Tales from the Wilds: II
"Listen man, you know I didn't mean anythin' by it..."
"Yeah, I get that. Doesn't exactly remove the the sting though." Kern complained, nursing his bitten hand. The two had slowed down compared to the two girls they were traveling with, at Varram's request. "I was just doing a bit..."
"Which got ya bit?" Offered the bulky Axol.
"Oh shut it!" Kern jabbed at the now chuckling Varram's side, soon not able to resist letting out an amused sigh of his own. Further ahead, the two girls shared a relieved look that no ill blod would be held.
"Furor's Crown. And by the looks, it comes here frequently." The canine man noted, squatting down to examine tracks at the bank of a small water stream.
"That would make for a suitable prey for our quest, would it not?" Luth pondered out loud, fairly certain of the answer.
"Yeah nah, for sure. That ain't a animal you'd wanna tangle with on your own."
"Uh... G-guys? When are those Rage-things most active?" The nervous sounding Magllaecian asked suddenly.
"... I think mostly dawn and dusk?" Kern responded without looking up, prompting their horned companion to throw off her rucksack to bring put her fishing rod.
"Oh, we should get some fishing done while we wait, right? Since it's almost midday and all."
“Wait-"
"Excellent initiative. We will need supplies for the treck back to base after all." The Veston interrupted whatever Kern was about to say.
"Thank you! I'll catch plenty stuff, just like by the rivers back home. I was honestly one of best, from my village anyway."
"Lookin' forward it! Good as the dried stuff is, nothing beats freshly cooked stuff."
"I know, ri-?"
"GUYS!" Kern shouts, interrupting the brief bonding moment of the rest of his group.
"What is it now?" groaned Luth, being the first to turn to Kern, only to completely freeze up along with the rest of the group as they to turn to look at their companion.
"Y-yeah. That." He points back up behind him with his thump where a large and bulky beast covered in bark-like fur antlers of ivory and mossy looking mane. For a moment, all is quiet as they stare down the angry creature in shock. Exhaling warm air from its nostrils down at the Magllaecian's hair turns out to be the spark to the proverbial gunpowder as a series of shouts echo the woods.
"AIIIIIEEEEEE!" shrieked Kern in fear as he threw himself to the side into the MUD.
"COME 'ERE!" roared Varram as he ran forward to grab the monster by the horns.
"AAAAAAH!" Mei screamed in panic, scrambling after her short sword.
But the loudest shout of them all, bar perhaps that of the Cervidae rearing up for its charge was the internal one of Luth as she ran to the side to get a better aim at the beasts legs with her bow. By the ancestors everything is falling apart. Oh gods. Oh fuck.