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I’m so stuffed!” Fig, the hunter’s trusty Palico, fell back with her paws outstretched and wiggly greasy whiskers. It was a busy day and she and her hunter were finally able to eat and rest up for the day while another unit prepared for a night shift surveying the desert.
Chili spent the last few days in the Iceshard Cliffs, and was more than glad to finally be back to the scorching desert. He never handled the cold well, though he enjoyed the spicy foods which could thaw even a gammoth out of her slumber.
“It was quite nice of Y’sai to offer us a welcome home meal. I do love the pitta bread.” Mint smiled, cleaning themselves up. Even if the hunter was finally ready to rest, the day wasn’t over for them yet. They had plenty of paperwork to attend to and give directions to the other unit before they ventured out. So without even waiting for the food to settle- though they didn’t eat anywhere near the amount a hunter would- they stood up and patted Chili on his greasy head. “Rest for the night. You’ve earned it.”
The hunter pulled hard on a piece of jerky until a piece broke off, and spoke as he held it in his teeth. “Don’t baby me.” He sucked the piece in. “I’m planning to sleep for a week.”
“That’s a bit much don’t you think?” Mint smiled as they paused for their leave.
“No, I need to hibernate. It’s overdue.”
The wyverian looked at him with the same smile as always, but their eyes squinted in worry and fifty different questions. “I… thought humans don’t hibernate?” Mint dragged their words out, looking around for some help from Fig, but she only giggled and proceeded to clamber onto the hunter’s back until she was perched on his shoulder.
“I’ll join you in hibernation!” She announced and snatched the jerky out of his hands despite the loud protest. But Chili was too weak to her charms, and the silly palico was already chowing down on the tough meat.
“Right.” Mint exhaled a squeaky breath, more confused than concerned, but nodded and continued on their way. “Okay. Well. I suppose I’ll be waking you up myself. See you until then.”
Chili grunted in response and stood up as well. At least one of the beasts was fed. Even if it was his treat. Not hers. Now it was to feed the last beast and then the two dozen insects in his tent. He bet they were starving by now. He picked up a prepacked meal for his albino wyvern on the way to the small stable outside his tent, he was sure Jynx would eat two if he let her. That thing loved to steal even his own food and snacks. It's happened on numerous occasions that the seikret managed to slip the bags off its saddle and eat every single ration. It was a miracle that it wasn't obese yet with how much food mischief it got up to.
“Jyyynx, it’s dinner time.” He rounded the corner of the camp and immediately found the bird ramming its face into the still packed meal. “HEY. Calm down. Stop it- STOP-” She just wasn’t listening, and the hunter grabbed her beak before she bit his own fingers too. “I have to unpack it ya birdbrain-”
“Heeey.” Chili looked up at the sudden voice and the second, newer, face that appeared no less than three millimeters away from his nose. Which only resulted in the hunter yelling and the pack of food on the floor which the seikret took interest in immediately.
“FUCK! Tai can ya make a fucking sound for once before materialising out of thin air?!” Chili wanted to kick him more than he wanted to sleep, which was already at the top of the priority list. Though Mint would probably kill him for kicking their twin.
“Aw sorry, I thought you would have better trained ears by now.” The wyverian hummed, perched atop the seikret who tore into the pack of food with its claws and was ravaged at the meat inside.
“Do ya see me growing out Lagombi ears or something?” The hunter grumbled and moved to grip the saddle Tai sat on like a princess. “Get off.”
“Actually…” Tai swung a leg over another, leaned back in the saddle, and rubbed the back of his neck. “I was hoping to borrow you for a minute.”
Chili opened his mouth with a grave expression, but he didn't even manage to exhale a breath before the wyverian continued. “See there’s this Balahara I spotted a little while ago and been tracking for a day. It’s actually been a big bully to other monsters and I know of exactly one Balahara expert in this area so…”
The hunter stared at him with the largest deadpan he could possibly muster. If looks could kill then Tai would be impaled on an insect glaive right now. He was tired. He still hasn't shaken up the cold nipping at his toes. And most of all, he wanted to drink some of Grandma's beer he hid in his tent.
“Is that a yes?”
“Get off my damn bird.”
Chili’s hand immediately went for the buckle that would surely have the wyverian slip off and eat shit in the dirt, but his wrists were caught quick enough that Tai earned himself a second chance. “PLEASE, pretty please. There’s something wrong with it and the herd looks agitated. Wouldn't you hate for something to happen to it? Don't you want to know why it's acting up?”
