Hunting Trip, part 2

They slept overnight in the forest, lighting no campfire to avoid light or smoke giving away their position. The next day they walked for many hours before Dana stopped and wrinkled her nose. She’d grown up on a farm, but this stench was a new low, like rotting meat with harsh acid. “Scald wasn’t kidding about the smell. What died?”

“Quite a few things, I imagine.” Jayden pushed ahead through the undergrowth. “Wyverns are strict carnivores, but their digestion is more akin to fermentation. When they relieve themselves, the smell is so awful it can be used to track them. It also kills plants.”

“It’s going to get worse as we get closer, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Wyverns are a magically engineered species produced by ancient elves. Elves once ruled nearly all of Other Place. They expected dragons to serve their empire, and not as equals. Dragons declined the offer of eternal servitude, so elves made their own dragons. They used nature magic to twist serpents and crocodiles into the abomination we know as wyverns. As substitutes for dragons they are a definite failure, but they remain dangerous.”

Dana searched her belongings until she found a handkerchief and wrapped it over her mouth. “Gross.”

“The process produced barely tamable nightmares with venomous stingers on their tails and homicidal levels of aggression, but possessing the stamina, strength and speed the elves desired. When the ancient Elf Empire fell, some wyverns fled into the wilderness to reproduce and become a blight on creation.”

“How did this one get here?”

“Cimmox the necromancer claimed Tyros had hired beast tamers from Quoth, a nation infamous for training monsters for war. One of them must have raised the wyvern from an egg, brutalized it into obedience and now rents it out. I can only imagine how much they charge per month.”

Dana froze. “Brutalized?”

“Wyverns are too aggressive to be trained as most animals are. Instead they are treated with such violence by their master from hatching onwards that they fear those who raised them. They obey even commands that will result in their own deaths.”

“That’s horrible! Can we free it?”

“For any other creature I would make the effort, except wild wyverns are even worse than tame ones. They kill far more than they can eat and let the meat rot, destroy houses and more. Releasing this wyvern from bondage means it will attack innocent people.”

Dana’s eyes narrowed. “Fine, but the guy who ‘trained’ this monster is going to get it.”

“A lovely idea. Now if your eyes aren’t watering too badly from the stench, you’ll see our objective ahead.”

Dana squinted and saw a crude fort in the forest. It filled a large clearing, and consisted of wood barricades ten feet high with sharpened points built around a house, a large barn and a brick creamery. The noon sun shining overhead and lack of tree cover inside the fort made it easy to see every detail. What Dana didn’t see or hear were people. There were no soldiers patrolling the forest’s edge, nor guards stationed in watchtowers or standing on rooftops to keep an eye out for intruders. “Where is everyone?”

“The wyvern would have eaten any men stationed nearby. I believe that’s why this fort was built so far from nearby forces. They can benefit from the wyvern’s services without falling prey to its rapacious hunger. That will limit how many other enemies we have to deal with.” Jayden paused and frowned. “I don’t hear noises. Either the wyvern is gone or it’s asleep.”

“How do we stop it if it nearly killed a dragon?”

“A young dragon taken by surprise.” Jayden studied the fort. “Ideally we ambush it and hit the beast hard before it can retaliate. Failing that, we reduce its mobility by leading it into the forest where it can’t fly. We inflict as much damage as possible to its wings to keep it permanently grounded, which I’ll count as a victory even if we can’t kill it. I have sufficient defensive spells, such as shadow armor and the shield of blades, to make the wyvern’s attacks more damaging to it than me. Let it focus on me, then strike its flanks or back.”

Jayden pointed at two large dead trees with bark peeling off. “We’ll draw it in here. Either one of us can bring down these trees on the wyvern and pin it in place. Finishing it off afterwards will be difficult but possible.”

Dana studied the fort as she crept in closer. It looked like an abandoned farm made in a forest clearing. Meadowland’s army must have found it like this or driven off the owners before moving in. Wood from the barricades was from freshly felled trees, some with green leaves sprouting from them.

