What Kind Of Animals Are Here?

Terry and Blueberry searched the woods to any kind of animal they could find. Terry was sure he could help build Blueberry’s confidence in hunting but then he realized that he had never been hunting in his life. He never even did Boy Scoat’s so he had no idea how to even find animals in the woods let alone catch them.

Terry looked over to the blue haired girl and noticed her staring at the ground.

“Out of curiosity, have you ever been hunting before?” he asked Blueberry, she shook her head. “Me neither.” He confessed. He worried that in doing so that she would become more nervous but instead she smiled.

The two of them kept walking through the woods when Blueberry ask him a question. “What is your world like?” she asked.

“Huh?”

“Your world? You said there was no demons in your world, is there no magic too?”

Terry realized that she must have been trying to make small talk. “Yeah, no magic, no demons, not really anything like here.”

“What was it like there, your home? Did you have a family?” Terry was caught a little off guard by the question. It was the first time someone from this world had actually asked about his life before being summoned. He scratched his head,

“Life was fine, I had a part time job at a store. Was going to college, hadn’t really settled on a major yet. Uh, no siblings, and my parents…” Terry had to think for a moment. His father died when he was a teen and his mother preferred working her corporate job over any time with him. “My dad isn’t around any more and my mom and I aren’t really close.”

“What about you? Got any siblings Blueberry?” For what felt like the first time, Blueberry actually looked at him. Her blue eyes matched her hair. “Um, I have eight brothers and sisters.” She said, Terry’s eyes widened. “Eight?” he gasped. Blueberry nodded. “I’m the third oldest. My older brothers also work as knights at the castle, our father worked there too until he retired last year.”

“Wait, your older brothers work under you?” He asked. Blueberry looked away. Terry scrambled to think of something else to say, “So how did you become captain of the Royal Guard?” He asked and almost immediately regrated it. ‘Hello mouth, meet foot.’

“The Princess said she recognized my hard work.” Blueberry’s voice was just above a whisper. Terry leaned in closer to hear her better. “I trained every day, sometimes I would stay on the field well after everyone had left to turn in for the night. No one else noticed but Her Highness did.”

Blueberry then turned to Terry. She had tears in her eyes but her expression was filled with frustration. “I’m well aware that you think I’m a useless coward but I’m not! Her Highness noticed my determination and grit and rewarded me for it. I will prove to her she was not wrong in entrusting me with my position!”

Terry wasn’t sure what to say. “I don’t think you’re a coward…” He started but then he notices movement behind Blueberry “Wait, do you see that?” He asked pointing behind her. Blueberry rolled her eyes. “Don’t try to change the subject. You wrote that you needed to ‘make me brave’ this morning.”

“No really, I think there’s something here it might be an animal.” When Blueberry turned around a creature and leaped from the darkness towards them. Blueberry screamed and pulled her sword from its sheath around her waist. She swung the sword at the beast as it jumped towards them, cutting through it as it was midair. The creature fell to the ground with a thud.

“You see that.” Blueberry smiled, “I’m not useless.” Terry shook his head, “I never said you were…. what even is this thing.” He asked as he looked closer at the creature. It almost looked like a deer but much larger and boarder. It looked closer to a horse with antlers. The color of its fur was completely black, as if no light could be reflected at all. The only other color on its body was the bright orange antlers on its head.

Blueberry got closer to the deer, “It’s just a deer, don’t you have them were you’re from?”

“Yeah, we do, but they don’t look like this, let alone jump out at people unless…” Terry’s voice trailed off and his blood ran cold. Deer back home never goes towards humans. They always run away from people due to deer being prey animals. If this deer was like the ones from Terry’s world, that meant that something had chased it here.

Terry spun around and ran to the spot where the deer had run from. He examined the trees and spaces in between until he had spotted a pair of glowing red eyes.

“Run.”

“What?”

“Run!” Terry yelled as he ran back to Blueberry and grabbed her arm. He pulled her in the opposite direction of the beast but he could hear it running towards them. Terry looked back as it exited from the darkness. If the pervious creature resembled a deer, this one looked like a bear. It was much larger than the deer, it was quite possible larger than the demon they had encountered yesterday.

Its fur was a dark blue with dark red fur around its mouth and paws. Terry wondered if that was its natural fur coloring or if it had caught and eaten something else on its way her.

“Is that thing supposed to be a bear!?” He yelled back at Blueberry. “What else would it be?” She yelled back, “We need to stop running and hide before it catches us.”

After she had said this the bear started to charge towards them. It caught up to them quickly and raised its paw to strike them. Terry raised his hand and concentrated, he hoped it worked, “Magi Scutum.”

Terry’s shield rose and surrounded them just in time for the bears paw to make contact with it. The blow to the shield sent Terry and Blueberry flying backwards. The wind was knocked out of Terry’s lungs as he hit the ground. He struggled to breath as he rolled himself over to look at the bear. Unlike Potato’s shield that withstood a blow from a demon, Terry’s cracked and started to break after one hit from the bear.

Terry scanned the area to find Blueberry who had landed further away from him. He struggled to his feet and tried to call out to her to see if she was alright. He saw her struggle to her feet, using her sword to help pull herself up. The bear watched her stand and began to charge again. Terry swore as he stood, his shield barely worked and couldn’t protect them against the power of the bear’s strength.

Terry tried to think of anything he could do as he hobbled over to Blueberry. Just then he had an idea. As the Bear stood on its back legs and roared down at Blueberry, Terry held out his hand and summoned his shield again. “Magi Scutum.” He chanted, but this time instead of forming a shield around Blueberry, Terry formed the shield around the bear. The bear roared and thrashed as the shield formed around it’s face and upper body. Terry focused with all his might and forced the shield to push the bear back.

“Blueberry, now!” Terry Yelled. Blueberry glanced at him and back to the bear. She held up her sword and ran at the bear. Her sword cutting through its stomach.

-------------

After she and Potato had dropped Pear off with Kiwi, they returned to the woods to help hunt for meat for the butcher. They were worried when they went further into the wood and found the body of the deer on the ground and started to call Terry and Blueberries names. Until they found them standing over the body of a large bear.

Avocado congratulated them on getting such a large haul. Potato used his shield to carry both the bear and dead back to the village while the others carried the piles of wood.

Terry’s entire body ached and he wished that the inn had a bath he could use to ease his pain. Terry looked to Blueberry kept glancing from the ground, bear, and back to him. When they got to the Butchers shop, the butcher was surprised with their large delivery but happily paid them nonetheless.

After they returned to the inn, Pear healed them both while they sat at what was now becoming their usual table at the restaurant. Being healed with magic felt odd at first but Terry was happy to no longer having his body ache and hurt. After healing them Pear asked them if they needed anything else before dinner.

“No thanks.” Terry said. “I think I’m just going to turn in for tonight.” Blueberry replied as she stood from the table.

Terry followed after her. “Hey wait.” Blueberry stopped walking but didn’t turn around. Terry took a deep breath, “I never thought you were a coward and I’m sorry I made you feel that way.” Blueberry said nothing but nodded her head and walked to her room.