Lost Bloodline 3 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Since they were on a scouting mission, the group pushed hard through the afternoon to make as much ground as possible. Only when Calandra advised she needed to let the spell drop to rest did they halt to eat.

“Dried meat again, well at least it’s better than ramen,” Koda sighed, gnawing on the salted hunk of venison he’d taken from his pack. The stew that they’d made with the fresh bison had been a welcome change, but once again, they were back on trail rations.

“It’s the easiest to eat for now,” Sienna countered, but there wasn’t much conviction to her words. It was clear to Koda that his red wolf was ready for a change of pace, too.

“When we have more warning and time to prepare, I have an old recipe for trail bread my mama passed on to me,” Calandra growled around her own salty mouthful. “It’ll keep for weeks and is right filling. Only hard ingredient to get at times is the honey.”

“Then you will have to make some for us soon,” Arthene asserted. Of their family, the bear spirit was already finished eating. She had bolted down the smoked meat without hesitation and was working on her favorite project—at least her favorite besides harassing Koda, that was.

She had her bone club on her lap and was using the dense claws of her fingers to slowly score symbols deep into the stained knob of bone at the end of her weapon and along its length. The club was made from her own thigh bone—taken from the remains of her last incarnation—and in her hands became a formidable weapon even before the power Koda could feel humming in the runes Arthene carved. She’d started them weeks ago, and now worked them deeper into the ancient bone.

“Of course the bear wants honey,” Calandra snorted, rolling her eyes and pulling one of her braids over her shoulder to play with the end.

“It is natural, after all,” piped up Samira from her spot on the other side of Arthene. “Honey is a delicacy, and thus a worthy offering for the Den Mother.”

That statement made Arthene’s eyes light up and she turned towards Samira with a question even as the caracal beastfolk continued.

“Sadly, the only honey our people have is in the village stores. It’s likely the trolls have already found and devoured it.”

“Thera blast it,” Arthene swore, slamming her club into the ground with a rumbling crash that left a deep dent in the soil and shattered two different rocks. When she pulled the thick bone out of the ground and revealed it bore not a single scratch, Koda rolled his eyes.

“We just need to get there before they find it then, right?” Koda urged, hoping to divert his lover from falling into a full-on pout. “I’m sure if we clear out the trolls, then Vysin might give some of their honey to you in thanks.”

“Yes!” Arthene crowed before pushing herself to her feet. “Come, we should get moving again!”

“Nope,” Koda countered, reaching up to grab the edge of Arthene’s fur skirt and used his goddess-enhanced strength to yank the incarnate spirit off-balance.

Arthene, as focused as she was on the idea of getting her paws on some honey, hadn’t been ready for his actions and tumbled to one side with a squawk of surprise that ended when she landed on Koda’s lap where he was sitting on a rock.

“Kodaaaa!” Arthene protested once she realized what he’d done, her whine trailing off when Koda’s arms wrapped around her and he gently began rubbing at her exposed tummy.

“Wow, I’m astonished that worked,” Calandra muttered in amusement as she watched Koda tame the spirit woman with a few touches.

“She was too focused on food and wouldn’t let the rest of us rest if I didn’t,” Koda said, peeking around Arthene’s shoulder. “Figured I just needed to give her something else to focus on for the moment.”

That said, Koda tossed the last of his jerky into his mouth and put his other hand to use running his fingernails up and down the center of Arthene’s spine where it was exposed between her top and skirt. The bear woman, who had been attempting to rally for a protest despite the tummy rubs, went limp in his arms at the combined assault of belly rubs and back scratches.

“Is it wrong that I’m kind of envious of Arthene right now?” Sienna teased, her tail flapping back and forth, every other swing smacking into Calandra’s shoulder with its energy.

“Nope. If it is, then I’m at fault too,” Samira muttered quietly enough that Koda knew he wasn’t supposed to hear that.

“Love you, Koda,” Arthene mumbled, rubbing her cheek into the top of his head as he continued to distract his mate, focusing her instincts on cuddles for now while the others rested.

“Such a lucky bastard,” Hans mumbled from Koda’s other side, before a loud whack sounded and he yelped in pain.

“Keep envying Aegisclaw like that, and I’m going to tell Brit and Layla on you,” ordered Hannah, getting a round of laughter from the Ivory Spear warriors.

<><><>

Koda had Calandra rein in her spell as soon as they saw the distant shapes of the buildings.

