Tribe Master

by Noah Layton

  An explosion of howling sounded out. It wasn’t just coming from the wolf that had been struck, but the others in its small pack, too.

  ‘Shit…’ I muttered. ‘That doesn’t sound good.’

  ‘No, it does not.’

  The shape in the grass had halted momentarily after the strike of the arrow, but as its howling chorus came to an end it continued its sprint, breaking into it instantly.

  The wolf rushed from the grass and stampeded towards the house in the moonlight. It was bigger than any I had seen on Earth; three-feet tall and five-feet long, a squat, heavy creature with knotted grey fur and gnashing teeth that snarled at us below dead, black eyes.

  Lara’s arrow, which was sticking firmly into its body just below its neck, had definitely served to piss it off.

  The wolf reached the house but didn’t slow; it hurled itself at the front door, using its momentum to throw the side of its body against the surface.

  The strike was so strong that I felt the floorboards vibrate.

  On a given night they would have circled the house and likely left it alone, but one wolf was now under attack, and the others knew about it.

  Through the grass on each side of the pasture, two more shapes arced from the forest and made their swift approach towards us.

  There was only room for one of us to attack from the window, and Lara was taking the lead.

  She leaned out the window, producing more arrows, and fired them quickly at the wolf by the door. A second, a third.

  As the fourth hit there was another strike against the front door, and I heard the wood splinter.

  ‘It’s down, but the others are almost here,’ Lara said. ‘They’re going to get through. We need a plan.’

  I already knew what I was going to have to do.

  I turned to look back at the hallway, knowing that Jeremiah was back there.

  Do it or die.

  ‘Master?!’

  I moved Lara aside and equipped the power stone, readying my hand before me as I peered out. The two wolves were racing towards the door, right where their fallen companion was lying.

  ‘Arcania!'

  The ball of purple fire formed quickly in my hands. I launched it straight at the wolves just as they reached the door.

  One darted to the side, dodging it as the trodden ground scattered with low purple flames. The second remaining wolf launched its attack on the door. It struck the wood just as the flames hit its side.

  This time the wood fractured completely, caving in. The wolf may have continued its attack upon the house, but my spell had done its damage; it whimpered out, recoiling and dashing away.

  The first wolf that had managed to dodge it took off to the left, hurrying out of sight too.

  The pattering footsteps on both sides eventually faded from earshot, but that didn’t mean they had left the pasture.

  ‘Well that worked,’ Lara said.

  ‘No shit,’ I smiled nervously. ‘But they’re not down yet.’

  ‘They’ll be back.’

  We had to go on the offensive.

  I hurried into the hallway with Lara right behind me, stowing away the power stone and drawing my sword.

  ‘What was that noise?’ Jeremiah asked from the open attic as we passed.

  ‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘One’s dead, and another hurt. Stay hidden.’

  Our hosts did as they were told.

  We descended the stairs slowly, our weapons drawn and at the ready. Already I was caught between my longsword and my magic; if I had to switch to Arcane Blast I would need to be quick, and it would mean losing my ability to properly wield my melee weapon.

  With two hands I could command the longsword properly, but it offered a lot less power against the wolves than my magic – not to mention it could manage as many strikes as I required.

  An unsettling quiet had set itself over the kitchen. Moonlight shone through the front door, or what was left of it at least. The bar had been smashed in two by the brute force of the wolves’ skulls, and the door was hanging off its hinges.

  We were open to attack, but the monsters were nowhere to be seen.

  I nodded at Lara and she in return. I led us towards the door, climbing over the smashed wood and into the front yard of the house.

  ‘You see them?’ I asked, searching the darkness.

  ‘Nowhere,’ Lara whispered. ‘Wait…’

  I held my breath, listening hard, and heard it.

  There was a rustling coming from our left towards the forest. Focusing on it and scanning the space, I saw it move.

  The wolf dashed from the forest and into the tall grass. We traced it until it reached a small verge and went out of sight.

