Jak looked to Nicoldani for guidance but the big man just sat there on his horse, staring intently at the creature, almost as if it was a book or puzzle he was studying. Gandur began to stamp his hoof and dance nervously away from the creature. Nicoldani’s horse was agitated by the presence of the beast, but his horse was obviously well trained, and sensing its rider’s mood almost seemed eager to charge the beast, but the stallion held its ground patiently.
Jak finally got his bow loose, nocked an arrow, and began to draw. Nicoldani’s upraised hand stopped Jak with the bow half drawn.
The creature stood twenty paces ahead blocking the path entirely with its bulk. Jak noticed for the first time that the long hair that covered the beast was probably white, if not for all the mud, leaves, and dirt covering it. It looked as if the creature had fallen into a mud puddle, or perhaps intentionally rolled in the mud to camouflage itself. If not for the mud and dirt, its white hair would have been like a beacon in this forest, since it was summer and most everything was green and brown. If the creature possessed the intelligence to camouflage itself, then it was a disturbing and dangerous prospect. Jak hoped this was not the case, but his hopes were shattered when a large toothy crack split the beasts face, and choppy barely intelligible words began to exude from its gaping maw.
“Why you on Yeshada land?” The creature said.
Nicoldani spoke up then, “Isn’t Yeshada land north of the Saibani Mountains?” As he spoke, Nicoldani began to ease his horse away from Jak. Jak understood immediately that the man was trying to separate himself from them so if the beast did attack, it would have to choose its target between the two. Jak just hoped it did not choose him and Gin.
“Not now. We take back. Sysyllus say not any, or just small number huumon left here. Easy to take. Good place for Yeshada.
“This is OUR home!” Gin said defiantly.
Jak tried to quiet her but it was difficult enough trying to hold a half drawn bow, keep the horse steady, and an eye on the beast, let alone trying to turn to quiet her.
The sound that came from the beast in response was enough to quiet her though. Jak supposed that it was….laughing. He had thought the scream of the ridge cat was terrifying, but the laugh that emanated from this creature made the cry of the ridge cat seem like sweet music.
“Yeshada land now, we take” the beast said with a wide smile that exposed many jagged, sharp yellow teeth. Its arms were the size of large logs, and its hands were tipped by long sharp claws that flexed and retracted anxiously. The beast was unlike anything that Jak had ever seen before. It was almost as if this creature had crawled right out of one of Jak’s nightmares.
Nicoldani spoke again and his voice sounded casual enough, but he looked taught, like a trap on the verge of snapping shut. “Just let us pass and we’ll be on our way and leave your land.”
Jak gave the big man an incredulous look. What did he mean we would leave their land? This was Jak’s home.
“That way no one will get hurt,” Nicoldani finished, ignoring Jak’s glare.
The blood curdling laughter emanated once again from the beast. “No think so. You no hurt me. Long walk, no good food. Me hungry. I eat you.” With the last word, the beast lunged forward faster than Jak thought possible for such a large beast, thankfully towards Nicoldani.
Jak raised his bow, drew the fletching to his cheek, and let fly in the same smooth motion that he had done so many times before when hunting deer and elk here in these mountains. Unfortunately, the rushing beast startled Gandur making him flinch, and he danced to the side at that exact moment.
Jak’s intended target was one of the creature’s fist sized eyes, which normally would be an easy shot, but the arrow caught the beast in the neck instead. It was still a good shot, but the arrow in its neck didn’t even slow the rushing beast a little.
Nicoldani slid from his horse in a motion that Jak could only describe as fluid. He was off his horse, rolling under the grasping claw of the monster to come up smoothly behind it, and slash the back of its knee.
The savage blow from the big man’s sword halfway severed the leg of the beast, and it fell forward to one knee. Seemingly, in the same continuous graceful motion, Nicoldani was on his feet behind the Yeshada, and thrust his sword into the back of the large beast halfway to the hilt.
The Yeshada bellowed in pain and flung its huge arm backwards, flinging Nicoldani several paces through the air to smash into a tree with a loud thud, where he slide to the ground and remained unmoving.
