Chapter 16: I Wanna Ride The Deer

They had talked a lot that night. By the time they finished going over everything they were both drained physically, and mentally. Tomorrow was the day they actually had to start putting things into action.

None of them knew how much time they had remaining before the golem’s range would finally reach into the forest. Altem estimated somewhere between a week to two weeks, so they had little time to act.

Altem said that if they needed him again then they just had to perform the same ritual. I guess he didn't want to stick around. Then again, it was probably for the best. There was only so much of him that they could handle at a time.

There was also the fact that they lived in a small cave. A very small cave. Three, or I guess technically four, was too crowded. Vault plopped down on the nature bed. He stared at the ceiling lost in thought for a moment, but was immediately interrupted by Harmony literally throwing herself at him.

He felt the air getting knocked out of his lungs ”Oof. What was that for?”

She was lying on his belly and turned to the side so she could look at his face. “You were trying to cheer me up earlier. I figured I should do the same.”

She smiled at him and he smiled back, feeling touched by the gesture. He was really glad that she decided to be his ally. She fell asleep almost immediately and he decided to lie his head back and shut his eyes.

Vault found himself deep within a nightmare. He was wandering outside the cave in the dead of night. He was holding a torch to light his way through the darkness. Something about this reminded him of his days before he met Harmony.

He repetitively kept looking in all directions, occasionally even walking backwards to watch his own back. He had to make sure nothing was going to attack him, or at least he needed to be the one to make the first move.

Loud pounding footsteps echoed in the distance. It sounded like a giant army of soldiers marching. He started to run faster, seeing his cave home in the distance. He turned back and could see the golems in pursuit. It was a whole swarm of them with rocks in hand, getting ready to launch.

He ran faster, now being bombarded with giant stones making explosion sounds as they hit the ground around him. He kept pushing himself more and more, giving it all he's got. He even ditched the torch so he could swing his arms to increase his speed.

The golems closed in on him and their massive hands began to close around his back. They pinned him down to the floor just as he stuck his hand into the entrance of the cave. Home was literally at his finger tips. He looked up and saw the face of the cave morph to form jaws.

He unleashed a terrified scream as the jaws closed down on his hand. He woke up at the start of the next morning. He found Harmony who had now flipped over still lying on his stomach. Sometimes it amazed him that she could just easily get comfortable like this on such an uncomfortable bed.

He tried not to wake her and carefully slipped out from under her. He got a cup of water for himself and walked over to the cave entrance to watch the sunrise. Today was the beginning of their preparations. He heard the sound of Harmony's feet shuffling over to him.

She was also holding a cup of water in her hand and looking out at the sun rising with him. “It's so freaking bright. How can you stare at that?”

He chuckled at her comment. “Most people talk about how beautiful the sun looks, but I didn't expect that from you.”

She held up a fist and pointed it at him. “You can expect this from me. I got your back out there as long as you got mine. We're going to get through this together.”

He was surprised by her determined look, but also found it very comforting and reassuring. He gave her a fist bump back. “Yeah, let's do this.”

After going through their usual morning routine of packing supplies and having breakfast, they headed out into the forest.

One of the first things on their list of tasks was acquiring a reliable way to heal themselves. They decided to set that as their primary objective, since they already needed to hunt for more food. They figured they could do both at the same time while out in the field.

Gathering medicinal herbs was a long-term goal, but replenishing their food supply was an immediate goal that they could not ignore.

They traveled for quite some time, perhaps an hour or so. They came across a pond surrounded by Greenery. There were bushes almost forming something similar to a circle around it. They found a bunch of deer taking a drink from the pond.

They both hid behind a nearby bush in order to observe them. Just like before with the golems they needed to be careful about their first move. It had been quite some time since either one of them had had meat, so they really didn’t want to screw this up.

The clam meat they had been eating did not really count as meat. At least not to them, because it was more like seafood, that they were both getting sick of. Before Vault could suggest a plan of attack, Harmony suddenly chimed in with a very random idea.

“Hey, if this world is like a video game, well like a fantasy video game, to be more specific… Do you think we can like, tame animals or something? I mean, if I walked up to that deer, and hopped on its back…Do you think I can make it my pet?”

Vault stared at her dumbfounded by the suggestion. It was a very random and weird idea, but he couldn't see the error in her logic either. She wasn't wrong, this was a fantasy world, but they have yet to deal with certain things.

Like magic for example. Really the only magical sort of aspect they dealt with was just her extraction skill and the golems. Beast taming didn't really seem that far off from something that one could infer to be possible.

He didn't want to be the one to test the theory though, by trying to tame a dangerous creature that would try to bite his hand off. He was more focused on getting food, but he really didn’t want to shoot down her idea. “I mean it might be possible.”

Harmony gave the deer a curious look. When she turned back to Vault, Eunice had switched out with her. “It's possible…Whether or not either one of you can pull it off, or the actual requirements…I do not know. I have met others who were capable of controlling creatures.”

Harmony got into a runners starting stance just as Eunice switched out with Felicia. “I'm going to test it.”

Before Vault could say anything, she sprinted at full speed towards the deer. She hopped on its back, and it let out a loud shriek.

It kept flailing around trying to throw her off, but she held on tightly to its antlers for support. “Whoa! It's okay! I'm not going to hurt you! I just want to name you sprinkles!”

Vault suddenly stepped out of his hiding spot. “We are not naming the deer sprinkles! That doesn't sound intimidating at all!”

The deer kept jumping around while the other deer backed away from it, in order to provide more room. Harmony continued struggling trying to stay on. “Why not?! Sprinkles is a cute name…But yeah it does not sound intimidating! I just went with the first thing that popped into my head!”

The deer slammed into one of the other deer and black fog exploded out from the collision. It spread everywhere, even smothering Vault. The battle had now begun.

Vault was on one side and all the deer were on the other. Harmony was still on top of the deer she tried to tame, but she was in front of all of them making it look like she was their leader. “You know it looks a lot like I'm the leader of a deer gang, and that we're taking you on in a fight.”

Vault looked so bewildered by the situation. Damage was suddenly dealt to the deer Harmony was riding on, along with the one that it bumped into earlier. Apparently she had gotten the advantage by making one collide with the other, unintentionally.