Notes on Monster Hunting Read online

  - It is unclear if arecaopods are animals or plants or a combination of the two. I have seen countless animals in my life, but I’ve never seen something so bizarre.

  “What do you think?” Skrale asked. He asked us all, but Lekk and Heff looked at me and Teke.

  “I think Urny is onto something,” said Teke. He looked at me.

  “You keep going. I have to think more before I talk.”

  Our voices made the closer of the cocos flee up to the canopy.

  “The beaks look tough. Like they’re made of some chitin or bone or something even harder than a bird’s beak. I think one of the larger ones could take off a person’s head without any problem.”

  I added, “And the holes to filter out the sand and dirt would explain the trails of dripping blood we found.”

  “How many would be doing this?” asked Lekk.

  “Only a few at most,” said Heff. “If all of them started eating people, the whole city would’ve been gone by now. We’ve seen ten or more just in this small area. I can’t imagine how many are in the other side of the forest and just around the area in general.”

  “He’s right. It could only be one or two. Tomorrow, we’ll get the company to search the entirety of the forests to see if we can spot anything unusual about any of the arecaopods. Beatrice will share her descriptions with everyone before we head out and we can try to the killer or killers.”

  We stopped by Urny, who still leaned against the rock but was joined by the governor’s messenger. A blanket laid between them with foods and a few bottles of wine and waterskins.

  “You doing alright here?” asked Lekk. “Today hasn’t been too exhausting for you, right?”

  “Today has been exhausting, sir. I think I need to stay here until this food is gone.”

  The messenger stood and approached Skrale.

  “We suspect a coco or two is responsible. Tomorrow we’ll use our full company to find them and discover why they killed people. Nothing else will be done today and we’ll start early tomorrow.”

  The messenger nodded and grabbed a bag. Skrale placed his hand on the messenger’s shoulder.

  “Take your time. Help Urny finish the food and drinks. The governor won’t know the difference and there’s no hurry.”

  The messenger smiled and thanked Skrale. Lekk winked at Urny as we started walking away. Heff pulled a bread roll out of his bag, ripped it in half, and handed it to Lekk. I walked up and nudged Heff with my elbow. He sighed and ripped his half into another half and gave it to me.

  “You owe me.”

  I shoved the bread into my mouth and smiled.

  Palon looked excited and sat straight up in the booth when he saw us walk in. Fourth squad sat at their new favorite booth right beside the stairs to the floor above. The booth had the softest cushions, but they were worn and stained.

  Kully moved closer to Palon to give me some room at the end of the bench. Groose was leaning against the wooden wall asleep and Ralet was shuffling a deck of cards.

  “What happened?” asked Palon.

  “Urny has a theory that it might be the flying coconut guys.”

  “Just a theory?” asked Ralet.

  “Well, we went into the forest and looked at them. Teke agreed with Urny. It seems unlikely, but it’s still possible. Everyone is going out tomorrow to hunt the killers down.”

  “That happened quick,” said Kully.

  Palon nodded. “It did, but I’m okay with it. I’m ready to keep moving on.”

  Ralet elbowed Groose until he woke up, then handed him the deck of cards.

  “It’s your turn. Wake up and deal.”

  Groose loudly snorted in and ran his hand through his thin hair. He dealt cards to Palon and Kully then paused at me and glared.

  “When did you get here?”

  “I never left?”

  Groose looked at Kully and shook his head. “You see? All she does is lie to me.”

  “Just deal the cards, Groose.”

  Groose mocked Kully’s voice as he finished dealing three cards to everyone.

  “What are we playing?” I asked.

  Ralet looked over his cards and cocked his head. “I don’t know.”

  “How do you not know?” I picked up my cards. None of them looked familiar. Four red squares, two blue swords, and two yellow wolves. “What are these cards?”

  “I found them in a shop earlier,” said Ralet. “We were just making up rules as we went.”

  “I guess I’ll just play along.”

  After we started, Skrale walked past us and paused. He grabbed a stool and sat down to watch. We were mostly just putting cards in the middle and sometimes trading with each other, but it captured the captain’s attention. He watched silently for awhile before finally speaking.

  “This is fascinating. Can I get in on the next one?”

  Ralet laughed. “Absolutely. There aren’t any rules or anything.”

  “Really?” Skrale leaned over the table and looked at the pile in the middle. “I think I’m seeing a pattern. You can trade one card per turn with the person on either side of where you sit, and you can only put a card in the middle if it matches the number or same card type. And you draw when you place one in the middle.”

  “I guess that’s what we’ve been doing. But how do we win?” I asked.

  Skrale laughed. “How am I supposed to know? It’s your game.”

  “Maybe we’ll just start a new one with Skrale and see if we can find a way to win a game while we’re in the middle of it,” said Ralet. He collected all the cards and straightened them out. “Would you like to shuffle?”

  Skrale grabbed the cards and expertly shuffled and dealt them. I still had no idea what was happening, so I just played along until I had three cards with blue swords.

  “Is this good?” I showed them all my hand.

  Everyone examined the hand silently with different facial expressions.

