Chapter 105: Chapter 105

“No, give it the grass,” I said.

“But it likes the fruit more,” said Kelser.

“If you give it the fruit right away, we won’t be able to tame it,” I said.

“You want to control this thing?” said Kelser, his eyes widening. We were whispering to each other while sitting in the bushes. “But this thing is massive!”

“I know,” I said, craning my neck to look up at the monster, “but it’s a herbivore, that means it only eats plants, and it isn’t very aggressive. The hunters said it always runs away and never fights, which is perfect for us.”

“Doesn’t that mean it’ll just run away?” asked Kelser.

“No, because it wants the fruit,” I said.

“Well, it won’t want it if we’re the ones giving them to it,” said Kelser.

“Which is why we aren’t going to be here,” I said.

“But then what’s the point?” he said.

“The point is, we’ll come back here every day for the next few days, offer it a bunch of dried grass that leads to some fruit, and train it to expect fruit at the end of a trail of dried grass,” I said. “Then, we’ll slowly let it see us when it comes for the fruit. First, from a distance, then closer, and then closer still. We can even let it see us place the grass and fruit. Even if it runs away, once or twice, we should be able to let it get comfortable with our presence, eventually.”

Kelser frowned but left the dried grass on the ground like I told him to. He quietly crept back to me and crouched in the bushes too. I used magic to blow a gentle breeze away from us, so the monster we were stalking couldn’t smell us, and waited for it to notice the dried grass.

The monster was called a Fil Tusker. It was a massive beast, about three times my height, with long but thick legs that extended like pillars from its body. Its skin was a supple brown color and its body looked nice and sturdy. It could definitely hold an adult or two on its back, which was why I was out here on the plains, trying to tame it. The strange thing about this monster, was that it had two tusks coming out of its head like an elephant, but no trunk in the middle. For someone like me, who had seen elephants on my Earth, a Fil Tusker looked strange and uncanny. I didn’t want to make something so disturbing a permanent feature of our new settlement, but the Fil Tusker was a notoriously cowardly monster. It would run away at the slightest sign of danger, and did not like to fight at all. A monster like that would be perfect as a beast of burden if we could get it to trust us!

The Fil Tusker lumbered over while munching on some fallen leaves. It was a tall monster, but it didn’t have a trunk like an elephant or a long neck like a giraffe. It couldn’t go for the best leaves on top of the trees that dotted these plains, so it stuck to eating stuff off the ground or on the lower branches of trees. The way it ate stuff off the ground was actually really funny. It crouched down on its front legs, and slowly lowered its body. Its tusks weren’t very big, so they didn’t get in the way while the great beast kissed the ground and lapped up its food like a kitten.

I would have laughed if the whole scene wasn’t so incredibly strange. The Fil Tusker stood back up to munch on its food, but noticed the grass that Kelser had left for it a few steps ahead. It lumbered over, still munching on the leaves, and waiting for a while to finish the food in its mouth before kneeling once again to eat the grass.

I gave Kelser a glance and he nodded. He unraveled a piece of hide and revealed a bunch of double berries. The berries had been mushed a little and smelled almost sickly sweet in the heat, but that was exactly what I wanted. Kelser left the berries on the ground where we had been sitting before following me as we carefully crept back even further into the thicket. Once we were clear, I switched the direction of the breeze, and let the smell of the double berries carry over to the Fil Tusker.

The monster’s ears flicked. It looked in the direction of the bushes, its mouth still going up and down as it chewed on the grass. It looked almost wary. Like it had smelled something else along with the berries. I frowned. It must have an even stronger sense of smell than I’d assumed, since it must have picked up our scent even though we’d already moved from the bushes. Still, I thought it might still work out. There weren’t a lot of sweet fruit like double berries on these plains. We’d collected them from around Bek Tepe before we left, and I’d been saving them for occasions like this one.

