Page 53 of Solivagant

I started walking again. He followed, continuing to play whatever game he thought this was as he stalked me through the woods. I tried a new path, and once again he let me get right up to the wall before he grabbed me and carried me all the way back to the house despite my struggling.

It seemed I was allowed to wander around, under his supervision. But I wasn’t allowed to leave. If I got too close to the wall, he’d start the game again. Resetting me to my starting position and letting me try futilely to find another way out.

“Enough!” I shouted as my boots met the lopsided porch yet again. “I’m hungry. I’m thirsty. I’m cold. I want to go home.”

His head gestured at the hanging chunks of deer.

“I can’t eat that.”

He huffed at me.

“For one thing it’s been hanging out here unprotected for god knows how long. It’s not safe to eat, and even if it were, I can’t eat raw meat like that.”

Tusks didn’t even have pupils, but I could still tell he was rolling his eyes at me.

“Let me go!”

This time his long tongue lolled out of his mouth as he hissed at me.

“Oh, fuck you,” I grumbled, marching inside and slamming the door behind me.

I needed to figure out a new plan. Surely he had to sleep at some point. I’d wait for that, then try to make my escape. Until then, I refused to play whatever stupid game this was where he followed me around only to drag me back here over and over.

There had to be something in this shitty house that could be of use to me. I started rummaging around through drawers and cupboards, though most things had either already turned to dust or were rusted and useless. Though I did find a kitchen knife, and while it weren’t very sharp anymore, it was a better weapon than none, and I tucked it into my belt.

I planned to start looking through the other rooms once I’d finished raiding the kitchen, but the scent of cooking meat drifted through the open window and holes in the walls. I peeked through one to see a small fire a short distance from the back porch. Tusks was out there, holding a stick with some kind of dead animal on it he was roasting over the flames.

While I’d suspected he had significant intelligence, I wondered just how intelligent he actually was, and how much he actually understood when I spoke to him.

His tail swayed from side to side, and I noticed something else small out there, chasing the fluffy end of it back and forth.

My suspicions were confirmed when I opened the back door and slowly approached.

Soft oinks greeted me, and the little piglet strolled over happily.

He hadn’t eaten her, then.

I lifted her up, careful of her little leg, only to notice the sticks and bandaging had been removed. And her injury was healed.

I was almost certain this was the same piglet, but there was no trace of the broken leg at all. I eyed Tusks suspiciously. Just what exactly was this beast really capable of?

He paid no attention to me. Just continued to cook what looked to be a duck over his fire.

Cautiously, I moved closer, letting it warm my skin as I took a seat on the other side of the flames to him.

The piglet trotted back to him, and his tail began to sway again, giving her something to play with.

He had such sharp teeth and claws, and his body was pure muscle under all the fur. He was undoubtedly a predator, and a fearsome one at that. He’d evidently already killed a deer, and now a duck. But he hadn’t killed me, and he was playing with a piglet that I suspected he’d somehow healed. I wasn’t sure what to make of it all.

What exactly was he? And what did he want with me?

Minutes passed as we sat in silence, then he moved, shuffling closer, and closer, until he sat down right next to me.

My stomach grumbled again, twisting in a hunger so intense it made me nauseous. Tusks tilted the stick in his hand, and I could see the duck on the end of it was plucked and roasted as he held it out to me.

I considered not taking it. I could probably hunt something for myself. But then my stomach twisted again and I sighed.

There was no reason for me to trust this creature, not when he was holding me here against my will, but as I took the meat from him, blowing on it until it cooled enough to eat, I had to wonder what it was about him that so settled the beast inside me.