Steelforged Legacy 2 - Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The troll battlefield was, luckily enough, a distraction that kept the airship from patrolling and Casey was pretty sure that it had broken his trail enough to keep them from following him. After all, why chase a lone drengr when something the size of that troll was in the forest?

That didn’t mean, though, that he was able to simply cross back over the river to the Oak Horde territory that easily though. He learned this when he nearly tripped across another patrol that he guessed the airship had dropped off and was patrolling through the forest.

Again, Magnus proved his value as the big elk had warned him in time for Casey to get into the cover of a thick stand of blackberry bushes that blocked him from view before the group passed by. Though the method of warning left a lot to be desired.

“Did you have to literally butt-check me into that bush?” Casey muttered while prying at one thorn still stuck in his arm.

Magnus huffed at him superiorly, clearly proud of his choice and decisive action, and while Casey couldn’t really argue with the fact it had been successful in ensuring he wasn’t caught, it still sucked.

Can you fault him? There wasn’t really time to be gentle, Maude reminded Casey, and he sighed.

“Fine, thank you for looking out for me, Magnus. I appreciate you doing that, even if I wish you’d be a bit more gentle in doing it.”

Magnus grunted and shook his head in a negative, earning him a giggle from Maude and another exasperated sigh from Casey.

Well, we need to find somewhere to shelter and rest, Maude said at last. You can’t keep running on fumes like this, Casey. You are burning qi to keep upright, and I know I need some time to relax to be able to finish integrating this star metal.

“Just need to find somewhere that we can hole up that isn’t going to be tripped over by these people hunting us,” Casey sighed.

Even after escaping the group that had run afoul of the troll, Casey had seen several other searching groups combing the woods. While the forest wasn’t outright crawling with Bronze Fist drengr, it was obvious that they were putting in the effort at the moment.

I really wish I knew what had happened with the Oak Horde drengr back on the other side of the river, Casey thought and had to fight back a growl of annoyance. Whether my warning was enough to save or help them. I don’t care if I get credit for it, but it would help me put up with this if I knew it’d been worth it.

Aloud, he directed his next question to the Gladewalker Elk walking just ahead of him.

“Magnus, do you know of somewhere safe where we can rest? Or failing that, a ford where we can cross the river to get back to safety?”

The elk gave a low grunt and shook his head, the green vines of the sticker bush twisting through his antlers making a quiet rattling noise at the gesture.

“Is that a no to one of them or to both?” Casey asked, but Magnus didn’t respond. Instead, he stopped dead in his tracks and paused, his head high and nostrils flaring.

What do you sense, Magnus? Maude asked, her previously amused tone now replaced with anxiety.

A quiet growl from the brush nearby was the only warning Casey got, but his training with Maude had paid off to the point where it was more than he needed.

The mottled gray and brown furred mountain that came crashing from the brush a moment later lunged at Magnus, but the Gladewalker Elk was already gone as if he’d never been there. Casey had thrown himself away from the movement on instinct as well, snatching Maude from her sheath at his hip as he tumbled.

A wolf the size of a pony, with a hunched back that reminded him vaguely of a hyena, whirled to snap at Casey, but he lashed the razor-sharp blade of Maude over the animal’s nose, driving it back with a yelp of pain.

Varg. The word floated up from Casey’s memory of his first few days in this world.

Back before he’d earned Maude’s respect, and she’d granted him the right to wield her in battle, he’d fought one of these creatures with nothing more than a sharpened stick as a weapon. He’d killed it, but the animal had wounded him badly enough that Casey would have bled out if not for the appearance of Einar and his companions in the wake of the battle.

Not a hill-varg at least, Maude growled. Forest-varg are just as dangerous though, and they don’t hunt alone. Be careful, Casey.

A yelp of pain from off to his right preceded a thrashing form flying through the air a moment later as another varg was launched from the brush to slam into the one he was currently fending off.

A moment later, Magnus surged out of the bushes to cover Casey’s flank with his head lowered and antlers presented. Blood stained several of the sharp tines, and the Gladewalker Elk pawed at the grass defiantly.

“Why are we running into so many threats right now?” Casey growled deep in his throat as the two varg snapped at each other and scuffled before they could separate. “Did I piss someone off for just surviving?”

Probably, Maude said bluntly. The scales must be balanced, and we were sent good fortune with that meteorite.

“I don’t see how it was good fortune, Maude. It’s only been trouble since we snatched the damn thing!” Casey protested, lunging at the least injured of the two varg and opening up its muzzle with his blade. “Get, you two! Find something easier to hunt than me!”

The varg he’d slashed yipped in pain before snapping at him again, missing by a fair margin but still getting closer than Casey would have preferred.

