28 Herbivorous Rage

"I know you're still just a child, master, but really? A treasure hunt?" Kali coos in her bat form from Harry's shoulder as he walks through the blisteringly hot African plains. Indeed, it was so hot that she was wearing a miniature sun hat that Harry had transfigured for her bat form.

Harry gives her a flick which she easily blocks with a wing, "I think there might actually be something there, Kali. Think about it, magical artifacts!"

"Only you Harry, would believe the ravings of a savage. They don't even have proper plumbing, I don't know what artifacts you are hoping to take from them. Perhaps they once stole a *gasp*, metal sword!" she mocks.

Harry just shakes his head, "Look, they obviously have some sort of magic origins, their ancestors must have left something. Even if it's not useful, it'd be interesting to dismantle it and see ancient magic at work."

"I think you are overestimating them, Master. For all we know they could have just stumbled into it, ritualistic scarification isn't exactly uncommon around these parts you know?"

Harry doesn't reply and instead concentrates on the path ahead. To reach this point so far he'd been occasionally apparating to area's off in the distance to increase their pace. From the description Adebayo had given, he was fairly close to their former home...

Though, for some reason there seem to be far more animals around than there should be... Gazelle, Zebra, Giraffes, Rhino's, etc. Strangely enough, despite all the herbivorous animals around, there wasn't a single predator...

Harry was observing two Giraffe's swinging their neck at one another when he was jolted from his thoughts by a loud trumpet... Glancing over, he spots a herd of elephants, one of which was looking directly at him and acting aggressively.

""I wonder what elephant tastes like."" both Harry and Kali say simultaneously. They look at each other and laugh, blatantly ignoring the increasingly aggravated elephant.

It stomps the floor a couple more times before finally charging at them. Harry just calmly looks over and waits for it to approach. As it does he waves his hand up, causing a few spikes of earth to form, all pointing at the elephant as if a troop of pikemen were awaiting its charge.

The elephant was either too enraged, or too stupid to actually avoid the trap, so it simply runs headfirst into it, a few spears break on its skull but more pierce its throat and body. Harry is forced to apparate backwards to avoid its collapsing body, but it isn't too much effort.

The elephant slams to the floor with a groan, it's still alive, but that won't last long. The large amounts of blood pooling underneath it show that it isn't long for this world. Harry glances at the rest of the herd that looked as if they were gearing up to charge as well...

"Do you have anything that can shrink this? My transfiguration isn't good enough to do animals yet..."

Kali shakes her head, "We'd risk attracting unwanted attention, not worth it just to eat exotic meat..."

Harry shrugs, walking over to the side of the beast and begins gesturing with his hands... Stone spears begin to appear from the ground, piercing the elephant and slowly carving off a large piece of flesh. The elephant itself continues releasing trumpeting groans of pain, but Harry ignores it while stuffing his expanded bag with some elephant meat. "There, now let's go before the rest attack us." he says before apparating a mile or so away.

The two continue walking, after taking a dinner break in which they eat the elephant meat Harry had carved off (It taste incredibly gamy), eventually, they stumble into the ruined camp where Adebayo's tribe used to reside.

The place looked desolate and abandoned, but strangely, it seemed as if someone had torn the place apart while looking for something. "What do you think they were looking for?" Harry asks.

Kali shrugs her bat wings, "The people would be my guess, slavery still pays as well after all."

Harry doesn't reply, instead, looking around for the trail that'd lead to the sacred grounds... Eventually, he spots and follows it. After a couple minutes he stumbled across a small rock formation that is completely surrounded by animals... There's a bunch of white expedition tents set up outside the mouth of an intricately decorated cave entrance, paints, sculptures, and chiselled patterns mark it out from any regular cave.

The tents out front look torn, ragged, and some had even collapsed. Even now buffalo and other large herbivores walk through the place destroying any manmade object they can find.

"Huh, looks like the curse was real after all." Kali muses, "There do not seem to be any corpses, so the people must be inside."

"The curse summons animals? Why only herbivores though? Wouldn't it be more effective to summon predators?"

Kali shakes her head, "Believe it or not, but I'd fear a herd of enraged cows over a pride of lions. It's only their passive nature that makes them seem less of a threat... Cast a beserk charm on a peaceful city street and suddenly the mouth of a lion looks like a safe place to be." she remarks.

Harry nods, he'd seen movies where human's lost all sense of control, zombie movies were an example... There isn't all that much you could do if hundreds of formerly peaceful people start ripping, tearing, and biting at you. "Think we will be attacked if we approach? Our goal is probably inside the cave."

"Do you even have to ask? The only people who might be spared are Adebayo and his tribe. And before you get the bright idea to teleport to the mouth of the cave, I'll warn you that magical places often have protections against it... You wouldn't want to find yourself splinched now, would you?"

Harry gives a grave nod, there's nothing quite like staring down at your dismembered arm and thinking 'oh boy, I really fucked up this time'.