Squish! Dana’s foot sunk deep into the ground, and when she pulled it free the most horrendous odor rose up from the soil. Her shoe was covered with bluish black steaming goo. She scrapped off as much as she could on a fallen tree. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Wyvern droppings, more liquid than solid,” Jayden confirmed. “Someone buried it to deal with the smell. It confirms the wyvern lives here.”

Disgusted, she said, “I liked these shoes.”

They snuck up to the fort, careful to stay behind trees. As they came closer, they heard men’s voices coming from the fort. Dana got down on her hands and knees and crept through a thick layer of ferns until she was close enough to see two men in the camp. Maybe they were men. Their skin was blackened and had streaks of blue, and their crude leather clothes were the same color.

Jayden slipped in beside her. “Interesting.”

Dana glanced at her shoe and back at the men. “Are they covered in wyvern poo?”

“The smell would be an effective way to keep the wyvern from eating them, and I can only imagine how bad they’d taste with it on their bodies.”

“That’s incredibly disgusting, and I am not doing it.” Dana studied the fort. “I’m surprised beast tamers don’t have guard dogs to sniff out intruders.”

“I doubt a dog could smell anything with the stench of wyvern droppings so heavy in the air,” he replied. “Those men seem to be the only staff on hand. Their fort is large enough they can’t hope to keep an eye on it all. I can’t cast my shadow fox spell to spy on them without a pool of water, so we’ll have to sneak in and investigate. With luck we’ll find the wyvern asleep and kill it.”

Dana studied the camp. “I don’t see it. Anything big enough to hurt Scald has to be huge. Could they be keeping it in the barn?”

“It’s a convenient home, and would hide it from inquisitive eyes. There’s a section of barricade blocked from view by the barn. We should be able to cut an opening and get inside without being noticed.”

Dana and Jayden slipped quietly through the woods until the barn was between them and the two men. As they approached the barricade, Dana saw that the twelve foot long, sharpened wood stakes were lashed together with tarred rope. Jayden grabbed a stake and nodded to her. She drew Chain Cutter and easily cut the ropes. Jayden grunted as he carefully set down the heavy stake and grabbed another. They removed three stakes in total to make an opening in the barricade large enough to enter.

Once inside, they got behind the barn and looked for a way inside. They came across four windows, all boarded over with fresh timbers. The main entrance faced the interior of the fort. Dana saw five men when she peeked around the edge of the barn. That was too many witnesses for her liking when it would only take one to sound an alarm.

She spotted something that made no sense. There were two large wagons filled to overflowing with apples, melons, summer squash, baskets of beans and more. It was enough to feed hundreds of people, but there were only a few men here. Jayden had said wyverns were carnivores with no interest in fruits and vegetables. Who was it for?

The fort’s small compliment of men was hard at work. Two men shoveled stinking piles of wyvern droppings into wheelbarrows while two more dug shallow pits outside the fort to bury it in. More men were resting and breathing hard.

“Tyros is late paying us again,” one of the dung covered men said.

“I don’t care if the gold is late as long as meat arrives on time,” said another. “One more day and we’ll have to take the wyvern hunting, and to blazes with our orders.”

“The wyvern gets meat delivered, we take him hunting or Meadowland loses cattle and peasants,” said the first. His tone made it clear how little that bothered him.

Jayden interrupted her spying by saying, “Cut an opening in the wall. If you work slowly you shouldn’t make much noise.”

Dana pressed Chain Cutter against the barn’s back wall and pressed her sword in. The wall was oak, but old and had suffered from long years of rain and snow. Her sword slid easily through the wall. She pulled it across the wall, slowly cutting through oak boards. She made a parallel cut much lower than the first, and Jayden caught the boards as they fell. Once she’d made a big enough hole to crawl through, she bent down and looked inside.

She got back up. “We have a problem, about twenty feet high and thirty tons.”

Puzzled, Jayden bent down and looked inside the barn. “I did not see this coming.”

The barn’s sole occupant wasn’t the wyvern they’d come to slay, but a great, furry beast. The monster reminded Dana of an ogre but much larger, with bulging muscles, thick gray fur white at the tips, and long yellowed teeth, although he didn’t wear clothes. The great beast had long scars across the arms, back and legs, and a pungent body odor. He sat on the barn’s floor facing away from them, his shoulders slumped and eyes downcast.

