Chapter 4: Fight or Flight

Tom sat back down contemplating what exactly had gone wrong. If he couldn’t trust his compass maintaining a direction would be incredibly difficult especially in a forest. He elected to run a little experiment to test his compass, he cleared some ground, set down the offending item, and marked north in the dirt, with a 0, set a timer for 1 hour on his wristwatch, and made ready to entertain himself.

He spent the day checking on the compass and his immediate surroundings, he found some berries and tried one to see if they were poisonous, so far nothing bad had happened, and it had tasted fine if a little sour, so he guessed not, first alien fantasy food, hehe. The compass readings were however troubling, the needle had been moving seemingly randomly throughout the day. the deflection had maxed out at 41 degrees! But there was no telling if even that deflection could be counted on. At this rate, it would be completely useless. As he sat pondering this development and the predicament it caused, he heard a branch snap to his left, he looked up to see a young deer, though not quite? It had too many markings. A black and white stripe ran along its back, and it still had the white dots of a fawn. its legs were longer too, as it almost seemed too slender and even for a deer, almost like a big Bambi? The two stood there for a moment glaring, the deer elected this was a dangerous situation and scampered off through the woods in long bounding leaps of over 10 meters! It was extraordinary to watch. it was moving fast too, faster than any deer he’d ever seen.

As Tom stood there for a while, mouth half agape contemplating the wildlife, his belly rumbled in protest to only receiving one berry for lunch. Might as well put the rifle to use, he thought, as long as I don’t stray too far from the camp it shouldn’t be a problem. With that, he set out to tail the deer, from a distance. The large trees, resulting in such relatively open spaces there would be plenty of easy shots. it only took about 30 minutes, to track down the deer, Seemingly not having run far, not judging him too much of a threat apparently. Well, that was about to be a costly mistake, he wondered what something so delicate looking might taste like? As the crack of a rifle rang out in the forest, echoing between the trees, the deer tensed setting off into a stumbling, run. It didn’t get far, the shot hit square in the shoulder blade, turning the heart and other vital organs to mush, and staining the ground in a spray of blood, honestly, this gun was overkill for this, but it was what he had brought.

The deer tasted just like deer, fine if a little disappointing it hadn’t been some kind of magically delicious, but it made a good diner with the addition of some powdered mash potato, and some of the many spices he had brought with him, for trade purpose. There was meat for quite a while leftover too. The compass had continued to veer around within the previously recorded maximum deflection from normal. As Tom hit the sack for the night, his mind was racing, what could cause a compass to veer like that, it was almost like a weather vane blowing in the wind… “God damn it!” the loud protest seemingly falling on deaf ears. "I’m on one of those floating islands I saw and it’s not staying put, fuuuuck!"

The next morning tom butchered the deer, to the best of his ability, even if it really should have had time to hang a bit longer than a night, it was still food and he should really be rationing the stuff that could last indefinitely. With that, he mounted the trusty quad and set out to try and keep a direction the old fashioned way. If it was the whole place moving not even the sun or moon would be useful, not that either was easily spotted through the canopy. So paths and lining up trees would have to do. As the hours went by he was making progress he thought, at least he had not yet had any Deja Vu moment’s, and a little after lunch he’d found what seemed to be the foot of a small mountain or cliff. As he looked up it seemed tall enough to reach above the canopy. This was an opportunity he couldn’t miss, as he needed a vantage point desperately.

So once again he left his trusty quad behind. Luckily rope and basic climbing equipment were among the things he had packed for the trip. It wasn’t a very difficult climb either, not terribly steep and with plenty of handholds, and the low Gravity sure didn’t hurt. though it did seem like an awfully long way, by his reckoning at least 100 to 120 meters to the top. he had left his rifle behind, it wasn’t easy to climb with it over his shoulder. he did brink his small backpack though, with some food and water.

