Stalking the Beast

by Howard Andrew Jones

  "Split up," the duplicate to Elyana's voice called again, and then as her people babbled among themselves, echoes of their own voices and worries rang all about them.

  "Come with me," one that sounded like Drutha urged.

  "Elyana!" She heard Cyrelle cry from somewhere to the north. "They've got me!"

  "I'm going after her," she heard Grellen shout.

  "Stand!" Elyana cried. "Melias, can you dispel this magic?"

  "I'm trying," the girl answered timidly.

  "Dispel my magic?" the voice demanded from outside their circle. "Here, in the very heart of my power?"

  Laughter rang from every direction. It wasn't just the one voice, either, but a whole host of them. It sounded like there were thousands upon thousands of folk watching from the darkness.

  Elyana suddenly perceived countless pairs of eyes, glowing in a circle some ten yards out—red eyes, green eyes, blue eyes, all at different heights. Some were small and set low, as if they were rodents. Others were wide apart, at the height of trees.

  "Illusions and trickery," Illidian said beside her. "Had we a real sorcerer, we would better know the reality of what we face."

  Melias actually sounded indignant, though her voice was touched with fear. "I'm doing the best I can."

  "We should never have come in here," Drutha said, and her own dog whined.

  "Should never have come," shouted a wheezing voice from behind, and then the words were tossed from high voice to low everywhere about them, growing gradually into a chant spoken by voices in every timbre, so loud that it set Elyana's bones to vibrating.

  "We did not come to harm you!" Elyana shouted, though her words were lost in the blizzard of noise rising from behind those glowing eyes. "Listen!"

  Still the chanting continued.

  "Listen to me! We pursue a summoner and his monster. When we find him, we will leave!"

  "Leave!" The voices cried. "Leave!" Again and again the words were repeated.

  Elyana drew her sword. It glowed dully, a shining silver even in the impenetrable gloom. Nearby she saw another blade rise into the air. Grellen's, she thought. It too had a faint magical sheen.

  The chanting dulled, faded. Still the eyes watched.

  "You draw your blade here, elf?" The first voice asked, mockingly. "Whom do you mean to strike with it?"

  "We are after only the summoner," Elyana replied. "His magic has ravaged our homes. Killed our people. Slain an Oaksteward."

  There was no immediate response, and the shimmering orbs regarded them, unblinking.

  "I have felt a human's passage through our lands," the voice said finally. "A human worker of magics. He is the summoner you seek?"

  "Yes," Elyana answered.

  One by one the eyes winked away until there was only one set left, a green pair a few yards before her. The darkness, too, began to ebb, so that she perceived that her group remained about her in its entirety. From out of the gloom stepped the owner of the luminous eyes, a humanoid form fashioned solely of dead leaves and branches and rotting forest detritus. Brown-gold leaves shaped a cruel smile as it advanced within striking distance and raised a hand with sticks for fingers.

  "Sheathe your sword, elf," it told her.

  This Elyana did, telling her people to hold position. One of the dogs whined furtively.

  "We bring war only to the man we chase," Elyana said. "If you grant us passage, we will leave your woods as we found them."

  "You have already disturbed my woods," the entity told her. "Offering to leave is no gift to me, for I could arrange your death in one of your heartbeats and be done with you."

  "You could try."

  The fey thing, whatever it was, considered her through the glowing green circles set into its leafy face. Elyana realized that the movement she saw along its brow was a crawling caterpillar.

  "It may be that I can use you, elf," the thing decided, "and we may both be pleased. Serve me, and I will give you the summoner."

  "Make no bargain with the fey," Illidian warned her.

  She heard a low murmur from Lisette. "I thought that's what folk said about elves."

  "We want the summoner, and safe passage out," Elyana said. "For all of us. And we mean to return to our own time, and land."

  The fey laughed. "How great a wizard do you think me? Do you suppose I can transport you to some far off realm?"

  "One hears tales," Elyana replied.

  "Make no bargain, Elyana," Aladel cautioned, "until you know what it wishes in return."

