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Back to Empire on the HPe3000
... and ...
Ursoth padded unhappily back and forth disregarded by the
gathering company of giants. The odor of man lingered about the entrance
hall, he snuffled it out from among cloaks and piles of skin, but the
smell of blood, giants blood, overwhelmed the human stink. He followed its
trail, a scent like burnt copper, and pawed aside a bundle of hides damp
with blood. He pushed and nosed till the bare floor was revealed. Beneath
his paws he felt a lump of lifeless flesh cooling but not yet cold. He
could not see it, though he smelled its presence.
There was a stir among the ranks of giants filling the stairwell,
a gap was made, some backing down, others flattening themselves to either
side, and Eadwig, who served his master, came rushing down. He summoned
two burly warriors from the pack and set off across the hall, heading
for the outer doors.
Ursoth came bounding to him, he brushed against the giants legs
and gave a roar as Eadwig passed him by.
The sub-chief had no time for his Thegns spoiled pet. His brother
must be somewhere out in the night, wounded or more likely dead. It
was Gosfrith who, stopping to pull a hide cloak over his shirtless chest,
brushed a hand against the insistent bear. His fingers came away wet, and
stained a dark red. He looked closer at the dumb beast and eyed the red
streaked muzzle and paws coated crimson.
"Eadwig, Eadwig!" He called, then chased after the pair who'd
just disappeared out into the night.
* * *
"Make way! Back to the Hall!" Thiodolf yelled to the aimless
crowd. "Curse you, make way!" he pushed those standing at the top of the
stairwell back down. Most turned and forced their way through. Thiodolf
prodded any stragglers and sent a youth tumbling, knocking giants down the
stars like ninepins. He would have laughed but his joyless chief followed
close behind.
* * *
Gosfrith ran out into the night. A steady rain was turning the
path to mud, the fields around were slick and sodden already. It was some
time before dawn and the cloud-blanketed sky hid the stars from view.
Eadwig had disappeared completely, he needed only to run a few score of
feet ahead before he was swallowed in the utter pitch of the rain streaked
night. Gosfrith turned and stared out along the path, then right across
the field away from the steading, and seeing no sign, revolved and looked
outalong the long wooden wall of the steading itself. Nothing, yet
he had been delayed only a moment and could be only a short way from the
other two. He ran a bit further out along the muddy path, then stopped
again and called out "Eadwig!" in a loud frustrated shout.
From out of the dark, somewhere to his right across the marshy
field, away from the Steading, a voice called back in glad reply,
"Eadnoth! Eadnoth! Is that you?"
"Eadwig, its me, Gosfrith, where are you?"
"Gosfrith" the voice, Eadwig's, called back angrily. "What are
you playing at, curse you."
"Eadwig, come back to the hall. Where are you, come back. Stop
running around in the dark." Gosfrith shouted back
From out of the night two giant figures emerged jogging across the
field. They had gone far, Eadwig running out ahead chasing after the image
of his brother lying gravely wounded, fallen among the rain-soaked brush.
* * *
(To Be Continued)