Jak, being entranced by the melee, now fumbled for another arrow as the beast rose to its feet. It glanced at Nicoldani lying motionless against the trunk of the tree, then rushed forwards. Jak had no time for another arrow since the creature was almost within reach. His heart threatened to pound its way out of his chest as he fumbled frantically for the dagger at his belt. But if his arrow and Nicoldani’s sword had barely slowed the beast, then the dagger would be of no use.
For the third time in less than a week Jak was facing the prospect of certain violent death. This was getting old, and he was tired of all this excitement. His nerves were frayed and his heart leapt into his throat as the massive creature extended its claw to rip Jak apart. With no other choice left, Jak screamed wordlessly to Frog, “HELP, HELP. Stop the creature.”
Frog darted forward without hesitation, his jaws ripping and tearing at the back of the wounded knee of the beast. At the same instant, a large grey and white shape sailed through the air to catch the beast squarely in the chest.
The force of the impact, along with Frog’s gnawing at the partially severed leg was enough to topple the beast over backwards. As it hit the ground, Nicoldani’s sword which was still in the creatures back was driven in to the hilt, to protrude from its chest.
Jak noticed for the first time that the grey and white shape which had attacked the beast at his beckoning was an unusually large timber wolf. It was snapping and tearing at the flesh and fur of the yeshada’s neck. The beast writhed and twitched violently, and its cries reverberated in Jak’s ears for several long moments before changing to a gurgling noise, then finally went still. Blood sprayed everywhere from the wounds…. sweet delicious blood…
A foggy haze lay over Jak’s vision, but he realized that he had somehow dismounted and taken a step towards the fray. He could hear Gin behind him, still on Gandur’s back, calling frantically, but she seemed a long way off. The blood was calling him so strongly that he found himself jealous of the wolf hoarding all the tempting, tasty, fresh blood. Jak craved some for himself.
A moment of clarity came and he shook himself from his trance, wondering what was happening to him. For the first time he recognized the urge for what it was. It was not a hunger inside him, but a thirst.
A person could go without food for much longer than they could go without water. Thirst was something that had to be satisfied or it would become overpowering. Jak trembled, and desperately fought to suppress the overwhelming feeling.
Frog finally seemed to notice the wolf. Cowering back with tail low and ears down, keeping a wary eye on the wolf, Frog retreated to lie at Jak’s feet. The wolf paid no attention to the dog as if it was beneath its notice.
Nicoldani was moving now and began to stand up slowly, but when he did the wolf turned towards him baring its teeth and began to growl. It was a deep low menacing rumble in the wolf’s throat.
“NO!” Jak thought.
Immediately the wolf turned its attention back to Jak, expressionless once again, and licked some of the blood from its nose. Jak found himself licking his own lips, wishing that blood was in his mouth. Then the wolf suddenly turned and bounded away, disappearing into the trees.
Jak came to himself once again, the thirst subsiding a little so that he was able to regain his senses.
“Thank you!” Jak directed at the wolf. He hoped the wolf understood. After all, it had saved his life, all of their lives.
Nicoldani dusted himself off and strode to where the d
ead yeshada lay. Even after the massive blow he had taken, the big man seemed no worse for wear. He looked over the body of the dead beast then turned his gaze on Jak. His eyes locked with Jak’s for many long moments, and Jak thought he could see accusations in the big man’s eyes. For what, he didn’t know. Did the man somehow know that the wolf had come at his bidding? How much did the big man know? Although Nicoldani had not commented on the color of his eyes before now, the man’s gaze was fixed studiously on Jak’s unnatural eyes. Long moments crept by with Jak’s skin beginning to feel a little too tight for him, and he began to sweat. But finally, Nicoldani said, “Are you going to come help me boy?”
The tension in Jak’s shoulders released, and this time he didn’t correct the man, that his name wasn’t boy; he just strode over to where Nicoldani was standing next to the fallen yeshada.
“We need to roll it over so I can get my sword out.” Nicoldani said with a grimace, pointing to the massive body.
