The following story takes place approximately one year after the events of ‘Infiltration’.
-=-
The thin woods bordering the town of Hartwood were filled with the sound of chirping birds and buzzing insects, broken only by the heavy sound of crackling leaves disrupted by a single human walking through the brush.
Duncan blew out a heavy breath against the cold of the autumn evening as he briefly stopped to check his phone, showing a small orange pip on the map about twenty or so meters away from where he was.
Returning his phone to his pocket, Duncan looked past the grey brim of his hat up at the sky, searching for a small purple splotch in the clouds.
He didn’t see Violet at a quick glance, but he knew she was up there somewhere, even if he didn’t see her, he knew his puffy griffin companion never strayed far from him when they were working.
Knowing her, she may even be waiting for him at one of the other traps.
Duncan shrugged, straitened his hat and finished the climb up the small incline toward where the orange pip was on the map.
He saw the trap immediately when he crested over the hill. It was a simple construction, a cage with a one-way entrance and bait on the inside; not exactly the most complex trap, but it worked for the creatures he used them for.
The smell hit him long before he ever reached the trap, bunching his face up in disgust at the distinct scent of rotting meat. That was never a good sign.
Duncan marched over to the trap and removed the tarp covering it, being greeted by a stream of scared and angry chittering as he did.
Inside the cage there was a very scared, pissed off and more than a little bit fat groundhog, as well as the half eaten and mostly rotted bodies of a single pinkish-red earthy fluffy and a few foals, as well as an empty bowl with a few stray noodles and dried bits of sauce.
Duncan shook his head as he grabbed the door release on the top of the cage pulling it open and allowing the frightened groundhog to run off into the woods, a string of angry chittering streaming from it as it went.
“You’re welcome… dumbass.” Duncan taunted as the animal fled into the thicker part of the woods.
The sound of heavy wingbeats and creaking wood alerted him to the return of his partner long before she spoke.
“Releasing the vermin back into the wild again, vater?”
The smooth voice of his griffin mocked as she looked down on him from the branch she had perched herself on.
“No point in killing it. He’s just foraging for food before winter hits, not his fault fluffys are easy meat.”
Duncan replied to his griffin companion, shaking the fluffy corpses out of the cage trap and engaging the structure releases on the side of the trap, causing it to automatically flatten itself out to about an eighth of its original size.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and snapped a quick picture of each of the fluffy bodies, the tracking app on his phone registering them as Confirmed Deceased.
“Besides” Duncan said looking up at his partner “If he’s here, any other fluffies who come through here will keep him fed for next winter. You wouldn’t deny honest vermin their dinner, would you?”
Violet rolled her eyes at him, hopping down from the branch she was perched on and using her wings to glide her safely to the ground.
She was a beautiful example of a puffy griffin, about the size of a full-grown Labrador retriever, colored in purple with charcoal grey eyes and occasional dark streaks of midnight black adding contrast to her otherwise mono-colour form.
She stalked up beside Duncan, barely making a sound as her lithe form connected with the ground, brushing up against the backs of his legs and making a sound reminiscent between a coo and a purr.
“Perhaps… But you would make more money if you just killed it and kept the trap up. Or, do we not get paid by the catch anymore.”
“Yeah, but the less traps I have to check at the end of the week the better in my opinion.” Duncan smirked “Or perhaps your worried about my methods cutting into your ‘entertainment’ budget.”
Violet took a step back, pressing a talon to her breast and her avian face taking on a distinct look of mock offence.
“Vater! How could you insinuate that my concern for the success of your business is in any way tied to mien own enrichment?!”
Duncan laughed as he recalibrated the trap tracker, hearing laughter in an effeminate German accent from below and beside him and clicked the now folded trap into a carry slot on his backpack with a very audible click.
-=-
It was about twenty minutes of walking before Duncan came to the last trap on his list for the week, most of which Violet spend airborne while he had to walk the rest of the way.
Duncan hated this part of his job most of all, clearing the traps at the end of the week was a truly miserable chore compared to the rest of the work.
The task itself ate most of his day, starting at six in the morning in order to get it all done by around eight in the evening.
And then there was dealing with all the fluffies, or perhaps more accurately fluffy corpses, that were usually found inside.
If it weren’t for the money the town paid him to do this as a baseline, and the bonus he got for per fluffy captured or killed, it would not even be worth the effort.
“Huu huu huu… fwuffy nu wike sowwy boxie… huuuu…”
Speaking of which.
He walked over to the trap and removed the tarp covering the top, taking in the sight of a blue earthy, a pink unicorn and a darkish green earthy all crammed uncomfortably in the trap.
After removing the cover, the blue earthies eyes went wide and it scrambled around the inside of the cage, desperately trying to get away from the monster it saw uncovering the top of the trap.
“SCREEE! NUUU! MUNSTA NU GIB FLUFFY FOWEBA SWEEPIES! TAKE UGWY FWUFFY!”
