Homesteading on Jord

by Allan Joyal

  “We’re already on our way. I need you to get back to the carts. Make sure that they keep moving and don’t stop. Oh, and tell Shaylin that if she’s mastered her fire casting spell we need her ready to use it. Have her join Gertrilla around the herd,” I said.

  Soldrin frowned. He took a deep breath and ran back towards the carts. The movement of the herds allowed him to run directly toward the last cart in the line. I did not stop to see that he made it to the carts.

  I broke into a jog. Heather and Hencktor matched my pace as we started to pass the herd. I could see that Krysbain and at least one other person were standing near the front of the herd. They were looking toward the stone temple.

  We were still racing to reach him when the kobold who had accompanied us to this point dashed out of the herd and headed directly for the base of the pyramid. Heather put on a burst of speed at this point, racing ahead to reach Krysbain a few steps ahead of Hencktor and me.

  Krysbain looked at me as I stopped next to him. “You got here fast,” he said.

  “We were already heading this way when Soldrin caught up to us,” I said. “He must have run around the front of the herd because he was tired when he reached us.”

  “I thought you’d have rotated toward the front of the caravan,” Krysbain said. “We have a problem.”

  I looked over at the pyramid. There was now a rather large crowd gathered and looking at us. They looked similar to the five men who had followed us. I was trying to count the group when Heather hissed.

  “They’re humans,” she said. “I should have seen it earlier. The fact that you said they were missing a toe got me. They must be using magic on themselves to look more orc-like. That’s why we have the few big ones. They are probably from a bloodline that is half orc.”

  Hencktor hissed. “It’s an abomination to do that.”

  “Henck, I’m in love with Cimbra, and you do realize she could have my child one day,” I said calmly. “Please don’t tell me you will hold that against my child.”

  “Sorry,” Hencktor mumbled. “I’ll try. But this has to be different. Orcs are enemies of men and to lay with them. How could they!”

  “Probably thought it was the only way to survive,” Heather said. “They must have retreated into these hills when the empire fell. When they survived the orc invasion they looked to why. With the empire gone, they could have decided that orcs were superior. At least that would be my guess.”

  “Ron?” Krysbain asked.

  “They won’t want to negotiate even if we can still talk to them. Our best chance is to keep moving and hope this is the last temple we run into. So far they are just watching. But I think we need a candygram for Mongo,” I said. “Get Shaylin over here now.”

  “What about our kobold friend?” Heather asked pointing towards the pyramid. The creature had scampered to within ten feet of the crowd watching us. He found the largest of the orc-like people and stopped at the creature’s feet. It looked like the kobold was kissing the feet of the man.

  “Guess he wasn’t very loyal,” I observed. I turned and found that Corwar and Yveney were nearby as the herd continued to move past.

  “Corwar,” I shouted. “We need Shaylin over here.”

  “Her?” he asked.

  “Her magic might be vital. I’ll make sure she’s safe. And make sure the herds keep moving no matter what,” I said.

  I turned back to watch our kobold friend continue to grovel at the foot of the largest of the strangers. He was a hideously ugly caricature of a human. The nose was flattened against his face and the nostrils had been somehow expanded to nearly obscene proportions. The creature leaned on a massive wooden club as he stared down at the kobold.

  “The last of the herd is past us,” Heather said. “What do we do?”

  “Start backing away,” I said. “We’ll keep it slow at first, but now our goal is to catch up the back of the herd. So far these guys aren’t attacking, and I’ll take that as a win.”

  “Why haven’t they?” Heather asked as we backed away. “They have no reason to… Oh god!”

  Her final outburst was sparked when one of the more elaborately dressed strangers waved a hand. The mongo that had been looking at our kobold lifted his great club and brought it down on the creature’s head. There was a great splash of blood as the club descended all the way to the ground, pressing the remains into the packed soil.

  The strangers roared their approval at the violence. Two of the human looking ones took off running towards us. Krysbain immediately put an arrow to his bow and took aim.

