Chapter 17: The Mountain Boundary

In the morning, before I took off, the watchman from the mountainside came back to the village.

"There are traces of them in the forest where we gather firewood."

The people in front of the village chief’s house all looked at the man.

"Did you see them?"

Dario asked.

"No. I heard the noise. A few branches were broken, so I didn't go in any further and came back."

“That’s fine.”

The village chief answered immediately.

There was no need for villagers to push into the forest to find Rock Apes.

From what I had learned only yesterday, there weren't just three of them visible; even individuals with young were moving along the mountainside. What's more, they didn't settle on the flat land people were trying to use, but changed location while crossing the slope.

It seemed those movements had finally reached the villagers' firewood ground.

"No one goes there for firewood today."

the village chief said.

"Use another place."

"And Val?"

"Have him look once from above. That's enough. He doesn't have to count them like yesterday."

I nodded.

I spread my wings and rose into the sky from outside the village.

The familiar roofs receded below.

I wouldn't be looking at the flat area on the mountainside today.

I turned to the forest where the villagers gathered firewood.

I found something wrong immediately.

There was a grey shape in a tree.

There were two more beyond it.

Further on, the branches continued to sway.

The Rock Apes had clearly come to a lower place than yesterday.

However, it didn't look like they were heading towards the village.

They crossed the slope, passing from tree to tree.

I kept my distance and watched their route.

One of them came down to the ground.

It searched under a fallen tree, picked something up and put it in its mouth. It soon returned to the tree and moved on with another one.

It wasn't that they weren't looking for food.

However, they didn't seem to stay in one place and keep eating.

One of the Rock Apes noticed me flying above and cried out.

“Gah!”

A voice answered from deeper in.

I didn't know how many there were.

I hadn't intended to count today either.

The problem was that if they kept on like this, they would pass through the firewood ground.

I returned to the village.

“How was it?”

Dario came to where I landed.

I pointed at the mountain and moved my front leg sideways across the slope.

"They're here?"

I nodded.

"Heading for the village?"

I shook my head.

Next, I made a gesture as if bundling firewood, and pointed to that area.

Dario thought for a moment.

"They'll cross the firewood ground?"

I nodded.

Once this much got across, it went quickly.

"Village Chief."

Dario looked back.

"They've reached the line we decided on yesterday. They're not aiming for the village, but it overlaps the firewood ground."

The village chief was silent for a moment and looked towards the mountain.

"Then we move them off it."

"You're going to drive them away?"

"We're only keeping them away from the village."

Hearing those words, the man who had fled from the other side of the mountain looked up.

"It's better not to chase them into the forest."

"Yeah."

Dario understood that too.

"I have no intention of lining people up in a place where stones come flying."

There was no need to send the villagers out into the mountains to check, the way there had been until yesterday.

I had seen the location.

All that was left was to keep the Rock Apes out of the area where the villagers lived.

Dario drew a simple line on the ground with a branch.

"People here."

He indicated an open area a little way into the mountains from the village.

"Actually, lower still. They don't need to be visible to the Rock Apes. We'll wait somewhere we can move from only if something happens."

"And Val?"

"He'll stop them from coming round to the village side, from above. If they go the other way, he won't chase."

The village chief looked at me.

I nodded.

I understood, then.

Rather than driving the whole group away, only put pressure on the individuals that turn this way.

Leave their escape route open, so they aren't cornered.

"If it gets dangerous, come back."

The village chief reminded us.

He said it to me, not to Dario.

I nodded again.

Just before noon, the Rock Apes moved.

I was watching from above the forest.

The villagers were far behind. Dario and the others were hidden behind trees and should be almost invisible from where the Rock Apes were.

The first one crossed the slope.

Two more were behind it.

There were also individuals with young at their bellies.

It was the same direction as yesterday.

If they kept on, they would come towards the village a little further along.

I lost altitude.

I spread my wings wide and crossed between the Rock Apes and the village.

“Gah!”

A voice rose immediately.

One of them stood up on a branch, making its body look large.

Another adult descended to the ground.

It picked up a stone.

It came flying.

I tilted my wings.

The stone went well wide.

Another one.

This time it flew ahead of my course.

I avoided it a little early.

Perhaps it was getting used to aiming at me while I flew.

I didn’t close the distance.

I wouldn't attack from here either.

However, I stayed only on the side that approached the village.

The Rock Ape in the lead bared its teeth.

It shook the branches violently.

I didn't retreat either.

We glared at each other for a while.

Meanwhile, the individual with the young moved first.

