by Clark Graham
“The night went better than I could have hoped,” he said.
Hemlot was stiff from sleeping on the too soft ground. “The warriors don’t like your dried meat,” he said with a grimace and then stretched his back out.
“I know but fortunately for them there is not much of it. In a few more days we will be forced to do something different,” he said with a smile. “Anyway, we will make this camp permanent, by building fences around the outskirts. The watchtower can give us warning of approaching evil, so we will not have to send out guards every night. We will send out patrols day and night. Thirty warriors and one man per patrol. If we send them out in all directions during the day, and just one per night we can observe all that there is to see in the area we were assigned.”
“I’ll see to it.” Hemlot was off.
Three patrols left at noon. When they came back three hours later, three more set out. Sarchise went with the third group of patrols that day. The forest was sparse, more so than he had ever seen before. It let in light so the underbrush was heavy in that area. He taught the warriors to watch where they were stepping and how to pass though the jungle quietly. This was a foreign concept to dwarf warriors but they learned quickly. Soon they were coming across rabbits and deer that had not been spooked away by their approach. Three hours later they wandered back into camp. Sarchise climbed up the tower and watched as the other patrols came back. The scouts had repaired the base of their tree house watchtower by taking out the rotten wood and replacing it with fresh logs. Sarchise gazed out from his secure perch. Nothing was stirring in the woods except for the normal wild life. It troubled him, because he did not know where the enemy was. You cannot defeat an enemy that you cannot see.
The first night patrol went out and the watchtower guard was posted. The scouts had talked one of the dwarves to climb the tree and act as watchman. They even made him a step stool so he could see out of the tree better. Sarchise found his tent and slipped in his blankets. He stayed there, not sleeping, but listening to the sounds of the forest until the first night patrol came back. He got out of his tent to greet them and they reported that they might have found a spider’s lair. They did not want to go into it at night so they marked where it was on the map and came back and reported. ‘At last’, Sarchise thought to himself. He settled in for a good night’s sleep after that.
In the morning Sarchise organized an assault party. Hemlot was not happy with the idea that Sarchise would be going along. His job was to protect the prince and he could not do that if he insisted on joining every possible battle. Ermort was invited, along with fifty dwarves.
After an hour’s walk, they came across the lair. Weapons were brought to the ready and with a rush they hacked their way into the middle of it. Silver white webs encompassed the inside of it. There were bones scattered around the base. To everyone’s surprise there was no spiders inside.
“Old lair, been abandoned for months, webs are dusty and there are no egg sacks,” Sarchise reported. He looked around at the bones on the floor. “They were feeding on deer and bear cub. Pretty sparse bones for a lair. They didn’t find much to eat.”
“Do you suppose that they left to find more food?” Hemlot asked.
“I don’t know, on the one hand that would make sense, but there is so much food here now. There are deer and bear everywhere. The bears are fat, so they don’t seem to have much competition from other predators. The only reason they would leave a good hunting ground is to go to a great one. On the other hand, they will be competing with the spiders that already live there.” Sarchise said, “Let’s get back to camp and hunt some deer and rabbit on the way back. The fence is complete, we can have fires tonight.”
The dwarves let out a cheer. That was the best news they had since entering the forest.
Back at camp the cooks made a feast for the dwarves. They were all so tired of the dried meat that they all sang at dinner. Then the tales of wars long ago started. The songs and stories lasted all night. The fires finally died down as morning was upon them.
Sarchise looked at Ermort, “Never seen so many happy dwarves.”
Ermort replied, “Still don’t know if it was a good idea. There still could have been spiders in the area.”
“I hid some dwarves in the woods and the watchtower is manned. The best way to find a spider is to offer him food. Nothing took the bait. I will send a message to that effect to High Mountain in the morning. We might as well move north.”
“Good plan.”
In the morning they heard singing coming from the east. Its sounds became louder and louder, until a large dwarf army appeared on the horizon. They marched in good form and halted at the wall. Cazz walked through the gate.
“Greetings brother” he said as he hugged Sarchise. “How goes the war?”
“We have found nothing, we were going to ask permission to move north.”
Cazz laughed, “Still thinking like a scout. Armies must move as a group. You’ll have to stay here until the other three armies are in position. Then we can all move north together. We will make a sweep so that nothing large can pass by us.” The King has moved the timetable up, you will see an army every three days pass through here. In just over a week, you will be able to move. Meanwhile, you must keep up your patrols.”
Sarchise looked a little disappointed. “Very well, come we have food.” They ate breakfast together and the cooks built up the fires again to feed both armies. Sarchise and Cazz poured over the maps and plotted out positions that the armies would maintain their patrols.
“I will march after the men have finished their breakfast.” Cazz said, “I doubt that I will have such an excellent place to build an outpost, but I will send a runner as soon as I am set up. I will map out exactly where we are so we can keep communication open.”
“I will await your messages,” replied Sarchise.
The well-fed dwarves of Cazz’s army moved out, singing as they went.
