Chapter 34 - Coaxing Zaututor's

Jamie and Emily stood back, watching Ivan trying to coax a couple of creatures, Nicholas at his side. They stood on a hillside littered with grey rocks, with small clumps of red grass being visible in the rare spots where large rocks were not covering the ground, underneath the yellow sun, give a slight yellow tinge to everything illuminated in it's light. Ivan was trying to coax a couple of thin, haggard Zaututor, red fur elk, with glowing grey antlers with five red spike tips on each antler. It's barely visible tail was grey, and they had pitch black eyes. Ivan and Nicholas sat close to them, with Ivan feeding them with food, and communicating with them via Astral transmission.

As Jamie and Emily stood watching Ivan coaxing the creatures with soft, malleable red balls of food, Emily concealed a yawn and leaned towards Jamie, whispering "This is taking forever. I don't get why we don't kill these creatures and try to find some younger creatures, or take them by force. They are only stage 3."

Jamie rolled his eyes. "you didn't memorize the sheet, did you?"

Emily averted her gaze. "I tried. There were over one hundred different creatures to memorize in a single night though."

"Their mating season is next year. There will be no young to take. Additionally, these two are half starved, and have no wariness towards humans, and are a male female pair. It's perfect, in terms of ease to tame them and having a breeding pair for the shop. As for taking them by force first, once that is done, it will be hard to reestablish trust afterwards."

"Can these cute things really fight though? How did they end up half starved?"

"Dunno about why they are half starved, but some of the Gredidine like to try capture Zaututor and use them as a mount. Usually those competing for positions in power. The Zaututor are seen as a symbol of worthiness, and mental fortitude. The Zaututor can't exactly be weak, can they?"

Emily turned to look at the Zaututor, one of which was now rubbing the side of it's head against Ivan's, and mewling softy.

"Those cute, harmless things?"

"Apparently, the skin is really thick and elastic, and hard for the Gredidine's claws to penetrate them by accident at the same stage, and are fairly fast and large enough for a Gredidine to ride on them. As for the abilities, their more of a support type, placing barriers and disorientating the opponent."

"There are plenty of creatures that fit those requirements. I DO remember some of the creatures from the list. There was this awesome looking creature, that was a leopard like creature with pink and red fur, and golden eyes, and a short black horn on it's forehead. I think it was called the Black Horn Pink Red Leopard?"

Jamie thought back to the list, and instantly recalled the creature Emily was thinking about, frowning about the details. "The Black Horn Pink Red Leopard probably would be a better mount and trophy creature, but that creature was in the Sherot's territory."

Emily gave a low snort. "The Gredidine was the most powerful race on this continent. They even attacked the Sherot's city, targeting their High Priestess, and avoided retaliation until we formed an alliance with the Sherot and the other races. If they really tried, they could have gotten access to the areas to hunt for some. Why don't they get the more awesome Black Horn Pink Red Leopard?"

Jamie frowned. "I don't know."

As the duo stopped talking, the crunching of stones could be heard gradually behind them, and they turned around, to see Taylor approaching from behind, with a small, yellow fur baby bear with a single black stripe nestled in her slim arms, and a large brown bear, with golden eyes, grey paws, and a single grey ring around it's middle following behind her She walked to stand next to Jamie and Emily, placing the baby bear on the ground. It ambled over to the Grey Ring Bear, sniffing it's nose.

"So, how are you two doing?"

"Fine" "Okay"

"I think Ivan is almost done. Ivan wants to give you both a chance to try and tame the next creature we find. I hope you observed him carefully."

Jamie nodded, while Emily's eyes glistened with excitement. They observed Ivan in silence for five more minutes, as he fed them bits of food and rubbed his head with theirs. Eventually, he got up slowly, with Nicholas by his side, standing up, and walking towards the group, the Zaututor following closely behind. He inspected the cub playing with the Grey Ring Bear, then turned to Taylor with a smile.

