BORN OF HEROES

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 64
 

“I feel I should again apologize for the other day, Elias,” Kessus said as they traipsed through the woods a little less than a mile away from the castle.

  “For knighting me?” the fox replied with a chuckle, adjusting his hold on the twelve foot hunting spear he carried to keep it from getting hung up on saplings and shrubbery. Far ahead beaters were making noise by calling out, clapping and smacking two flat pieces of wood that were attached by a thin flap of leather together to drive out the saurapine they were after.

  “No,” the Marquis said with a chuckle. “For Countess Melissandra! She can be trying at the best of times. What was the business proposal that she wanted to talk to you about? Did you ever find out?”

  Elias shook his head. “Fortunately Cerise was able to fend her off. From everything I heard about the Countess, I doubt it would have been strictly legal.”

  “You’re more right than you know,” Kessus told the fox. “From what I’ve been able to gather the Countess is dabbling in questionable imports. All of her schemes tend to be get-rich-quick endeavors. It’s the only way that she thinks she can raise her line closer to ascension to the throne. She’ll throw money at anyone if she thinks they can help in that regard.” The coyote snorted in derision. “Not like the rest of the populace will let another inbred on the throne ever again. The time of Geller the Mad was bad enough.”

  “I don’t think I’m familiar with that bit of Tanthean history,” Elias told his companion with a raised eyebrow.

  “Well, Geller was one of those stellar examples of exceedingly poor breeding that-”

  Before the Marquis could divulge the former ruler’s qualities, a saurapine burst from a patch of thick undergrowth. Its sudden appearance and charge bowled Elias over as the creature tossed the coyote with his tusks and elicited yelps of surprise from both males. The fox rolled away like he’d been instructed as the huge animals had a habit of stomping on anything that got in their way, and as this one was far larger than the five hundred pound animal they were supposed to be hunting. Staying out from underfoot seemed like a great idea to Elias at the moment.

  He’d almost made it to the dubious protection of a tamtam-fruit tree when the pale citrine eyes of the animal locked in on the white fox. With a snort and mad pawing of the ground the beast let out a bellow before charging, the bull flinging its huge head left and right and slicing the air with the two pairs of tusks that grew almost three feet long on either side of its face and wicked spiraled horn in the center of its head.

  As Elias scrambled for cover, his spear all but forgotten, Olin and Baxter both rushed in with Randal right behind them. The movement caught the saurapine’s attention and it reared up on its thick rear legs, the front cloven hooves pawing the air as it bellowed again in anger. When it started to come down, the two males brought their spears up, driving the butts into the ground as they’d been shown.

  With its roar of challenge turning into a screech of pain, the saurapine impaled itself on the sharpened steel heads of the weapons, driving the spearheads deep into its body. Almost a thousand pounds of animal bent the shaft of Baxter’s spear, causing the panda to roll to the side as the animal pushed the weapons deeper in an attempt to get at the engineer. The combination of weight and sheer desire to cause harm to the little thing that hurt it snapped the shaft, tearing up the ground enough to dislodge the weapon that Olin still had a hold of, his bright eyes wide in shock and fear.

  The speed with which events happened caught the wolf-Chow off guard and as the butt of his spear tore free from where it had been buried in the ground, he was unable to let go. When the shaft sprung loose he was flung several feet into dense undergrowth. As such, after shaking his head to clear it from the ringing noise when his head had glanced off a low branch of a leka tree that was comprised of extremely hard, dense wood, he was unable to see the beast expire and slump to the ground.

  Lemuel had immediately rushed to his brother-in-law, though Elias waved him off even as he gasped for breath, thankful the Marquis had insisted on the archaic armor. “Kessus!”

  “I’m fine…I think,” the coyote said weakly from the other side of the hulking body of the saurapine.

  The Marquis was quicker to recover than Elias and stepped up to the bull, smiling slightly at Randal who was staring at the animal with wide eyes, his spear held at the ready and pointed towards the downed animal.

  “No fear, Randy!” the Marquis told the wolf cheerfully. “If it were still alive it would still be fighting.” The coyote looked at the beast and began to grin maniacally. “Splendid! This is the largest bull saurapine I’ve ever seen!”

  The others gathered around and looked at the dead animal. Elias had to agree that it was indeed an impressive creature and far larger than he thought at first. “How much does this thing weigh?” he asked in awe.

  “I think it’s got to be about twelve hundred pounds,” Randy said softly.

  “This might be a record!” Kessus enthused. “The game tenders will weigh it to get an accurate measurement. I think this is one for the record books, though! No one has ever brought down a saurapine this big on these lands!”

  “Is it dead?”

  The rest of the group turned to look at Olin as he emerged a little dazed from the underbrush, absently picking twigs and bits of leaves from his fur and the joints of his armor. Lem stepped over and began a quick examination.

  “How many fingers am I holding up?” the tiger asked with two fingers extended.

