The Adventures of the Vagabond and the Social Rogue

The Vagabond

The city of Gazaca, 3 Months after the incident

The city grew out of the forest as Yulee passed houses and shops that gradually became more dense. The paths, too, evolved from thin trails that cut through brush, to wide dirt rivers, to ornate stonework like nothing Yulee had seen before. The ground was so smooth with stone that she couldn't help but take off her boots, which were starting to pinch her toes, and walk barefoot on the stone paths wide enough for several horses to walk at once.

She had left Rit behind at the first sight of a man-made structure so that he wouldn't scare anyone. He wasn't happy about it. He moaned and shook his head at the idea, clawing the ground in front of him with his giant paws to show his frustration. Yulee didn't have to convince him, though. After he was done complaining in his own wordless way, he dropped his haunches to the ground. Then he laid down in the undergrowth of the forest, his antlers blending in with the underbrush. 

"Maybe I can get something for Rit to cheer him up," she mumbled to herself as she kicked a stone on the path with the balls of her feet, so happy to have her feet free from her boots in the warm summer sun. "Vanguard. His name is Vanguard now." It was hard to get used to calling him that. To her, he would always be Rit. But he didn't want to hear that name anymore. It wasn't who he was anymore. So she practiced the new name over and over again.

It was a name she had picked out for him after a whole afternoon of trying out names. It was also the nickname that her mom had given him the previous year when he first started taking Yulee hunting with him. "Rit, you are Yulee's vanguard when you're out there, do you understand?" Yulee's mom had said to him. "I don't want her stepping anywhere that you haven't stepped first." Yulee rolled her eyes at that, but it was actually good advice. In those spring months, the ice got tricky, and it was hard to tell what was solid and what would turn into slippery slush under each step.

That was a year before the incident. Before Yulee had to run away to find help for Rit. But if everything went as planned, Vanguard would be back to Rit very soon. And then they could both go home.

She pictured the way the two of them would march proudly back into their village. Her mom would come running out of her yurt to grab Yulee up in a big hug. Her dad would nod in satisfaction with that big, fatherly smile of his. And Yulee's older sister, Tanna, would be so relieved to have her future husband back. Her eyes would light up the way they always did when he was around.

But first Yulee had to makes things right. And the Howlers were the ones to help her do that. She just had to find them first.

A strange sound approached from somewhere ahead of her, getting louder as it came. No animal could have possibly made that horrible cacophony of gowling and grinding--like metal on stone. It sounded violent and angry. Yulee jumped behind a flowering bush and waited for whatever might come.

What came into view through the foliage of the bush did not make sense to Yulee and she stood up to get a better look. A man with a black hat and dull clothes sat on top of a strange metal beast that made horrible gnashing sounds as it crawled down the path on legs that spun around. But the man did not seem angry or hostile. So Yulee took a chance and stepped out from behind the bush to wave him down and ask for help.

When the man spotted her, he led the beast over to her side of the path using a stiff, round leash. Then he reached down and quieted the animal with one hand. "Well, don't you look straight out of the mountain tops," he said with a thick accent that was hard to follow.

Yulee smiled politely. "Excuse me," she said slowly and carefully in case he had trouble understanding her as well. She took a step closer to him, but then stopped and stared into the milky white eyes of the beast. "What kind of animal is this? Can I pet it?"