Fractured World 010 (Patreon)

“I speak to you thus, mother to mother,” the old monkey bird lady said, “kill these beasts that terrorize our people and we shall have good relations between our people and yours.”

Samira grimaced in annoyance. The old monkey bird was the head honcho of Petra or the Temple, which from her own understanding of history, Petra was a temple. The old woman’s featherless head bobbed up and down, with cloudy eyes not even focusing on Samira.

“This world is a terrible place,” the old woman continued. “That yellow sun hurls itself across the sky and then the darkness comes too fast. This temple was not meant to house so many people and the trees here are so small and disgusting in their color.”

The old woman continued ranting for a few more minutes as Samira took in the people around her. They were settled outside of the Temple, a small pavilion, had been set up for all the attendees. Samira guessed there were nearly a hundred out there, with hundreds more staring out of the small stone windows and doors that pocked the stone walls.

The entire temple complex was buried underground and carved through the sandstone cliffside. She has asked Allakor how big it was, but he said he hadn’t been permitted to explore it without a female escort. It had to be big to house so many people.

“We shall hunt the creatures that are terrorizing you,” Samira said. “We’re all lost and from different worlds, but that does not mean we cannot cooperate and treat one another with respect. If that means helping our neighbors, then we shall.”

“For free?” a woman asked beside the old one. She was younger, her feathers turning an odd color of magenta and already falling out in places.

Samira made a note, the more colorful and patchy looking birds were older, and the dull colored ones were younger, with the little cute chickies chittering about a near white color.

“Would you charge your friends when they are in danger?” Samira asked. “We know this temple to the Golden Feathered houses the young, the sick, and old. We would not in good conscious leave you be if we could help.”

The group of old woman leaders clacked their beaks.

“The cursed messages give you prizes,” the old woman said. “When you kill, when you do, it rewards you.” The old woman gave a little screech. “Foulness.”

“A new world, old mother,” one of the younger monkey birds stated, nuzzling her head against the old woman. The old woman mindlessly patted her head. “The Golden Feathered might have brought us here to test our mettle and see what we can do.”

“Can’t do much,” the old woman said. “Now we have to get strange featherless creatures to do the work for us.”

Samira glanced at Garran, giving him an eye roll. Did the old bird forget that all their words were translated?

The old woman began chirpping and petting the other’s head.

“What will you need,” a different woman spoke. She was different, bigger and bright eyed, but she too was nearly bald as the old woman.

“Information. Scouts. A place to set up camp.”

The woman bobbed her head and clacked her beak to a different younger monkey bird.

“You, get the guards. Bring out a tent and food for our guests. They shall not hunger when doing the Golden Feather’s work,” she snapped and the others rushed about to do her bidding.

“What’s your name?” Samira asked.

“Hiyora,” she said. “I am the Administrator and I walk the Templar Path. Old Mother may be blessed by the Golden Feathered, but I run things here.”

There was a hardness in the woman’s eye that Samira had to respect. She’d seen the same thing on some of the Chief of Medicine in the hospitals she worked in. The type that had seen all the shit that could happen and wasn’t about to let it phase them if there was work that needed doing. Samira could respect that.

“Then should all requests we need go through you?” Samira asked.

The Administrator gave a firm nod.

“Alight then,” Samira said.

***

“Back in France,” Samira said crouching underneath a low branch, “where much of my former husband’s family lived, there is a tale of a great beast that terrorizing villages, killing scores of people.” Samira stopped and examined a track. “The ruler didn’t care about the people, claiming they were ignorant fools scared of their own shadows. It wasn’t until too many people died for him to pretend to not notice what was going on.”

“What leader would do that?” Yasimir asked. She was one of the Path guards that had joined them on the hunt. Ten of the guards had chosen to accompany Samira and her group. They acted as scouts; combing the trees and brush looking for signs of the bear pigs.

“A foolish one,” Samira said. “So the ruler sent hunters to find and kill the beast, the first one failed and the second claimed to have killed it. But the killings continued, the beast was not killed. The people cried out for their ruler to return and deal with it, but by then the ruler didn’t care again and thought the peasants were superstitious and foolish. The threat had been dealt with.”

