But what made it the most different, was the lack of wildlife. There were insects aplenty, but I didn't see many birds and rarely heard them as well. The ones we saw the most of were hawks spiraling up on the thermals looking for food I guess. We also didn't see a single mammal at all that first day.
When nighttime came, things changed. We could hear the yipping and yapping of coyotes, and when they started to get closer, Joseph got up and let off a series of howls that must have sent them running, because we didn't hear them anywhere nearby for the rest of the night.
"Wolves eat coyotes," Dezba explained.
"Oh," I said. I had shifted into my champion form earlier in the day to make it easier to keep up with Dezba and Joseph, seeing as they were already in theirs.
"I think I smell venison," Joseph growled.
"Really?" I asked and sniffed the air myself, I didn't get anything.
"It's pretty faint; they're probably a good ways off yet."
"Well. your howling probably will keep them just as far away as the coyotes," Dezba laughed.
"Still, now that we know they're here, maybe tomorrow we can get some fresh meat," Joseph said licking his lips.
"He really does make a good wolf, doesn't he?" I said to Dezba.
She laughed and nodded, while Joseph just grinned.
"Though, I am kind of partial to the lion, because of that big fluffy mane of his," She joked.
"She made me give all of her kids rides, the last time I visited her," Joseph grumped.
"Oh, you loved it!" Dezba chuckled.
"Well, maybe just a little bit," Joseph agreed.
I listened to them a bit surprised, apparently the two of them were a lot closer now than when we'd first met ten years ago.
"You guys visit a lot?" I asked, curious.
"Oh, about once a year I'll go visit," Joseph said.
"Huh, well that's a surprise."
"Well, understand, Will, it's nothing personal, but you're just not my type."
I laughed, "No, that's fine actually! I'm just surprised you can tear yourself away from Circe."
He shrugged, "She's a goddess, sometimes I just need someone I can relate to on a more personal level, and well, Dezba and I relate pretty well."
"What about Suzona?" I asked curious.
"Ha! She'd probably cut my head off, just to mount it on her wall."
"Probably right after she screwed you silly too," Dezba laughed, "She's a kinky one!"
"She's just too invested in that whole 'Nordic' mythology of her god. I can't believe you even slept with her, Will." Joseph said.
I shrugged, "She guilt tripped me into it, said I owed it to her, for her help."
"Well, I hope she was good at least," Dezba teased.
"She was okay," I said and tried not to blush. At least with the fur and all it wouldn't be too noticeable this late.
"Well, as much as I'd like to tease you about that, I think I'm going to turn in." Dezba said with a yawn. "I'll take morning watch. You two can figure out the rest on your own."
Joseph ended up taking first watch, and I took second. I didn't think anything would be able to sneak up on either of us, as we both had rather good hearing and were light sleepers, but neither one of us wanted to take that chance.
We ran into our first problem around noon of the third day.
"Would you look at the size of that thing?" Dezba said pointing.
Joseph and I both stopped and looked.
"Is that a scorpion?" I asked.
"Big stinker," Joseph growled.
"Big? He's larger than a city bus!" I replied.
"I wonder how many more of them there are around here?" Dezba asked.
"Lookout!" Joseph growled and right about then we found out. There were dozens of them, and they came boiling up out of holes in the ground rather suddenly.
I tried shooting the first few, but that didn't work very well, as apparently you had to hit them in just the right spot to kill them. So dropping the carbine, I drew my swords and went to work. Fortunately these were only about the size of a car; say a big one, like a Cadillac, not like their huge cousin that was slowly lumbering our way.
It was hectic for the first few minutes, I was hacking off pincers left and right, and a few tail stingers that came dangerously close to hitting me. Joseph was darting around and grabbing them by the tail and either crushing them, or tossing them off to the side.
Once Dezba and I got the pinchers off of a few, he started darting in and crushing their heads between his jaws, killing them instantly. So she and I switched tactics, to just taking off one of the pinchers and if possible the tail, and leaving them for Joseph to finish off. Apparently his hide was tough enough that the stingers weren't able to hurt him.
When they all suddenly scuttled off, I looked up, and sure enough, the big monster one was upon us.
Joseph wasn't going to be able to crush the head of this one, or even get a grip on its tail, that was obvious from the start, but he was fast, faster than Dezba and I, and he started growling, barking, and snapping at it, drawing it's attention.
"Will, go for the tail, I'll go for the heart!" Dezba yelled.
I nodded and ran around behind it as Joseph distracted it, then running towards it I started to hack into the back of the tail with both swords.
I didn't know much about scorpions, so when it swatted its tail down flat to try and crush me, I was surprised and had to dodge to the side rather quickly. I attacked again, after its tail came back up, and the next time it tried that, I jumped onto its back, and sinking my foot claws in for a better grip I started to hack away with one of my swords with all of my might.