We just need some time for me to finish putting the star metal to use, and you will understand, Casey. I promise, Maude insisted. Magnus, behind!

The elk whirled and bellowed a challenge before lunging, and Casey heard a yip from behind him, followed by a howl of pain.

“Shit, this is going to draw the attention of those patrols,” Casey muttered with a snarl. “Need to finish this quickly and get the hell away from here.”

He hadn’t wanted to just kill these creatures, as the forest-varg weren’t hunting innocents like the hill-varg had been before. But the two in front of him continued to growl and split up to get him from either side, so Casey knew they wouldn’t be leaving him alone.

The one that Magnus had hooked with his antlers was limping slightly, so Casey went for that one first. He feinted towards the injured animal only for it to immediately retreat at far more speed than he might have expected. The other lunged in, mouth wide, but Casey had been ready for that.

During his morning and evening exercises, Maude had worked to coach him on the potential tactics of his enemies, and he’d been hoping to bait the attack. So when the relatively uninjured forest-varg snapped at him, Casey turned his lunge into a step-through and drove the elbow of his free hand into the top of the varg’s head.

The oversized wolf yelped in surprise at the blow and stumbled before Casey drove Maude up to the hilt into the side of the creature’s throat, yanking downwards to open the wound up before shoving the animal away from him and off the blade of the seax.

Gurgling and thrashing, the forest-varg went down twitching while its companion snarled and turned to reverse its retreat. It made it two steps before a cloven-hoof slammed into the side of its head as Magnus struck out as well.

The kick from the elk put the varg off balance and Casey lunged in to slash at the creature’s throat. The varg managed to wriggle away, so it only got a light cut rather than having its throat slashed open.

Apparently, the death of its companion and the double blow were enough to take the fight from the varg, and the animal limped away into the bushes, leaving its dead companion behind.

Casey watched it go until the animal vanished entirely before turning to find the third varg was already dead, pierced in a half-dozen places by Magnus’ antlers, one of which had taken it through the skull.

“What the hell caused them to attack us like that?” Casey growled, bending to quickly wipe the blood from Maude’s blade before slamming her home in the sheath at his hip.

Likely stirred up by the patrols passing, Maude suggested. We need to get moving. You are right that the noise will have attracted attention.

“Magnus?” Casey glanced up at the elk, who grunted and dipped his head in a nod. The motion sent a faint glint of the afternoon sunlight over the blood staining his horns and Casey frowned. “Hold up a second, boy. Bend back down here.”

The elk made a grumbling noise in his throat and bent down, holding still while Casey used the edge of his cloak to scrub the blood off his antlers.

“There, I didn't want it to stay and stain. If you don’t know a place we can hole up for the night, then just do your best to keep us away from the patrols, okay, boy? I appreciate you doing all that you are to help us out,” Casey gently rubbed Magnus’ muzzle.

The elk huffed again, this time a happier sound and nuzzled into Casey’s hand for a moment before they separated and the big elk lad the way into the brush.

I’m glad that the varg do not have cores. It would be unfortunate to have to leave them behind, Maude sent him as Casey followed after the elk.

Rather than respond out loud, Casey hooked his left hand over the pommel of Maude’s weapon form so he could think to her instead.

You sure that you aren’t getting a bit greedy, love? I mean, we have the ones I got from the troll horde, and the… Casey let the thought trail off as he remembered the small handful of the elemental cores that he’d bought from the Iron Duck.

Yes, it is too bad that you cannot get into contact with one of the elementals. They would no doubt have somewhere safe that we could secrete ourselves and would likely be willing to in exchange for those cores. Especially if word has spread between their tribes about what you did before.

Is that kind of thing likely? Casey sent back, shaking off his distraction and trotting to catch up to Magnus, as the elk hadn’t stopped moving yet.

No, as the elemental tribes are even more fractious than the Clans are. But you will occasionally find some that share news or insights. Most often, their tribes center around an ancient, and those ancients do not like to share power with others of their kind.

Casey let the conversation fall off as Magnus continued to lead him through the trees. The big elk moved quickly, following the winding animal trails and only pausing on occasion to sniff the air or stare into the distance for a moment, checking something.

The sun continued its march across the sky, with beams sneaking through the tree branches every so often when they could find an opening. Magnus kept to areas well under cover and out of sight, something that Casey was actually rather glad for. Twice, he heard the distant rushing of the river, but Magnus never cut in that direction, so he assumed that the elk was either avoiding something or knew that it wasn’t safe to cross.

Only once did they have to take cover, and that was when the crack of canvas in the wind heralded a pass by one of the flying longships. Whether it was the one that had previously diverted to chase the troll or not, Casey wasn’t sure. All he knew was that it wasn’t something he was willing to risk.

