Chapter 79: How To Take Care Of A New Pet
Au’dtair studied the prey in front of him. He was more than a little confused over its actions. It seemed to be following the path made by the Bothrops lanceolatus. Was that on purpose? And if it was, what in the name of the Dark Lord would it be wanting with it?
If it was to feed it, then he would have to step in. No one would be taking his prey from him. Not even a 150-foot Zmaj. He knew that there had been a few seasoned hunters to lose their life trying to kill it, and they were many times the size of his prey. No, he would need to stop in and ensure the safety of it. If necessary, he would call in the others. They would make a better meal for the Zmaj.
Au’dtair continued to watch as a voice came from the pet in front of him. He didn’t understand the language, but it seemed to. Recording the conversation to study after, he watched his prey step off the trail and begin looking up. He continued to hide in plain sight as it appeared to be setting up a camp. Au’dtair couldn’t help but chuckle as he watched how hard of a time the pet had, even trying to get into the fabric hanging from two branches. At last, it activated its armor and laid down.
Confident that his prey wasn’t going anywhere right now, Au’dtair slipped into the densely packed jungle and went to find some food for it. After all, there was no point in hunting a species that clearly couldn’t take care of itself. Maybe then, instead of considering it prey, he considers it a pet instead.
Did he really want to have a pet? He never really thought about it before. But if it smelled as good as that one did, then yes... he wanted a pet. He went to his wrist unit and quickly looked up what was needed to take care of a pet. Since he made the decision, he could only do the honorable thing and do his best to raise it. If ships were able to do it, then there is no reason why he couldn’t.
Quickly strolling through the information, he picked up the top five important facts about raising a pet. First, they needed food. He could do food. But the information went on from here. Was the pet a carnivore or herbivore? Au’dtair snorted at the idea of anything being a herbivore, but then he realized that he had yet to see his pet eating meat. In fact, the only thing it had eaten that day was a foul-smelling emergency bar.
No longer so sure about his pet’s diet, he decided to go out hunting for both meat and a few berries for it to eat. He would see what its preference was and go on that.
The second thing was to provide water for pets. He had seen himself how much water it consumed and added getting more water to his list. Meat, berries, water. He could do this. It didn’t seem to be that complicated to raise a pet.
The third thing was to provide shelter. Wrinkling his nose at the makeshift camp that his prey... pet... made, then it was obvious why they would need someone else to take care of the shelter for them. That was probably why the L-Series had pets in the first place. They were shelter, with food and water. That took care of three of the five things necessary to look after a pet.
The fourth one was safety. He nodded when he read that one. It was clear as night to him that his pet had no concept of how to keep itself safe. Younglings did a better job than it did, and they were merely a decade old, if not less. Well, he was one of the best huntsmen in his tribe; keeping a single pet safe should be a fairly easy thing to do.
Finally, the fifth one was companionship. That one stumped Au’dtair. He didn’t quite understand what the article meant about companionship. The concept of companionship for the Saalistaja was going on hunts with each other. But that would be contrary to the fourth point of keeping the pet safe. So how can he bring the pets on a hunt and keep them safe at the same time?
He shook his head as he continued to scroll through the information. Ye’tab would know better, but he didn’t really want to contact him right now if he could help it. Their definition of companionship was the opposite of his own. According to what he was reading, a pet needed to be constantly touched, always beside its owner. Reassured when it was scared, praised when it did something good.
Huh, maybe raising a pet would be too much of a hassle. Au’dtair shook his head as a konjin cautiously hopped into the clearing where he set up his trap. Its large ears twitched around, making sure that there were no predators nearby. Convinced it was safe, it cautiously approached the mixed greens.
As soon as it was in place, Au’dtair pulled the rope, springing the trap. The konjin struggled in vain as Au’dtair simply ended its life and allowed the blood to flow out of the cut in its neck. Once the meat portion of feeding his pet was taken care of, he went back to thinking about the companionship needs. As a society, the Saalistaja were solitary creatures, only occasionally getting together for a particularly difficult hunt or for mating purposes. Could he really stand having something around him constantly?
Thinking back to the pheromones released by the pet, he realized that constantly being around it would not be that bad of a thing. Not to mention, he would have to do some research into his physical differences after their encounter.
Grabbing a few handfuls of sweet berries as well as some tubes of drinking water, he made his way back to where his prey... pet... slept. He would wait to place his offerings down after it woke up. He didn’t want to take the chance that any other hunters would go after his kill.
Lightly climbing up the tree and settling down on one of the higher branches so he could guard his pet, he stiffened. Laying on its mounds was a voragyvis, one of the most poisonous and deadly species to inhabit this planet. It was curled up, appearing to be asleep, until it opened three of its six eyes and stared straight at him. Even in his camouflage mode, it could still see him.
Yes, his pet definitely had a problem keeping itself safe.
Now, how to remove the voragyvis without it attacking either one of them?
