by Eric Ugland
Also, we added twenty dwarves to our digging team, plus Essie the geomancer. It was very much a dream team of sorts. And all of us delivered across the valley by Air Fritz, the best airline in, well, probably the world at this point. Fritz actually seemed to be enjoying his new role as public transport. I think because so many people gave him praise. Told him how amazingly useful he was being, how thrilling it was to fly with him. I thought about, maybe, getting some sort of colorful outfit for the giant bird. Make an Air Fritz logo. I needed to find a willing and imaginative tailor for that...
We resumed work the following morning, again following the usual pattern. I was at the front with the prinkies. The dwarfs followed behind, doing cleanup work to make everything nice and pretty and ready for the road builders to lay stone. Carpophorus wrangled the minotaurs into helping him. Considering they were all professional soldiers, after the first week, the kobolds were actually looking somewhat like a decent group of fighters.
I quickly got back into the routine: dig, dig, dig, summon prinkies, eat something, dig, dig, dig, eat something, sleep. Rinse and repeat.
We had a few run-ins with the goblins. It seemed like they were continuing to probe our capabilities. Mostly hit-and-run attacks, which were very tough on the minotaurs. I noticed that when their blood got up, they were quick to chase. It took considerable effort on my part, and Carpophorus’s, to reign them in. There were no more slime attacks, but the vargr made several appearances. Most of the time they were being ridden, but twice they came just as a group. But the goblins hadn’t figured out their cannibalism problem, so as soon as the wounded piled up, the vargr just fell amongst themselves.
Fritz would come hang out sometimes. He still scratched words out in the dirt — it wasn’t the best means of communication, but it gave him, and me, something to do. He also wanted to get in on the fun with the goblins, and I knew he’d be a devastating ally, but I wanted to keep him as backup. Having a buddy capable of dropping ten-ton boulders on target would be a game changer. Nothing like having air superiority. At least, that was something Lee was keen on pontificating. It made me wonder what other mounts we might tame to get us in the sky.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Two weeks later, we made the final push through the trees, and we could see the end. It was a cool intersection of geography. The mountain walls that formed the boundary of Coggeshall Valley just sort of stopped, getting thinner and thinner until, at some point in the past, said walls just crumbled. A river came from the west and made a shallow lake covering the entire entrance to the valley. On the valley side, a nice wide flat grassy field gave way to the shallow lake. A gentle slope, and then the rest of the world. A river went down the eastern portion of the slope, again, super slow and mellow, as far as moving water goes, before disappearing into a forest. The forest covered the eastern portion of the outside world, while the western portion were plains. Amber waves as far as the eye could see. Across from us, far in the distance, were hazy mountains.
It was pretty, and we were the first to arrive. There was no army of Mahrduhm camped out on the plains, no horde of monsters or goblins or orcs or something else from the collective nightmares of humanity, and elfmanity, and dwarfmanity for that matter. Instead, it was just beautiful amber waves of grain.
I left most everyone back with the dig, and made my way toward the lake, the opening, and the plains beyond. I wanted to find out a little more about the terrain we’d be digging and working through. Also, I figured it would behoove us to find a spot for a more permanent camp, a spot for all the workers to rest and recuperate while trying to build a fortress on the quick.. Walking through the open field, I couldn’t help but notice just how green everything was, almost preternaturally so. The ground was just a bit squishy, making me think the lake tended to grow and shrink over the course of the year.
Bear rode on my shoulder, Ragnar walked on my left, and Skeld on my right. It was interesting to hear their different footsteps. Skeld was much heavier now, and he sank into the grass-mud nearly as much as I did. He didn’t have the same set of abilities as me, so he was having a harder time walking through it, and I could hear him curse softly every now and again. I had the distinct feeling he was going to lose his boot to the muck.
As we got closer to the lake, naturally, my thoughts turned to fishing. What kind of fish swam here? It was an odd spot because we were quite high up, still mountainous, and the water feeding the lake had that distinct blue of a melting glacier. Which gave me pause, and I looked over my shoulder as if I could see into the western cave, the Night Goblins’ cave, and maybe spy a glacier hidden inside. Obviously, I couldn’t see much beyond trees and the tall mountains beyond. Back to the fish, I figured there’d be trout. The cold water meant a no for bass or really any warm water fish. And trout were hardy, they could take the cold. They’d handle the lake freezing over in the winter. Which it definitely had to do, considering how shallow the lake was.
Maybe it was because I was embroiled in these deep and important thoughts that my gaze wandered from the plains past the lake to see a large grouping of boulders off the eastern side of the clearing. It had a dark spot in the center.
“Whoa,” I said, “is that a cave?”
We stopped, and everyone looked where I was pointing.
“Maybe,” Skeld said, “but is that really important at the present time? Shouldn’t we get closer to that camp? Make contact?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Cave.”
Skeld sighed. Ragnar laughed.
“I vote cave,” Ragnar said. “There’s always the chance it will have treasure.”
“Or goblins,” Skeld cautioned.
“It’s been, like, hours since I’ve killed a goblin,” I said, “I think it’s only right we go investigate.”
