by Eric Ugland
Then, a shush.
Immediately I looked down around the base of the tree. Nothing. But over the rock that was between us and the lake, coming down the shoreline I saw a very strange sight.
Bears.
Bears walking on their hind legs. Big fucking bears, wearing clothes and carrying weapons.
Well, walking was being kind. They were definitely bad news bears. They were stumbling, barely moving. And nearly all of them carried a bundle, or had a bundle strapped to them. I realized the bundles were where the whimpering came from. Then I heard it clearer — crying. Babies crying.
“Ursus,” Alexios whispered, stringing his bow.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“They are violent,” he said. “And enemies of the Empire—”
“That’s women and children, buddy. Put the bow down.”
“My lord—”
“That’s right. I’m your lord. I will handle this. Preferably without violence. You see me getting my ass kicked by these bears, then, and only then, can you fire an arrow at them. Understand?”
He nodded. Not happy, but willing to follow my orders.
While the group of bear people, the Ursus, limped along the sandy shores, I climbed down the tree. I figured that their destination was the river, so I wanted to be there, relaxing and chilling, when they came along. I put away all my weapons, and tried to look as relaxed as possible.
The first of the Ursus came up the rock, and stopped. Its eyes went wide. Then another came, and had a similar reaction. Four more in quick succession, all stopping with a start.
I gave a friendly wave.
No reaction.
For a moment at least. Then one turned around, whispered something, and the other five backed away until it was just one left watching me.
A moment later, a big bear came walking up. Very much bigger than me. He had a large wooden shield on one arm, a big oval sort of thing painted with runes or symbols. A thick bronze sword was in his other hand, and a helmet sat on his head. All bronze. It looked heavy. And he moved like he was exhausted. His shield was bumping along the rock as he came forward. Still, dude was big and mean-looking. I figured he’d find the energy for a fight if he had to, so I needed to calm the situation down. Oddly, he had a slight glow about him, something I had not seen on anyone or anything before.
“Good morning,” I said.
He paused, and backed up a step before standing up straight.
“You with the Empire?” he asked. He had a slow way of talking, like he was thinking through each word before he said it, and that Imperial Common might not be his first language. And his voice was low, a profoundly deep bass that I could feel resonate in my bones.
“That I am,” I said.
He grunted.
“I am Montana Coggeshall. Duke of Coggeshall. May I have your name?” I was being overly polite, but I figured a little flowery language might ease tensions a bit. Just keep everyone on the up and up.
“You have an army?” he asked.
“Well, I mean, it depends on what you’d call an army. I like to believe I’m an Army of One, but then again, I’ve seen plenty of propaganda commercials related to that, and I like the phrase. There’s a certain, well, grandiose nature that comes from saying that. There are also quite a few professional soldiers who are sworn to me, but they are back in my settlement.”
“Settlement. Is it close?”
“Again, you’d need to define close. It’s about a day down river.”
“By the mountain wall.”
“Yeah. That’s where we built it. There’s a tunnel leading over to the other side. Put up some walls. We have a nice fire at night. It’s a homey place.”
He seemed confused. Which wasn’t necessarily bad, because it meant we weren’t fighting, so, bonus points to me. For a minute, he looked me over, I think, noting my lack of weapons and the ease I displayed in the situation. Which, you know, was mostly true. I didn’t want the interaction to go violently, but, at the same time, I felt confident I could take him. At this point, I felt confident I could take on just about any creature in Vuldranni.
Finally, he looked back over his shoulder, I assume at those who were traveling with him. Then back at me. Then over his shoulder. Something was weighing on him, and he was trying to come up with a solution to a problem he really didn’t want to have. I had no idea what was going on, so I really didn’t know any way to help him.
“A duke of the empire,” the big bear said. “And you have a settlement. With walls.”
“And a kitchen,” I replied with a smile.
I think he smiled back. It’s difficult to tell with bears — they don’t exactly have the right facial structure to smile in the way we do.
“We need shelter,” he finally said. “If there—” he faltered, “I will do whatever you would like. Whatever is necessary if you will give us shelter.”
“You guys seem a bit, well,” I said, “out of sorts. Do you mind telling me why you need shelter?”
“Something infected my tribe—” he said.
I held up a hand and interrupted him. “Like a disease of some kind?”
He shook his great furry head. “No. A corruption. Something evil. Dark.”
“Like a demon?”
“Not that either. I do not know how to describe it, other than the shaman turned. She was new — our old shaman died — and his apprentice rose in his place. But she was wrong. And it started to spread amongst our tribe. And neighboring tribes. They have all come together, all under the sway of the, uh,” he trailed off, unable to find the right word.
“The darkness.”
“Yes. The darkness. All the tribes in the area, all my people in these mountains. They have succumbed. Except for those of us here. We escaped with the children, but we have been on the run for more than a week now. Our pursuers seem not to tire, but we have reached our limits. Though we were once at war with the Empire, I beg you, shelter us. Save us.”