It crossed by branch to the side away from the village.

Another small Rock Ape followed.

Seeing this, another adult turned as well.

Only the one that had been threatening at the beginning remained.

It threw another stone.

This time it fell well in front of me.

The way it threw felt like measuring the distance.

I moved forward a little.

Come no further.

Even if it couldn't be put into words, that much could get across.

“Gyaa!”

The Rock Ape shouted.

However, the group behind it had already changed course.

In the end it too kicked off a branch and moved after its companions.

I didn't chase them.

I only waited in the sky, watching for any individual trying to turn back towards the village.

The branches swayed less and less.

The cries went away as well.

It was some time later that Dario appeared on the ground.

"Did they go?"

I nodded.

"None came this way?"

I nodded again.

Dario didn’t try to go into the forest.

"Then that's enough for today."

On the way back to the village, it was decided that no one would enter the firewood ground the Rock Apes had approached.

Just because they were turned aside once today didn't mean tomorrow would be the same.

There was a possibility another group would come.

It was decided that firewood would be gathered from other places.

"I hope they keep going round us forever."

one of the villagers said.

"If that happens, it's easy."

The village chief answered.

"But don't decide it on the strength of one day."

That’s right.

I couldn’t tell whether the Rock Apes had changed course because they disliked me, or whether the others had simply followed when the one with young moved on ahead.

However, even without going into the forest and fighting, I could see the possibility of keeping them away from the village.

I thought the story would end there.

In the afternoon, I was resting my wings outside the village.

Dario came over.

"Val."

I looked up.

"I'd like you to take a look at something."

Unusual.

I stood up.

Where I was taken wasn't the forest where the Rock Apes had been turned aside.

It was near the mountainside of the village, just short of the area normally used by the hunters.

Dario didn't go deep into the forest.

Instead, he pointed at something lying behind a tree.

"The one who found it was the man who took over the watch earlier."

I could see grey hair.

It was a Rock Ape.

It didn't move.

I approached.

It was an adult.

It looked about the same size as the ones I'd seen up to yesterday.

It wasn't lying on its front, but on its side, dead.

“The villagers didn’t do it.”

I know.

No arrow was in it.

There were no signs of being cut with a blade.

I brought my nose closer.

It wasn't rotten.

It seemed it hadn't been long since it died.

The flesh was badly crushed from the base of the neck to the shoulder.

It was a little different from bite marks.

It was a wound that looked as though something had crushed it.

"I thought it fell off a rock."

Dario crouched down.

“There’s nothing that high around here.”

True.

There were no cliffs nearby.

Would a fall from a tree cause a wound like this?

I couldn’t decide.

However, there was one more thing that bothered me.

A smell.

There was a faint lingering smell, different from the Rock Ape odour.

It wasn't a Tusk Boar.

It was different from a Horned Wolf.

I looked at the ground.

The fallen leaves were crushed flat.

There was a large depression there.

"This?"

Dario noticed it too.

I don't know whether it could be called a footprint.

Its shape was unclear.

However, it was much larger than a human shoe, and different from the long finger marks of a Rock Ape.

There was another one beyond it.

Further on, it vanished at the base of a tree.

"What is this?"

Dario's voice went low.

I didn't know either.

At least it matched no magical beast I'd ever seen.

Dario looked at the dead Rock Ape.

"Are they running from this thing?"

I didn’t nod.

I don’t know yet.

One carcass and an unfamiliar mark.

It was too early to decide everything from that alone.

“…That’s right.”

Dario corrected himself after seeing my reaction.

"This is as much as we can tell, isn't it."

On that judgement we agreed.

Dario immediately went back to inform the village chief.

They made no attempt to carry the carcass to the village.

Nor was anyone left to guard it.

Leaving someone behind to wait for something unknown was more dangerous.

The village chief heard the account and narrowed the permitted range on the mountainside further.

"Just keep watching for the Rock Apes."

That was all he told the villagers.

He didn't go so far as to say there was a huge magical beast.

Because it still wasn't known what had killed the Rock Ape.

In the evening, I looked at the mountains from outside the fence.

By midday we had been able to turn the Rock Apes away from the village.

That in itself had gone well.

However, for the first time I had seen another possible reason why the group was moving.

Perhaps it wasn't only food.

Something stronger than a Rock Ape was moving inside the mountain.

It was still too early to conclude that.

Even so, the large depression that remained in front of the forest didn't disappear.

I looked at the trees on the mountain that continued from there.

I thought it would end with keeping the Rock Apes away from the village, but apparently that wasn't the end of the story.