“Arent ya a fucking doctor? Why do ya care so much about some Balahara. Ya could show the same care to a patient or two maybe if yer planning to stay here for long.” It’s only been two weeks since Tai arrived and Chili has had yet to see him actually do any doctory things. All he saw was him out in the field doing Gog knows what. Making poison probably.
“Fine!” Tai let go of Chili's wrists and folded his arms. “I suppose I'll go out right into the middle of the herd to check it out without anyone's help. Since it seems like I was lied to about some clearly non-existent Balahara wrangler in this camp. Who needs a wrangler anyway, those worms are harmless during migration anyway.”
The hunter sputtered. There was no way this idiot ‘doctor’ was actually going to go out there alone and get himself killed and eaten by a school of Balahara. He couldn't be that stupid could he?
There was an inkling of doubt in the hunter's mind that told him that, perhaps, he was stupid enough to do just that.
Chili groaned and moaned and pinched his nose. “Fine.”
Tai grinned big and wide with his large underbite canines all on show for the tired hunter to see. Even his ears did a little happy wiggle. “Fantastic! Then we're off.”
“Now?” Chili looked around and at himself exasperated. Half of his armour was off for the meal, and he really wanted a nap.
“Well times a wastin’! I know its location, so why the hold up? Surely you've done this many times before?”
“Yes but that's not- Whatever. I'll go file the quest with Mint.” He gave up. It was no use arguing with this bastard.
“Oh no need.” Chili paused in his step as he was about to turn and return to the center of the camp. “I have the same authorisation abilities as Mint. Perhaps even taller order ones too. I didn’t read the fine print.”
“What-”
“So you’re all good! And I’ll be the one to write the report like a good outstanding handler. Let's go.” Well now Chili was even more confused on what his actual title in the guild was. He introduced himself as a doctor. But he spends his time watching monsters. And has joined in on one of his fights to capture a quematrice. With a weapon he owned himself. And now he admitted his rank was above Mints? None of this made sense.
“Fine. Fine. Let me gear up. Ya can take Mint’s seikret, they won’t be using it for a while.” Chili raised his hands in defeat and walked towards the unit tent where he shed his armour.
“Ah about that…” the hunter turned around once more. His patience was running thin. “I’d prefer to walk.”
“We're not walking.”
“Share the mount?”
Chili sighed louder than a wheezing odogaron and pointed at the wyverian. “Better get to switching that saddle out for a double before she moves on to biting fingers then.”
~
At least it was evening during fallow. At least it wasn’t storming, nor was there thunder, or a drop of rain. Just the lovely pinks and oranges of the sky as the sun slowly descended beneath the sand dunes of the Windward Plains. At least that much. It was calm and pretty and quite uneventful except the blabbermouth running on a Valstrax operating system inside a single wyverian.
Tai was going on and on about things that Chili could only categorise as unimportant to the task at hand. Sure, Mint also talked his ear off, but this was almost impressively excessive. If Chili could, he would stuff the doctor inside the weapon sling his seikret carried just for a chance of making him shut up. At some point his words began to sound just like background noise to him, and he was no longer absorbing any information at all. The tiredness surely had nothing to do with it either. Only a repetitive tap on his shoulder finally brought his hearing back.
“What.” He nearly barked at the wyverian clutching to his back so as to not fall off the saddle while his seikret slid down a dune.
“I was asking if we could go to the lookout half-point.” Chili’s eyes trailed to where Tai was pointing a finger to and only grunted as a vague affirmative.
The lookout was nowhere near at the height of the roost which sat above the fulgurite caves. Like its name suggested, it was a half-point in the height, and had a great view out into the sandy dunes and the oasis situated between them. It was at this lookout where Tai slid off the seikret in a less than skillful fashion, and hopped to the edge with binoculars. His sights set on the dunes out nearby the entrance to the fulgurite caves.
The hunter hopped off Jynx to join him at the edge with squinting eyes and a hand to cover the bright light from blocking his vision. Just like the wyverian said, there was a massive school of Balahara there. A swarm even. He hasn’t seen a school this big ever since his first arrival to these lands and rescuing Y’sai from the jaws of many overgrown clams. Of course now he understood that behaviour. The Balahara became highly aggressive when their migration route around the desert became disturbed. Normally these bottom feeders were rather docile, and you could even pet one before it scurried away with a spit of mud in your face.
