Mark of the Ranger

XX. A New Friend

          "No, I haven't eaten anything except the mana bars. I can tell you later," I answered. Elena looked at me like she didn't exactly trust me, so to speak, but she didn't say anything else. She woke up the others, and we set off for the narrow path. I was just about ready to get out of this place, but with this forest having only a little bit more light than how much it had last night, I was wondering if we could even find our way out of here.

          I looked at my mask and realized the Lenses of Sight had fallen out. That explained why I couldn't even see last night, they must have fallen out at some point. I popped the lenses back in, then put my mask on. As a relief to me, the forest became much brighter and way more manageable. With that, we set off on the narrow path.

          I stood between Elena and Jeff, all of us being behind Isabel. David, Ko, and Karen we all in front, in that order, from front to back. That way, anything like a Doomblossom or a Boneshambler would have to eat or infest three of us before it reached our charge. Even then, it would be too full to eat. We Rangers always made perfect systems. 

          As we walked through the path, and the path was much easier to see, I came to notice beautiful animals. There was a small salamander that looked as if it was made entirely out of silver, and it glistened in the light of our Lenses of Sight. I saw a normal-sized spider, which was a nice change in size from my normal experience of spiders, who were nearly thirty times the size of that one. It had a grand design on its abdomen, one that would make the decorators for the gathering hall jealous. It was strange to notice that such beautiful animals lived in the same forest with things like Boneshamblers and Doomblossoms.

          Twice that day, as we strolled through the narrow path of the Shamblethorn forest, we had encounters with Boneshamblers. I had assumed that they had a different biological clock than the Doomblossoms, but I was wrong, or at least, my hypothesis was not provable at that point. 

          The first time we had run into a Boneshambler, it simply walked right past our path. As soon as we heard the eerie knock, knock,  I shushed my teammates. Luckily for all of us, David also stopped in his tracks, completely impeding our movement. We stood perfectly still as the Boneshambler shambled past, completely ignoring us. That time was when I was able to see its bony body.

          The Boneshambler was a dog-like beast, covered in bones that were like armor. Under the white protective shell, it seemed like it wore black fur. The Boneshambler's eyes glowed like lanterns, and its teeth looked like they were as long as the beak of my crow's-head mask. The bones that rubbed together were its shoulder bones, and sometimes it leg bones. I saw that the creature, standing on all fours, was nearly Karen's height at the shoulder. That made it even creepier by my standards.

          I thought about the creatures. They weren't all that evil, when one thought about it. The Doomblossom usually injected its young into another Doomblossom's corpse, as a form of recycling the dead spider creature. And Boneshamblers, they were simply the apex predator. They ate to survive, and they didn't care what they ate, as long as they had food. It just so happened that sometimes, people got in these creatures' way.

          The second time was more vicious. I could tell that the Boneshambler that fearlessly ran straight for us was a proof of what I had been thinking of. The bone-covered creature seemed like it was starving, and drool was pouring out of its mouth. It charged for us, its eyes glowing with hunger. David drew his echo blade, but I told him to stop, then commanded that we throw food at it. My teammates looked at me skeptically, but I just said, "Trust me." Luckily, they did, and began to fish assorted fresh fruit out of their bags. I had already thrown my strawberries away, but it was worth another look.

          My team threw small packages of fresh fruit at the Boneshambler. It stopped dead in its tracks and inspected the bags. One by one, it gobbled up the fruit, its stomach expanding with deliciously sweet snacks as it did so. After it was finished, it seemed to smile at us. I could tell it was satisfied. What the Boneshambler did next caught all of us off guard.

          The Boneshambler strolled up to us. Once it reached David, it licked his hand. I chose, after seeing this behavior, to give the Boneshambler some water. I had seen a skin of it in my bag. I shuffled through my team, making them give me looks as if they thought I was crazy, and Walked right up to the Boneshambler, just as it had done with David, except with no hand-licking.

         I watered the Boneshambler for a moment, making sure to save some for myself. After it had gotten a drink, the bone-covered creature became even happier. It jumped and began to lick my crow's-head mask. I knew what had happened.

         My team and I had just tamed a Boneshambler.

        Later, as we sat down for a noon meal of mana bars, and I stroked the Boneshambler behind the ears, Elena asked me how I had learned to feed it fruit. "Is that what happened with the strawberries?" 

         "Yes," I answered. "It turns out that Boneshamblers are omnivorous, so they will eat anything they can get their hands on. That's because you can't always find some meat large enough to feed yourself, so you need to be able to find something else. I ran into a Boneshamber just last night, and that time, I threw it strawberries. It seemed to prefer those over me, so I took that into mind."

         David grunted. "Do you think that's the same Boneshambler?" he asked, pointing to the one I was stroking. I looked at the creepy pet. "That's definitely possible. It might have a good experience from people dressed like crows, and that's why it went for us." We finished our small snacks and set off again after feeding the Boneshambler again.

          Eventually, we reached a wall of foliage. "Perhaps this is the end of the forest?" Isabel hypothesized hopefully. David shrugged and drew his echo blade. The Boneshambler whined, but I calmed it. It must not like the look of an echo blade. David slashed down the wall of foliage. Behind it was open country.

          The Highlands.