"Berand, wake up." he said.
The man woke with a start, blinking up at him.
"Have your men seen anything in the woods between these attacks?" Joven asked.
Berand blinked at him again, then shook his head.
"Did anyone even scout the woods since the first attack?"
Berand shook his head.
"I'm going to go see what it is. Get some rest."
Berand didn't reply, instead closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep again.
Joven passed through the gates, keeping an eye on the forest line. The nine working on disposing of the bodies were hustling to get done as fast as possible, but would be at it for at least another hour. Joven believed he should be able to get back before they were done.
He unhooked two hatchets from his belt, stalking into the forest. He moved cautiously, but not with great stealth. Wolfmen had a sense of smell that made sneaking up on them almost impossible. The best he could do was move quickly and effectively through the woods and draw as little attention as possible.
He moved in the direction the light had come from, careful to avoid making too much noise. As he moved forward he could hear the sound of fighting. His attention perked, and he ran towards the sound. If there was someone this close to the wolfmen, he'd have to get him inside the walls.
Joven came around an elder pine and skidded to a stop. He blinked, not quite comprehending what he saw before him.
Seven wolfmen lay in pieces in the woods, their bodies savagely chopped apart. A single wolfman battled desperately against five of the same kind of wolfmen that Joven had fought outside the village. The lone wolfman wore fur and steel llamelar armor, bracers, and shin guards. He had a pair of finely crafted short swords in each furry hand, and he dispatched the first of the five wolfmen with practiced ease.
Joven could see that the wolfman's breathing was labored, and the points of his swords dipped as he fought exhaustion. The warrior had been fighting his own people for quite some time, from what Joven could estimate. He hadn't even detected the barbarian's scent, he was so tired.
In that moment, Joven considered just letting the enemy overwhelm the warrior, then finishing off the remaining wounded. It would make the fight a great deal easier and he wouldn't expend energy he may need bringing the baby to Endrance. Wolfmen had been the enemy of his people for longer than his people could remember.
But then he thought about what Endrance had told him about the wolfman that had spared his life. The Spengur would want him to help the warrior. If he let this one die, he would be going against his friend's wishes.
As the wolfman stumbled back, trying to get more room to fight the remaining four wild wolfmen, Joven erupted out from behind the tree with a roar of challenge. The four wild wolfmen turned to him as he released both hatchets with a powerful overhead arm throw. They struck home, embedding deep into the two wolfmen's heads. As Joven closed in, he pulled the spiked club free from his belt.
The armored wolfman jerked to the side, wheeling away from both Joven and the other wolfmen. He seemed confused, but kept out of the big human's way. Joven sidestepped the first wolfman's attack and swung his club, bashing it in the skull with the spikes. He thrust his foot out and caught the other one in the chest, knocking him back while he yanked the club free from the dead wolfman's head. Joven advanced on the other and it fell just as easily.
His grim rescue completed, Joven turned to the last wolfman standing. They stared at each other for several seconds and Joven finally just shrugged and put the club back into his belt. The wolfman studied the barbarian as he caught his breath, watching the big man collect his hatchets with a yank.
"I don't even know if you can talk." Joven said, wiping the blood off on the dead wolfman's fur. The blood on his hatchets and mace were dark, almost clotted. "But I think if you are fighting these things and I'm fighting these things, then maybe we can not fight each other. At least until we've got nothing else to fight."
The wolfman sheathed his short swords, both sliding into a scabbard over each shoulder. He straightened and nodded his head to Joven. "I can talk," the wolfman said, his voice rough but tightly controlled. "I do not wish to fight you." His gaze slid over the four dead wolfmen. "I get the feeling I would not be much of a challenge for you."
Joven grunted. "Nah," he said. "I'd only killed half of what you did here. Who knows how many you fought before this. You'd be a worthy foe."
The wolfman watched him carefully and then rolled his shoulders in a strange sort of shrug. "Very well." he said. "Why did you help?"
