Bestial Planet

Chapter 43: Emissary of War

After a hours of heated debate we arrived at a conclusion. We'd set up a position that would allow someone to speak for the Feral's best interests. For the most part, Feral's didn't understand the complexities of our budding society, all they wanted was food and friends. Anything else was trivial to them. A few days after the community meetings were organized I'd received a few messages, one stood out amoung the others.

"Hey I've heard you're a good fighter Panzer, I'd like to challenge you to a fight. Before all of this I used to practice some martial arts with my brother, actually I was a high ranked fighter and people are saying you're pretty damn good. I'm traveling to California from Panama and been having fights every few days. Been on the road for 2 and a half months, beating all challengers easily. I'd like to end my trip with a last fight, against the Prime himself, hopefully you're more than just rumor."

Nik read the letter and looked at me flatly as he handed it back.

"Dude sounds like a douche-bag. You should definitely kick his ass."

"I mean, there's no harm in accepting though, right?"

"Only limb, not life." Yora spoke while walking behind a cart of parts he'd pulled from another area of Shinimorte.

"What?" The non-sequitor-like statement hit flat.

"You know that saying, 'risked life and limb'? Your lives are probably safe, but some bones might be broken."

"Oh yeah, I mean, it's not like he's fighting to the death or anything."

Catty looked partially confused by the letter.

"Where the fuck did he get a pen and a piece of paper, let alone a fuckin envelope?"

"Well there's salvage everywhere. Some of it has to have held up after all this time... but at least that courier service is running as smooth as ever, even during the transformations."

Emmeth was quiet as he took the note and looked it over. He grunted before handing it back and sitting down. "Douche-bags aside, has anyone else felt a pull from the east?"

Catty arbitrarily sniffed the air.

"Now that you mention it, yeah."

Nik looked awake for the first time since he'd gotten back from his restaurant.

"We should go check it out!"

Catty felt differently. "How about we wait till after Panzer's fight. I wanna see him beat the shit out of this guy."

Nik shrugged his shoulders, he was good either way. "Yeah but dude didn't even sign his name! How are we supposed to know who they are when they get here?"

"Just look for the buffoon tooting his own fanfare." Nik laid back in a sofa he'd fashioned out of disparate parts.

Emmeth burst out in laughter at the word buffoon, confusing Yora in the process. Catty shook her head dismissively and Yora left it at that.

It was 4 days later when the mystery fighter arrived, he'd stopped by the edge of the town for a while, prompting a few people including us, to see what he was doing. It looked like he was fumbling with something, then music started. We were shocked.

"He... he actually has his own fanfare..."

"Is that, 'Eye of the Tiger'?"

"We're still asleep aren't we. This is just a shared dream right?"

Catty slapped Emmeth.

"Oh my god this is actually happening."

It was a wolf with brown fur and piercing eyes who was one of the few who decided clothing wasn't really necessary, not that you could see anything important. He had a fairly thick coat of fur but you could still see the definition of his muscles. He was wearing a cheese grin and looked pleased with himself as he walked forward confidently, rolling his traveling cart behind him. It must've been at least a few weeks since he transformed because he wasn't doing the "new-born wobble". The group stood there, some with their mouths agape at the spectacle coming towards them.