Chapter Fifty-Two: Bounty Hunting

FIFTY-TWO

Roan looked between the paper and the plant that rested in the roots of the lightning struck tree. The plant, a Lightning Blossom, looked right, but Roan wasn’t a botanist. When a faint trickle of blue electricity zoomed over the delicate petals, Roan was decided. The last few hours had been a learning curve as he worked on the best way to harvest plants.

Plucking them from the ground by the stem hadn’t been a winner. Storing them was an issue as well as he didn’t have anything to keep them from being crushed, but Roan was determined to get a few of the bounties in before everyone showed up and started to flood the market.

“They’ll get there and rush off to earn money for the temporal chambers. I’ll already have earned extra money and be using them. When I’m out of funds, they’ll be done with their hunts and we rotate. No being stuck waiting in line,” Roan told himself as he bent down and started to carefully dig away the ground around the roots until he could carefully pry the entire Lightning Blossom free.

“Heavier than it looks,” Roan complained as he grabbed his pack next to him and found the remnants of his old clothes. He ripped it further apart and wrapped the plant, placing it into his pack as carefully as he could. The small backpack was quickly filling up as he found that many of the plants and rocks needed by the bounties were close by.

He was getting the easy pickings as fast as he could while he knew others would be stuck ranging further and further. Roan threw his head side to side and felt a relieving pop as a slight degree of tension eased. While this wasn’t hard work, not like fighting was, being constantly alert for any goblinoid was slowly wearing on him. Preparing for an ambush in the lush, verdant, forest was much different that preparing for one in the stone and steel sarcophagus of Las Vegas.

Grass parted not far from him and he brought his warhammer up, but nothing came from the grass aside from the breeze. It was a gentle thing, bringing with it the scents of blooming flowers, fresh grass, and blood.

Roan paused as he sniffed again. The copper-tang of it filled his nose and he lowered himself to a crouch as every sense went on alert. Nothing stirred and the breeze died down, but Roan was too curious. If he could find more gear to raid or injured goblinoids to put down, he’d be foolish not to.

With practiced slowness he moved through the brush. It was different than stalking though the desert, but enough of it held true. Move slowly, move carefully, and be alert. There was just a lot more cover here for something to hide behind. Roan took his time and the smell of blood grew stronger and stronger as he worked his way forward in a crouch.

“YARGH!” The roar went up followed by a shriek that raised the hairs on Roan’s neck, the caterwaul of a pissed off cat amplified by a dozen. It reverberated in his chest as he winced, but otherwise he didn’t move as he waited patiently. Another bestial roar came, followed by a softer cat screech.

“Sounded similar to the ogre I fought earlier. But what the hell is that cat screech?” Roan was wary as he started forward again, pushing his way through the tall grass with only his eyes visible. When he passed by a tree he saw what had happened.

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The goblinoids and dragon weren’t the only monsters in the woods apparently. An ogre was leaning against a tree, black blood dripping from its wounded belly as it tried to hold its intestines in. A wounded…mountain lion? Roan paused as he tried to figure out what he was staring at.

It looked like an oversized mountain lion, or possibly a lean tiger. Ten feet long from nose to tail, its green coat blended into the thick grass if it wasn’t for the bright red blood dripping from its shoulder to drench the grass it lurked in. Roan saw several ripped apart goblinoids, their bodies shredded and spread across the area.