“I heard the babies crying. Is that, I mean, are they okay?”
“They are tired. Hungry. We are out of food, and we are out of energy.”
“How many of you are there?”
“39 adults. 72 children of various ages. Most infants.”
I looked up at the tree, and saw Alexios and Amber looking at me.
“Fuck, man,” I said, “that’s a pretty shitty situation. And you’ve got a lot of kids, and you seem like a nice guy.”
You have found a quest.
The Bear Necessities
A tribe of The Ursus has requested sanctuary. They are being pursued by an evil, and are in danger of being eradicated.
Reward for success: Their Loyalty
Penalty for failure (or refusal): [Unknown]
Yes/No
He hoisted up his shield, ready to fight.
“But I’m going to say yes,” I continued, taking on the quest. “So I’m asking you to please not fuck me over.”
“Yes?” he asked, hesitant, like he didn’t believe me.
“Yes,” I said. “If you are asking for my protection, especially to protect your little ones, I will give it. I will escort you to my settlement, and we will bring you behind our walls, and no one will get you, okay?”
He sunk to his knees. The relief over what I was saying combined with his exhaustion seemed to overwhelm him.
I rushed forward and grabbed him, helping him back up. He was fucking heavy as fuck. Like, I know I’m insanely strong and whatever, so my concept of weight is skewed, to say the least. But in my various dealings with living beings, this dude, for his size, was among the heaviest I’d come across.
“You still didn’t give me your name, big man,” I said.
He chuckled slightly, still leaning on me. “I am Borin. Borin the Defender.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
“Alexios!” I yelled out. “Get down here.”
Borin looked up into the tree. For the first time, he saw my two rangers.
“They are with you?” Borin asked.
“Ranger and Ranger-in-training. Out here trying to get a better idea of this valley.”
“You have claimed the valley as yours?” he asked.
“I mean, according to the Empire, the valley is mine. The mountains to the east and the west are mine, and as much of the territory north of the valley I can hold is mine as well. But I’m more focused on the valley.”
“The empire eats land like my cubs eat grubs.”
“That’s gross. But also apt.”
Alexios dropped the last ten feet, and stood in front of me with a smart salute.
“My lord,” Alexios said.
“How quickly can we get back to the settlement?” I asked.
“With all of them?”
“Yes.”
“It depends largely on how much they are able to walk, and if the beast from last night is hunting.”
“Okay, well, I want to get back as quickly as possible. If necessary, I’ll fight a rearguard against the beast. Or against whomever is following them. Borin, this is Alexios. He is one of my rangers. Up in the tree is Amber, the—”
“Ranger-in-training,” Borin finished for me.
“Exactly. Now, what can I offer you or your people to keep you going.”
“Do you have food?”
“We do,” I said, doing a little mental math on the quick. Planning to be out, potentially, for weeks at a time, I’d overpacked food. It certainly wasn’t enough to feed the 100 plus bearfolk for long, but it would probably do for a lunch of sorts. “Do we need to eat on the march?”
Borin looked over his shoulder.
“Amber,” I called up, “you see anything coming this way?”
“Look for dust,” Alexios called out. “And climb higher.”
She was up the tree in a flash, and I saw her peek out the very top. And after a moment, she dropped down close enough we could talk.
“Another group,” she said. “Or something. Something’s causing the birds to fly up in a pattern.”
“If we eat here,” Alexios said, “I would bet that whatever is out there will get here before we leave. We must get moving now.”
Borin stood up on his own. “I will wait here, buy you all time.”
“Ridiculous,” I said, “Take a second to eat some food.”
I pulled all the foodstuffs out of my bag and pushed them at Alexios and Borin.
“Next, we need to get over to the other side of the river. So I’m going to cut a tree down to make a little bridge. As soon as that’s done, we are moving.”
“Cutting trees down?” Alexios said. “We have no time for that—”
I was already moving though — I didn’t feel like explaining how I could do stuff to Alexios. Instead, I got my axe out and laid into a big tree that was near the river bank. Just because I could carry whole trees around didn’t mean I wanted to.
A few good swings, and the first of the trees fell.
Borin was handing food out, and had just about gotten to all his people by the time I got the second tree down. I took an extra minute to tie both logs together, and then I walked across to make sure it was stable.
“Good to go,” I shouted.
I summoned all the prinkies I could, and ordered them to assist the Ursus. Once everyone had crossed, I pushed the trees into the river and watched them float away.
The prinkies actually did a decent job providing assistance, offering hands, giving some extra balance, even holding food and drink for the Ursus while they were walking. And once they got a bite or two in them, we actually started to move at a reasonable clip. Not exactly fast, but, you know, faster than we had been. Amber was at the front, ranging out and making sure things were as clear as possible, and Alexios brought up the back, doing his best to hide our passage. The prinkies helped with that too. They’d run off in different directions, leaving all sorts of weird trails this way and that.
