by Clark Graham
Into the Swampland
Clan Jul had headed out early in the morning so when afternoon came, the road was clear enough for Clan Tewl to proceed. Darnic was still worried. He had a two day journey in front of him and only one day to get there. He had talked to the other elders in the morning and had finally gotten across to them the sense of urgency that was needed. Fritred was the last holdout but in the end even he agreed that the best thing for the clan was to get there as soon as possible. The carts ran into trouble right away. The road had been torn up by all of the clans going across it before them. It was now a muddy mess. The wagons with the stronger horses could get through, with some effort, but the carts and their small ponies were getting bogged down.
Fritred came back to where Darnic was standing by his wagon, “It’s no use; we cannot proceed in this mud.”
Darnic was accessing the situation. “Those wagons in the front, have them proceed on until they reach the camp of clan Jul, then have them unhitch the wagons and bring the horses back to help pull the carts out. The wagons in the back will also unhitch their horses and help pull carts out until they reach camp and then have them return also.”
Fritred nodded in agreement and went forward to organize it. Darnic unhitched his horse and moved it to the furthest forward wagon and then hitched it back up. Soon about half the clan was moving forward. It was soon dark and the process of getting all of the carts down the muddy track was slow. Darnic had ridden the horse back and forth three times to collect carts and with the rest of the horses they were able to gather the whole clan into the camp.
They had barely finished getting everyone in when clan Jul broke camp and headed further down the road.
“At this rate it will be two more days,” Fritred grumbled. He was starting to worry also.
Darnic was now giving up to the inevitable, “We will let the people sleep, the road will be clogged until late tomorrow. The lowland roads have always had problems, and having this much traffic on them is making things much worse. Tonight we must stand guard, it is the third night and the mountain will unleash its fury. I just hope that it does not come this far until all the clans have made it through.”
“I will stand guard tonight. We have left most of the younger men to await for clans Regaluis and Kartan,” Fritred said.
Darnic turned to him and smiled, “I will join you on the watch, my friend.”
Fritred replied, “It reminds me of the old times, standing guard during the war, but they were not good times.”
“No, they were not good times,” Darnic agreed. He could still see, in his mind, the large monsters cresting the hill and coming towards his village.
They both sat there in the night. Around midnight they could see a fire on the side of the mountain. It was barely visible at that distance. Darnic turned to Fritred and said, “It has started.”
Fritred nodded, “They are going after the Elves. The fire is where the Elf village sat. That may buy us some time.”
“All this because of Elf arrogance,” Darnic replied in frustration.
“The mother land has a way of clearing itself from time to time. Maybe it is not all the Elf’s fault. It could be she was getting too full,” Fritred said.
Darnic agreed. “And maybe there is a lesson we need to learn from this. The clans were fighting each other and our young men would die in needless battles. After the mountain awoke, we no longer fought each other. It was after that we learned to settle our differences without war. It could be there is a lesson here too.”
“We need to learn it quick so we can go back home then,” Fritred said.
Several of the men took over the watch from Fritred and Darnic, allowing them to get some sleep. It was late afternoon before the two of them were awakened.
Greon Tewl reported, “The road ahead is clear, clan Jul in on the bridges as we speak. Our young men have returned. Clans Regaulis and Kartan have passed through our village and the other clans are no longer in need of them to be there. Those clans will spend the night at Bon Garle. We are packed and ready to go. I have organized it by putting the wagons in the front of the carts. If we bog down again, we will send the horses on ahead to the bridges, unhitch the wagons and then they will send the horses back to help pull the carts.”
“It is a good plan,” Darnic replied. When he stepped out of his tent he saw his wife Sali talking to Aron. She looked greatly relieved to have him back.
As they moved along Darnic noticed that the other clans had pulled rocks from the sides of the road and thrown them onto the road bed. It made for a very bumpy ride but the carts were not bogging down. The rest of the day went well as there were only a few times that the carts got stuck and with the additional manpower, they were able to pull them out. It was dark by the time they reached the bridges, but the elders were in no mood to stop now. They had all seen the fire on the side of the mountain and knew that they could be attacked next.
The bridge was a mile long and it was built in two sections, the first part of it was made of wood and it would only allow a few carts and wagons on it at one time. The second half of the bridge was made of stone and had no restrictions on it. The builders had done this on purpose because the weight of the monsters would break through the wood bridge and they would fall in the water. The monsters, for some reason, hated water. They will not cross it. So anyone on the other side of a body of water was safe.
Greon organized the crossing of the bridge. He only allowed one cart and one wagon at a time across the wooden part of the bridge. When they were across the wooden part there would be no waiting on the stone bridge, but they were to continue on to Bon Lathan, where they would be told what area the clan was assigned to.
Darnic Tewl was sent across in the first group, so he could organize things on the far side of the bridges.