  ‘Shit…’ I muttered, keeping my sword ready. ‘You see it?’

  ‘Not yet…’

  The silence in the pasture drew out torturously. The dying purple embers of the Arcane Blast were going out behind us.

  The grass to our left suddenly rustled, and the wolf emerged.

  Lara had time to fire an arrow just as it pounced from the ground straight at us. It struck the wolf in the side of the head, releasing a sharp yelp. It was the one that had been injured, but it was showing no sign of giving up.

  We both dove to the sides, splitting up. The wolf’s mane grazed past my shirt as it passed us, its gnashing teeth missing my shoulder by inches.

  We turned just as it hit the ground, circling around and back to stare us down.

  Lara didn’t hesitate. She fired another arrow.

  It should have been the end for the creature, but with a combination of the darkness and the wolf’s heightened senses, it missed by a miniscule amount.

  It should have gone for her first as she was reloading another arrow, and the panic on her face was apparent, but instead it eyed me down and sprinted at me.

  My heart pounded hard as it closed in. I held my blade in both hands defensively before my body as it went for another flying attack.

  Its jaws wrapped around the blade, sending me falling onto my ass. The force knocked the wind out of me, but there was no way I was giving up.

  It gnarled and gnashed atop me, its teeth clenching around the blade as it cut into its gums, but it continued on relentlessly with no regard for itself. The tip was forced down against the ground next to me; I could slice to the left and cause some damage but there would be nothing to protect me from its brutal bite.

  With no other options, I grabbed the exposed end of my blade with my other hand and pushed back. I had to tighten my grip, the blade digging into my palm painfully as the warm sensation of my own blood spilled across my hand in a quick flow.

  I grunted hard with strength, then yelled out fiercely as my arms strained to push back. Bending my leg, I kneed the creature as hard as I could in its body.

  With the shock the wolf relented for the briefest of moments, giving me time to shove it back hard. It staggered back from my body, its scarred mouth sending blood dripping from its gaping maw.

  I pushed up, ready to take it on again. My bloody hand met my other as I took a grip on the handle of my sword once again.

  WHIP.

  The sound of the air cutting was music to my ears. Another arrow slammed into the side of the wolf’s neck, releasing a howl from its lungs. It looked between I and Lara with a mix of anger and pain. It took a few steps back, then turned hard and darted back into the grass towards the forest.

  ‘Its almost down, Jack,’ Lara said. ‘We need to catch up with it.’

  ‘You go,’ I commanded, catching my breath, ‘I need to guard the house.’

  ‘We can’t split up! We’ll be too undefended.’

  ‘These things are smart. If the last one can see us right now it’ll go for the house.’

  ‘Jeremiah and Santana are in the attic. They’ll be fine.’

  ‘True, but fighting in a confined space will spell death for both of us. You said that these things are smart. It’ll know not to come out.’

  Lara glanced
between the grass and the door.

  ‘I’ll be right back.’

  She turned and dashed into the grass, heading over the verge and out of sight.

  I backed towards the door, checking my palm. The cut wasn’t too deep, but it would need to be cleaned soon.

  ‘Jack?’ Jeremiah’s voice called down the stairs from the attic. ‘Are you there?’

  ‘I’m here. There are two left. Lara’s dealing with one.’

  ‘And the other?’

  ‘I’m still working on that. Sit tight.’

  ‘Do what now?’

  ‘Just stay up there.’

  I tore the sleeve from my overshirt and wrapped it around my hand in a makeshift bandage, once again taking my weapon in my grasp.

  It was quiet across the pasture where Lara had gone. I was alone.

  And the third wolf was nowhere to be seen.

  Thud.

  The sound was too loud to have come from something random, but too muffled to be in close proximity – but I knew the direction it had come from.

  It was the back of the house.

  I headed around, creeping to the edge and looking out to see a lone rabbit hopping in the moonlight. It paused, its body rigid as it looked over at my still figure.

