The Mimic in Monsterland

Fennel walked back slowly to the medic station. His mind was whirling along with his stomach. It’s ok, you only raised your voice to one of the council members. The most powerful people in the capital. Who have every bit of authority to ship me to Tiamantis. Lirae Laurellen, the Governor of Laurelhaven. The head of the capital. Yep. Totally fine. He palmed his face and let out a large breath. And she knows my face and name now.

He slapped his face lightly. Jaren has a seat on the council too, he could bail me out. Probably. Fennel lowered his head and let out another sigh.

His mind wandered to the other phenomena that happened. He thought about the strange guy he defended. Who was he? And how did he change like that? I’ve never seen anything like it. “Was he actually a Feral?”

A pained shout rang out on the field. It was a soldier covered in blood. The yell cleared Fennel’s mind and reminded him of what mattered right now. He picked up his pace and ran back to his squad’s station. He needed to focus on his people’s wellbeing.

The station was buzzing with movement. Choruses of groans filling the air. Fennel looked around, trying to find his squad. He saw a tall black horn jutting out of the crowd. “Zaner.” Fennel made his way over to the Minotauran. Zaner was getting some bandages wrapped around his arm. Some potions were being poured on it as well.

“Tusxic got your arm?” The bull horned man looked over at Fennel and frowned. “Yep, some of us stuck around to make sure they didn’t get to the station.” Fennel could hear the venom in the man’s voice. Fennel closed his fist. He was so tired of the man's constant jabs. He was about to respond, until Lukans stumbled in between the two, covered in bandages.

“Shut it Zaner. Cap dealt with the Karibus that threatened to end all of our existences. And you know that. He even gave us one more boost from his ability. You wouldn’t have been able to kill half as many monsters without it.” Zaner snorted loudly before closing his eyes in protest.

Lukans turned toward Fennel, his large brown glassy eyes, ones that were a bit too big for his face, filled with wonder.

“How did you manage that anyway? There was a whole herd of them.”

“Eh, I had some help.” Fennel responded while scratching behind his ear.

“Who? You were the only one in the squad to venture that far forward. Did someone from another squad join you?” Fennel thought about how to answer. He wasn’t sure how to say a splicer with two genes wiped out the moose all on his own. He wasn’t sure what the guy even was. The human seemed to know something about Leonard, so he planed to bring it up to the when next they meet.

White feathers entered his line of sight. Gloria was working on the wounds of another one of Fennel's squad.

“Tell you about it later, need to get a head count.”

“Sure thing boss.” Lukans sat back down, wincing.

He wanted to go over to the feathered healer, his shield arm took a beating and he was pretty sure there was some fracturing. But he needed to get headcount on his squad. And to see whose families he’d be delivering bad news to throughout the upcoming week. The part of the job he dreaded the most. He closed his eyes and the memory of Rook’s body entered his mind.

Fennel breathed in deep. He was about to start his search when a hand pulled on his arm. He winced in pain, gritting his teeth. Yep, definitely a fracture. He turned and saw that Gloria was already casting a healing spell on his arm. He tried to stop her but her tired eyes were filled with determination. “Gloria, I have to check on everyone else. I will come back and get some aid soon.” She stared back at him and shook her head while poking one particular spot on his arm. Right under his elbow.

Fennel let out a yelp. He hadn’t realized how bad the arm was. Gloria pretty much shoved him into a chair and his face burned red for a minute while her healing worked on the bones and muscles in his arm.

She started to hum ever so softly. Barely more than a whisper’s volume. But Fennel had sharp hearing. All of the hustle and bustle of the camp drowned away. Her gentle humming danced in his ears. It sounded lovely and soothed him. The weight from his earlier encounter lifted off his shoulders while listening to her simple tune. His eyelids grew heavy. But just before sleep overtook him, an all too familiar shout echoed in the camp.

“Captain Blines, front and center.”

Fennel jumped up from his seat and mouthed thanks to Gloria. His boisterous uncle stood on top of a chair. Fennel rushed to him and saluted. “Yes sir!”

“Walk with me.” Herman jumped off the chair and walked off. Fennel noticed one of his uncle's axes was missing. Oh, that’s probably bugging the hell out of him. He followed after the dwarf. He opened his mouth to speak, but his uncle shushed him. “Not here, don’t need prying ears on us.”

They walked to the edge of the medic station and onto the battlefield. Once they were far enough away from everyone, his uncle opened his mouth.

“Are ye good boy?” His uncle's usual rough demeanor was replaced with a more tender tone.

“Yes uncle, only a couple of bumps and bruises. Arm’s a bit banged up but it’ll heal. But my squad.”

His uncle patted him on the shoulder. “Aye, I know. But that was a raid for the bloody record books. And yer mother’d have my head if something happened to ye. First ones rest her soul.”

A tinge of sadness fell on Fennel when his mother at the mention of his mother. “But uncle, I lost over half of them. They died under my watch. I don’t know if I can keep doing this.”

“You’re strong, lad. And one of the best squad captains I have. It's not because you’re me kin. Anyone who says otherwise be damned to shit shoveling for the rest of their days.” Herman’s eyes looked over the battlefield.

“Your squad was one of the lucky ones today. Three squads were lost in your zone alone, a dozen on the eastern flank. Those are my losses. Your squad had the least amount of casualties. Not only that, ye managed to keep the medic station afloat.”