The Battle of Mount Ealdwine
It was morning before Gilead made it back from his ride to contact the retreating Humans. He went to Fannor straightaway and reported, “The Humans are still making for the swampland and are stopping for nothing. It took longer than I expected to overtake them. When I asked about the earthquake and the fact that there was nothing stirring on the mountain, they said it would be on the night of third day before the monsters would come. They are taking this very seriously and I think that we should too.”
Captain Fannor thought for a moment, “If what they say is true, then we will get our first attack this night.” He wasn’t sure he believed in monsters, having never seen one. There were tales of large beasts in the folklore of the Elves, but it was thought that they were just the imagination of Elf poets of long ago, before the time they traveled to Elvenshore even. Still, something was scaring the Humans of the Far Shore, so he couldn’t just dismiss it out of hand. “Let the men get some rest; it could be a long night,” he said finally.
When night began to fall the Calvary was lined up in a formation across from the village on the approaches to the mountain. Suddenly a door opened up in the side of the mountain and five large beasts issued forth. They were naked except for a loin cloth around their waists. They were taller than two and a half men and had a bluish tint to their skin. The beasts were hairless over their entire bodies, except for a few sparse hairs on their head. Each one carried a club and a torch.
“Trolls! ”Fannor said under his breath, “So they really do exist.” His people had legends of these beasts that the Humans call monsters. The Elf tales of long ago told of encounters with the Trolls, even before the Elves settled in Elvenshore.
When the Trolls reached the village they would smash a house with a club and then set the ruins on fire using the torch. Soon the village was ablaze.
Fannor could not bear it any longer, “Charge!” he yelled and the Calvary rushed forward.
When Fannor got close to one of the Trolls he hit it on the leg with his sword. To his horror the sword just bounced off, inflicting no damage on the beast. He turned for another run at the Trolls just in time to see one of the be
asts smashing into the line of Calvary. Horses and horsemen were thrown through the air like they were rag dolls, before hitting the ground hard. Again Fannor rushed forward and hit the Troll on the leg with his sword, again it inflicted no damage. Darnic words now rang in his ears, ‘Their weakness is their feet.’
He caught up with Gilead, “Do you have a rope?”
Gilead pulled a rope out of his saddlebag and handed it to Fannor.
Fannor said, “Stretch it between the two of us, we will trip them up.”
Gilead nodded and the two rode up and either side of one of the monsters. Their combined effort was effective and the Troll went facedown into the dirt. Fannor then jumped off his horse and jumped on the Troll’s back. He was going to drive his sword into the base of the beast’s skull, but just then a giant club from another Troll smashed into his left side. He went flying through the air, only to be stopped by a tree. As he lay on the ground, unable to move because of the extreme pain and broken bones, he watched helplessly as more and more of his men get cut down by the Trolls. Soon his head started to spin and he lost consciousness.
Gilead watched Fannor fall, but he could not do anything about it as he was fully engaged in the battle. When he looked around he saw that his command was getting cut to ribbons and having no effect on the Trolls, so he grabbed his horn as sounded retreat. He didn’t finish the trumpet call before he too was smashed with a club. The horse took the brunt of the blow as it was knocked down from underneath him, but he also could feel a sharp pain in his right arm. When he hit the ground he rolled down and landed in a ditch. The Calvary retreated, leaving the wounded on the field of battle. Luckily the Trolls were not interested in the wounded and they went after those that had retreated, running almost as fast as a horse could at full speed.
When all of the Trolls had left, he managed to get to his feet, and went to check on Fannor. He wasn’t moving but he was still alive. Then he went to check on the other men. When he found one alive, he would use his good arm and help, or drag them to where Fannor lay. Soon there were twenty three of them gathered around the tree. It was several hours later that they heard the Trolls coming back. The night sky was starting to get light. The Trolls just walked by them, not seeming to care that they were there. One of the beasts even looked in their direction, but just kept on walking. The Trolls went back through the large door in the mountainside they had come from and then the door closed behind them.
“Not a scratch on them,” said one of his men in frustration.
It was then the group heard hoof beats on the road.
Eight horsemen rode up and reported to Gilead.
“Where are the rest of you?” Gilead asked.
“I sent one man to report to the army at Morgus Tier, the rest of us are here,” the man reported.
Gilead was appalled at the slaughter. He looked around at crushed horses and what used to be his command laying dead in various crumpled heaps along the hillside. “Are the supply wagons still intact?”
“Yes, they are untouched.”
“ Dump the supplies out of them and put the wounded into them; we make for Morgus Tier as soon as possible.”
While they wagons were being brought forward, Gilead and some of the men rechecked the battlefield for wounded amongst the dead. They found two more badly wounded men that they had missed in the night. When all were gathered up into the wagons rolled. The remnants of the Calvary headed out.
Bon Lathan and Safety
Darnic Tewl was busy guiding his people across the bridges. The task had taken all night. He would send them on to the houses that clan Lathan had assigned them. Bon Lathan was the only Human city in the Mother Land; it lay mostly abandoned for the last sixty years, except for the very center of it where clan Lathan had lived. Now there were suddenly not enough houses. Each house would have two to three families assigned to it until more houses could be built. It was going to be a matter of chasing out the snakes and other slimy creatures and then the cleaning of walls and thatching of roofs, before the structures would be inhabitable. All that was in the future; the only thing that mattered to Darnic at this point was that his people were safe.