  “One, two, and three swords. That might be as close to a victory as we’ll get,” said Skrale.

  Groose dropped his cards on the table. “That’s too easy.”

  Ralet flipped Groose’s cards over and revealed two cards of squares and one of wolves.

  “If it’s so easy, why was she the first to get it?” asked Palon.

  “You’re all bullies,” said Groose. He blew his nose into his sleeve. “Let’s play for money now.”

  Skrale placed his hand on the pile of cards. “Only if we get the whole company involved.”

  “And something to drink,” added Palon.

  Skrale nodded.

  I already started to regret being involved before it started.

  The innkeeper filled carafes with mead, wine, and beer and let us move several tables together. We were a big enough group that he wasn’t going to lose money by letting us do something stupid. Wennel hurried to the shop Ralet mentioned to buy more of the cards, now that our company had managed to invent its own game.

  “How much are we putting in?” asked Orkin.

  “Should someone get Urny?” asked Carner.

  Skrale stood on a bench in the center of the room. “You put in how much you want. Someone will keep a record. Whichever scout goes to grab Urny gets to skip out on the next contract search. Any volunteers?”

  Prenn and Yutt both raised their hands.

  “Only one gets to go.”

  Yutt pushed Prenn over.

  “I guess Yutt wins. You and Urny can join the second game when you get back. Let the guards up top know that we’re pulling our people for the night. They can keep watching if they want, but that head is rotten now anyway.”

  Yutt nodded and rushed out the door.

  We played and it was hilarious. The innkeeper got involved with a few of the games. Nobody knew what they were doing, so only small amounts of money were moved. The innkeeper took a small part of each bet and used that to provide drinks for everyone. He was probably losing money with the system, but it was a fun night and he had a gr
eat time. I played a few games, but eventually stopped and just sat with Ralet and Palon in our booth.

  Skrale had mentioned to everyone that we would have an early start, so the games didn’t run too late. The drinks stopped before anyone had too much and we all went to bed before the middle of the night.

  I elected to sleep on the floor again and Ralet was happy to take the bed.

  The entries in Skrale’s journals aren’t organized. He just wrote as the ideas came or when the event happened. I finally stumbled across another great entry.

  Year 538

  Cremn, Teke, and I met two men on a bridge today. We thought they were highwaymen, but they just smiled and waved as we approached. I asked why they were sitting on a bridge with weapons and they told us they keep it safe because the local farmers use the bridge daily. Some brigands and criminals had previously used the bridge to force traders and farmers to pay a toll, so the two men decided to spend some time sitting on the bridge until they knew the area was safe. We offered to have dinner with them and later offered them spots in our group. They weren’t sure at first, but happily joined us the next morning after Cremn told them about everything we’d done the last several years.

  Heff and Lekk joined us just after the start of spring.

  I’ll have to ask Heff and Lekk more about that. I’d like to know more about where they’re from and why they would sit on a bridge all day.

  Day 150

  There’s apparently some pigs nearby because we had bacon for breakfast. I haven’t seen any pigs, so they’re either in a nearby village or hidden away in a secret part of town. Maybe underground pigs.

  The bacon was good. Palon happily ate Ralet’s because Ralet doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like any meat in the morning, so Palon called him an idiot. We’re off to a good start.

  “When we get up to the forests, First and Second will take the left half, Third and Fourth will take the right. Look for anything that might show that a coco has killed someone. Like if it tries to eat you. That would be some strong evidence. If someone finds one that may have killed a person, the sergeants will decide what will be done.”

  We walked up the longer, but less steep hill to the northern gate and followed the road to where it split the forest in half. Heff and I led our people into the forest, where we fanned out to cover more area.

  “Move slowly and quietly. They’ll float away if you scare them,” I said.

  Some small arecaopods floated in groups near the ground. They looked like they could be babies, if that’s even how these things work. Heff and I walked on the opposite ends of the line with Ralet and Iliun in the middle. A few times somebody pointed one out, so we all stopped to look at it. Each time we determined there was nothing special about it. What were we even looking for?

  We were nearing the eastern edge of our part of the forest when we heard loud footsteps stomping behind us. The few arecaopods nearby quickly flew up to the canopy to hide in the shadows. Orkin stopped and bent over while he caught his breath. Sweat ran down his face and showed through wet spots on his armpits.

  “What’s going on, Orkin?”

  “Teke asked me to get you, Beatrice.” He stretched his back out and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. “He wants you to look at something. Everyone else is supposed to keep searching this half.”

  “Okay, Heff. Can you handle them?” I asked, pointing in the direction of my squad.

  “I’ll do my best,” he said sarcastically.

  I followed Orkin at a slow jog. He still had energy, but the heat and humidity was making both of us sweat terribly. It took us some time to make it back to the road. We stopped and spent our short break complaining about the heat, like we had been doing the entire time we were jogging. Really the entire time we had been in Geziksan. We started again, but had to stop because Orkin realized he was a bit lost.

  “At least you got to the right half of the forest.”