It obviously didn't like that, and it tried to get me with its tail, but I was too close to the end, so it couldn't bend it that far. I got about halfway through the tail when suddenly the whole thing shuddered and it then stopped moving, except for the occasional twitch.
"I think that did it," Joseph growled. "You okay, Dez?"
"Yeah, I just need to clean all of this gunk off," she said.
I jumped down to join the other two, as Dezba cleaned off her sword.
"I had no idea scorpions can use their tail like that," I said cleaning my own weapons off, and then reclaiming my carbine."
"They can't," Dezba said. "Or at least the ones I grew up with couldn't."
"What do you say we get out of here, before all the little ones come back to feast on big brother?" Joseph said.
"Yeah, I like that idea," Dezba said and I agreed.
We put some distance between us and the carcass, and then we slowed down to a walk, taking the time to watch for any more scorpions.
We didn't see anymore of those, but about an hour before sunset we did come across a pack of boars, or maybe they were just feral hogs, I wasn't sure, but they were pretty big. Fortunately for us, we saw them first, so Dezba and I were able to drop two of the big males first, and then Joseph drove the rest of the pack off while Dezba and I butchered one of the dead ones.
"Fresh pork tonight!" Joseph laughed trotting back.
"Yeah, let's build a fire and cook some of this."
"What, and ruin the taste?" Joseph said grinning.
"I don't feel like getting worms," Dezba said.
"We're champions, we don't get worms." Joseph said and then tore into the carcass of the one we hadn't butchered.
"He has a point you know," I agreed.
"I'm not a fan of raw meat, especially not pork," Dezba said. "Besides, I thought you cat people cooked your meat."
I shrugged, "Usually, if you want to, go right ahead. Don't let me stop you. I just didn't want to draw any attention to ourselves."
"The only people liable to come investigate at this point are probably Fuerston's," Dezba pointed out, "and we want to talk to them, anyway."
I nodded, "Then let's get a fire going."
"See them yet?" Joseph asked softly as I peered out over the rise, away from our camp.
"Yeah, they'
re in the direction you said, they just crested the hill," I whispered back.
It was late, and the moon had set some time ago. While Joseph had the better nose, and probably the better hearing, I had the better night vision, and he'd heard these guys sneaking up on where we'd had the fire and cooked dinner.
"They're doing pretty good in this darkness for humans," Joseph said.
I shook my head, "They're not humans."
"Really?" he said surprised.
I nodded, "I can see enough of them now, they're more like apes than people. At least the way they're walking, their heads look rather misshapen as well. Looks like they're wearing rags or something though."
"Too bad the wind isn't blowing this way."
I nodded.
"How many of them are there?"
"I'm not sure, maybe ten? Twelve? I'm thinking if they turn this way I'll just pick them off one at a time, otherwise, why waste the time or ammo on them?"
"Well, I'm gonna go to sleep, wake me if they start to come this way."
I nodded, "Sure."
I continued to watch the, well creatures, as they traveled. They were pretty much on a straight course for the two dead pigs from earlier, and when they got to them, they started in on ripping pieces off and eating them fairly quickly.
They squabbled some among themselves, probably fighting over the best pieces, or something like that. I didn't really know, or care, as long as they didn't come this way, I wasn't going to worry about it. By the time Dezba's turn at watch came, I woke her and told her what was going on and let her deal with it.
I woke to the distant sound of gunfire.
"What's that?" I asked Dezba as Joseph rolled to his feet.
"I think the people we were looking for just showed up. They're shooting the creatures."
"Are they now?" Joseph asked yawning, as a few more shots rang out.
"Yup. And whatever those things are, they're tough. They're taking a couple of shots to put down."
We both came to the top of the rise, staying low of course, and watched as more and more shots were fired.
There were about twenty of the attackers, and they were all uniformed. I recognized the uniform as that of the Fuerston army and told the others that.
The soldiers killed the creatures, then rather methodically they went up to each body, put a bullet through its head, and then chopped the head off.
When one started to twitch before it got its bullet, I started to be glad we hadn't had to deal with them. Obviously they were another strange mutation born out of the radiation from the bombs.
"So, now what?" Joseph asked.
"Hmm, give me a minute to think," I said watching them.
"Looks like they found our trail," Dezba said.
"Do your gods interview their dead?" I asked.
"Diannion does," Dezba said. "Why?"
"Circe doesn't have to, she's in the world with everyone, but my old god did, again, why?"
I nodded, "Try to leave one alive."
"Sure," Dezba said.
We waited until they were about fifty yards away, then opened fire while Joseph circled around behind them as we provided covering fire against the few that didn't die in our opening salvo.
As firefights went, it took about five minutes.
I walked up to the one Joseph had pinned under a paw; he was pretty badly wounded, and probably wouldn't last much longer.
He swore when he saw me, "You're the War Leader for that evil bitch goddess, aren't you?!" he said swearing.
