Table of Contents – (spoilers)
The hamlet of Bristlenook was only about three kilometers up the Bristle Creek from Bristlehump. The road there would have been a good one if it had not been completely torn up by the lumber skids that were dragged over it. Presently, the ridgeline to the west was being lumbered, and the ox teams dragged the Baron’s logs out on the road every day.
The Bristle Creek was still fast and muddy as it oxbowed its way through Bristle Hollow. The road had to cross it numerous times on the way to Bristlenook. The water level was not high enough to be dangerous, but it did assure that the soldiers wading across stayed thoroughly wet the entire way.
Between Bristlehump and Bristlenook, there were numerous cottages and cabins near the road. Some of them belonged to people the Pekot Bunch had dealings with. Of course, there was the fine Church property rented by Babs and Balan’s family, whose son, Gabe was presently their guide. A little further along was the property occupied by Shasta, Brother Barrelmender’s recently repudiated paramour, and their two children. Not so far past that was the access to the trailhead of the Tanglefoot Trail to the town of Callic. Just off from that was the little bush cabin occupied by Theon the goatfucker and his family.
For this patrol, Choke and the other Pekot Bunch had decided to go straight up the road to Bristlenook. The spearmen marched in a two-man-wide column. The five slingers were spread out to the sides of the column, ready to drop their spears and shields to sling their stones.
As with the march from Spitzer, Choke was on Nike at the head of the column. His kite shield was on his arm and his lance was in hand. Corporals Dom and Lenny were mounted on their little horses and rode to either side of the column, focusing their attention to either side. Knuckle rode at the rear of the column. Finally, just as they had done as a small squad when working the bush, Pinch and Peep were alternating on point.
With the men marching along steadily, Pinch rode on ahead for a ways until he reached a good spot on the road to watch out ahead while still in sight of Choke at the front of the column. Pinch held his position there to let the rest catch up and then pass him. As they did, Peep switched off to ride on ahead to the next good watching spot to the front, keeping her speed just a little faster than the marching men. Now at the rear, Pinch would continue to hold his position to watch out behind until the column was almost out of sight.
Pinch or Peep periodically called a halt to the march with a bird call and hand gesture. The men hunkered down in silence until another signal got them moving again.
On one uneventful stop early on in the march, on Peep’s suggestion, Choke ordered a practice ambush to be set up. They worked with the men for fifteen minutes until they got it reasonably correct. The men would drop and split up to either side of the trail to take cover in the bush and behind trees, ready to spring out at the road. The slingers crouched together at the back of a line of spearmen to initiate the attack and then let the spearman move in front of them. Corporals Dom and Lenny split with the men, one to either side, and dismounted to get their horses behind their group of spearmen. Then they crouched down with their bows. Knuckle did likewise, with Gabe at his side to mind his horse. Pinch and Peep left their horses with Gabe as well, and worked their way on foot to the front of each rough line of spearmen, getting set with their bows from behind good cover. Choke rode back a ways and just a little into the bush, staying mounted so as to be ready to initiate a lance charge straight down the road.
Of course, the maneuver was complicated for the men, and it took far too long for them to get into position. However, after doing it again and again, they improved noticeably. With the men in their ambush position, Peep moved up and down the road and called out those that she spotted. During this training exercise, morale was high, with many of the men obviously enjoying themselves.
Once Peep had everyone in the position she wanted, she addressed the group in a loud voice, sitting on her horse in the center of the ambush.
“Right! Now, yar all under good cover and yar waiting for the attack order. No one moves until yar ordered! That order is gonna come from me, Sergeant Nikolas, or Lieutenant Pekot. When we give the order, the bows will shoot. That’s me, Sergeant Nikolas, Sergeant Theodas, Corporal Dom, and Corporal Lenny. So, shooters! Let’s stand up and show the men what that’ll look like!”
With Peep in the kill zone, it was just the four NCOs who broke cover to stand up with their bows to mime shooting towards Peep.
“We’ll target any obvious leaders, or just tough-looking motherfuckers that scare us!” Peep shouted with her sly grin.
