A Mage Prepared

by Thomas Whipple

  Following the trail of turned earth and the occasional dinged up tree, I see something in the distance. Hiding behind trees as best I can I get closer to it until I can make out what it is that killed the wolves. When it comes into view I am surprised at what I see. It's a tortoise. A very large one about 7 feet tall, with a barrel sized head currently carrying a wolf corpse in its mouth. It's claws are long and sharp, tearing up the ground as it walks. And it has a mouth full of sharp pointed teeth instead of the beak I expected.

  Stone Tortoise, lvl 16. HP: 100%.

  When I got close enough I used Identify, but to my surprise I get more information that usual. I also see the message icon light up. A quick check and Identify did gain a level. After days of using the skill on everything I see it finally leveled up. But I hold my excitement in to not alert the scary death turtle I am following. Eventually it leads me to a hill where there is a cave that looks like it has been dug out. This must be the tortoise's lair.

  Having found what I was looking for I head back to the clearing where the wolves are. When I get close I hear a whimpering sound from the other side of a tree. Approaching the sound I step around a tree and see a wolf that I missed before. It is a dark brownish gray color that blends into the tree it is laying against. I can see that it is injured but still breathing. As it notices my presence it starts to growl a little. Stopping, I set down my spear and raise my arms out to the side to show it I don't mean it harm. To my relief, it stops growling, but stares directly into my eyes. The wolf's eyes remind me of a husky from back on Earth with their bight blue color. Looking at it I can see intelligence sparkle there, mixed with exhaustion.

  After a minute just standing there letting it look at me, I step forward to slowly kneel down next to it. I hold my hand out to it so that it can smell me, while my other hand reaches into my pocket and pulls out a piece of hare I had wrapped in a leaf for later. Holding that out to the wolf, it takes it and slowly starts to eat some. Having calmed the wolf for now, I look over its injuries. It has claw wounds diagonally across its side, and looks to have been thrown into the tree it is lying against.

  It is very large for a wolf, a little bigger than a Saint Bernard. The wounds it has aren't too deep and have stopped bleeding, so I think it will live as long as it gets a chance to recover. Looking back to the head I see the wolf has finished the meat and I watch as the eyelids droop and it passes out. After some deliberation, I make up my mind. I pick the wolf up in my arms and carry it back to the cave I have claimed. I am not able to stop for the pelts of the other wolves, and decide against coming back for them if I am going to try and keep this one. If it wakes up to the skins of its pack surrounding it the wolf might get the wrong idea.

  Back at my cave I set the wolf down in front of the entrance before checking to make sure that none of the claw marks are bleeding. They aren't, but in the process of checking one that curves down to its belly I do notice that it is a she. I will have to think of a name for her. Bringing her into the cave is difficult with the low entrance, and I have to half drag, half carry her in. Setting her to one side of the room, I head back out to the forest to collect the kills from where I left them after hearing the roar.

  Following my normal routine I clean and cook the hares, all of them this time, saving as much of the meat as I can when done. Since I will be having a guest I will need to stock up and I don't know how much she eats. I have dried out a few furs from the other hares I killed the last few days, so I grab the ready ones to join what is already in the cave along with all the wrapped meat. Crawling into the cave is tough again with all the stuff I am carrying, and I lament once again that there doesn't seem to be an inventory system on this world like in some games. I know because I tried to discover it. A lot. Once inside, I unwrap a good sized chunk of meat and lay it before the wolf. Tired from all the wandering around, and then carrying the huge wolf, I lay down on my bed of furs.

  Thinking for a minute before I drift off, I am glad I put those points in STR earlier, there is no way I could have brought the wolf all the way here before night without it. I will need to name the wolf in the morning to start teaching it, unless it kills me in my sleep. With that last thought, I clear my mind and fall asleep.

  *******

  "Close the curtain" I mumble as my tired mind fades into consciousness due to the bright light in my eyes.

  "Chuff"

  I freeze when I hear that and the fog instantly clears from my head. The noise came from very close. That is when I realize I can feel something warm and furry pressed up against my right side. On top of that, I can feel something laying over my right arm and cutting off the circulation to it. Ignoring the pins and needles feeling radiating up my right arm, I raise the left to block the sun and open my eyes. Taking in the scene and moving slowly, I can see I was right with my assessment that the wolf crawled over in the middle of the night. Turning my head to the right I can see two icy blue eyes watching me intently. They remind me of two clear mountain lakes. After a second she licks me in the face. Not expecting it, I bolt upright.

  "Gah, don't do that!" I yell.

  "Chuff."

  I swear she looks amused. After regarding me for another moment she lays her head back down, still obviously in pain. I scoot a little closer to her and check her wounds to see how they are healing. They look surprisingly good considering the condition she was in yesterday. I think the natural healing here is faster than back on earth due to the system that runs it. If I were to guess, things that take days and weeks to heal on earth would take hours and days to heal here.

  Moving over to her head, I look into her eyes and start thinking of names. She kind of looks like a large timber wolf in build, and her fur is the color of the trees around here. Using this as inspiration I think I have a name.

  "How about Timbre? Do you like that name?"

