Tribe Master

by Noah Layton

  ‘You and I think the same way,’ I replied. ‘That totem by the tree isn’t called weapons. It’s called defence, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re defending our land. And if that means killing something, then so be it.’

  Jeremiah nodded and hit the accept button.

  I returned to the Defence Totem for what may have been the last time and entered the building. Pulling up my inventory, I tapped the schematic symbol.

  Schematic: Vicious Harpoon Cannon

  Add to Defence Totem?

  I pressed accept and the schematic disappeared from my inventory, and I entered the building.

  After placing a hand on the anvil I cycled through the possible items to find the Vicious Harpoon Cannon and selected it.

  Unable to craft. Requires Iron Bar x30, Wood x10

  Includes one harpoon.

  The wood wouldn’t be a problem, but the iron?

  ‘Where the hell am I supposed to get 30 iron bars from?’

  After visiting the Rourke house, as well as Tormus and Eri and my own storage house, I had a grand total of 7 in my possession. I was less than a quarter of the way towards my goal.

  And even after all of that, I would have only one harpoon. I would have one shot at taking down the mother wolf.

  If I missed, I and my people would be dead.

  No pressure.

  I scrolled through the crafting list, sliding it back and forth with my finger as I thought.

  But the answer was right in front of me, right at the bottom of the list.

  Deconstruct

  I selected it and read the instructions back.

  Insert items from your inventory to deconstruct for raw materials.

  If I had anything made of iron I could deconstruct it for iron bars.

  For the next hour I scoured the land for every possible weapon and tool that I could break down. By the time I had made my way around everyone, the only things we had left were my sword and the crossbow that Santana had used to kill the wolf back at their pasture – a family heirloom that couldn’t just be melted down.

  When all was said and done, I had 32 iron bars in my possession. The wood had been easily collected, and now I was back at the defence structure, joined by Alorion.

  ‘Do you think this will work, master?’

  ‘The only way we’ll know is if we give it a shot.’

  Construct?

  I pressed the button. The moment I released my finger, the whole building began to shake.

  ‘What the hell is going on?’ I shouted.

  ‘More power, more energy, master!’ He shouted back at me. ‘You have only just arrived in Agraria. Crafting such a complex item carries risk.’

  ‘What risk?’

  ‘The building coming down.’

  ‘Are you fucking serious?’

  I moved to run outside, but just as I did the shaking stopped.

  Looking back into the centre of the room, the shape began to appear. The harpoon cannon stood around chest height. It was a squat, bulky weapon with a pair of wrought metal handles and the harpoon itself leaning against it, ready to be mounted and fired.

  ‘Rather impressive,’ Alorion said in earnest.

  ‘You’re telling me. I’m going to need some help carrying this.’

  Tormus, Jeremiah and I each took a side and hoisted the cannon into the field on the southern side. It was the most strategic point – out in the open so that the mother wolf couldn’t seek any defences, and far enough away from the house where everybody would take shelter.

  I tested it alone for some time, aiming it carefully and getting a feel for the weight, until the girls came over to see me.

  It wasn’t just Ariadne and Lara, but Santana joining them. Even if she wasn’t one of my wives yet, she still had a worry in her eyes.

  ‘How is the weapon?’ Ariadne asked.

  ‘Strong. A good hit will take the mother wolf out.’

  ‘Listen…’ Lara said. ‘We just came to give you well wishes, master, and… To tell you that we love you.’

  ‘I love you too,’ I said, looking between them. ‘Come here.’

  I embraced them both as they nuzzled into my shoulders.

  ‘You don’t need to worry about me,’ I said quickly. ‘It’s going to be fine. We’re going to kill this thing, and everything will be all right.’

  I looked over at Santana, who had folded her arms with trepidation.

  ‘Could I talk with you for a moment, master?’ She said. ‘In private…?’

  ‘Of course.’ I nodded to the girls and they headed back to the tree.

  ‘What’s up? Did you want to wish me luck too? I’m not going to need it.’

  ‘You say that,’ she said, forcing a smile. ‘I wonder if you really mean it.’

  I didn’t respond.

  ‘I have another idea,’ she continued, ‘but it is not one that I want to discuss around my father. If you miss, or if this doesn’t work, it may be a better idea to use the land to kill this creature.’

  ‘How would we do that?’

  ‘Do you remember in the map room, Ark Point?’

  ‘I saw it when we first built the map room. It’s a quarry, isn’t it?’

  ‘A pit. I passed it once some years ago. It is a large area, and a dangerous one. I was always warned not to go near it, and I could see why. If someone were to fall into it, it would spell instant death. Or something, in our case. If we could somehow lure the mother wolf there, we could bring it to its own death.’

  ‘How would we get it there?’

  ‘The only way we can match its speed is on horseback, and seeing as I am the best rider…’

  ‘No. No way. If you think that I’m going to let you act as bait so that thing can chase you down you can forget it.’

  ‘Let me? So I have to ask permission to save your life?’

  ‘I may be your tribe master, but I’m not asking you from that position. I’m asking you because I care about you. Do you think just because I have two other women in my life that you’re just another random one to me? Well you’re not. I know we’ve only known each other for a few days but you’re important to me.’

