Bull-kin. Never heard of ’em. Maybe it meant, like, creatures with the head of a bull and the body of a human?
“When you say bull-kin, do you mean…?”
“The males are apemen with the head of a bull, and the females have horns growing out of their heads. Like Shooter, their people revere nudity. And like ogres, they absolutely never mingle with humans.”
“So they’re like the mino-whatever?” I asked, and Wak’wakgoro proceeded to give me a more thorough description.
“But yes,” he finished, “they’re sometimes called minotaurs. Do you have any where you come from, Shooter?”
“I dunno if we’ve got them, but we do know about them. I’ve only ever read stuff.”
“I see.”
“So are we supposed to go conquering?” I asked uncertainly.
Gimul, who had been watching this whole time in silence, opened his mouth to speak. “Right now, what our village needs is labor. We’re going to capture the clan and enslave them.”
Uh. Well, that sounded…important. And, you know, troubling. Did everybody catch that?
“But…who’s going to do that…?”
“Who else? You and Tipsy. With your skills, you managed to take down a wyvern and some basilisks, after all.”
No word better described my present circumstances than “hopeless.” I could understand this task getting assigned to Nishka. She may have been a drunken rowdy lout, but she wasn’t called “Scalesplitter” for nothing. But what about me? I was an at-best rookie hunter who did side work as a fledgling adventurer; I knew how to use a shoulder yoke and take a punch but I knew jack and squat about magic or anything more useful.
And why was Cassandra in our group? She wasn’t even a hunter.
“Are you serious?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“Do I have the right to refuse this assignment?”
“No. You’re a slave, so there’s no questioning your master’s orders. You can’t refuse.”
Slave. I accidentally let my disgust show on my face.
A grin flashed across Gimul’s lips. “Come, now. Everyone knows you’re the best warrior in the village. We’ve all heard the stories of how you’ve beaten wyverns, ogres, and basilisks. Tipsy over there told me everything last night.”
I spun to face Nishka. She avoided my eyes and scratched at her nose, which didn’t look as red as it must have the night before. But then her eyes flashed. She glared at Gimul. “Hold on. Did you come talk to me yesterday just so you could get the lowdown on Shooter?”
“That’s right.”
“So that’s why you gave me all that alcohol—to get me talkin’?”
“Yes.”
So last night, while Cassandra and I were working to come to terms with what “happiness” in our marriage would mean, Gimul and the others plied Nishka with drinks to get her to share stories of our adventures.
Unconsciously, I looked for some reassurance from Cassandra, but as I did, Camulla leaned in and whispered, “Actually, the village chief was the one who suggested we capture and enslave the minotaurs. I had never heard of such a thing before, so her suggestion surprised me, but apparently the previous village chief also used to capture ogres and minotaurs for forced labor.”
“Oh. Uh. Wow…”
“Minotaurs don’t live in such large family groups as ogres. I hope you can find that, at least, reassuring.”
“So which is stronger?” I asked, still feeling uncomfortable even having this conversation. “Ogres or minotaurs?”
Turning his attention away from Nishka and Gimul’s argument, Wak’wakgoro planted his hands on his hips and grinned at me. “Minotaurs are stronger. Ogres may be gigantic, but they don’t have a particularly muscular build. Minos, on the other hand, they’re strong. Real warriors. Though I suppose they’ll be no problem for you, since you managed to best Gimul with only a pole and now I hear you’ve killed basilisks. Right?”
What the yikes? Wak’wakgoro was cool with this too?
“At least tell me why we have to bring Cassandra with us. You think I’m going to be okay with something as stupid as exposing my wife to danger?”
“What are you talking about, boy? Cassandra is the daughter of a hunter. She’s an adult now, not to mention married, so she has to work. Besides, the village is short on hunters. What do you expect us to do? It’ll do her good to stick close to you and start learning the basics.” Wak’wakgoro spoke as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. “Were you listening, Cassandra?” he asked.
“Yes. I know that I said I wanted to learn a little about hunting once Shooter came back, but…joining a hunting party to capture bull-kin seems a little…much.” Cassandra clearly wasn’t agreeing to go. She looked terrified!
“Come on! We aren’t asking you to jump in with lynx and kobolds. All a woman needs to learn to hunt are rabbits and foxes. This trip is just going to be a preliminary survey of the lakeshore and the surrounding area. I’m going along. And so is that girl with the animal ears.”
At that, Cassandra and I both turned to look at the silver-haired hunter. That sweet-faced fuzzball had looked utterly detached up to this point, but now he sighed and spoke up. “May I say something?”
“And what is that, young lady?” Wak’wakgoro smiled at Fuzzball.
“Could you all please stop calling me a lady? You know I’m a boy, right?”
We hurried to get our hunting and adventuring gear in order, then set off to investigate the lakefront in the afternoon. The basic plan was to advance toward the lake while the sun was still up, then to approach the cave after sunset. Our only objective at this point was to get close enough to check out the situation. Capturing minotaurs could wait.
Apparently, the new adventurers were tasked with mapping the area not only to get them familiar with it, but so that when the time came to zero in on the minotaurs, we could make sure there were no viable escape routes.
“So how did you find out the minotaurs had settled on the lakeshore?” I asked Wak’wakgoro.
He gave me a collected, professional look over his shoulder. “I took Electra and Dyson out to the lake where you killed the wyvern. We found their footprints nearby.”
“Wow.”
“That whole area is usually covered in snow during the winter, so the hunters don’t often go up there. We just hunt deer in the woods or grasslands, maybe bring down any wyverns that come from the mountains looking for prey. That’s why those footprints were so strange.”
The tracks were larger than a human’s and had clearly been there for a while, so it was doubtful they were left by any of the people who helped finish off the wyvern. When Wak’wakgoro and the others explored the area further, they spotted a minotaur.