“There.” Tai pointed to one individual and handed the binoculars to the hunter. “Around the central pillar.” Chili searched for the one he talked about. A big bully is what Tai described it as. Though the worms did tend to spar or push each other around often enough, this one certainly seemed to be carrying its weight around more than usual. It had a large paintball mark on the side of its head too, hard to miss this bully in the crowd. “I believe there’s something quite off about its behaviour. It wouldn’t be trying to challenge an alpha would it?”
Chili hummed in thought as he observed the individual. It certainly wasn’t of any notable size either. If anything it looked rather small compared to the others. A few larger gashes around its jaws that seemed to have long healed. It was nearly in the center of the school which swarmed the fulgurite pillars in a near neverending circling motion. The poor thing flailed around between a few others, disturbing the formation and agitating the other members. It received one slap after another from the other herd members' tails, until one finally bodied it back into the center where it could writhe freely while the rest resumed their motion.
“Balahara don’t elect alphas. It’s a mutual swarming behaviour.” The hunter lowered the binocular and scratched at his chin deep in thought. It certainly didn’t seem right just like Tai noticed. “I can’t tell from so far away what it’s doing but the herd ain’t havin’ any of it for sure.”
“Do you perhaps think it’s getting exiled?” Now that’s something Chili never considered before. Sure he was there during many of the migration events these worms got up to, though he has never quite figured out why certain individuals remained back. There was never exactly a pattern to the individuals who did remain in this area when the rest of the school moved on.
“Could be. Never seen that before.” He shrugged and looked towards the wyverian who not only sported a cocky smirk but was also almost too excitable to stand still in place. His feet were constantly moving, swaying from side to side. “Yeah yeah ya made me see somethin’ new, wipe that grin off yer face.”
Tai only chuckled before turning back to the issue at hand. “So, how do we get it separated from the herd?”
“Separated?” The hunter looked at him almost bewildered. “There’s like twenty of them out there going in circles.”
The wyverian cooed at the short human, “N’aw, I thought that was no trouble at all for you.” Oh this son of a bitch was going to get it. “I wish to capture it and inspect it. I can’t do that without being in close proximity to it.” He reached back to the weapon over his shoulder, and gave the barrel of the bowgun a few rough pats. “My range is quite short.”
Chili wanted to throw himself into the swarming Balahara at the idea of aggravating them enough to break up the pre-migrating formation. “Ya should invest in a heavy bowgun instead. Ya could’ve sniped it from here.”
“I would be sacrificing my mobility for that! I’m no heavy weapon artisan, my arms aren’t strong enough for that!” He tucked the weapon behind him once again and smiled innocently with his head tilted to the side.
Chili’s eyes narrowed at him. “Yeah. I can tell.”
He left the wyverian to stew in the insult as he crawled back up onto Jynx’s saddle and rummaged through his bags. Tai on the other hand huffed, offended. He was stronger than other researchers, that made him strong enough. He didn’t need unwieldy weapons at his side. He hadn’t a need for giant heavy guns or massive swords heavier than the person wielding them or climbing gear- climbing gear?
His eyes settled on the rope and hooked metal axes the hunter pulled out the saddle bags and slung over his shoulder. A thick belt around his hips with carabiners and a chatacabra facemask slung around his neck. He eyed him carefully as he pulled a pair of goggles over his head and pulled the rope into tight knots to his belt. Though he paused momentarily when he saw the wyverian’s wide eyes drilling into him.
“What?”
“You- Where’s the greatsword?”
Chili leaned towards the wyverian with a smirk just inches away from his face. “What? Ya asked for the wrangler and now act like ya didn’t ask for the wrangler.” He laughed and flipped one of the large hooked axes in the air before catching it by the handle and pointing the tip at Tai. “Get yer weapon out and ready, yer walkin’.” Chili pushed his goggles down with the serrated tip of the axe, pulled on the seikret’s reins and sped off the edge of the cliff.
Tai raced after them bewildered, only to see the seikret’s wings outstretched with its bleach white feathers glistening in the evening sun. The wyvern and hunter glided towards the swarming school with not a single look back at Tai whether he was ready or not.
And they called him crazy.
Shocked or not, the wyverian grinned in anticipation, pulled his own snarling dog face mask over his chompers, and hopped off the lookout perch between a tight crevice to get himself down safely to the heated sands of the desert.
He was as prepared as he could ever be. Exhaust ammo locked and loaded into his bowgun, flash pods secured into his slinger, and a pitfall trap stashed in his pocket. Now all he needed was for the school to disperse enough for him to get in there and start shooting. No big deal. It was a perfectly doable situation. Subduing one of twenty monsters spiraling was a walk in the park.
