RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 170

Balthazar was very worried about his cousin’s skills and he needed him to learn the required skill set to survive on his own. If Robert was going to be his man in the elder council, he needed Robert to be capable of surviving and successfully adapting to exigent situations which he expected would arise soon.

Moreover, he had learned that Robert was in the same situation as him, in danger of his life from the same group of people and it is best that he stayed alive to be as useful to him as possible. He also needed Robert to present himself strongly at the council so that any spies would be more concerned about Robert inheriting Winston’s mantle than Bolena which would probably reduce the focus of his enemies from her.

The both of them kept mapping the forest and they moved through the forest. Due to the higher gravity they found that they required to use more strength than usual to move around and that they would become hungry faster. They already started filling up their bag with fruits as the had previously discussed and were thinking of finding an isolated area to sit down and eat.

“I am getting hungry Bel. Why don’t we have a small bite before going further ahead,” asked Robert as the reached a small stream in the forest. The trees were sparse around the stream. It a few metres wide and looked just a couple of metres deep.

“Hold on to that thought for a minute or two,” said Balthazar as he saw the stream. “It is good if we have some preparations before we do something like that. But do fill up the bottles first,” he continued as he removed the bottle from the case and threw it to Robert.

“What are you thinking of?” asked Robert as he looked at Balthazar who was checking the area around it while got up a tree on the bank started mapping the area again.

“Just making sure that there are no dangers in the vicinity,” said Balthazar getting down the tree.

“Don’t worry. We didn’t see anything the whole way here. Only a few small ferret-like animals which you said would attract predators and would take quite a bit of time to cook,” said Robert.

“Ya. I agree with that, which makes me think that we have been on the outskirts of the forest all this time. Now, I see different signs,” said Balthazar pointing across the bank.

“What is there?” asked Robert as he tensed up thinking that his cousin saw a beast and they might be attacked. “I can’t see anything. Even the sensors don’t detect anything. Nothing is being displayed on the HUD of my display either,” said Robert as he checked the display on his helmet too.

“There is no animal or beast on the banks right now,” said Balthazar. “You don’t need to have any worry about beasts attacking you right now but have a look at the trees on the other side of the bank.”

Robert immediately followed looked at the direction his cousin was pointing and noticed that there are some claw marks scratched onto the bark of the trees on the other side of the stream. It was a common method for large beasts like bears to mark their territory.

“Wow! How did you see about that?” asked Robert. “It is so far away from here.”

“I was looking for it, genius. A stream with no animals close by at dawn. The forest on the other side is quite thick and no animals drinking water at a stream on that side. It was clear that there is some big predator and it is quite close by,” said Balthazar pointing to a small mound at the other side of the stream. It was concealed behind a group of thick trees with its outer surface covered completely by grass and would be hard to find if one wasn’t looking for such structures.

“There is probably a cave or something there where it lives. The sonar mapping pointed out a hollow region. It is best that we handle that as soon as we get to the other side. So, we attack it and use its cave for resting and even eating. The good thing is that most of the beasts seem to be afraid of it and will be afraid of its killers. At least, we won’t have them attacking us immediately and we can set up a decent camp at its cave,” continued Balthazar explaining his plan.

“Good finally, we get to kill a beast or two. I hope it is something on the list,” said Robert getting excited by Balthazar’s proposal. “What do you think it is?”

“I am going through the list of beasts on the planet and their descriptions right now,” said Balthazar as he kept scrolling images down on his HUD. “I can tell a few things about the beast though. The marks are quite high about 9 feet above ground and close to a large bough. So, we can expect it to be quite big or one that could move on top of the trees. That is why, I have been so careful and didn’t start to suggest we move there yet. It is easier to for it to ambush if it is capable of moving on treetops.”

“So, any beasts with those features in our list?” asked Robert.

“Ya. Narrowed it down to two beasts. The first one is a Nandi. It is usually about 8 feet tall and for the gravity of the planet it is going to could be as strong as a 10-15 feet tall one on Asklepian. It has a scaly tough skin and lives near water. Both skin and bones are made into accessories sold at a high price to collectors,” said Balthazar.

“Yes, we are bound to get a good rating after we capture it,” said Robert gleefully.

“Ya. Fat chance of capturing it alive. Aim to kill. There is another possibility. A Staterasimian. It is like a small gorilla which has scabrous skin. It would be moving on the treetops and can ambush,” said Balthazar.

“How do we proceed then?”

“You get over the tree here,” said Balthazar pointing to a tree right beside the stream and a bit away from the others. “Keep a lookout for any groups of animals that might come. I will have a look at the cave. It is the best way to determine the animal living there. If it is the second one, we leave as they tend to live in groups.”

“Can’t we just kill them or at least try to capture a cub or something. If you are going to its cave, there is a good chance for it to have cubs, right?” asked Robert.