  “Remember they get a lot of range with their spears,” I warned as Krysbain fired an arrow. It was a little off on the aim, but caught one of the two creatures high in the right thigh. He stumbled and slowed as his partner continued to charge.

  I stepped forward, dropping the spear I was carrying so that the blade could catch the charge. I felt Hencktor join me and could see the bone tipped spear join mine. The attacking warrior ignored our action and continued to charge. He was about ten feet away when he slowed and using that mysterious device launched the spear over our heads.

  The man stumbled forward as the spear soared past us. I stabbed out with the spear I was carrying, catching the man in the throat. He fell to the ground, as blood from the wound covered my hands. Another roar echoed out from the rest of his tribe.

  “Run,” I commanded.

  I felt rather than heard as Hencktor, Heather, and Krysbain turned to run. I risked a final look at the crowd by the pyramid. The second warrior who had charged towards us had stopped. He had put his good knee on the ground while both hands gripped the arrow that was stuck in his leg. The rest of the group appeared to be watching as the elaborately dressed leader looked at the pattern left by the blood from the dead kobold.

  I turned and ran. My back muscled tensed waiting for one of those barbed spears, but there were no cries from the crowd as I retreated. I looked up to see how things were.

  Ahead I could see Heather, Hencktor, Krysbain, and Shaylin running towards the herd. They were moving quickly, but Heather veered off. I was about to shout, when I saw her yank something out of what appeared to be a goat’s corpse. A shining white gleam made me realize that the warrior I had killed had been aiming at our herds when the spear sailed over our heads.

  There was still no alarm from behind us. I glanced over my shoulder and could see that the injured warrior now had several others around him. There was a huge amount of violent gestures, but no words being exchanged. The pantomime made no sense until one of the mongo’s walked over and used his club to kill the injured warrior.

  Heather gasped as she ran over and joined me. “What was that?”

  “Loser dies,” I said grimly. “I’m guessing that their seer, or whatever that elaborately dressed one is, found that attacking us would not be blessed by the gods. I see you have a spear.”

  “One of the barbs broke, but I think it can be used one more time,” Heather said. “And the shaft is nice, so we can use it with one of the metal spearheads you traded for. The goat was dead.”

  “He was aiming at the herd, but that throw was eighty yards at least,” I said.

  “I know,” Heather said as she glanced over her shoulder. “They aren’t chasing us, but I’m still afraid they could hit us if they attacked right now.”

  “At least they are leaving us alone,” I said. “But there might be more of those temples to pass. We have no idea how much territory these people claim.”

  “What do we do?” Heather asked.

  “For now, we keep running until we catch up to the group,” I said. “Then we’ll have to have a quick counsel of war.”

  We ran on in silence. Gertrilla and Amalya must have been pushing all of the animals to their limits because we ran for nearly an hour before we finally caught up to the back of the herd. I could see that Hencktor and Kyrsbain were waiting to Gertrilla. The herd started to slow as Heather and I staggered up to Shaylin who was walking towards
the last wagon in our caravan.

  Shaylin looked over at me. “I didn’t even get to you when you turned and ran!”

  “The natives were restless,” I said. “And I’m worried about the range they get when they throw spears. I’m not sure our slings have that kind of range and power.”

  “But why run?” Shaylin asked.

  “Numbers! They have them; we don’t,” I said. “And they are probably a lot better at fighting than we are, especially the mongos.”

  “The what?” Shaylin asked.

  “The big ones that look like someone took a large human and tried to make him into an orc with magic,” I said. “Want to bet that all they do is practice fighting and killing?”

  “No,” Heather said. “But if they all use clubs, it’s a brute force technique. We can slow them with our slings and bows.”

  “Not if a swarm of spears is launched at us first,” I said. “I’m not sure you noticed, but the one I killed had a quiver with several more spears in it. If they all have that, they have enough spears to kill every animal in our herd. That’s another thing to worry about.”

