candytufts, I pass Demos in a blur. First his puffy tail, then his brown furry body, then his black nose. I’m in the lead! My paws are eating up the distance to the stand of trees. Now I’m dropping low to the ground and crawling on my belly, inching forward, using every bit of stealth I possess.

No rustle of leaves. No movement. My ears perk forward to listen for the sound of birds chirping. My alertness increases and my heart skips a beat when I hear a bird cooing. From here, it sounds like a dove. Ugh. I don’t want to eat a dove.

No, that’s not cooing. That’s just whistling. Lots of birds whistle. Doves don’t whistle. My heartbeat returns to a relaxed rhythm.

Inching forward, I slink toward the trees until the trunks are right in front of me. Although they’re crammed tightly together, I can see a gap in-between the two trees directly ahead.

Warm breath bathes me, and my whiskers twitch.

[I’ll go in first. You didn’t even know the white flowers are okay.

Demos’ smug, superior words raise my hackles and set my fangs on edge. [So what? I know how to hunt. I know there are birds whistling in there. And I don’t want to startle them.]

[Exactly. Those are Whistling Partridgesl. And by the sound of it, there’s a nice, big, fat partridge in there. The family loves those for dinner.]

I wrinkle my nose. [How big? Big enough for both of us to take down? We can both level up together, so our Mistresses have nothing to fight over.]

[Pity. Mistress enjoys challenging her little sister.]

I try diplomacy. [Well, after this morning, cooperation’s probably better unless we want Ser Stuck-Up to mark us down.]

Demos hacks and coughs as if he’s just tasted a Poisonous Plant.

[Shhh.] I nudge him. [Let’s not give the nice, fat partridge any warning of our presence. Let’s go in single file, quickly, before the bird knows what is happening.]

I can sense Kaline, Vedette, Tomas, and Ser Maartenwitz behind us, holding their collective breath. Kaline’s excitement is palpable through the bond.

[You are on.] Demos licks his lips. [On three. You first. Just to be sporting. One. Two. Three.]

Springing forward, I pounce and fly through the gap between the trees. Branches and leaves tickle my nose. In the middle of what looks like a ring of trees, a nervous partridge as big as a chicken whistles louder. So plump and big and beautiful! Dinner is served, Kaline!

[YAAAAAH!]

Both Demos and I pounce at the same time, our claws out to take down our prize. I can almost taste the dinner now. Our claws are within striking distance of the bird. We’re going to be heroes tonight! The entire household will love us. Lamant will even smile…

WHISH.

Something wraps around us. Mesh and rope. Tangling us up. It’s a net!

[RUN. TEAR. GET OUT OF HERE.]

Demos’ panic fuels me to start ripping the net to shreds. WHAT? It must be made of steel.

Now Demos sounds upset. [GET US OUT.]

[I’m trying!]

Something is happening. We’re rising! Moving. being taken out of the thicket. I hear someone moving. Big heavy boots clomping on the ground.

We’ve just been captured by a poacher!

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