The Winter's Hunt
Page 9
He turned around to see his jarl locked in combat with the alpha, the handle of his greataxe in its powerful jaws. The alpha tearwolf was a head taller than the others, with a ruffled collar of fur around its neck that had an icy blue hue to it.
Torga felt a release of pressure on his weapon and immediately ducked under the swipe of a claw, spun around, and landed a chopping blow at the shin of the alpha. The growl of pain confirmed the hit had indeed hurt it enough to press a follow up attack. Torga thrusted the axehead like a polearm forward, and smashed the tearwolf in the face: however, the attack only infuriated the beast as it ducked low and tackled the mighty jarl over. A barrage of claws tore with primal instinct and rage at Torga, with a few that found their marks on his sides and shoulder. Torga put a boot under its hip, held the handle out as a brace against its bites, pressed hard and heaved the creature over his head.
Torga rolled to his feet and popped back up, with the alpha quick to follow. He took a quick glance to see his hunters stood the ground against the others well, and felt some calm enter him knowing his people were okay.
A few more howls were heard around the outer edges of the woods, and the calm was replaced by dread.
“We need to finish these ones off quickly!” he cried out as he resumed his battle with the alpha tearwolf.
“Fell the leader, my jarl, and the others should scatter!” Olvir called back as he stabbed another tearwolf the attacked one of the hunters.
The alpha jumped at Torga, and the jarl had seen the tactic with the others well enough to know how to counter it. He sidestepped the airborne beast and smashed his greataxe down on its back, as a satisfying gash of blood ripped open from the blow. The tearwolf crashed into the snow and rolled about, stunned from the blow and despite the forms of another three tearwolves that were quick on the approach, Torga stood ready for more fighting.
“I’ll deal with your friends, then get back to you,” Torga spat as he took a swing, gashed the creature in its side, and caused it to snarl in agony. He then faced the tearwolves ahead that dashed to help the alpha.
Chapter X: Hemmigatr Under Siege
Back at the village, Ryland, Kaito, and Leila were enjoying a mid-afternoon lunch, while they waited for the hunting party to return. The village was at a lull of peace, and the villagers happily went about their day. Since Torga had vowed to capture the culprits that had sabotaged their beloved home for so long, he took the hunting party as both a method to restock their food supply and hunt down the perpetrators involved.
“How long until Jeff returns from their supply run?” Ryland asked Kaito.
“Not sure. Hopefully by sundown, from what Donnie told me,” Kaito answered before he took a bite of his rabbit stew. “We’re nearly at the end of our first week, so it shouldn’t be a terribly large supply load from what I’d imagine.”
“Yes, I can understand that,” Ryland agreed as he took a sip of his honeyed black tea. He looked to Leila, who had become much more friendly to the duo since their arrival, and asked, “Well, Leila, I know your family is from this land obviously, what’s your family history?”
Leila looked to the bounty hunter and replied, “Well, my father took the jarldom before I was born. The previous jarl was apparently terrible to the people, and my father had enough of it. One day, he challenged him, and took the throne for it. Since then, Hemmigatr has thrived. He then met my mother, and then myself and my sister came down the line.”
“You have a sister?” Kaito asked curiously. “Where has she been?”
“She serves as an ambassador for Hjaalren, my sister Helga,” Leila answered. “Currently, she’s heading to a summit in Turidia where ambassadors from the Jepsward region meet to convene on matters. Since spring is coming up, it’s likely she’ll be one of two to also represent the Jepsward region and Hjaalren alongside High Jarl Ostein to the World Summit meeting this year in the summer.”
“The World Summit?” Kaito asked, intrigued.
“Yes. Every four years, the World Summit is held where representatives of twelve sovereigns come together with the World Guard to discuss matters of the nations. Hjaalren usually sees the high jarl attend, but he wants to bring Helga this year as well.”
“If you want to travel so badly, why haven’t you volunteered to ambassador for the country yourself?” Ryland asked. “Think about it: you get to see the world and meet different people in different lands!”
