Chương 305: Chapter 100: What Does The Foxkin Say?

The southern beasts found us two days later. Frost remained beneath the trees after midday, and old snow filled the shaded side of every stone wall. Dunmere lay less than two days ahead if the wagons held, although no traveller had passed us since morning and the last farm beside the road stood open, empty, and cold. The draft animals slowed together. Mörk drew the first wagon towards the surviving wall while Halden checked the second team's traces.

Talia climbed onto the wagon rail and watched a pale movement pass between the dark trunks along the southern ridge. Her shoulders tightened before anything entered the road.

"Move the teams behind the wall." Halden looked at the narrow opening beside the abandoned farmhouse.

"The second wagon will not clear that gate."

"Then remove the gate." Mörk was already pulling the upper hinge pin. Halden objected to the direction of the load while helping him drop it. The first frost-boar came through the scrub with ice caught in the bristles across its shoulders. It stood almost to my chest, broad through the skull and thick enough around the neck that its short tusks looked secondary to the weight behind them.

Three more followed, then pale deer with heavy antlers swept between the trees, travelling inside the same controlled pressure rather than fleeing the boars. White-grey foxes ran beneath them. They were longer and heavier than northern foxes, with ranked muscle beneath winter pelts thick enough to keep snow from reaching the skin. Most of the herd carried Iron (late) pressure, and there were too many bodies moving together for the road or wagons to absorb them cleanly.

Three smaller figures appeared along the ridge behind the herd. They stood upright in patched hides, with rust-white fur around narrow faces, pointed ears above leather caps, and tails moving behind their coats. One carried a horn, while the other two held hooked staffs wrapped with fur strips and scent bundles.

"Foxkin?" I asked.

"South-fox clans," Talia said.

"Far south of here." The horn carrier sounded one thin note. The boars changed direction first, followed by the deer, while the foxes spread towards the road edges.

"What does a foxkin say?" I asked. Talia drew her sword.

"Apparently, break the axles." The boars struck before the first wagon cleared the road. Mörk turned the lead team behind the fallen gate while Halden released the second wagon's forward traces so the animals could enter the farmyard without dragging the load after them. I met the nearest boar beside the first rear wheel because allowing another step would have put the entire charge into the axle. Ember Blade narrowed along the Woodsman's Axe.

The edge entered the skull seam deeply enough to turn the animal, but its shoulder caught my hip and drove me into the wagon before it crashed through part of the stone wall. It died among the fallen blocks, leaving the next deer an open path towards the chained metal. The deer lowered an antler spread wider than the wagon. Hunter's Eye showed one hooked tine reaching beneath the cover, where a full-body lift could turn the top rows of Iron into moving weight.

I cut the near tine, stepped inside the remaining spread, and drove the axe into the neck. The carcass dragged me three paces before Mörk caught one foreleg and turned it away from the wheel. The foxes ignored us whenever the harnesses remained exposed. They climbed wagon sides, tore at traces, and attacked the hands controlling the teams. Talia pinned one against the second wagon before it reached the provisions cover, while Halden used his short mining hammer to break the spine of another at the rear coupling.

The horn sounded twice. Boars turned towards the axles, deer drove at the animals and open road, and foxes filled whatever gaps the larger bodies made. The handlers were assigning each species the work its body did best. I found the horn carrier watching the first wagon. He raised the hooked staff, moved one scent bundle through the air, and three boars veered away from Talia towards the metal load.

Whether the foxkin understood the bars or only recognised defended freight no longer mattered once the team began panicking beneath the chained weight. Talia left the wagon in a short rush of dark coat and pale steel. The horn carrier turned two deer across her path, forcing her beneath the first antler spread while he retreated along the ridge. She cut through one foreleg, used the falling body to close the second deer's line, and reached him before the horn returned to his mouth. Her sword crossed once.

The horn and the hand holding it fell separately, followed by the handler when the next cut reached beneath his coat. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. The remaining foxkin tried to restore control. One drove the boars towards Mörk's wagon while the other pulled the foxes away from the carcasses beginning to spill blood across the road. Their signals contradicted one another after the horn stopped, and the mixed herd broke apart under its own pressure.

Boars collided with deer. Foxes turned on wounded animals once scent overcame training. Mörk kept a loose Iron bar near the wagon and used it as a short staff, striking heads and shoulders without moving far enough to leave the load unguarded. Halden worked between the wheels, cutting damaged traces, driving wedges beneath shifting loads, and killing anything that entered the narrow space where he could not allow a body to fall. The second foxkin died beneath a boar he had redirected too late.