There was some laughter from the men at this.
“Now! Slingers! Break cover and get into the road!” Peep called out to the rear.
The five slingers did just that.
“Now yar back there because in a split-up ambush like this, ye don’t wanna miss yar target and hit our men on the other side of the road! Right? Or, I guess, even if ye might wanna do it, ye shouldn’t!”
The men had a chuckle at this prospect.
“No, shit, though! Cross shooting like that can happen, and there aint a worse way to die in battle, I reckon! But see what ye got here?”
Peep pointed to the five slingers out in the road. Then she turned her horse and pointed down the road behind her.
“That’s a fuckin shooting range if ever there was one. And if ye miss a guy out in front, ye might get one of his buddies behind him. Right? So ye just keep cracking them! And we archers will keep that up, too!”
Peep paused for a bit to let everyone get that set in their heads.
“Now, the rest of ye spearmen! While we’re shooting them up, yar gonna move nice and steady in towards the road. But no charging in! Ye get set up shield by shield and press in on them! Shield wall to either side! And we wait to see what they do. If it looks like we can take them, we’ll order the charge. Ye hear, ‘charge!’ and ye head on in and get killing! And the shooters stop fucking shooting!”
Once again there was some laughter and cursing at this. Peep let it settle before she continued:
“Now, that’s gonna be where Lieutenant Pekot and Sergeant Theodas are gonna come it. They’ll lead that charge and smack them hard. Ye just back them up and watch their flanks. And if a real badass starts fucking smashing back, ye ease back, get in yar shield wall, and one of us Pekot Bunch’ll put them down. That’s what we do!”
This actually elicited a bit of a cheer from some of the men.
“And what if they just run away?” someone called out.
There was more laughter at this.
While Peep had been talking, Choke had ridden out from his cover and came up behind the slingers, who parted to get out of his way.
“If the enemy started running, you let them run,” Choke said. “You hold your position and let them scatter. Then we will assess the situation. What you do not do is chase them! Then you too will be scattered. And scattered soldiers can be killed one by one.”
Choke paused to let the men reflect on this. Then he continued:
“Now, perhaps the enemy is stout hearted and they press on. Maybe they charge! So, spearmen, if they charge you, you lock up your shield wall and plant your spears to meet them. And if they all charge your fellows opposite, then be ready to close the gap behind them. Slingers: if they charge you, retreat into the woods behind the lines of spearmen.
“Whatever the enemy does, our next formation is to rejoin into one force. One line. To do that, the back of each flanking line moves out into the road to meet in its middle. You are now our center!”
Choke pointed out the moves with his lance tip, directing the man at the end of each line of spearmen flanking the road.
“The next men stay with the first. He is your shield mate. Yes! That’s it! All of you, out into the road. Move the line forward down the road. Your line is two men deep now! Proper shield wall! Yes, that’s it! Move it!” Choke hollered, now moving Nike up behind the men to direct them.
It took some time, but the men figured it out. The maneuver ended with their two-man-deep shield wall stretched right across the road, its flanks inside the trees.
“Forming this line might be a fighting maneuver! In this case it will be as a pincer: closing in on the enemy from either side. The key here is to meet in the middle and turn the enemy that way!” Choke pointed his lance out in front of the shield wall. “Do not! Do not cut the enemy force in half or leave any of them alive behind your line! That leaves you flanked! In moving ahead, if you come upon fallen and wounded enemies, you finish them before stepping over them. A wounded man may still rise up and stab you or your fellows in the back!
“Now! Spearmen: hold your line! Slingers and bowyers, take up position at the flanks, just behind the spearman and within the trees! Shoot the enemy ahead, and watch the flanks! Alright? Good! Okay! Once more! Again! We do it again! Men, form marching column in the road! On the double!”
Choke had the platoon run through the call to ambush once more. Once they were in their ambush positions, he had them break that and form line across the road in the pincer maneuver. It all went reasonably well. Watching them follow his orders Choke expected they might just manage to pull this off against a small group of goblins or exceedingly weary or malnourished bandits. Still, there is a finite amount of training that can be useful in any allotted time, beyond which nothing more can be absorbed. Choke sensed that he had reached that point with his men.
