(BL) Hunting The Field Guide novel Chapter 475

Chapter 475: A sad discovery

Kellen made sure to watch his feet, watch his sides, watch everything around him. He was on high alert, as he should be. The smallest of crunch, his feet sinking into the damp soil made small iridescent...spores float into the air. Kellen hated that, hated what it probably signified as he made his way eastward.

He came to the small river, noticing for the first time a few cracked branches, a few marks on the trees.

Hardened sap surrounded the marks, clearly made with a knife, and his chest swelled as he recognised the marking technique he had taught his students. It might have been the older Esper who had been sucked in with them that had told them to do so, but that didn’t matter. Kellen was just glad to see signs of life, and that they were signs he was able to follow.

It was clear that they hadn’t crossed the river, like Kellen had no plan to. At least not yet. It looked so damn toxic that Kellen could almost feel how it would dissolve his clothes. His bones.

He shivered, glancing around him. His gun was still in his hand, his eyes open, wide. Watching everything that he could. The soft sounds through the trees, the shifting sounds of the night. He was working hard to take in all information, every last sound, anything he thought was amiss. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

He was surprised that it was light enough at night that he didn’t need to use the flashlight he’d brought, but he wondered if it was just around the fluorescent river. Since the colour of the river matched the colour illuminating the shimmering colour of the leaves around him.

Kellen kept moving, kept observing, trying to see if he found anything out of the ordinary.

It was about two hours later, while he was following the trail made by his peers when he found the first body, or what remained of it.

Someone had slipped, stumbled, tripping over a well placed root and had slid into a pitcher plant. Kellen winced as he stared at the closed plant, the torn pieces of fabric telling a grim tale. Kellen paused for a moment, saying a prayer for who had been lost. He wouldn’t know until he found more survivors, but a knot twisted in his gut. He hoped and prayed that it wasn’t Gwen.

Honestly, it was a bit heartless of himself, but he hoped it was one of the Espers that he hadn’t trained personally. It would still hurt, but it would hurt less. Not that body recoveries were ever easy.

Still, he was a bitter man, and Kellen, wanting to be able to bring something back to the family members, even if it turned into a box of ashes, shot the stem of the plant. He knew that he shouldn’t be agitating any part of the forest since he had no idea how it was connected, but a cool anger filled his body.

This fucking gate wasn’t going to feast off of his people, no matter who they were. It could starve for all he fucking cared. He wasn’t even good at keeping plants alive, a thing he’d never told Miro.

Miro would never need to know, and he was fairly certain the man would agree with him in this circumstance. He watched with a cold detachment as the pitcher plant deflated slowly, and Kellen sped that shit up by firing another hole, grazing the side to let more liquid spill out like a damn faucet.

Kellen waited, checking to see if anything else had noticed Kellen’s attack, but nothing came to investigate. That either meant nothing was around, or everything was in deep sleep.

Kellen had no doubt there were some fucked up monsters in this gate. He had a feeling most were plant based, like this fucker. It wasn’t unknown, since pitcher plants weren’t just native to other worlds but to earth as well, but this was still a C Class monster. The fact that it had taken a life was clear evidence of that fact.

Kellen watched as the poisonous liquid drained, eating away at more of the roots and other plantlike around the pitcher plant as it emptied. Kellen was sure the smell and poison filling the air was truly noxious, and he was glad for the new mask.

He waited longer, watching the plant deflate more, until he grabbed one of the knives strapped to his body and began to cut away at the giant plant, revealing the body inside. He wasn’t a man who liked to live in unknowns, and if this was where he came face to face with Gwen’s passing, this was the moment.

Tragically for the body, it wasn’t Gwen, but one of his students. Kellen’s heart ached, somehow able to make out most of their facial features since it appeared their head had been above the poison. Kellen closed his eyes, fighting tears as he realised that they hadn’t drowned in the poison. It was a cruel, terrible death. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Kellen bowed his head, grief flooding him as he took a moment for himself, for them, before he pulled them completely out of the plant. He knew that the body had a chance to keep decomposing and potentially attracting others to it, so he turned to his bag.

One of the things that his Field Guides should have packed for him were body bags, and he was right to assume that they had.

With great effort to not destroy the body further, Kellen slowly packed them into the bag, scooping up parts of them with measured hands, not flinching at the reality he was faced with. He could grieve, he could feel rage, but he couldn’t let himself think too hard when it came to death like this. He could be ill later.

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