“Ya. A cave and a beast marking its territory which is quite empty are a sign for the parents protecting their young ones,” said Balthazar as he made his way towards the stream. “But still aim to kill the old ones. The cubs could probably be sold. Don’t expect to have any thoughts of taking them. Though we are having this trail in a planet owned by the Price family due to special circ.u.mstances, I doubt that they would actually let us take any of the resources collected by us.”

“So, you want to say that it is unnecessary to take capture any living creatures?” asked Robert.

“Yes.”

Balthazar took about a few minutes to observe the stream and once, he was sure that there were no water beasts in the small stream, he waded across it and reached the other side. He made his way towards cave. He moved in a way that his path would be visible to his cousin so that he would get a warning if he noticed anything approaching him.

“I am going to search for the entrance. It is not on the side of the stream. So, be careful and I would be out of your sight for a few minutes,” warned Balthazar as he got up a tree and moved into the forest. He had the experience of moving through treetops in the game and the only reason, he didn’t try it in real-life was that he was afraid of being injured on falling down. With a combat suit, it was no longer a problem for him. A couple of minutes later, he found a circular hole about 4 feet in diameter on side of the mound. Looking at the entrance, he realized that the mound is actually a huge rock covered by grass.

“Weird to see such a structure,” thought Balthazar. He was clear that such a structure was hard to be formed naturally beside a stream. Even if one assumed the cave was made by force of water, the entrance would be in the same direction as the flow of the stream.

“It is not possible to have it been done naturally. Possibly a cave dug by the indigenous intelligent species that Lucius mentioned,” thought Balthazar. It made more sense as he thought of it in that way as usually intelligent species would keep the entrance away from the streams to avoid any beast sneaking into the place whenever the water level rose a bit in rainy conditions.

“I can expect a decent amount of intelligence from the beast, if it has made the construction of some other species as its home. This list doesn’t have any of such behavioral pattern information of the beasts. This is going to be hard,” thought Balthazar as he realized that the information provided by Lucius has a lot of gaps. This behavioral information is usually known by heart to professional explorers, but Balthazar only ever recruited and commanded such men. He never had actually bothered to learn these things.

He knew he couldn’t wait for movement from the beast as he his time on the planet was limited and also he didn’t know if his cousin or he might be being observed by some other beasts. So, he decided to get his cousin to the cave entrance and attack. He was also feeling a bit tired due to the higher gravity of the place. He realized some time ago that the combat suits provided to them had some features locked. Combat suits with the ability to reduce the effect of higher gravity are also found in the military and it didn’t make sense to him that the ones provided by the family didn’t have this feature. The only possibility was that the family had intentionally locked these features as a part of the test and probably would only be activated in time of danger.

He thought the various possibilities for some time and finally decided to enter the cave alone. He felt that it would be easier for him to escape if the beast found him, if he was alone and he was also used to infiltrating places silently which he doubted his cousin could do. Beasts usually had better senses and it would be harder to conceal oneself from them. So, it would be much harder for his cousin to silently sneak into the cave.

He got down the tree and moved to the cave entrance. As he got into the cave, he noticed that the cave wasn’t as dark as he had expected. There were holes in the cave which were covered by grass, but the sunlight still filtered through them throwing a soft diffused light. He also heard slight whimpering coming from within the cave. It was almost inaudible, and he would have definitely missed if not for the sensors of the combat suit, he was wearing.

He didn’t find anything near the entrance and moved slowly into the interior where it got darker. He slowly followed the mild sounds and came to a corner of the cave where he found the corpse of a Nandi as he came close to the source. There were a few Nandi cubs right beside the corpse. They were just newly born babies and had their eyes closed.

“I think my cousin has a divine mouth. This is too damn lucky,” thought Balthazar as he decided to contact his cousin and inform him, when he was contacted by Robert.

“Bel, I am pretty sure that we have a Nandi living in this area. Be careful,” warned Robert.

“How did you know?” asked Balthazar surprised by the sudden warning. He was much more amazed the accuracy of the information. He had moved so close to the cave and he couldn’t determine the species of the beast till he saw the corpse. “Are you still on the top of that tree.”

“No. I noticed you going to the cave and I couldn’t be of use to you from this position. So, I got down and crossed the stream. I found a shedded skin here. The combat suit systems identified as a Nandi’s moulted skin. It is quite fresh, so I doubt that you need to worry about the beast there. This looks quite fresh,” said Robert.

“What? Freshly moulted? Get out of there you idiot! It is hunting. That should be a trap” shouted Balthazar as he ran out of the cave. The dead Nandi in front of him clearly died on childbirth and as the male wasn’t close there were only one possibility. It was hunting to gather food for the babies which were going to be born.

“What? How do you know?” asked Robert slightly unnerved by the anxious tone of his cousin’s voice. He already started to get back to the stream to get across.

“Found newly born cubs here and the mother dead by childbirth. If there is a skin. It is definitely not of the mother. So, the father is there and is hunting. Get away before, it notices you,” ordered Balthazar.

“Bel. I found it,” said Robert suddenly in a low voice. “Or it found me,” said Robert as he sent the direction for his location.