  Lydia ran up. “Ron! I hear that we have a problem.”

  “When have we not?” I asked. “But it looks these tribes might be humans who survived the fall of the empire by turning themselves into some kind of half-orc monster. The technology appears to be the same level as the Aztecs. I don’t see wheels or roads, and there has been no metal in evidence.”

  “What does that mean for us?” Hencktor asked.

  “Right now not much,” I admitted. “They know the terrain, and if they want to attack us they will have little trouble finding us until we leave their territory. We are outnumbered, and frankly I doubt we have the skill and experience to overcome that, even with the slings and bows. Those spears have a ton of range.”

  “How much?” Lydia asked. “I can’t see someone throwing a spear more than twenty yards or so.”

  “They killed a goat at about one hundred yards,” Heather said. “I thought the spear had slipped from the attackers hand when it flew over our heads, but found it embedded in the side of a dead goat.”

  “Is that what that was?” Corwar asked. I looked up to find that he had dropped back to join with the group. The pace had slowed, but I could tell we were still moving faster than we had before seeing the temple.

  Heather held out the spear. “This is it. I’m not sure how they get the distance, but they do.”

  “And we don’t know how big their territory is,” I said worriedly. “We might get around the mountains and find them on the other side.”

  “I don’t think that’s likely,” Lydia said. “Ron, you pointed out how low their technology is. It’s unlikely they have a lot of extra food, which would mean that they wouldn’t be able to supply an expedition. They also don’t seem that intelligent.”

  “We don’t know that,” I said. “If they all started out as human they had to have some impressive skills to create the Mongos.”

  “Mongo?” Lydia asked.

  “Think seven foot tall, hugely muscled, and ugly as sin,” Heather said. “It’s like they took a human and tried to convert him into an orc. They do something to completely deform the nose and one that we saw up close had fangs.”

  “And if one attacks, Shaylin will be sending a candygram for Mongo,” I said calmly.

  “What’s that?” Shaylin asked as Lydia started to giggle.

  I looked over at the young enchantress. “In this case it means that you’ll throw that new fireball spell you have been studying at any of those big monsters.”

  “I can do that!” Shaylin said happily. She jumped up and down for a moment and then halted. A frown appeared on her face. “But I’m not sure I can take one out with that spell. I haven’t had a chance to practice it.”

  “You’ll do fine,” Heather said with a smile.

  Soldrin ran up. I noticed that the carts had halted, and the herd was circling slowly. “Ron, there is a stone bridge up ahead. What do we do?”

  “Cross the bridge,” I said. “Hopefully it indicates the end of the current tribe's territory.”

  Soldrin turned and ran back towards the front. Hencktor looked around and shook his head. “I think you might be right about these tribes. I just realized we have been crossing fairly open grasslands and we haven’t seen a single area being farmed. Where do they get their food?”

  “There are more trees and bushes as you head more to the east,” Heather said pointing off into the distance. “Perhaps their farms are hidden up in the mountains. Water here seems to be scarce.”

  I pointed to the south where we could see the caravan crossing a deep ravine via a stone bridge. “Or the streams have cut deep gouges in the landscape,” I said. “But if they aren’t farming these hills that might make them less likely to catch us.”

  “We’ll escape,” Lydia said. “I know you’ll get us to the happy valley we all dream about.”

  Chapter 7: Explosive Goodbyes

  The next seven days were a nightmare and a blessing. We quickly found that between each pair of ravines we would see one of the stone pyramids. Some were clearly abandoned, but others would have a small crowd of humans and the large beings we all called mongos standing at their base. Many appeared to be involved in some elaborate ritual when we passed.

  However, the fact that we had to watch for attacks helped finally get Borlan, Ximenia, Lawus, and Joelia completely integrated into the group. Ximenia proved to have great vision and often noticed the temples before anyone else had the opportunity. She also had a great eye for the bridges over the ravines. After the second day, she moved forward to walk with Amalya so they could find the best route to each bridge.