The creature was huge and Jak didn’t think the two of them would be able to even budge it, let alone roll it over. But on the other hand, Nicoldani was a giant of a man so perhaps together they could move the beast, but Jak was doubtful.
Jak reluctantly bent down to grasp the creature’s massive leg, but when he did, his stomach heaved and bile rose in his throat as the horrific stench of the creature polluted his nostrils.
He tried to hold his breath and choke back gags as they lifted and heaved, eventually rolling the enormous creature over to its stomach. It hadn’t been as hard as he thought it would be, but the struggle left him breathless and feeling in desperate need of a bath. The creature’s stench seemed to have seeped into his hands and clothes. It left him wanting to jump into a stream, or roll in a patch of stinkweed, or anything to cover the smell left on him from the yeshada.
After rolling the large beast over with such ease, Nicoldani eyed Jak up and down strangely for a moment. Then he turned and pulled his blade free and wiped the blood on the yeshada’s fur before sheathing his sword. As he mounted his horse, Nicoldani said. “We had better get going. There might be more of these things close by; if not, there most likely will be soon.”
That took Jak’s mind off the stench, the prospect of more of those beasts made him want to run as fast as he could away from here. As he climbed onto Gandur’s back, Gin exclaimed, “You stink Jak!” she said as she pinched her nose, “I don’t want to ride next to you smelling that way.”
Nicoldani approached them on his horse. “Here, you can ride with me,” he said as he grasped Gin by the arm and hoisted her in front of him on his saddle. Her eyes went wide and seemed to say she had changed her mind about riding with Jak. Besides, Nicoldani had touched the beast too and smelled just as bad as Jak did.
“We will need to ride hard,” Nicoldani said forestalling any protest Gin was about to make, “we need to get out of here as quickly as we can.”
As if to demonstrate, Nicoldani swung his horse around and began to gallop away, with Jak falling in behind. Jak had no problem keeping pace, even riding bareback. He had been riding most of his life, and he was an excellent rider. Besides, it was much harder staying on the horses back when you were cutting cows from the herd, than it was just riding in a relatively straight line as they were doing now.
Jak’s nerves were on edge, and he thought he might have seen at least one of these yeshada among the trees as the party galloped along on their way back towards Elsdon. But then again, it might just be his imagination playing tricks on him, since it seemed to do that a lot lately.
As they neared Elsdon, Nicoldani reigned in and halted well short of the village. They stopped near the tree-line that bordered the grassy meadow around Elsdon. The big man handed his reigns to Jak, with a signal to stay put as he dismounted and silently made his way the remaining distance to the edge of the trees.
After several moments, he emerged from the brush as soundlessly as he had gone, climbed into the saddle behind Gin, and then took the reigns from Jak. His face was grim as he turned to Jak; he glanced down at Gin, with what Jak would almost call compassion. When he turned back to Jak, his face was stern and hard once again. “I could see at least twenty or more of them in the village. They have set fires to most everything that can burn.”
There was no need to explain who they were, and Nicoldani paused to let that sink in. “Our only chance for escape is to swing wide around the southern end and make our way towards the pass. With any luck, we can escape their notice and get to the pass before they find out we are here.”
Gin’s eyes began to fill with tears and she began to sniffle softly. Not only had she lost all her family, but now her home was gone as well. For that matter, it almost made Jak want to cry too, but he wasn’t sure he had any tears left.
Nicoldani placed a large hand on the little girl’s shoulder, and with a stern gruff voice said. “You have to be strong little one, just like a warrior, you can’t be afraid. Can you be strong and brave?”
Gin wiped the tears that were leaking from her eyes with the back of her hand before she turned and peered up over her shoulder at the big man. Then her eyebrows lowered and her brow furrowed. “I - I can be strong.” She said in a voice more confident than Jak felt. Jak was scared out of his wits at the thought of twenty more of these monstrous creatures.
“Good girl,” Nicoldani said with a proud smile. Well, it was a smile for the stoic man, but for anyone else it would be little more than a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth, but confidence and pride shown in his eyes.
