by Logan Jacobs
Suddenly, Mira pressed herself up against my back and brushed her lips to my ear.
“We are being followed,” she breathed.
Her words were so low I nearly didn’t catch them, but the look she gave me after she spoke told me I’d heard correctly.
I tilted my head in toward her so to anyone else, it would look like we simply wanted to share an intimate moment. Even Jemma and Theora giggled and turned around to give us some privacy.
“Fifty paces back, to the left,” Mira murmured. “I only count one warg, but it has been following us for the last half mile. Maybe longer.”
“So, they’re not just meatheads with one goal in mind,” I growled. “These things have got some serious smarts.”
“It looks that way,” Mira grumbled.
I pursed my lips before I slowly lifted my gaze and glanced in the direction Mira had indicated.
The trees were dense and dark, and I didn’t want to stare too long and let the creature know we were onto it, but sure enough, I caught a dark mass in the shape of a warg buried in the trees.
“Damn it,” I muttered. “Why hasn’t it attacked?”
“I don’t know,” Mira replied. “Maybe it wants to see where we’re going?”
I considered that, but it didn’t make sense. The only thing I knew was these creatures weren’t nearly as dumb as the orcs.
And, since they were at the pirates’ beck and call, that was scarier than shit.
“Alright, let’s get a move on,” I called to the group.
Mira looked at me curiously, but as always, she followed my lead.
Theora and Jemma rose with knowing smiles on their faces and trekked ahead of Mira and me into the forest.
I moved behind the jade haired warrior and dropped back a pace or two, slowly and casually, so as not to let the warg know I was onto him.
As we walked, I listened as hard as I could to try and place the monster. If I knew exactly where he was, I had the advantage.
There.
I heard a rustle in the trees just to my right and about a few yards behind me, and then the soft pants of the monster’s heavy breathing.
So, I carefully bent down as if to adjust my shoe, but really, I wanted to block the left half of my body so the warg wouldn’t see me draw my sword from my waist.
I heard the monster freeze and sniff the air softly, once, to get my scent.
By the sound of it, I clocked him at about four yards away, directly to my right.
Before the beast could even catch on, I whirled around and drew my sword. Then in one smooth motion, I jabbed the blade straight out and right into the spot where I knew the beast was.
Sure enough, a pained growl came through the branches, and the warg took two shaky steps out from the trees. The look in his eyes told me he was ready for a fight, but the massive amounts of blood that poured out of the gaping hole in his chest told me otherwise.
“Why were you following us?” I demanded.
The warg frowned, but said nothing. Instead, a slow, bloody smile crept over his snout, and he lifted one single finger to his lips in the classic symbol for quiet.
What the fuck?
And then he died. The beast fell to his knees and collapsed as the last of his blood poured out onto the forest floor.
“Oh, my!” Jemma exclaimed as she spun around, and her eyes were wide in her pale face. “How did you know it was there?”
“Mira saw it,” I told her. “But the bigger question is: why was it there?”
Mira looked at me, but I could see the answer on her face, as well.
There was something a lot deeper going on here. The orcs had a plan of some sort, and we needed to figure out what the hell that was.
Chapter Seven
Mira and I buried the warg corpse as best we could. We had no idea if other wargs were in the area, or if they would come looking for him, and I really didn’t want to leave the body lying around while the four of us were still wandering in the woods.
“These are absolutely the grossest creatures I have ever seen,” Mira announced when she kicked the final bit of dirt over the makeshift grave. “And their breath is awful.”
“I don’t think they care so much about that, Mira,” I teased with a laugh.
“Well, they should,” she retorted and wrinkled her nose. “If I’m going to have to keep killing these things, the least they could do is make sure I don’t feel the need to gag when I do it.”
“Pinch your nostrils.” I shoved her shoulder gently, and the warrior couldn’t suppress her smile, even though she tried to roll her eyes and shake her head at me.
“Whatever, Dragon King,” she snickered.
“How many more of these do you think there are?” Jemma asked as she wrung her slender hands. “We were never really sure before, since they always attacked in small numbers, but you have killed many now, and more seem to come.”
“The orcs have huge numbers,” I explained. “So, I figure whatever kind of pets they keep, like these wargs, they’ll also have a shit load of. They probably breed them, too, which means there will always be more.”
“I shudder to think what one of these looked like as children,” Theora said.
“Yeah, me, too.” I nodded. “I say we should probably get back to the village. I don’t want to take the chance that there are too many more of these before we’re ready. I want to regroup and think about this.”
Jemma led the way back to the village, and this time around, we kept our eyes peeled for any prey animals. We managed to nab three rabbits and a tarrel on our way back to the village, and they would make for a good meal for tonight.
“I assume they must have a base somewhere,” Mira said suddenly. She had been lost in thought most of the way back, and I could tell her warrior mind was hard at work.
“I think you’re right,” I agreed. “I just don’t know how good of an idea it would be to try and find it just yet. The women aren’t exactly a well-trained militia.”
“Then let’s turn them into one.” Mira grinned.
