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They heard the call of a small bird, a rising twill and twitter
that belonged further east than these wooded hills. Turstin relaxed,
the bushes to their right gave a shake then Giannette came slowly out.
"Don't shoot." she said and gave a mischievous laugh.
"That call is risky." Alaric said to her. "It's out of place
here."
"So much the better." said Giannette. "You won't mistake me for an
orc, or a gnoll."
"I'd never do that." Alaric said intently. Giannette smiled
and the young warrior blushed.
"What did you find?" asked Turstin.
"Gnolls, and plenty of them, camped about three miles ahead." she
told them.
"Can we make our way around them then?" asked Turstin.
"It will be difficult, the way north rises till it meets
Draupnir's mountain, the way south slopes down into a ravine, there
is only a narrow wooded path between the gnolls camp and the slope."
Giannette used a stick to make a quick sketch on the ground.
"We could go further south." said Alaric.
"No telling what lies to the south." broke in Jofrid. "We
get closer and closer to the lands the giants hold."
"I say we give the woods a try, how many gnolls did you see?"
Turstin asked.
"A score at least and more were coming when I left." said
Giannette.
"Fulbert, you have that spell, can you cast the fire upon them?"
asked Turstin.
"Yes, I have the strength for it, but little else till I have had
some rest." Fulbert replied. "Are you thinking of attack?"
"A camp full of gnolls, your spell would work best there, but out
in the woods among the trees, it wouldn't do much good." said Turstin.
"You'll announce our presence here." said Fulbert.
"The gnolls will find their dead, those deep burns that your spell
left will tell them that a mage is near, maybe we can scare them off or
make them think twice about attacking, maybe we can kill them all..."
Turstin trailed off.
"Too many maybe's." said Jofrid. Fulbert nodded his head in
agreement. "Let's try stealth, when the odds are better we can pay back
the gnolls."
"All right." Turstin said after a brief pause. He looked back the
way they'd come and all their thoughts turned to Genseric.
* * *
The trees held up a canopy of leaves and branches above the forest
floor. Only a greenish haze illuminated the ground and an occasional beam
of light broke through like a blazing spear impaling a small circle of
leaf covered oerth. But as the ground rose up into the surrounding hills,
the trees thinned and the Dim forest came to an end.
A thin and spikey pole stood just within the gloom, it waited for
the burning light to have its end and the cool bath of night to descend.
When the evening sun had finally set, disappearing suddenly beyond the
mountains to the west, the pole, like a rusted rod of steel covered with
twists of wire, began to move. It took a tentative step, and then another,
then several such poles detached themselves from the shadow of the trees
and between them they held a bulbous shape.
Poisonspite stepped from the forest which had been her lifelong
home, she was joined by her three sisters, they stood side by side ready
to leave their violated home and hunt down those who had destroyed the
great nest and slain with cursed fire, all their teaming brood.
"Sisters." Poisonspite spoke in the language of her kind, a series
of chitinous clicks. "Sisters, what do the blue-skins say."
"They say that the human bags of meat have gone this way." said
Butterfly, a huge specimen, a spider of truly gargantuan size, half again
as big as Poisonspite.
"Then we will follow, they must pay." Poisonspite's word were
filled with pain. "By the Dark Queen they will pay."
"For the children." said Sevenleg.
"For our home." spoke up Darkweb, usually silent, she had taken
the loss of the ancient trees and the nest of webs harder than the others.
* * *
(To Be Continued)