"I don't entirely know, honestly." Joven said with a half-smile. "I guess Endrance would be unhappy with me if I let you die."
The wolfman regarded him with a curious expression on his canine face. The wolf's ears were pointed in different directions, listening for other sounds, but his eyes were on the barbarian. "This Endrance, he is your alpha?" he asked.
"Alpha?"
"Your pack leader?"
Joven scratched the side of his nose. "I guess..."
The wolfman nodded. "I am called Wrach, second of Gnaeus's pack."
"And Gnaeus is your... Alpha?" Joven asked.
Wrach nodded.
"I am Joven." the barbarian replied, tapping his chest. The second of - I am the guardian of Endrance."
Wrach squinted at Joven. "I do not understand."
"Understand what?"
"Is not your strongest your Alpha? Then if he is strongest, then why must you guard him?"
Joven did not have the head for diplomacy; his preferred method of dealing with confusing words was to put a fist into the speaker's face. However, he would gain nothing by punching the wolfman, so he kept his irritation in check.
"It's complicated." Joven admitted. "Endrance is stronger than me in many things, but his body is tiny and weak. It's not much of a weakness. I've not seen anything that his lightning cannot strike down."
The wolfman tilted his head, one ear flicking. "Lightning?"
"Yeah."
"I've heard about a mage who struck down wolfmen with a powerful bolt of lightning, but I thought that Gnaeus was only telling tales."
Endrance had told Joven about the wolfman that had let him live. "So it was Gnaeus who had met him?"
"All he said was that the mage had an unusual scent." The wolfman's ears swiveled into different positions. "We need to move soon, more of the Atastos will be coming soon."
Joven frowned. "Atastos?"
Wrach shook his head. "The closest word your kind has to it is ‘undead.' It is not right, but it is closest to our language."
Joven nodded. "Ah. Where will you go?"
Wrach shrugged. "I will return to my pack to report to Gnaeus. You should return to the people you guard. You are lucky to have only found a few Atastos."
"So few?" Joven asked. "The village has killed over a hundred."
Joven didn't know that wolfmen could grin. "That," Wrach said with a toothy grin that reminded him of a dog, "is just a small part of the full pack that is to come."
* * *
Wrach watched in darkness as the barbarian finished scouting the pass. He had been lucky that the man had come by, or else he may have died before being able to return his report to his Alpha. Gnaeus was relying on him to bring the news back to him. The Atastos had begun to move. Something had to be directing them; otherwise instinct would have kept them wandering individually in the wild parts of the wilderness.
Instead they were moving in large numbers, and he still hadn't figured out why. Wrach flicked his tail and slunk through the trees the way he had come. Perhaps the mage that the barbarian mentioned could be of assistance. He would ask Gnaeus about it. The Alpha had met the human and would know better if he could be trusted.
Wrach moved stealthily through the rough, mountainous terrain with the expert skill of a veteran scout. Coupled with the night vision and sense of smell of the wolfmen, he was quite able to avoid being detected by all but the most skil
led of hunters.
The moons rose and the night grew deep. In the distance, he could hear the sounds of battle. Shouts and screams carried over the mountainside and he could tell that the Atastos had found the village again. Perhaps Joven had what it would take to protect them. Perhaps he fell quickly. Either way, he did not expect to hear from the man again.
He felt grateful that the man had saved his life; it was considered a given fact that a packmate was on his or her own when traveling through the populous areas of the northern lands. Even more so than the Ironsoul pack, the barbarian pack would typically attack them on first sight. Instead, Joven had saved his life and even shared information with him.
His Alpha must be incredibly powerful, for such a capable warrior to fight under him happily. He heard no sense of malice towards his Alpha or ambition to replace him; a sign that his pack was well cared for. Wrach didn't know how it was done in the barbarian's pack, but whatever it was that his Alpha was doing, it seemed to be working well.
