A Song and Ale

by M E Wolf

  Dhogo awoke to see the Boggarin dead in front of him. The red furry beast’s warm body pressed against him as it helped him over to where Horas lay beneath the Boggarin. The red beast showed great strength as it effortlessly picked up the Boggarin and set it aside. Horas breathed a sigh of relief and slowly got to his feet. With a few logs, canvas and Horas’ short sword they made a hunter’s Sutra.

  A hunter’s Sutra was a device for carrying felled game to where it was to be prepared. Alexandra was extremely quiet and sad as she lifted the Boggarin onto the sutra. Horas and Dhogo were staring at her.

  Horas spoke after clearing his throat obviously because of her nakedness that she was not aware of,

  “We both do not know who or what you are, but we are thankful for your help. I am Horas and this here is Dhogo. Are you aware that you have no clothing on? It might not be good to be dressed like that and go with us to the feast we are having.” Horas and Dhogo noticed her beauty as she smiled at them and laughed.

  They both blushed in unison. Alexandra noticed that she was now able to see and must have been that way because she was so hungry and needed nourishment. Looking at herself for the first time she noticed that red fur covered her entire body, but not enough to hide her nakedness. It was her turn to blush because she realized that she was even more beautiful then she had remembered being before her transformation.

  She summoned her armour in its entirety except for the helmet. Her armour looked much different from what she had remembered and it actually protected her wings and tail. Her claws could also extend through her armour making her a very formidable opponent.

  Alexandra’s voice was musical and had a slight feline trill on her tongue as she spoke to the two hunters as she pulled a sutra with the Boggarin and Horas helped Dhogo,

  “I was blind for a while so had not noticed that I was without clothing, and I am sorry if I had caused you any discomfort. My name is Alexandra and I am Dochani even though I have gone through many changes to be as you see me before you.

  “It is my wish to rid this planet of an evil that has been wreaking havoc on many cities and destroying them. That evil most likely thinks that I am dead ’cause of my being nearly slain with a spear to my heart and the fact that I have been in a cocoon for quite some time.

  “Grave importance it is that we reach your leaders because there are others that are too afraid to assist me in the destruction of the evil. For decades I have been alone in my quest to kill the beasts that plague this land, but it gets hard when so many humans and others are hiding them. They are too vast of beings to hide on their own. Someone has to be helping them.” They continued towards the camp that the feast was to take place in, in silence.

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  Being close to the main cook tent, Ghanla dragged the tiger into it for preparation and waited for the others to show. He hoped that Shiantara would not be mad at his misfortune and the death of his friend.

  Animals seemed to be getting smarter and smarter the more he continued to hunt them. Ghanla watched the skinners skin the tiger and realized that they had it so much easier than those who hunted the animals for the feasts. Everyone has their own parts, but some are just more dangerous than others. One of the cooks ran by him towards something that was going on behind him.

  He turned around and noticed Horas and Dhogo approaching the main cook tent with what appeared to be two Boggarin and some strange beast with long flowing red hair with stranger armour was helping them. Being that no one had slain a Boggarin in more than a hundred years, he had never actually tasted its meat before. Ghanla wondered where Ghonga was.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  Mhekah ran up to his friend to see if he was okay. Finding him quite alive and well, Mhekah and Hinta helped each other make a hunter’s Sutra and then put the Egorack on it. The hounds were harnessed to the Sutra and given commands to pull it to the main cook tent. It took a while to get to the tent because of the Egorack’s weight, but they got there.

  Upon their arrival they saw Dhogo, Horas and Ghanla talking about their troubles catching their quarry with an enticing woman with wings. He noticed the fletchings on her arrows and they reminded him of when he was talking to an ancient elf a long time ago saying that he would see them one day and he would know that their champion had arrived to defeat the evil.

  He wanted to talk to her because she most likely knew how to use the longbow and longsword and the other weapons that she carried on her weapon belt. They must have been there for a while because the tiger and the two Boggarin were nearly finished being cooked. Mhekah and Hinta watched as the skinner skinned the Egorack and then went over to talk to the others.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  Shiantara shivered after she had sat up from her lying in the mud and realized that she was still naked. Her hound was lying on her right and the Rhagarian hog was on her left. She was a bit confused to what had happened only a few moments before, but it was plain that these beastly trolls defiled her like her ancestors were long ago. Shiantara stood up with the help of her hound and headed towards a grouping of cedars where she saw her clothes scattered about.

  While gathering her clothes she thought of the many reasons why she should not go back to her father’s camp and the many reasons to go. Being that there really was no real reason that outweighed going or not going back to the camp, she decided that she should go back to camp.

  She realized that not going would upset her father even more than finding out that the very enemies that they had been fleeing all these years had violated his daughter. It seemed like forever before she finally got most of her clothing back on, especially below her left breast. Some of it was soiled or torn too badly for her to wear it. Taking Shiazar’s leather breastplate made her feel like something was accomplished and put it on with pride.