We’re Cazz’s army, so we’ve been told
If we are strong and brave and bold
He’ll award us each with a pot of gold
And now we march towards in the land of elf
It’s one for all and none for self
Or he’ll put our heads upon a shelf
And now we march both day and night
We keep our formation good and tight
But it’s only bedbugs and mosquito’s we fight
We’re Cazz’s army, so we’ve been told
If we are strong and brave and bold
He’ll award us each with a pot of gold
Sarchise climbed up to the top of the tree and watched them go. He still marveled at the distance on could see from the watchtower tree there. He came down and organized patrols for the day.
First Contact
The sat here for days and watched two more armies pass through on their way deeper into the Westwood. Runners went back and forth between the armies and the reports were all the same. No spiders to be found. Sarchise was not used to sitting and waiting out in the woods. He was used to moving and observing and then, when enough force could be brought to bear, attacking. There he sat, going out on many patrols to keep boredom away. It was almost with a sense of relief when one of the patrols reported contact with the enemy.
They were observed from a far distance when they were coming back. The scout on top of the watchtower noticed that the patrol was carrying two warriors. Sarchise sent out help to the patrol, by the time they got back to the outpost, there were four dwarves being carried. They placed the dwarves by the base of the tree where the healer did what he could for them. There were no cuts or stabs, but there were a lot of spider bites. Karl was the human that had been attached to the patrol. He was the first to report.
“Baby spiders, just as big as a hand, thousands of them. Weapons were useless against them, so we sat there kicking, slapping and stomping. They would bite every time they got on you. It didn’t do much until we started getting four or five bites ea
ch, then you started to feel it. A great headache and dizziness. The more bites, the dizzier you got. Warriors started to go down, but we didn’t know how to retreat, if we stopped and turned, they would have been up our backs and would have taken us all down. So we slapped and stomped till our hands were bleeding and our feet were bruised. Finally we could see an end and the rest of the spiders fled. Twelve had fallen, and the rest of us were too sick to drag them out, so we waited until most of the dizziness subsided. When we started back everyone was able to walk, but then they started dropping. We could carry a few, but when more than half were down we would stop again until we could all walk.”
“Were you followed?” Sarchise asked.
“Don’t know, I don’t think so, the spiders left in all directions, I don’t think that they were going to regroup. They were not smart, just babies.”
“Do you have the strength to take me back to where they attacked you?”
Karl shook his head. “No, the others had to carry me for a while.”
“So we can go again,” Turning, Sarchise shouted, “Hemlot, get together a stretcher party and a hundred warriors, we have found the enemy!”
They retraced the steps of the patrol. They saw where they had paused. They had paused many times, which made Sarchise think that he should have let Karl rest more than he had. He seemed ok as he was carried back to where the battle took place. As they approached they could smell a thick sickly odor of spider ooze. They came across mounds of dead, crushed spiders. They were ankle deep and you could see where each dwarf had stood.
The ones that were in back had smaller mounds of dead spiders than the ones that had stood in front. They checked to make sure all of the spiders were dead and not just wounded. One could hear an occasional stomp, when a live spider was found. After a few hours they moved on, trying to track where the spiders had come from. They traced it for miles until they found that they were way beyond their patrol area. Sarchise was tempted with continuing on, but finally listened to Hemlot and turned towards the outpost. It was full dark when they finally made it back to the watchtower. Karl was sleeping by this point. He did not look so good, and Sarchise felt guilty of taking him out to begin with, and for taking him so far.
The healer took one look at Karl and then started patching his many bites with herbs and then covered them with mud. “You should have left him here,” he said to Sarchise. “His wounds are infecting.”
This didn’t ease Sarchise’s guilt any.
Ermort came down from the watchtower. “We have seen five large spiders that were searching the woods. We saw them at a great distance away and sent out archers to kill them. They are searching for us. They know that we destroyed the nursery. They will not be out for food, but for revenge.”
“Let them come, we will set out a trap for them,” Sarchise commented.
Ermort nodded and climbed back up the tree. Sarchise called for runners and sent messages out in both directions. “Make no noise, they will be looking for you.” He cautioned the runners as they left.
For two days the army waited. Sending out patrols, but having no more contact with the enemy. When the sun sat at its highest, there came a shout from the tower. “A runner approaches”
Sarchise looked up from his lunch, “From High Mountain?”
“No, Sir, from Cazz.”
The exhausted runner stumbled into camp, bowed to Sarchise while delivering his letter and then sat down by the base of the tree.
“Bring him water,” Sarchise ordered and then opened the letter from Cazz. It read,
“To Sarchise, Prince and brother,
“I too have found the enemy. There was a large group of tiny spiders that attacked one of my patrols and over ran it. I had sent out small patrols of ten warriors. I should have sent out large patrols of thirty warriors, like you did. They were all bitten many times and fell. I am sad to report that Gamer, of the Royal scouts is dead. He was attached to the patrol. Two of my dwarves also perished. One of the warriors made it back to camp to report that the rest had fallen. The healer is looking him over now.
“I took one third of my army and moved into the woods. We found the rest of the patrol where they had fallen. The tiny spiders did not even try to eat them, I don’t know why. I think that they eat smaller prey. There were many birds singing in this part of the forest when we first arrived, but now few birds sing. Those that do are chased from treetop to treetop by black specks.