  He eventually remembered which direction he needed to go and we found Widdy and Trennor leaning against a tree.

  “Teke’s over there,” said Widdy without looking at me.

  Orkin leaned against a different tree, so I left him and went until I found Teke, Skrale, and Lekk standing in a circle like they were having a secret meeting.

  “Beatrice, I wanted you to look at this. Skrale and Lekk aren’t giving me a useful answer,” said Teke.

  Lekk crossed his arms and glared at Teke. “That’s just rude. I told you exactly what I thought.”

  “You said ‘I have no idea.’ That isn’t useful.”

  “What am I looking at?”

  Teke brought me just around a tree to an arecaopod that was floating around. It was huge, only a bit shorter than me if it was on the ground. The moss on top of it was thick and hung down in tiny spirals. It mostly looked normal to me when I first saw it, but it seemed different. It just floated and hardly moved. Teke and I watched it silently for a bit and saw it bounce into a few different trees. It didn’t seem like it was trying to go anywhere, it was just running into trees. Its beak looked chipped and worn, which made me think it was very old.

  “What about it?” I asked quietly.

  “The hairs on the bottom. Get closer if you need to. I don’t know if it’ll run or not.”

  I walked closer as quietly as I could while watching the ground to avoid stepping on anything that would be loud.

  Scars covered the bottom of the creature. A few large hair-like tendrils remained with some smaller ones around them, but there were less than on other arecaopods. I walked closer and it remained floating close to the ground. The beak was just above my waist and the top of it reached above my head. I placed my hand on it, beside one of the air sacs. It felt like a warm, fuzzy rock that had been in the sun. The only noise it made was that of breathing, which seemed like it came from the sacs covering its sides. I looked behind and waved Teke over. He approached cautiously and stopped just behind me.

  “Take a closer look at the beak,” I whispered.

  Teke knelt in the grasses and leaned towards the creature. He moved around and looked at it, even getting directly beneath it to look right at the beak.

  “I think this is it.”

  “Why?”

  Our normal voices made the arecaopod shudder, but it didn’t float away.

  “There’s something really gross stuck in a few of the draining holes. I think it’s rotting flesh.”

  Teke drew his dagger and carefully scraped it along the beak, then slowly stood. He placed his hand on my shoulder, then walked back to Skrale and Lekk. I stayed where I was. I gently poked one of the air sacs, which made the whole creature move away from me. I pulled my hand back and stayed motionless. Eventually, it floated back over to me, so I placed my hand back on its side.

  “I’m sorry. You’re just old and hurt. You probably can’t even see properly.”

  Skrale touched my arm to let me know he was there. “Teke is right.”

  “He is?”

  He kept his hand on my arm. “It was flesh on the beak. He’s positive.”

  I nodded and placed my hand on Skrale’s.

  “How do we kill it?” he asked.

  I looked over my shoulder. Teke and Lekk were also right there. “Pop the air sacs?” I asked while looking at Teke.

  “That’s a way to start. Maybe that then cut it in half. It’ll be a bit brutal.”

  Skrale looked disappointed or uncomfortable. Fighting is one thing, but this would be an execution.

  “I’ll ask if there are any volunteers,” said Lekk.

  He went back to the two squads and asked. We could hear the hint of voices talking, most likely Lekk explaining the situation. He came back with Rux, Urny, and Orkin. I hope they didn’t volunteer because they wanted to kill it, but it’s hard to know others’ motives. I was thankful and disappointed in their volunteering at the same time.

  “I’m not going to watch.”

  “Me either,” said Skrale. He put his arm around my should
ers and walked with me. As we passed Henli, Skrale asked him to go find Third and Fourth and bring them back to the inn.

  “I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Skrale said as we walked. “I always like to think that everyone that’s here with us feels the same as I do. Teke and I formed this because we thought the same way about everything. It was a good way to travel the world and to help others, but not everyone wants or needs those reasons to join a group of hunters.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You joined as an escape, and so did a few others. Why are you still with us? You’ve escaped, so what’s keeping you here?”

  I was shocked and silent.

  “I don’t mean to frighten you or attack you. I’m only curious because you’ve become such an invaluable part of the company.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. Just think on it and tell me when you figure it out. There’s people who have been in the company for years longer than you that were thrilled to see you become corporal and everyone agrees that you were the only option to replace Cremn. We all care about you and I know it’s been really tough lately. I want you to think about why you’re here because it’ll be tough again eventually. It can’t always be easy for us.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  Day 151

  Governor Strauster and his steward were waiting for us outside the eastern gate with our cart and horses. He smiled and gave Skrale a slight bow when we approached.

  “Hunters, it was an honor to have you in Geziksan. Thank you again for everything you’ve done for my people.”

  “Thank you for the hospitality,” said Skrale.

  Teke stepped forward and shook the governor’s hand. “Geziksan is a beautiful city.”

  “Where will you head next?”

  “That hasn’t been decided. What do you suggest?” asked Skrale.

  The governor began quietly conversing with the steward. Meanwhile, the rest of the company was checking the equipment in the cart and preparing to leave.