“A giant,” Jayden said softly. “I’ve seen pictures, but never thought I’d meet one in the flesh.”

“He’s huge,” Dana whispered. This explained the wagons of food. The wyvern needed meat, but this giant must eat massive amounts of plants.

The giant turned his head to face the sound of their voices. Dana gasped when his eyes locked on hers. The giant made no other move toward them as he regarded them with sorrowful eyes. Now that his head was turned, Dana could see a steel collar a foot wide and covered in strange symbols wrapped tight around the giant’s thick neck.

“Nice giant,” Dana said weakly. “Friends?”

The giant stared at them, his face showing curiosity.
“The beast tamers must have brought him along with the wyvern,” Jayden said. “He’d have little trouble overwhelming Bascal’s defenders, and could cross all but the most difficult terrain. King Tyros must be paying a fortune to rent two powerful monsters.”

“At least they gave him somewhere dry and out of the sun to rest,” Dana said.

“Keeping it away from the wyvern is a bigger consideration.” Jayden studied the giant’s scars and pointed at one. “That healed recently, yet the giant hasn’t been sent against Bascal. The wyvern likely inflicted those wounds. They don’t tolerate other monsters in their territory, and will attack rivals if given the slightest opportunity. Keeping the giant out of sight reduces the chance of further conflicts.”

Dana kept staring. “He’s intelligent. I can tell.”

“Stories say they are, but they don’t speak or write. No one knows exactly where giants come from. They are ancient and powerful, and incredibly hard to kill. This one could be centuries old and strong enough to tear down a castle. I think he’s the one who uprooted the trees to make the barricade around this fort.”

“He’s huge. How do they make him follow orders?”

Jayden pointed at the steel collar. “Giants hibernate for months at a time. Beast tamers must have found him asleep and placed that collar on him. It’s definitely magic. I recognize the symbols inscribed on it. One is the dwarven word for pain, and another means fire. I daresay the giant must do as ordered or suffer untold agonies.”

The giant looked down before he nodded.

Outraged, Dana demanded, “Do beast tamers use pain to make all their monsters work for them?”

“Beast tamers of Quoth do.”

Dana clenched her jaw in anger. This was no different than what had happened to Braston the Unbeaten. A good person was turned into a slave by magic and forced to do terrible things. Jayden was right, the giant was a threat to Bascal as great as the wyvern, but he didn’t have to be. He shouldn’t be.

Dana climbed inside the barn while the giant watched her. “You can understand me. Will you let us help you?”

The giant gave her a long suffering sigh and a look of resignation before he shrugged. He wasn’t going to stop her from trying, but he had no expectation of success.

Jayden followed her inside. “What are you planning?”
“Can you get me up to his shoulders with your magic hand spell?”

“Easily done.” Jayden cast a spell to form his black magic hand. It opened its clawed fingers so she could climb onto the palm before floating up to the giant. The giant watched them with more interest as Dana got off the magic hand and stood on his shoulder.

“I don’t see a keyhole or latch on the collar,” she told Jayden. “If I cut it off, will it hurt him?”

“Most likely it would kill him, otherwise he would have pulled it apart on his own.” Jayden brought his magic hand down and climbed onto it. He brought the hand up even with Dana and studied the collar. “These incantations are complex, but I see a pattern to them. They demand obedience and punish him for failing to comply. The fire and pain symbols connect to this symbol, which is powering them. They’re guarded by two magic wards, each defending the other in case someone tries to remove the collar, but they’re connected by a lesser incantation here.”

Jayden pointed at a spiraling symbol between two strange marks. Dana raised her sword and asked, “If I cut that it breaks the collar?”

“No, but it’s a first step.”

Dana hesitated, wondering if this was the right thing to do. The giant was intelligent, but that didn’t mean he was good. There was a very real chance he was a monster in both body and soul. Releasing him would allow him to do awful things the same way releasing the wyvern would. She was taking chances with not only her life but the lives of everyone the giant would meet from this point on.