“I led my warriors along the trail that the spiders had left. We ventured far past our patrol area, but found a lair, we surrounded it and killed all of the spiders inside. I lost three more warriors in the battle. Inside the lair we found bones of gremlins, and horns and bones of Minotaur. The most interesting thing that we discovered was in the trees. Hanging in some egg sacks were thirty one gremlins. They were fresh, only a few days old for the eggs inside them were small. How gremlins have come to the Westwood, we know not. We piled them into the middle of the lair and burned them.
“I have written another letter to our father, please send it with your fastest runner. Caspin has been contacted and he agrees with the course of action. I have asked that the second army of high dwarves come out immediately from High Mountain. We must destroy these lairs before many more of the eggs hatch. We also have other evil things in the forest to deal with. The spiders are in the north so we will pursue them in that direction. We will all march on the 8th day of the new moon”
It was signed “Cazz, Son of the King, fifth born.”
Sarchise looked up from the letter. “Ferdin.” The dwarf came running up. “I need you to deliver this letter to the King, you are my fastest runner, and you have just three days to get there. We will have left before you come back so you will be attached to the second army of high dwarves. They will be held in reserve here at the outpost until we send for them. Good luck, run quickly and quietly.” With that Ferdin was off.
Sarchise wrote another letter to Cazz and sent out another runner in the other direction. After sending for Hemlot and Ermort he announced. “We have three days until we move out. There is a new threat in the woods that bodes ill for man and dwarf. Minotaur and gremlins have been found in a spider’s lair. The city of South Fort must be warned. This I lay at your feet Ermort, you must get there with all possible speed. Do not go through the forest but go through the halls of High Mountain. Get a guide so you don’t get lost. We will be far to the north when you venture back here but I will leave this outpost manned at all times, so report back here and they will tell you where we are at.”
Ermort smiled. “Thank you Sir, frankly I was getting a little bored just sitting here.” With that he was off.
During the evening a scout came down from the watchtower. “Sir, you should see this.” Sarchise climbed the tree and looked where the scout was pointing. “There, Sir.” The distance was darkened by a slow moving mass of black. It took awhile to make out just what it was. Looking harder he could see that it was a mass of spiders. They were slowly moving back and forth looking like a black tide.
“They are still far off, have the warriors assemble,” Sarchise said as he scrambled from the tree.
He laid out a plan of action to Hemlot and they both led out 150 warriors each. They were divided into groups of ten. Each group dug a pit and climbed into it. Brush was laid over the pit.
Sarchise and Hemlot instructed their groups. “Do not move until the spiders have passed over your position. Then form a circle around them. Do not let any of them out alive.” The pits were dug in a circle about twenty meters outside of the walls, around the encampment. Hemlot climbed into one of the pits. Sarchise went back inside to organize the defenses there.
Dwarf archers lined the walls. “When they get too close drop your bows and use your battle axes on them. They can climb but the wall will slow them down enough to kill many. We will be building a bonfire to attract the spiders. Do not look into it, it will ruin your night vision. If you have to retreat, keep your face towards the e
nemy.” Sarchise instructed. He then climbed up the watchtower to direct the campaign.
When everyone was in place, the warriors lit the fire. Sarchise saw the spiders change directions and come straight toward the fire. Some came straight at the camp, while others surrounded it. As they came within distance the archers let go the first volley. The noise of the battle builds, with the twang of the bows and the crunch of the battle-axe and sword. Three times spiders tried to storm the north wall, three times the dwarves would drop their bows and take up the battle axes. They would drive them back far enough to take up their bows again. But warriors were starting to fall and their line was thinning. The fourth try the spiders came over the wall and into the encampment.
Sarchise was losing track of the battle as he was now in survival mode. Spiders were trying to climb up the tree, only to be brought down by the archers on top. One spider gained the height but did not live long enough to bite anyone. The north wall was taken but the south, east and west held. Spiders surrounded the tree as it was exposed by the retreating dwarves, but the rest of the encampment was holding. The dwarves had retreated past the fire but were able to form a line at that point.
Hemlot’s group popped up after they thought the spiders had gone by but found themselves in the midst of them. They formed a circle for defense. Every time the spiders charged them they lost warriors. They drove off one assault to find that there were only six of them left. It was time to move or die. The group hacked its way through the throng of enemy to find another group of five, that were about to be overwhelmed. With new strength, they drive off the assaults and went to find more groups. Soon his strength was up to twenty-seven effectives.
The spiders were renewing their efforts to take the watchtower and arrows were now in short supply. With two of his men down and several dead spiders littering the top of the tower, Sarchise thought it was time to abandon his position. He was looking for the safest way off, when he saw the dwarves to the south of him start moving toward the tree. The semicircle to the south worked perfectly. There were fewer spiders at that point and the ones that were there had been crushed between the group of dwarves outside the wall and the ones inside the wall. The threat to the south was now gone and the two groups of dwarves had joined forces and were moving north to retake the northern wall. The spiders made one last attempt at the tower, but it was driven back and the rest fled outside of the encampment.