  Shiantara made a snicker at Shiazar’s lifeless body as she fastened the breastplate tightly. After Shiantara was finished gathering her now dead assailants’ valuables and strapping Shiazar’s longsword around her waist with his belt, she tied one end of a rope around the Rhagarian hog’s neck and the other end to her hound’s collar. Shiantara walked along side her hound as they both headed toward the main cook tent. She felt sad that this situation was the way it was with this thing happening to her. Knowing what her father had in store for her, she hoped that it would not change anything and yet knew that in some way it would change.

  Rhutgar most likely planned on a marriage between the Rhagarian clan and this Indian tribe that they were going to form an army to, for once, defeat the evil beasts destroying all of the cities around them with. Of course he would probably be making that union between her and some son of Bhargianus whom did not seem to come with him to their camp.

  When Shiantara finally arrived at the main cook tent and was told that her father was worried about her and wanted her in the long house with the rest of the guests. She was to sit beside her father and across from Bhargianus. Bhargianus, Jighanus and the rest of the people with them were escorted to a long house that was big enough to entertain a thousand people. The long house’s frame was made out of logs cut from ancient cedar trees. Those logs were unbroken from end to end.

  This made for a very sturdy frame to invite guests and have dinners in it. Bhargianus and his group made up two hundred persons and the entire clan of Trolls made up seven hundred persons. There were nine hundred persons in total for the dinner party plus one strange woman that had wings encased in some strange black armour. A canvas was stretched over the frame of the long house and it was made out of deerskin, which was sewn together with thread made from the same skin.

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  The walls inside the long house were decorated with embroidery, which was of previous and historical battles that the trolls had gone through. Although it was known that the battles against this evil that no one had seen except for their destruction would bring more gruesome and more glorious battles for those that were lost and those that were won. O
ne of them stood out in particular to Bhargianus.

  It was a group of trolls raiding an Indian village that was similar to his. Another that interested him was the current group of trolls that they were with fighting a group of beastly looking trolls. He found that the seating arrangements were very interesting. There was a very long painted cedar wood table with unique designs of twelve symbols. Some symbols were familiar and others he had never seen before.

  These symbols repeated themselves exactly five hundred times. Bhargianus recognized four of the symbols and these symbols were of his people, an ancient race called the Dochani, an ancient race called the elves and the last one that he recognized was an ancient race called the firebirds. Jighanus explained the existence of these races to him, but he still could not understand why they existed in the first place. The strangest race had to be the firebird, which was said to be a descendant of the phoenix.

  No one even knows if that race exists today, but Jighanus seemed to think that it does exist. To Bhargianus, the other eight symbols looked strange. They were races that did not even exist in his mind. He decided that he would make it a point to ask what they were and how they were formed. The four races that he knew were to be the deciding factor in the war and they were said to be the good races and that there were twice as many bad races as good races.

  Upon closer inspection of the table, Bhargianus noticed a thirteenth symbol in the middle of the table. It had what looked like rays surrounding the symbol and the rays were linked to the other symbols on the table. This new symbol fascinated Bhargianus, but it also confused him a bit more. He decided that he really needed to find out about the other symbols on the table. The chairs were designed in a similar way with the twelve symbols around the back of the chair and the thirteenth symbol in the middle of that.

  Rays were connected to the other twelve symbols from the thirteenth symbol. Its floor was made of polished cedar logs that were split down the middle to give that flat look. The spaces between the logs were filled in with a soft sand, mud and stone mortar that was honed smooth with a rock chisel and hammer. Bhargianus was not used to this type of construction amongst the trolls and never would have believed it if he had not have seen it for himself.

  The size of the table is what amazed him when he first had entered the long house. He must have counted a thousand chairs, and each of them was crafted by hand. After his people had been seated, the trolls sat down in the other seats around the table and then another thing that amazed him was that the woman with wings was seated at a spot that had the symbol for the Dochani and the new thirteenth symbol were intertwined as if they were the same symbol. Everyone waited for things to be served as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

  Bhargianus was perplexed at the honour this strange creature was being given for she was being served first out of everyone seated at the table. Everyone seemed to be looking in Shiantara’s direction when she entered the long house. She felt really uncomfortable knowing that they were all waiting for her. It was lucky for her that they did not serve the Rhagarian hog until near the end of the meal because it would take a bit longer than most dishes to be prepared and cooked.

  Shiantara still felt dirty inside her self, but felt a little better because she was sitting beside her father and on her other side was a strange woman who was sitting in the honoured spot of the champion who would take them into victory over the evil beasts that plagued the land. The woman touched her shoulder before she had a chance to be seated and excitement passed through her as she felt herself being healed of everything she had went through that day.

  Just as she sat down, her father spoke,

  “This is the daughter that I was talking about that could marry one of your sons, Bhargianus. Ideally this would make us more than allies and somewhat of relations. Just like this feast signifies the coming together of our peoples after so many years being apart. Is any of these fine men your sons?”

