Chapter 321: The Hunt

Ren watched the native while Vesper moved along the shoulder. Its head followed her, but its body stayed low at the mound’s base. The pale stems rose behind it, with wet ground between their roots and the overlapping plates.

"That’s the one," he said. "I want the stems and the ground under them intact. We bring it down onto the grit. If it gets under the roots, we stop. Nobody digs after it."

Vesper nodded and passed Mistwhisker to Eira, who settled the cat against her chest with its dressed paw clear of her arm.

"Throw a stone below it," Ren said. "Away from the growth."

Vesper picked one up and tossed it underhand. It landed on bare grit in front of the native.

The head shot out before the stone stopped rolling. Dark and wedge-shaped, it struck the landing spot, scattering grit, then withdrew beneath the front plate. The body had moved with it, legs pushing forward before drawing back into their former position.

Vesper looked at the mark it had left. "About its own length."

"With that step. Leave it more room than that."

Ren checked the channel behind them. Ward remained in the deep water. Between the shoulder and the mound, a strip of firmer ground offered room to pull the creature clear without crossing the stems.

— • —

He pointed Vesper toward the near flank.

"Show yourself there. Once it turns, stay where you are. Don’t go closer to keep its attention. I’ll come in from the other side."

"If it comes after me?"

"Back toward the shoulder. Keep moving until I’m on it."

Eira set her kit beside her feet. Ren showed her the route back along the rise, away from both approaches.

"If it gets past us, take the cat and go."

"I will."

Ren went around the mound’s flank, keeping to the firm strip with the channel still visible beyond it. Near the creature, the grit darkened with moisture. He avoided that edge and stopped where he could see the overlap of its rear plates.

Vesper walked into the open on the other side. She took two steps across its view and halted, leaving the way to the shoulder clear behind her.

The native turned toward her. Its head extended a little beneath the plate.

Ren closed from the flank, hooked both hands beneath the rear edge and pulled downhill.

Its legs braced at once. Grit heaped behind them as Ren shifted his feet and leaned back, keeping the pull angled away from the wet ground. The rear lifted; the legs lost their purchase, and the body slid after him.

As the front swung clear, its outer rim caught a low stem at the edge of the cluster. The stem bent against a small ridge of displaced grit. Ren changed the angle of his pull before the plate could drag farther across it.

He backed onto the flat, hauling the native after him until open ground separated it from the mound. The rear plate pressed hard against his wrist. He released it as the creature twisted toward him and stepped out to the side.

Its head struck at his forearm.

Gravebloom answered the attack. The wrist seeds’ black petals opened between his arm and the snapping head, catching the blow. Ren continued his step through the falling dust as the bloom withered, and the head withdrew beneath its plate.

Vesper had moved back toward the shoulder. She stopped where she could see both Ren and the creature, clear of the line between them.

The native lowered its front into the grit.

"It’s digging," she called.

Earth spilled backward along its flanks. Ren stepped in and caught the rear plate with his left hand before it could follow the front beneath the surface.

The pull dragged his boots through the loose grit. He set his heels on the harder ground underneath and settled into Holdfast. Roots gripped beneath his feet, stopping the slide while the strain ran through his bent knees and into his shoulder.

His fingers remained hooked under the plate. He raised the rear as far as his arm allowed, keeping his weight back while the creature drove forward.

Its forelegs churned deeper. The lifted rear stretched the overlap behind the front armor, opening a narrow gap above the base of the head. Ren could see dark hide between the plates.

He brought Heavenpiercer along his right forearm and drove the blade through the gap.

The edge entered behind the head. He cut deeper, following the opening while his left hand held the rear clear. The legs scraped once more beneath the grit, then stopped. The weight on his arm sagged.

Ren kept his stance while he withdrew the blade. Blood spread into the loosened earth. He watched the exposed joint, then lowered the rear plate and stepped around the flank to examine the wound. The cut had passed through the neck; the head and legs remained still.

"Dead," he said.

He released Holdfast. The roots withdrew beneath his boots, leaving him beside the shallow hole the native had started. The wet slope and the path back to Eira were clear.

Vesper came closer only after he beckoned. She looked over the body, then turned toward the channel.

"Ward’s still holding."

"Mark the location."

She opened her notebook and placed the mound in relation to the ridge and their approach. Below it, she marked the carcass with its head partly buried in the grit.

— • —

Eira brought Mistwhisker down last. She set the cat on a flat patch beside her kit, checked that it stayed there, and held out her hand to Ren.

"Your wrist."

He offered it. The plate had rubbed a red mark across the skin while he pulled. Eira turned his hand over, felt along the joint and asked him to open and close his fingers.

He did, then bent the wrist both ways.

"Tender?"

"A little."

She checked the skin once more. There was no cut to clean or bind, and she let his hand go.

At the mound, Eira knelt beside the stems and pressed her fingers into the wet ground. She held them there, moved to another point and checked again.

"Warm here," she said. "Along this edge too."

Ren crouched beside her and tested the strip around the cluster. Warm moisture closed over his fingers. Farther out, where the wet ground gave way to loose grit, it cooled. He marked the change with a small stone set clear of the roots.

Eira eased aside a little of the substrate at the cluster’s edge. Fine pale roots ran through it, branching between the grit and darker, softer material underneath. She exposed only enough to see their direction before covering them again.

"Do you know it?" Ren asked.

"No. And I can’t tell how much ground the roots need from this edge." She brushed the last loose grit back into place. "I’d leave the stems attached until we know how to lift it."

Ren looked over the undisturbed upper slope. The cluster extended farther behind the front stems than he had been able to see from the shoulder.

— • —

Two rear plates were accessible without moving the carcass. Ren worked Heavenpiercer through the softer joints around them, supporting each plate with his free hand as he cut it loose. He kept the edges whole and laid them on bare stone away from the wet ground.

Each was about the size of his hand, thick through the center and thinner where it overlapped the next. He turned one over to check the underside before setting it beside the other.

Vesper wrapped them in spare cloth and secured the bundle with his strap. In her notebook she recorded the collected plates, their source and the carcass’s location. The collection record would go with the material for inspection on return.

They left the rest of the body where it lay.

Ren returned to the outer stem. The plate had bent it against the displaced grit, but the stem was whole. He brushed the obstruction away, eased it upright and pressed the loosened material around its base with two fingers.

When he took his hand away, it stayed upright.

Eira was checking Mistwhisker’s dressing beside the kit. Ren remained at the cluster and asked the System privately whether the growth could be transplanted.

[TRANSPLANT: POSSIBLE. CONDITION: THE SURROUNDING SUBSTRATE MUST ACCOMPANY IT.]

He looked along the warm strip they had tested, then at the ground disappearing beneath the thicker growth.

The stems could be moved. The ground under them would have to go too.