Wrach came out of the trees silently and saw a single Atastos sniffing around below a small rise in the rocks. He dropped to all fours and moved cautiously. He was lucky to have not been seen, and he moved around the Atastos to come up the rise. As Wrach crept up the rise, he could hear the wolfman snorting around the dirt, looking for something. Wrach tenatively sniffed the air, careful to make as little noise as possible. Humans.
He smelled the presence of at least one human nearby. By the smell, he concluded that either the human was injured or at least one had been killed nearby. Wrach slowly peered over the edge of the rise. The Atastos was sniffing the ground, searching slowly, but it didn't seem to be able to pinpoint the source of the smell.
Wrach had a height advantage and could see there was a mostly overturned tree to his left, its upturned roots left a torn out depression underneath. There was a child taking shelter in the hole, trying to hide under the roots of the tree as quietly as she could. It was only a matter of time until the wolfman sniffed her out, and then it would be too late for her to escape.
He didn't have to save her; they had never been at peace with the barbarians for as long as their lorekeepers had memory. But he had just been saved by someone from their pack. Wrach slipped his short swords from their scabbards quietly, gathering himself up for the attack. It was only ten or fifteen feet down. He had made worse jumps when he was unencumbered by armor, but it was such an optimal ambush point that he could risk injury getting the drop on his foe.
Wrach levered himself over the edge of the rise and fell. The Atastos must have heard his movement and looked up. Wrach landed on the thing’s chest with his paws, crashing the Atastos to the ground. Before it could react, Wrach used the momentum of the fall to bury the two swords deep into its chest and head. The wild wolfman twitched and went still, a gurgle escaping its throat.
Wrach stood, withdrawing his swords from the dead wolfman. He gave his blades a flick, slinging sticky traces of blood onto the cold earth. He perked his ears, listening. Nothing happened. Another Atastos didn't burst out of the underbrush. No attack came out of the darkness, and he didn't find himself faced with reinforcements. He didn't even hear anything moving around for several dozen yards, excepting the child hiding nearby.
He walked over to the tree, sheathing his weapons as he approached. Wrach slowed and dropped onto his haunches just out of arm's reach of the overturned tree. Inside, he could see the girl staring out in fear. Humans had pitiful night vision, so he didn't expect that she could even see him standing before her. As he watched, he could see her eyes dancing back and forth as she trembled in fear. She was looking for the source of the sounds out in the dark, but she saw little in her hole. Maybe she could hear his breathing and was hoping that he'd pass her by.
"It is safe now, cub." Wrach said as gently as he could manage in the human's tongue. "I have killed the Atastos."
The little girl froze at the sound of his voice so near to her, and she didn't respond. It might be that she thought him trying to trick her. Wrach sighed, falling back onto his rear and sitting. It might take a while to coax her out of the hole without harming her.
"Cub, you need not fear me." Wrach tried again. "If I wanted you dead, I could go into the hole you're hiding in."
The girl's eyes locked onto the location of his voice, her little body trembling. She could tell now he was right outside the hole. "Please don't hurt me!" she whispered.
"I do not wish to, cub." Wrach responded. "But it is not safe to remain here. Come with me."
The girl hesitantly crawled out of the hole. She couldn't be more than a pup, being barely three feet tall with tiny, frail features that presumably looked 'cute' to humans. She was adorned with a threadbare but sturdy dress, leggings and coat, with some thick fur lined boots tailored for her size. The girl had a head of long brown hair that had knots and snarls in it from scrambling around in the wilds. She smelled to him of blood, dirt, and fear.
The night was nearly pitch dark, making it impossible for her to make out his shape though she was within a foot of him. "You are!" she stammered, stumbling back. She nearly fell backwards into the hole, but Wrach reached out and caught her by the small of her back, his hand catching onto her coat.
"I am what?" Wrach asked.
"You... you are like them?" She responded, gesturing towards the body of the dead wolfman.
Wrach scooped her up in one arm and stood. Walking out towards the better lit rise, he was more easily visible to her.
"I wear the same skin." he replied to her question. "But I am not the same inside. This one was lost in his beast."
