Beastborne- Mark of the Founder

by James T Callum

  And as Elora pulled the vines back, Hal understood. Pinned to the trunk of the tree with a large, well-made spear was the body of a man in hunting leathers.

  23

  “Is that…?” Hal couldn’t even say the words. Hal didn’t recognize the man’s face but judging by Elora’s suddenly relaxed posture, he didn’t think she did either.

  “No,” Elora said, softly. “Help me get him down.”

  The man had only been dead the past day or two and aside from the large hole in his chest from the spear, didn’t seem particularly worse for wear. It was suspicious how the vines grew over his body, effectively preserving him.

  With the help of the koblins, they buried the man who had nothing of note on him, and even if he had, it wouldn’t have been right to take anything. Elora’s somber attitude hinted that she knew at least where he came from, if not who he was.

  “You can keep the spear if you want,” Elora said as they took the man down. “Or give it to one of the refugees. I don’t want it but it would be a waste of a perfectly good weapon.”

  As they buried him, she explained that the vines growing over him was not uncommon for particularly accomplished Druids or Rangers. It was a sign of respect, that the forest was reclaiming one of their own and preventing the animals from savaging the body.

  They were moving through the forest less than half an hour later. Unfortunately, they came across the stockpile soon after. Or what was left of it. The ground was dug up and loose soil piled everywhere.

  Crates were burned and smashed. There was nothing left.

  The forest was already dark despite their torches and growing darker by the second. They’d need to break for camp soon but Elora wanted to get as far away from the stockpile before they set up camp.

  “Did you know him?” Hal asked in a hushed voice. “Or what happened to the stockpile?”

  She shook her head. “But I recognize his crest. He was a runner for the Hope. And that spear was no goblin made thing. It was fashioned from Fallwreath steel. He was meant as a warning.”

  “To us?” Hal asked.

  “No, to anybody who would subvert the rule of the Founder. That we found him means little, except that we could give him a proper burial. Whoever did it is long gone most likely. It was likely the same people who destroyed the cache of supplies.”

  Hal chewed his lip in thought as they pressed on until they were forced to make camp.

  The koblins were remarkably good at setting up impromptu lean-tos. They stretched tent canvas in a wide circle around a large bonfire so that many people could sleep under cover instead of only a few in individual tents.

  He watched them work quietly, knowing full well that they would turn away his attempts to help. Not because they didn’t want it but because they had some strange notion that he didn’t need to pitch in.

  They treated him like a favored son and as a revered figure. At once they managed to make him feel babied and put on a pedestal.

  What food they had was rationed and stretched further with the aid of that strange purple rice. It was easy to carry and with a few pots. They had nothing quite so large as the cauldrons, which wouldn’t fit into anybody’s inventory. Filled with water from nearby streams, the rice could be made into a much larger meal.

  Even if it was bland.

  At least it was warm and filling. Hal heard no complaints about the food. He guessed after being locked in cages the freedom they had now and the hope they clung to was worth some tasteless food.

  “How much longer until we get to Murkmire?” Hal asked Elora.

  “Several days still. But it’ll depend largely on…” She motioned half-heartedly at the children laughing as they watched a koblin dance around and tell a story by the firelight.

  He understood. They had made very little progress compared to the grueling pace the Rangers had set. The dark woods were crisscrossed with deep shadowy gullies and swift streams that they went to great pains to find a suitable crossing for both children and koblin alike.

  The koblins were inventive, coming up with creative solutions to the problems at hand. Unfortunately, they lacked proper materials or tools to realize the koblin’s ideas.

  And so, each detour added hours onto their already plodding pace.

  “Have you spoken to the kids?” he asked.

  “Not much, why?”

  “I was wondering if maybe they knew where they had come from, we might be able to find a village or a small town on our way and return some of the kids to their homes.”

  “I don’t mean to burst your bubble, Hal, but there won’t be anything for them.” She stirred her rice around, staring into her bowl as if it held answers. “If the children and their parents were taken from a village, that place is likely burned to the ground.

  “There are dozens of small villages, homesteads, and the like across this region. Most of them abandoned. If we weren’t sticking to the thickest of the forest for cover, you would see how many burned-out shells there are.”

  “What will leaving them in Murkmire do, then? If you want me to set up a Sanctum anyway… why don’t we take them with us?” Hal already had an inkling but he wanted to hear it from her.

  Elora looked him in the eye. “The Shiverglades is not a kind place. It’s wild, untamed. Infested. It is no place for children but it is also far enough out of the reach of the Founder that you may be safe. That we may be safe from reprisal. For a time, at least.”

  “Are the Shiverglades truly that dangerous?”

  Elora’s stony expression cracked for a moment and he could see the fear that swam beneath the calm exterior. She didn’t need to say anything else. That look alone shook him to his core.

  If Elora was scared of something, he knew he should be terrified.

  * * *

  After a brief pause for lunch later the next day, Hal heard a familiar bird call. The forest wasn’t devoid of life but it didn’t seem to thrive the way he would expect.