“Very good! You’ve all done very well! That’s enough training for today. So let’s march on to Bristlenook and clear this road! What say you, men?” Choke pranced Nike in front of them as he raised his lance.
There was something of a cheer from some of the men.
“I didn’t hear you! I said: Let’s clear this road! Now, what say you, men!” Choke bellowed, allowing Nike to rear up.
This time, the cheer was almost full-throated. Choke decided that would also have to be good enough.
Pekot’s Bushrats moved on up the road towards Bristlenook in their cautious way. Pinch or Peep stopped them on occasion whenever they heard or sensed something they did not like, or if there seemed to be a good spot for an ambush up ahead that warranted considered observation. Nothing came of any of it.
When they were almost halfway to their destination, they came across a small herd of cows being grazed in the bush by a pair of older boys. When they were almost at Bristlenook, Peep at the front halted them and signaled for the men to take cover at the edge of the road. Before anyone else could hear what had alarmed her, Peep had determined it was safe. This alert tuned out to be a pair of teamsters and their ox team dragging a skid loaded with three cut lengths of a huge tree trunk. The teamsters did not seem at all surprised to see the soldiers on the road.
None of these folk they had passed were friendly at all, but nor did they seem fearful or hostile. Choke chose to regard this as progress.
The platoon finally reached Bristlenook in mid-afternoon. The sky had remained overcast and looked as though it could rain. The state of Bristle creek, fast and muddy, suggested that it was raining fairly hard somewhere upstream. But, it had held off on them that day. Indeed, it had been cool and the perfect weather for the march. For that, some of the soldiers were grateful. Others pissed and moaned about any little thing, as most people will tend to do.
Bristlenook was as picturesque at ever, with its spread-out cottages and homes in their individual little plots. This was wilderness; free land here, and the folk that worked it owed no lord rent. With no need to hand over their harvests as such rent, they could work smaller gardens and fields. The price for this freedom was living beyond the law and the Baron’s protection. However, with their homes spread out as they were, without fortifications or even proper walls, it seemed that the folk here had no fear of attack. At the heart of the matter, Choke was not patrolling this hamlet to protect it from whatever perils may lurk beyond it. He was doing so to protect Bristlehump from whatever might lurk within it.
As pastoral as the scene was, there was something off about Bristlenook that day. The light coming through the clouds had an odd tint to it. And the hamlet was quiet. There were no sounds of dogs barking, children playing or fighting, or farm animals bleating or braying. In fact, when Pekot’s Bushrats emerged from the forest on the road, there were no people in sight in Bristlenook. It was an eerie calm, and every soldier felt acutely that they were an interloper there. All of the cottages and houses were shuttered up tight, although there was the smoke of cook fires rising from many of their chimneys.
“Alright. Spread out a bit. Stick with yar squads. Keep quiet,” Peep said, just loud enough for the men to hear.
With her squad back at Bristlehump on watch, Peep was free to stay with Choke and Gabe at the center of the men. Mounted on Gorgeous Boy, she had her Scythan warbow in hand, with an arrow notched.
The four squads under Knuckle, Pinch, Corporal Dom, and Corporal Lenny spread out as the platoon moved into the hamlet, heading towards Lucky’s Tavern at its center. Bristlenook had not been completely deforested: some of the plots had big, lovely trees of various kinds. A nearby, lovely, large cottage had a huge, old elm tree beside it.
On that side, Pinch signaled for his men to halt, and rode a little around the side of the cottage to check behind it. As he did, the elm above them exploded into a cacophony of caws and chatter as a racket of magpies took to the wing from it.
Everyone started as the yacking magpies wheeled and spun from the tree above them. Some of the corvids whirled in the air above the soldiers. Others flew straight off, looking as though they had clear destinations in mind. A couple looped over to land on the cottage roof and berate the trespassers properly.
“Fuckers!” Peep exclaimed.
