Once again, like before, I was walking along my path between my home and the stream. The path I had forged was now very clear, like it had been carved into the environment, well it had, because I did it!

As I paced through the forest, I tried to sniff out any nearby herds. I don’t fancy travelling far, I would prefer finding one close by. Sadly, my luck today was still shit and I could only smell the usual piss and small critters. 

Luckily I had an energetic bundle of joy like Olivia behind me. My spirits were constantly uplifted by the cute back hug she ‘forced’ onto me. The pure smiles she gave after she successfully ‘one upped’ me, made the situation all the funnier.

In the end I didn’t go for round 2, it wasn’t that I was tired, no, far from it. No, the problem was that I knew that if my will faltered now I would spend the rest of the day in a lust filled craze. Wait, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea! 

‘Mental Smack’ 

Focus Brace! You have to finish this Mission and gain strength and glory!! And as a great hero once said “With great power, comes great, Big Booty Bitchs!” I already have one! Why not 5 more??? I can have sex after the Mission! I could go for days if I wanted to!

Okay enough of the jokes, I’m not actually that sex crazed. Hey I’m not! I’ll let you know that I am currently being very productive! I was collecting the Berry Bushes that I had noticed the first day I arrived here. With my new [Horticulture] Skill, I now had a use for them apart from being food. Well, the Berries will still be eaten, but I now knew how to grow them next to my domicile!

Funny enough, it was really easy to uproot the bushes. Mind you, I did it properly and a majority of the roots were intact. Remembering all the garden work I did in the past, I noticed just how skillful I was. I mean, when I was a Human doing the same job, I had damaged more roots than now!

In total, I collected 6 bushes, 2 Highbush Blueberries, 2 Winterberry, 1 Nannyberry, and 1 Red Chokeberry. Oh, and I got luck and found 4 clumps of Clustered Mountain Mint! Perfect for when I somehow roll a Teapot from the Item roulette (because I’m a Brit). Thankfully Mint had other uses, like a bug repellent.

My [Horticulture] skill was weird compared to my other [Singing] skill. Weird how? Weird in that it told me exactly what I needed, to a certain extent. For example, information on how to grow Clustered Mountain Mint went straight into my mind as soon as I found a cluster.

=========================================================================

Horticulture:

Name: Clustered Mountain Mint

Height: 1.00 to 3.00 feet

Spread: 1.00 to 3.00 feet

Sun Requirement: Full sun to part shade

Water Requirement: Medium (Till Slightly Moist)

Maintenance Requirements: Low, (Survives Without Much Aid

Reproduction: Through Seeds or Rhizomes Released in Spring

========================================================================

Pretty neat right? I basically got the same info from each bush I collected. That’s why I said it was weird, well to me currently. My only experience with skills has been [Singing], which is very instinctive / intuitive. 

[Horticulture] seemed to also have intuitive parts, but it was more of a “That plant doesn’t have enough Sun, Water, Space Etc”. Still, it was overpowered compared to [Singing] and I’m just going to forget about [Archeology].

Apart from that, there wasn’t much to comment about along the way. Just me and Olivia walking and me thinking. About what you ask? A lot actually. How many Deer should I hunt? How would I smoke the Deer? Should I expand where I hunt? How would I make Olivia clothes?

Currently, my main focus was on finding a Herd to hunt and thinking of a large animal that could be in this forest. There could be Moose I could hunt but that would only be possible if I was in the northern parts of the USA. 

Maybe a Bear? Like a Grizzly Bear or Black Bear? I think Grizzly Bears would count but wouldn’t that be like cannibalism? Ha, jokes, I don’t even think my species is related to Grizzly Bears. Maybe like our ancestors were related but Humans eat Chimps so why can’t I eat a Grizzly?

Still that’s a problem I would face later, right now there was another problem in my paws. Olivia really needed some clothes. She was WAY too sexy and if you hadn’t noticed, she is Very distracting and too much fo me to Bear. That’s the reason I refused to let her walk in front of me!

She knew I was weak to Dat Ass! She would always saunter and sway her hips when she was at the front. I for the life of me couldn’t focus on anything. The slight jiggle after each step, the small folds that formed as she walked. How I wanted to stuff —

“What’s that smell?” Stopping, I spread my arm to block Olivia from moving. Stopping looked towards me. She hadn’t even noticed a problem but she noticed my wary posture. This situation was serious.

