Ch. 17 The chase begins

Running for his life, Kaz carried Perish over his shoulder. She weighed him down a bit, but he did not give up. He promised to save her, and he was not about to break it. No steps were chasing after him. He did not overthink it as he kept racing ahead towards who knows where. Minutes passed, and his muscles were sore now. Feeling his endurance not keep up with his needs, Kaz pushed forward. His sliver of hope suddenly diminished when he heard a whistle from behind him, followed by the barking of a large and vicious sounding dog.

That was not good. He needed to find shelter for Perish soon, or they would both be caught. Rushing across a shallow river, he thought maybe that would slow down the creature chasing them, but probably not for very long. Thinking on his toes, Kaz decided to put Perish down for a moment and look around for anything that could be used to distract the chase. Frantically searching he eventually found some bendable branches and pulled his bag out, removing some rope to set up some shoddy snares. The hardest part was climbing the tree to set the snare up. placing dripping blood in the center for the dog to sniff out

SKILL ACQUIRED- Trap Making Lv 1

SKILL ACQUIRED- Climb lv 1

He buried it, picked up Perish, and continued running. The brief respite from carrying Perish helped recover Kaz a little, but that went away the moment he picked her up again.

***

Darlog enjoyed the futile chase that always came from desperate prey. He called for his companion, a long, slender, strong Weimaraner. The dog bolted from a bush behind him and went to meet his master. Using some blood from the fight earlier, Darlog gave his friend a moment to lock onto the scent. "Good boy Gruff, go get your treat." He pets the dog for a moment and then pats him on the butt, which sent the dog in a full-on sprint towards the location Kaz left.

Hot on his trail Gruff sniffed around and found the stream that Kaz had crossed. It confused him for a moment, but after a few minutes, he found the scent once again on the other side and continued the chase. The smell was strong. Gruff knew that meant his prey had to stop for a moment to recover their strength. He sniffed around some more and found the spot where Kaz had stopped. He made sure to get the scent going stronger but yelped loudly as a snare came out of the ground and looped his foot, dangling him in the air to swing helplessly. He howled for his master to come to save him, which Also alerted Kaz that his trap had succeeded.

***

There is was a place for Kaz and Perish to hide away in. A small entrance to a cave was right in front of Kaz. All he had to do now was protect Perish and continue running to divert attention from her. Looking over Perish for any more wounds he did not know about, he found the dart that was in her back. Removing it, he checked it, and a message popped up.

POISON TYPE- Light paralysis poison duration 15 minutes.

SKILL ACQUIRED- Medicine Lv 1

If that was the case, then that means the poison was going to wear off soon. That was good news, at least. Kaz looked at Perish, who was staring at him with an angry expression. "The poison is going to wear off soon. When it does, I need you to run back to Peter and Sarah. I will take care of the hunter." Grunts of disapproval came from Perish, who did not like the idea one bit.

"I know you want to take out the hunter to save us from your tribe, but your safety comes. First, I don't want to see you get hurt again."

Memories flooded into Perish as she remembered her brother had said the same thing just before he was killed. She struggled in vain to tell him he was stupid and only going to get himself killed. Tears began to form in her eyes. The struggling stopped as she accepted she was useless right now.

Looking at the ground, Kaz accepted her response and covered the entrance to the cave with some brush to hide the opening. Leaving the cave, Perish watched as her only monster friend was about to get himself killed.

Kaz headed backward a little to retrace his steps and then went a different direction to try and trick the dog's nose. He hoped that his new trail was more fresh for the dog, so it would go after him and not his friend. He continued to run much faster now that it was just him. He felt like he was almost gliding along the forest floor. He heard the dog continue to howl, but this time it sounded like it was free from his snare. He heard it closing in on him and sighed in relief that it had fallen for his trick. He continued forward step by step he was going to make as much distance as he could between him and Perish.

Suddenly forced to stop, Kaz almost found himself running right off a cliff. He had heard the waterfall as he ran, but he assumed it was further east from him, but he was wrong. His sense of direction was never really all that great. He was now looking down the waterfall. The drop did not look deadly if you avoided all the rocks, but he did not want to take that chance. He went to turn around to see if he could go in a different direction, but it was too late. Gruff had caught up to him and was now growling as it watched him. Not much later, Darlog walked in, smiling and holding a whip in his hand.

"You thought you could get away from old Darlog, but you were sorely mistaken, you stupid, stupid little monster."