Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Two - Meat New People

I liked taking the first watch because it let me sleep uninterrupted until it was time to wake up. Plus, I didn't really feel like cooking.

I did my part, and I don’t think either of my friends were big fans of cooking, but we muddled along decently enough.

So yeah, I wouldn’t admit it to my friends, but I was being a little bit selfish when I took first watch to avoid having to do morning chores. I felt a teensy bit bad about it too. Maybe we’d set up a rotation, that way I only had to do the breakfast stuff one day in three?

Those were the kinds of hazy thoughts I was dreaming up when I felt Awen shaking my shoulder. “Mmm? Already?” I asked.

“No, Broccoli, you need to wake up,” Awen hissed. “Amaryllis, you too, come on.”

I blinked a few times. There was some urgency there, and I couldn’t smell any breakfast in the air. Had I been dreaming about skipping out on chores then? Why was Awen worried?

I sat up, rubbed my face, then looked around. Early morning sunlight was staining the outside of the tent a pale blue. “What’s going on?” I muttered.

“There’s someone here!” Awen whispered. “I saw them in the grass. They saw me too, I think.”

“Oh,” I said. Then with a bit more urgency. “Oh!” Amaryllis was up too. My poor harpy friend had the middle watch, so she’d probably only had an hour of sleep, but she still moved fast.

Awen snuck back out of the tent, grabbing her crossbow on the way out as well as a bundle of bolts.

Night clothes flew around the tent as Amaryllis and I got dressed in a hurry. Usually we did that one at a time for privacy’s sake, but there was no time for that. I set down my breastplate with my gambeson still in it, then with a twist of mana near my tummy, made myself smaller.

It was a neat trick I’d figured out for my new Proportion Distortion skill. I was now a good few centimetres shorter and thinner, which made it easy to slip into my armour, shove my hands through the armholes, then let go of the magic so that I returned to my normal size. I’d just saved myself a couple of minutes of strapping pieces on, and with a pulse of Cleaning magic, I wasn’t even gross from sweat and stuff!

Amaryllis snorted as she shrugged her coat on, then she gestured to the outside of the tent. “How do you want to play this?”

“We don’t know what’s out there,” I said. “Maybe it’s friendly?”

“Ah yes, friendly people love sneaking up on others,” Amaryllis said as she walked out of the tent, talons still working to buckle on her strange harpy pants.

I stumbled out after her, grabbing Weedbane on the way out and laying the still-folded scythe onto my shoulder. A glance around revealed... not much at all. There was still that large boulder right next to the place we’d chosen to camp at. It was serving as a decent windbreak, preventing the constant breeze across the plains from ripping our tent away. Around us were two hills with nothing much on them except for hip-high grass.

Anything could be hiding in that grass.

Or nearly anything, I supposed. Anything within a certain size range.

“Where did you see them?” Amaryllis asked.

“Just one person,” Awen said. She gestured with a nod to the west, the same direction the wind was blowing toward. “I saw them over there, maybe fifty paces away. They poked their head out above the grass then ducked back down.”

“Any details?” I asked. “Was it a cervid?” That would have been impressive. Cervid were kind of tall, though I supposed they could be crouching. Or it could be a small cervid.

Awen shook her head. “No. They were humanoid.”

“Harpyoid,” Amaryllis corrected absently. I snorted, which earned me a look from Amaryllis but no comment.

“Awa, I didn’t get a good look at them? They had a hat on. Like a brown hat with a wide brim. I didn’t see any weapons but they could have something.”

“If all you saw was their upper torso then they could have anything. A bow, a sword, even a spear if it wasn’t raised,” Amaryllis muttered. "To say nothing of combat magic."

“Or no weapons at all if they’re just friendly people,” I pointed out.

Amaryllis huffed a sort of ‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’ sort of huff. “Alright, well this is cutting into my sleeping time, so let’s get it over with.” Amaryllis took a deep breath. “We know you’re out there! If you want to cause trouble, come out and cause it. If you’re peaceful then you have nothing to worry about from us.”

“I don’t?”

All three of us jumped and spun around. There was someone standing on the boulder. Or maybe they were laying on it; all I could see was their upper body. It was a young woman, I think. She had a cowboy hat on, which cast a deep shadow over her face and a leather vest over her torso.

She was also covered in beige fur and had a pair of ears squished down by the brim of her hat. And a bow. I couldn’t forget the shortbow currently pointed in our direction, even if the bowstring wasn’t drawn back.

“Uh, hi!” I said.

The young woman stared at me for a moment, then at my companions. She pointed to Awen. “Human person,” she said. Then she pointed to Amaryllis. “Talking chicken meat.” then she pointed to me. “Talking rabbit meat.”

“Uh.”

“Meat’s not supposed to wear clothes like people,” the cat-person said. She fiddled with the string of her bow, whiskers twitching even as she looked at us with narrowed eyes.

“We’re not meat,” I said. “Well... okay, I guess technically we are.”