"Yup, that's me. Tell Fuerston that we're after Cenewyg, none of us gives a damn about him, it's Cenewyg's ass we want to kill. If we have to go into his main temple and burn it to the ground to get Cen, we will.
"But if he was to face us out here somewhere and then maybe be abandoned rather conveniently by the army...." I smiled "Well then, we'll just take him with us and go home."
"Fuerston will never..." He shut up then as I shot him in the head.
"So, think Fuerston will take the hint?" Dezba asked.
I shrugged, "Maybe if we make it worth his while."
"And just how do we do that?"
"Joseph, do you think you could follow their trail back to their camp?"
Joseph grinned, "Easily."
"I think if we start by wiping out their outlying settlements, he'll have to do something to stop us, and well, if we burn down a church or two in the process, wouldn't it be Cen's job to stop us?"
"How does he know we're not lying?"
"Have you ever been able to lie to a god?"
"Good point," Dezba laughed. "Well, let's get to work then, shall we?"
Twenty
Wasteland - Outlying Settlements
I looked down on the village from the top of the rise; this would be the third one we'd attacked in the last week. The trail we'd backtracked had led to a rather small one; it hadn't even had a shrine. We'd run everyone off from that town, killed any who tried to make a stand, and then burned it to the ground.
Two nights later we found the next one, and it had a shrine, but it wasn't a very large one, the ground wasn't even holy. We'd run those people off, and again, burned it all down.
Tonight however, this town had a church, and we were going to burn it down, and kill any of Fuerston's priests that we found.
Part of me found it distasteful, even objectionable, that we were just killing these people and destroying their villages. But they had started it, they were trying to wipe out Stephanie's religion before it even got started, and they were killing her people. It was only fair that what they visited on others was visited on them.
Besides, they had Cenewyg, and I was going to pay him back for kidnapping my child, and murdering Harold and Emma. Not to mention planning to kill Cameron. Now I'd been perfectly willing to just walk away from his attempt at killing me and Stephanie, after all, it had failed, he had lost.
But no, he couldn't let it go, let bygones be bygones. He came after mine, and well, until Fuerston gave him up, I was going to go after Fuerston. I'd learned as a child, that when people started to play 'keep away', the best course was to take out each of the people in the game, one at a time, until either they gave up and gave you back what was yours, or there weren't any left standing.
It was a hard lesson, and people never looked at you the same afterwards, but it worked.
"Okay, let's go," I said and we started down the hill at a run, opening fire as we went. Joseph streaked off into the darkness ahead of us; he'd get those guards that we couldn't see from here.
We moved quickly, always moving, not standing still, shooting anyone who looked like they had a weapon, or who might stand against us. By never staying in one place and running back and forth across the village in the darkness, we sounded like a much bigger force, and with Joseph's actions, they weren't even sure if we were human, or monsters.
But I knew what we were, we were monsters, and in my champion's form, I know that I definitely looked the part.
"You can't come in here!" the priest screamed at me as I kicked the door, in.
"Watch me," I growled and shot one of his acolytes in the head. I shot him in the knee as he others turned and ran, I really didn't care what happened to them, if they got away, or not. This was a campaign of fear, if Fuerston wasn't willing to give up Cenewyg on his own, maybe the cries of his people would inspire him to do so.
I picked the screaming priest up by the neck, "Tell your boss that maybe he should sue for peace," and I whipped his body around hard down onto the altar with enough force that the altar cracked in two.
I left the dead body there and set fire to the building on the way out. When I caught back up with Joseph and Dezba, more than half of the town was on fire.
"Well, think we got his attention?" Dezba asked sitting down.
"It was about as subtle as a punch in the face," I told her.
"Well, now he knows we mean business. He either sends out Cenewyg, or we'll continue to pick off his church
es, one by one."
"I wonder if Cenewyg is going to come willingly, or have to be forced?" Joseph asked.
"We won't know until he gets here." I said.
"Let's see what they throw at us first, if it's just the military, then we know he's balking."
I nodded, "Well, let's go find a place to camp for the rest of the night, and see what gives come the morning.
They all nodded and we moved off to the east, leaving the burning town behind.
"Will," I heard Dezba call, and I woke up instantly and moved over to where she was.
"What?"
"Look," she said pointing.
I looked, there were several dust columns rising up into the air off in the distance.
"Looks like quite the response, doesn't it?" I said.
"Wonder which of those groups Cen is with," she said looking at them.
"Assuming he is," I said. "He has to know we're going to kill him."
"I don't know, I've been thinking about it. He's under pressure right now, and he knows it. If he doesn't make a good showing, he's going to be on the outs with his god from this point on. Also, his chances of ever getting picked up by another god become scarce.
"But if he gets killed, killed here that is, he goes back into limbo for a while. The pressure is off, and once he comes out of that, his powers unlock, and he can just quit and move on someplace else."
"You're assuming that he doesn't know we're planning on taking him out of here to kill him," I pointed out.
Portals of Infinity: Reprisal Page 22