Her hesitation ended in seconds. The giant had suffered untold pain and indignities for who knows how long. If the giant was good, she had to save him. If he was evil, whatever harm he’d done had been paid for long ago.
“Hold very still,” she told the giant. He watched her, his expression still showing great sadness. She pressed Chain Cutter against the symbol and pushed. There was a pop, and Dana felt a jolt run up her arm. The giant’s eyes opened wide.

Jayden pointed at another symbol. “Here.”

Dana drove in Chain Cutter again, careful not to go too deeply. There was another pop, this time followed by purple sparks. Jayden pointed out two more symbols for her to destroy, each followed by more and larger sparks.

“That should separate the symbols so they can’t reinforce or protect one another,” Jayden said. “Cut through the collar here between the fire and pain symbols.”

The giant breathed harder and deeper. Dana inched Chain Cutter down the huge collar, producing a shower of sparks as it cut the metal. The collar was tough enough that Chain Cutter made slow progress, but inch by inch she destroyed it. When she finished cutting through there was a flash of purple light, the symbols on the collar flashed once and then fell silent.

“I’m going to cut through the other side of the collar,” she promised the giant. “Then you’ll be—”

The giant reached up with both hands and seized his collar. His fingers tightened around it, and with a great effort he pulled it open, the steel shrieking like a dying animal before he pulled it off.

“What’s going on in there?” a voice called out from outside the barn.

Dana jumped off the giant’s shoulder onto Jayden’s magic hand. He made it float away as the giant stretched his muscular arms up to the barn’s roof. He stood up, and with the barest of effort ripped the roof off and threw it aside like it weighed nothing at all. Dana blinked at the sudden return of daylight. The giant wasn’t finished, and he kicked down the walls around him until the barn was entirely destroyed.
Beast tamers screamed and ran away. The giant didn’t chase them, although Dana would have in his place. Instead he turned to face Dana and Jayden. He clenched his right hand into a fist, struck it against his chest and pointed at them.

“What does that mean?” Dana asked Jayden.

“No idea.”

The giant stomped away, ripping apart a thirty foot long section of the barricade around the fort before disappearing into the forest. Dana would have never imagined such a huge monster could vanish like that, but as big as he was the trees around him were far taller and masked his escape. The beast tamers ran off, a wise move given how angry Dana was with them.

Jayden make his magic hand slowly lower to the ground. “Delightful as that was, and beneficial to the war effort, it’s not what we came for.”

“We can’t kill the wyvern if it’s not here.”

There was a flash of light and a whistling to their right. Dana and Jayden turned to see a glowing ball of light shoot high into the sky and explode into a sparkling red ball. Two more shot up from the trees.

“What are those?” Dana asked.

Jayden got off the giant hand and cast a spell to form his magic whip. “Signal rockets! It’s a form of alchemy used by armies to communicate over long distances. The beast tamers that fled into the forest must have taken them with to warn their fellow tamer riding the wyvern that they’re in danger.”

“So it’s going to show up?”

“Yes, and we need to get ready.” Jayden pointed to the forest. “I don’t think we were seen in the confusion, so we might be able to ambush the wyvern. It’s strong enough to tear these buildings apart. The trees will offer better cover.”

They hurried out of the fort, and just in time. Dana heard a rumbling sound in the distance and saw a dark speck on the horizon. They reached the cover of a dense stand of large trees as the speck grew larger. She saw it more clearly as it neared, a serpentine monster forty feet long, half of which was its sinuous neck and tail. It had a powerful chest and a wingspan as wide as it was long. The wyvern had dark green ridged scales across its back and limbs, flatter and lighter green scales on the belly and throat, and yellow wing membranes. Unlike Scald, it had only one set of legs folded up underneath it.

The wyvern had an arrow shaped head, jaws filled with sharp teeth, and beady black eyes. Its arsenal of weapons included sharp claws on its wings and feet, and a black stinger as long as a short sword on the tip of its tail. The monster moved with such speed and flexibility it seemed to swim across the sky. Dana could only imagine what it was like in battle.

“We have to kill that?”

“A task best done from the shadows,” Jayden told her. His magic hand floated nearby, a welcome weapon in the coming fight. “If it lands, I’ll try to hit it with a fireball. Should that fail, we must draw it among the trees, where its size works against it.”

