Maej: Journal Entry 5

Earlier I learned to be aware of my surroundings in combat. Today I learned things are not always as they seem. I left camp around high-moon, I didn’t want to wait too long to resume the hunt, so that the beast would not get too far away. I guessed that it was also injured after our first meeting so it probably wasn’t too far from camp. I also knew that the sightings of the beast were almost all in that area so it was likely even if it is unhurt that it would not have gone too far. Since I only had the moonlight I moved through the forest more slowly. I had expected to have a long night of uneventful hunting head of me, so I was surprised when after less than an hour I heard screams nearby. I followed the sounds, which brought me back to path I had followed north from Galena that morning. I saw a few figures in the shadows, a woman on crouching behind a tree, and a man slumped on the ground next to a cart that was torn to shreds. I saw another lumbering shadow that was still tearing through the broken cart. The beast was here, or so I thought. I paused a moment and summoned a small blast to my hand and released it at the feet of the beast. I meant it as an obvious warning shot to draw away the beast from the helpless people it was attacking, but the light from the blast revealed something. This was not the same cat-like creature from that morning, this was something far more fowl. It stood on all fours and had a wretched scaly hide with patchy hair over its body; it had the snout of a swine and long curved teeth sticking out of the sides of its mouth. This beast was also nearly as tall as a man, the hump on its back looked to rise up to nearly my chin. I had no sooner sized up the creature when I realized that my warning shot had successfully drawn the creature away from its current target. I had to think quickly so I climbed the nearest tree as the creature neared me. It slammed into the tree with its bony hump, so I jumped across to a nearby tree firing a small blast down at the beast. With little time to react I wasn’t able to focus enough energy to do much damage, but it distracted the beast enough for me to regain my balance on the ground. I brought my hands together and focused my power, but before I was able to aim a blast the beast jumped at me and knocked me over I held the beast away from my face with my hands, but I couldn’t aim a blast at this range so I expelled the energy best as I could near the beasts head. There was no force to the energy but it sent the beast reeling for a moment. The beast ran at me again and we wrestled again and again for a several minutes. I kept upping the amount of energy I was using gradually each time knocking the creature back further and further each time. I decided to try and finish the fight at the point before I grew tired. I’m still not sure how long I can use my energy under such stress. I knelt down and focused my hand in front of me charging as much energy as I could. The creature ran at me again, even more enraged at this point. The beast must have been catching on to my tactics and ran to the left and then jumped straight at me in the air, I rolled under it and fired straight into the belly of the beast. It yelled and fell to the ground slowing rolling over side to side. It was done, and I had managed to get by with only a few minor cuts and bruises. I went over to see if the woman was alright, and she was still in a panic. Apparently the man, probably her husband, was badly injured. He would need his wounds treated soon, or he may not last the night. It seemed as though he had tried to stand up against the beast when it attacked their small caravan, he had been badly bitten around the right hip and was bleeding badly. Then something happened that I did not expect. The cat-like creature jumped down from a nearby tree. I was somewhat fatigued from the battle with the four legged beast. I dug my feet into the ground and prepared for his attack. It crouched down, but did not move. It then quietly got up and started to walk over the woman who was tending to the injured man. I went to stand in between them, but the woman yelled for me to stop. She spoke to the beast, I’m not sure what it meant but it sounded like: “Heesh, rah-sah yeleth.” The beast nodded and made a guttural sound then walked past me to the man. It… or I suppose he seemed very calm almost regal as he walked tall on his hind legs. He picked up the man and gently put him on his left shoulder then began to run south along the path. Baffled I looked to the woman and she explained, apparently the cat-like creature was a wild native of the Galena Mountains, but he was not the beast that had been attacking local travelers. Amazing I had spent the better part of a day hunting the wrong creature. She also said she had told the cat-creature to take her husband into town to the house of healing there. Not in so many words of course, but he can comprehend a primitive form of speech. She said they had met several times along these northern paths, and he had proved himself friendly on numerous occasions.

This is another valuable lesson learned on my part it seems. Although the battle was not as fierce as I may have thought, I’ve learned much in the way of quick thinking in combat, and to not always trust first impressions. I brought the woman back to town and found an inn to rest at for tonight. It feels… good... to be in a real bed again. Almost as if I’ve never even slept in one my whole life. I guess this is a new type of life I’m starting in. Today was certainly a good start indeed.