  Suddenly the third wolf smashed through the fence. The rabbit was fast, but the unexpected attack from the predator was too much for it. It wrapped its teeth around the rabbit and ended it instantly, hurling its tiny body about.

  It didn’t even move to eat it. All it did was savagely throw it around before chucking its corpse against the fence.

  And from the wolf’s fur emanated the purple embers of my spell.

  If the look on the previous wolf’s face had previously been one of anger, this was one of unabridged rage.

  Fuck.

  I turned and dashed back to the front of the house. The wolf howled at my heels.

  Turning by the door, it sprinted around the side of the house and made right for me.

  This time I was ready for the strike. I timed the hit and struck the wolf in the side of the head, slicing its jaw open on one side and sending it crashing against the side of the house.

  It staggered to its feet as I backed away in the direction of the grass.

  ‘LARA!’

  No response met my call.

  The wolf mounted another attack. I readied another swipe, cleaving into the wolf’s side, but in doing so I was defenceless. Its front teeth sank into my arm, knocking my sword from my hand.

  I yelled out in pain. It was like slamming my arm against broken glass.

  With no weapon, I formed a fist and gut-punched the wolf hard. Just like the second, it released its grip just long enough for me to pull my arm free.

  I could hear the tearing of my own flesh.

  Holding my arm desperately, I moved away from the wolf towards the front door of the house. The creature moved slowly in my direction, one paw after the other, staring me down.

  It had a taste for me now.

  There was no way I would have enough time to cast Arcane Blast, even if my arm did work. The creature was yards away. I was out of options.

  I turned and dashed into the house, kicking past the broken door. The wolf barked hungrily and sprinted after me.

  With one arm bleeding, I used the other on the bannister to propel myself three steps at a time to the first floor.

  ‘Jack?’

  Santana’s voice called out to me.

  ‘Stay up there!’

  I could lure it to one of the bedroom’s and bar the door. It would give me enough time to clamber out of one of the windows.

  But the wolf had caught up too quickly.

  Yards along the hallway I heard it leap onto the landing. I turned to see it sprinting at me.

  This was it. This was how I ended.

  It leaped through the air at me.

  CRUNCH.

  The wolf’s mutilated, horrific mouth went wide. In the moonlight through the hallway window I saw its dead black eyes ignite with a devilish white fire.

  The sound should have been my skull breaking into bits beneath its bite – but it wasn’t.

  Seemingly from nowhere an arrow slammed into the wolf’s head. The force was so strong that it exploded through its brain, the arrowhead sliding through the bottom of its jaw and out.

  Its body went limp in mid-air. It hit the ground and slid to a spot just a few inches from my feet.

  I was backed against the door, bruised and bleeding, panting hard with wide eyes.

  At first I thought the arrow had come from Lara, but as I examined the wolf I realised that it was no regular arrow. This was a bolt.

  I stepped over its corpse to the spot beneath the attic trapdoor and looked up.

  It wasn’t Jeremiah looking down at me – it was Santana. The heavy crossbow was in her hands. It was the only reason they weren’t shaking.

  ‘Holy shit…’ I panted. ‘Thanks.’

  Santana managed a smile before dropping the crossbow to her side. I caught sight of Jeremiah patting her on the shoulder and nodding. Maybe he would have been pissed off, but the occasion called for it.

  Remembering Lara, I hurried downstairs and into the clearing. I snatched up my sword and saw her hurrying back across the pasture, her bow at the ready.

  ‘It’s dead,’ she shouted. ‘Where’s the last one?’

  ‘In the hallway upstairs.’

  ‘You killed it?’

  ‘Uhh… Kind of.’

  ‘What do you mean kind of?’

  Two kills to Lara and one to Santana. Even if I had done some damage and paid my dues in the form of a cut-up right arm, how the hell was I ever going to live this down?

  Chapter Twelve

  With the fight over, Jeremiah and Santana couldn’t be more thankful. While Lara attempted to cover the door for the night using various pieces of wood that were on the property, he disinfected my arm and hand, then patched me up.