“I’m not going to win this one, am I?” Skeld asked.
“The idiots presently outnumber you,” Bear said.
“Hey,” I said. “If you vote, it’s a tie.”
“She’s right, though,” Ragnar said. “There are a lot of idiots here.”
“You know she means you, right?”
“Sure, I’ve come to terms with my shortcomings.”
“Short is right,” Skeld said.
I had to grab Ragnar to keep him from trying to beat up his buddy.
“Cave it is,” I said.
So we headed toward the potential cave, which was ever so slightly uphill. About a hundred yards away, I caught a tremendous stench as a breeze drifted from the direction of the dark spot.
“Shit,” Skeld said.
“Pretty sure that’s offal,” Ragnar said. “And shit.”
“Bears?” I asked.
“Yes?” Bear replied, and I could almost hear her smile.
“Or something,” Ragnar said.
“Bears usually don’t smell that bad,” Skeld said.
“Tell me that when one isn’t riding on your shoulder,” I said.
The brownie ripped one of my beard hairs out. I didn’t cry at all.
“So it’s probably a monster of some kind,” Ragnar said. “A gross one that keeps a lot of dead things around to feast on.”
“Ghoul,” Skeld said.
“You think everything smelly is a ghoul.”
“Every ghoul is smelly.”
“Yeah, but—“
“Guys,” I said, “let’s figure this thing out first, and then you can have your argument about ghouls, okay?”
Nods, and we continued on in spite of the growing stench besieging us.
As we neared, the brilliant green grass of the rest of the clearing died out, replaced instead by hard-packed mud. It was definitely a cave, a wide-open portal to darkness. There were a few carcasses in the mud, and no shortage of bones. All the bones looked like they’d been chewed and rejected for some reason or another.
“Might be better if we brought more soldiers with us,” Ragnar said.
“Nah, we got this,” I replied.
Naturally,
such a phrase would come back to bite me in the butt. That was just the way of things.
Ragnar sighed, but he continued on. He took his spear off his back and got ready for a fight. Skeld followed suit, and was similarly ready.
The stench was overpowering now.
“Maybe whatever was in there died,” I said, “and that’s what we’re smelling.”
The cave-dwelling creature decided that was the opportune time to roar. It was an earth-shattering, guttural cry of anger and rage, loud and rumbling enough to make the small pebbles bounce around the cracked mud.
“Okay, fine. Whatever is inside is probably not quite dead,” I said, coming to a stop.
Fingers seemed to come out of the darkness, grabbing the rock. They were mottled grey, nearly matching the stone surround exactly. Three fingers. Three really big fingers with an extra joint at the end.
My stomach started to sink, because I thought I might know what the fingers belonged to.
A feeling confirmed when a face emerged out of the cave, and stared at us. Small eyes facing front, folded triangular flaps for ears, and a big fuck-off mouth with big fuck-off teeth. Not a ton of teeth — there were some pretty good sized gaps between them — but they were still huge and pointy and seemed perfectly-designed for maximum damage. The big head sat on top of the body with virtually no neck, and his jaw was absolutely massive. A pug-like nose was smack in the middle of his face. The body itself was heavily muscled, and just kept coming as the creature ventured forth out of the cave entrance. It was a huge version of….
I felt Bear make a motion, and I got a little notification.
Mature Rolegurdaüdi
Greater Beast
Lvl ??
HP: Very High
MP: Very low
Known Strengths: None
Known Weaknesses: None
Threat Level: Unknown
The mature version of the thing that ripped off my leg. Well there went my day. And probably my legs, given past precedence.
“Run,” I said.
“What?” Skeld asked.
“Run.”
Skeld turned and burned, sprinting toward the trees. I followed him. Ragnar, decided to take a different track, and he made for the lake. Which made total sense. He was not going to outrun anything on land, but in the water, he’d be nearly impossible to catch.
The rolegurdaüdi seemed to hesitate for a second, but the tiny thing moving slowest was definitely the most tempting target, and it launched itself after him at a frightening speed.
Motherfucker was big and fast, which always seemed like it should be illegal.
I slid to a stop, watching Ragnar with horror. It didn’t seem like he was gonna make it. The rolegurdaüdi could just wade in the water and snatch Ragnar up.
I snatched the axe from my belt, hauled off, and threw it as hard as I could, even though I had my doubts the axe would do the slightest bit of damage to the creature anyway.
Ragnar got to the edge of the water, took two steps into the shallows, then dove, slipping under.
The axe bonked against the head of the rolegurdaüdi, but did nothing.
The rolegurdaüdi skidded as he stopped, halting before he got to the water.
Ragnar surfaced, not that far away, and swam like his life depended on it. Which it did.
Except, well, the rolegurdaüdi didn’t move. It stood at the lake edge, staring at Ragnar.
Ragnar stopped after a few yards, and chanced a look over his shoulder. He saw the standing rolegurdaüdi, and was definitely as confused as the rest of us. Why wasn’t the rolegurdaüdi pursuing?
“He’s afraid of the water,” Bear whispered.
“Can’t be,” I said.
“Must be. Why else would he stop?”