“I am no ambassador. I’m hardly even a jarl’s daughter,” Leila explained. “Helga has the patience and poise of a saint. I know for a fact I would not do well in such stuffy, uppity meetings, having to constantly be overly polite to all those people. Helga is a much more effective people person. Trust me, it’s not like I haven’t thought about it! But I sometimes even struggle to represent the jarldom here in a proper fashion. I’m more suited to the wilds and exploration, and fighting and drinking.”
Ryland shook his head and teased, “You fancy yourself more of a lad, huh?”
“Hey, not that far! I like to be ladylike too!” Leila whined back. “I just like having fun in different, more ostentatious ways than my sister. I still like to wear pretty things and do other maiden stuff!”
Kaito added, “That’s a surprise to Ryland. He didn’t quite take you for the gentler kind since we’ve been here.”
Leila chuckled some and retorted, “I suppose that makes sense. I wasn’t exactly kind when you both arrived. That being said, who doesn’t like strong women?”
“Strength manifests in more ways than one. Personally, I’m used to far more gentle females from the island that show their strength in feminine ways,” Kaito explained, and the elucidation almost sounded like poetry to the ears of both Leila and Ryland.
Leila turned to Ryland and asked, “And you?”
“Stonetowne is home to both kinds. It’s a fairly old-style place, removed from the world. It’s not to say we don’t have women who do things like lumber, help build, or drink. But they’re not as common as the ones who stay with the family and make the home. It just works better that way, we found. One of the girls back home, a longtime friend of mine, she rides a fine line of both.”
Leila saw Ryland’s eyes gaze off into the fireplace and asked, “What’s she like?”
“She has a wild spirit within her but doesn’t show it in the ways that I do. I love to hunt, travel, build, and fight. She likes to explore and see new things, usually with me. We’d often go explore the Talwar Mountains and I’d show her how to fire a bow and arrow. She never felt like she had to prove herself, just more so reveled in the joy of being there in the moment.”
“I see,” Leila said, surprised and yet fascinated by such a reminiscent explanation from one as Ryland. “You seem quite fond of her.”
“She was one of the first friends I ever made when I arrived in Stonetowne as a kid,” Ryland explained. “How could I not be?”
“Arrived? You mean you’re not from Stonetowne originally?”
“Not quite. My family is from around the Halthian Rim in Dialigo, but my adoptive father lived in Stonetowne when he got out of the World Guard in Dialigo. My parents went to visit him when I was five, for he was a dear family friend. Then my parents went out to sea for an emergency and en route back to the outer region of the Halthian Rim, were shipwrecked. From there, I grew up in Stonetowne.”
Leila’s face gave one of surprise and after a pause of silence, said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that happened to your parents at such an age.”
“No apologies needed; in addition to getting to the Green Frontier, I want to search for them, and see if they’re alive. The World Guard never confirmed their deaths, and they’re fairly thorough with things like that. I’ll at least bank on them still having a chance at being alive, at least.”
Leila was in awe at Ryland’s outlook on finding them, and how he kept such an upbeat attitude about it.
As Ryland swigged down another gulp of tea, one of the guards entered the longhouse.
“They are?!” Leila asked, surprised and on edge.
“Yes. The outer watches have relayed they’re less than a mile out and encroaching on the village. Shall we prepare to combat them?”
“Without a doubt. Let’s intercept them at the outskirts to prevent them from coming in,” Leila commanded as she grabbed her bow and arrow, as well as her greataxe.
Kaito and Ryland stood up at once, and the three headed out of the longhouse to go deal with the oncoming threat.
The trio moved with the guards to deal with the tearwolves, for most of the top fighting force was out hunting. Ryland, Leila, and Kaito led the way as they passed all the wooden and stone houses to the outskirts. The villagers all cast faces of worry, fear, and uncertainty as they gazed upon the defense party to save them from the pack that approached.
One of the guards quickened the pace and took point, and the others followed behind. Ryland already had a grip on his axe handle and expected a difficult fight. Kaito had similar thoughts and felt his pre-fight instincts already kick in as the group moved past the gates to the outskirts where more guards were posted up on the watchtowers.
