by C Woodward
“You two are really amusing,” I joked. Rejun sighed, “I wonder who the older one is, mm.”
Bolam walked over, “Once Jerak gets back we should head out.” I slowly stood up, wiping bits of grass from my armor. “Your armor should help you against that scary lady’s attacks right?” Rejun asked. I could tell that he felt a bit nervous about her.
Bolam chimed in, “It should protect against her dark magic, but I am sure she is powerful in an element or two.”
“Element?” Rejun asked.
Bolam smiled and nodded, “Magic is divided in different elements. Sometimes people are proficient in a certain element.”
Rejun scratched his head, “So what element are you good with?”
Bolam laughed, “I tend to do better with fire and information style magic.”
I nodded, “Talestria is good with lightning and enchanting.”
Bolam smiled, “Falstrid is handy with lightning and protective magic, though he is familiar with all sorts of schools of magic.”
Rejun looked a bit lost, “Information, enchanting, and protection. That doesn’t sound like any element.” “Well, true” Bolam agreed,” But along with the basic elements, there are other aspects of magic that don’t carry an element, like what you mentioned. Even the most talented mages are inferior at something.”
I laughed, “Talestria would probably hurt me if I told you this, but she doesn’t seem to be any good at alchemy.” We talked about magic until Jerak came back. Shortly after, we got back on the road. I think Bolam was impressed to carry on a decent conversation about magic. I wasn’t too surprised since I married the woman who knows more than most people. I’m not sure if she knows more than anyone else, but I believed so.
I walked along side Bolam’s wagon, “So, elemental magic can be countered with the opposite kind right?”
Bolam nodded, “Yes, it can.”
I thought for a moment, “So, what could counter lightning magic?”
Bolam raised a brow, “Want a way to protect yourself from Talestria’s wrath, eh?”
I laughed, “No, she doesn’t use her magic on me. She can defeat me easily enough just by raising her voice.”
Bolam laughed, “I guess that’s married life for you!”
I looked away, “Yeah, I guess so. Now, tell me, what counters lightning?”
Bolam quickly answered, “Air element or an earth element can do it best.”
After moment of silence, he asked, “Why do you ask?”
I sighed, “The Blood Witch also uses air elemental.” I almost forgot that the Blood Witch used lightning magic in her attacks. I knew enough about enchanting to know that if you place protection against more than one element, it would weaken the effect of protection over all. The dragon armor was able to do it, but that was an exception.
I saw no need to bother Bolam anymore, since he wouldn’t be able to do any enchanting before we faced those guys. Wearing a suit of rubber under my clothes would do the trick, but I wasn’t sure if rubber even existed here. I toyed with the idea of discovering it here and taking the idea to a tailor. That would be tedious, and wearing it would be so hot under my armor that it would just hinder me. I also tried to figure a way to turn the future battle against the Blood Witch to my favor, but I had no realistic resources, and hardly any time to pursue it.
The dark grey sky blocked the larger, brighter moon and made things too dark to keep walking. We made camp by a cluster of trees. Rejun again roamed out with his crossbow. Jerak lectured him, “If you are not going to help setup camp, at least bring me something to eat too!” Teltar, Kalus, and Bolam took care of the horses and packs. Jerak and I ended up with the job of gathering firewood.
After the clouds passed, it was a little easier to see. Jerak grumbled about his brother, mostly about Rejun bringing him something to eat. I interrupted his muttering, “Tomorrow night, we can eat some good food in Halatross.”
Jerak looked up, “Oh, yeah.” I laughed and saw a large piece of wood. I grabbed it and added it to our collection. Jerak grabbed a few handfuls of dried leaves and some smaller twigs.
“I don’t think this will be enough to last the night,” I mentioned.
Jerak jogged over and kicked a large piece of rotted wood, “Here! This might be enough.” With both of our hands full, Jerak insisted on kicking the large piece as we walked back to camp. I let out a big yawn, “Let it be, I’ll return for it on another trip.” Jerak gave one final kick and then accepted my idea.
Torkuhl was sitting by an empty dirt circle. Jerak and I stacked our firewood near the circle. Bolam walked over and knelt down, and started to set up the fire. As I started to sit down, Jerak reminded me, “Hey, go get that last piece!”