The wyvern flew to the fort and landed gracefully next to the destroyed barn. Now that it was at eye level, she could see a man riding it on a saddle. He had no weapons or armor, just a steel rod he struck the wyvern with when he issued orders. The wyvern outweighed him a hundred to one but obeyed without hesitation. Once it was on the ground, it walked with its back legs and arms with the membranes folded up. Dana had assumed it would be clumsy out of the air, but the wyvern seemed to flow across the ground.

Dana saw wounds on the beast. The wyvern had bite marks on its right shoulder, and cuts on both legs. It looked like Scald’s fight with the wyvern hadn’t been one sided. The injuries were beginning to heal but far from finished. Dana would have given an injured animal time to recover, but the beast tamers were pushing it hard.

“It’s not wearing a collar like the giant,” Dana said.
“Magic collars are rare and expensive. Brutality works equally well in this case. Hold on, I’m going to get you ready for the fight.” Jayden cast a spell that twisted shadows into pieces of black spiky armor. The pieces flew through the air and assembled into a full suit of armor over Dana. “That will offer considerable protection, but it’s not invincible. Don’t take chances you can avoid.”

Jayden began the now familiar chant of his fireball spell. Dana kept watch while the tiny spark formed between his hands. The wyvern stayed near where it had landed while beast tamers from the fort gathered around it. They pointed in the direction the giant had fled and shouted words Dana was too far away to understand.
Then the wyvern sniffed, whipped its head toward them and roared a deep, menacing bellow.

Jayden finished his spell, and the tiny spark drifted toward the wyvern. The wyvern unfolded its wings and leaped into the air. Two beats of its huge wings took it high above the spark. Jayden’s fireball detonated with a BOOM, swallowing up the remnants of the barn and nothing else.

“Back!” Jayden ordered, and led Dana deeper into the forest. The wyvern swooped down to land at the edge of the forest before following them on foot. It ran faster than they could, the rider shouting orders and striking the wyvern to guide it on. The wyvern didn’t hesitate to follow them between the trees.

Jayden cast a spell while running and formed his shield of spinning blades. The wyvern had nearly caught up to them when Jayden swung his whip at its head. The wyvern pulled back impossibly fast, and the whip only cut through low branches. He swung again and the wyvern backed away at its rider’s commands.

The wyvern’s head went left then right, trying to get around Jayden’s shield. Each time he turned to face it, and the rider pulled the wyvern back before it touched the blades. The rider yelled at the wyvern in a language Dana didn’t understand, and the beast reached up into the canopy with its long neck. The wyvern bit onto a dead branch as thick as Dana’s waist, ripped it off the tree and swung it down. It hit the spinning blades and was cut to sawdust. That ended the spell, leaving Jayden at the monster’s nonexistent mercy.

Jayden brought his magic hand in and punched the wyvern across the face. The blow must have stung, but the wyvern was so large and heavily armored that it merely shook its head and snarled at him. It was enough of a delay for him to cast another spell. Dana saw shadows across the forest twist into pieces of armor and fly through the air to encase him. The wyvern looked momentarily confused before snarling and charging him.

Dana stopped running and got behind a huge dead tree on the wyvern’s right side. She drew Chain Cutter and slashed deep into the tree. She swung again and cut out a huge wedge of wood. The wyvern swung its head around the tree so fast she barely saw it coming. Dana raised her sword as the wyvern’s jaws snapped closed inches in front of her. The wyvern could see her, but not its rider who was behind the tree. She swung once, but it pulled away so quickly she only nicked its snout. Then she hit the tree again, bringing it down on the wyvern.

Which did surprisingly little to hurt it. The tree’s huge branches caught other trees on the way down, and instead of crushing the wyvern only forced it onto its belly. The rider was less fortunate, and was knocked onto the forest floor. The wyvern bellowed angry roars and scrambled to get free.

Jayden directed his magic hand to grab the wyvern’s neck, and he swung his whip at its wings. His aim was off, though, and the whip wrapped around a branch of the downed tree. Dana ran in to strike it. She got four feet closer when the wyvern’s tail came swinging at her face. She screamed and dropped to the ground, leaving the wyvern to bury its tail stinger into the fallen tree. It pulled the stinger free and swung again, forcing Dana back.