Samira paused again, wrinkling her nose as the pile of scat on the ground. The area was heavily trampled and she could see the marks all along the trees in the area. There was an odd musky smell in the air too.

“That was until one peasant came forth and managed to kill the creature. While the ruler and nobility refused to believe the people, refused to help, it was the people who took up arms and defeated the threat themselves.”

“What happened to the ruler?” Yasimir asked.

“A few years later there was a great revolution; the ruler and many of those that exploited the people were killed,” Samira replied. She stopped and examined another track.

She had hunted with her father and husband before, but this was a whole different ball game. Hunting a predator was not something she was adequately familiar with. This was no big game hunting on safari nor was she adequately armed to hunting down a giant eight legged monster.

A shot gun designed more for home defense than hunting, a .22 rifle, and a pistol didn’t seem all that much, but compared to the bows, spears, and swords the others carried, it was a far better choice.

There was a clack and hiss, Samira stopped in her tracks as a monkey bird slipped down from a tree. She landed without any noise and motioned to Samira.

“Two ahead,” she said. “They are rutting.”

“How far and what’s the spot look like?”

“Small clearing, small trees, lots of grass,” the scout replied, drawing a rough map into the dirt. “Dead creatures here and here, not animal. Some kind of other being.”

“Other being?” Samira asked.

“Big, four legs, half eaten,” the scout replied. “Mostly rotten, might hide our smell.”

“Then we move. We can’t let them get away.”

The trio and scouts nodded. Garran gave Samira a human like grin, showing serrated teeth. His two companions looked more grim and somber.

“Alright, move. These things aren’t afraid of people, they’ll charge when they see us. We hit them from afar, once they spot us they’ll come charging and then we give them hell,” Samira said.

“They are very strong. Your shotgun will be the only thing to stop them,” F’darr said.

“Probably, but I’d like to see what the .22 with powershot does first,” Samira replied.

The others agreed and they went to hunting.

***

Samira edged herself forward on the tree limb she occupied. She spied though the scope to see the two bear pigs going at it. In a different world, watching two eight legged creatures doing the nasty would have been humorous, but after seeing what those eight legs tipped with claws could do it was a whole different story.

From what she understood about bear hunting, all of it learned second hand over campfires with other hunters she’d met, was that hitting the vital organs from the side was the best way to kill them. When the legs moved, it offered a clear shot. The thick bones, fat, muscles, and heavy fur of a bear made it a difficult animal to kill. If the shot were not placed right, the thick fur and fat would clot up the wound and the animal would still be alive.

The bear pigs were animals from another world, but the internals seemed to match up with Earth animals. There was a heart, lungs, and all the bits that kept creatures alive. Destroying some vital would drop it dead.

Samira steadied her aim and activated Powershot. She could almost feel the mana dropping away from her account and then she fired. The .22 popped like firecracker and a second later Samira watched as a fist sized hole was punched into the top bear pig. She checked her mana amount, 20 mana used. That was a steep price.

The creature let out a surprised yelp and flopped to the ground. The second creature roared, turning about to face the tree that Samira had taken her shot from. It let out another roar and as if it knew where she was, charged the tree. She figured with eight legs it was fast, but this bear pig was on a whole different level.

Samira aimed once more and dumped more mana into her Powershot. A chunk of fur off the creature’s back blasted off as the round grazed the creature. It staggered from the blood, but righted itself almost immediately. Samira cursed again and nearly fired without adding a bit of mana to it.

A .22 would do nothing against a creature that size.

A crossbow bolt slammed into the skull of the creature, but it was deflected, barely causing a gash across the thick skull. An arrow sprouted into the joint of one leg, eliciting a howl of pain and a momentary pause in its forward charge. The bear pig gnawed at the arrow snapping it free and giving Samira a clear shot at its snarling face.

She fired the rifle once more.

****

“Stay low and keep an eye out,” Samira whispered as the trio slunk through the brush around the clearing. She could hear the chirping sining of the monkey birds as they worked harvesting the corpses of the two bear pigs.

