The place where the creature dwelled obviously, was the most defendable place for miles. It was less a hill and more a tall pillar of rock. It had a few cave openings on its side that faced what looked like the beginning of the canyon. There were ruins on top, some knocked over pillars that at some point belonged to someone. There was a worn stairway up it that led into some openings.
"Do you know what it used to be?" Kurt spoke looking into the end of the canyon, which seemed to hold a large basin at the base. Completely dry of course.
"It seems to be an old temple to some God long forgotten, or maybe just another fort. Who really knows about these things here," said Layla, "these wastelands have been barren for quite a long time though," said Layla, "it is not surprising we are not the first ever to think it a good place to live."
"I mean it's not like it's a good place to live, why do you even want to live here?"
"It seems perfect to me."
"What why? There is nothing here, it seems like a very hard place to live long term.", it was true how were they even going to survive here? Where was the food source? The water source? Don't gnomes need that as much as any living creature. Kurt understood it gave you a lot of ways to defend against, you had high ground, and the enemy would be bottlenecked, creating some blocking gates would be easy, it seemed there used to be some there at some point as well. Since there was only one easy way to get up, the stairway, all you really need to do is defend that, and there were many points you could do that as the stairway was carved out, leaving a few positions available.
"There are obviously none of my kind around of course, I don't want to step on their toes, if there was there would be a lot more plant life," said Layla.
That made sense to Kurt. I mean a bit of water would change this place a whole lot, it seemed to dry, but not hot like a desert would be. Like it just never rained here for some reason, change that bit you'd get a few plants coming in after a year or two, maybe sooner if you knew what you were doing
Once they got closer to the pillar Kurt asked if they were planning on using that wagon a lot more. And explained he was definitely going to have to rip a few boards off and figure out a way to make a shield, and a spear a minimum. Kurt wasn't stupid, a starved animal is desperate, he had a simple plan on dealing with it. He may not be a hunter but the mana flowing gave him a bit of a rush, and how everyone was starting to look at him gave him some courage. He could do this, it's just one of them.
They explained what he imagined as a wolf or big dog. They apparently didn't know what either was. And could certainly see now why they were so afraid of it but thought he would win. The creature really only went up to waist. To the gnomes that meant it was perhaps taller than them.
The time came close, the gnomes actually ended up being really helpful once he explained he needed a shield and spear, they went right to work and a short time later he had a makeshift wooden shield and a spear that even had a metal tip. It wasn't something you'd buy in a shop, but it was definitely better than what Kurt would have been capable of, especially in that short of time.
He was as ready as he was going to be, a simple spear, a decent shield and a simple plan. Use the fact that the creature is weakened and starved expecting it to be aggressive immediately, and to block and dodge, wait until you see the fatigue get to it, and strike true. Don't be the aggressor let it come to you, you can stab and bat the creature as needed.
Kurt figured anything more complex would confuse him when in the moment, he just needed to wait him out, because it was going to try to rush and jump at him.
Unless he caught it sleeping of course, he was going to at least try to sneak up on it. He climbed the stairs, they told him the second hole was where it would like to stay. They had apparently been watching the place for a while, Layla said she wanted to make sure Kurt didn't materialize right in front of it so that's why they made a small trip away. He had appeared a few meters away from her.
Once he got into the correct tunnel he could see, a little better than he expected in the dark. Must have been a perk from whatever that Faye did. He saw the wall and immediately determined that it was definitely at one point a temple to something. The arrangement was not suited for a fort, and the walls had a lot of pictures, most likely telling a story of what Kurt wanted to pay attention to.
As far as his glances could determine it was to some water god and a great river, maybe the canyon wasn't always a canyon or something. There was a large empty basin in front of the pillar; it could have once been a pond or something. There seemed to be some journey someone made, to find the god and got some blessing. Who knows really. You'd have to know the story for it to really make sense Kurt thought.
Passing through the hallway Kurt was in a bigger room, it had pillars lining the walls, there was an altar of some kind in the middle, it was damaged and toppled over. So whatever was there was hard to make out, a table, a statue. As he passed the altar he saw a creature and froze.
The creature froze too, four legs and a tail, about waist height. Of course it wasn't a dog, it was a massive cat, and their eyes were locked. Kurt had dealt with house cats before, as soon as he turned his head, or lost eye contact, it was going to do something, if not sooner. And it wasn't just any cat, those were big paws, big claws, he was not expecting claws. With a dog all you really have to defend against is their mouth, with a cat they have more opportunities. They were more likely to avoid a thrust of a spear, and so a sword, or club or mace, would have been better, this is going to be a lot more close combat. Cats usually have explosive speed bursts, and pounce.
And without realizing it he blinked. Crap, where'd the second one come from?