  The bridges were nightmares. Many were contraptions of rope and wood, and several appeared ready to collapse. More than once we had to unload wagons to get them across and then carry the goods by hand. It was nerve-wracking and slow. Moving the herds was worse as the animals balked at walking over the obviously fragile wooden structures. We managed to get most of the animals across, but lost one ewe to a raiding party and had another panic and fall from one of the bridges.

  It was Corwar who noticed that the ravines were getting shallower and that the mountains we could see to the east were no longer snow-topped. We were talking about finally making a swing to the east when Soldrin came running from the front of the caravan. “Ron!” he shouted. “There are two mongos and a number of humans blocking the path forward.”

  “Moving or openly blocking?” I asked.

  “Blocking,” Soldrin said. “Amalya stopped as soon as she saw them. They aren’t moving.”

  I nodded. “Except for the herders, get everyone with a weapon to meet me at the front. Let Joelia know to watch behind us for anyone following.”

  “Krysbain said they won’t be following,” Soldrin said. “He’s been watching them. The humans might be able to outrun us over a short distance, but they aren’t fast and don’t have much endurance. He thinks they use relays to get messages moved quickly. A group following would be far behind us.”

  “But they got a party in front of us,” I said.

  “They have a fire going,” Soldrin said. “Krysbain said they probably camped there last night.”

  “Can we go around them?” I asked.

  “They are in front of a slope. Krysbain thinks it leads to a ford across the next river,” Soldrin said.

  I sighed. “No bridge. Well, we had noticed that the ravines were getting shallower. But it means we have to break through. Soldrin, we have to change the plan. Have Gertrilla select only three slingers to join us. The rest of her herders are to be prepared to move the animals across the ford the instant we break the line. I’ll let the others know the plan. Have the slingers meet us at the first wagon.”

  Soldrin nodded and ran off. I turned to Cimbra who had been walking next to me as we traveled. “I’m guessing you want the carts to follow the herds,” she said.

  I nodde
d. “They need to be ready to move quickly. I’m going to get Shaylin and Lydia to try to open up a hole and scatter their group. I agree with Krysbain that it’s unlikely there will be another group, but we need to take as few risks as possible.”

  Cimbra turned and started walking to the last cart. I could see her waving to Borlan and Ximenia. Ximenia ran over to her. Once I could see them beginning to talk, I turned to face the front of the caravan and started jogging to the front.

  At the front of the caravan I found that Krysbain had already started organizing everyone. We were a mismatched and motley group. Aine and Lydia were off to the right. Both ladies where kneeling in a shooting position, they had loaded their crossbows and were watching for movement from the wall of men across from us. Corwar stood with Yveney, Lenoir, and Piemal.

  I looked at Corwar, and he smiled back guilelessly. “Lenoir isn’t a herder, and we borrowed Jeff and Konstanzia to help. Gertrilla is sure we can get the herds across quickly. If it is really a ford.”

  “There’s no way to check without going through,” I said. I looked at our final grouping. Hencktor and Heather were holding the two spears we had obtained from our earlier encounters with tribes. Al had a hammer and Verval and Lawus were carrying axes. I looked at them and then looked back at the carts. “Do we have enough drivers?”

  “Victoria and Thom are going to help,” Verval said. “And Cimbra will help Thom.”

  I looked at Lawus. The man smiled. “Thom knows what to do, but he is small. Cimbra can provide the muscle, and I already asked her about helping. She feels like just taking the night watch isn’t enough.”

  I nodded and then looked at Shaylin. The teenage girl stood white-faced as she looked across the field. “What do I do?” she whispered.

  I hefted my spear. “Lydia, Aine, these guys are probably going to wait for us to move and then attack. Can you hit them from here?”

  “It’s a long shot and if they move I will almost certainly miss,” Lydia shouted back. “But we can shoot this far. Why?”