The blue fluffy screamed in terror, desperately banging its hooves on the cage wall
Duncan looked down at the green fluffy, taking in the sight of the creatures’ ribs through its skin, and realised that it was dead. Starved to death by the looks of it, although it did show some signs of small bruises around its face.
Looking at the blue fluffy and the dried spaghetti sauce around its mouth, it wasn’t hard to see why.
His eyes slowly drifted to the pink unicorn and he realised immediately from its bulging eyes and the flies buzzing around its muzzle that it was dead as well, it’s head partially out of the traps door but caught in-between the cage door and the wall.
Duncan reached down and undid the latch to the trap with an audible grinding shriek of metal on metal that made the blue fluffy void its bowels in shock.
“NUUUU! NU HEWTIES! SCREEE- “
The fluffies shrieking was cut off mid stream as Duncan grabbed the creature by the scruff and lifted it out of the cage, causing it to release a stream of stress pee as it did.
“BAD UPSIES, NUU!“
Duncan held the fluffy up at eye level, pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of the creature before pulling his backpack off and laying it on the ground in front of him and popping on of the two fluffy sized plastic containers in the pack open.
Duncan wordlessly plopped the blue fluffy into the container, eliciting a new stream of screaming from the terrified creature.
“NUU! FWUFFY NU WAN GU IN SOWWY BOXI- “
The box clicked closed, muting the sound of the fluffies babbling and screaming behind the thick plastic of the carrier as Duncan sighed to himself, slung the pack over his shoulder and stood back up.
Duncan pulled his phone out of his pocket and snapped a couple of shots of the two dead fluffies before opening the cage.
He dumped the bodies out onto the ground along with the empty bowl and a small stream of the liquid shit the blue fluffy had kindly left for him all over the inside.
“Violet! Carry off for two!” Duncan shouted off into the open field.
He waited for a moment before his companion flapped down beside him and took in the sight of the two dead fluffies.
She snickered at the choked expression of the pink unicorn’s face before grasping the two fluffy corpses and taking off into the air.
Duncan pulled a water bottle from his pack and sprayed down the inside of the cage to clear off some of the smell of dead fluffies and liquid shit that covered the trap, occasionally looking up toward the sky.
He watched as his griffin companion flew a distance away over the woods until she was little more than a purple dot on the horizon, before two smaller pink and green dots dropped into the trees below.
With that Duncan adjusted his pack and tapped the final orange dot on the trap tracker, causing the app to flash with his weekly capture statistics and display a small message of with a yes or no button on the bottom.
Cleaning and bait refill slated by user: Duncan Wyatt. Confirm?
Ehhh, he’d deal with that after he got home.
-=-
It was a little before eight in the evening when Duncan reached the edge of the woods where he parked his van. Reaching the back van, he popped open the back door to a cacophony of distressed fluffies, chirping and other high-pitched noise.
He took off his backpack and deposited the blue earthy he recovered from his trap into the massive sectioned cage that occupied the back two thirds of the van; the earthy landing on the head of a brown earthy he’d brought in from an earlier trap before rolling onto the cage floor.
“SCREEEEE! FWUFFY HAB HUWTIES! NU WAN! NU W-“
“EEEE! WEWE AM FWUFF-“
“Huu huu hu-“
“Peep! Peep!”
“Mummuh! Mummuh hewp bestest ba-“
“DUMMEH HOOMIN WET SMA-”
“CHIIIRP!”
Duncan slammed the back hatch shut, shaking his head and running his hands over his ears.
“WOW, that never gets any less loud, does it?!”
He walked over to driver side door pulling it open and letting Violet jump in and settle herself into the passengers seat before he followed her in, sat down in the drivers seat and shut the door.
The silence of the cabin was a great relief compared to the noise of the vans rear and Duncan reclined the driver’s seat finally letting his legs rest after nearly twelve hours worth of walking.
“Soundproofing the cabin was the second smartest investment you have ever made.”
“What was the first?”
“Ich.”
Duncan snickered and pulled off his hat, threw it on the dashboard of the van and leaned forward and plugged his phone into the onboard computer attached to the dash.
It took a moment to sync the two devices and after a moment a display of stats flashed onto the screen.
-=-
Contact : Hartwood Town Council
Confirmed Deceased Biotoys: 43
Captured Adult Biotoys: 33
Captured Adolescent Biotoys: 35
Total Contract Pay : $378.75
Invoice : Received - Pending
-=-
Briefly taking in the display Duncan turned to his companion with a grin on his face.
“Where do you want to eat tonight?”
Violet halted her preening and turned to face her owner, considering his words and tilting her head before cracking a very avian smile.
“The Alicorn?”
“Hot wings again? Damn girl, you’ve got an addiction! Alright; The Alicorn it is.”
Duncan laughed as he revved the engine. He swiped right on his phones screen, brought up the Alicorns online ordering app and tapped the ‘reorder’ button.
‘One bacon cheeseburger with poutine and a chocolate shake’
‘One double order of hot wings with blue cheese dressing’
‘Three fluffy chops, blue rare, BBQ sauce on the third’