  “Four, but their awfully squiggly,” Olin commented as he squinted at the tiger’s hands.

  Lemuel shook his head. “I think you might have a concussion. We should get you back so I can look at you more thoroughly.”

  “I think the tree did it,” the wolf-Chow slurred a little.

  “You know, Sonja will be pretty ticked off if we damage him permanently,” Randy commented.

  “He’ll be fine,” the tiger said with a grin. “Besides, Olin’s the hero of the hunt, I think. That’ll make her happy.”

  “I’m a hero?” Olin asked, trying to focus on the others without much success.

  “Indeed you are!” Kessus exclaimed. “Now you can see why we use polymer spear shafts instead of traditional wooden ones. What a story, though! I told you this would be fun!” 

***

   “No,” Arya told Cerise and the other females as they sipped on tea in the Marquise’ solarium, “I don’t mind Kessus’ little hunts. After he comes home from being in space he tends to become restless for a little while. If I didn’t let him out to play he’d be in the way. This way he gets to have his fun and I maintain my sanity. That and I think there is something in the minds of all males that makes them feel they have to prove themselves…a need for external validation.”

  In the middle of the room the children sat amidst a pile of large, soft plastic building blocks, Van and Renee happily engaged in stack-and-crash with the three children of Kessus and Arya’s, all of them babbling happily and interspersed with high pitched yips of glee.

  “Of course, Kessus’ little hunting forays keep the kitchen staff busy,” the coyote chuckled. “They never know what he’s going to bring in for them to prepare.”

  “I think it’s important for Elias to have interests of his own,” Cerise commented from the plush chair she sat in, her feet underneath her with her tail curled over her knees. “If we both didn’t have our own interests, it would put a terrible strain on things.”

  Keena nodded in agreement. “I’m learning that about mine and Lem’s relationship, too.”

  Cerise gave her sister a curious look. “No regrets about everything you gave up from the past?”

  The russet vixen snorted. “By the Maker, no! I wouldn’t trade what I have now for anything!”

  Sabine was looking out of the section of windows that provided a view of the main courtyard. Her curiosity was raised when the hunting party pulled in, the off-road vehicles all stopping at one building followed by a flatbed cargo truck almost three hours before they were supposed to. “Is that what they were hunting?” the squirrel asked with some surprise.

  The other females got up to look at the spectacle, many of the expressions ones of surprise and even a little fear at the size of the animal. Arya nodded several times before she was able to speak. “That’s a saurapine, but I’ve never seen one that big before. Heavens…it’s huge!”

  “Who’s on the stretcher?” Lena asked, having already spotted Randy as one of the litter bearers.

  “Oh…gods!” Sonya cried followed by heated swearing that all but horrified the Marquise. “It’s Olin!” Before anyone else could react, the Spaniel was out of the solarium and rushing down to where the males were.

  “We better go see how bad things are,” Cerise said in concern.

  “And sternly reprimand them,” Arya added after seeing the sling her husband’s arm was in.

***

  “Look what me and Baxter got!” the wolf-Chow said happily, though his words were a little slurred as Sonja burst from the castle and rushed to her lover’s side.

  “Yes,” Sonja said frostily before looking at the others. “Very nice. Now what the hell happened?”

  “I think I’d like to know this as well,” Arya added coolly as she and the others followed after the Spaniel.

  The Marquis tried to relate the story of the saurapine exploding out of the trees, but admitted that for him things were a little hazy at that point as he’d been flying through the air tail first and deferred to Elias. Several sets of less than happy eyes fell on the fox as he tried to fill in what he could, though it was Lemuel and Randy who gave the most details to the collection of distraught and irritated ladies. The story mollified most of them so that they weren’t ready to add to the injuries that had already been sustained.

  “Leave it to you to go and find the biggest…thing possible,” Cerise said with a chuckle as she helped Elias remove the armor he wore. “I can see why all this is necessary, though,” the coyote added with a light rap of her knuckles against the breastplate.

  “And it is the biggest!” Kessus informed the females with a distinct note of pride. “One thousand six hundred thirteen pounds! Over two hundred pounds heavier than the largest saurapine on record for the planet and it was on my lands! The size has already been documented and it’s been photographed! My yearly revenue will triple with tourists and hunting parties!”

  “Is that good?” Randy asked as Lena and Sabine helped the wolf out of his steel cocoon.

  “Absolutely! Do you know how much it costs to keep this place up?” the Marquis asked smacking his knee and laughing. “It would be cheaper for me to by a yacht and live out of that!” He grinned at the others. “I told you this was fun!”

  “I think I could with a little less of His Grace’s version of fun,” Lemuel whispered to Elias before he went to go check on the wolf-Chow mix. The fox only smiled in return but gave an expression of agreement. As he went into the next room, already opening up his ever-present medical kit, Sonja rejoined the others with a very perturbed expression.

  “Now I really wish I’d gone with you guys.” She sighed and looked at the Marquise. “No offense, but I never have been one of those frilly, delicate females.”

