Page 69 of Solivagant

I turned toward the path back to the woods, and Tusks stood in front of me, extending up onto the fronts of his paws to be as tall as possible. He was, most infuriatingly, a lot taller than me. At least a foot and then some, and that wasn’t accounting for the horns.

I tried to step around him, and he stepped in front of me again.

“What are you doing?”

He huffed. But he wasn’t angry or defensive as he’d been the last time he’d stood in my way to stop me exploring. He was pouty and concerned. It was actually kind of cute.

“I’m really fine, okay? And if anything happens, I’m sure you’ll be right there to help me back here.”

He puffed air out of his nose in disapproval.

“Or am I going out alone?”

He shook his head rapidly.

“That’s what I thought.”

With a hand on his furry chest, I pushed past him. He let me.

I chose a new direction to head in this time, hoping it might have some answers for me, or at the very least, something to shoot, while also avoiding the area he’d been defensive of last time… and the altar.

Tusks followed close behind, extra vigilant at the moment, it seemed.

It didn’t really bother me. At least not as much as it had just a few short days ago. He was making no effort to be quiet or stealthy this time, though, so I highly suspected we’d scare off anything worth hunting before I got a chance to test out the rifle.

I sighed. Well, whatever. Maybe we’d be able to find some answers anyway.

The smell reached me before the sight. I knew the stench of decay specific to those body-copying fuckers, and sure enough, black ichor was splattered over trees, grass, and fallen leaves just off the path we were walking on. While I was far past the sight of one of the monsters’ bodies affecting me, I wasn’t expecting the… mess of it.

There were no large or recognizable features left of it, or whoever it had been impersonating. Flesh and viscera were scattered over a considerable area.

The longer I stared, the more I found. Entrails hanging from tree branches, stolen skin completely shredded into small, torn pieces. The thing hadn’t just been killed, it had been completely obliterated.

Tusks was very tense beside me.

“Did you do this?” I asked, still tracking the sheer scale of the gore.

When I turned to look at him, he seemed hesitant to own up to it, but ultimately nodded briefly, once.

It was a completely different kill to anything I’d seen him hunt before. It hadn’t been for food, evidently. Perhaps for sport? Or maybe there were another reason. Maybe he hated them as much as I did. Maybe they’d taken someone from him too.

He seemed nervous of my reaction to his destruction.

I exhaled, slow and heavy. “I kill them too.”

He tensed.

“Me and Tash. She’s a friend. We go out looking for the bastards. I thought she was brutal with them.” I huffed. “She hasn’t got anything on this, not even with her chainsaws.”

His expression morphed from nervous to angry, and he huffed at me.

“What?”

He shook his head.

“Oh, I see. I’m not allowed to kill them. Only you are. Is that right?”

His nose scrunched, and he puffed out his chest as he stood big and tall.