by Logan Jacobs
“What is a factory?” Jonas asked with a confused frown.
“It’s like a large building where they make massive amounts of food or other goods and then ship it all over the world,” I explained in the simplest terms I could think of.
“That’s amazing,” Jemma breathed, and her eyes were wide as she processed the information. “The food must travel so far before anyone can eat it! I am so glad you showed us how delicious meat is, Ben, and that we do not have to wait for it to come on a ship.”
“Me, too.” I smirked. “And I’m even more glad you’re such a badass with that bow. You’re turning into quite the hunter. Do you want to come with us to catch the chickens?”
“I would like to catch a clucker bird,” Jemma replied with a giggle. “So, yes, I will go with you.”
“I do not think I would be well suited to chasing down wild birds,” Jonas informed me with a sigh. “It sounds like a young man’s game.”
“I guess so,” I laughed. “Well, I’ll feel better about you holding down the fort while I’m gone, anyway. The dragons should both stay, too, just in case. When we get back, we will start getting the ship loaded up with as much supplies as we can harvest. I’d like to cut down a few trees to bring with us. Some of the redwoods and saplings, of course, but I also want to bring some other types too since I want to experiment with the different types of wood to see which ones will hold up the best during storm season.”
“With all of us working together, it will not take us long to accomplish everything you wish,” Jonas said.
Just then, Mira plopped down next to me, and the jade haired warrior yawned.
“I’m going to teach everyone how to be quiet in the mornings if it’s the last thing I do,” she grumbled as she leaned her tired head against my shoulder. “What was going on? Why was everyone arguing?”
“The racoon women realized we would be going home soon,” I informed my right-hand warrior with a wry grin. “They were pretty indecisive about whether or not they want to come with us.”
“I’m happy we are going home, but I hope they choose to come with us,” Mira sighed. “This island is nice and everything, but I prefer to travel above ground, and I miss Nixie.”
“You know she is always with you,” I said in a comforting voice, and I bumped my shoulder against her playfully. “You just have to feel her through the bond.”
“I know.” Mira shot me a sideways grin. “And I do. A lot. It always helps, but I still miss her. I feel better about having her home to protect everyone, though.”
“Me, too.” I mirrored her grin, but then my stomach grumbled loudly, and we both laughed.
“Finish your food, my king,” Mira insisted as she stood up and dusted the fine white sand off her muscular legs. “I am going for a swim before I eat.”
Then the jade haired warrior trotted down the shore toward the water’s edge, and I took the opportunity to watch the sway of her hips as she walked away from me. Her gold scales caught the sunlight and lit her up like a disco ball, and I drank in the sight like a dehydrated man gulping down water.
I ate quickly, and then I joined Mira in the perfectly blue water. It was a beautiful, sunny day without a single cloud in the sky. I swam for a while, and when we were done, we both stretched out on the warm, fine grained white sand to dry off beneath the rays of the sun.
By the time we trotted back up the beach to the bonfire, Sela had finished her drills with her trainees and was seated next to Jemma.
“I hear you plan on catching some of those weird birds today,” the warrior greeted. “Hali will be pleased.”
“My thoughts exactly,” I said with a grin. “Wanna help?”
Sela narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, but then she nodded. “Yes, my king.”
“Ooh, this is going to be so much fun!” Jemma clapped her hands with excitement.
“Will the racoon women be joining us?” Sela asked with thinly veiled curiosity.
“Nadir and Lezan are,” I informed her with a nod.
“Good.” The warrior’s eye trailed down the beach and across the water to where the ship laid anchored. “Now that the orcs are defeated and Tirian has joined us, I am ready to be home. I am looking forward to hearing Darya and Zarya’s report on Lizzie and Amaria’s behavior.”
“I’m sure they have been perfectly obedient, and probably growing like weeds,” I commented as my thoughts turned to my twin daughters. I was also anxious to get home to all of my children, and a small smile tugged on my lips as I pictured what they were up to. Marella was likely taking charge, Arrick was giving her a run for her money, and Oshuna would probably be walking already.