  While none of the koblins seemed to remark upon the sound, Hal noticed that Elora perked up. It would not have seemed out of place except to people who have heard its call before. She pressed her palms together and put them to her mouth, blowing into her hands and making an answering bird call.

  Immediately another trilling song answered her and Elora’s face broke into a wide smile.

  They had found the Rangers.

  Elora nodded at Hal and broke off through the group, giving the scouts at the fringes an order to return and regroup with the rest of them. They all clustered in the middle of the forest, separated by the thick pillar-like trunks as if they stood in a vast underground hall.

  The canopy was so dense and high above them, they might as well have been in a dwarven stronghold but for the smell of green living things all about them.

  Several agonizing minutes later, Elora returned with a smile on her face. “We will await their arrival here. A few of them were hurt but nothing that Ashera could not mend,” she said.

  Buffrix sidled up to Hal. “Man-things will not harm kobbie-friends, yes?” he asked a little nervously.

  Hal did his best to give the koblin a reassuring smile. “You have my word they will not harm you if you do nothing to harm them.”

  Mollified, Buffrix nodded and went back to his group of children and koblins. In a short time, the children had grown surprisingly attached to the koblins as a whole but Buffrix and Lootlox, in particular, had a way with them.

  Two gentle souls were lurking behind those leather masks.

  When he learned that all of the koblins wanted to follow Hal, he couldn’t believe his ears. He had assumed that perhaps Buffrix and the others would follow him as they had gotten to know him but he didn’t expect such a large entourage.

  As much as they seemed to think they owed him, Hal really knew what the score was. There was a deep mutual benefit in helping one another. The koblins, as Hal understood it, had been hunted in this region by goblins, gnolls, trolls, and other foul creatures.
<
br />   Humans could not tell the difference – and Hal doubted they cared to learn – and chased them out of their settlements, leaving the poor things with nowhere to go.

  Hal felt for them deeply. It was unfair. Something he was beginning to learn was a running theme in this new world he found himself in. And despite it all, he found a mounting desire to uproot that unfairness and replace it with something better.

  Something kinder.

  Which conflicted directly with his original goal of finding a way back home. A goal that was fast being eclipsed by his attachment to Aldim and its people.

  From the edge of the torchlight, Hal saw the first of the Rangers return to the group. He recognized many of their faces but it was their eyes that he was particularly drawn to; Yesel’s amethyst eyes, Angram’s ruby orbs, and Ashera’s pale-green eyes, her horns glinted in the shifting light.

  Altres’ crimson skin was easy to spot even though he had changed out of his dirty prisoner’s clothes.

  He had barely known these people and the urge to run out to them and hug each of them was overwhelming.

  “Hal! Elora!” Ashera cried, dragging Altres by his wrist. She ran the distance to the pair, enveloping them in a hug, squeezing the three of them together. “Oh, we thought the worst had happened when you didn’t return immediately!”

  Ashera was stronger than she looked. Hal doubted he could have broken out of her grip, even with his newfound strength. Elora seemed to ponder the same escape from the look she gave him but thought better of it. Altres just smiled and shrugged, pleasantly surprised to be caught up in it all it seemed.

  That appeared to be the tiefling’s default mood.

  The girl finally released them and placed a strong hand each on Elora and Hal’s shoulder, her sea-glass eyes darting between the two. “You must tell me everything.”

  “Us,” Altres corrected. “I cannot very well conduct a proper ballad if you don’t give me the details.” Hal had no idea where he had found the lute he pulled out.

  Rejoined with the Rangers, Ashera and Altres joined Elora and Hal at the center of the large group as the pair recounted the last couple of days, each telling their part.

  Ashera told them what had happened after Elora left. Just as Elora had said, the Rangers decimated the raiding party of goblins and gnolls but soon found themselves attacked by another group. Pushing off the second assault had taken its toll but they succeeded and regrouped to heal their wounds.

  Once Elora did not come back immediately, there was a debate about whether they should go out in force, tracking her movements to find her.

  Elora snorted. “Good luck with that.”

  “Yes,” Ashera said with a gentle smile. “I told them as much. I said if they could find your trail and keep it for more than a hundred yards, then we should pursue. None of them could.”

  “Elora,” Hal said with a grin. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you smile so smugly!” He burst out laughing. Elora colored and swatted at him without any heat. Ashera joined in with soft tinkling laughter.

  Altres stood by listening, all the while trying to tune his lute in vain. He gave it a few experimental strums every now and then but even to Hal’s tin ear he could tell the notes were off.

  The tiefling shrugged, lashed his tail behind him, and continued to tinker with it.

  “I spent much of my childhood at my father’s side learning the craft and how to hide my tracks,” Elora said as stoically as she could manage.

  “Time well spent,” Ashera agreed.

  After they failed to pick up Elora’s trail, and with Hal’s trail being too muddled by all the fighting, the Rangers headed forward as Elora said they would, posting sentries along possible paths that Elora or Hal might take to rejoin.

  “It was a lot of waiting. The ground shook from some distant disturbance but other than that, nothing notable happened,” Ashera said.

  Hal grinned at that. “That would have been us.”

  “What… did you do?” Altres asked, suddenly very interested. His glowing lilac eyes were wide.