"I don't get it." she replied.
"It is hard to explain." Wrach replied. "What is your name, cub?"
"I'm Kaie, and I am a girl, not a cub." she replied.
He knew the difference. "You are a cub. My name is Wrach." He said.
"Rash?" she asked.
"No. Wrach. Ah, not A."
"Oh." she said. The girl weighed so little that he hadn't even bothered to put her down.
"Where are your parents, cub?" he asked.
She blinked at him with teary eyes. "They died. That wolfman was part of the ones that killed them."
"What happened to the rest of the pack?" Wrach asked her.
"They went that way." she pointed back the way he had come from. "I think they went to the place mommy used to go to trade with."
"Then they are also dead." Wrach confessed. "A warrior named Joven slaughtered them."
Her face brightened. "You saw Joven?" she asked. "I heard he is one of the strongest men alive!"
"You know of him?" Wrach asked. He was mildly surprised. He didn't know how humans shared information.
"Yes!" Kaie exclaimed. "I was told stories about how he fought his brother Balen on the top of the mountain and almost broke it because they were so strong! And he also fought dozens of the-" she suddenly cut off.
"Dozens of the what?" Wrach asked.
"... Dozens of the wolfmen." she finished, visibly worried he would take offense.
Wrach just shook his head. "If he's fought many of us before, then he is indeed strong to still be alive. A powerful warrior."
"Yes." she said. "You're not mad?"
"Our people are not so different than yours, cub." he replied. Only the strongest can survive and tame their beast. I can respect someone with so much strength."
"Oh." she responded. "What am I going to do now?" she asked.
He shifted her weight in his arm. "I can't leave you here." He said, thinking. "I can't take you towards the town; they might not survive the night. I can't go so far out of my way to take you to the next town; it's over a day's run away."
"Oh." Kaie repeated, dejected.
"I guess I'll have to take you with me. For now." he concluded.
"What?" the little girl stiffened in fear.
Wrach looked her in the eye. "I can provide you with food and you will be safe. Your parents are gone. And though you are human, I canno
t let a cub be separated from its pack."
"So you're not going to eat me?" she asked.
Wrach laughed, a chuffing sound that sounded almost human. "No, cub. I will not eat you." he rolled his eyes. "Not unless I'm really hungry."
"Nooo..." She replied, pushing away from him.
"I am only joking, cub." he replied. "You're too scrawny to eat, anyway. I'd spend more time picking you out of my teeth."
She smiled for the first time and Wrach shifted her towards his back. "All right, now climb onto my back and wrap your arms around my neck." he instructed. She clambered around and did as she was told. Her weight felt like a layer of snow on his shoulders. "Hang on tight. I'm going to run now and I don't want you to fall off."
The girl settled across the center of his back. The sides of her shoulders barely touched the scabbards of his short swords on either side of her. He couldn't begin to estimate the age of the cub.
"Aren't I going to choke you?" she asked.
Wrach shook his head. "Don't worry, cub." he said. "The day that you could hurt me is a long ways away."
The wolfman took off into a run, his paws finding sure footing on the cold and rocky ground. He would have to forgo stealth; having a smelly human child would make sneaking past other predators impossible. He would have to use his natural speed and skills as a hunter to avoid the bulk of the Atastos and make his way to his pack swiftly. Now he had both news and a life to deliver to his Alpha. Gnaeus would know what they should do with the cub.
* * *
Joven made it back to the village before the workers were done dragging away the corpses. Walking inside, he saw the men were lining up by several of the houses nearest to the walls. Wives, mothers, daughters and sisters doled out food for the men who ate while standing. Bowls of stew were downed, bread torn into and greens consumed with tired efficiency.
Joven wasn't sure if the village would survive if they were attacked too much longer. There had to be some way to help divert the bulk of the Atastos from getting to the village. From what tracks he had been able to follow, they had come from a western pass on the other side of the village, opposite from where he had come in.
Spellscribed: Ascension Page 9