“We will be with them soon,” Sela said in a surprisingly nurturing tone, and she reached across the distance between us to squeeze my hand.
“I know,” I replied as I returned the gesture. “First, though, we need to get as much lumber and chickens as we can, so there’s still work to be done.”
“Yes, my king.” Sela nodded again, and then she released my hand to turn her attention back to her food.
A short while later, my little troupe was ready to depart on our chicken hunt. I had Mira, Jemma, Sela, Nadir, and Lezan with me, so I asked George to stay at the campsite to help Jonas watch over the other women. Tirian volunteered to stay as well, and I could tell he was already feeling a sense of belonging to our diverse group of people. While I was confident in my women’s ability to fight off any ballsy wild animals, I was completely assured of everyone’s safety with my water dragon and the fire dragon watching over them.
The sun had just passed the midpoint as we shouldered empty packs and headed inland. We didn’t get to enjoy the sunlight for long, though, since we ducked inside the tunnel entrance closest to our campground once we’d pushed the boulder out of the way. Then my dragonkin warriors, my deer woman, and I followed the two racoon women down through the twisting channels of the underground network, and the faint light of lightning bugs illuminated our path. I did my best to keep track of our direction, and from my best estimation, we headed in a steady western angle.
“So, have you thought about my offer?” I asked Nadir after we’d walked in silence for a while.
At first, I didn’t think she would respond, and the longer I waited, the more awkward I felt. Just when I thought maybe she hadn’t heard me and I opened my mouth to repeat my question, the black-haired racoon woman sighed.
“I have.” She gave me a scrutinizing glance out of the corner of her eye. “I did not expect to meet a man like you in my lifetime, Ben. I do not think my people will survive for long without you, and I want our numbers to grow just as you are doing for the other women. But this is the only land I’ve ever known. I do not know what will happen if we leave.”
“We will live,” Lezan interjected. “We must leave this island and go with Ben, Nadir. You know this is true.”
Nadir sighed again, and she shot Lezan an annoyed look over her shoulder. “You do not speak for all our people.”
“What will happen if only a few wish to stay?” I asked curiously. While Nadir was clearly a strong leader, she didn’t seem like a dictator who would force her people to go against their desire to remain on their home island.
“I will stay and lead them as best as I can,” Nadir sighed, and a weary look crossed her gray eyes.
“Those who stay will surely die,” Lezan said, and her black eyes flashed ominously in the dim light of the tunnel.
I swallowed down the lump that rose up into my throat at the thought of the racoon women being so stubborn they wound up dead. The thought of throwing them over my shoulder and carrying them aboard my ship flashed through my mind, but I couldn’t make them come with us no matter how much I wanted to.
Conversation was stilted after that, and after a few moments, we fell into a comfortable silence. We’d walked for almost an hour when Nadir disappeared through a hole in the ceiling of the tunnel, but a few moments later, we all clambered out behind her. We emerged in a grove of the t
wisted trees surrounded by tall, wispy grasses, and I immediately squatted down to listen for any noises.
The last thing I wanted to do was deal with one of the wildebears that inhabited this island again. The creatures resembled a brown bear, only it was about twice the size, with longer, thinner legs that looked like they could run a mile in sixty seconds. Its two eyes were a milky white, with no irises or pupils, which left the beast blind but with incredible hearing. The wildebears had two vampire-like fangs that hung down from its massive upper jaws, and the teeth looked like they could crush a person and drain their blood in seconds flat. Beyond being one of the more horrifying animals I’d encountered on my adventures, the fearless and feral racoon women were completely terrified of the creature, which was more than enough to convince me to stay far away from them.
When the only noises I heard were only the occasional chirp of a bird and the wind blowing through the tall grasses, I stood up and scanned the perimeter with my dragonkin enhanced sight. Jemma, Mira, and Sela waited by my side, but then Nadir and Lezan trotted forward through the brush like they didn’t have a care in the world.