  She raises her head to look at me again like she is thinking it over. A moment later she lays back down, closing her eyes and going back to sleep.

  "I will take that as a yes. I will leave you something to eat while I get some things ready."

  I lay down some hare meat near her and leave the cave. The hares were a good start but they don't provide much towards a new level, and I am sure that it will be less now. I know there are other things in the woods to hunt, but the only things that are reasonable around here were probably the wolves. Now that they have been killed, there is only one thing left to hunt around here that I know of. Unfortunately the tortoise's shell looked like rock and the scales on its other parts looked hard enough to be trouble for me.

  Remembering the first hare I killed with a critical hit, I know that is the only way I have a chance against something like the tortoise at my current level. I will need a trap to get the chance I need. But first I need an axe, so I went to where I chipped the stone knife I have from the larger rocks nearby. Spending time hammering at one rock with a smaller one is not fun, and exhausting. When I finally have a large enough wedge of stone to work with I find a flat rock nearby and sit next to it. Then I begin chipping away at my prospective axe head.

  Done with the axe head I go looking for a handle and something to bind it all together. In the woods I find a branch the right thickness and brace it against the ground using my foot to stomp on it to break it at the right length. I take it back to the river and strip the bark with the stone knife. At the waters edge there is some long fibrous grass that I braid together to make some crude rope. Propping the branch up with one end on a rock, I use the axe head to split the handles end about 6 inches. The split section is just a little longer than the axe head is wide. I place the head in between the split, and tie one end of the rope I made to one of the split ends above the head.

  Wrapping the rope tightly around the split ends above the head pulls the split together holding the head in place. I then run the rope down to just below the head and wrap it as tightly as I can to prevent the handle from splitting more. A few more times crossing the axe head and wrapping th
e handles and I am done. Setting it down I go to check on Timbre. She looks asleep, but the meat is gone. I pet her head a little before heading back out to get started.

  Near where the wolves were attacked I start by finding three thick branches a few feet long, setting them to the side near a tree. First I climb the tree a little and use my stone knife to cut and then sharpen the limbs of the tree on one side, before getting down. Then I start chopping. When the tree is starting to teeter I jam one of the branches into the side of the trunk it is tipping towards. Jamming the other end of the branch into the ground, I chip away at the trunk some more till I am sure the branch is preventing it from falling.

  Two more trees get the same treatment before it starts getting dark and I head back to see Timbre. I've only been here a few days but the lack of company was definitely starting to get to me, so I am looking forward to seeing her. It has been nice talking to Timbre even if she doesn't say anything, so I am a little worried that she will leave after she is better, but all I can do is wait and see. When I get back to the cave I see Timbre waiting in front of it. She knocked the blind that I keep in front of the entrance over when she got out. Her head perks up when she hears me coming and starts to limp in my direction.

  Timbre: Female Dire Wolf, lvl 6. HP: 72%.

  Still a ways to go before she is fully recovered, but she should be good to go some time tomorrow. I let her lean on me as I help her walk down to the river for a drink. We walk back to the cave and I feed her before eating myself. When done, I lay down so that I can get an early start in the morning to institute my plan. I am worried that the wind might knock the trees over in the night, but it has been calm the last few days and the branches I used were pretty thick. It should be fine. Timbre finishes her meal and lies down against my side, her warm fur calming my mind so that I fall asleep.

  Chapter 4

  I wake up in a cold sweat, panic gripping my heart. Looking around frantically for any threat in the dim cave. A moment later I start to realize it was just a dream. I feel Timbre next to me stir, my movement having woken her.

  "SSSHHH, I just had a bad dream Timbre" I say while petting her, more to calm myself than her.

  I sit there for a few minutes trying to shake the fear gripping my heart. I guess I am more nervous about the plan for today than I thought. Checking Timbre's state, she is up to 84% HP and will probably be moving around today. That means I need to get a move on so that she won't be there when I confront the stone tortoise. After seeing what it did to her and the other wolves I don't want to risk her getting killed this time. It may seem dumb but she is the only thing I have had to keep me company. I was getting a little punchy with no company for days on end, which is probably why I seem so emotionally attached to her already.

  Making sure Timbre is out again and sleeping comfortably, I head out to get the show on the road. On the way to the tortoise's lair I can't help thinking about what I remember from my dream. The memory is fading, but not fast enough. It also isn't helping my nervousness. By now mostly I just remember large fangs biting me all over, and claws ripping into my stomach. I shiver just thinking about it, before trying to put it out of my mind. Still nervous, I swing by the trees I was working on yesterday. They are just as I left them so I sit on the ground between them and do some stretches to limber up before what I plan to do.

  Feeling a little better after the stretching, I head over to the lair, first scouting around it. I do not see it anywhere around the lair as I head to a spot where I can watch the entrance. Here I am lined up for my intended retreat. Then I wait ..... and wait ..... and wait. I am just starting to think it's not home when I see movement inside. Immediately adrenaline starts flooding my system, heart jack hammering, and my breath becomes shallow. It looks bigger than last time, and has more teeth. It's just my fears exaggerating everything but it makes it even more intimidating.