  It had been days since the incident on the road with the bandits when Ariadne had had to fix my shoulder up, and I would never get used to the sensation of it, but Jeremiah’s clerical skills had me on the mend in no time.

  Lara helped me up to bed and we slept through the remaining night, awakening the next day to a breakfast of boar meat sandwiches from Jeremiah and fresh milk served by Santana, brought from the taurems that morning.

  ‘This is unbelievable,’ I said, drinking it back. ‘Do you eat like this every day?’

  ‘We may be short on funds,’ Santana replied, ‘but when living on a farm, food comes first. It is important to eat well. This is the last of the boar meat we have.’

  ‘We’ve been getting by,’ I replied. ‘It’s still early days at our tribe, and diversifying our food is going to be something that we’ll need to work on. I’m glad that’s your field of expertise.’

  ‘Damn right,’ Lara said. ‘I haven’t been there long at all, but I’m already sick of seeing corn… Master.’

  ‘We have tomatoes, too,’ I replied. ‘And…’ I glanced over at Lara. ‘The piglets.’

  ‘Oh no… I hope they’re all right.’

  ‘We need to get moving soon. There’s a lot to shift.’

  My travels to and from the trading post had been relatively simplistic so far; fill the cart with corn, bring Alorion or Ariadne along and hit the road.

  This time things would be a little trickier. I had moved house more than a few times back on Earth, and I knew the golden rule of moving; you don’t realise how much crap you have until you have to move it to a new house.

  ‘Bring everything you need. We’ll come back here in the future, but I don’t know when that will be.’

  Santana and I prepped the horses and taurems at the front. The horses each had a cart – Jeremiah had one in the back yard that we set up in no time.

  After collecting our immediate belongings, Jeremiah and Santana loaded their primary possessions onto the cart. We were fortunate enough to be able to stow
their beds and a few heir looms that they held dear, as well as their limited food stores from the kitchen.

  To my surprise the whole process only took an hour. Our convoy was ready to move.

  ‘Is that everything?’

  ‘I think so,’ Jeremiah replied, looking back at the house. ‘It just feels strange to be leaving this place behind so soon.’

  ‘It will be fine, father,’ Santana replied. ‘I have a good feeling about our future.’

  She gave me a warm smile which I returned. I had already set aside her words in the stable yesterday as me being a dumbass. After the previous day’s events with Lara in bed my head was clear, focusing on nothing but the road ahead.

  ‘I do wish we had cleared these wolves from the land, though,’ Jeremiah continued. ‘They will start to smell soon. Who knows what infestations they will bring with them?’

  ‘So let’s bring them along,’ Lara suggested.

  ‘What for?’ I asked.

  ‘We can use their fur and hides for crafting. The meat will be spoiled but we can still extract the okolla from its liver and kidneys.’

  ‘It’s what?’

  ‘This particular breed of wolf has valuable substances in its organs. They are very important for certain potions, and very difficult to acquire. We could sell them for a handsome profit.’

  ‘I’m fine if you’re okay helping me carry them. I just wonder where we’re going to put the piglets. We’ve got no way to herd them all the way back to our land.’

  ‘If they’re still there,’ Lara said. ‘We don’t know if the wolves had a little starter before they showed up last night.’

  ‘You’re sick,’ I said, shaking my head.

  ‘I’m just saying! We should prepare for anything.’

  Twenty minutes later we had moved the corpses of the wolves onto the cart. They were far from festering and largely intact. After stowing them carefully, I fashioned a separator from some broken wood to form a small space for the piglets, matted with hay.

  Out of curiosity I checked the inventory of both carts. There plenty of spaces still remaining.

  I just hoped we would have enough left for the piglets.

  Our convoy packed and prepared, we hit the road.

  Despite Lara’s cynicism about the safety of the piglets, she still pointed it out to me when we arrived at the spot near the road.