One of the slingers dropped his shield and spear and began twirling up his sling before Dom barked at him to halt:
“No! Don’t ye know killing one of them fuckers is bad luck? The rest of them put the hex on ye! And then yar fucked. And I aint riding with a man with that blight over him!”
“I wonder which one of them was Nester,” Peep said in a low voice to Choke.
“None of them looked drunk, did they?”
Peep chuckled. “All magpies look drunk, the fuckers. What was it ye were worried about before? That it might be answering to a witch? What did ye call that?”
“There are numerous possibilities. A familiar is one. That would be a special helper magically connected to an arcane spellcaster. However, it could be an activated friend to a druid, as well,” Choke said, tracing the Wheel over his breast to ward off evil as he said the word, “druid.”
“Druid? Yar lot killed them all already, didn’t they?” Peep asked.
“Our lot, I think you mean,” Choke said. “It’s mostly true. Before the light of Stronianism cleansed the land of them, the druids served as terrible, pagan priests in our lands. However, not all of them were exterminated. Some remain, heretics most foul to be rooted out wherever they are found.”
“Well, okay, then. So if there is a witch or druid or whatever out here, they know we’re coming. Nester would be telling them it,” Peep said.
“Well, as you know, anyone that is in tune with nature out here wouldn’t need an animal helper to know we’re coming with this lot,” Choke muttered. “We shall just have to hope that our strength of numbers keeps them at bay. Assuming there is any such peril out here, of course. Let’s get moving!” Choke finished loudly. He then gave a terse whistle and gestured for the squad leaders to do just that.
Lucky’s Tavern was the only public building in Bristlenook, run by a man named Lucky and his wife, Becky. It was a good-sized wooden structure with plenty of seating in its one large room. Three of the building’s sides were without proper walls, instead having stout, floor to roof shutters that could be opened or closed depending on the weather. On that day, the side towards the prevailing wind had its shutters closed. At the properly walled side of the tavern was a bar, with the kitchen behind it.
As the platoon approached the tavern, they could see that there was no one inside the place. They had yet to see a human soul in Bristlenook. On the roof of the tavern, however, where three evenly spaced magpies: one on the roof’s peak, and the other two flanking it to either side. They stared silently at Choke and Peep with their malevolently intelligent, black eyes.
The platoon stopped in a loose wedge formation, with Choke and Peep in its center. They stood and waited, with the three magpies staring down at them. There was not a sound.
“Hello! Lucky! Hello! Is anyone here?” Choke finally called loudly into the tavern.
It was silent for a few more moments, then, until back in the tavern’s kitchen there was a crash that sounded like a pile of pots and pans being dropped. This was followed by short wail of despair.
“Lucky? Becky? Everything all right?” Peep called out.
Lucky stuck his head out of the tavern’s kitchen door, looking like a startled gopher popping up out of its hole.
“Oh. Hey!” Lucky waved lamely towards them.
“Hey, Lucky! Why don’t ye come out and have a quick word with us!” Peep called to him. Her warbow was still in hand, but she had it across her lap as she sat in the saddle.
“Oh. Okay.”
Lucky came out into his tavern and over to the closest open space where a wall might be in a normal building. Lucky was a tall, skinny, middle-aged man who looked mildly cretinous, and was certainly stupider than he looked.
“Hi,” Lucky said as he waved again at Peep and all the soldiers. Then he seemed to recognize Peep and Choke. “Oh. It’s you! Yar back. We heard ye wasn’t coming back. Can I get ye anything?”
“No, thanks. We just want a quick word, is all,” Peep said, her tone calm and friendly.
“Oh. Okay.”
“So how are things? How’s Becky?” asked Peep.
“Oh, ye know. She’s swell enough, I suppose.”
“That’s good. Things seem pretty quiet around here today. Is everything alright? Anything going on?”
“Huh? Oh. No. No… it’s just… quiet,” Lucky said, now looking frightened.
“Ye sure?” Peep asked, dropping her voice very low. “If some bandit goon or someone is holding Becky to keep ye quiet, just scratch yar nose.”
