Spellscribed: Ascension (12 page)

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 cannot 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.

The passes were able to be blocked off, but it would take time to arrange. Additionally, it would prevent others from using the pass until it was cleared, which would take several days of hard work. At the moment, Joven was willing to make others take a detour in order to give the village a better chance of survival.

However they had to make it through the next wave of wolfmen before he could send people out to chop several trees into the pass. Even then, those men had to be able to get there, cut down the trees and drop them into the pass without being killed by any wolfmen in the area. Joven was surprised he hadn't come across any of them on his way to the village from Balator. There were more direct routes through those mountains, however, so he assumed that Wrach's assessment was true and they were only catching a small amount of the coming wolfmen.

Atastos. That term worried Joven. He had been in dozens of skirmishes and repelled a few assaults from the wolfmen in the years before he had been sent to find Endrance, but he had always looked at them as an enemy to be battled, not a wild animal to be put down. The wolfmen he knew would retreat when overwhelmed, take care of their dead and injured, and picked their battles.

They'd always fought dangerously, using both strength of body combined with skill at arms and a degree of teamwork that had led to the barbarian's respect for the wolfmen. Where in other countries they may have been seen as only animals, they displayed strength and cunning, proving they had been worthy of respect and caution.

If these wolfmen were nothing more than mindless, bloodthirsty dead, there was little similarity between the two, other than their physical form. Joven knew that if they had hordes as large as was hinted at, it made sense that General Rohl was having trouble withdrawing the whole of his armies.

He had taken stock of the defenses, the men, and the resources at hand. The night would be long, but he could see the village surviving through until dawn. One had to tighten up the fortifications, draw the enemy to an area that was easily defended, and then kill everything that moved into the zone.

The problem he had was drawing them where he wanted them to be. If it were enemy soldiers, he would prepare an ambush, conceal his presence, and strike when they moved into the only area they thought was safe. With animals, it was a greatly different thing. He would set up a trap, but he would need bait to draw them into the area.

Three hours passed, and the men had a short respite from assault. During this time, Joven sat against the wall, resting. Unlike many amateur warriors, Joven had long since learned to sleep sitting up, and awaken at an instant's notice. It had served him well when traveling alone through the wilderness.

Only a couple of wolfmen had wandered out of the wood, spotted the settlement, and charged. All three were put down far from the wall by attentive archers. Since then, it had been very quiet.

Many of the men had been disturbed; wolfmen had been secondary threats at best. Most of the time, they minded their own business, left the humans alone and only fought when they had conflicting interests. The barbarians respected them, and the wolfmen respected the barbarians. The fact that they had killed over a hundred wolfmen who had died without even a snarl or howl, told them that something unnatural had occurred.

Joven wished Endrance had been there. The wizard would probably figure out why it was happening, follow it to the source, and come up with a solution. He probably would have had it solved within an hour.

He shook his head, conflicting emotions running through him. Look at him, it'd been only a year and already he'd started to rely on a mage to help him. He corrected himself; he was relying on a mage to solve his problems. When did he start coming to trust a magic user?

He concluded that it wasn't that he was a magic user, but rather that he was coming to trust his friend. The man had saved his life in several scrapes, and had proven he was more honorable in behavior and in keeping his word than many of the barbarians Joven had grown up with. He wasn't entirely sure why he knew, but he was certain Endrance was a rarity, even among magic users.