I plopped my helmet back on and walked out of camp. While jogging a bit, I searched for the large piece of wood but got a bit turned around. It took me a few minutes to locate the right place. I saw bugs crawling around on the wood. Oh well, I wore my gauntlets, so it should be fine. The piece was quite large. I recalled that Torkuhl enjoys breaking things like this apart. As I gripped the piece of wood, I heard some loud noises coming from the camp!
Chapter 12
I dropped the large piece of wood and ran toward the camp. Thankfully, I had my peculiar axe with me. When I got back, the first thing I noticed were several large creatures and a few unknown people. As I got closer, I saw that the large creatures were actually bears. I saw a flash of light from a fireball that Bolam cast toward the group. Torkuhl took on the task of fighting one of the bears. He rivaled them in size. I counted three bears and saw at least five other figures; one of whom wore a brown robe and was standing a fair distance from the main fight. It was that druid!
I took out my blade and charged straight at the robed man. He turned my way and looked a bit surprised. Before I had a chance to get near him, he pointed his hands toward me. He smiled as a swarm of insects shot out from his sleeves in my direction. I was soon caught in a mist of tiny insects.
If it wasn’t for my armor, I might have been in pain from the bites and stings. My visibility was zero, and I barely saw the druid turn away and leave. A few insect bit in between the gaps in my armor. It wasn’t unbearable, and gratefully I wasn’t covered. Through the loud buzzing, I heard a voice, “Blake! Get closer to the fire!”
I wasn’t sure who called out because of all the chaos, but I followed orders and ran to the fire pit. I nearly ran into a bear! Torkuhl was taking care of one of his own while Jerak and Teltar were fending off another. Another might be trying to chase Kalus around.
As I got closer to the fire, the smoke and heat drew the insects away from me. As soon as my vision cleared, I saw four men coming in our direction. I took a deep breath and charged them. I slashed the closest one with my blade which sprayed blood and caused him to yell out from pain. Shortly after, I saw two weapons coming at me. I blocked the first one and barely avoided the second. I tightened my grip and turned in time to see the fourth guy swinging at me. I twisted my body around and parried the attack. I heard the jarring sound of metal against metal. With my left hand, I closed my fist and rammed it into his stomach. Another blade glanced off my armor and drew my attention. I swung my sword, but he parried. I turned toward him and kept my blade close to his sword.
Another guy tried to hit me, but I side-stepped, which placed the one I was fighting between us. I shoved the guy in front of me. As he staggered back, I struck. He screamed from the blow and I turned my attention to the next guy. He made a downward swing at me. I smacked the side of his blade with my left arm and thrust at his throat. From the corner of my eye, I saw the one I punched in the stomach now making his move. He lunged at me to stab me. I jumped out of the way and he fell on his dying buddy. His sword stuck into his partner. I took that moment to swing at his neck.
As soon as his head fell to the ground, I saw two more figures. They stood a way off, staring at me. These two didn’t seem to be thugs like that guys I just killed. They wore black robes w
ith the obvious markings of Xum’gol. Both of them took a few steps back and started chanting. I took a deep breath, let out a war cry and charged at one. I saw fear in his eyes as I ran him through. The other finished casting a dark purple beam that faded just inches from my armor. The armor worked! I pulled out my blade. It was stuck. I tried to kick away the dead necromancer, but I heard heavy footsteps coming toward me. I saw a large mass coming my way. It was a bear!
I gave up on my attempt to retrieve my weapon and took off running. The bear kept coming and rushed over the dead necromancer like nothing. I ran around a tree with the bear still charging. There was no way I could outrun it. On earth, bears were very unpredictable. This bear was determined to get me and I presumed the druid’s powers were inspiring it, so waving my arms and making a lot of noise wouldn’t stop it. I spotted the last necromancer. He was charging up some magic and watching the bear coming after me. I took off toward the necromancer. He looked at me, and looked like he was thinking, “No! Get away!”