“Broccoli,” Amaryllis warned.

“No, that’s a vegetable, those are gross,” the furry-faced cowgirl said.

I sighed. “Can we start this over? My name is Broccoli Bunch, these are my friends, Awen and Amaryllis. We’re from the Exploration Guild.”

The person on the rock stared at us for a long moment before loosening her hold on the bowstring. “I’m Savan,” she said. “Hello, rabbit meat Broccoli and chicken meat Amaryllis. Also human Awen.”

“Hello Savan,” I replied with a little wave. “What are you doing out here in the plains?”

“Hunting for meat,” Savan said.

I was really hoping she wasn’t adding us to the menu there because otherwise things might get a little awkward. “Well, we’re just camping here on our way north. We’re looking for a group that’s chasing after cockatrices that way.”

Savan’s expression lit up. “Oh! The hunter caravan. I know where they are.”

“You do?” I asked.

She nodded. “They buy my meat.”

“That’s great,” I said. “Um. I hope you understand that we’re not... meat, right? Because I’m sure they wouldn’t want to eat us. I’m very bony and Amaryllis here probably tastes sour.”

“Pardon me, what does that mean, exactly?” Amaryllis asked.

“See.”

“She’s spoiled too,” Awen added

That earned her a weak swat from Amaryllis and a muttered “Look who’s talking.”

Savan laughed and lowered her bow fully. “It’s okay. Calamity told me not to shoot people that talk unless they shoot first or are rude. You’re not rude for meat, so I won’t shoot you.”

“Great!” I said. “Did you have breakfast yet, Savan? I think Awen was about to start preparing something. We have enough to share with a new friend!”

Savan Ah

Dream: To eat so much meat she explodes, then nap

Desired Quality: Someone who’ll keep her fed and scratch her on that one spot next to her ears

Savan seemed like a ... very simple kind of girl. She bounced down from her rock, revealing that she wore jeans-like pants dyed a pale brown that actually matched some of the more faded grass and tall boots. A quiver hung by her waist from a belt, with cloth stuffed between the arrows so that they didn’t rattle when she moved. In fact, I bet Savan had a few stealth skills because she hardly made a sound.

“What’re we eating?”

Awen was the one who replied, mostly by listing off what we have in our ration packs. Savan looked dubious about some of the options, but she lit up when Awen offered to warm up a can of salted meat paste for her.

Amaryllis provided the heat and, since it was unlikely we’d get any more sleep, I got to packing up the tent and the rest of our stuff while Awen tended to the food under Savan’s watchful eye.

“So, do you think you could lead us back to the hunter’s caravan?” I asked. “We’re looking for someone called Deiter, and also maybe some information, while we’re at it.”

“I can do that,” Savan said. “But Calamity sent me out to hunt.”

“Who’s that?” I asked. Once our stuff was packed away again I sat down on the grass next to Savan. “Also, if it isn’t mean... what are you, exactly? I’ve met all sorts of people, but you’re the first one like you I’ve met!”

Savan laughed. “I’m a big cat. We come from around here, and I heard that there’s packs of us to the west too, across the mountains.”

“Cat folk aren’t too uncommon,” Awen said as she tipped the pan onto some plates. It looked like she was preparing a big portion for Savan and a few smaller ones for the rest of us. Savan got my share of the meat, of course. “There’s a lot of differences in the... subspecies of them. I guess that’s what you’d call the different groups.”

“Yup,” Savan said. She grinned as she took her plate and then, after searching inside her vest, she pulled out a small leather kit which she opened to reveal a few tools. Including a fork. She dug in with gusto right after. “Mmhm, there’s a lot of us here, and around the Flats. We hunt because it’s fun and do what we want because we can.”

“Oh? Do you have your own nation?” I asked.

Savan snorted. “As if.”

“From what I recall the cat folk are notoriously... cat-like in their tendency to do whatever they want,” Amaryllis said.

“They have a weird reputation,” Awen added. “Some people called them lazy--” Savan laughed at that while nodding. “--but some of them are really hard workers. They don’t really do... bosses and such.”

“Oh, we will,” Savan said. “I work for people all the time! But only if I like them. I like you. You gave me meat. Want to hire me? I kill things good.”

I held back a giggle of my own. “Maybe we can trade the food you’re eating for your help in getting us to the caravan? We might get lost otherwise.”

Savan shrugged. “Okay. I don’t ever get lost, so I’ll show you how to get there.” she nodded while her tail, which was long and whippy, flicked from side to side behind her.

I’d spent enough time with Orange to know that she was probably in a good mood. “Oh, I have a spirit kitten!” I said. “Would you like to meet her?” I’d left Orange in Caprica’s care, mostly because it made Caprica and Gabrielle really happy.

“A spirit kitty? I’ve never eaten spirit meat before!”

Or maybe I could leave Orange in their care for a while longer. She was probably being pampered right now, if I had to guess, and she’d be a bit miffed if I took her away from, only to have someone try to eat her.

***