Goblore Pt. 02

"You think I could borrow a knife or something?"

"No point. You'd just hurt yourself."

Jesse frowned. After a few minutes of searching on their path, he found a cane-sized stick. If he couldn't protect himself, maybe he could inconvenience any attackers. He picked it up and cleaned away the rest of the branches from it. Now he had a means of defence, if a somewhat awkward one.

He kept his mouth shut for at least half an hour of walking. He was beginning to wish he'd worn sneakers to the car. It would be too much to wish for hiking boots. He tried to keep his mind off a growing ache in his feet, which hadn't healed at all from his last trek through the forest.

"So...Vee told me you were all teachers at some point?" he asked.

Huntress grunted a vague affirmative.

"But now you're a hunter?"

"Yes."

"How do you make that transition?"

"Hunger."

"You don't talk much, I take it."

"I only talk when I have things to say."

"And you don't right now?"

"No."

"No questions about where I'm from? What my species is like?"

"Irrelevant."

That caught his attention. Huntress hadn't delved into multisyllabic words in their conversation before. "Why is me being a completely alien race irrelevant?"

"You offer no discernible physical skill. Judging by this conversation, the same can be said of your mental capacity. You are an unimportant factor in the continued survival of my village and will likely die in the wilderness. So, I harbour no particular curiosity as to your past or your appearance, any more than the shape of the bark on one of these trees."

Jesse tried not to look hurt. A pretty cutting, if realistic, assessment. "What did you teach?"

"Philosophy. You have time to think in the wild. Silence is necessary. For instance: right now."

Huntress held up her hand, but Jesse barely registered it before blundering past her. With surprising strength, she yanked on his belt and stopped him cold.

"Wha-" he said, cut off when she gave him a universal signal to shut his yap: holding his mouth closed with her hand. He nodded, crouching down closer to her level and scanning around them. He saw nothing out of the ordinary. The forest was oddly comforting, given how similar the shapes of the trees were to those of Earth. If he squinted, and ignored the green woman to his right, he could imagine he was back in the woods near his home town.

The illusion melted away in his mind due to a growling noise that sounded like know animal he'd ever heard before. A deep rumble that he could feel in his chest even though the source had to have been several metres away at the very least. Like he was near a speaker at a concert.

His whole body tensed. He thought back to the giant pawprint he'd seen before he was caught. Huntress had her bow ready to fire, but did not apply tension yet.

"Come on out, wolven," she said in an artificially steady tone, "There's no point in hiding."

"Wolven?!" Jesse asked/whispered/screamed, "What the fuck's a wolven?!"

The entity moved. All Jesse could see was the darkened shape moving through the greenery. He could hear the hustle of leaves and the crack of branches snapping under its feet. The sounds it made made them spin around, searching for its new location.

It was circling them.

Huntress continued. "We don't have to do this. This giant lump and I are on our way through. There isn't any-"

A growl shook the very air around them.

"GREEN ONE," it said. The voice sounded like a bumper dragging on a gravel road. Inhumanly deep, with slurred annunciation and at a pace that made it seem like the effort of speech took intense concentration. "You and your kind are not...not allow in forest."

"The folk don't own this forest anymore. Tell your masters we aren't leaving."

The haze of black and grey crashed into view from the thicket in front of them. Jesse tumbled backward. He landed hard on his tailbone, dropped the walking stick, then attempted to skitter away on all fours. Huntress held her ground. She didn't even fire her bow. She was in almost the same stance as she had as before, save for a lot of flexing tension in her muscled arms.

The beast was at least eight feet tall, probably more if it wasn't slouched over. It had the face and neck of a wolf-like creature, but its body was humanoid...to a point. Digitigrade legs and paws that could grasp yet also had claws added to the incongruity, and dispelled some of the notion that this was merely an elaborate costume rigged up by a charlatan or a Hollywood movie crew. Jesse was wondering when the moment was that deciding that the wolf man in front of him was real became the more practical, realistic option.

"NO MASTERS," it bellowed. Watching its mouth move to form language was fascinating, like its mouth wasn't meant to make those kinds of noises. Only one iris stared them down, the other eyelid apparently sealed shut. It didn't blink or flutter in time with the other eye's movements, implying the two had become disconnected.