“Can I point out that any second now he will remember we’re here,” Skeld said, “and we’re not anywhere close to water.”
“Point,” I said, and we resumed running.
Chapter Fifty-Five
The rolegurdaüdi prowled along the lakeshore, watching Ragnar. Ragnar, meanwhile, stayed comfortably in the water, swimming in an almost relaxed way.
I watched from the edge of the forest. Work had stopped for the moment, and all non-combatants had been pulled back even farther to make sure there was no chance they’d get the rolegurdaüdi’s attention. There was no way to get Ragnar out of the water without going past the rolegurdaüdi, but I wasn’t overly concerned because, well, Ragnar was an otter. A big sentient otter, but still, he was made for the water. And he could just swim out the other side if he wanted.
There was definitely a bit of a time problem as I didn’t doubt the goblins would be showing up when night came, and that would present problems. If we hadn’t resolved the rolegurdaüdi issue by then, we’d be hit on both fronts. To make matters worse, dark clouds were moving in, and thunder rolled in the distance. It had all the trappings of a wicked storm.
Swell.
Amber knelt next to me. “I don’t know anything about that beast,” she said.
“Not part of ranger school?”
“I did not, uh, is there a ranger school?”
“There’s one in Georgia, yeah. But I don’t think they know much about this thing either.”
“Georgia?”
“Never mind, not important.”
“I just know what Wulf the ursus told me. That these are rolegurdaüdi, that the ursus stayed out of the central part of the valley because of them. And that the one you tangled with is the juvenile, theoretically from this mating pair.”
“Wait. That last bit, say it again.”
“The juvenile?”
“No. Fuck. Pair. There’s another one somewhere.”
I stood up, closed my eyes, and reached out with tremorsense.
Nothing. But... there was something. An absence. A spot where I couldn’t sense, well, anything.
I opened my eyes, and I looked over to the right, toward a group of old trees with thick gnarled grey trunks. It had to be there. She had to be there.
“Get Tarryn. Signal Fritz, prepare to evacuate the digging crew,” I said quietly. “But move like you’re unconcerned.”
Amber nodded, then nonchalantly walked back along the dig to the holding area.
“Wait,” I hissed.
She stopped.
“Better idea,” I said.
She walked back over, equally as nonchalant.
“Your grace?” she asked.
“There’s no way we can get everyone out fast enough,” I said quietly, “but we can probably get everyone into the lake, to some degree at least, and head across the water.”
“You want everyone to try and run across the open field past that thing to get in the water?”
“I mean, that’s half the plan?”
“What’s the other half?”
“Me,” I said. “Go and send Tarryn this way. When you see the signal, get everyone moving as quickly as they can.”
“This has all the signs of a quality Coggeshall plan, your grace. But might I ask what the signal might be?”
“You’ll know it.”
“Even better,” she said, with a wary smile. “Please be safe. Ish.”
She reached out and touched my face for a second. Looking into her eyes, it seemed like she was trying to decide something. Then she just smiled again, and gave my beard a little tug. She walked away quickly, but calmly.
I watched her go. And not just because of the tails. Don’t get me wrong, the tails were hypnotic, and fluffy, and— not just because of the tails. I was trying to figure her out. At least understand where her head might be at. She was an odd one at the best of times, thrown into a life she didn’t want, then taking a huge risk to break out of it into the life she thought she wanted. A city girl who dreamt of being in the country. And now we were leaning on her more than nearly any other ranger. She had yet to buckle under the pressure, which was great, but I was also noticing her demeanor toward me changing, and I wasn’t sure I like
d it. Or how to go about dealing with it.
Thankfully, Tarryn came striding up, a goofy smile on his face. I didn’t have to think about interpersonal relationships until, hopefully, much later.
“You have a grand plan, oh master of all we survey?” he asked.
“I have a plan,” I said. “I don’t think it’s grand.”
“Is it that you get the shit beaten out of you by a big monster while everyone else runs away?”
“I was going to phrase it in a more, uh, impressive manner, but that’s gist of it.”
“How do I fit in?”
“Without looking directly, can you see the group of large trees over there, the light grey ones that are grown together?”
He gazed out at the lake, but was actually looking out his peripheral vision.
“I think I see it,” he said. “But you’re also asking me to look for a group of trees while standing in the edge of a forest.”
“I want you to blow the shit out of it,” I said. “Biggest thing you can handle.”
“I mean, I can do that, but I’m not sure I see the point.”
“That’s where the other one is hiding.”
“The other one?!”
“Also, you think you’re going to be able to run after you throw this spell?”
“Run?”
“Yeah.”
“We’re not using Fritz?”
“Did you signal for him?”
“No.”
“So, no.”
“But—“
“Okay, I’ll carry you until someone catches up to me.”
“What? Wait—“
“Let me get a weapon out,” I said, standing up and stretching my arms out, “and then unleash hell.”
“Wait, you want me to open a portal to--“
“No, fire. I think. Or water. Can you do something destructive with water?”
“Water?”
“I just don’t know how that’d work. Drop it from really high up? Ice? But they can’t be afraid of ice.”