As usual, she was absolutely right. I’d spent plenty of time doing all sorts of strength and team building exercises while in the Coast Guard, and I had just helped train the serpent-women. I was sure Mira had a few tricks of her own up her sleeve, given the size of her grin.
So, at dinner that night, we brought up the idea to Ainsley, who was ecstatic about it.
“Oh, yes, I think that is a great idea.” Ainsley nodded vigorously. “We can start in the morning with any women who volunteer to be a part of this … militia, is that what you called it?”
“Yep,” I said. “We’re going old school. Or, well, I guess it’s new school, for you guys.”
Personally, if the decision was mine, I would have made the training mandatory, but I knew Ainsley wanted to ease everyone into this new leadership system, and they had lived so long making independent decisions it might not go over so well to suddenly have to take orders.
The next morning, though, Mira and I woke up bright and early to start off training, and we were both pleasantly surprised when we saw about thirty faces on the main platform. Among them were Jemma, Ainsley, Theora, the sisters Netta and Nima, Sarayah, and Bree.
“Good morning,” Mira barked as we stood before the gathered women. She’d already taken on the warrior persona I’d seen when we first met, so I decided to hang back and let her have the troops for a little while.
Plus, it was kind of fun to let someone else get the treatment I’d had when I first washed up on the island.
“We are going to make you strong today!” Mira announced. “Well, alright, it might take more than just today. But the point is, we will turn you into a band of warriors. Is that understood?”
The crowd of women was silent, and they hadn’t quite caught on to the fact that Mira wanted them to answer the question. It was so funny I nearly burst out laughing, but I thought better of it and covered my amusement with a cough.
“Uh,
yes?” Ainsley finally said when Mira’s green gaze landed one too many times on her.
“Good.” Mira smiled. “Now, the first exercise is the toughest. I want you all to scale to the top of this tree and back before I call time.”
The women’s eyes widened as we all turned to look up to the top of the tree, which was at least thirty feet above our heads, and my eyes widened to match the women’s.
Damn. The warrior was definitely a drill sergeant. It was kind of hot.
Mira stepped back, hands on her hips, and stared to the top of the tree with the rest of us.
“Alright,” she called. “Line up and let’s go!”
Mira ran the women through the gamut of training. They scaled that tree about three different times, did more push-ups and burpees than I could have possibly counted, and ran the entire perimeter of the village about six times. Then Mira made everyone practice their archery skills with the new bows we’d carved. The women did a few different drills, but Mira mainly focused on teaching them to shoot as they ran. It would be extremely effective when they were faced with the wargs. That way, they could retreat and attack all at the same time.
By the end of the day, everyone was tired and sweaty, but satisfied.
Mira knew exactly what she was doing. Her training was hard, yes, but she’d given the women more confidence than ever before.
I, on the other hand, had immensely enjoyed watching the beautiful deer women as they exercised and acquired new skills.
“That was pretty epic,” I told Mira when I sidled up next to her.
“Hmm,” she hummed and stared out across the village. “We will make them into warriors yet.”
“Hey,” I murmured as I spun her around and into my arms. “What you did today was awesome. Give yourself some credit.”
“I am,” she replied, but then she averted her gold eyes with a sigh. “I just want to make sure these women can take care of themselves when we leave. They just seem so … fragile.”
“Yeah, they do.” I nodded. “But with you kicking their asses, they sure as hell won’t be fragile for long.”
“That is absolutely true.” Mira grinned.
Over the next few days, Mira and I worked with the thirty volunteers to try and build strength and stamina. They had the archery skills and the speed, there was no doubt about that, but against the wargs or an army of orcs, we both knew that wasn’t nearly enough. These women had to be able to land a punch or outlast their opponent.
First, I figured it would be best for Mira and I to split up the women and each focus on a different skill. Then we’d rotate and make sure the women each got some time doing different things.
I took the first group that included Ainsley, Bree, and Netta, and we focused on bow accuracy, while Mira focused on running and shooting at the same time.
I had the women line up and shoot the target one by one, and we focused on stance and position in order to get the most accurate shot.
To my surprise, Netta was fantastic with a bow. I only had to readjust the redhead’s stance once, and then she was able to hit the bullseye every single time. It was almost like she had some sort of superhuman accuracy about her.
“Hey, Netta, do you think you could throw something with that kind of accuracy?” I asked her.
The green-eyed woman considered this for a moment, and then nodded.
“I am always happy to try,” she responded. “What is it you are thinking of?”
“I want you to try throwing a spear,” I told her. “Let me make you one tonight, and then show you how to use it in the morning.”
“Okay.” She grinned up at me and looked ready to take on any new challenge.
When Mira and I reconvened that night to discuss how the training was going, we discovered the deer women had a lot of hidden talents we hadn’t known about before. Bree was the most quick footed of the bunch and was able to jump over obstacles and use her surroundings to avoid attacks, while she simultaneously nocked arrows and hit the bullseye right in the center.