  "I grow weary of interruptions," the creature snapped. "Do I speak with one, or all of you?"

  "You speak with me," Elyana declared. "I lead them. What do you ask in return for this bargain?"

  "Your aid. An hour's march into the Wilewood is a threat I cannot face. Something evil has taken root there. If you destroy it, I will let you go free and turn your quarry over to you for disposal."

  "What sort of ‘evil' do you mean?" Elyana asked.

  "You're hunters, are you not? Think of them as your quarry."

  "Why can't you kill them?" Drelm asked.

  The thing smiled at them. "It is beyond the duties of my office."

  Stranger and stranger. "What is your name?" Elyana asked.

  "You may call me Snowlock, if you wish. My people name me king, but I am no king of yours, and I do not wish you to be my subjects."

  "Snowlock, I must consult with my people."

  "You do not lead them?"

  "They chose to join me on a hunt for the summoner, not for a hunt into the Wilewood for something else entirely. We must speak. Privately."

  "If you wish. I will give you a quarter-hour. If you have not decided before then...well. You are not the only hunters in the woods." Snowlock smiled. Then, as they stared at him, the sticks and leaves collapsed into their component pieces, the leaves fluttering, the sticks thudding into the soft ground. The glowing green points of light that were his eyes flew swiftly off, winding into the distance as though they were winged beetles.

  "What the hell is that thing?" Grellen demanded.

  "One of the fey," Aladel answered with certainty. "Likely from the First World, the old realm where nature still rules. I have long heard it said that that plane intersected with the Wilewood. The fey's presence here may be tied to the reason the Oakstewards want all elves kept from their lands."

  Lisette shook her head. "It doesn't seem like we have much choice. Really. I mean, we either go hunt his monsters, or he hunts us."

  The little sorcerer cleared her throat, and then, when all eyes went to her, she cleared it again and nervously licked her lips.

  "Speak up," Elyana said. "You're a member of the expedition now."

  "Well," she said, then hesitated briefly. "I think a lot of what he's doing is tricks. I don't really think we were surrounded by thousands of fey. I think that was an illusion. Now, he must be a powerful caster if he can do so much to us, but...he's not as powerful as he seems."

  "So you think we should kill him?" Drelm asked.

  The girl blanched. "I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that maybe we shouldn't be as afraid of him as...maybe some of you are."

  Cyrelle chuckled and shook her head of dark hair. "You at all serious about fighting the fey?"

  "I'm not sure we can take him down," Elyana said. "I'm not sure I want to take him down. I just want Calvonis."

  "It'd be easier to make a choice," Grellen said, "if we had some better sense of what we faced."

  "I don't think we're going to get that," Elyana said. "We must decide if we want to fight him or take his offer."

  "Then I say we take his offer," Lisette said darkly. "And if he betrays us, we kill him. I'm tired of talk."

  "Well said," Drelm agreed. But then, he would. Elyana valued many things about Drelm, but complex decision-making was not his strong suit.

  Elyana made her choice and considered her charges once more. After this, how many would be left? "I'll call him back. If there are any of you
who disagree, speak now, and I'll make your freedom a condition of our bargain. You need feel no shame."

  Drelm grunted skeptically.

  Illidian and Aladel returned her look with ones of dour conviction.

  Grellen patted his sword hilt. "We've nearly got him, now. I aim to finish the job." He glanced at Melias, standing at his shoulder, and she nodded quickly.

  Cyrelle bobbed her head resignedly, and one of her hounds whimpered a little.

  Drutha piped up: "I don't quit when things get challenging."

  "Well," Lisette said with a tight smile. "It looks like we're all equally stupid."

  "I guess so," Elyana agreed. She turned from them and called Snowlock's name.

  paizo.com #3236236, Corry Douglas , Aug 10, 2014

  Chapter Eleven

  Champions of the Court

  Drelm

  Drelm didn't like the bargain they'd made with Snowlock, and while he understood its necessity, that didn't mean he enjoyed the trek deeper into the forest's dark recesses.