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The Fil Tusker hesitated. It finished its grass before staring intently at the bushes. As time wore on, our scent must have gotten weaker thanks to the breeze I was constantly blowing over the bushes, and the enticing smell of the sweet berries must have been filling the large monster’s nose. It gingerly took a step forward, looking around by flicking its head much faster than it’s large frame suggested it could. It slowly lumbered forward until it was standing right in front of the bushes.

The monsters of this world were clearly much smarter than the animals from my Earth. The Fil Tusker’s actions were almost human, although the way it was rubbing its foot over the ground was very bestial. I waited with bated breath. The Fil Tusker waved its long front feet in front of the bush. It waved it again, this time actually touching some of the leaves. Then it rammed its legs through the bushes. When it found nothing, it seemed to visibly relax. It slowly pushed into the bush, kneeled into the leaves, and began eating the berries.

I changed the breeze once again. This time, I made it so it would blow over Kelser and I, before blowing over the Fil Tusker. The monster froze, its face smeared with bright berry juice. I kept blowing our smell at the monster and I was sure it would run away. And I was sorta right. The giant monster quickly dove its head back into the bushes, grabbed as many berries as it could in its mouth, and then stood back on its legs. It dashed backwards out of the bushes, before turning around on its long, thick legs, and sprinting into the distance. Watching a beast of that size run away like a frightened cat was incredibly strange, but I was happy with what we had accomplished today. This particular Fil Tusker had a birthmark on its forehead. The birthmark was shaped like a claw, and was pretty hard to miss, even from a distance.

As I stared at the retreating monster’s figure, I became sure that I would be able to tame it soon. And so, I decided to give it a name so I could start calling it that while I was trying to tame and train it. Because it was so cowardly, I figured I could pick the name of a famous coward from my word. Since I was in the mood for it, I decided to go for something more mythological and literary. Maybe something from Homer’s Iliad?

“Run like the wind, Paris,” I whispered as the Fil Tusker disappeared into the distance. “I’ll be back for you soon.”

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“Are you sure we can all stay here?” asked Kelser as we returned to the large encampment where all the tribes were staying.

“When I heard that the Oko and Imm tribes come down to the same place for the winter, I knew it was our best bet. They say it doesn’t get too cold here, and that the Teg River is a good source of fish year round,” I said as we approached the large, bustling encampment.

With all eight tribes spread out with their tents and campfires, this place felt like a small village, even though there were no farms or buildings yet. We had only just arrived after about a week of walking. I’d left for the open plains as soon as I’d heard about the Fil Tusker from elder Konri, since I wanted to tame it as soon as possible. People were still setting up tents and cooking up dinner when we arrived, and it was getting late enough that not many people noticed us approaching. The lookouts didn’t raise a commotion, and everybody’s reactions were much more muted now that they’d gotten used to me. Spending all that time teaching them magic had the nice benefit of making them stop staring at me with gaping mouths, which definitely made me feel a lot nicer as I entered the camp.

I heard some quiet sniffling as I rounded a half-built tent. I saw a little boy with his hands on his eyes, standing next to a young woman who was trying to calm him down. The boy looked like he was five or six years old, and had bright purple hair like elder Brol from the Ibog tribe.

“I wanna go home,” said the crying boy.

The young woman, who I assumed was his mother, tried to tell him it was gonna be okay, this would be their new home now, and that he could go play with the other kids, but the boy wouldn’t stop crying.

I approached the crying boy, with Kelser running up behind me. I asked his mother if everything was alright.

“Yes, teacher,” she said, “everything is okay. Cota’s just missing his toys. We didn’t have enough space for them when we left for the solstice festival, and I promised him he’d get to play with them when we got back.”

I nodded. “And now he doesn’t have them anymore.” I frowned. I knew the tribesmen would be leaving some stuff behind when they followed me to this new site, but I didn’t even think about something like this.

I leaned down to the crying boy and scratched my chin. “Sorry, Cota. It’s my fault you can’t play with your toys right now. Tell you what. How about you go grab some of your friends, and I’ll make you all some new toys!”