  ‘… I am?’

  ‘Of course you are. If your father doesn’t end up murdering me I’d ask you in an instant to be my wife, just like I did with Lara and Ariadne.’

  ‘You really want that?’

  ‘I don’t have a single doubt in my mind.’

  ‘Then why not ask me to be your wife?’

  ‘I will… Tomorrow, when the mother wolf is dead.’

  Santana smiled at me, her chest rising and falling intensely.

  ‘Can you see my father?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Do you see my father anywhere?’

  I scanned the surrounding fields, but saw him nowhere.

  ‘No, I can’t.’

  ‘Good.’

  Santana hurried up to me pressed her lips against mine, kissing me passionately. Alarm bells rang in my head at the prospect that Jeremiah could be hidden somewhere, but it felt too right. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her hard, before she pulled away.

  ‘I’ll see you in the morning,’ she said, turning and walking away from me. She looked over her shoulder at me one last time and soundlessly mouthed that one little word. Master.

  That mischievous smile that she had given me last night after the forest wasn’t on her face though. She lowered her head and left me there, there to face the monster on my own.

  I had told them that I would see them tomorrow, that everything would be all right, but I really didn’t believe that. I was sure that I would face be facing my death, because every other possibility had dried up.

  I may have been out in the open, but I was backed into the tightest corner of my life.

  ***

  Hours later, night fell. With the harpoon cannon placed, the remains of the dead wolves set down next to me in a sack, and everybody back at Tormus and Eri’s house, all I could do
was wait.

  With every slip of the sun on the horizon I could see the shadows growing and the light disappearing behind me until it reached the treeline.

  The lights at the house went out. Silence fell over the land before it was quickly replaced by the occasional screeching of an animal in the forest, or the sound of a branch crunching under something huge.

  The whole time I rotated the cannon in the direction of every noise, right up until that familiar thud sounded.

  It had come from the eastern side, right where we had dug the remains up.

  The ones that were now sitting in the sack next to me.

  There was a series of short, random thuds, before a long silence fell. The forest had gone quiet. There wasn’t even a breeze moving through the grass that surrounded me.

  Suddenly a howling screech the likes of which I had never heard ran through the sky. It could have been from the lungs of a thousand wolves, but this only belonged to the one that wanted me dead.

  As the final echo of the wolf’s howl ended, the thudding footsteps began like a drumbeat. They slammed into the ground, growing louder and louder as the monster got closer.

  My sweating hands held tight on the handles of the harpoon cannon. I searched in the shadows across the field, eventually seeing the huge thing rush past the edge of the tree and come sprinting towards me.

  I aimed the harpoon as the mother stopped the curve of her approach and made a beeline for me. 60 yards.

  50 yards.

  30.

  I pulled the trigger.

  BOOM.

  I was prepared for the recoil, but the name vicious suddenly made sense. The force almost pulled my shoulders out of their sockets.

  The spear connected with the wolf with a crunch. The mother wolf hit the ground and slid through the grass towards me.

  I jumped from the cannon handles and jolted backwards, drawing my sword quickly and preparing for the mother wolf to mount an attack.

  Her shape was only moving slightly in the throes of pain. The length of the harpoon was sticking out of her, but from so many yards away I couldn’t tell where it had hit her.

  I approached and tried to make it out. Wolves were smart, but were they smart enough to play dead while their prey approached?

  Terror ran through me. My eyes were wide as I examined the body. It was jerking and grunting, like it was trying to cough something out.

  The harpoon had smashed straight through its left eye and into its head, descending a little into its neck.

  The wolf’s mouth gnashed suddenly. I jumped back, ready to rush forward and take a swipe to finish it off.

  Another gnashing of teeth, its mouth wider this time.

  I pounced forward and moved to force my blade into its head. Just as I did its maw opened a third time. My blade moved between its jagged teeth, and before I could remove it, it bit down once again.

  I felt the blade tear through its gums, followed by the squelch of blood and flesh, but it was too late to withdraw my blade.

  The horrible sound of metal ripping hit my ears. The handle of my sword was taken from my hands.

  The wolf staggered to its feet and shook its head wildly with the harpoon still lodged in its head, then threw what remained of my sword somewhere into the grass.

  Fuck.

  I arced around the cannon, snatched up the bag of wolf remains and sprinted across the field to the stables. Ark Point was my only chance now, but that could mean throwing myself off the edge in the process.

  My options had dried up fast and this was the only way forward.

  Domino and Myranthia were going berserk in the presence of the mother wolf. I calmed Domino as quickly as I could, unhitched him from the post in the stables and jumped into the saddle.

  I went to prompt him onwards but he was way ahead of me. Domino surged forward, and all I had to do was direct him.

  The moment we left the shelter of the tree’s branches the mother wolf was in pursuit. Her staggering run with the harpoon still protruding from her face was enough for her to keep up with me.

  Domino hit the forest in seconds, and with the bag in hand we raced between trunks.

  For my horse and I it was a case of dodging tree trunks and any other obstacles in our way. I was only a beginner, but commanding Domino wasn’t my priority – getting as far away from the mother wolf as I could was.