  They followed the strange green entity into the twilight timber, where the shadows were thick. The smell of the vegetation had changed—it was wilder, fresher, greener somehow. Drelm really wasn't one for deep thought, or superstitions. The first he respected a little, particularly when its utility was demonstrated to him. The second merely irritated him. Some superstitions he knew to be true, but none of them changed the fact that if something was bad you should kill it. He was especially annoyed by creatures that deliberately tried to scare him. While many of his comrades grew more and more nervous about the strange sounds and the glowing eyes that appeared and disappeared along their route, Drelm just grew more and more angry.

  The brown human-shaped thing that pranced ahead of Elyana claimed it was the same entity who'd spoken with them in the first place, even though it had a different smell. The voice and the manner were the same, at least.

  From off to the west came a gibbering noise and a growl, then a crash of brush receding from them. Drelm showed fangs in a scowl. "What was that?"

  The leafy head of their new ally turned almost completely around to look at him even as the body moved forward.

  "There are many wonderful beings out there in the woods," it said, as though there were nothing at all remarkable in striding unerringly forward while you were looking to your rear. "Not all of them are my subjects."

  "Were those your subjects?" Drelm asked.

  "It's hard to say," the creature answered lightly, "since I did not see them." And then it turned its impossible head forward again and continued to lead the way through the dark trees.

  Cyrelle sidled up beside Drelm. Her remaining six hounds slunk close beside, ears back, tails cast low.

  "Does your friend know what she's doing?" Cyrelle asked quietly. Her glance toward Elyana made her meaning clear, though her words had been clear enough.

  Drelm only grunted. "Always."

  "Does she know the fey?"

  Drelm wasn't sure what was meant by that question. "Elyana's clever."

  "The fey aren't exactly known to be kind. They've got a sense of humor. They might be leading us deep into the wood to play some kind of joke. One funny to them, not to us."

  "You think they plan an ambush?" Drelm asked. "They could have ambushed us back there."

  "Maybe. Maybe that was all bluff, and the really dangerous forces are further in. Or maybe, like I said, it's some kind of joke."

  Drelm thought briefly about that. "Suppose it is. Then what?"

  "We should be careful. That's all I'm saying."

  "We're ready for attacks," Drelm said, wondering why she wasted her air with the obvious. Of course they should be careful. Why wouldn't they be?

  This apparently wasn't what Cyrelle wanted, for the big woman frowned and moved off. That was women, though. They always wanted more than what they told you. They might say they just wanted your opinion on dress fabric, but near as Drelm could tell, they didn't actually want an opinion. They just wanted to share their feelings.

  "She's right, you know," came a gruff voice from behind. It was Grellen, with the sorcerer walking at his side. She seemed to have latched on to him as a protector. The man looked up at Drelm from under heavy eyelids. "It's some kind of trap."

  "Then we'll kill some fey," Drelm said after only brief consideration.

  The warrior's expression didn't really change, nor did the girl's. But then, Melias always seemed to be nervous. Drelm supposed he would be as well if he were completely useless when he wandered into a battle, hard as that was to imagine.

  From the east came a long growl, then, nearer at hand, something in the shadows answered it with the strange, gibbering cry he'd heard earlier. He wondered what kind of animal was making it.

  All too soon he found out. A horde of dark shapes erupted from the woods. Each was roughly humanoid, possessed of arms and legs and a torso, but all of these were wizened and warped and brown, as though they were roughly carved from tree bark.

  None of them had a head.

  Cyrelle's dogs barked savagely. Elyana shouted to form a circle and the front of the line fell back while the rear of the column advanced.

  It was a good place for neither attack nor defense. The boles were thick and close and light was poor. Yet Drelm loved a good fight, and nothing brightened his mood like a little action. He grinned as he readied his battleaxe and stepped out to meet the mewling thing that clawed at him with misshapen limbs.

