The last victim lay half-eaten in the middle of the slaughtering pen, having the space entirely to itself. Grisliness aside, the body looked oddly regal, or like a dragon in its lair at the end of a story. Since the cow had not been killed here, there was no blood nor viscera. Whatever it was had eaten mostly around the torso and abdomen; the limbs, front quarters, and head were largely intact…
…or so it seemed until Oram looked more closely and saw the tooth marks on the neck. Whatever it was had clamped onto the cows throat, but had not torn it. Oram measured the bite marks with his hand. They were about the size and shape left by a big cat, or perhaps a bear. The hunter scowled. A predator that big would have been seen, and left clear traces, which he had so far not found. Turning back to the farmer, he asked:
”I need to look around a bit more. I’d prefer to do that now on my own. Do I have your permission?”
Madsyl nodded.
”Me an’ the wife will be at the farmhouse, awaiting our neighbor if you need something.”
Oram followed the farmer out of the slaughter pen, satisfied that he had seen what he needed to see. Before he parted ways with him, though, he asked:
”Did you keep the skins of either of the other cows, or did you take them to the tanner already."
Madsyl made a face.
”I cleaned ‘em already, but still have both of them. The heifer hide has enough for some decent leather. There’s barely enough shreds of the calf’s to hold it together, let alone stretch it properly on a drying frame. I may take that to the parchmenter, see if they can do anything with it.”
Oram had an idea, based on his recent experience hunting coyotes in Egilrun.
”Could I borrow the calf’s hide? It’d just be for a couple trials, then you could have it back.”
Madsyl made the face again.
”Wish you’d asked me that before we walked out of the pen, but sure.” They ducked briefly back into the pen to retrieve the calf hide, which was in as bad a shape as the farmer had said. Then they parted ways.
Oram decided to go back to the attack sites to look more carefully, this time with Choir’s help, now that there would be nobody around for the element wolf to frighten. The hunter started with the last attack site, figuring it would have the freshest traces. He figured right, as it turned out. Choir sniffed around and thought:
hawk. And cat.
Oram frowned and peered more closely at the ground. There were a couple ambiguous prints around the site, yet no trail leading to or from it. Measuring the impression as best he could, the hunter reckoned they could be the size and shape of a large cat. A very large cat, bigger even then the cougar he had caught in the mountains last arc. Hawk and cat? A large cat that could fly?
The traveler then went with Choir to the first site, all the way on the other side of the farm, where the calf had been attacked. Not surprisingly, he had not found anything of use there. Too much time had passed. Last he went to the second site, near the barn. Mindful of the cows, he had Choir return to spirit form. The wolf’s nose wouldn’t be much use, anyway, Oram figured, since the area would be saturated with cattle smell. Indeed, he doubted he would find any useful clues at all, but he would go look, anyway, for the sake of being thorough.
Oram was wrong, it turned out, for it was here that he found his most suggestive clues yet; in fact, he noticed them while he was some distance away, for the clues in question were in a place he had not thought to look the first time he had been to the location with Madsyl: the barn roof. There were two things the hunter saw on the roof that were odd. The first were bird droppings. Bird droppings on a roof were hardly odd, yet these were the largest bird droppings Oram had ever seen. The other thing was a fluttering object, caught in the roof’s storm gutter.
He would need to borrow a ladder to go retrieve it, and he had to wait a while, for about that time, a rider arrived at the Tolentino farmhouse, most likely the neighbor Madsyl had mentioned earlier. Oram elected to wait the visit out, spending the time tending to Mule instead. A few bits later, the rider and Madsyl went together to the slaughter pen. A few bits after *that*, the rider, to Oram’s surprise, simply left. He approached the Tolentino farmer.
”Is he bringing back a cart?” Oram asked. Madsyl shook his head.
”I guess he’d rather trust me than hassle with the carcass himself,” the farmer said.
Oram waited a trill before changing the subject.
”There’s something up on the barn roof I want to look at; do you have a ladder?”
Madsyl’s eyes went up to the roof, following Oram’s nod, fixing on the fluttering object.
”That thing?” he asked doubtfully.
”You think that has anything to do with the attacks?”
The hunter shrugged.
”Possibly. Whatever it is isn’t leaving a trail to and from the bodies. Attacking from the air might explain that.”
Amazement and alarm filled the farmer’s eyes as they continued to examine the strange object.
”Something that flies and is big enough to attack my cows? I don’t envy you trying to take that thing on. Are you sure you still want the job?”
Oram set his mouth grimly.
”I don’t believe in rushing into danger’s sake for glory, but I said I would do this job, and I’ll do it. If it’s too big for me to handle on my own, I’ll get help. Regardless, I want to see this matter resolved.”
The farmer nodded; he seemed impressed. All he said, however, was:
”I’ll go bring the ladder.”
Madsyl retrieved a ladder as well as a pitchfork out of the barn. When Oram offered to take them and climb himself, the farmer waved him off. With an ease coming of practice, Madsyl set the ladder, climbed it, then used the pitchfork to dislodge the object from gutter. It fluttered down to Oram, who almost didn’t manage to catch it after a last-moment breath of wind sent it floating in an unexpected direction. By the time he maanged to secure it, Madsyl was back on the ground.
Both men regarded the object that the hunter held wonderingly. It was a feather -a flight feather, from the shape of it. It was as white as Cylus snow. And it was about the length of Oram’s forearm.
To be continued here.