"Alright then," Huntress said, "No masters. Then why are you here?"

The question seemed to take the creature aback. "I...not sure. Need food, can hunt. Need water, can drink. No pack...no pack. Need purpose...need purpose." It paced back and forth, emitting grunting and grumbling noises and speaking in inaudible tones.

"Your pack?" Jesse ventured. "Do you...do you hunt in groups?"

Huntress turned to him as if he'd just dared the creature to a fistfight. The wolven snarled, bearing its yellowed fangs.

"Pack Gone. Just Me. Can still hunt. Can Still Hunt!"

"Do you remember the way back to your metal box from here?" Huntress whispered.

He looked around. It all looked the same! But through the circling strides of the wolven, he could hear the distant rush of running water. He could keep that to his right and walk all the way back to where he hung his tie. "I think I can, but-"

"When I say move, run and don't look back."

"But I-"

"You idiot," she snapped. "You'll be the death of both of us."

The hairy beast stalked toward them. "CAN STILL HUNT!" it repeated, seemingly intent on proving its ability to catch prey.

Huntress pulled the string back on the bow. One flick and she could put an arrow through the creature's hide, though judging by the size, Jesse doubted that anything but a killing blow would stop it.

"Last chance, wolven," she warned, "If you're not with the folk, we have no quarrel. Metaphorically."

The one eyed beast snorted. "Green one lies. Everyone lies. Longpelt lies, disgraces One Eye. Maybe if One Eye kill green one and lump and drag back to pack. Show good hunter!" It stepped closer. Jesse stared at its knife-long claws. His blood ran cold.

"RUN!" Huntress screamed. Jesse obeyed, catching the sight of her bringing up the bow on his way toward barrelling through the trees. Soft thwips of bowfire were matched with the sound of meaty impacts as the shafts sunk into the thick flesh of the wolven. Fallen limbs snapped like twigs under the beast's footfalls, and Jesse didn't stop running. His mind was still getting around the idea of nonhuman life, and now a monster from a horror movie had come feet from ripping him apart. He felt helpless, frustrated at his lack of ability to even contribute to their defence.

The thick trunks gave way to the open floodplain of the river, gnarled branches from the eroded soil making definite trip hazards if he didn't watch his step. He paused, looking for sign of Huntress. She said to run, but he needed to know she was okay.

Seconds dragged by. Half of him wanted to charge in with another stick and try to save his short companion, and the other wanted to keep going on to the car. Maybe she'd lost the beastman and would meet him there? He swept a hand through his hair, thinking of his options. He'd just about took off against when he heard the crashing of trees and the howl of the werewolf-like creature. Sprinting out of the forest came the tiny green shape of Huntress, now with a trio of red gouges in the side of her arm.

"I told you to keep moving!" she screamed, then took off down the river bank, hopping and dodging exposed roots like a parkour expert. He took off after her, his longer stride helping him keep pace with a woman who was by all rights much more athletically fit than he was.

Of course, that same quirk of biology worked for their pursuer. A pair of trunks snapped apart as it crashed into the open. Jesse looked back, saw its snarling maw, and found new energy in his stride. He saw it bound on all fours toward them, only the snarls of tree roots keeping it from reaching a terrifying gallop that would quickly run them down.

Finally, he spotted something familiar. It was the edge of a depression running north from the creek. The ravine! The ravine led back to his necktie, the necktie to the arrow, the arrow back to the car. They could make it! He took the turn, and his companion followed close behind.

"How much farther?!" Huntress asked.

"Not long!" he said, then tried to estimate the times. Difficult, given that he hadn't had a watch on him, and he was travelling at a different speed. And the whole deadly pursuit going on. "Maybe fifteen minutes? Less?"

"We don't have fifteen minutes!" she screamed, firing another shot off. This one the wolven dodged, careening far to the right, the fletching of the arrow kissing its upper shoulder before it disappeared into the thicket.

"Fuck!" he yelled. With more arrows, more distance, maybe she'd be able to take it down. But they were almost out of both. They were so close! If he stepped on the gas and dived into the thickest part of the woods, heading in the direction of the car, he could probably get there before getting mauled to death. But what then? He rifled through the inventory of his supplies that he'd made in his mind. There had to be something.