The wyvern slithered forward, slowly working its way out from under the tree. It got back to its feet and locked its black eyes on Jayden. He kept his magic hand on its neck and swung his whip again, this time scoring a stinging blow across the monster’s gaping maw. It bellowed and charged, pushing back the magic hand. Dana ran in alongside it and swung Chain Cutter at its legs. The wyvern saw her coming and tried to stomp on her. She avoided it, barely, and cut it across the leg. The wyvern swung its tail at her, but caught it in branches of the fallen tree.

Outraged, and uncontrolled with its rider dismounted, the wyvern howled and pushed forward to attack Jayden. It galloped across the forest floor and opened its jaws wide, biting down hard on his right arm. His shadowy armor protected him and hurt the wyvern with its sharp edges. The monster spit him out and stepped on him with its clawed foot. It opened its jaws for another attack when Jayden’s magic hand seized it by the neck and struggled to hold it back. Dana ran to his rescue and prayed she could reach him in time.

The wyvern shook itself free of the magic hand and lunged at Jayden, when a tree stump three feet across came flying through the air to hit the wyvern’s back. The wyvern buckled under the blow and staggered a few steps before stumbling into a tree. It whipped its head around to face the giant charging into battle.
The giant’s roar was no less impressive than the wyvern’s. It was deeper, and sounded almost like a word, a challenge to a foe. The giant’s lips pulled back to show massive yellowed teeth, and his eyes narrowed. He grabbed a dead tree, tore it from the ground and threw it a hundred feet. It was all the wyvern could do to dodge it. The wyvern turned to face this new and much greater threat, leaving its back to Jayden and Dana.

The two monsters rammed into one another with such force the wyvern was driven back twenty feet. It recovered fast and tried to tear into the giant with its clawed wings. The giant locked one powerful hand onto the wyvern’s neck to hold back those terrible jaws, and punched it in the chest with the other. The two struck one another with a savagery Dana had never seen before.

The wyvern’s tail whipped back and forth before it swung at the giant. Dana screamed as the venomous stinger went straight at the giant’s face. Jayden brought his magic hand racing in and grabbed the tail seconds before it hit. With tremendous effort he pulled the wyvern’s tail to the ground.

Dana ran in closer as the giant caught the wyvern in a bear hug. It couldn’t bite or scratch him when they were so close together, but the tail was still a lethal weapon if the wyvern could pull free, and it was pulling hard. Jayden could barely maintain his grip with his magic hand. Dana reached the two monsters, and with a swing of Chain Cutter sliced off the wyvern’s stinger. Black blood splashed onto her as the stinger landed at her feet.

The wyvern screamed in rage and pain as the giant pulled it off its feet and shoved it to the ground. He swung his huge fists again and again. Scales flew through the air. Bones broke. Jayden joined in and wrapped his black whip around the wyvern’s right wing, inflicting terrible damage. The wyvern screeched and struggled to break free. It tried to run away and failed when the giant seized it by the legs and swung it into an enormous tree. The giant swung the wyvern into the tree a second time, then a third, stopping only when the panicked screeching stopped.

With the battle over, Jayden dispelled both their suits of magic armor. To Dana’s disgust, wyvern blood splattered on her armor fell onto her clothes. She just knew it wouldn’t wash out.

The giant stood over his silenced foe. He studied the remains, then poked at the end of the tail. He looked around until he saw the stinger on the ground and Dana, her clothing stained in the wyvern’s black blood. The giant stared at her for a moment before grinning and pointing an open palm at her. She didn’t know what it meant and the giant couldn’t explain in terms she’d understand. With this strange sign of approval or possibly praise, the giant marched off into the forest and freedom.

Exhausted as Dana was, she looked around the forest for one last enemy. “Where did the rider go?”

“He must have fled after being dismounted.” Jayden was disheveled and a bruised, but otherwise unharmed. “A wise move on his part. He and his fellow beast tamer will no doubt alert Meadowland forces of our presence, so we can’t stay long. Let us collect proof of our victory, along with other parts of the wyvern worth having, and return to Bascal. We earned those spell tablets, and I aim to collect as soon as possible.”