The two racoon women were more familiar with this island than I was, though, so I decided to follow their lead and motioned my dragonkin and deer women forward.
Suddenly, a ball of white fluff zipped through the grasses ahead of us, and Lezan lunged forward. A loud squawk sound accompanied the thud of her body hitting the floor, and a moment later, the two-toned haired woman stood up straight. She grasped the chicken by its feet, and a victorious smile stretched across her face.
Then I noticed the bird’s head wobbled at an unnatural angle, and its wings hung limp. I realized the raccoon woman had killed the clucker bird in the process of catching it, but I was loath to ruin her moment, so I just gave Lezan a big grin.
“Good job!” I said as I resisted the urge to laugh. “But, uh… I need them to be alive if I’m going to harvest their eggs.”
Lezan gave me a confused look, and then she turned to inspect the chicken in her hand. “Clucker bird is not good once dead?”
“No, they taste great,” I laughed. “But they only lay eggs if they’re alive.”
“Oh.” Lezan blinked at me for a second, and then she shrugged, grabbed the bird in both hands, and bit its head off in one explosive-feathery bite. “I will make sure the next one stays alive.”
Jemma wrinkled her nose as she watched the racoon woman munch on the raw chicken, but Mira and Sela merely shook their heads in amusement. Nadir had paid zero attention to the interaction, though, and her black and gray speckled tail swayed slowly from side to side as she scanned the brush with her steel gray eyes.
Then, in the blink of an eye, Nadir pounced forward and disappeared from my view through the tall, wavy grasses, only to reappear almost instantly with a squawking, struggling bird clasped in her hands. It had off white feathers, a bright orange beak, and little beady eyes, but judging from the lack of gizzard and colorful plumage, it was a female.
Mira snorted, and Jemma giggled, while Sela gave the dark-haired racoon woman an approving nod.
The leader of the racoon women shot Lezan a haughty glare as she presented me with her live chicken, and I opened my empty pack and helped her shove the protesting bird inside.
“There,” Nadir said as she turned her gray eyes to me and nodded firmly. “It is alive, you can tell by how it yells like an idiot.”
“Excellent.” I grinned and cinched my pack tightly closed. “We just need a few more, and it would be even better if we can find a couple males, too.”
“Very well.” Nadir gave me another curt nod, and then she turned on her heels and marched forward through the grass with her head swiveling from side to side as she stalked her next victim.
We all followed in her wake, but I made sure to keep an eye out for any dangerous animals. If these clucker birds were anything like the chickens from back on Earth, every predator on this island would likely be hunting them, too.
Jemma caught the next bird, and the sight of her long, long legs bounding through the grass while her auburn hair flew behind her like a flag was a memory I wanted burned into my brain. The deer woman was fast, and it only took her a few moments to grapple the chicken from the ground and into her pack, but in the brief flash I managed to get, it looked like another female.
Two down.
We didn’t spot another chicken for almost an hour, but I saw several other, smaller birds flitting through the brush, so I knew we were in a good location to find them. After a while, we neared a small grove of the twisted trees, and thanks to my enhanced dragonkin sight, I spotted the colorful tail feathers and bright red crown of a bird that looked exactly like a rooster.
I couldn’t contain my excitement, so I took off running with my recently acquired superhuman speed, and I was almost on top of the rooster by the time the bird turned and noticed my approach. The bird’s small eyes went wide, and he cawed once in shock before his feet moved. Then he took off at a right angle away from me. I altered my trajectory and increased my pace, though, and I quickly crossed the distance between us.
Finally, I shot my hands forward and over each of the bird’s wings. The motion reminded me of the carnival claw arm games, but unlike every experience I had with those arcade asshole-lowdown-cheating “prize” machines, this time I managed to snag my target. The rooster wiggled and kicked his taloned feet, and he pecked ruthlessly at any of my skin within his reach.
“Oh, you fucker!” I cursed, but I kept my grip tight on him.