  When his axe whistled down it cleaved through a dried and bony arm and sent a clawed hand spinning. His strike kept on and drove deep into the central body. The thing was not wood as he had thought, but some kind of pulpy substance and filled with foul-smelling brown ichor, like a rotten gourd. It erupted, geyserlike, and emitted a mournful hooting noise as it fell.

  The things were coming from both directions. He heard the distinctive sound of a rifle shot and saw a hole blown through the one nearest him, but it didn't slow. Drelm took one of those clawed swipes against his breastplate so he could move in close, then sliced deep through the creature's body, sending it sliding apart in halves. The monster's internal fluids burst forth and spilled onto Drelm's boots.

  The half-orc pivoted, for he'd heard the sound of more footfalls crushing through the underbrush. Elyana, off to the right, shouted to close ranks.

  Grellen was beside him and swinging his dully glowing sword to tremendous effect. The useless sorcerer advanced behind him, brandishing the black wand and shouting different phrases. Nothing happened when she did so. Farther off, Cyrelle's hounds loped to latch onto the sticklike legs of one of their adversaries. Somewhere out of sight he heard the high-pitched shouts of Drutha in battle fury, and the explosions of her alchemical warfare.

  It ended as swiftly as it had begun. The few remaining monsters faded into the woods.

  Elyana gathered her people together. Cyrelle was bandaging a long scratch down one arm, and one of the dogs had a gash down her back, but that was the extent of real injuries. More than half of them had been sprayed with the beasts' blood. Fortunately, no one seemed to be suffering from any kind of ill effects, despite the smell.

  While the others traded off sentinel duty and weapons checks, Drelm strode up to where Elyana stood talking with Snowlock.

  "What were those?" Drelm demanded.

  "I was just asking our guide the same thing," Elyana replied. Her sword hung loose in her hand, directed away from Snowlock, but Drelm knew how deceptive that stance was.

  "As I said," Snowlock said in that cheery voice, "there are many beings in the Wilewood."

  "Wonderful beings," Elyana corrected.

  Snowlock laughed. "Those are velells. They're very agile, aren't they? But no real threat to warriors such as yourselves."

  Elyana sounded unamused. "I've never heard of them. Is there anything else we should be looking for?"

  "I cannot say, exactly, what you should be looking for, but I can guess that you will meet wi
th further opposition the closer we come to the center of the wood. Where the evil dwells."

  "And what will this evil be like?"

  Snowlock raised a misshapen hand to his leafy face, plucked a small beetle from it, and tossed the bug away. "No one knows. The evil can command any forest creature it desires. Just as I can."

  "If you can command creatures from the Wilewood," Elyana said, "why didn't you command those?"

  There was no guessing what the thing's expression meant, or if it even had one. Its voice, matched roughly to moving lips, laughed nervously. "I am king, I assure you. But it is a challenge to rule such a chaotic land."

  "Yet you can give us a powerful summoner?" Elyana asked.

  "Oh, that's easy. Monster-fighting is hard, though. Trust me"

  "Alright, Snowlock," Elyana agreed skeptically. "How much further?"

  "Only a little while," he said. "Just a little while."

  In another quarter-hour there was a second attack, this one from writhing plants with leafy maws. These proved simpler to drive off than the creatures Snowlock had called velells. Shortly after that, when the darkness was almost complete, they faced off against three boars that were close to the size of bears, and Lisette proved her mettle by killing one and grievously wounding another before any of them closed.

  A short while later Snowlock slowed, then turned that head completely around once more. The rest of his body followed, shifting rather than turning, and he waved them forward with jointless arms that moments before had seemed to hang the other direction.

  "We are nearly there," the king told them in a hushed voice. "The clearing lies before us. It's there you must do battle."

  "Why there?" Elyana asked.

  Snowlock sounded as though the truth were ludicrously obvious. "Because that is the place for all battles. Now you must wait, so that I may announce you."

  The head started to turn.

  "Wait," Elyana said. "No one needed to announce to us for the last three battles."

  "That's because I was merely testing to see whether you were as mighty as I thought. I am quite pleased with your performance. Your next battle will be official."