A Creature of War, Book 4, CH09 (Patreon)

The summer grew hot and muggy as they traveled east. They no longer wasted time with towns or cities. If they had been abandoned, there was nothing left of use. If they were inhabited, they were never welcomed.

Even those that were willing to trade with them did so with wariness. At times, it felt like they expected them to manage to hide an entire building within a pack and ensconce with it.

Being treated as the constant bad guy didn’t help Vee’s mood, so El did his best to keep him distracted, but he noticed that more than one city happened to have an epidemic of sick people by the time they left.

He tried to reason with Vee. People had a right to be scared, and careful, the world had changed on them. Neighbors had turned on each other as resources ran out. Very few of them had ever encountered an Anthro before, and at times he felt Vee did listen.

But with each time they were pelted with rotten food as they were screamed at. Or when one of them had to fight off humans who’d decided they were monsters, or the cause of their troubles, El found he cared less and less about what happened to them. If the humans were determined to demonize them, they could deal with the results on their own.

El’s control over water wasn’t back to anything resembling what he’d been capable before. He couldn’t even keep himself or the others dry in the ever-mounting humidity. Even causing wind didn’t help, the air was too saturated. His inability to make himself comfortable made him grouchy, so he avoided conversations that would inevitably end with him snapping at someone.

Fall announced itself with the air turning frigid overnight, and if not for Vee, some of them would have lost limbs, if not their lives. They went from hot, wet and miserable to cold and miserable. With everyone in a foul mood, they continued on.

A week after the cold set in, they came to an inhabited town. Vee didn’t ask for permission. He made the guards fall sick until someone obeyed his order to open the gate, and each time someone didn’t do as he ordered, more people fell sick. The city’s leader was an older woman with light brown skin, frizzy black hair and an accented English that made El think she might be of Dutch descent.

She cursed Vee the entire time he made his demands; hot baths for his unit, a meal and a warm place to spend the night, but it only took a few minutes of her watching humans writhing in various levels of pain for her to give in.

* * * * *

The hot water felt amazing.

El hadn’t thought he’d ever want to endure heat, after the summer, but fall was reminding him that of the two, when he couldn’t control either, heat was preferable to cold. He relaxed as the two humans poured more buckets of steaming water into his tub.

They were young adults, in their mid-twenties, and looked sufficiently alike to be siblings. They never made eye contact with him, but the girl had glanced at him when he undressed, blushed, but kept peeking.

Not so long ago, he would have put himself on display for her, them, if her brother had shown any interest, but after the way his own countrymen had treated him, those humans he’d spent centuries protecting, he’d lost his taste for them.

Even when she offered herself to him, in the guise of helping him wash, he said no and sent them away to be alone with his hot water.

* * * * *

Feeling clean for the first time in months, El followed the brother to a large dining room with only the last dry towel as clothing. And the only reason he’d put it on was to ensure no one would think he was interested in sex, not as a respect for human’s need to cover themselves up.

He was the last one to arrive, everyone else already seated, and many had decided to forgo even a towel. The mood was mostly jovial, most of the tension having been washed away and now distracted from by food, or based on the man sitting in Digit’s lap’s expression, other things.

Vee indicated the seat next to him and El joined him, and for the duration of the meal, he forgot about technology not working, the elements barely responding to his commands, how they’d been treated, and enjoyed himself.

Food kept coming. Local wildlife cooked over fires covered in a bitter sauce that was good, but, and a nod from Vee confirmed his suspicion, covered up poisons. The bull made sure none of them were affected by them and El smiled, wondering what their host thought of her failed attempt to dispose of them.

By the time they were done eating it was night. They were led to individual rooms with a large fireplace and beds. The two of them spent a full minute looking at the gigantic bed with the thick mattress and multiple sheets covering it before exploding in laughter. 

They pulled some of the covers off and settled on the floor for an evening of lovemaking. They didn’t stop when someone entered, but paid attention to the hurried movement. Logs were added to the fire, then hurried steps out.

Someone else came later, as El was falling asleep, and added more logs. He was aware of more logs added to the fire later, but it barely registered.

When he woke next, his body was already in motion, responding to the closeness of the sounds, the furtiveness in them. He grabbed the hand plunging at his chest, keeping the knife from reaching him. He pulled the man off balance, then threw him to the side. He was on his feet, claws out as a second man came at him.

He staggered, dropped to a knee, and El looked at Vee.

“Don’t. I want to do this. I think they need to be shown we don’t need powers to be deadly.”

The man caught his breath and got to his feet, steady, but uncertain. He didn’t advance, looking from one Anthro to the other. El didn’t care if his words at unsettled him. He covered the distance, clawed the man’s face, his chest, then punched him in the stomach and finally in the jaw.

The man dropped to the floor and didn’t get up.

A scream made El turn. His first attacker was rushing him, knife forward. El waited, moving out of the way at the last moment, grabbing the knife hand and twisting it.

The man yelled in pain as he was forced to the floor. El continued bending the hand and arm until it popped out of the shoulder. The lynx silenced the man with a kick to the head.

Vee had two men at his feet, one of which had his head twisted around.

“Are—” The bull spun toward the door as it burst open. El readied himself for another fight, but DHC stopped in the doorway.

The rabbit looked at the unconscious, and dead, humans. “You too?”

“Who else?” Vee asked.

“Everyone, as far as I know. I guess they didn’t like how we made ourselves at home.”

“Status?”

