Nature and Blight

by Matt Rogers

  Chapter 7: An Unwanted Visitor

  The Siege (Castle Nirvana)

  Hawkeye was waiting for the retreat signal from General Shield. The General’s forces had ridden out after Hawkeye and his squadron of archers removed a chunk of creatures from the surrounding area. The plan was to feign an attack upon the command post while the Midglings made their escape. The first volley of arrows had devastated the Ogres manning the front lines. The second had ripped into the Orcs behind them. The third, fourth and fifth found a mixture of Ogre, Orc and Troll as the beasts began falling back under the onslaught.

  “Hold your fire!” Hawkeye yelled and the bows fell silent.

  The scene below was both outworldly and commonplace at the same time. General Shield’s contingent of cavalry entered the fray and began slicing through Blight’s army meeting little, if any, resistance. The reason was discipline and training; the General insisted on it and the creatures he faced incapable of even comprehending the idea. The rout was horrendous as trained warriors met beasts and dispatched them with ease. The problem? The beasts were in almost endless supply. At first Hawkeye thought maybe the General was wrong about them not having the ability to reach the command post and return but as the scene emerged he understood exactly what Shield had been talking about. Whenever one creature fell two took its place. It was like watching an endless horde of insects attacking a bigger prey, getting stomped, but eventually overwhelming through sheer force of numbers. Only the insects in the equation the General was facing were actually much larger than the prey. The commonplace about the scene was what war always brought; complete and utter chaos with small pockets of order. When Hawkeye let his gaze wander from the General’s troops he could see nothing which resembled a professional fighting force, merely a vast number of creatures howling and pushing without any semblance of instruction. It was the lack of enemy coordination which allowed the Queen’s army to inflict so much damage in such a short period of time. The archers would start off the skirmish by clearing a path for the cavalry who would enter the fight, kill as many Trolls as they could and then retreat. The reason for the Trolls was simple; Trolls were the communication between command and the front. Without Trolls the Prince would need to abandon his quest because Humans and Elvin had not mastered the art of gibberish so could not issue orders to Ogres and Orcs.

  Hawkeye’s attention changed for he felt something peculiar, something everyone felt at times but were unable to put into words; a feeling of someone’s interest bearing directly upon them. He was not a particularly religious man, didn’t believe in a lot of foolish wives tales sung around campfires of supernatural events, but he was also not one to discount his own senses for they had saved his life in the past time and time again. His eyes scanned the mass of beings surrounding the castle and saw nothing yet the feeling would not leave so he followed through with something he didn’t quite believe and ducked. An arrow penetrated the wall above his head in the mortise between the stones.

  He looked to where it had embedded itself and realized he’d been somewhat lucky; it would’ve missed his head but by only a fraction. If he’d moved even an inch it would’ve entered his skull. He would’ve then discovered if campfire stories held any truth about the afterlife. His eyes squinted in the dimming dusk light for he saw something else, something which actually made his heart skip a beat; a note.

  He reached up with his hand, untied the parchment from the wooden shaft, unrolled it and felt dread enter his being. He glanced over the wall to see if he could verify what he thought was true. All he saw was chaos but he knew of only two who were capable of such a shot and he was one of them. Deadaim had sent him a message.

  Assassin Inside.

  He prepared to abandon his post and allow the others to keep guard when movement in the enemy’s ranks caught his eye. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The beasts were reentering the kill zone in an attempt to block off General Shield’s retreat. He found himself in desperation for two events were unfolding and he knew not what to do. As fate sometimes did, it intervened on his behalf.

  “Hawkeye, how goes the battle?”

  Relief poured from the scout as Councilor Clearview ascended the ladder.

  “Councilor, come here! I need you!”

  Clearview saw the urgency in the amazing archer’s eyes and immediately moved faster. When he reached the top Hawkeye shoved the parchment in his hand.

  “Grab a bow and take this position! If you need any guidance ask Longshot, he’s manning the post to your left!” Hawkeye yelled as he began descending the ladder.

