Moose

The next morning I threw on my pack, ready to head to the lower reaches of Lustwood. The trek would be long so I could only take a few anthros or I risked losing most of them. So I decided to take Tauran, my ace for all intents and purposes; Camyron, whose speed would probably prove valuable; and Porter who, despite his scatterbrained antics, was my most well-rounded anthro.

I walked out to the barn and grabbed my team, then set out to the lower echelons of the forest.

When we arrived, I gaped in awe at the massive trees, feeling as if I was somewhere million years in the past. Rivers flowed down the steep canyon walls as I led my motley crew farther into the ravine. We touched down on the canyon floor nearly 30 minutes later. As we traversed the moss-covered forest, I saw waterfalls cascade down the cliff sides. They seemed to dissolve completely before they hit the ground, covering everything in a fine mist.

We soon came across our first anthros, or rather, they came across us. A cow moose trotted through the forest, her massive mammaries jiggling. She was bigger than your average moose in that department for sure. Tauran trotted over and bellowed at her, curious at the anthro close to his size. She stopped and turned, and cautiously walked over to him. They spoke to each other in low calls and at one point Tauran gestured toward us. I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye but I didn't even have time to call out as a bigger bull moose blindsided Tauran. The moose was huge, both in body size and in length, and every part of his body was well muscled, to the point that his Trait was Muscle Hypertrophy.

Tauran grunted as he hit the floor, and with a surprising amount of speed for something of his size, jumped back up to his feet. The two muscled mammalian monoliths squared up. The moose's huge antlers shook as he lowered his head and charged. Tauran bellowed something and charged as well, but rather than meet his larger opponent's head he veered to the right and let the forward momentum of the moose carry him toward the trees. He didn't let him make it to those trees, however. Instead, the bovine brawler kicked him and the top-heavy cervid promptly face-planted. Rather than standing there like a moron and waiting for his opponent to get up, Tauran got to work beating the ever-living tar out of the moose. The cervid was having none of it and tried to throw him off in an ironic bull riding situation. The moose bucked and kicked, struggling to get him off. That was until Tauran steered him into the nearest tree. A solid thunk resounded as he slumped and began to snore.

Tauran, a little worse for wear, but otherwise fine stomped over to us and opened his hand, picking up the cue I handed the pondweed over. With a surprisingly dramatic flourish, he handed it to the starstruck female. Camyron must have felt bad so she picked up the remaining pondweed and gave it to the now bleary-eyed male moose. He gobbled it up and grudgingly walked over to Tauran. He bellowed something and Tauran gestured over to me. Both of the moose looked at me in a bit of surprise and then shrugged. I was about to speak when I heard a startled yelp, which made me whirl around in surprise. Gaping at the mouth, I beheld canine beauty who was staring at me with Port attached to her tail. This was awkward.