  Rhutgar looked at some of the men that Bhargianus had brought with him and made an all-encompassing wave with his hand.

  Bhargianus began to speak,

  “My son Richard is here and it is up to him and is the only one of them not married or betrothed. He is my oldest son and has trained for many years in the art of war and will be very helpful to build the army to defeat this ravaging evil that is going about destroying all of our many cities.

  “I will not decline your offer, but am not quite accepting it either. It is my son’s choice to accept your proposal. What do you say about this, my son? Here she is take a good look at her and tell us what you think.

  “Take as much time to make your decision as you like and when you do make your decision let us know. At this point I cannot speculate on what his decision will be. As far as I know he has not been called for, he is just too busy with war. He is a great son and the real reason why I am still here today.”

  Shiantara knew it. Now her day and life was ruined because of some evil trolls that had to do those terrible things to her.

  Bhargianus’ son looked her up and down and spoke while she was still feeling sad inside despite being healed of what happened earlier that day,

  “Shiantara, sir, father,” Richard looked at Shiantara nodded his head to her father and his own father then turned and looked into her eyes.

  “I, Richard of Bhargianus, do graciously accept your father’s and my father’s proposal to become your betrothed Shiantara and soon become your husband. Together we will wage war against the evil beasts and those who dare to ally with them.” Richard’s eyes quickly turned away from Shiantara as he noticed the woman with red wings smiling at him.

  He thought she wanted to eat him, but thought better of that when she laughed and Shiantara added her laughter as the rest of the people in the long house laughed as well. It was a joyous occasion for all of them today. At least it was now and Shiantara was so glad that it was not a ruined day after all. Before she knew it, most of the dishes were placed on the table.

  Boggarin was on a large trencher that took up fifteen percent of the table, Egorack was on a platter that took up about five percent of the table and the tiger was on a platter that took up just under one percent of the table. At least she could drown herself in the array of food because it sure looked good to her. Shiantara noticed that some of her hunting party did not make it through the hunt, which was very fitting that so much was sacrificed to bring about the feast and no one would ever know, but for a few.

  At least she had Richard as a reward and after talking to the winged lady she felt so much better. It was sad that she was violated while on her hunt she hoped that he would still want her after she had told him what had happened to her on the hunt. Shiantara giggled to herself until a flashback of the events earlier today came to her vision and she stopped it abruptly while she forced her tears not to flow. It did not take long for everyone to start digging into the food after all of it was placed on the table.

  The last empty seats were filled with those trolls that were busy preparing and cooking the food. Each dish was more than enough for all of the Indian village’s people and the troll village’s people, but the food was eaten in high fashion. Although it did seem that the winged woman out ate everyone at the table. Dish after dish was eaten and dish after dish the food was consumed until there was none left on the table.

  After the dishes were cleared from the table fifteen trolls got up to help with the serving of the Rhagarian hog that, when set on the table, covered about eighty percent of it. The table almost buckled from the shear weight of the beast, but everyone knew that it would be eaten entirely before that would ever happen. Everyone complimented Shiantara on her hunting skills and ingenuity in getting this size of a beast back to the main cook tent.

  Shiantara thanked everyone for their compliments and made a personal note to reward her hound, which had actually brought down the Rhagarian hog in the first place. The hog was finished fairly quickly and the day ended shortly after with plans of what would b
e done the next day and who they would approach next to increase the size of their growing army. Bhargianus and Rhutgar stayed up throughout the night drinking Guar and talking of their different battles and various other things that kings usually talked about as was the custom when new alliances were formed.

  It felt strange to be drinking with the winged woman they knew to be called Alexandra, but she seemed to have more war stories than them and she did not appear to have any age about her. She also out drank them and staggered out of the long house once the supply of Guar was exhausted and collapsed on the ground unconscious, as usual she became naked with the advent of her unconsciousness.

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  Shiantara watched as she slumbered, amazed at the retraction of Alexandra’s armour and the femininity of her body. Wrapping her in a blanket carefully, she had her placed in a spare straw bed inside her tent where she soon slept next to her on her own bed. Alexandra found a good friend in Shiantara. It was hard since her elf friends had gone to the place of tranquility while she was in her cocoon.

  When she got back she was told that they had went on ships and used other methods to go and find Peria. Most likely Peria did not exist but it was really hard for the elves and ogres to stop something that their ancestors did so long ago that they can no longer help themselves. Whether there really is some place still called Peria is moot because they will always try to go there and so will any of their ancestors. Basically it was their last remaining bits of sanity, which is all illusion.

  A lot had changed while she was gone. When the evil Fenshians came to this planet every single elf, Ghast ogre and human worthy of protecting left after so many wars threatened to destroy everything including an entire long-lived race. Alexandra stayed to fight the beasts while the rest left, but she was not sure how these ones survived so long without the long-lived ones for protection.