by Pedro Urvi
“We’d better not be too confident,” Lasgol said. He had the feeling that at any moment thousands of soldiers from the West were going to appear from among the trees and hurl themselves at them.
They went on through the forest for two more days, and the deeper they went into its green and brown heart, the more strongly Lasgol felt that they were going to be attacked at any moment. He was not alone in this. Ingrid walked on with her brow furrowed, and Gerd with eyes full of fear. Nilsa was so nervous that twice now she had released against a shadow in the forest. The reality was that being surrounded by so much vegetation that would not let them see, was making them very nervous.
“If they attack us,” Lasgol said, trying to reassure them, “even if we don’t see them, we’ll hear them coming.”
Gerd nodded. “That’s true, there’s nothing noisier in a forest than a soldier.”
“I’m not sure that makes me feel any better,” Nilsa said. She was aiming her bow to the right and left every couple of paces.
“Lasgol’s right,” Leenbiren said. “If a large force attacks us, we’ll hear them coming from a distance. We’d better keep quiet. We’ll move on in silence.”
The veteran’s idea was a good one, but it made the journey harder and tenser. Without any conversation, alert to any noise in the forest, they were having a hard time, particularly Nilsa. If they did not get out of that forest very soon, she was capable of releasing against one of them by mistake.
D’you see any enemies? Lasgol messaged Camu.
Only animals.
Don’t go chasing after them.
I well-behaved.
Yeah, sure…
Lasgol was using his Hawk’s Sight, Owl Hearing, and Animal Presence skills every now and then to sense enemies. As Camu had already told him, he could only perceive animals. His skills only worked for a limited time, and once they ended he had to invoke them again. He could not do it continuously, because then he expended all his energy and ended up exhausted. Hence he had to ration their use. The more he thought about the situation they were in, the more he felt that this was the ideal place for an ambush. He was sure the King and his generals also knew this, and were prepared for it. What did Egil have in store for them? He probably knew that they were all expecting a guerrilla attack in the forest, and perhaps that was why he had opted for the strategy at the river, instead of in the forest. Egil was very intelligent, and if the opponent was already expecting an attack in there, they would probably not carry it out. They would strike when they were least expecting it, and the Eternal Forest was not that place.
With those thoughts, they were nearing the end of the forest.
“It can’t be much further,” Leenbiren said. He was checking his Ranger’s map and peering at the sky through the treetops.
“How many days have we been in here?” asked Gerd, who had lost count.
“Five days and nights,” said Ingrid.
“To me it seems like a whole season,” said Nilsa. She sounded annoyed.
“It’s because we’re so tense,” Lasgol said, “and there’s no change in the landscape.”
“We’ll soon come out into the open,” Leenbiren reassured them. “Lasgol, Gerd, track the area and report back.”
Lasgol went on with all his senses alert. He still had the ominous feeling that suddenly thousands of Western soldiers were going to come out of the bushes to attack them. He called upon his skills and felt easier when he failed to perceive anything strange.
Ona, Camu. With me, he messaged.
As they moved away from the group Camu became visible and came over to him. Lasgol stroked him lovingly. Ona and Camu rubbed against one another as they liked to do. They tracked a wide area together and found nothing out of the ordinary. There was no other human presence in that forest, and finally Lasgol relaxed a little. They were reaching the end of the forest and there had not been the attack he had been fearing.
He turned to go back to his comrades, and at that moment a strange smell reached his nostrils. He noticed that both Ona and Camu were sniffing. They too had picked up the smell.
What’s that smell?
For an instant his partners went on sniffing. Ona was the first to realize, and gave a very shrill chirp.
Fire! Camu transmitted, with a note of fear and urgency.
Lasgol sniffed the smoke and this time it reached him clearly: it was the smell of fire. He could not see either flames or smoke, but the smell was there, the unmistakable proof that something was burning in the forest. He concentrated, to pick up the direction of the wind. It was coming from behind him, and the fire must be at their heels. He turned and ran to warn his friends.
“Fire!” he cried as he arrived at a run.
Ingrid spun around like lightning. “Fire?”
Nilsa threw her head back to sniff the air.
“Are you sure?” Leenbiren asked. Like Nilsa, he was trying to scent it in the air.
“Fire behind us!” Lasgol cried as he reached them with Ona at his side, Camu was with them, invisible.
“I can smell it!” Ingrid said suddenly. She had turned to face in the direction the smoke was coming from.
“Fire!” came Gerd’s warning as he too came running.
Leenbiren seemed puzzled. He could not see any smoke, and was looking in every direction. “Where are we going to go?”
“We’ve got to get out of the forest!” Lasgol cried.
“With all this dense vegetation a fire could be fatal,” Gerd said with definite fear in his voice.
“We’ve got to warn them!” Leenbiren said. He pointed in the direction the army was marching in.
“Let’s warn them, then get out of here,” said Ingrid.
“Let’s go!” shouted Leenbiren.
They went at a run, leading their mounts, which was not at all easy in the dense vegetation. Lasgol looked back to check that Trotter was all right, pulling on his reins all the time. The poor pony looked nervous. Probably he was already able to smell the smoke, which was reaching them with greater intensity at every step.
