Chapter 19: "Unwanted Peacekeeper"

Caseus winced at the twang of the bow. He had tensed and was moving to drop to his knees. But the sting of the arrow never came. When he opened his eyes, he was shocked to see a silhouette standing in front of him, arms spread.

The priest gave a gasp of pain, clenching his forearm where the arrow had pierced. The man sank to one knee, but he did not scream, nor did he cry.

“Father Elkeniah!” the stegosaur screamed, running to put herself between him and the others. To the Shamans, it was a scream of anguish. But the other humans only heard a deafening bellow, clutching their weapons closer.

The stegosaur encircled herself around the priest, Elkeniah, brandishing the four spines on the end. The party of Zab men, for their part, seemed shocked. One of them snatched the bow from Kai’s hands.

“You damn fool boy! What are you doing?”

“I told you! I told you what he is, he-” Kai was shouting, but he was silenced by a punch in the gut.

“No more of this!” the older man snapped. “No more ramblings of men becoming Beasts! Now look, you've gone and shot an innocent!”

Meanwhile, Caseus shook off the surprise. He couldn't just stand around, now was a time for action. He slowly walked around to the face the stegosaur, before crouching to meet the priest at eye level.

“Will you be alright? Can you stand it?”

“Of course! I have withstood worse before.” Elkeniah had a grimace on his face, but attempted to force a smile as he spoke.

Caseus gave a curt nod; the man wasn't screaming or flailing, and the wound was far from life-threatening.

He then turned to the men. “Now, what is the meaning behind all this? What provoked this?”

One of the men stepped forward. Caseus recognized him from the posse that had formed on the square; he'd heard someone call him Ibnir.

“That Beast,” Ibnir pointed towards the Carnotaurus, “devoured one of our village cows!”

The Carno growled, stamping its foot. “I said the thing was roaming loose, with nary a bridle or owner to be seen! How was I to know? And you drive me away from my home over that?!”

Caseus looked back to the large theropod. Only now did he notice how emaciated the thing looked, its ribs visible, its neck and tail that should be heavily muscled instead slender.

“How long has it been since you have last eaten?” Caseus asked. He could already guess where this was going.

“Weeks,” the Carno said. “I offer my aid to Zab and their neighbors for years, only to drive me away!”

Behind him, Caseus heard the Zab men muttering among themselves about him.

“Didn't I tell you? He is a Shaman masquerading as a Venator!” Kai was saying. Of course they were only hearing snarls and growls.

Caseus ignored them. The Carno’s situation was unfortunately not uncommon; if anything, after what his father had just done, he only expected it to become more common.

While carnivorous Beasts were much more in tune with their predatory instincts, they were by no means mindless eaters. They typically lived in and around farm villages, using their immense strength as beasts of burden, tilling fields, hauling heavy loads, and protecting livestock from lesser predators. Rather than seeing it as demeaning labor, they actually took pride in it, as a demonstration of their immense physical strength. They often did it in exchange for offerings of meat as payment.

That was how things had been before, at least. But as with everything in the country, changing attitudes had changed that. It was becoming increasingly common for them to be driven away, and should they struggle to hunt, turn to feeding on the very livestock they had protected.

Of course, the handful of instances that had led to a Beast killing a human were over exaggerated by Venator guilds, and the crown did nothing to help the increasingly displaced theropods.

“The Beast here says that he was driven away from Zab after years of service,” Caseus said, turning to the men. “He says he did not know it was an owned cow.”

“Horseshit!” Ibnir shouted. “He guarded those cattle for years, he knew they were ours!”

“If you were comfortable with him guarding them for that long, why did you force him out?” Caseus asked. “And would he not have received some cattle meat as payment at some later date?”

“Oh spare us the egalitarian ramblings!” One of the other party members snapped. “Everyone knows such Beasts are born man-eaters. And with the king's decree, now we can finally treat them as such!”

“Oh, did the king decree cows to be people now?”

That got some grumbles out of them.

“So you will not kill a Beast unless it has already killed a man?” Ibnir snapped. “And what did that do for Isha? Did you truly sacrifice her for your ideals?!”

“I told you,” Kai muttered.

“Let me ask you this, would our courts execute a man for stealing what he is owed from a thieving employer or master?” Caseus didn't allow them a chance to answer. “Of course there would be some punishment for theft, but the law would not spare the employer either. Likewise, do we execute someone for the crime of murder before the crime, merely on a suspicion?”

He turned to the Carnotaurus. “Go forth, into the forest here. Seek what game you can, but you must not return to the village of Zab.”

Now both sides scoffed.

“Hey! What business do you have in this?” Ibnir shouted.

The Carnotaurus gave a snort. “Oho? And who are you to direct me, boy?” The theropod pawed the ground.

“We have no authority over the affairs of Zab,” Elkeniah spoke up, “but I will not have any further bloodshed or violence on hallowed ground.” Turning to the men, he gestured to their wounded man, drifting in and out of consciousness, still occasionally moaning.

“I shall prepare a horse for you, to take him to the nearest doctor-”

A roar from the Carnotaurus interrupted.

“They drove me from my home, after a lifetime of service, and now want me dead over one cow! And what if I were to leave now? What would stop them or some Venator from hunting me down?” He began pawing the dirt even more, his voice, his snarls, rising.

This is bad, Caseus thought. Neither side was willing to budge, nor listen to cooler heads.

“No, I will not run anymore! I will end this, here and now, and no man shall interfere!”

The Carno lowered his head, preparing to charge like a bull. The stegosaur nun turned, now brandishing her tail spines at the Beast.

“Do not get in my way,” he growled. Then, he charged, with Caseus, the priest and stegosaur still in its path.

What came next was a flurry. The able-bodied Zab men were drawing their weapons. Shawk was attempting to run past the Carno, either to headbutt it or to scoop Caseus up. Arabella, apparently having hopped back onto his back, was extending her arm, reaching out to him.

But they wouldn't make it. The Beast was fast, and it was closer. It was closing the gap so fast, what happened next was hard to perceive. He knew he couldn't outrun it, nor could he get out of the way fast enough. Almost purely on instinct, Caseus launched his leg up in a kick. It was surely to be ineffective, the collision would hurt like hell…

No. A voice rang in his head. If they shall not stop themselves, then. Make. Them. Stop.

Something surged through Caseus's leg. It was a brief sensation, hard to describe as anything other than… power. In that instant, it was as if he felt his thigh and calf tense and expand, and for a brief second, he thought he could see the mottled brown scales, his Beastly hide, ripple over his skin before disappearing. The sensation was so quick it was almost imperceptible, but the result was undeniable.

A kick that should have done nothing, other than leaving Caseus either impaled on the Carno's horns or sent him flying, instead sent the enormous Beast careening off to the side, crashing headlong into a cypress tree.

Nobody spoke at first. The Carnotaurus was now lying on the ground, moaning in pain. All other parties looked at him in shock. Finally, the priest spoke up.

“What in Hell was that?”