His face lit up. There was.

"I have a plan," he began, though his breathing was getting heavy. This was more cardio than he'd done in a while, and he didn't actually know how much longer he could go. "It might not work, but it's all I got. I'll drag it through the thick greenery, you trail behind it and line up a shot in case I mess up."

"No dumb sacrifices, human," she said bluntly. He wanted to laugh, but didn't have the breath.

"No promises. At the very least, I'll make him earn this meal." He peeled off from the ravine to stand at the edge of the dense overgrowth. "Hey!" he shouted, waving his arms. The beast snarled at him, head swivelling in between the two before settling on Jesse, who likely looked like the much more tempting cut of meat. Why settle for an appetizer after all when you can have a main course?

Jesse burned through his remaining stamina, heart pounding as the lept and bounded through trees, ducking to keep from whacking his head one moment, sliding between two split trunks the next. He rode the edge of the clearing where he'd first seen this world's strange sun, keeping as much growth between him and the wolven as possible. As the ground became more familiar, he readied his terrible, horrible, no good plan.

At last, he could see it.

His car.

Its totally unnatural colour made it easily stand out from the foliage; an off-market brand of blue a previous owner had asked for that was basically begging to peel away at the slightest chance it got. But it was his, and it might very well be his salvation. He fumbled with the keys in his pocket before finding the remote trunk release. Two clicks and the hatch opened. He got there first, with the beast not far behind. He stuffed his hands in the Emergency Kit. Thankfully the zippers were still undone from when he'd took stock, and he knew exactly where the items had been placed.

With moments to spare he yanked out a red tube from the satchel. Looking up at the wolven, he screamed his feral defiance and yanked the cap off the road flare.

Nothing.

"Wait, what?" he asked no one. In the movies they lit up as soon as you took the cap off. Right? He examined the instructions for a fraction of a second before remembering that, yes, there was a giant wolf-like creature about to maul him to death. He half-stumbled, half-fell backward, narrowly avoiding being torn in two. The claws dug deep furrows into the body of his car. Jesse was more scared than any time in his life. Ready to make his peace with whatever god or gods watched over this world, he waited for the second claw to fall.

Instead, the beast howled! Its furry head snapped around, and Jesse got to see another feathered shaft sticking out its back. Finally, she'd hit something sensitive. Blood drizzled down, matting and staining its already knotted hair. Bought a few precious seconds by Huntress' arrows, Jesse figured out why it hadn't lit. The cap had a strike point. It was like a match! He aimed the flare, igniting it in a single swift motion.

It exploded to life. Red/white fire shot out the head in a chemical reaction that possibly hadn't been seen on this planet before. The beast recoiled from the sudden pyrotechnic display. Jesse swung, the flare's sparks licking at his dark, mottled hair. More of Huntress' arrows slammed home, burrowing deep. A casual swipe of its clawed hand nearly dismembered Jesse again, but it was striking without thought.

"Go on, leave!" Jesse said, holding the flare out protectively. Huntress circled around until her and the human were only a few metres apart. She kept her bow knocked, but he could see that she only had one more arrow in her quiver. She aimed for its remaining eye.

"Begone," she hissed.

With a ferocious growl, it bounded away out. Moving on all fours, the wolven's motions were far from graceful. It howled once more in pain, then disappeared into the trees.

***

"I can't believe that worked!" the awkward sack of beige meat said, holding his gigantic hands to his knees and catching his breath. Huntress had crossed the same distance he had with little of the preformative displays of physical exertion. Whatever his species, his lack of basic stamina put into question his fitness for survival.

And yet, he'd stood his ground against a wolven, armed with little more than an esoteric torch.

Brave, or stupid.

She bent over, examining the source of their salvation. It burned with a strange, red fire but with such ferocity that it easily outmatched even the most expensive lanterns she'd seen. She held her hand closer, feeling intense heat. Like a campfire with all its energy compacted into a single thin red baton.

"Your people are alchemists?" she asked.