“Look!” Nilsa called out uneasily.
Between the treetops they now saw an enormous black cloud which covered the sky. It seemed to be advancing toward them. They could see no flames, but from the density and the size of the cloud of smoke, they must have been there. The horses were now very nervous and neighed, trying to get rid of their halters, desperate to escape.
They went on as fast as they could, running toward the troops, parallel to the front of flames. The smoke hit them like a blow, suffocating them and surrounding them. After it came an unbearable heat.
“Cover your mouth and nose with your scarves!” Leenbiren shouted.
By now it was practically impossible to control their mounts. Several outbreaks of intense fire appeared a few paces ahead, so that they were forced to change direction.
“It’s on top of us!” Gerd shouted.
The fire was now moving with greater speed and intensity. They could see it a few paces away, and the flames seemed to be searching out their bodies. The heat was getting stronger, so that they seemed to be running inside a wood-fired oven. The smoke was making it hard to breathe, and both Nilsa and Gerd were coughing desperately. Leenbiren led the way, followed by Ingrid. Lasgol brought up the rear with Trotter behind him and the flames trying to catch them.
Leenbiren pointed ahead at the column of soldiers. “There they are! Fire! Run!” he yelled at them. The soldiers, who had already realized something bad was going on, became extremely nervous at the word ‘fire’. An officer stopped Leenbiren.
“What are you shouting, Ranger?”
The veteran Ranger jabbed his finger behind the officer. “Fire! From the south! It’s right on top of us!”
The officer turned to the south, where Leenbiren was pointing. The great cloud of smoke was coming upon them like some evil being from the abysses that some enemy sorcerers had called up to bring death to them.
“Are you sure i
t’s fire?”
“Of course it’s fire! We’ve got to get out of the forest, or we’ll be dead!”
Ingrid gestured to her comrades not to wait and ran toward the north. As they ran after her, there came warning cries from other Rangers.
“Fire!”
“From the south!”
“The forest’s on fire!”
“Get away to the north!”
The officer heard the cries. Without stopping to think twice about it, he turned around and called to his men: “We’re getting out of the forest! Run for your lives!”
The order went from the captain to the sergeants, who passed it on. A moment later the soldiers were racing through the forest in search of safety, with the fire gaining on them. It would soon catch any who lagged behind.
The cries of warning set off a real stampede. The soldiers, running for their lives, stepped over those who fell – and what with the density of the forest and the irregularity of the terrain, there were many of them. Unfortunately nobody stopped to help the fallen. They were all caught up by panic, fleeing like runaway horses. The flames were licking the backs of the laggards. The faster they ran, the faster the fire seemed to advance, and the screams of terror and pain were bloodcurdling.
Ingrid was leading the group to the north. Seeing they could not manage their mounts, they had to let them go.
“Set them loose!” cried Gerd.
“But they’ll die!” Nilsa said. She was trying to master her pony, which was wild with terror.
“They won’t die! They know where they have to go!”
“Do what he says,” Ingrid told her.
They let their ponies go, and they shot away like arrows to the north.
Run to safety, Trotter! Lasgol communicated to Trotter, and let go of his reins. The pony neighed and ran off like lightning after the other horses.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” Ingrid shouted, and began to run with all her strength. The others followed her. With no horses to worry about any longer, they could now run freely. The scene behind them was chaotic, with thousands of soldiers fleeing in panic from a gigantic fire, which was running through the whole forest, swallowing up everything in its path.
“We’ll make it!” Ingrid said as she flew through the trees. Nilsa was two steps behind her, and Gerd and Leenbiren were trying to keep up with the tremendous pace she was setting. Lasgol, at the rear, glanced back and saw that they were now putting a distance between themselves and the flames. The soldiers, on the other hand, were not so lucky. The men of arms were not Rangers, used to running through forests. Nor did they travel as light as the Rangers, without armor and with only light clothes and weapons. Under the weight of chainmail, helmets, shields and great war axes, they could barely run. And when they did so, they could not keep it up for long, and in that terrain, dense and difficult, even less so.
Ona and Camu followed Lasgol. Run to safety. We’ll meet again later! Lasgol messaged to them.
Ona let out a moan which Lasgol interpreted as a ‘no’.
Us with you, Camu transmitted
Don’t worry about me! Get to safety!
No. Us with you, Camu transmitted. Ona too did not move from his side.
Lasgol felt so honored to have friends like those two that his eyes moistened. All right then, let’s go! Don’t let the fire catch us!
Ingrid pointed ahead. “There’s the end of the forest!”
She had led them to safety, like a gazelle fleeing from a predator.
“We’re there!” Nilsa cried as she glimpsed the open space between the last trees of the forest.
“Safety!” cried Leenbiren.
Lasgol took one last glance back. They had put distance between themselves and the fire, which was still advancing. They were going to be safe.
Chapter 38
At the end of the forest they came to a halt. Before them spread an expanse of green fields of tall grass. They watched for some time, looking for any hint of danger, but nothing caught their attention.
“Strange…” Ingrid commented.
Nilsa was scanning the horizon. “Strange in what way?”