  “Huh? But I’m not very good with…!” Clearview began but halted for he’d finally read the note on the parchment.

  “Oh, dear Lord!” he said and immediately began frantically searching for the weapon.

  “Longshot!” he screamed.

  “Councilor Clearview?” he heard in reply.

  Clearview was about to reply ‘yes’ but didn’t because Longshot had taken a step back from his fighting position and looked around the stone outcropping separating the two places.

  “Uh-huh, it’s me.”

  “Where’s Hawkeye?”

  “Somebody sent a note of an assassin inside the walls. I’m his replacement until he deals with the intruder.”

  “Oh.”

  The look on the man’s face was probably the correct one considering Clearview’s inability with the longbow. He wasn’t exactly sure which came first; his understanding of complex ideas or his ineptitude at physical warfare.

  “I need some help here.”

  “What kind of help?”

  “Oh , I don’t know? Maybe you could tell what the heck I’m shooting at!”

  The scream seemed to please Longshot because he actually enjoyed the Councilor’s discomfort. It wasn’t because he disliked Clearview, no one disliked Clearview, but because he was amused at the other man’s ability of knowing his limitations. Most didn’t. Most pretended to be something they weren’t till the point where others began to pay for their arrogance. Longshot had seen firsthand soldiers who proclaimed to be experts in archery prove at other’s expenses they were no such thing. It only took one self-inflated individual to kill a squad of experienced warriors if the man held the position of lookout and the eyesight of a mole.

  “Do you see those Ogres moving into that open area there?”

  “Yes.”

  “Shoot them.”

  The order seemed easy enough. In fact, when he looked out the proof of the ease was readily apparent as the archers on the wall began unloading with deadly efficiency their own wooden shafts of death. The toll they were taking on the creatures was staggering. So Clearview notched an arrow, drew the bowstring and let fly with all he was worth.

  “Darn.”

  The arrow landed ten feet outside the castle’s walls. So he re-notched another arrow, again pulled the string and re-released another volley intending to inflict mortal wounds into immortal souls.

  “Dang.”

  The arrow actually landed closer to the castle walls.

  “Um, Councilor?” he heard from Longshot’s position.

  “Yes?”

  “The Ogres are a little farther out than that.”

  He vowed to retake lessons in archery, readied another arrow and again let go.

  “Oh, for the love of…!”

  The arrow never even left the perimeter of the castle. He’d shot the thing directly into the wall itself. Clearview was not a fool, he knew he was not made of archery material but he also knew he was needed so he kept at it and eventually found his rhythm. When he finally hit a creature the size of a rhinoceros it became apparent the others manning the wall had also taken an interest in his abilities for as the missile entered the rear of the behemoth a cheer could be heard from the soldiers to his left.

  “Hey! He got one! He actually got one!”

  When he was through listening to their amazed opinions on his ability to aim, pull and let go a string he re-notched a
nother arrow and again sighted the field. He shouldn’t have. He should’ve taken solace in the fact he’d actually hit a target and let it go at that. But he didn’t. He re-notched, re-aimed and found himself staring at the far-away Ogre who had pulled the arrow from its posterior and was searching for the source of its pain in the butt. He found it when Clearview’s eyes found him.

  “Oh no.”

  Ogres were not multi-taskers. They could not do two things at once and were incapable of arithmetic. They could, however, do singular things which made them formidable foes because when they had an object in sight, a sole goal in mind, they were absolute in their determination to bash the thing.

  “Um, Longshot?”

  “Yes, Councilor?”

  “That Ogre is running this way.”

  The Ogre had sighted on Clearview and decided he was the reason for his dismay.

  “Yes, it appears he blames you for putting an arrow in his rump.”

  “Uh-huh, yep. So, um… what do I do?”

  “I would advise retreat but since we have nowhere to go I would re-advise putting another arrow in him before he gets here.”

  Clearview could see the wisdom in the man’s words but had a difficult time following through with the details because his hands were trembling, his anxiety rising and the Ogre quickly closing the distance. He shot an arrow and missed. He shot again and missed even further. As he was reaching for another he was also watching with increasing terror the distance between himself and the beast steadily narrowing.