This could either go perfectly or horribly wrong.
When the wyverian finally escaped the large fulgurite formations and out to the top of the first sand dune, he was finally able to watch commotion unfold before him.
There he was. The hunter rode on his seikret as it nipped and picked at the ankles and tails of the outer circle of Balahara. The monsters flicked their tails and legs at the small wyvern as it passed by and skidded around like a young jaggi learning how to hunt. Just that simple nipping like a farm palamute was enough to make the worms lose formation one by one, and the surrounding monsters began to crash into one another. The big moving circle has quickly turned into a crash zone as chaos erupted between them. Each one bodied and slammed each other to stay back, muddy spit splashed everywhere, and then a chorus of wails erupted from within. The deep echoes of their extended song vibrated through every grain in the sand, all the way through every fibre of the observing wyverian. Yet it looked like the hunter wasn't affected at all. Instead he laser focused on the one that charged from the group first.
Jynx skidded to a halt and turned tail immediately as the school launched into a line of burrowing and swimming worms through the sands. One after another dove or leapt into the air forward. Wild and unorganised at first, until Tai noticed they all followed a singular path that weaved between the dunes as if the small human kickstarted their migration.
The seikret’s speed slowed as the leviathans circled around, following them as if part of the school while it weaved between them. Tai wasn’t sure what to make of this. How both the hunter and seikret just made themselves part of the school moments after antagonising the entire herd.
Double twisted rope in hand, he swung it at one of the larger individuals sporting a hefty amount of scars. It latched on around one of its upright scales, and Jynx sped up with a loud squawk to surround the leviathan and pull the rope between its jaws like an aptonoth. It reared back, wailing out a deep rumble once more, and dove head first into the sand. Though that action was, too, predicted by the hunter when he and his bird lurched backwards and pulled the beast back to snap its head out from diving under the sands. Agitated at being declined to burrow, it sped forward once again, testing the strength of that rope that would not break as it dug into the soft innards of its mouth.
He watched intently as the hunter pulled the chatacabra mask over his nose as soon as the sand around the Balahara’s trashing around kicked up into a dust cloud. Only then he began to put one foot onto the seat of the saddle after another. Tai couldn’t believe his eyes when this lackluster athlete stood up onto the saddle of the galloping seikret, an axe in each hand with rope hanging off the ends. For someone who always threw his body weight around like a god damn sack of potatoes, suddenly riding a seikret upright with no reins to steady himself made the wyverian gawk. Just as skillfully as he stood up, carefully balanced on the running wyvern, Chili threw one axe after another at the leviathans back. Both of them thrown with such precision that each one locked onto the inverted scaled spines on the monster’s back, and within moments notice, the hunter jumped.
Tai’s feet were ready to spring forward and undock the flash pod in his slinger the moment he would see the hunter land face first into the sand and get dragged forward by the enraged monsters. But he stopped at the sight of the hunter not only clearing the jump, but attaching the ropes of each axe to his belt and then picking up the reins he lassoed around the monster’s jaws.
A single twist had the monsters readjusting the direction it swam in. Completely at the mercy of the wrangler’s whims. He stood between the spines, anchored by the axes, and led the leviathan forward to the front of the barrelling school which still circled and pushed around the target of the quest.
Chili yelled and led its newly wrangled steed directly into the leading Balahara, letting them nip at each other before his foot pushed into the gills of his mount and unleashed a spray of mud into the other. It tumbled backwards like a totalled bull in a herd, the other members avoiding its fall and continurf to swim the paved path that the hunter was now the leader of.
“READY?!” Tai’s ears rang as the steed wailed its song once more and sprung into the air. That was his cue. Cue to start moving his damn legs forward. The moment the wrangler’s steed burst into a cloud of sand as it hit the edge of a dune and slid down, he violently turned it sideways and altered the course of the following school. Miraculously, the rest of them followed suit. Sliding down the sands and turning left towards the oasis just like he did. Away from the marked target.
The wyverian finally got his brain cells together when he saw the school leaving. There was finally an opening and he couldn’t waste a moment more before it escaped as well. He dashed forward and launched a series of exhaustive bullets into its side at any opportunity. Though the monster didn’t slow down in its escape at all, continuing to attempt a reunion with the school at its tail end.