They weren’t animals from their world, but it seemed they were edible by the Cuthoma. Like the K’Thari, the Cuthoma didn’t seem to find anything wrong with eating raw meat.

There were nearly a hundred Cuthoma involved in the harvesting of the two dead bear pigs. Most were the guards, while the others were harvesters, working quickly and constantly casting glances into the forest around them. The Cuthoma might move easily though trees, but according to Yasimir they weren’t used to so many trees so close together. Especially since this world seemed far more dangerous than their old one.

“Foolish birds,” Garran muttered watching the harvesting team.

Samira had to agree. The area was nowhere near being safe, but the Elders had declared they wanted the flesh of the bear pigs and they weren’t to be denied.

The smell of blood, death, and monkey bird chirping was like ringing the dinner bell. The Cuthoma were of the opinion that the blood would keep away predators. Samira and the K’thari had a different opinion.

They were soon proven right when two bear pigs sauntered into the clearing, their noses high in the air. It reminded Samira of cartoons where a character was being dragged toward an intoxicating smell. As if one, the Cuthoma all went silent.

It was a quiet second before both groups realized each other existed. The Cuthoma exploded into action, like a flock of birds moving, they seemed to stick together, all heading toward the same direction. As soon as they moved, the bear pigs gave chase.

The first bear pig was dropped by F’darr, using her own version of Powershot she had purchased. The arrow from the compound bow slammed into the chest between the two front legs. The bear pig let out a yelp but kept running, right until its body realized its heart had been pierced and it died on its feet.

Garran’s crossbow snapped a bolt into the front leg of the second creature, causing it to turn its ire upon them instead. Samira held onto Powershot and fired a shot into the creature’s head. She was rewarded by an explosion of blood, brain, and fur.

“Four down, three more to go,” Samira said. “This is easier than I thought.”

Garran nodded in agreement. “Loot?” he asked.

“Go for it.”

***

“This sucks,” Samira said. “Two days and we haven’t seen hide nor hair of the other three bears.”

“Perhaps they are gone,” F’darr said.

“Or have gone to a different territory,” Garran added.

“They’re around,” Samira said. “I can feel it, somehow. There’s a threat out there, don’t you feel it when we’re hunting? Can’t you feel the eyes on you?”

“I can,” Lokkar answered.

“You are always fearful,” F’darr snapped.

Samira looked at her ragged hunting party. The first day’s success had been overwhelming, but two days of scouring the woods for the bear pigs had lead to nothing. There were scores of tracks, scat, trails, and signs the bear pigs had been there, but they were all old.

The killing of four bear pigs might have scared them off, but Samira still had an itch between her shoulder blades that something was watching them. Stalking and hunting them in turn.

Although they had not run into the bear pigs they had run into some other creatures. More iron birds, a flying snake creature, and a carnivore tree, the latter nearly eating Yasimir.

The forest seems to be filled with many more predators than it was normally possible. It could have been due to the Scotty Beams bringing in more creatures from other worlds or as Dal had suggested that animals were killing each other for mana and to grow in power. That would mean the animals had some kind of System of their own, which made Samira nervous on what that could mean.

Her line of thought was interrupted by Yasimir and her scouts swinging out of the trees. They silently landed and made their way to the group.

“Found corpses, bear pig. Two of them.” Yasimir said. “Not far from here.”

***

“Well, this isn’t our kill,” Samira said as she knelt beside the corpse of a bear pig. The head had been torn off and its internals were spread everywhere. There were signs of scavengers, the pecking of iron birds had stripped some flesh off the creature, but there was enough remaining to see what had happened.

“Big guy came through and shredded them,” Samira said, tracing a long slash along the hide of the dead bear pig. The hide of the creatures were tough and the slash was deep. “Bear pig on bear pig crime.”

“They kill one another?” Yasimir asked.

“Looks that way,” Samira said. “I’m not sure why, this isn’t normal behavior. You said that they didn’t attack and weren’t really cooperative with one another.”

“Yes,” Yasimir responded. “They did not fight when they came across one another and only worked together when there was enough food to feed both.”

“The second is the same,” Garran said when he and the trio returned from inspecting the second bear pig. “The claw marks are the same as the bear pig, but these ones are larger and deeper.”