As for me, I tried to be anywhere I was needed. I did some carrying of grownups, and I did some carrying of babies. Which, of all the babies I’ve encountered, baby Ursus are ridiculously cute. They about as close to actual living teddy bears as you can imagine, and really, all they wanted to do was cuddle. So, you know, amazeballs. I’d wager they were even cuter than a prinky, but not by much.
We were making good enough time that Alexios began to relax ever so slightly. Not a ton, and certainly not enough that he was willing to stop hiding our trail. But, as we got to evening, and we were still quite a distance from the settlement, it became clear we were going to have make a very difficult decision. It would certainly have been best if we stopped for the night. Despite the constant supply of trail rations, Borin’s people weren’t doing particularly well — I mean, slightly better than they had that morning, but it was very clear they would all benefit from a night of sleep. And yet, Borin insisted those who followed him would not stop. But the additional problem for going through the night was simple: we’d have to contend with the beast again. I had a feeling it was a nocturnal hunter, and there was no way we could keep this group quiet enough to make it through the darkness unnoticed. But if we stopped, if we slept somewhere, we could maybe make a defensive camp of sorts, keep the beast away with fire, or something else entirely. It was a problem exacerbated when Amber found a reasonably defensible location for a camp.
Ultimately, Borin refused to stop. Whatever was chasing him and his was a clearer danger to him than the mystery monster we’d encountered during the night, and I could understand that. It just meant we’d be forced to outwit the monster. Or fight it. And I wasn’t exactly looking forward to either.
Chapter Forty-Nine
The clouds moved in with the night. Before long, we could barely see anything. Well, I could see fine. Darkvision and tremorsense were a pretty amazing combination, and the world still felt completely alive and normal for me. But it appeared the bears didn’t have any sort of darkvision. And that meant using a lot of prinkies to hold hands and make sure the Ursus didn’t trip over things. Especially because there were so many babies being carried. We were certainly going slower through the terrain. It made me realize how spoiled I’d been back on Earth, what with having roads everywhere and all. Traipsing through complete wilderness was a totally different experience. I mean, I’d been hiking a few times — part of being an Eagle Scout — but it was exceptionally rare for us to go far off trail. And even then, we weren’t exactly going through primeval untouched forests. Here, it was occasionally easy-ish going, with big pines and little undergrowth, and you mostly just had to watch out for disintegrating downed trees and big ferns. But, there were also quite a few rocks, and a stumble against one of the rocks could definitely send you to the ground.
We had a few close calls, but there were no serious injuries.
It had to be close to midnight when I felt something off. Tremors. Soft steps of a giant creature coming in from the west, pinning us against the river. I stopped walking, and pulled out a spear. The Ursus looked at me, but kept moving. Finally, the end of the line came up, Alexios.
“He’s out there,” I said, looking to the west.
“I know,” Alexios replied.
“You can feel him or something?”
“Or something. What is your plan here?”
“Kill it,” I said.
“My lord, begging your pardon, but I was given specific instructions not to let you do anything stupid.”
“This isn’t stupid.”
“You are risking your life for a group of strangers, who were most recently enemies of the Empire. Fighting a creature you know nothing about. In the dark. In terrain you have never seen before—”
I held my hand up, and he stopped.
“I am trusting you to keep these people safe.”
“Are they even pe—”
“Do not finish that question,” I said, forcefully enough that he blanched. “I will say this one more time, as an order. I am trusting you to keep these people s
afe. To see them to our settlement. All alive, and as healthy as they are now. Understood?”
“Yes my lord,” he said. He saluted once, his face betraying how much he wanted to disobey. But then he ran off and I was all alone with my stupid decisions.
The beast was nearby. But he was tracking the group, still moving.
It was time to track the monster — the hunter had become the hunted. Which, you know, in hindsight, not at all the case.
I headed west, moving away from the river and uphill some. I wanted to make enough noise, figuratively, that the beast would follow me instead of the group. In that vein, I jabbed the spear into my leg, and got some blood pouring out. Then I spun the spear around in the air, to make sure the scent of blood was fresh.
The beast stopped moving.
And the tremors started towards me. It was coming. It’d smelled my blood, and it was most definitely thinking I was an easy target. No way it could know that I’d already healed.
I raced away from the river, and I could hear-feel the creature follow. It was closing on me — motherfucker moved fast. It was unnerving; a creature his size shouldn’t have been able to slip through the forest both as quietly and as quickly as he could. Had I not been tracking him exactly with my tremorsense, I doubt I would have been able to pick him out from the forest. Once I got going and my breathing was hard, I couldn’t hear him at all.
Thing was, I wanted to make it a bit of chase. I wanted to keep him after me as long as I could, to ensure the others had plenty of time to make an escape. I figured I could probably take the monster, and if not, if he did do some serious damage, and managed to kill me, well, I would get a nice hike across the Empire to get back to my village. For a second, I thought about changing my spawn point, but then I realized it wasn’t exactly the time to go about doing such a thing.
It was a pretty good plan. I mean, as far as my plans go. And I think it had a really good shot. Minus the cliffs.