For a moment Tai thought this was over. His chance was lost. But the squawk of a loyal companion hopping on top of the Balahara’s face with vicious stomps, scratches and pecks had it tripped over into an avalanche of sand.
The wyverian skidded to a halt, just barely avoiding the tumbling body of the worm as it writhed back onto its feet. It barked at him. Wailed. A sound the wyverian covered both his ears at. That roar bellowed into his very soul. The head of a certain bird brought him back to reality when it headbutted into his side and helped him narrowly avoid a bite from the beast. Tai hopped away and hastily pulled back at the ammo docket to shove second degree bullets inside.
Three more shots to the side. One to its throat. He dodged straight off the edge of a dune when the leviathan twisted its spiralling tail into his feet. When he finally caught his footing once again, the worm had once more launched itself at him. The angle of the dune in his favour, he slid further down just as the monster collided with the sand and drilled itself down under. Tai’s eyes widened as he watched the sand under him become disturbed. The tremors alone shook the foundation beneath his feet, and the wyverian began to sink.
The entire area sunk with him.
Shock hit him at the realization he fell straight into the hidden trap of the monster as it spiralled around the rim of the quicksand pitfall. He dug both heels and hands into the sands, furiously working to get his ass out from sinking down into the belly of the beast’s caves. Miraculously, on his eight or tenth useless grab for something, he caught onto the feathered tail of a bird. It wasted no time hoisting the wyverian out from sinking further. A quicksand trap was no match for the specialised feet of the seikret, and it was quick to rescue the doctor without so much as a whistle needed.
As soon as both of them made it out from the sinking edge of the trip, the beast reared its head out again. It sprung out from the center of the trap. Angled precisely with its jaws wide open and fifty beady eyes locked onto the wyverian who dared escape its special trap card.
Only for its maws to twist in pain the moment a second, larger, Balahara rammed its jaws straight against the side of its head. Adorned in scars and dressed in sturdy rope. The hunter returned with the wrangled Balahara as if using his greatsword: threw its weight around carelessly.
The target slammed against the side of a fulgurite cliff. Dazed. It didn’t even get a moment of rest before the wrangler was upon it once again. Biting and nipping at its legs and tail while it wheezed and twisted around its side to grapple the other.
“LOCK THE FUCK IN.” Chili yelled at the wyverian who fumbled to load more ammo in. “IT’S GETTING TIRED.” He turned to catch a glimpse of drool dripping from between its tri-split jaws. He was right. They were close. But he needed more shots, and needed the hunter to wail against it some more. Though as soon as he opened his mouth to bark orders at the human, he was met with the sight of his Balahara flailing in an attempt to throw him off.
Right. This wasn’t a seikret. He was actively trying to wrangle it into submission, and already rode it for far too long. He turned to look away from the hunter who narrowly avoided getting crushed against the side of the cliff too, and focused back onto the paintballed target.
Three more shots of second degree strength bullets in its side. A spurt of mud interrupted him that he danced away from. Two more shots. He skidded around its side and out of the way of the wrangled Balahara skewering forward. Its drill-like tail tore into the side of the smaller one, and the scent of iron hit the doctor’s nose. A scent he was all too familiar with. This was his chance for a more direct affliction.
He hopped onto a ledge and pulled third degree exhaust from his pouch straight into the bowgun. Though the monster turned away from him to face the other, and bit against its side. The unmistakable sound of rope snapping had Tai’s ears perking upwards. Chili now held onto just one half of the reins. If they continued to fight each other all ropes would snap, and both would escape. Tai couldn’t have that. He needed that worm to study.
With a deep breath he jumped off the ledge he perched on, and pulled at the release mechanism on his slinger. A burst of light suddenly burned through every inch of the area. Both beasts stunned in perfect sync as he landed and rolled to the side where the wound was opened.
One shot. Two shots. Dodge.
He heard a cry from his left when the hunter hit the ground after one flail too hard. The rope of his rein gave out and his axes dislodged. Tai huffed and guided his target away from the fallen hunter as it regained sight back from the flashbang. All fifty blue eyes locked back onto him as he crouched low and held the bowgun up. He had two more shots. The worm’s teeth glistened as they warbled in waves. Drool pooled onto the sand below. It reared its head up. Angled itself down and readied to dig once more. It dove down right as a blue-green flash flung itself at its head.
The hunter, with no weapon at his disposal, swung both axes in his hands as he jumped straight into the jaws of the beast. One axe buried into the scales between its lip and soft clam mouth flesh. The other dug into the edge of its second jaw. He pulled them apart as the Balahara struggled against the strength of the hunter. A human hunter who wrestled with a leviathan in hand to hand combat.