Bon Lathan lay on an island in the center of the swampland. The bridge was the only way to get there. The early inhabitants had built a wall around the city for protection. It was built before the Humans knew that the monsters didn’t like water and would not cross it. Fleeing there was a last resort. All of them had thought that they would all be killed in the swampland, but it had saved their race. Now it was saving them again.
When Aron and his young family made it across the bridge, they put their cart right next to Darnic’s wagon in front of one of the houses. The two families were going to share the house. While his wife was tending to their son, Aron came over to help his father direct traffic.
“I have never been here before, it smells of mildew and there is moss growing in the trees, but other than that it isn’t a bad place,” Aron admitted.
“It kind of grows on you, but I will be just as happy when we are able to go back and rebuild our homes and lives.”
Aron looked at Darnic, “Do you think that they will destroy our homes?”
”They did last time, not a structure was standing when we returned. They had all been crushed and burned. It was fine by me though, the old hut that my father had built was too small and it leaked through the walls. I was more than happy to be able to build a better one,” Darnic smiled as he said it.
“Always looking for the positive,” Aron replied with a smile.
“In a world full of negatives, one sometimes has to look hard, but they are there if you look long enough.”
Aron took a serious tone, “What happens to the Elves now? Do we go out and help them or just sit here and hide while they are slaughtered?”
Darnic had known that the subject of helping the Elves was going to come up, but he had hoped that it was going to take longer than a few days, “We will have to address that, but not today and not tomorrow, we need to wait until all the clans are safely gathered in then we will have a Meeting of Sticks as the Mother Land has never seen before.”
This seemed to satisfy Aron for the time being, but Darnic knew that it was not the end of the matter.
When every family in the clan had been assigned to a house, Aron and Darnic headed back to theirs. They were surprised that the women had already cleaned it out. The floor was swept and the walls were washed. They had cleaned out the fireplace and put fresh wood next to it.
As soon as Darnic came through the door Sali said, “We need straw to thatch the roof. You two go and see if you can find some.”
Without saying a word, the two left to find some straw. They did manage to locate some in a storehouse that clan Lathan had opened just for that purpose. Darnic and Aron spent the rest of the day thatching the roof. When it was complete they came back into the house. Their wives had set everything up. It was only a one room hut, but they had hung curtains along the back to separate the room for privacy while sleeping. The front room was where the table and chairs stood, that Sali had insisted on bringing along. There were also rugs on the floor to keep the cold from seeping up. A small fire was lit and it gave the room some warmth.
“Just like home,” Darnic said.
“Thank you for thatching the roof,” Sali replied, “We will need to find some food in a day or two, but this will do for now.”
Fritred came calling a few hours later. He had his son Isac Tewl with him. He had a bow and arrow, but instead of having an arrowhead, the tip of the arrow had two barbed spikes about the length of a man’s finger. “Remember this?”he asked Darnic.
Darnic took the arrow and examined it, “Yes I do; we caught a lot of fish with these. I think it is time to teach the next generation how to fish.”
Fritred smiled, “my thoughts exactly.”
Aron, Isac and the two elders went down to the water’s edge. They could see fish every once in a while swimming next to the sho
re.
“Don’t shoot the silver backed ones unless you are very hungry or you need them for chum,” Fritred explained.
“What is chum?” Isac asked.
“I will show you,” Darnic said. He prepared the arrow by putting a cord through the hole in the back of it. He tied the other end of the cord around a small tree. Then he coiled the rest of the cord on the ground at the water’s edge. There he waited, almost completely motionless, until a silver backed fish came along. He slowly drew the bow string back and took aim. With a twang, the arrow let loose. When it hit the fish the fish swam off at full speed, pulling the cord off the coil until the coil was all gone and the cord went taut. Darnic waited until the chord went slack and said, “Finally, he is tired,” he then pulled in the chord until he got to the arrow and the fish. He dragged the fish on shore.
It was a large fish, very boney, and was thin side to side but from the top fin to the bottom fin, it was very wide. The scales were large. Darnic got out his dagger and cut the fish into chunks, he then threw the chunks into the water. “That is chumming, we feed the fish so that they will come closer to us and we can catch them,” Darnic explained.
The four men took turns fishing the rest of that day.
The Retreat of the Elves
Fannor woke up in extreme pain. His left side and arm throbbed and he was having trouble breathing. It didn’t help that he was lying in a wagon and getting bounced back and forth. Each time the wagon would hit a bump, pain would radiate through his body. He looked up to see that Gilead was sitting next to him.
“Where are we going?” Fannor finally asked.
Gilead looked down and said, “You are awake? I did not think that you would ever regain consciousness, as badly hurt as you were. The healer did all he could for you but worried that you would not survive.”
Fannor asked again, “Where are we going?”