“Cuts and bruises. Nothing that needs to be healed.”

Vee nodded. “Have someone get our uniforms, and they better damned be clean and dry. Tell everyone to be ready to leave. I’m going to give that woman a piece of my mind and then we are out of here.”

DHC ran out and came back five minutes later with their clothes in his arms. The rabbit was the first of the three to be dressed.

“Get the others,” Vee said. “Have them bring their attackers, dead or alive.”

By the time they were done and dragging their attackers out of the room, everyone was in the hall, and servants could be heard running in the distance.

“Good,” Vee growled, “Let he be aware we’re coming.”

She was seated in the dining room wearing a gray robe. The table had been removed, leaving the space clear for everyone to drop their attackers at her feet, close to sixty of them.

“What is the meaning of this?” Her town was stern, as if it was their fault she’d been pulled out of bed.

Vee took his knife out. “This,” he grabbed the closest man by the hair and pulled him to his knee before slicing his throat open. “Is what happens when someone forces my hand.”

“What did you expect me to do after you forced your demands on me? Do you have any idea how much of our food you ate?”

The bull cut another man’s throat. “What I expected, was to be shown the respect I am due.”

“Respect? What respect?”

He pulled another man to his knees. “We’ve defended this country for longer than you’ve been alive! I’ve lost friends! Brothers! Sisters! All so you could be safe, and all you people have done since we’ve walked back into the country is treat us like we’re the enemy.” He cut another throat and threw the dead man to the floor. “Fuck, we were treated better in Costa Rica and those people are supposed to want each one of us dead.”

He pulled another man up and looked at her. “You think I want to make demands? Don’t you think that the people who put their lives on the line for you deserve to be received with open arms? Offered a simple meal, a bath and a bed for the night? I didn’t ask for the extravagance you gave us. That’s on you.” He cut the man’s throat.

“I’m sorry you’ve been treated so badly,” she said, sounding sincere, even with the tremble in her voice, “but whatever you were, that isn’t what showed up at my gate. You didn’t ask to be let in. You attacked us until we had no choice.”

“I tried that!” another slit throat. “And we were greeted with arrows! Even when we were let through we were treated like criminals. That last city we crossed threw garbage at us!”

He cut another throat. “You want to blame someone? Blame them, because I tried being nice. Each and every time We’ve been met with hate and anger. I am out of patience with your kind.” He killed another man.

Her face was turning pale. “And is killing those defenseless men their fault, too?”

Vee smiled and looked at the top black hair of the man he was holding. “No, this is your fault. You sent them to kill us. I have no idea what you thought they could do against trained soldiers, but you sent them anyway. I figure this is going to teach you the folly of your decision.” He put the knife to the man’s throat.

“Stop, please.” She looked like she was going to be sick, her trembling hand over her mouth.

“Why should I?”

She steadied herself. “You’re right. I sent them to kill you. If you want to hold someone responsible, kill me.”

“If I do that, you won’t have learned anything, and whoever takes over for you will go on doing the same. And the next time a unit comes through they will be treated like monsters too.” He shook the man he was holding. “You think I enjoy doing this?”

“I—”

“I was made to protect you! I spent centuries fighting your wars and not once did I consider turning my skills against the people of my country. It only took months being back to make me do this. Maybe you need to consider how far I’ve been pushed.”

Vee tensed his arm, and El placed a hand on it. The lynx didn’t say anything, he just looked at the bull. Vee was his commander. In the end he would do what he thought best, but recently El had noticed he could get carried away in his anger, and sometimes a gentle reminder was all he needed.

Vee looked around, the servants were huddled against the wall, some of them had been sick. The soldiers were ramrod still, but even some of them looked like they might be sick. Vee dropped the man he’d been holding. “The next time soldiers show up at your gate, maybe you can keep in mind everything they sacrificed for you, before you decide to mistreat them.”

He turned and headed out. El followed him, and one of the soldiers handed him a wool lined jacket before falling in. He didn’t ask where she’d gotten it. He didn’t care, he was happy for the extra protection against the cold.

The soldiers regained their good mood faster than El. As they walked through the town, they recounted how easily they’d dispatched their attackers. They laughed, and even Vee smiled.

El wondered if he was the only one pondering her words. Had they stopped being soldiers? He understood Vee’s anger, felt the same at times. They’d done so much for this country, lost too much, to deserve being treated like they had. But could they had found a different way of handling the situations? Had there been a peaceful way to resolve the conflicts?

He didn’t know, and if he couldn’t think of a way, could he expect Vee to have? The bull was doing the best he knew how, they all were. Maybe Eek would point out different ways they could have handled things, but that was for the future.

Now their only priority was ensuring they survived to reach the Lab.

* * * * *

The cold snap lasted a few days after they left the town, then warmth returned. As much as he wished things could have gone differently each time, each city they came across refused them entry, so when they had no choice but to resupply, they had to force their way in.

El tried to temper Vee’s mounting anger, but the bull didn’t always listen, and his mood trickled down to the others. More than once, as they left a city, the soldiers would show each other things they’d taken. Not survival things, but trinkets, meaningless objects, taken simply because they could.

El expected Vee to punish them the first time, but the bull had watched, grim-faced, but silent. When El had asked why he’d let them get away with it, the bull had shrugged and said that it wasn’t like the humans had a use for them either.

They reached the I95 with the weather cooling down again and made it to Savannah by the time the weather was frigid and El wished many things had happened differently there.