“Larger and deeper,” Samira sighed. “You know what this means?”

“That the monsters are able to grow in power too,” Garran said.

“It’s killing its own kind, though. Why would it do that?” F’darr asked. “There are plenty of creatures in these forest, its so rich in game. I could reach out and pluck food from the trees itself.”

“The only signs of the creatures being consumed are from scavengers, like the iron birds. So it is not food.”

“Maybe the mana is screwing it up somehow?” Samira wondered. “Messing with its mind.”

“Making it power hungry?” Lokkar asked. “They grow with kills like we do, does that mean they have a System of their own?”

Samira shrugged. “Either way, we still need to kill it. Especially now, it’s getting stronger and soon it might be too much of a threat for us.”

“It leaves a trail of dead,” one of the Cuthoma scouts said. “It heads toward the mountains, the west side of the lake.”

The hunting party had been gradually heading north and west, finally arriving to the massive lake that the Cuthoma were fishing from. Samira was impressed by the size of it, a decent sized lake for fishing and other water sports. She didn’t know if it came from this world or another, but it looked right out a tourist brochure.

A crystal clear lake, surrounded by thick forests and snow capped mountains. If it weren’t for killer bear pigs and who knew what else kind of creatures in this world, Samira figured it would be a great place for a cabin. In fact, it had been the type of place her Ex and she had been planning on retiring too. A place to do some fishing, enjoy the mountains and raise their kids…

Samira frowned and got to her feet. “Alright, even if this thing is mutating, we still need to kill it. Off we go.”

The others nodded and they followed the trail of the dead.

The day was chilly even for Samira. The K’thari were suffering from the chill weather, but the Cuthoma seemed to be enjoying it. They moved without talking, the monkey birds in the lead and ready to alert if they came across anything.

Samira began to see the dead they Cuthoma had mentioned. There were those giant beaver looking animals and a few other creatures she had never seen before. Horse looking things with tusks, a tripod creature with green blood, and a long furry centipede that was as long as Garran.

A curious part of her wanted to dissect them, to see what they contained within. She had only seen the bear pigs inside, which were too far like a regular bear’s insides, but for its weird skeletal structure that allowed for eight legs instead of four.

That thought brought her back to the two creatures that they had found in the clearing with the humping bear pigs. They weren’t animals; that Samira was sure of. They had been wearing clothing, armor, and carried steel tipped spears. They were also four legged, four armed, and were covered in leathery yellow flesh.

Samira dubbed them centaurs, but they looked nothing like horses and humans, instead it was a wide roundish body that a four armed torso rested on. They had fought to the death, it seemed. The two were back to back and their spears were covered in dried blood. Whatever the two had been through, the bear pigs seemed to have been the last predator to attack them.

If it weren’t for the putrid state of the bodies, Samira feared the Cuthoma would have harvested them too. Although they had stripped the corpses and taken all the metal with them. Not after Garran and Lokkar took the spears and claimed them. Spears were always needed.

What had the two warriors or soldiers had been thinking when they finally succumb to the bear pigs. What was their world like and what did they think happened? Perhaps there were more of their kind out there in the world, just as she hoped that there were more humans out there too.

The terrain had become more rockier and the trees thinned as they moved along the western edge of the lake. Samira could see streams feeding into the creek that would eventually lead them to the storage units. There were more snowmelt creeks and streams that fed the lake, but it appeared the lake and creek didn’t connect.  She wondered if that meant that this lake had always been here. For all she knew, the Dirty Dozen had reshaped whole planets and this could have been originally Earth.

A fresh pile of scat showed that the bear pig was active in the area. Samira and the others went onto high alert. The scouts had pulled back as the trees had vanished and now it was mostly rock, scree, and thin pitiful saplings struggling to survive in gray dirt.

Samira looked to the sun overhead, in a few hours it would be getting dark. The bear pig was around and that was gong to cause them issues in finding a secure camping spot. Tents were out of the question, the last thing she wanted was to be inside a tent while being attacked by a bear pig.