"Of a sort. We have a few centuries of experience on you, but the principles of a road flare aren't that hard. It's...actually, I can look it up right now!" He headed around to one of the strange, wing-doors that the metal box had. She was reminded of the carriages that the rich parasites would ride around in back home in Voxus, and her opinion of Jesse dimmed further. He retrieved what looked like a rectangle of black slate, but after only a moment's pressure, it emitted an alien light totally unlike any she'd ever seen.

She tried to hide her genuine discomfort at such a sight. The "flare" was one thing; it burned like a fire ought to. This was something else. Solid, unwavering, yet totally distinct from the light of the sun or the stars. He rattled off an explanation filled with the nonsensical jargon on the natural sciences that would have interested Vee, but did nothing for her. Huntress' eyes fixed on the alien rectangle.

"I've known magic existed in times past. Logically, it had to. But to see it in person..." She trailed off, and she found her grip tightening on the bow in her hands.

He held up his hands. "Not magic! Just...Sufficiently Advanced Technology," he said, verbally stressing the capital letters on the last three words, "It's like a book that stores information in electric signals rather than ink."

"And the light?" she asked.

He flipped the tablet towards himself, played around with his fingers on its surface, then frowned. "Okay I have no idea how to describe an-" Jesse said a word here that sounded like 'Eleedee' but Huntress had no idea what that could mean - "without first describing subatomics. Suffice it to say...metal glows when heated, right? Run a current...current of electricity, not water, through some materials and it will glow in a similar way. My people found a way to control that effect to display information." He helpfully amended his explanation with a series of hand gestures that in no way aided in her understanding.

One of her many knives appeared in her hand, hidden from view. The philosophy wound deep around the very core of her being told her that this man could be a threat. Advanced metallurgy was one of Glexi's Seven Signposts to Decay in her treatise 'On Civilization'. If his people based their lives around such skill, it's no wonder they were so helpless. He could drag their small village down with them, drowned in a morass of technological convenience.

On the other, his people were clearly masterful artificers. The single carriage he had access to held more contiguous steel than she'd ever seen in a single object. And if his device had more secrets, truths from another world, the others could use them to survive. As much as she wanted to believe in herself and her mastery of the woods, she was but one person. The village needed dozens like her, all armed and trained to fight. Without that, they could get bowled over by any incipient tyrants who traipsed along. She'd used all her arrows and merely wounded a single wolven. If it returned with its pack...

The knife disappeared down her bracer into the hidden sheath within. She'd keep him safe, and guide the development of whatever technology he'd craft for the others. If Jesse proved to be the lurking poison that she feared he might be, he wouldn't feel a thing when the knife entered his heart.

***

"So do we start heading back?" Jesse asked, pocketing the phone.

Huntress picked up an arrow from the ground. Blood from the creature that had attacked them was already drying on its shaft. "It's wounded, but I don't know how badly. It will be dark in a few hours, not enough time to get back at least. I don't want to get stuck at night with an enraged wolven looking for revenge."

"So we stay here? We could sleep in my car. It's...well it has a bunch of windows, but at least it's out of the elements."

She looked past him to the metal carriage. "That's the most unnatural thing I've ever seen in my life. I'm sleeping outside," she stated flatly.

Both took the remaining hours of daylight to work on their own projects. Huntress set about making camp by constructing a crude lean-to and collecting firewood. Jesse tried his hand examining just how bad the damage to his car had been, and if it was salvageable. He was by no means a handy man, but as a regular driver, he'd encountered the occasional problem and had developed a decent ability change his tires, replenish fluids, and once in a feat of astounding competency, change the oil by himself.

He was, however, likely not going to fix this particular problem. The impact had bent the front of the car inward around a hefty tree that resembled an oak cosplaying as a redwood. Getting the hood itself to lift up was a trial in its own right. He ended up having to use the tire iron in his trunk, something that he might have to add into the inventory he made in his head, along with the pneumatic jack. Jimmying the tool into the bent metal and using it as a prybar, he got the lid loosened enough to lift normally.

"Fuck."

Part of his engine block had completely folded in, melding with the body of the car in an octopus of bent metal. It was readily apparent that, barring a minor miracle from Hephaestus, God of the Forge, he wasn't going to be driving anytime soon.