  “Oh dear.”

  None of the others manning the walls seemed to take an interest in the lone Ogre approaching so Clearview once again asked for help.

  “Longshot?”

  “Yes, Councilor?”

  “Um, do you think you could shoot him for me?”

  The laugh was not what he wished to hear.

  “I’m sorry, Councilor. It’s against the archer’s code to finish what another has started.”

  Clearview doubted very much the sincerity of Longshot’s words but was not in the position to question for the Ogre had reached the castle’s walls and was glaring up at him with beastly black eyes, slobber running down his chin and a grunt of determination as he began scaling the wall to smash the man who shot a splinter in his backside.

  “Oh dear Lord, oh dear Lord, oh dear Lord.”

  Clearview was fumbling arrows as fast as he could grab them. He kept glancing over the wall to verify the monster was, indeed, climbing the barricade by smashing his fingertips into the mortise between the stones and making steady progress as he did so.

  “You might want to shoot him now, Councilor” he heard Longshot say in a laughable way.

  “Oh crap!” he screamed out loud for he was unable to notch an arrow because his anxiety had risen to the point of all-out panic.

  He chanced one more peek over the perimeter with hopes the horrifying creature had made a mistake and slipped but what he saw left him speechless and frozen for the brute was three quarters the way up. He looked around in desperation for any kind of weapon.

  “Seriously, Councilor, you might want to think about shooting him before he reaches the top.”

  Clearview was no longer in full charge of his mental capacities for he was in complete terror mode and followed through with its idea of problem solving.

  “Did you…? Did you just throw your bow at him?”

  He had. In his desperation he had thrown the one item which might have been able to solve his problem but even there he performed the task inadmirably. The longbow was as its name implied; a five-foot length of flexible wood shaped and molded into a weapon capable of delivering sharp steel mounted on arrow-shaft into even the most formidable of opponents. He had thrown the thing with all his might with the hopes he would knock the beast off the wall onto the ground below. He had forgotten one small detail; Ogres were large. The bow might as well have been a twig to one the size of a small elephant and as Clearview watched his effort bounce off the forehead of the man-eater he knew his end was near. He stepped away from the wall in complete fright for the monster had reached the top, grabbed the edge of the wall and lifted its torso over the rim while opening its maw to deliver its growl of terrifying triumph.

  Clearview wasn’t positive of what he might’ve done. He could not remember if fight or flight entered his brain but luckily he didn’t need to for as the beast’s mouth opened an arrow entered and the Ogre fell to the ground without the greatest of ease.

  “Thank God!”

  Longshot had finally come to his aid.

  “Um, Councilor?”

  “Yes?”

  “Maybe you should just hand me arrows from now on.”

  The Councilor had not become the advisor to Mother Nature because of his ignorance.

  “Yes, I believe that would be the wisest of choices.”

  As the two stood on the ramparts removing living obstacles from General Shield’s path another was implementing a plan which had formed during the search for his Queen.

  “Mother Nature?”

  “Yes, Hawkeye?”

  “Please come with me.”

  As they moved he described what he had in mind.

  “You don’t believe we should tell everyone?”

  “No. He will attempt to kill you and flee if he believes his presence is unknown and escape possible. If he finds out otherwise he will prepare differently.”

  She thought it over but not in the way Hawkeye believed. She trusted him completely and would follow his advice without question for she knew his soul. She was, however, curious.

  “How would he prepare differently?”

  “He would act with the knowledge death was at hand. He would throw his life away in order to take yours and even the best defenses are no match for one such as him if he believes so.”

  She was always amazed at some of the beings in her realm. She was the bringer of life, the Queen of Nature itself and the embodiment of all that was good. The fact some would throw away her gift was one which she had trouble contemplating and gave her discomfort.

  “And you believe your plan will work?”

  “Yes, it will work if my aim is true.”

  And her discomfort evaporated for she knew one thing above all, one overriding truth in the entire realm; Hawkeye’s aim was never false and always on target.