Their backs against a wall or thick tree had been their main camping position for the last few days. Along with a big fire and watches being kept all night. Nothing had attacked them, but there had been many eyes glinting back at them during the nights. Either curious or hungry.

“We should begin heading back,” Samira said as they crested a small ridge. Twenty feet below was a thin stream that ran west to east, heading toward the creek.

“Hold,” hissed Garran. He crouched and all followed suit.

Samira scanned the small canyon and immediately saw what had caught Garran’s attention. The thin stream came from a large fissure in the face of a stone cliffside. That wasn’t the interesting part, what caught the eye were the corpses tossed about randomly.

“Glad we’ve been boiling the water,” Samira said, glancing at the bodies within the stream itself.

“Is that the monster’s home?” Yasimir asked.

“If it’s not, then we have another creature to contend with,” Samira said. She eased off her shotgun. The trio followed suit, readying for possible battle.

“I don’t see any movement,” Lokkar said.

“Could be hunting or it could be slumbering,” Garran suggested.

“It’s a daytime hunter,” Samira said. “We’ve all seen them in the daytime, anyway.”

“So, we set up trap and kill it when it comes home,” F’darr said.

Samira looked back up at the sky once more and then to her watch. “We don’t have much time for this,” she said. ”We need to find shelter and come back tomorrow.”

The others nodded. It was tempting to go in now and try to see who was home, but as it was, they had no idea where the bear pig was. The fissure was massive, a dark scar along side the granite clifface. Why the bear pig was bringing back the dead was another worrying question. It appeared that many were partially consumed, so was it creating a larder for itself?

Samira motion for the others to head out, when she stopped. At the mouth of the fissure opening, a dark figure appeared. Eight legged and lumbering, it nudged a corpse before moving on toward another.

“That’s not the bear pig we’re looking for,” Garran said.

Samira nodded. This was a pup or a cub or whatever one called a baby pig. Piglet? Bearlet?

They had encountered the adult versions of the creature and although the cub was large, it was not adult sized either. The cub began gnawing on a fresher corpse.

“Is it breeding or did it come with a baby?” Samira asked.

No one knew.

“There’s something off about it,” F’darr stated. She held a pair of binoculars to her eyes and scanned the little valley.

Samira followed suit, using the .22’s scope to glass the cub. It took a moment to see what F’darr meant. There were odd chitinous growths upon its body. They punched through the fur and seemed to extend in various directions, thick, black, and serving some unknown purpose. The cub didn’t seem to mind the growths, as it ambled along eating what was scattered about.

“What’s up with the kiddo?” Samira wondered. Surely it couldn’t have been born like that, it would have torn up the inside of anything living as it came out. Mutation? The lingering thought of mana crawled back into her mind.

A low growl startled everyone. As one, they all turned to see a large dark figure moving with terrifying speed up the slope to the ridge. Samira was confused at first, as this creature didn’t look anything like the bear pigs they had hunted. It was massive, nearly twice the size of the other bear pigs and it was covered in spiny growths that almost seemed to glow in the late afternoon sunlight.

“What,” Samira managed before the realization hit her. Her shotgun was up and she was already dumping mana into a Powershot.

The Cuthoma screeched and hopped away. They were no match for this creature and it was suicide to stay around.

Samira pulled the trigger. She was expecting to see a hit on the monster, but the moment she pulled the trigger the creature disappeared. Samira gaped. Her eyes were not playing tricks on her as she saw the dust trail following the bear pig slowly settle in the area it once had been.

A roar cut through her confusion, followed by a scream by Garran. She turned to see the mercenary get thrown back, the spray of greenish blood and steel plates filling the air. The bear pig was among them and it gnashed its teeth, snapping the spear Lokkar had thrust at it.

Samira pulled the trigger and cursed. She racked the shotgun and swung it around again to fire upon the creature. The buckshot slammed into the fleshy space between its front foreleg and its thick neck, snapping off a few spines along the way.

It did almost nothing.

Samira racked the shotgun again and this time dumped mana into it. That seemed to get the bear pigs attention as it swung it’s head and beady red eyes stared at her. As she fired, the creature disappeared.

She raced to the others and they stood back to back.

“It can teleport,” Samira said. “How can it teleport?”