“There’s no trace of Arnold’s forces. That fire wasn’t accidental, it was deliberate. I’m surprised they’re not waiting for us at the edge of the forest, to attack us as we flee from the fire.”
Leenbiren nodded. “That would make sense.”
“Maybe the fire wasn’t started by them,” Gerd suggested.
“I’m afraid it was,” Ingrid said firmly.
“I think so too,” Leenbiren said.
“What do you think, Lasgol?” she asked.
“I was afraid they’d be waiting for us at the edge of the forest, with archers,” Lasgol said thoughtfully. Ingrid was right, the ambush had not been complete. Perhaps it had not come out right and they had been expecting the fire to surround them and consume them completely. Perhaps because of the changing direction of the wind, they had not succeeded.
At that moment the first soldiers emerged from the forest a hundred paces to their left. They were running as fast as they could to the fields, trying to put as much distance as possible between their backs and the flames. A moment later another group of soldiers emerged from the forest, also at a run. The group of Rangers watched the stampede as thousands of soldiers appeared running, panic-stricken, along the edge of the forest.
Suddenly the ground underneath the first soldiers sank, and they vanished, swallowed up by the earth.
“What’s that?” Ingrid said in amazement.
Lasgol called upon his Hawk’s Sight skill to see what was happening more clearly. The earth had not really swallowed them. Instead they had fallen into a huge pit that had been carefully covered with grass.
“It’s… a trap…” he groaned.
Before he could finish puzzling out what was happening, all the first contingent of soldiers fell into similar pits and vanished from the face of the earth as if by magic. The entire edge of the forest was a colossal pit.
“Stop!” cried Ingrid when she realized what was happening.
“It’s a trap!” Leenbiren shouted to them.
But the soldiers who were behind them, instead of stopping, went on running and pushed aside the ones in front who were trying to stop and avoid falling. Carried away by panic, they were pushing their own comrades into the colossal pit, which stretched for more than a thousand paces along the edge of the forest. Lasgol calculated that it must be five paces or so wide, and judging by how the soldiers were disappearing into it, another five deep.
Some of the officers realized what was happening and started shouting the order to stop. The soldiers who were still running out of the forest failed to hear this and crashed into those who were trying to stop, so that hundreds of their fellow-soldiers fell into the pit, all along its length. The shouts of the officers grew more desperate. Ingrid, Nilsa, Gerd, Leenbiren and Lasgol joined in, gesturing to them to stop, but it was like trying to stop a herd of panicking buffalos.
The soldiers went on falling, more than a thousand of them by now.
“What’s in the pit?” Nilsa asked. She was hopping up and down to try to see inside it.
“Pikes, stakes or something like that,” Leenbiren said. “The ones who fall in will be skewered.”
“Or even worse than that…” said Lasgol.
They all turned to him. “What d’you think it is, then?” Ingrid asked.
Lasgol scratched his temple thoughtfully. He could not see the bottom of the pit from where they were, and he began to feel uneasy.
Suddenly, three hundred paces away, they saw the grass rise in three places. He pointed.
“What is it?” Leenbiren asked.
From the three spots appeared four archers. They had been hiding there.
“It’s a dozen archers,” Leenbiren said in puzzlement. “What do they expect to achieve with that?”
Nilsa armed her bow. “They’re beyond my reach. I need to get closer.” She ran o
ff.
“I’m going with her,” said Ingrid. She was getting her compound bow ready.
“You won’t reach them,” Lasgol warned her. “They’re carrying long bows. They’re four hundred paces from the pit and six hundred from here.”
“We have to try and stop whatever it is they’re going to do.”
“You’re right,” Lasgol agreed. He ran with them to the pit, where more soldiers were still falling over the edge. Gerd and Leenbiren followed them. When they reached the pit, Lasgol was able to see what was inside. There were no stakes or spears to kill those who fell in. It was something worse. A lot worse.
“It’s oil…” he muttered in horror when he saw a mass of soldiers soaked in oil in the bottom of the pit.
A dozen fire arrows flew from the spots where they had seen the enemy archers, aimed at different points within the pit.
“Move away!” Lasgol yelled to his friends.
Ingrid and Nilsa were already aiming with their bows. “Gerd! Pull them back!” he shouted at the giant, who was coming to their side.
Gerd looked at Lasgol, who signaled with both hands, and understood. The arrows fell into the pit, and there followed several explosions of fire. The flames caught, and the soldiers screamed in terror.
Gerd grabbed the two girls’ cloaks as they reached the edge of the pit and pulled them back with all his strength, so that they both fell backwards. A great flame surged up from where they had both been standing a moment before. The pit was on fire.
“Get out of there!” Lasgol shouted at them.
The screams of the soldiers who were burning alive were deafening and terrifying. The archers from the West nocked a fresh set of burning arrows.
“Move back, quick!”
The fire arrows fell into the pit, and with this second volley it caught fire from side to side. It burned like a great funerary pit, and in it, the soldiers from the East were consumed by fire.
Seeing the flames, the remaining soldiers who were still coming out of the forest stopped. A few more poor devils fell into the flaming pit, pushed by their own comrades. They were the last. The remainder managed to stop in time.