  “I understand, dear,” Arya said. “You aren’t the first to say that. Maybe my husband will bend the rules and let females on these little trips.” The Marquise looked at her mate with a very shrewd expression. “At least he better give it serious consideration if he doesn’t want to end up sleeping on the couch for a year.” When Kessus tried to open his mouth, Arya shut down his protestations quite readily. “On the other side of the castle,” she added in a chill tone.

  The Marquis gulped audibly and tried to give his wife an ingratiating smile. “I…think we can make some kind of…arrangement.”

  Arya nodded and left the gathering muttering something darkly under her breath, though all of them heard the bitter emphasis she put on the word ‘traditions!’ before returning to her solarium.

***

    Olin’s injuries were mostly bruises and his vision cleared rapidly on the return trip with Lem confirming that there wasn’t a concussion, but the wolf mix would have a spectacular bruise and knot on the back of his head for a few days. As soon as he was showered and changed, the young chef returned downstairs to see how the saurapine would be butchered and began working with the castle’s executive chef on a menu utilizing the best cuts and struck up a fast friendship with the Doberman.

  As the initial shock of seeing their males return from the hunt banged up passed, everyone was thoroughly entertained by the story the others told and the different perspectives. Even Arya and Sonja enjoyed the telling, with Sonja leaning against her beau and occasionally looking at him with deep affection.

  “Next time I go with you,” the Spaniel said as her fingers wrapped around the wolf-Chow’s. “I really want to keep you around for while.”

  Olin proved that despite his relative youth and inexperience he was intelligent and simply agreed, Sonja’s words giving him a pleasant, warm feeling.

  Before the end of the two weeks of shore leave were up, Elias and crew received a shipping order for Tanthean manufactured military grade electronics, normally used in drone munitions, slated for delivery to the Sol System and the huge mining consortium within the Sol Asteroid Belt. After consulting with the crew it was determined that no one was against cutting their down time short and grabbing a few days on Earth and Mars as compensation.

  When the day of departure arrived, Marquis Nurian and wife accompanied the crew of the Ascendant Angel to the spaceport. “Just promise that whenever you’re near you’ll come for a visit.” Arya said as she embraced Cerise warmly.

  “Every chance we get,” the ebony vixen told her newest friend.

  As the females bid each other farewell Kessus was talking to Elias as the rest of the crew boarded their ship to prepare for the short transit flight to Nafax Cybernetics on the other side of the planet. “Are you sure that you won’t consider a betrothal promise?” the Marquis asked the fox for the tenth time in two days. “Kelian seems to be very taken with your Renee?”

  Elias laughed. “Kessus! The kits aren’t even half a year old! And you know that foxes can’t breed with anything besides another fox.”

  “That’s not a problem,” the Marquis countered. “There’s always surrogate partnering. It’s almost a tradition now and-”

  “We’ll see how they get along together in a decade or two,” Elias interrupted, “but I’m going to let my children choose their own paths.”

  The coyote sighed. “I suppose so,” he admitted. “You know, it isn’t uncommon for families to be united by arranged marriage.”

  “Maybe on Tanthe, but I’m not from here, remember?”

  “I know,” Kessus said a little sullenly. “More’s the pity. Any other family would jump at the chance. And you really can’t blame me, can you? Renee may be off-world blood, but there’s no denying that she comes from good stock. You’re already a legend here and on Dennier.”

  “By the Maker, Kessus,” Elias shook his head in tired amusement, “let’s let them grow up a little first.” He slipped his arm around Cerise as she joined him. “It has been a good time, though I think next time we visit I’d like to forego any hunts if it’s all the same to you.”

  The Marquis’ eyes lit with almost youthful glee. “That’s fine! Besides, there’s always the fishing in Nalisport! There’s a fish there that grows almost two tons and is one of the top marine predators in that part of the ocean and-”

  “Dear,” Arya interrupted, “do you think that you can find amusements that won’t get you or our friends trampled to death or eaten?”

  “Oh…I…I never thought about it like that,” Kessus said.

  When Elias and Cerise finally made it to the bridge, Lena already had the preflight checks completed and was going over her console for a second time. “I think I need a vacation from my vacation,” the fox said as he slipped into the pilot’s seat, the chair automatically adjusting to his frame for the most comfort and support.

  “Your chum has some pretty scary concepts of what constitutes fun,” the doe admitted with a chuckle. “What was that about fishing? I didn’t catch all of it.”

  “Some kind of sea going predator,” the fox commented as he looked over his instruments while adjusting the harness straps. “To hear it, the thing can swallow a small ground car.”

  “We’re clear for suborbital transit to the landing field of Nafax Cybernetics,” Cerise informed her mate. “As soon as we land they’ll be ready to load the cargo and our exit vector has been logged.”

  “Sounds good,” Elias told his wife with a smile. “Let’s get back to work.”

— NEXT CHAPTER —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.