A strange smell had appeared, beastly and much like a Deers but twisted. Smelling  like living decay. Like something dead but breathing. The scent stretched further than it should. A Bear could smell Carion from miles away but I had noticed it from further than should be possible. Its scent was different from anything I had ever smelt, like I could smell its need for death… it wanted to die.

Turning my head toward the smell, I was displeased when I noticed that it was coming from in front of me. Close to my cave but further into the forest towards where the Deer Herd was. And it was approaching. 

Summoning up my inner horror movie protagonist, I slung Olivia onto my back. She released a quiet squeak of shock but put up no resistance. Crouching onto all fours, I was ready to sprint towards the creature. With a sudden lurch, I was off, full gallop. “Aaahh!!” Was all I heard from Olivia along with a wrenching of fur as she held on for dear life.

Heading towards the smell I couldn’t help but second guess myself. No, my instincts were telling me to leave it alone but I couldn’t. What if it was dangerous and suddenly appeared when I was unprepared? I would be the one pouncing on it instead.

Weaving and bobbing through the undergrowth, I discovered how hard it was to move with a passenger on board. She wasn’t heavy but having extra weight that wasn’t properly fixed on, threw off my balance slightly. Along with trying to keep her on my back in the first place but we made it eventually.

In a matter of minutes, I had covered the distance between me and the smell and it wasn’t pleasant. The smell grew more foul and corrupted as I cleared the distance. It didn’t smell like a diseased animal, nor like a dying one. More like a being that’s body wasn’t working. Like their body wished for their death and survival. 

I could hear a wet thud originating from where I knew the smell was from. I couldn’t imagine what it was doing to make that noise. It sent shivers down my spine after every single thud. That wasn’t a noise you should hear.

Clearing my line of sight, the sight that befell me was jaw dropping. Soil and earth flew up as I came to a screeching halt. Olivia nearly ripped out my hair as she clung on, stopping herself from flying off my back. What else could I do? I didn’t want to get any closer to THAT.

A familiar silhouette stood before me, one I had seen twice before. His visage that used to instil majesty now only brought feelings of pity. The forest that used to encompass His visage, now viewed ‘It’ with disgust. The frame that carnivores feared now wasted away, lost of its past glory.

Unflinching, ‘It’ continued to charge into a tree, maybe seeking His death? Or maybe ‘It’ saw the tree as a threat to its power. Either way, I was enraptured by it, what had caused his downfall? Observing ‘It’ closer, I saw just how far the Patriarch, the King, had fallen.

The powerful hide that protects His body from harm, had cuts, gashes and holes that weakened ‘Its’ armour. The once powerful muscles that used to help Him bound away and to enemies now vanished leaving only skin and bone on ‘Its’ body. 

Legs that used to hold immense strength, that carried Him across the land, that used to follow His command. Now they didn’t coordinate with ‘Its’ mind, each step unsteady, shaky and disjointed. His legs that used to fight off wolves now propelled ‘It’ into a tree.

His beautiful rack of antlers, once a crown He held up with pride, was broken and shattered by ‘Its’ doing. Every crash and joust that he used to use to fight foes and competitors were now being wasted on a Tree. The protector He used to be, replaced by a creature that sought ‘Its’ own death.

‘Fast but clumsy footsteps rung throughout the surroundings. What used to be powerful, fast and steady had now become weak, slow and sporadic, all done by His crumbling body that made ‘It’. Conviction burned in its eyes. This would be ‘Its’ penultimate attack, the one to end it all.

With one final below, it exposed its ground teeth. Nothing left but gums and a throat that could barely carry the strength He had. ‘It’ didn’t care, there was an enemy to defeat. One last strong slam of His head would finish ’Its’ goal.

*Thudtch* a wet meaty thump resounded and the unmistakable sound of breaking, blood and visira sprayed onto the majestic Oak and the forest floor. Frozen onto the tree. Approaching the body I could see that ‘It’ had succeeded in collapsing ‘His’ skull. The cause of ‘Its’ death, not His, because He was already dead.

Disgust and fear appeared on both our faces as we gazed at his broken body. We both thought the same thing, ‘this is not what a living being should do’. That is what scared us most. Whatever did this to him could do the same to us, well that's mayb what Olivia thought but I knew what did this to a once mighty Buck.

The destructive, incurable Prion disease known as Chronic Wasting Disease.

Yorid

Please let me know if there is a problem with grammar or writing.
I believe there should be a few, due to majority of this chapter being written on my IPad as I traveled.