He had made it no more than 20 meters up before he starting hearing the wingbeats, combing from behind him! He turned to look and was confronted by ghastly looking, winged creatures. it had two legs and wings like a bat with some pretty scary claws on all of them too, its leathery skin was a reddish black, 4 front-facing eyes crimson red and it had a long tail with a nasty looking spike at the end. And he was facing multiple of the buggers. With wings spanning nearly 4 meters, it wasn’t exactly small either, even if the creature itself seemed about his size. As the first one came in tail first looking to stab him, he dropped down into the rope harness, falling a few meters, causing the creature to overshoot. He drew a revolver, but even as he was taking aim, the next came screeching in skewering him in the side of his abdomen, just under his vest. It latched on to the cliff with its wing claws and went to bite at his face. He just managed to bring up the gun under its chin and blew its head to pieces, covering himself in much of the gore in the process. The stab in the gut hurt like hell and he screamed out “Well Fuck you too!” as the now limp monster went tumbling to the ground.

Looking up he saw the first one going at the rope, he brought up the gun to fire, but his arm struggled to move, it felt like it was stiffening up! He and the creature raced to finish their tasks he felt the rope give way, just as he got the gun on target. The shot went wide with the lurch of the rope snapping, and he clipped the thing in the wing. Now falling he thought to himself, this wasn’t quite how he had planned this trip to end, struggling to come to terms with the fact he probably just died. As he fell a third creature swoop in and stabbed him again this time in the thigh, and latched its claws around his waist, and heaved to carry its quarry away. As Toms body finally succumbed to the second dose of the poison he stiffened up completely looking at the ground, he swore he heard more of the things chittering to each other in some weird guttural tone, where were they going, and was that shouting coming from behind him?

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Being a huntress was about awareness and stealth, you had to track your target and spot it before it noticed you, so having your target sneak up on you instead, was a mark of disgrace for any hunter. Yet that was what appeared to have happened to them. Sapphire and her hunting party were resting on the small clifftop they had so often used to rest, and have midday snack, and were lazily catching what heat they could from the midday sun. The surprise had been total as Sapphire rushed to her feet at the sound of the thunder crack! but it was a perfectly clear day, and it had come from below? Fengi shouted out claiming she had heard what sounded like shouting coming from further down the cliff? there was definitely something going on down there. as they all scrambled to pack their things away, Dakota took the lead “On me” bellowing out in her signature commanding voice.

As the five-strong hunting party dove off the side of the cliff, racing towards the commotion bellow, Sapphire readied her bow. Another loud thunder crack sounded, it was definitely coming from further down the cliff. As they broke through the canopy they were confronted by 5 vargulfs, seemingly already turning to flee. “look’s like they're running” shouted Esmeralda “well don’t let them” replied Dakota, the Queen of the hunt taking the lead and pulling out of the dive to give chase through the woods, bow at the ready. Looking back at the cliff where the noise had come from, Sapphire saw what looked like a rope dangling from the cliff face, and one vargulf already on the ground with another following close behind it, tumbling to its inevitable doom. “They grabbed someone I think, there are two dead beasts and a cut rope back there ”she shouted out to the others. “well then we better catch them, if nothing else I wanna know who has been wandering around in our back yard” replied Dakota “what kind of maniac goes climbing this far into the woods” Jackalope Piped up “and how did he get here” Esmeralda added.

As the hunters gave chase their initial dive did buy them some ground, those bastards were quick though at least in a straight line, but the lead vargulf did seem to be carrying something. though Sapphire couldn’t tell what it was exactly, most likely the unlucky climber, and probable moron, though he had killed two already? “lead guy’s got the cargo”

“Try not to kill it I have questions” Dakota shouted in response

At least the weight it was slowing it down a bit Sapphire thought. As the huntresses gave chase firing at the trailing vargulf’s, who was trying to protect the one carrying their precious cargo. whatever it was the bastards wanted it badly, enough to risk their own skin too.