  For the wolf it was a totally different game. I had been shot at before and the sharp sounds of small explosions in gun barrels followed by the cutting of air was something I would never forget, but the crunching of trees being ripped apart by a stampeding monster was now on the same list.

  The wolves at the Rourke homestead had smashed through the front door when injured – this one was taking down whole trees in its angered sprint towards me.

  Domino neighed wildly as he scraped past the sharp bark of two narrow trees, rushing us on faster and faster. We were travelling roughly towards the pit, but in the darkness I had no way to gage it.

  Snap.

  My horse screamed out. The sound was almost human.

  My body jerked forward and with the sack-tie still wrapped around my wrist I went flying through the air and into the undergrowth.

  The skin on my arms was scuffed and scratched from the hit but otherwise I was fine.

  I scrambled to my feet and saw my horse on its side, crying out in pain.

  That crunch hadn’t been a branch snapping beneath one of its hoofs. It had been one of its legs.

  It staggered in panic before dropping down to the ground and rolling madly.

  The closest trunk slammed to the side, and the mother wolf appeared. It opened its mad maw and sank its teeth into my horse, shaking its body around insanely.

  This was a nightmare. It was being torn to pieces before my eyes, and it would go for me next.

  ‘JACK!’

  The mother wolf heard the bawling shout. I looked in the direction of the voice and saw a rider on horseback approaching – the last person that I wanted to see.

  ‘Get on!’

  Santana galloped into the clearing, drawing Myranthia to a screeching halt. I jumped onto the horse’s back and we set off immediately.

  ‘What the hell are you doing?!’

  ‘Saving your life. I told you, you need an experienced rider.’

  I wanted to argue, but she was right. No matter how much I wanted her safe, this was the only way forward.

  Myranthia’s huge body galloped forward heavily, having no trouble holding us both. The moment we moved back through the trees I heard the body of Domino hit the ground, and the thudding of the mother wolf coming after us once again.

  ‘How far are we?’

  ‘Not far. We can make it… I think.’

  We hit the forest hard. My surroundings turned into a blurred mess of silhouetted shapes and hungry growls.

  I dared to look over my shoulder, seeing the mother wolf scrambling between trees and knocking the weaker ones from her path.

  Suddenly the sound of crunching shrubbery and rustling leaves vanished.

  We were out in the open, and the ledge was only twenty yards off.

  Overhead, the moon shone down on us, and for a second I thought that I had never seen a more beautiful place.

  Then reality flooded back, and the wolf exploded from the forest to confront me.

  With the bag of remains in hand I jumped from Myranthia and backed up towards the cliff edge. Santana commanded her horse to the side and hopped from its back, moving them both away.

  The mother wolf looked between us both, deciding who to go for.

  ‘Jack…’

  ‘Come on, you ugly son-of-a-bitch,’ I called over to the mother wolf. It was edging forward with small steps, its eyes flitting between myself and Santana.

  For a moment that was too long, it looked over at her. Its teeth bore, and it began to growl.

  I reached into the sack and pulled out part of a wolf’s carcass.

  ‘This is w
hat you want, right?’ I shouted like a madman. ‘I’m the one who killed your wolves.’

  The wolf inhaled sharply. Its eyes darted back to me. The smell of its kind had become secondary in its rising anger, but the sight of parts of the carcass brought all its attention to me.

  ‘That’s it,’ I panted madly. ‘Come on…’

  The wolf sprinted at me. I threw the bag of remains off the edge and followed it, dropping over the precipice.

  I snatched at the ledge but the mud and grass gave. As the shadow of the wolf blocked out the moonlight, it’s hulking body leaping into the abyss, I grabbed desperately for anything that would stop me from falling.

  One of my hands slammed into a protruding twig that speared into my palm.

  The other reached up for anything, anything – and found Santana’s grip.

  ‘JACK!’

  The wolf mother screamed out and struck the side of the pit, plummeting into the darkness.

  BOOM.

  It hit the bottom after several seconds of mad wailing. In the fading echo there were no more howls and no more thuds. It was dead.

  With a grunt I pulled my bloody hand from the twig and reached up to a rough rock with my other hand. We moaned in a mix of strained effort as I dragged my body up and onto the ledge, snatching desperately at grass and dirt in the process, until I finally yanked myself up and we fell to the ground together, panting hard.

  ‘Gods…’ Santana whimpered. ‘You just killed a monster.’

  ‘And I’d be dead if it wasn’t for you. You just saved my life. Thank you.’

  Chapter Seventeen

  ‘We’re done for the day.’

  ‘But, it’s only midday, Master Jack.’

  ‘I know, but we’ve been up since sunrise and we haven’t stopped. Besides, we’re more than halfway there already.’

  ‘If you say so.’

  I stepped back from the perimeter fence and admired the current state of our work. The wooden barrier now arced in a huge semicircle, covering just over half of the border. Jeremiah and I had been working on it every day for the past week since the mother wolf had been vanquished, and life had been calm and straightforward since then.

  There had been a few deviations, of course. The monster may have been dead, but there was no way the traders would be returning to the post anytime soon if they thought that the monster was still out there somewhere.