  Elora cut in before Hal could explain. Every word she spoke seemed to make her swell with pride. “Hal destroyed an entire goblin den and saved all of the prisoners in the same stroke.” She motioned to the koblins and children. “Their freedom is owed to his bravery and daring.”

  If she hadn’t used his name, Hal would have thought she was talking about somebody else. The praise fell upon his shoulders awkwardly and he reflexively hunched beneath the unfamiliar burden.

  Your Leadership has risen to Level 5.

  +1% Party Damage (5%).

  +2% Leadership Efficacy (10%).

  Ashera clapped her hands excitedly. “Oh, I knew you were brave! You only needed the opportunity to present itself.”

  Bit of an understatement, but sure let’s go with that.

  “I was only doing the right thing,” he said.

  “Is that why the koblins look at you like some religious figure?” Altres asked him with a chuckle.

  “Could be,” he hedged.

  It wasn’t like he knew why they had taken such a shine to him beyond his reputation going up but the feeling was mutual. They were remarkably inventive and a joy to be around. Even if he could only understand half of what they said at any given time. He envisioned a place where people and koblins could coexist peacefully.

  “You have got quite the dreamy look on your face,” said Ashera, eyeing him up and down with a slight quirk to her pouty lips. “We could all use a bit of hope in these dark days, what is on your mind?”

  She had a fair point. “You said that I might be able to create a sanctuary, a Sanctum, right?” When she nodded he pressed on. “Then that stands to reason I’d be able to make a brand new Sanctum unbound by any rules of the current ones.

  “In which case, I would like to formally invite the koblins to live there alongside any other peaceful races, regardless of their background.”

  Ashera nudged Elora with an elbow. “I told you this one was different. Look at him already dreaming up an egalitarian home for all the misfits of this world.”

  “It will take more than a good heart and pleasant dreams of the future to see that to fruition,” Elora said, pulling Hal back down to reality. “We should leave as many koblins behind as possible.

  “And before you say anything, Hal this is for their safety. Only a few of them are decent fighters. And where we are going, we will need every able-bodied person we can get. To bring all of them? It would be cruel. We can always come back for them, Hal. On my honor, I would not leave them behind if it was not for their own good.”

  Hal could accept that. Once they had a settlement and knew the path, it would be less dangerous. Even though he didn’t like it, he found himself agreeing with Elora.

  For the koblin’s own good, he had to find them another home. A temporary home.

  24

  The last week had felt like an eternity to Hal. All the organizing, endless marching, and traveling had worn out its welcome a long time ago.

  So when the trees began to thin and light first peeked through the treetops overhead, Hal hoped it meant they were close to the end. The Rangers called for a halt and pulled back, whispering quietly to each other.

  Rather than try to overhear, Hal stayed back and did his best to wait patiently. If it was something he needed to know, they’d let him know. If not, they’d keep him in the dark.

  Like usual.

  That wasn’t precisely fair but it felt like all they ever did was deal with the problems they felt Hal too weak to do himself. The problem was if they continued to solve those problems for him, he’d never get strong enough to tackle them himself.

  Maybe that’s their plan, he wondered for the first time. What if their goal is to make me some kind of puppet? Where the only power I have is what they give me because I’m too weak to do anything on my own?

  The questions sat heavily in his stomach and even Elora’s confident smile did nothing to ba
nish the concern that he was being used.

  Despite the valid worry, Hal didn’t think it likely after mulling it over for a few minutes. Nothing they did ever seemed to place Hal in a helpless situation where he was entirely reliant on them.

  They were protective, sure. Perhaps bordering on over-protective at times but Hal knew it was his own aching feet and tired legs that was turning his mood sour. And worst of all was the slow pace. For as much walking as they did, they never seemed to get very far.

  Knowing his mood was more from discomfort than any real concern actually managed to make him feel a bit better ironically.

  “Murkmire is less than a mile to our north,” she said. “A few of the Rangers are going to go on ahead to make sure the coast is clear. This far from Sanctum-Fallwreath the influence of the Founder is weakened but sometimes he likes to send out detachments of loyal soldiers.”

  Ashera placed a hand on Hal’s shoulder, appearing at his side. She had remarkably soft steps for somebody who had been a prisoner in a city. “We have had enough surprises, don’t you think so, Hal?”

  “More than enough,” he agreed.

  “We’ll keep a few Rangers here to make sure the children and koblins are kept well out of sight while we go into town,” Elora said. “I want you to stay with Ashera and me when we go into Murkmire. They’re a brash and boisterous people, we don’t need them knowing you’re a Founder.” She motioned at Hal’s left arm, the mark was still hidden beneath the makeshift bamboo bracer under his long sleeve.

  “I’ll stay here,” Altres said, sitting on an overturned log as koblins and children huddled around to hear another one of his silly songs. Despite the out of tune lute, it was one of the highlights of the day for the kids and koblins.

  Altres would make up the most ridiculous songs, usually about something that never could have happened and he’d get the kids and koblins to join in.

  It drove the Rangers crazy as the sound attracted beasts from far and wide. Beasts they had to defend against to keep those very same koblins and children safe.