  Then I think of Timbre and what it did to her. I am still scared quiet, but I start thinking rationally again. I have never been in a situation where death is on the line, but I have decided that my new life in this world won't be mediocre. I need to do this, to know that I can make it in this world. Switching my spear to my left hand I pick up a rock with my right. The stone tortoise is about 50 feet away from me when I throw the rock that bounces off the tortoise's head a couple seconds later.

  It turns to me faster that I thought it could and roars. It is so loud it makes my ears ring. I freeze in place for a second because it's so loud that I'm disoriented. Shaking my head to clear the effect I see the tortoise close the tooth filled mouth before lumbering forward. I turn around and run as fast as I can. I am really glad that I spent some of my stat points on agility right now since I am barely staying ahead of the monster. Every time I look back, all I see is a nightmare of teeth, spikes and claws. It's actually faster than me, and the only reason I am staying ahead of it is that it's so large that it keeps bumping trees. This is slowing it down just enough for me to stay ahead.

  Only a few minutes later I am getting close to the trees I prepared. I chose those specifically for their size, placement, and proximity to the stone tortoise's lair. I set it so that I would run between two trees which I cut to fall towards each other. That means the braces keeping them up narrow the path I run through. The tortoise is too big to pass through without knocking the branches out from the tree and toppling them. The last tree is set to fall right in between the first two. With the tank of a turtle right behind me I pass the first two trees and go straight to the third, pulling back with my spear and swing as hard as I can under the branch holding it up. It comes out with a snap and the tree starts to fall toward me, but I don't stop moving and step out of the way.

  Just as I am turning around I hear both branches get knocked out, one after another. Fully turned around I can see the moment when the tortoise sees the first falling tree. It stops and then tries to step back but, despite the speed in which it moved when chasing me, it is much slower when going backwards. The tree lands on the tortoise and the weight forces it to the ground, followed by the other two falling to add their weight towards pinning the tortoise down. I sharpened the branches on the side of the trees that fell in hopes that I might get lucky and they would do some damage. The pained roar it lets out after they fall indicates some success.

  Not wasting any time I race to the head that is thrashing around in the branches still left on the fallen trees. I rear back and stab as soon as it pokes its head out, right into its left eye. I push as hard as I can, eliciting another pained roar. Giving the spear a quick wiggle I then yank it out, just in time to back off and avoid its left leg. It's thrashing around more which is shifting the trees a little. If I don't hurry it's going to get free, and I don't have a backup plan. Is running a backup plan? I think to myself. No, running is what you do when all plans fail.

  "Note to self: always make a backup plan."

  As it thrashes, I wait a second for it to move its head to the left and expose its other eye. The first stab glanced off the hard scales or the ridge right above the eye. I jump back after the failed attempt in order to set for another try, but I was too late and got hit by one of the legs. Lucky for me it wasn't the claws that got me, just the leg itself. Still, the spiky scales scrape me up good where they contacted my side. I fell a few feet from the head and scramble to a standing position.

  This time I take careful aim and lunge forward when it turns. Impaling the other eye gets another roar even louder than the last. Instead of backing away again, I push forward with all my strength. I feel something give way and my spear sinks deep into the eye and head. What I didn't expect was the head to jerk in my direction at that moment, slamming into my chest and launching me into the tree branches from the first felled tree. My spear also broke and now there is a small nub sticking out of the stone tortoise's eye socket.

  Extricating myself from the tree I slip on a pool of blood that is building underneath it. On the ground I try to get up again but have to fall back as the torto
ise snaps horror film jaws in my direction, stopping only a few inches from my right arm. The fangs in the mouth are a nightmare and a half, and look like they could shred me in one bite. Crab walking backward to avoid it, I can smell the fetid breath. It smells like rotten meat and the trash from behind a restaurant in the middle of an Arizona summer. Once out of reach of the gesticulating tortoise, I check the HP.

  Stone Tortoise, lvl 16. HP: 5%.

  It is almost dead, and I can see it slowing down. The way it is bleeding I can tell it won't be long, so I stand back to wait. The movements of it now are so erratic I don't think I can get close without being hit. Besides, my spear is broken and I don't have a backup. About a minute later it is barely moving, and then it stops altogether. At that moment I see the message icon light up, but I ignore it for now to check it back at the cave with Timbre. Before I go back though, I have a few things to check.

  Walking up to the stone tortoise I take a closer look. The first tree fell just to the tortoise's right, my left, of the head. Looks like two sharpened branches pierced that side of the neck, and that is where the majority of the blood I slipped on came from. I check it further back, and see that one of the trees slid off the back in all the moving the monster did. That is bad. If the first tree hadn't done as much damage as it did I would probably have been running and hiding, at best.

  Done with the inspection, I head to where the tortoise had its lair. When I get there I take it slow just in case there is another inside, but that was unnecessary. The lair is much like a scaled up version of my cave, relatively straight, back to a room slightly larger than the cave feeding into it. There is nothing here, well, nothing living. Along the walls are piles of bones. Most of it is animal but I can make out a few articles of clothing that came from things that were humanoid.