"Well done. How did you manage to find it?"

"It's parents got into a fight with something. One died, the other was heavily wounded, dragging itself to a bunch of rocks, bleeding out. I put the adult Yellow Fur Blake Stripe Bear out of it's misery, and uncovered the rocks, finding a small cave, looking inside and I found the baby. "

Jamie winced slightly, and Ivan's smile faltered. Ivan asked "Could the adult be saved?"

"I don't think so? It had lost a lot of blood, and the blood wasn't slowing down. It worsened the wound as it dragged it's body to the covered cave, and it kept snarling at me, not letting me approach."

Ivan stared hard at the Grey Ring Bear by Taylor's side, playing with the Yellow Fur Blake Stripe Bear cub, then turning back to Taylor.

"....Sure. Do you know what they fought with?"

"Gredidine"

Ivan's eyes widened. "Are you sure?"

In response, Taylor held out her hand. A large, yellow, gauntlet materialized in her palm, with a broken silver blade attached to it, shaped like a claw. Ivan took a step forward to inspect the gauntlet, as both the Zaututor behind Ivan took a step back, shuddering, and lowering their body. Ivan inspected the gauntlet, then handing it to Nicholas.

Nicholas inspected it carefully, then his hand was coated in a brown light, and he tapped it a couple of times. The gauntlets withstood the impact. He handed the gauntlets back to Ivan.

"The gauntlets fit a Zaututor's hands. Their sturdy too, they should belong to a stage 7 Martial Warrior equivalent."

"Contact Amelia, I will do the same for Lennox."

Ten minutes later, crunching noises could be heard, and Lennox walked into view, a large, black and purple snake slithering besides him.

"I found a nice group of creatures we could tame....."

Amelia popped into sight besides Ivan, shocking them all, and making Ivan jump, and grabbing the blade gauntlet out of his palm and inspecting it.

"The material used in this is exquisite. I remember when I sold a pair of similar gauntlets off, I made a small fortune."

Ivan tried to calm his breathing, asking in a slightly rattled voice. "Where did you get the gauntlets from?"

Amelia looked towards Ivan. "From the corpse of a stage 8 Gredidine Warprince that was killed in a large scale conflict shortly when the portal was first opened to the Hunter's Association. It manged to hide away, and avoid the City Lord's attention."

Amelia took two aggressive steps towards the Zaututor behind Ivan, holding out the gauntlets, and they flinched, and took a step back, lowering their body. She stopped, and turned and walked towards Ivan, handing the gauntlets to him.

"There you go. They recognize gauntlets. They likely are Zaututor that have escaped from the hands of a high ranking Gredidine, that gets his jolly from torturing the creatures or is in a difficult situation. Where did you find the gauntlets?"

Ivan looked towards Taylor. She answered in a slightly shaky voice. "T-to the north. T-twenty kilometers away."

Amelia gave a hard look to Taylor. "You left the safety zone I set. I cannot guarantee your safety if you do so. Unless your have a lot of powerful beasts stashed away. A Warprince usually walks around with an escort of ten high stage Gredidine."

"S-s-s-sorry."

She turned to Ivan. "We need to leave here, now. I will come back and inspect the area later once you are back."

"NO! We can't leave, I discovered a big cluster of eggs, guarded be a small group of Breatopus..."

Amelia turned to give a hard look at Lennox, and cut him off.

"If you want to court death, go ahead. I'm willing to tag along with you all as you try to get those eggs, if that is what you all decide on. Just know this, if we get ambushed by the Gredidine with unfavorable odds after knowing all this, I won't be sticking around. And neither will Nicholas. And those Gredidine won't treat you nicely if they capture you, just look at the condition of those Zaututor, and keep in mind, those are supposed to be their friendly pets."

Lennox shot a glare at Amelia, but didn't respond. Ivan took a deep breath, and looked around.

"Okay, lets head back. We will report this situation. We have gained a good deal from this outing anyway."