Side-Story – Renn – Ginny and Lujic – Prologue – An Unknown Smell

  “They are sure lazy today,” I mumbled as I watched my fishing line remain as steady as ever.

  The line was one of the nicest I’d ever had. Something new to me. I had worked for a season at a fishing village near an inlet, and my pay had been food and supplies. The owners had been rather happy to give me the line as part of my pay. They found it to be a cheap item, likely because they made so much of it in their village to not find it unique. The fishing line had been made out of some kind of plant, something that took them several seasons to grow and then process into what it is now. It was sturdy, thin and light, and even though I’ve been using it to catch fish for months now it hasn’t once snapped or frayed.

  It was also sturdy enough to let me use several snoods along the line. Letting me use three hooks at once, instead of the usual one or two.

  Yet even with the fancy line, several baited hooks and the perfect weather for catching fish…

  I sighed as I leaned back, and went to lying down. Maybe a small nap was in order.

  Honestly I wasn’t that hungry. But I knew if I didn’t catch anything today, or tonight, I’d be hungry tomorrow. Enough so to make it annoying.

  “Maybe I used the wrong bait for these fish,” I mumbled and wondered.

  Or maybe I should just start carrying around a net. Instead of a fishing line. But they were so bulky, even the smaller ones, and they got all slimy when used…

  Staring up at the passing clouds, I wondered how Witch’s family were doing.

  It was about time I visited them again. Or well, not really visited… just checked on them from a distance… to make sure they were all still there, and alive.

  I was too much of a coward to do anything else.

  Blinking slowly, I felt the oncoming slumber. It made my tail twitch. I didn’t really want to take a nap, but at the same time was bored of staring at the river and my lifeless fishing line.

  Yes. That was it.

  I was bored.

  Pure and simple.

  But this boredom was better than being hunted or fighting for my life. So I wasn’t sure what to think about my own grievances.

  “Maybe I’m just tired of being lazy,” I wondered.

  Since leaving that fishing hamlet I’ve not done much. And before that I had spent who knows how long just wandering a forest in the north.

  Lately I’ve just been wandering around, following rivers and streams so that I could fish. I like usual avoided humans and their settlements until it was absolutely necessary. I was able to blend in, as long as I hid my ears and tail, but only for a short time. Plus lately the villages around here have been wanting some kind of new coin that I didn’t have. Which meant if I wanted to venture into a human settlement I’d need to make money again.

  I hated making money. It meant having to work amongst the humans. A hard task when I needed to dedicate so much effort in just making sure I didn’t get found out or noticed.

  It was too bad there wasn’t a job I could do that would let me be alone as I did it. Sometimes I sold pelts or stuff I found while traveling, but they never amounted to much. A few coins or a few plates of food at best.

  A small wind woke me up, and I blinked at the darker sky. The sun had begun to set.

  Slowly sitting up, I yawned as I wondered when I had fallen asleep. What had I just been pondering?

  Looking around, I was glad to find I was still alone. Not even a deer or bunny was in sight, let alone a human. And, even better, I found my fishing line had gone taught.

  Standing up, I smiled at the sight of the line. It was heavy now, no longer floating mostly on the surface. It had sunk quite a bit, and it looked like it was stuck…

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  “Hm…” I grumbled a little as I realized it might not be a fish but something else. A stick or something. It was taught, but not moving or shaking… which meant whatever the hooks were stuck on wasn’t trying to free itself or get away.

  Stepping over to the tree near the bank, I reached up to grab at the branch I had tied the line to. I didn’t untie it, but instead just grabbed the line and began to pull it towards me.

  As I did though, I noticed something odd. Something I should have realized sooner.

  “What’s that smell…?” I asked the world and myself as I frowned at it.

  There was a strange stink in the air. Maybe being carried in on the light breeze that had arrived with the night.

  As I pulled the line, I wondered if maybe an animal had died nearby. It kind of smelled like a rotting corpse. Maybe a dead deer or wolf? It smelled far too strong to be something smaller. Even to my nose.