Herman patted Fennel on the shoulder again. “I know that pack leader ability or whatever is good, but you commanded them well.”

“We had some help.”

His uncle’s head tilted in confusion when he said that.

Fennel told his uncle what took place during the last minutes of the battle. About the strange splicer he ran into who decimated the monster's forces and everything that happened with Lirae after.

Herman looked serious for a moment before bursting with laughter. Fennel stood awkwardly, waiting for his uncle to stop. After a minute, Herman spoke again.

“Oh boyo. Looks like you got the queen’s attention now. Feel sorry for you. It's what you get for hanging around with the likes of Len and Jaren. I’m certain those two just shit trouble every morning. An I'm sure they're about to hand you some on a plate.” He laughed for a moment more.

“Now get out of here. Go get that arm checked. The burn squad is coming through in an hour. Get that station ready to march.” His uncle was already turning away and walking back toward the wall.

“An hour? Isn’t that too soon?”

“Undead, son, need to be handled sooner rather than later. Scavs got fortunate with this one.” He yelled over his shoulder.

Fennel turned back to the station. He gave the order to pack up and return to the city.

——

The acrid smell of burnt flesh wafted over the battlefield. The moon was at its fullest tonight. The day’s battle ended hours ago. Only charred remains were all lingered. And a small number of guard camps scattered about. That and weapons and trinkets left behind. Anything that’s worth a coin she'd take.

She gagged, covering her mouth immediately. She surveyed around, making sure nobody heard her. Stupid mistake. She was annoyed with herself but her gene came with an enhanced sense of smell, so the air around burned her nostrils. Powering through it, she continued her search.

The girl hadn’t found anything great so far. A few scorched blades and a bracer in passable condition. It wasn’t enough though. She’d only been out for a couple of hours. She had plenty of time to keep looking. She just hoped to not run into him or his lackeys while out here.

From what the girl had heard, this raid was crazy. Undead boss and legions of forest monsters. Weird pairing. But she couldn’t complain. This was a scavenger’s paradise. They had to torch the bodies quickly and that meant a lot of stuff was left behind. Stuff that she’d find and fence.

She turned her head back toward the guard camp closest to her. She could see the other four camps, each had fires going but they were pretty far off.

Lazy bums. They were the ones who didn’t see much action in the raid. They were meant to stop people like her, but most of them didn’t care. They were only instituted because of the fair green lady. She didn’t want any undesirables stealing from her dead soldiers.

Only problem was the soldiers didn’t seem to care too much. You’d find the occasional try-hard who ate up every nice platitude the green bitch threw at them with that fake-ass smile. Simpletons. Most of them were asleep by now. So she was in the clear.

The girl rummaged around more, this time near a blast crater. The smell here was more tolerable, telling her that whatever burned to death here wasn’t at the hands of the burners.

A couple of minutes went by. It’s a bust. This area hadn’t looked picked though yet; she had hoped nobody got here first. She was aware she wasn’t the only scav out tonight. There were plenty from the gloom who came out after a raid. She normally didn’t like to scavenge, but today’s raid was too juicy to pass up. And she never turned down easy coin. Just finding a single snobby noble kid’s piece of gear would have her set for a while.

A frigid breeze blew across the field. Her hood got caught and flew off her head. She grabbed it instantly and drew it over her head in a panic. She held the sides of the hood for a moment, calming herself down. It's fine. Everything is fine. No one is here. No one saw.

She turned her head back to the guard camp. No change. Good. However, as she was about to return to her search, the fire in the guard camp went out. The girl tilted her head. Odd. Probably nothing. Some idiot forgot to replace the wood.

She looked at the next closest camp. Its orange glow faded. The hair on the back of her neck raised. She secured the items she had nabbed thus far, preparing herself to run back to the city. These instincts kept her alive this long, she wasn’t about to ignore them. Each of the faint orange lights in the field darkened one after the other.

The girl’s feet glowed slightly blue. Can’t worry about that. She shook her head and bounded off. She raced, heading back to her self-made entrance. When she neared the camp, she heard a pained yelp. One that was silenced. Oh shit!

Her pace doubled. A grunt came from behind her. Her legs tore into the ground, dirt and ash kicking up with each step. She hadn’t dared see what was chasing her. She knew her focus needed to be on getting back into the city. ASAP. The grunting lessened. She was losing it. Whatever it was. Not that it bothered her very much. She knew full well what curiosity did to cats. But she could tell one thing, it didn’t sound like a monster. They even sounded familiar.

The sounds of marching reverberated as she arrived at the bottom of the wall. Finally noticed the fires going out. Took you boys long enough. She leaned against the wall and rubbed one of her ankles. Fuck my feet hurt. The ability she used saved her tail more than once, but it came with heavy backlash. Her feet would be sore for the next few days. The marching got closer.

Where the hell? Her hands rubbed against the rough bark surface of the city wall. “There you are.” She felt the little latch she installed moons ago. Part of the wall came off revealing a hole. Double checking her haul and throwing it in the hole, she pushed herself through. “I don’t remember this thing being so tight.” She huffed. Finally, getting through.

She coughed after she breathed in some of the dust, then stood up and brushed the dirt off her cloak. The girl’s ears perked up under her hood.

“Hey there, Grid. What’d you bring me?”