Bunyips

Dean and D made their way deeper into the swamp. Both their eyes peeled for anything unusual. Dean was once again pointing out details and plants, not only edible or medical ones but even just normal ones where he would explain what it meant for them growing in a particular spot. How the land would be more solid because of it or the water less fetid. He pointed out animal tracks and signs of passing, how to tell if they were animals or monsters. D listened along as much to learn as simply because there was nothing else to do.

Soon enough they found the same patch of onions and had even gathered up a few swamp carrots. D didn't think the dark orange almost brownish colored roots look very appetizing but Dean insisted they were at the very least edible. Watching the boy digging up onions Dean was tempted to try another ambush just to test his student. But a sudden pain in his one shoulder reminded him that ambushing D never worked out well for anyone. Instead, Dean let his curiosity run wild. The monstrous boy was a mystery he couldn't solve. At times the boy seemed slothfully lazy but at other times he would work harder than most men Dean had known. He'd complete complex magical wards of almost mind boggling difficulty then struggle to read a common bounty. He'd fight with the ferocity of a rabid badger only to act almost completely devoid of emotion later. Nothing about the boy made any sense.

"D, what's your plan for the future?" Dean found himself asking.

"Get rich." D grunted as he pulled up more onions and tossed them into his backpack.

"Do you like being a hunter?"

"No"

"How did you end up a Hunter?"

"Was bought and made one." Dean frowned, slavery was illegal in Gelian but he knew there were many ways around that.

Dean continued to ask questions even after they started moving deeper into the swamp. D answered them all but in the end Dean felt he knew no more about the boy than before.

"I've never heard of a monster like you. What are you?" Dean asked.

"Dunno, wasn't like this before." D shrugged.

"Before?"

D told Dean the story of how he and the hunters that owned him previously had eaten their last kill. How only he survived to walk away and after that had begun to change. Dean listened and would have thought the boy was mad had he not witnessed recent events himself. After that Dean spotted tracks that made him halt their progress. Kneeling down he inspected the strange footprints in the muck before glancing around them. They had traveled for hours since leaving the red maple copse that hid their camp. Dean motioned over D to crouch next to him as he inspected the tracks. On one set of mossy ground, dozens of small webbed footprints overlapped and Dean plucked a bit of slender swamp grass before using it to point out some details. "See this point here? This slit? It is a long curved claw coming out of their middle toe." He slid the grass into one of the slits to show D the claw mark was nearly four inches deep. "These tracks are Bunyips. Humanoid monsters a few feet tall, like tiny humans mixed with fish but with a beaver's tail." He pointed to a few round divots in the mud. "Spears, they use weapons and while far short of humans they are smart. The greatest threat they pose though is their numbers. Bunyips are born from eggs and a brood mother will lay hundreds at a time. They only take about six weeks to hatch as well."

Dean again looked up and glanced around as if he expected an ambush at any moment. "Looks like there will be trouble soon."

Beside him, D grunted. "Good."

Dean turned to look at the boy confused by his statement. "More work, better pay."

Dean sighed before shaking his head, maybe he was starting to understand the boy a little better.

**********

When Dean and D returned to the camp late in the afternoon they were greeted by a cheerful shout of "D!" Both of them looked up expecting to find Jane but instead it was Naula who rushed over holding up a half eaten hardtack biscuit. Everyone in the camp stopped to stare at the immature goddess who'd just spoken her first word. D looked down at the badly gnawed biscuit but didn't move. The longer he stared at it the more Naula's bottom lip slid forward to tremble.

"If you don't take that biscuit now, I'll make sure Rachel half's your rations." Dean was leaning over to whisper in D's ear. In response D's face spread in such a wooden smile it made most of the others wince. But he did take the biscuit making the pale girl beam with joy. D started chewing the hardtack just as Rachel came up with a look of wonder on her face.

"I've been trying to teach her the alphabet all morning. I'm just glad she finally learned something. Maybe we are making progress, she is almost as slow to learn as you D." D chewed the hard tack with greater vigor while giving Rachel a rare glare, there was no way he was a slower learner than some bug eating girl. D finished the hard tack before he was given a bowl of stew by a scowling Jane. After they ate he and Dean resumed their work on the cabin while listening to Rachel endlessly repeating. "A… Say A… AAAAAAAA. Fine, say B... B...BBBBBBBB" To only at best get an exclamation of "D!"

For the next few days, Dean and D left camp only to head straight into the swamp looking for more signs of the Bunyips. When they found nothing they would return and throw themselves into working on the cabin. Their progress grew faster once D thought to use a ward to help process the fallen trees into actual planks. Though they lacked nails, Dean was able to explain how to notch the wood planks so they could be fitted securely together. A few tweaks to the ward and soon enough they were making rapid progress. Dean couldn't help but wonder at the usefulness of the wood processing ward. Each day after that D would modify it making it more efficient. Until by the end of their second week in the camp, the cleared perfect circle that represented the location of his ward simply required any wood to be tossed in. Instead of using simple air blades to cleave the wood it broke it down and reprocessed it into pressed lumber. It was so perfectly processed Dean couldn't tell the difference between the new ones and the original ones.

Now that they could turn even the scrap from their early labor into usable wood. It wasn't long before they had a decent sized three room cabin put together. Two bedrooms, one for the men and one for the women, opened up into the common room. Wooden shingles covered the roof and were secured with a type of twine produced by a similar process from bamboo reeds gathered from the swamp. Many of the group marveled at the cabin, shocked to see something like that built from scratch. None were as shocked as Dean who, having built up temporary command posts in the past, was the only one that truly understood what D's wards had accomplished. He'd started to praise the boy before thinking better of it, he'd almost told the boy he could make a fortune just producing building materials. But by then Dean had an understanding of the boy, if D thought he could make an easy life with his newly developed wards there was a good chance he'd be gone by the next morning.

Although they now had a decent little garden growing and a smoker set up to cure some of the wild animals they'd caught. Dean suggested they head back to Nimil to see if any new jobs were available and start working on getting more supplies. Soon enough winter would come and though the swamp wastes were far from a cold climate it would still make things more difficult. For this trip Jane accompanied them, she'd been learning from Mil how to drive the wagon but had yet to get any practice. With the cabin built and the wards in place, the girls were safer than they would be, so once again Mil drove with his wand in hand.

Entering Nimil they once again drew plenty of attention, even more so with Jane driving the wagon. Women were sparse in Nimil, so even a scarred up girl like Jane drew more looks than expected. But, memories of their fight against Kit the Knife's gang were still fresh enough to keep anyone from acting. At least overtly. Once again they parked outside the guildhall and only D went in. Before he entered though Dean drew him close and whispered. "There should be a contract for dealing with Bunyips by now. It will pay well, and should be a good one for you too."

D entered the guildhall giving and getting a nod from the man behind the counter with the wicked scar. Making his way to the bounty board D saw many of the same bounties. Most were either not worth his time or beyond the scope of what he could accept. But just as Dean expected there was a call to arms style bounty from a local settlement asking for fighters to help deal with a Bunyip invasion. It didn't have a flat payout but paid per kill and even better it offered up a Sa'dali blood steel falchion to the one with the most kills. D didn't know what any of that meant other than it was a sword and he wanted it.