  Putting aside the strange stink, I felt a tiny tug on the line. Upon feeling it, I hurried in my attempt to drag it out of the river. The line was slightly hard to pull, being wet, and thanks to the fact I couldn’t use my nails. I worried over the line snapping or fraying by touching them, so I chose to wrap the line around my right forearm. I kept wrapping it until the tug got a little stronger, but not so much that it felt stuck.

  Something was on the line! So I had caught something. Neat!

  A few more feet of line and I reached the first snood with its own hook. I no longer wrapped it around my arm and instead just held it clear, so that I’d not get snagged or hooked by it. I had made that mistake once, in the beginning. The darn things had hurt.

  I smiled as I finished pulling the line out of the water, and was happy to watch a large fish emerge. It flapped a little, but nowhere near enough. It looked exhausted, and likely was.

  Another testament to the line’s durability. Other lines I’ve used before would have snapped long ago. Why weren’t all fishing lines made this nicely? Or out of this stuff? I should have found out how they actually made it. Eventually this would snap, and knowing my luck I won’t find such a thing again for a long time.

  “Hello dinner,” I greeted the fish as I grabbed it, and was pleased to feel how thick it was. The thing was as long as my forearm, and weighed enough even I made sure to hold it firmly. Odds are this thing could have fed several people… or at least, normal people.

  Stepping away from the bank of the river, I ignored the fish’s small attempts to wiggle free. It was making odd noises as it gasped for air, but its attempts of doing so only made it easier for me to find the hook and dig it out of its jaw.

  Once the fish was free of the hook, I walked over to the little encampment I had set up. I had no fire going, so I’d need to start one, but for now I just smacked the fish onto a flat rock I had found earlier. I wasn’t sure if it died from the impact, but it both went still and stopped making noises immediately after.

  Pleased that I’d not go hungry tonight, I realized I really was hungry. The fact I now had food only made my stomach feel all the more empty.

  As I put away the line, started a fire, and went to ready the fish to be cooked… I realized the smell in the air had gotten stronger.

  “Going to ruin dinner,” I complained as I stood and looked around again. The stink was far stronger now, and seemed to be coming in from every direction too. No matter which way the breeze blew in the stink arrived.

  Was there a bear nearby…? They did sometimes stink rather badly, but this was worse. Far worse than a bear.

  I sneezed, and groaned as I sniffed. The smell really was bad.

  Something had to be nearby. If something had died recently why would the smell grow this much stronger? Even if it was nearby? Sometimes the corpses of animals did stink terribly, but this didn’t outright smell like a decaying corpse. Though it could possibly be a creature I’d never encountered before. Some new type of forest animal, maybe? Or maybe bugs?

  Grabbing some larger, dried out, logs I plopped them into the fire I had recently started. Not to make it hotter, or because it needed it, but in the hope of drowning out the stink.

  I liked the idea so I left my little camp area to search the nearby cluster of trees for moss, or something like it. It’d make the fire smoky, and thus slightly affect the taste of the fish, but the stink was going to ruin it anyway at this rate.

  It didn’t take me too long to gather up an armful of moss and bark that I knew would smell upon being burnt. But by the time I got back to the fire, I knew it was too late.

  The stink was now so strong I had lost my appetite.

  Even still I tried anyway. I dropped the bunch of stuff into the fire, and very quickly it began to smoke. The thick smoke stunk in its own way, but not as bad as whatever was in the air.

  Letting the stuff burn for awhile, I went ahead and made a new fire. One a small distance from the now smoky one. I went to cooking the fish, and as more and more time passed I grew more and more upset.

  The stink was not just getting stronger, it was overpowering everything. Not even the burning moss was making any difference.

  I sighed, eventually giving up. I quickly ate what I could, barely more than a few mouthfuls of the fish, and then went to gather up my stuff and put the fires out.

  I’d not be able to sleep or stay here if this stink was going to be this strong and stay here. There was no point in enduring it either when a few hours of walking would likely free me of it.

  Such smells usually didn’t spread far. Not with such wind and clear skies.

  Usually.