The three made their way slowly and carefully as to not draw any notice as they traveled behind the southern tree line, making certain to stay out of sight. They had made it most of the way without an alarm being raised, and were within a league or so of the entrance to the Jagmerain pass, but suddenly Jak heard a bellowing noise somewhere off to his right. One of the Yeshada had spotted them and raised a cry to the others.
“Make a run for it!” Nicoldani shouted over his shoulder as he urged his horse into a full gallop. Jak needed no prodding; he was right on the big man’s heels. Jak spared a glance in the direction of the approaching yeshada as he rode, and his heart sank when he realized that they were not going to make it to the pass in time. Some of the beasts had the angle on them, and at their present pace would cut them off before they could reach the pass. He found it hard to believe that such large lumbering beasts could run that fast, but they were all but outpacing the horses with their long powerful strides.
Once again death breathed its hot putrid breath down Jak’s neck. But it was almost becoming like and old familiar friend who had come to see him off on his journey to doom. But he wasn’t ready to take that trip just yet.
Jak suddenly recalled the wolf that had saved them from the first beast back near the cave. He wasn’t sure if it had been coincidence, or if the wolf had actually obeyed him when he called for help, but there were no other options, the yeshada would overtake them and kill them if something wasn’t done quickly. So Jak wished for the wolves, he called to them, shouted desperately at them in his mind. “Help! Help! Stop the beasts!... Please!!! STOP THEM!”
As if in answer to his prayer, grey and white shapes came darting among the trees in front of their galloping party, and heading towards the approaching yeshada. Jak glanced over his shoulder, and to his delight, saw more wolves flowing through the trees to intercept.
The feeling of victory was short lived when he realized that there were too many yeshada, all spread out running across the field towards the trees. There were also too few wolves for them to fight as a pack, singling out their prey one by one to bring them down. Instead, there was only one, or sometimes two wolves for each yeshada. Many wolves were dying at the enormous hands of the large hairy beasts. But at least the wolves were slowing the approach of the creatures and had even brought down one or two of the yeshada in the process. Jak found himself jealous of the wolves once again. He wanted to join the fight and taste the blood. It called to
him, but he tried desperately to ignore the call.
After what seemed an endless run, they finally reached the mouth of the Jagmerain pass. Jak looked over his shoulder and saw the yeshada retreating back towards Elsdon; or rather, what had once been Elsdon. He reigned in and swung his horse around to get a better look. It seemed the beasts had decided that three humans were not worth the fight or the chase. All of the yeshada were retreating, back to the ruins of the village. The wolves were not pursuing, but instead they took up position at the edge of the trees facing Elsdon, as if to guard Jak’s escape.
Jak sat there atop Gandur in stunned silence for a moment looking over Hlifglynn and the remains of Elsdon. A deep sense of loss and grief poured over him. This had been his home his entire life, now everything was gone, all his family, his possessions, his way of life, everything! However the pain and loss of his home and loved ones, was almost a welcome feeling, since it helped drown out the thirst inside him. He would carry the loss of his home, and everything he loved with him as a constant reminder, feeding it, nourishing it, to perhaps keep the thirst at bay.
Chapter 5
The eastern sky was just turning amber and gold in anticipation of the approaching sunrise, when the small party rounded the point and entered Kragston. It had been a very long, tiring night for all of them, but taking an especially heavy toll on Gin. The flight from the yeshada was bad enough, but then trying to make it through the Jagmerain pass at night, was a feat in itself. Darkness had fallen just after they entered the pass, so picking their way through in the blackness, with very little help from the waning crescent moon was, a slow arduous task.
Jak had no trouble seeing his way in the dark, but the same was not true for Nicoldani or Jak’s horse, Gandur, since their night vision was not nearly as keen as Jak’s. However, unwilling to give up his secrets, Jak had to follow Nicoldani’s slow lead, hampered by the man not being able to see more than a few paces ahead.
The Blood Witch (The Blood Reign Chronicles Book 1) Page 11