I grabbed the druids’ shoulder and shoved him behind me as I kept running. A second later, the bear trampled him but, still kept coming at me. I tried to make a sharp turn but the bear held his turn better than I did. I tried to look back and stumbled. A second after hitting the ground, the weight of the bear was on me. Holy crap, that bear was heavy! I tried to tuck my body inward but it was hard with the bear already on me and while wearing heavy armor. The armor had helped keep me alive so far but the weight of the bear was making it a little hard to breathe. I couldn’t reach the bear since I was pinned face down. But, I was able to touch my pike! Two of my fingers grasped the handle. The bear stood up, then came back at me. That gave me enough time to grab the pike. Unfortunately, the bear nearly knocked the wind out of me. The force of his pounce caused me to cough and made it hard to breathe.
The bear stood up again to crush me. I turned over just in time to see it coming down. I tried to lift my pike but when it came down again, I felt more pain. If it wasn’t for the armor, my ribs would be crushed. I coughed again and I knew some was blood.
I could see the druid standing nearby, watching the one-sided fight, “Good! Beat the prey down, then we can take it back.” Anger filled me as the bear raised up once more. I gripped the pike and braced it up. The bear came down, but this time I sank the pike into its chest. Under its weight, the pike jammed deep inside the bear. It rolled over and the pike snapped in half. I could hear the bear crying loudly with half the pike impaled inside it.
I coughed up more blood and felt too winded to get up. The druid stared at me with anger in his eyes, “You!” He waved his arms and more insects appeared of nowhere and started to hover around me. I rolled over to avoid being smothered. I moved around franticly to keep them from getting inside my armor.
The druid laughed as I finally got up. “Fight all you want, prey!” I tried to clap my hands randomly through the insects, killing several, but it wasn’t the end of them. “I am going to wrap your filthy, unnatural body and send you straight to Forren!” the druid yelled. I could feel vines crawling up and around my legs. Oh crap. I couldn’t see, and was too winded from fighting off the bugs to have a chance of breaking free of the vines. I fell on my side as more vines sprouted out from the ground to cover me. The druid laughed again, “Even you are just weak prey to the great Hovishn!”
I yelled back, “You have a stupid name and I am not your prey!” He shouted, “Fool! You are already defeat…” His speech was halted and he just stood there in shock.
Hovishn made a gurgling sound and fell face-down on the ground. There was a bolt sticking out the back of his neck. The insect swarm dispersed and the vines stopped moving. I spotted Rejun a few yards behind the dead druid’s body with an empty cross bow.
I struggled to break off a few strands of the vines. Rejun ran up to help. As he pulled me up, I smiled from under my helmet, “You are awesome, man! Now, let’s go help the others.” Rejun loaded up his crossbow and nodded. I retrieved my axe. Rejun stopped, aimed and quickly fired. I saw Torkuhl was beating on his bear with both of his war hammers. He was both grinning and foaming a little at the mouth. That bear stopped moving after a few blows to the head.
Jerak and Teltar were still fending off a bear but Bolam was behind them charging up another spell. Rejun already shot a bolt into that bear. He aimed carefully and yelled, “Try to keep it steady!” I nodded and ran in. I let out a war cry and jumped at the bear. I stabbed downward with my strange blade. The blade sunk in several inches into its back. The bear leaned back and cried out in pain. I ended up falling on my back. As I got up, a bolt zipped past my head and hit the back of the beast as well. I could hear Jerak and Teltar moving in on the bear and soon it fell forward and was lifeless.
The fight was over and Kalus climbed down from his tree to help the wounded. Torkuhl had a few claw marks but, oddly enough, was in a good mood. Jerak and Teltar were a little banged up but were fine. It hurt for me to breathe too heavily but I hoped to be fine in the morning. Three dead bears, four thugs, two necromancers, and a druid. Torkuhl, Jerak, Teltar, and I sat around trying to rest. Kalus was healing the other guys. Bolam walked over to the druid. He looked back at me, “Who was this guy?”
I coughed a little and cringed from the pain, “That was the druid; one of Forren’s goons.”
Torkuhl laughed, “One down! More to go!” “That was nothing!” Jerak cheered. “They are getting weaker and we are getting stronger!” Rejun walked around to retrieve his bolts and suggested that we make the most of the meat.