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Tom could hear the now seemingly even more agitated squawking of the creatures, as they were clearly being chased by something, the sounds coming from behind them were muffled by the air, so he couldn’t make out much other than there was something back there. That is when they had started taking fire. Okay, it was only arrow fire but that could mean only one thing. There were civilized people giving chase! This could be very good or very bad, but going by his current situation anyone trying to kill the monster bat things, were good guys in his book. The monster ducked and dived through trees, desperately trying to make distance, while avoiding getting shot. It was doing well so far, if not for the paralysis, gut wound, and incoming arrows, Tom would have thought the ride thrilling, with all its speed and acrobatics. As it was he was starting to get concerned about what would happen if one of the arrows hit its mark. the ground seemed an awfully long distance away...

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Sapphire tucked in her wings rolling through a cleft tree trunk, she felt the thrill of the hunt, she was right on them and they would not be getting away this time. As she let loose arrow after arrow one finally flew true, hitting a vargulf in the back, it screeched in pain, the crimson streaming from its back, she could almost taste it in the air, flicking out her tongue. As it began to slow from the pain, Dakota put another shot into it hitting a shoulder joint, the vile Creatures rightwing buckled and it fell to the ground with a thump, screaming all the way down. One down 4 to go.

Despite the success, the speed was taking a toll on the hunters, Sapphire panting heavily already, and Fengi had begun to lose ground, being the youngest among them. Vargulfs were no joke in a straight line. they wouldn’t be able to keep up much longer, not at this speed. it would be a shame to only get 2 though, even if whatever was being carried off had already taken another 2 today.

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Tom was not too pleased to see the results of what an arrow hit had done to the airworthiness of one of the monsters, that currently constituted his ride. He began frantically trying to work out what he could do in this situation, why didn’t he bring the parachute from the trailer, “goddammit!” he proclaimed stunned for a second that his mouth had started working again. Apparently, this stuff wasn’t very long-term? He began struggling to move his limbs and slowly started making progress, making sure not to lose the grip on his beautiful new revolver still clenched tightly in his right hand. The creature seemed too preoccupied to notice its quarry beginning to wiggle, the same however could not be said for the nearest of its companions, Tom heard screeching from behind him and it sounded as if it was getting closer fast. Forcing his arms to obey and bent down despite catastrophic pain from his abdomen, grabbing the gun with both hands he took aim as best he could. Looking back he saw the tail spike of yet another creature coming straight at his face, on sheer reflex he pulled the trigger, and by some kind of miracle blew the end of the tail clean off, and missed his own foot by millimeters.

Now though, his ride seemed to have noticed its cargo was awake, tightening its grip on his stomach and shaking him violently, he couldn’t just shoot it that would doom him to a slow death by falling, and he was being flailed around far too much to do any precision shooting even at this range so he drew his knife with his offhand and tried his damndest to land a stab on the body of this thing. It was an awkward situation, almost like trying to hit somebody on your back.

Tom squirmed in the creature’s claws trying to land a hit, he nicked the thing a few times but nothing that managed to do more than scratch its hide. This isn’t going brilliantly he thought to himself, fighting through the pain, on the adrenalin high. Apparently, the creature agreed, as it rounded one of the large tree trunks it circled back heading straight for their pursuers. the g-forces in the turn were not to be sniffed at and Tom found himself struggling to raise his head to see. As it came around Tom look up just getting a glimpse of something white and blue streaking towards him, as the creature threw him at its pursuer, Shiii, was all he managed to think before impact.

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Sapphire had flinched at the sound, as a flash of fire burst out from under the lead vargulf, the blast had taken the tail off one of the following beasts with it! What was a magic user doing on the ground in the middle of their hunting grounds!? They needed to get it alive she thought, it might be a spy or some other nefarious thing.

“What the hell was that?” exclaimed Jackalope.

“Magic I think” Esmeralda added helpfully.

“Tell you what if you’re the one to catch it I’ll let you ask first, now get it” Dakota ordered letting loose another arrow at the wounded vargulf that was seemingly too preoccupied with finding its tail, dropping it too with a shaft to the neck.

Sapphire had managed to close the range with the lead vargulf, it clearly struggling with its now moving passenger. Turning to flank it around the grand oak, as she rounded the huge grand oak, what greeted her wasn’t the clean shot she had been hoping for, instead, she got a face full of whatever the blasted creature had been carrying, she had been tricked by a Vargulf?