The third abandoned the scent staff and fled south through the trees. Talia watched the route long enough to confirm he would not turn, then returned carrying the horn, three scent bundles, and a strip of dyed hide marked with white teeth around a red river.

"I know this sign," she said.

"The clan ranges beyond the southern icewood. Weeks from Dunmere." Halden looked towards the empty northern road.

"Then they drove the herd through the river approaches."

"With this many animals, they could not use the ravines or ford without losing most of them. Dunmere should have seen them, turned them, taxed them, fought them, or sent warning north." Mörk checked the damaged trace near the first wagon.

"Perhaps the town no longer held the road." Talia folded the marked hide around the horn.

"Then we are about to learn why." The road had become another processing problem. Fifteen frost-boars lay near the wagons and wall. Eleven deer remained recoverable, although three hides had been opened badly during the fight. Forty large foxes were dead across the road and scrub; thirty-one pelts appeared salvageable, while nine carried cuts or contamination that would reduce their use. Two foxkin bodies remained, and the third handler had escaped south. We could not load every carcass intact.

Mörk hung four boars beneath the first wagon in slings made from the highwaymen's recovered rope, while Halden calculated axle strain and selected which crates could be redistributed. We opened and cooled the remaining bodies, marked their position, and took the pieces that would spoil or lose value before Dunmere could send anyone back. Each night afterwards, I converted the herd into what the town might use. Fox pelts came first because damage spread quickly once the bodies warmed.

Deer followed, their hides stretched across wagon frames while tendon dried beside the fire and antlers accumulated beneath the rear board. Boars required the most time; their fat clogged the knives, their hide resisted separation, and every joint retained enough ranked density to punish haste. The first night produced three clean fox pelts, half a tub of fat, and more spoiled meat than I could afford to repeat. By the second, Beastcraft began organising the sequence before my hands reached each carcass.

Species, temperature, damage, intended use, transport weight, and hours remaining became one account rather than six separate problems. I stopped trying to save everything equally. The boar hides could become shield backing, boots, bellows, harness, and wagon covers. Their fat could serve as food, lamp oil, grease, soap, and waterproofing. Deer offered lighter hide, antler, tendon, and meat that would keep better than fox.

The winter pelts would be worth coin elsewhere, but in Dunmere they could keep children and night guards warm before anyone found a merchant. The dead highwayman remained inside the work. Every time a knife passed beneath a fox shoulder, I remembered the Copper cord beneath his sleeve. Ironwood Strike supplied the same lines through joint, bone, and committed weight, while Beastcraft showed how thoroughly a body could become useful after life ended.

Neither ability supplied a boundary between recovery and violation. Mörk worked beside me after securing the wagons. His hands scraped hides, turned fat, split heavy bones, and held antlers while I sawed through the bases.

"What will Dunmere do with thirty pelts?"

"Use forty."

"That was a number, not an answer."

"Blankets, coats, trade, bed covers, winter patrol gear, and linings for whatever roof still leaks."

"The bones?" I tested a straight deer leg beneath Beastcraft.

"Whatever the living lack more urgently than handles." By the third night, the answers had become objects. Long bones became spear points after splitting and grinding. Antler tines became hooks, picks, and puncturing heads bound to short shafts. Boar tusks made knives too brittle for skilled fighters but better than empty hands, while hide strips became shield grips, slings, harness repairs, and bindings for clubs weighted with dense joint bone. Most of the weapons were Common quality.

A few reached Iron where ranked material compensated for hurried workmanship. Their purpose was number rather than refinement; a labourer holding a bone spear could keep teeth one pace farther from the body even if the weapon failed after the first serious impact. BEASTCRAFT INSIGHT GAINED Your understanding of mixed-species field processing, cold-weather preservation, mass salvage, emergency material conversion, and ranked herd anatomy has deepened. Beastcraft I remains Copper (mid).

Pressure towards Copper (late) has increased. Further advancement requires more consistent recovery of complex ranked materials under hostile conditions. By the final night before Dunmere, the convoy carried rolled pelts, bundled hides, six sealed tubs of fat, four crates of smoked meat, antler racks, tusks, tendon cord, bone stock, and three crates of field-made weapons packed between the Copper bars.

We had left Eisenfeld carrying metal wealth and were approaching home with the useful remains of something that should never have reached the northern road. Talia stood beside the fire with the foxkin's marked hide folded across her hands.

"Lysa will see licences, hunting parties, tanning work, winter stores, processing rights, and trade contracts inside this."

"You make that sound more dangerous than the herd."

"The herd stopped when it died." No patrol came north, and no ferry bell travelled through the dark. At first light, we would see what forty foxes, fifteen boars, eleven deer, and three Copper handlers had passed through before reaching us.