Ainsley was quick with her hands and could nock and shoot arrow after arrow in such quick succession, her arms seemed to be nothing more than a blur. She’d be able to take out enemy combatants before they even got close to her.
The biggest surprise, though, was Theora, who had proven to be deadly with a knife. Mira had borrowed one from the cooking tent and given it to the deer woman, who had shown prowess in both footwork and some practice attacks Mira staged.
As the warrior and I spoke, I made a spear out of wood and rock for Netta to use. I used my sea glass sword to cut up some wood and then a rock into the shape of a spear. Then I tempered the rock to make it as hard and indestructible as possible, and finally I tied it to the spear with the help of a vine.
The next morning, I presented the newly crafted weapon to Netta. She looked the weapon over curiously, and then tested the feel of it in her grip.
Instinctively, the red head wrapped her hand around the handle, thumb on the outside, and held it up with the tip pointed away from her at a thirty-degree angle.
“Like this?” she asked.
“Perfect.” I grinned.
I showed Netta how to throw the spear, and again, she had perfect accuracy. We showed Theora and a few of the other, stronger deer women what to do as well, but no one was better with a spear than Netta.
Just as Bree wrapped her grip around the spear, a giant cheer rose up from Mira’s group, who were all gathered around the base of the tree as they watched Jemma scramble up it, and then all the way back down.
The auburn-haired woman was fast. She could have outrun a sprinting horse back on Earth.
It took a lot of training, and some innovation on Mira’s part, but after about three days, we started to see improvement.
The deer women weren’t where they needed to be by a long shot, but the combination of protein and exercise had given the women more muscle on their bodies. They could shoot arrows farther and faster, use axes we’d made from rocks, and even do a little bit of hand-to-hand combat.
A smile spread across my face as I looked out over the village full of women. For the first time, I felt like we had a real shot at this war. Those orcs wouldn’t know what hit them.
Mira continued to work with them on the fourth day, but I set about to try and help with the garden.
One of the older women, Cala, a honey-haired woman with pale skin and laugh lines around her kind mouth, offered to help me, and I realized it might be a good idea to also have hanging planters, just in case. If the women needed to move again, or if they couldn’t get to the fields because of warg activity, they wouldn’t be totally out of luck when it came to food.
So, Cala helped me weave baskets from the green vines, and a few other women made clay pots and gathered dirt so we could make some planters. Then I showed them how to fill the pots with dirt and seeds and place them in the basket, where they could hang on branches and soak up the sun.
“These just have to be watered,” I explained as I assembled the first basket and buried a few old potatoes in the soft dirt. “Since they aren’t in the ground, they won’t soak up any of the liquid or nutrients found in there.”
“Ben, this is absolutely brilliant!” Cala exclaimed.
We finished with the baskets, and by the end of the day, we had about fifteen new planters filled with potatoes, carrots, and fruit seeds, ready to grow under the watchful eyes of the villagers.
I hoped this might help increase their food supply, especially if they never had to move again.
Later that afternoon, Ainsley announced another feast in celebration of the newfound militia.
“We must go hunting,” the blonde squealed. “There is so much to be grateful for!”
“Alright, I’ll go with you.” I grinned.
Jemma and Theora joined us, and the four of us spent a few hours down in the woods near the tarrel stream. It took a little while, but the tarrels finally showed up to drink, just as I knew they would.
And with a few easy shots, we took down three of the creatures for our feast that night.
I was glad we’d found the spot near the stream, since it would take a lot of the hard work out of hunting and leave us able to focus on other things.
Ainsley and I had the dressing of the animals down to a science, and we were able to quickly release the meat from the skin, bone, and organs. Then we returned to the village and, as promised, there was a feast that night.
It went much like the first one, with the prayer at the beginning and the dancing at the end. I realized, as I spun around from woman to woman and accepted hugs, kisses, and affection, that I absolutely loved the carefree way they were still able to live. They’d been through and lost so much, and yet they could still have nights like these, where they enjoyed music and dancing just like a people unplagued by their great horrors.
After about an hour, though, I realized one face was noticeably absent: Mira.
I managed to extricate myself from the festivities and went in search of the jade haired warrior.
Sure enough, I found her in the tent we often shared, on the mattress with a faraway look in her eyes, but to my surprise, there were fresh tear tracks on her face.
In all the time I’d known her, I’d never seen Mira cry once. When she’d told me about her brother, she had come close, but she’d held in the emotion and remained strong.
My heart ached for her. I hated to see the woman I loved in such pain, especially when I had a feeling I know what caused it.
Still, I took a careful step inside the tent and decided to let Mira tell me what was wrong when she was ready.
“Hey,” I murmured. “Are you okay?”
Mira looked up and quickly wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“Of course, my king.” She nodded and used my formal title, which told me she absolutely was not okay. “Go back and enjoy the festivities. You earned it.”
“Yeah, but I can’t really enjoy them when one of my favorite people isn’t there,” I pointed out as I sat down next to her on the mattress and took her hand in mine.
We sat there in peaceful silence for a moment before Mira finally spoke.