Sela rushed forward with her open pack, and after a couple more scratches and pecks, the rooster was stashed safely away in her bag. I waved my hand at my side to dispel the sting of the rooster’s beak marks, but I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face.
“Well done, my king,” the serpent woman murmured, and she hoisted her wiggling pack onto her shoulder.
“Thanks.” I could hear the rooster’s muffled squawks and caws, and my smile started to fade.
If the dumbass bird kept making so much noise, he was bound to attract the attention of some sort of predator, and the last thing we needed was to summon all the vicious animals on this island to us.
“He does not sound happy,” Jemma observed, and her eyes were fearful as she scanned the empty grassland around us.
“This is why we kill them quickly,” Nadir commented. “The wildebears will follow the sound.”
“Oh, no,” Jemma gasped, and she wrung her hands. “What should we do, Ben?”
“Well, we have enough to breed them and have eggs, although it will be a long time before we have the amount of chickens I’d like.” I worked the muscle in my jaw as I thought it over, but the continuous soundtrack of the angry rooster swayed my decision. “Let’s head back to camp. If we find a couple more on the way, great, but we have what I wanted.”
“I will find you more,” Lezan promised, and she hopped away through the grass in a few quick bounds.
“This is where they gather,” Nadir pointed out as she gestured to the small grove of twisted trees. “If you want any more of them, act swift.”
“Okay,” I said, and I turned to Mira, Sela, and Jemma. “How about we each try to find one more?”
“Yes, my king,” Sela said, and she turned to scan the grove.
In the distance, I could hear the scuffling grasses and faint bird noises I associated with chickens, and I ran through everything I knew about catching them. Normally, they weren’t in the wild, and the farmers would keep them in big barns or pens where they could herd them where they needed to go.
“On second thought, let’s work together,” I said as I jerked my head to Mira and Jemma. “The two of you chase them toward me, and I’ll grab them up.”
“Oh, wonderful idea!” Jemma bounced on her toes.
“Here’s my bag,” Mira said with a wry grin as she offered me the empty sack.
“Thanks.” I smirked, and then we headed off in opposite directions.<
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I crouched down in the grass and listened to the noises around me, but beyond the scattered caws of the wild chickens, the only thing I heard was the wind whistling through the tall foliage. Then an alarmed squawk erupted from my left, and three of the white feathered birds burst out from the brush toward me.
I lunged with my arms open, and with the top of the bag held in one hand, I encircled the chickens in my grasp and pulled the sack over them in one swift motion.
Once I had the opening cinched closed, I pumped my fist up into the air and did a victory dance. Jemma and Mira trotted forward through the tall grass, and they laughed at my antics.
“What is so funny?” Lezan asked with a curious tilt of her head. A bird flapped and fluttered in her hand, but the black-eyed racoon woman paid it no mind as she lifted an eyebrow at me.
“Ben’s dancing,” Mira snickered.
“I have caught another male,” Nadir announced without any preamble as she appeared at my side as if by magic.
I jumped in surprise before I processed her appearance, but then my eyes took in the colorful bird in her arms. The racoon woman held the rooster’s beak firmly in one hand, while her other arm was wrapped around its wings. The position looked almost nurturing if it wasn’t for the cool, neutral expression on the woman’s face.
Thankfully, with Nadir’s hand firmly wrapped around the rooster’s beak, the only noise he was making was a low, rumbling sound.
“We should find something to hold his mouth closed,” I suggested.
“What if we braid some of the grass together to make a rope?” Jemma asked, and she squatted down to fetch some of the long strands.
“Good idea.” I grinned as I watched her nimble fingers twirl the strands into a braid in a few deft movements, and then I helped her wrap the twine around the rooster’s beak.
Once the bird’s mouth was securely closed, he was shoved into Nadir’s pack, and by the time we were done with him, Mira and Sela had repeated the binding process on our other rooster. When I stood and looked around at our little assembled group, I was full of pride at what we’d accomplished.