He was keepinh its jaws open for a clear shot straight down its mouth.
Tai hiccuped at the sight of this. A simple human wrestling a beast five times his size. But who would look a gift worm in its mouth and refuse said gift?
The wyverian quickly loaded sleep ammo instead, third degree strength, and aimed directly into the bellows of the beast. Each bullet exploded in a cloud of smoke. Anaesthetics. With how exhausted the monster was it took no more than three shots before its flailing eased into a drowsy state. The hunter held tightly onto the beast as it spun and waddled, fighting the oncoming sleep. Though it was no match for the doctor’s drug, and soon dropped into the sands with a snore. With the amount of exhaust bullets dug into its side, the sleep would surely last long without a need for the trap.
At last, the hunter slowly removed himself and his tools from the beast’s jowls. He stepped away, breath heavy, and rolled his shoulder until it cracked. That fall surely must have hurt. “Well.” He pulled the goggles off his eyes and mask off his nose, and stood at the leviathan’s side, arms on his hips. “Not half bad for a migration shitshow.”
Tai finally relaxed when he saw the beast softly snore in the sand. Twisted in a circle with its jaws still pried open. Drool and mud pooled out the edge. The second Balahara was nowhere to be seen, only destroyed rope left behind.
“Hah.” Honestly he thought he was about to get eaten on several occasions. He definitely did not have the experience like the desert dweller had. He was way out of his element here. “Thank you, Mr. Wrangler.” He smiled as the hunter did a little hand wave and a bow. At least he wasn’t getting yelled at. For now. It was time for his research at last. There was limited time he could spend analyzing this specimen, after all.
The wyverian put his bowgun down and got to business. Notebook and pen out, some tools for poking and prodding and measuring certain details. The hunter took to rest while the wyverian worked around the leviathan. Quiet words muttered to himself as he skipped back and forth around the individual. Chili only wondered how long it would take for it to wake up and eat that annoying man. Not long, he hoped.
All this observation, and not much in return. A small blood sample taken. Skin and scales checked for rot or inflammation. Nothing. Its paws inspected only to show a perfect condition. The fresh wound, not deep at all. He even picked out the stray bullets from its flesh and between its scales. His research was inconclusive so far. That was until he got to the jaws themselves.
A foul smell hit him immediately. Tai gagged at just how strong it was. His mask was of no help to that scent, and he almost switched to pull his bandana over his nose instead. Was it something the beast ate? What did they eat to begin with?
“Chili. What is the diet of these leviathans?” Tai asked as he inspected the many healed scars across its face and lips. It looked like it got clawed viciously by something. Some of them even extended into its soft inner cheeks.
“Lil bit of everything. It’s a scavenger. It even filter feeds on something in the sand.” The hunter, now sprawled in the sand on his back with Jynx resting behind his head, replied.
“Meat too?”
“Yeah. They hunt in packs if they decide to cooperate.” Judging by how chaotically those two fought each other, Tai guessed that wasn’t super often.
He hummed in thought as his fingers traced along the outer lip of the leviathan. He counted each tooth which jutted out its mouth. They were in all sorts of directions, and seemed to have individual muscles attached which allowed it to move each tooth in synchronised motions. Although…
The wyverian moved closer and sniffed once more before retaliating at the rotting scent. There it was. Three canines emerging from a healed wound. It extended from its head down into the halfway point of its inner cheek. The three teeth caught in its wake- regrown, from the looks of it. But improperly. The gums looked red, and a single press made mucous and puss drain out. The teeth themselves looked rather dark compared to the other.
It hit him then. All the bullying and flailing. It was a pain response.
Tai reached into his bag and pulled out large-scale medicinal tools he used for monsters. Within that pouch he had a pair of pliers. One after another he pulled the rotting teeth out and cleaned the bloodied gums until it bled no longer. He even cleaned up the fresh wound, and then poured a medicinal powder into the center of its mouth before shutting its jaws closed.
He stood once done, proud of his work, and happy to know it wasn’t a new disease rearing its head. He returned to the hunters side, open palm, and crouched down to him. “I found it.”
“What?”
He offered the items in his hand to him. Chili sat up to look at what he was being offered. His nose scrunched up at the scent of the black teeth. He eyed them down, expression growing more bewildered by the moment.
“Ya’ve got to be fucking kidding me. All this for a dentist appointment?!”