As the team of ten arrived at the outskirts, a long tense silent drew out as everyone searched for the lupine terrors. Sure enough, white movements with low growls appeared at the edge of the tree line to the woods that led north to the reach. The number of wolves that awaited were beyond expectation.
“…I count at least seven right off the line,” the guard calmly relayed to the group. “This is a first. An entire pack, trying to push its way into the village?”
“They’ve always left us alone…why would they be so keen to come here?” Leila asked.
Ryland drew his axe, and replied, “Don’t know. Let’s worry about it once we handle these things.”
The tearwolves broke into a run and tore off across the snowy field that led to the outskirts gate. The guards wasted no time in quickly retaliating with a quick fire of arrows towards the oncoming beasts. Several of the arrows fell two where they stood, but the other five only picked up the pace and closed the distance to the party where they violently clashed.
Leila slammed one out of the air down with her greataxe and followed up with a finishing stroke to the neck. Two more quickly ambushed and took down three guards, the tandem work of the wolves too much for the trio caught by surprise.
Ryland saw one hurtle towards him in the air, a white airborne weapon of claws, muscle, and teeth, and spun in a sweeping motion. His left arm buckler smashed into the tearwolf’s face and knocked it to the side with some effort. His axe followed right behind the hit and split into the creature’s skull, with blood and bone left on the snow.
Kaito sprang into action and jumped back to two of the guards and let them thrust at the beasts to distract them. He then dashed forth, leaped into the air, and threw a sharp double kick in between them. His feet hit each head of the fearsome foes, which gave the guards the opening they needed to plunge their spears into their barrel chests and drop them dead.
Two more came from behind and bore down on the guards from behind, which left them a bloody mess as their comrades came to rescue them. The two wolves broke away and rejoined the other pair, which then circled the five remaining combatants. The tension from the standoff as heavy as the winter air outside, while both sides locked eyes in a brief moment of respite. The village team joined back-to-back and faced outward towards the lupine creatures with bated breaths.
The four tearwolves circled in a ring of white fur, red eyes, snarling snouts, and bloodlust as they never broke eye contact for a second.
“Ryland, Leila, follow my lead,” Kaito said as Leila glanced sidelong at him with a look of confusion to what he was set to do. Ryland, however, instinctively followed his lead and Kaito broke the formation to charge for the wolves.
Two of the wolves leaped forth and took Kaito’s bait. The sanken master halted his charge and backflipped into the air and kicked one in the mouth with powerful momentum. As it knocked the wolf back, Ryland ran out and brought his axe down into the second one’s side, the sounds of ribs cracking having confirmed the hit. Both wolves were stunned on their sides, and Ryland and Kaito moved forward to deliver a killing blow to each. The final two wolves made their move and sprung at the hunters, but the guards and Leila were privy to their plan by then.
Spears found their marks on the last two tearwolves, and Leila personally saw that both of their heads would leave their bodies once she hacked both beasts at their necks.
The group caught their breaths, for the cold air had sapped most of it during the exchange. The guards still upright went to check on their fallen comrades and saw that all but one had only moderate injuries. The final guard was laid out, as blood squirted from his neck: the tearwolves had ripped his throat out in a vicious attack, and it was only a matter of seconds before the guard took his last breath. The others were helped to their feet and the more capable ones helped the ones that couldn’t move as well.
“I believe we’re all accounted for, save Hal,” the head guard explained. “We’ll return for his body later.
Another howl pierced the air, that came from the other side of the woods. Leila’s blood went cold with terrifying realization, as did everyone else’s in a similar fashion: more were in the village. Their thoughts were confirmed as the voices of panicked villagers soon followed.
“They’re in the village! We need to help the others stop them!” Leila cried.
“We’ll catch up, Lady Leila,” the lead guard said to Leila.
Ryland and Kaito gave a quick nod to the jarl’s daughter and broke into a quickened jog to make haste while not burn too much breath in the harsh cold.
Back at the village, the trio arrived and saw the remaining guards and combat-able villagers fight for their lives against the winter beasts.