The light was finally getting faint enough that it was getting hard to see when Magnus led him out of the myriad of oak trees and onto a sunken section that looked a lot like a dry stream-bed, but it was surprisingly straight. The slope that led down from the trees was sharp, but the entire low section was filled in with a mixture of ancient molding leaves and fallen branches.

Glancing to his left, Casey saw the channel slowly rise up a hill before vanishing from sight. Turning to his right, he thought he could see the faint glimmer of the river through the trees. Something about this whole thing felt familiar to him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Is this an old road? Maude asked, which jogged Casey’s thoughts.

“It does look like it, doesn’t it?” Casey muttered, glancing towards Magnus, who huffed, tossing his head proudly before turning and trotting down the road at a canter. The elk glanced back and tossed his head again, as if to say ‘come on, get moving!’

Follow him, I guess. Magnus wouldn’t have you exposed to the sky without a good reason, Maude suggested, and Casey got the distinct impression of a shrug from his lover.

Without a better option, Casey just hurried along after the elk.

Despite the thick piles of leaf-litter on the ground and the branches scattered over it, Casey could still feel the solid pack of the earth beneath the debris, which further lent credence to the road theory. A theory that was confirmed after another five minutes of following Magnus when the elk led him around a slight curve in the road to reveal what it terminated in.

The village was small, barely a dozen buildings set behind a simple wooden palisade wall that backed up to the river. There were only two buildings that were taller than a single story. One looked like it was the inn, and the other had the look of a storehouse of some kind.

All the buildings were built of a mixture of wood and stone, though wood was the primary ingredient. Thatch roofs poked up on the wall occasionally, the graying bundles of grass stirring slightly in the wind that tickled the village. The rustle of the wind through the trees was underlined by the distant rumble of the river passing by rapidly on the far side of the little village. The entire scene had a sort of rustic peace to it that exudes calm, like a long breath on a cool fall morning.

Except for the burnt portions of the settlement.

A portion of the palisade wall to the left of the road lay collapsed inwards, the heavy logs uprooted, scorched, and knocked askew. Two houses that he could see through the broken section of palisade were burnt to cinders, while the large building that looked like an inn that he could see through the open gates was half-burned, with both floors exposed to the elements.

Broken arrows marked the wall in several spots, and Casey saw everything from abandoned carts to piles of broken wood to overgrown garden patches that had been picked at by wild animals. The village was clearly abandoned in the wake of some kind of disaster, a disaster that had either driven off or killed its previous inhabitants.

This… could work, Maude mumbled in Casey’s mind. Magnus, is it safe?

The elk turned and shot them a side-eye look that seemed to say ‘is anything really safe?’ before he trotted through the partially open gate and into the ruined town.

“Well, he has a point,” Casey muttered with a shrug, glancing towards the sky once more before he followed Magnus into the town.

Inside the walls felt even more eerie to him. It was obvious that whatever had happened to drive off the previous occupants had occurred some time ago. Maybe even years ago. The stains of the fire and smoke were faded, and while there were overgrown plants in the gardens of the houses, there weren’t piles of rotting produce or trade goods lying around.

Not like they would have had much to trade. There is barely space here for fifty people, Casey thought as he started poking through the ruins of the little town. Whatever happened was violent though, he thought while eying one door that hung off of its hinges, clearly showing scars of an axe in the wood of the door. While there was a faint scent in the air of rot, the village did not have the normal scents of a town with people in it.

Magnus continued along the road, pausing to stop in front of the partially ruined tavern, and turned to look at Casey with a tilt of his head, clearly waiting to hear a verdict on their hiding spot.

I think this will do nicely. The detritus on the road will not show our passage from the air, and the buildings will provide shelter enough that you can stay out of sight. If you can find some dry wood, you can even have a fire without too much worry, Casey. 

“Thanks, I was thinking the same thing,” Casey replied aloud, stepping up to stroke Magnus’ nose affectionately with one hand while burying the fingers of the other in the elk’s mane, giving him a good scratch. “You did good in finding this place, Magnus. Dunno how you found it, but you did a good job finding it.”

We just need to make sure no one is still living here. I’m pretty sure it would be obvious if someone was, but you should quickly check all the houses.

I doubt we’ll find anything of value, as this place looks like it was hit by bandits. If this was a raid by drengr, then I doubt they would have burned any of the buildings. This has the feel of a little fishing village that failed. Maude sighed at that and Casey could understand the frustration he heard in her tone.

“Whatever happened, it was long enough ago that there is no way we’d find evidence to pursue regarding who did this or even find those responsible. Better to just take the shelter that we can.” Casey said with a sigh of his own before nodding once and setting to work checking the village over.