The village of the Silent Plains tribe was tucked in amongst the foothills, with two large mountain ridges spreading out to either side like a pair of fingers that soared up into the heights above. Koda could see myriad thin trails that lined the steep slopes, evidence of wild animals and the tribe’s hunters going up into the foothills as well.

A broad lake sat at the back of the valley where the village sat, fed by mountain streams and a pair of short waterfalls that bubbled out of the rock a few dozen feet above the surface of the lake on its easternmost side. The lake emptied into a winding river that curved around the village, blocking its westernmost side with tall stands of trees that grew along its banks to provide timber and other supplies to the village.

The buildings themselves were simple adobe structures thatched with bundles of the plains grass in some spots and baked clay tiles in others. No building was taller than two stories, with most of them being built low to the ground and dug into the earth. At least that was what Cyrus had explained to him.

“Most of the buildings have at least one, if not two, levels dug down. The family compounds will actually have tunnels carved out to get between buildings during the worst parts of the winter, and the storehouses are buried as well. It helps the food last as long as possible, since the soil insulates it,” Cyrus explained as he lay next to Koda, peering down from the nearest hillside to get a view of the village.

Sienna lay silently on Koda’s other side, her ears twitching occasionally as she studied the collection of buildings. The village itself was almost as large as Silverstone if you went off the number of buildings, but based on the population that they’d discussed before, there was maybe half to a third of the population of her home village.

“That might help the trolls miss some supplies,” Sienna muttered as she squinted. “I wish Cal had brought her spyglass. Makes sense, though, that it was issued by the guard.”

“And not something that most would afford, though we could look into ordering one, considering the amount of coin we have from the Crooked parties we wiped out,” Koda muttered, his eyes turning to the fields that lay between the forest and the village.

He realized the occupants of the village did not farm as their primary food source. The crops planted were hearty grains and simple vegetables, but there were rows and rows of berry bushes as well. Plenty of food lay ready to harvest, with more on the way, but not enough to feed a village this size without supplementation.

Which makes sense, given they had what, a fourth of their population out hunting? Koda thought. His first impression of the Silent Plains tribe had been something similar to the Native Americans back on Earth, like the Lakota or Comanche. But that was fading with the odd mix of roaming and stationary nature he was seeing.

I still don’t know how bad the winters are out here. It might make sense for them to batten down for longer stretches in a village like this. Especially if it gets cold enough that the rivers freeze over. That lake is deep enough that it shouldn’t freeze solid and they’ll need water. Is it more efficient to keep a section from freezing, or just melt snow for water, I wonder?

“I am surprised they haven’t stripped the fields yet,” Cyrus muttered from Koda’s right, drawing him out of his thoughts.

“Trolls prefer meat. I’m sure any herds you had were their first victims,” Koda answered the man, remembering that bit of information from listening to Samira and Arthene talking the previous night. “Only when they’ve exhausted all the easy meat will they start on those is my bet.”

Cyrus growled at that and pounded his fist into the earth. The impact made a dull thump that was heavily muffled by the thick grass all around them. 

“Those herds are family livelihoods. They weren’t for trade—they were the few mountain goats we could trap and bring down into the village for milk and meat while breeding them. That will be a sore blow to the village.”

“But the families will survive, yes?” Sienna asked, and Koda could hear the sharp points in her question. Cyrus didn’t miss them either, growling low in his throat.

“Of course they will, but it will still devastate them to see their hard work vanish down a troll’s throat. We look after our own, but it will be years before they can be replaced.”

“Better a few herds than the entire village’s food stores. It looks like the damage the trolls have done has been constrained to the barns and pens.” Koda pointed towards the obviously damaged buildings. There were entire walls knocked in and blood stains in what he guessed were the pastures for the attached buildings. Two of the structures had collapsed entirely.

“Yes, but not something I can be happy about regardless,” growled Cyrus, his eyes panning over the village once more, clearly searching for some sign of their quarry.

“Just be glad the trolls stopped to eat here rather than pursue your people,” Sienna reminded him, and that got Cyrus to stop growling and just nod.

“So, where are the village stores located?” Koda asked, noting several larger buildings that he guessed were either family compounds or storehouses.

“Scattered around. Each family had their own supplies, but the village rule is that half of all supplies brought in are contributed to the village to supply us during the winter. While the elders and the children cannot hunt or work when the snows fall, they put back plenty of handcraft supplies as well. Those will probably survive the hunger of the trolls, unless they like to eat colorful rocks and bones.”

“Bones probably,” Sienna asserted. “From what Samira was saying, they’ll stuff anything that looks or smells vaguely edible in their craws. So leather stocks, saddles, tack, bones, food—hell, even cookware might get chewed on.”