The only answer was mana and levels. Was this what they were in for in this world? Creatures shaped by mana and with abilities that were decidedly unfair?

Samira’s body began to tremble as she tried to hold onto Powershot. She hadn’t tried it for this long before and she could almost feel the mana burning through her veins.

The bear pig appeared again, suddenly a massive shadow before F’darr. The woman fell onto her back as two sets of legs swung at her. Samira turned and fired, her shot off target. A boom resounded and the bear pig was missing some fur and half of two arms. It howled and vanished once more.

F’darr was breathing hard, but she seemed fine. The compound bow she had been given was broken, the metal and plastic, gears and drawstring had been sliced through by a claw.

A shadow appeared behind Samira. She threw herself forward and felt the rush of air as claws swung. She rolled painfully on the exposed rock and found herself falling into a fissure on the ridge. A moment of panic hit her as she fell into a slightly wider than she was hole. Her head painfully hit the stone and she tucked her feet in as another hiss of air flashed above her.

The bear loomed over her as she was stuck in a hole. It seemed to be mocking her as it stared down at her and then gaped its mouth to finish her off.

Samira dumped more mana into her Powershot and fired the shotgun into the creature’s face. Part of its face and jaw vaporized in an explosion of gore. The two madden red eyes stared at her in shock as she racked again and shoved the barrel into the monster’s mouth and pulled the trigger.

Goliath Bear Pig: killed

5000 mana

Bear pig hide

25 Crystal claws

25 redstones

Samira gasped and gagged as gore avalanched down upon her. Then the massive weight of the bear pig slammed down upon her refuge.

***

“I thought I was a goner there,” Samira gasped as she splashed water upon herself. She was covered from head to toe in blood and gore; it had nearly killed her. The entire weight of the bear pig had fallen on top of her. It was with some effort the Cuthoma and the trio was able to dig her out.

Garran was fine, the makeshift brigandine had saved his life. Although the slash across his chest was gruesome, they were shallow enough that they hadn’t gone through bone or muscle. Samira managed to stitch him up, before getting herself cleaned. She found it odd to see his green blood, but such was the new world. She hoped human medicine would work on him.

If the System worked as well on Garran as it did on Dal, then the wounds would heal spectacularly fast. It didn’t also hurt that Samira’s Nurse Perk had activated, reducing pain and increasing healing speed, along with giving her a bluestone.

“You have slain a great beast,” F’darr said.

“Well, we’re not done yet,” Samira said, gesturing toward the cave.

“It’s child,” Garran hissed. He sat stiffly as F’darr tried to salvage his brigandine. Samira felt for him, he was basically shirtless in the winter and was shivering slightly.

“We need to get you warmed up,” Samira said. “Build a fire. Lokkar and I will deal with this cub.”

“Me?” Lokkar asked.

“I will come,” Garran said, slowly getting to his feet. “The mission is not done.”

“As will I,” F’darr replied.

Samira wanted to argue, but she was also a bit intimidated by the dark slash in the cliffside. They had seen one cub, but there could have been more of them. It also was no small and cuddly animal, it was nearly the size of a pony.

Crystal claws. They were what was growing out of the bear pigs, long thin crystals that were sharp to the touch. Mana of some kind was definitely effecting these creatures and not in a good way.

The group marched toward the fissure, the monkey birds opting to stay out and guard the entrance. Yasimir was the only one to accompany them. It seemed the Cuthoma had a form of night vision that could be activated when they wished.  Why a species would evolve that trait was a mystery, but a fact that Dal would probably find fascinating.

They went in with flashlights out. It didn’t take long before the cub charged at them. Even at its young age, it was fearless.

“Do you feel that?” Samira asked. The air felt different as they had entered the cave. It was thick with a weird sort of energy, as if any wrong move would cause a lightning storm.

Ahead of them was a dim light coming from around a corner. The thin stream lead them onward and soon they found themselves in a large chamber. A large pool occupied one end of the chamber, with a thin stream of water coming from the rock face.

“Well, I guess we know where those mana flakes come from,” Samira said staring up at the vast array of glowing stones embedded into the rock.