“How many of them are there?!” Leila cried out in exasperation, baffled by their sudden appearance.
“We’ll count when they’re all dead: come on!” Ryland called to her as he moved to one that tackled down a villager. Ryland quietly and quickly approached from behind and delivered a punishing swing, one that smashed into the brains of the tearwolf, and saw it drop limp over the villager. He then turned around and found another one that went to bear down on an old woman, enfeebled by age.
This only brought a fresh injection of anger in Ryland’s blood as he dashed furiously to meet it and slashed a hole in its throat. The creature turned to see who the attacker was, only to receive another axe blow to the snout. Blood flew off the wolf and onto Ryland’s face, which only further incensed him into battle. Something inside Ryland had given way to where he felt his base fear and caution give way to unfettered fury, a burning to fight and kill in such a desperate moment.
Kaito sprung off the walls of the houses for added height and smashed down a fatal elbow into the head of one of the beasts, as a crack was heard from the blow. The tearwolf went stiff as a board and fell over, defeated from such a blow.
The scream of a little girl was heard followed by Leila’s and Kaito turned around to see what the noise was.
Another tearwolf dragged a small girl by her foot, with hair down to the back of her neck, and horrified, innocent brown eyes, the child clawed and screamed for help.
“Gida!!!” Leila shouted to her and charged for the beast that held the young girl. A primal instinct almost took over Leila, as she saw one of the girls of the village she had grown quite close to, dragged off by one of the ferocious tearwolves to likely turn into a meal. Not if she could help it, Leila thought as she ran for the beast.
Two more tearwolves flanked from both sides of the Jarl’s daughter and threatened to overtake her as Kaito and Ryland both stormed in to halt them with a strike to stop their charges.
“Get her back!!!” Ryland roared to her, his face, right arm,
and chest smattered in blood. His eyes and teeth were furious, almost as if he became one of the wolves they fought: it was an unsettling look that Leila hadn’t seen except from her father when he was overtaken by the thrill of battle himself.
Leila advanced and caught up to the lupine beast as Gida called out with tear-streaked eyes, “Leila!!! SAVE MEEEE!!!!”
Leila’s fear disappeared as her need to protect Gida far exceeded any concern for the tearwolf. Leila caught up to the creature, and it turned to see a greataxe slice through its arm and lop it off. The tearwolf howled in agony as blood flung from the wound onto the snowy ground. Leila followed up with another attack, a risky overhead chop that took a second to wind up for but paid off when it split the creature in half down to its chest.
Leila caught her breath and ran over to the young girl, then asked, “By the gods, are you alright?!”
“I-I’m okay…thank you Leila,” Gida sobbed back as she buried her face into Leila’s shirt. Leila looked up and saw the village on the verge of slaying the rest of the creatures, thanks in part to the intervention of the trio and guards that caught up to them. While Leila had her share of battles against a few of the tearwolves, and many fistfights at the bar, she had never seen brutality like the tearwolves in such a large group, actively hunting down the villagers. Or at least, so they tried.
Among the fighting, Leila saw Kaito aid more of the guards, which proved effective enough. However, one bloody sight almost ensorcelled her to the spot, to where she couldn’t look away. She saw Ryland’s face, a pure totem of focus and rage, as he would chase down and kill tearwolf after tearwolf.
His blows became more lethal, quicker, more well-aimed, and well-timed as he put one after another to the axe. That, however, wasn’t the scariest part for Leila to see: the scary part was Ryland deliver several more furious blows to an already dead beast before he went for another.
One last tearwolf stood amongst them, with the others slain or having escaped the fighting. It lunged for Ryland, to which the bounty hunter blocked with his buckler for the beast to chew down on. Instead of trying to fight the momentum of the tackle, Ryland rolled backward with it and flung it through the air. It crashed on the ground and by the time it could get up, Ryland already had a swing from axe down on it. His axe chopped into its neck and stunned the beast only further. Ryland went to pull his axe away, only to find it wouldn’t dislodge immediately. He let go of the grip, balled his fists up, and pummeled the beast senseless.