Post by Jade on Dec 23, 2021 1:29:54 GMT -5
"Oh my!"Harley froze in place, in the middle of picking up a rather alarmed cow up and off the ground. The big brute had traded her usual outfit for a set of denim overalls over an only partially-buttoned red plaid shirt with its sleeves rolled up to expose her biceps, and her typical cap switched out for a tan cowboy hat over her mane of black hair. The cow, of course, was au naturel. "Uhhhhhhhhh," she started, and then slowly turned around to face the little old woman standing on the porch overlooking her fields. "I can explain?" The cow mooed pathetically as it gave a pathetic little kick of its legs.
"Why, Ms. Harley, your friends were right - you are strong as an ox! But," the old woman brought her unsteady hands up to her face, adjusting her round glasses as she peered toward the unusual sight in front of her, "why are you trying to carry Strawberry?"
Harley glanced down at Strawberry, who in turn stared up at the massive woman holding her off the ground, and then both looked back toward the elderly woman. "Uhhhhhhhhh... Well. You see, Eda, Strawberry was... Going to trample the cabbages? And I thought, well, that's probably bad, so I was going to take her back to the field with the other cows, where she's supposed to be, and not in this field." She gestured with Strawberry (who continued to make sounds of displeasure as she was swung about) as she spoke, and only occasionally looked to Eda to see if the old woman was still buying her story.
Fortunately, the little old woman nodded her head as the fib continued. "Oh, yes, I see. I do wonder how she managed to make it out of the fence... Well, as long as you're remembering to lift with your legs and not your back, you can get right back to that, Ms. Harley. I'll have some lemonade ready when you get back, alrighty? And then I'll need your help taking some produce up into town, since you're so strong!" Eda beamed, and then took her unsteady steps back toward the house - and nearly ran directly into the one-eyed woman standing just inside the doorframe. "Oh, my apologies, Ms. Sayuri, I didn't see you there! I'll just scoot on by..."
After far too much time spent on the simple act of walking around one another, it was Sayuri who stood on the porch overlooking Harley and the quite disturbed cow still in her arms. The quartermaster had donned a pair of denim pants as well, though she had matched it with a set of dark leather boots and a light tan rancher shirt; the blade she typically carried around with her nowhere to be seen. "So, why are you actually carrying a cow?"
Harley turned her back on her quartermaster, walking in the direction she had laid out to the old farmer before. "Oh, you know, just... Normal reasons...""Harley."
"I wanted to do some heavy lifting, and Strawberry was the heaviest thing I could find that wasn't bolted to the ground or a building!" The Riot Gang captain looked over her shoulder, grinning despite the fact that she was very clearly in trouble. "Jeez, you'd think you'd never seen someone just lift a cow for exercise before."
"I..." Sayuri started, and then stopped as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm not even going to dignify that with a response, is what I'm going to do. Look, just... Low profile, Harley, and that means not just picking up random livestock, okay? I keep telling you, we need to let the Log Pose set before we can be out of here, so just... Act normal for the rest of the day, alright?"A deer, with its antlers just coming in for the season, cautiously approached the stream. Its body froze and its ears flicked up at the sound of a branch snapping somewhere behind it - and the scene was still for a moment before the creature eventually relaxed and continued to walk toward the source of fresh water ahead of it.
The beast stalking the deer exhaled silently as the creature moved again, relieved that its prey had not been spooked. It moved forward again, its powerful legs taking slow, steady steps through the underbrush of the forest, never fully committing to any single step until it was sure there was nothing to snap or make any other sudden noise once its full weight was pressed down. As the beast's prey dipped its head down to the water, the beast became emboldened, moving forward at a faster pace...
And the same mistake happened again. A branch was snapped, the deer brought its head up suddenly - but this time, there was no point in hanging back. A massive shape surged forth, descending upon the deer with teeth and talon, and then stood triumphantly over its prey, howling its victory into the mid-evening forest..."Oh, come off it, you're full of shit."
"Hey!" The rather gaunt man, looking about twenty years older than he actually was, slammed his fist against the table. "I'm telling you what I saw with my own eyes, and what I saw was a monster out in those woods the other night!""Yeah right! Sounds like you had one too many. We're gonna have to cut you off on the day drinking, Bruno."
Bruno sat back in his seat, lifting his mug up to gesture at the man who had just told him off. "And maybe you should learn to listen when a hunter is telling you what he saw in those woods, huh? Y'ever think of that? 'Course ya didn't, ya no-good..." He muttered the rest of his insult into his mug, and then looked about the rest of the table - and his eyes fixed on the newcomer, the purple-haired girl wearing strange bit of material pulled up over her nose, obscuring most of the bottom half of her face. "You believe me, don'tcha, lass?"
"Um," Brandy started, and then glanced around at the other hunters at the table, still in the middle of laughing at their friend. They were a far cry from the sort of "hunters" she was used to; less proud slayers of beasts, more... Mundane folk who took to the safe woods around their home to find game. "Well, I mean- You can't exactly blame them for finding it a little preposterous, r-right? To think there's some sort of 'monster' running around the woods of this island... Is there even any game big enough to support something that size?"
At that, the other hunters' laughter redoubled, and one of them parroted back that last line into the side of Bruno's head even as he slapped the gaunt hunter on the back. Bruno's spirits dropped, his shoulders slumped forward, as he muttered into his drink again, something about how he knew what he had seen.
"I'm sure you saw something - but maybe you were just confusing a sick animal for something else. Don't let it discourage you..." Brandy offered up as encouragement, and then stood from the table. With the lack of danger on the island, her ostentatious Guild Knight armor had been traded for something a little more subdued; a plain pair of tan pants, leather boots, and a piece of leather chest armor that was hidden under an olive green poncho with an extra bit of material around the top, which had been pulled up and over her nose to hide the bottom half of her face. Her twin axes, however, were still holstered at her side. "But, um, I think I need to get going, alright? I'll be back tomorrow."
To the resounding cries of "bye Brandy!", the huntress of Gaea Step quickly walked away from the table. Underneath the material of her poncho, Brandy's mouth was a thin line, and she simply stared straight ahead. As soon as she was out of the building, a silver cat - wearing not a single article of clothing - dropped down from the roof of the bar and onto her shoulders, curling there before whispering discretely to her. "Are you alright?""Yeah- Well, maybe? Someone saw me hunting, though..."