Torkuhl claimed the bear he killed and started to skin it. I was too worn out and just laid on my bed roll. Jerak was quite proud of his brother’s kill of the druid. Rejun was practically beaming from the praise but tried to hide it. He went over and helped Teltar skin the bears. That night we feasted on bear meat, and we hung the bear skins on the wagon. It was a good victory. The druid was gone. Torkuhl and Teltar moved the bodies away from camp since the druid smelled really bad and we figured he might smell even worse as time goes by. Jerak handed me money found on the dead thugs and necromancers. I told him to put it in the travel fund. The bear meat tasted so good after eating dry goods for the last several days. The druid attack was a bit unnerving; it proved that Forren was really hiring more to come after me. I wasn’t sure if he anticipated that force was enough or what. After my meal I went to sleep.
The next morning, we had a big breakfast of bear meat, thanks to the smelly druid with the weird name. It was cloudy but the sun poked through the gaps in the clouds. After our meal, we packed up and headed back to the main road. Jerak and Torkuhl were making jokes about Kalus climbing up a tree during the fight. Kalus just stuck his nose up in the air, “I am not a brute like you two. I am an artist.” Torkuhl and Jerak looked at each other and laughed harder. Kalus sighed, “Any more words I utter would be wasted on such feeble minds.” I didn’t feel like getting involved.
I walked beside Bolam. He let out a good yawn and spoke cheerfully, “At least their tracker is out of the way.”
Kalus smiled, “I am not sure how he compares to an elvin druid but druids do make excellent trackers.”
Rejun muttered, “A good hunter can track as well.”
Kalus nodded, “Yes, anyone trained can be a good tracker, but nothing beats a druid.”
Rejun raised a brow, “How so?”
Bolam answered, “Druids have the power of nature and often adopt animal-like abilities.” Kalus continued, “A druid could be like a predator looking for its prey.” I sighed, “At least he is gone now. Let’s hope that we don’t have any more surprises.”
It was nice to see farmlands. There were many tiny villages consisting of farm houses and perhaps small inns for travelers. The trip from Vunash to Halatross takes five days on foot but there should be more settlements. I guess the expansion of dwellings still occurs closer to the major towns and cities. Through my travels, I have seen the ruins of dwellings between the long roads, but there seems to be
a lack of man power to keep them safe from choguls and other low-lives.
We stopped at a small inn for lunch. There was an outside eating area with wooden tables and simple benches. Teltar and Jerak checked out a small supply store to buy salt so they could treat the bear meat. The inn was the only place that could provide any meals until we reached Halatross. They were happy to prepare something to eat in order to get some business. Once again, I funded it all.
We still had bear meat, but Teltar thought it might be better to have it preserved so it would last on our travels. I didn’t catch the details of how it was done, but they offered to do it for us. I was enjoying a meal of stew and bread. There was hardly any meat in the stew but I had gotten my fill of meat for awhile. Kalus wandered over to where I was sitting and asked, “Excuse me for being clueless, but what is our plan?”
I put down my spoon, “I really don’t know for sure. We need to gather information.”
Kalus frowned and nodded, “I am no scout, but I can easily squeeze rumors out of people.”
I stared at the cloudy sky, “I wonder if we should have some guys travel west to get a closer look.” Kalus laughed, “It might be a bit risky, but then again you have two thrill-seekers in your party.” I nodded and looked at Jerak and Torkuhl, who were still eating. Teltar sat down across from me. He began to eat his meal. Kalus slowly stood up, “I guess it’s my turn to get my food. I hope bringing notice of my talents will aid in your tactical plan.” I laughed and continued eating.
After Kalus left, Teltar looked at me, “What talents?”
I smiled, “Oh, he offered to gather information once we are in Halatross.”
Teltar’s raised his eyebrows, “Oh! That’s better than just playing music then.” I don’t think dwarves really think about the practices of a bard. Dinner was fairly relaxing, but the stress of upcoming events kept me from really enjoying it. I felt happy to have such friends who would aid me through a venture like this. Everyone was eating and enjoying their lunch. Even Jerak and Rejun were getting along. I walked inside the inn and paid the amount due for the food plus a nice tip. Torkuhl was sitting inside, “Hey, Blake. Thanks for the meal!”