The trio went silent, studying the still village for several long moments. Again, Koda was struck by the fact that the village didn’t have a wall around it. The nature of the plains and their secluded location made it easy for people to keep watch, but there were no emplaced defenses here. Not even a means to prevent wild animals from sneaking into town, except for the buildings themselves.

“Why is there no wall?” Koda asked finally, his desire for knowledge getting the better of him at last. He’d not hounded Kris about it back in Silverstone, but every game he’d played or fantasy story he’d read portrayed frontier towns as having solid defenses in the form of walls.

Hell, even Amberpost didn’t have a wall. They just built an improvised one between the sturdier buildings, Koda thought wryly.

“We’ve never needed one before,” Cyrus sighed. “Threats either never find us because of our chosen location, are dealt with on the plains well away from the village, or are like the trolls: too large and dangerous for any wall we build to be of use.”

“But there are defenses you could have built,” Sienna countered, leaning forward to look around Koda. “What were those things we used on the Crooked called?”

“Cheval de frise,” Koda answered automatically, remembering the logs pierced through with sharpened sticks they’d used as barricades to channel a larger group of Crooked into a killing field. “They are simple enough to build, but they don’t last too long. Same with the abatis. They are emergency fortifications usually.”

“We grew complacent,” Cyrus admitted with a sigh. “Too long without facing a real threat or challenge. The trolls kept to the mountains and ignored us unless we climbed too high. Now that changes, though.”

“Indeed—” Koda began, but before he could continue, he was interrupted by a deep, basso roar from the direction of the village. Snapping his gaze in that direction, Koda scanned the buildings, trying to find the source.

He didn’t have to wait long, as a flitter of movement near one of the barns revealed his first vision of a troll a moment later, when the muscled creature was bodily thrown into the blood-soaked paddock. The troll rolled for a good twenty feet before getting to its feet with a slightly higher-pitched roar of its own before throwing a fistful of earth at something out of sight.

The troll was large, easily ten feet tall, if not taller. Its skin was a speckled gray-brown color that matched the cliffs far beyond the village. A head shaped like a pumpkin, with a mouth large enough to engulf Koda’s entire head, sat on a pair of broad shoulders. That wide mouth was filled with sharp teeth that glittered with menace even from this far away.

The creature's shoulders were corded with muscle and tied into arms as thick as trees that hung down to the creature’s knees. A chest knotted with muscle and criss-crossed with thick scars heaved as the creature pounded itself threateningly, like Koda had seen gorillas do as an aggression display. Tree-trunk legs powered it forward in a charge that ended in a shattering crash just out of sight, as more roars rose from the village.

“They are fighting over the food,” Cyrus said quietly. “I was hoping this might happen. Whatever drove them down out of the mountains has left them aggressive. And it doesn’t look like there is a chief amongst them to organize it.”

“How many?” Koda asked as the roof of one of the smaller buildings was smashed right off, revealing a pair of trolls hammering each other with knotted fists like anvils.

One troll was slightly larger than the other and seemed to have the upper hand as it snatched a log beam out of the ruins of the building and smashed it over the other’s head. This made the second troll, the smaller one that they’d seen earlier, sway before bellowing in fury and throwing itself at the larger while blood ran from its bald skull down over its face.

“The reports said there might be six to ten in the area. But with a fight like this? If any of the others were nearby, they’d be rushing to join in, or pick off the winner. So we might be lucky enough that only two are in the village right now. The others might have stumbled off into the hills to sleep off their full stomachs.” Cyrus’ voice was growing higher with excitement, and Koda could understand the other man.

Their enemies had foolishly separated, and two of them were distracted and brawling right now. If they moved quickly, they could finish these two off and test Arthene’s statements about how killing a troll could empower someone.

Just don’t think about the fact they are twice the size of anything else you’ve fought, Koda thought. Twice the size, and probably ten times heavier. These things are savage beasts, and they’ll eat people as easily as they ate the village’s herds.

That thought, and the image his mind conjured of his girls being dragged screaming towards those blade-filled maws, made Koda’s resolve as hard as steel. With a thought, his bladed gauntlets formed around his arms and he growled deep in his chest.

The noise rumbled against the earth and he heard Sienna take in a sharp breath before joining him in the challenging growl. He didn’t need to look at his mate to know she was grinning savagely, with all her teeth on display. Instead, Koda just spoke in a low voice, not relinquishing the boiling anger that roiled up out of his soul right then.

“Then it is time we hunt.”