“Huh? Oh. No. My nose aint itchy at all. It’s just quiet. So, is that it?” Lucky asked hopefully.
“Just about, Lucky,” Choke interjected. “I suppose everything is locked up tight around here because everyone knew we were heading here this afternoon. Is that right?”
“Well… uhhh… I dunno. I suppose that could be. We just heard there was trouble coming from the south, is all. And then ye showed up. So… I dunno. I guess it’s okay after all, right?”
“I suppose it is. I’m just curious, Lucky, how it was that you heard that there was trouble coming from the south? Did someone come through and tell you? Was there some sort of signal?” Choke asked.
“Well, yeah. Nester and his buddies told us, right? And he’s a person, ye know. Just in a magpie shape now, on account of the sorceress in the Moodark Hills that he made cross, right?”
“Right. Yes. So Nester and the other magpies came and signaled that there was trouble coming from the south. When was that?” asked Choke.
“Oh, I dunno. About an hour ago, maybe. Maybe less,” Lucky’s face scrunched up as he pondered this very hard.
“Okay. That’s good,” Peep said. “How was it that they signaled ye?”
“Well, they came and squawked a lot and did their trouble dance, ye know. And then pointed to the south. That’s what they do!”
“Well, that’s good! Good to have lookouts,” Peep said, her tone friendly as she shot Choke a concerned look.
“Yeah! It is!” Lucky said, now cheering up considerably.
“So, about the trouble that comes around. Ye know, that they warn ye about. What sort is it, usually? Ye get much bandit trouble around here?” asked Peep, her tone mild.
“Oh, no. Nothing like that. Used to be some around before, though. Ye know, bandits killed my mommy and my daddy! Left me alive inside her, so’s I could be saved! And that’s why they named me Lucky!”
“Yeah, I remember that. And Lucky ye are. And here ye are with yar tavern and yar lovely wife and yar still as lucky as can be, I reckon. So, I’m just wondering, Lucky. D’ye remember that hard case we were talking to the last time we were here?” Peep asked.
“Thad?” Lucky’s face clouded over as he said the name.
“No. Not him. But, actually, while we’re on it. Is Thad is around? His place is just to the east, right?”
“Yeah,” Lucky cast a hard scowl to the east as he crossed his arms in front of him.
“And, then, further on up the holler to the east, there’s the healer lady, Diya. Is that right?” asked Peep.
“Yeah!” Lucky brightened up. “And Nester! They live together up at East Rock! And she’s a nice lady! And she helps us all out a lot. Ye know, helping mommies get their babies outta their tummies, and helping us when we’re sick or hurt. Ye know, all that stuff!”
“Okay. Sounds like a real nice lady! But Thad doesn’t help ye all with healing and all that?” Peep asked.
“Well… yeah… he does that sometimes. But mostly he’s just dancing around and trying to carry on with all the ladies around. Ye know… in the bedroom fashion. And it aint alright! It aint alright at all!” Lucky shouted, glaring eastward once more.
“Yeah, I hear ye there, Lucky. That shit aint right. But we’re not here to get into all of that today. I’m more worried about that other guy that we were talking to that day. The rough one with the bow that rode up on horses with his three friends. Ye remember him? Sneed’s his name,” Peep said.
“Oh. Right. Yeah. I remember him. He’s a nice guy, ye know!”
“Is he, now. Why d’ye say that, Lucky?” asked Peep.
“Well, he was a good customer! He bought lots of food and ale. And he always paid real good with coin money!” Lucky said with a big grin.
“Well, that does sound nice of him. And he never made any trouble around here? Him or his friends?”
“Nope!” Lucky shood his head emphatically.
“That’s good. And before, ye said ye don’t have trouble with bandits no more. It seems real peaceful here. So all them bandits that come through here a couple of weeks back. Ye know, the ones that camped up on the South Hill out past Bristlehump, they never caused no trouble here in Bristlenook?”
“Nope!”
“Well, that’s interesting to me, Nester. Because, I gotta say, I used to run with some bandits. And if they came across a place like Bristlenook, why they’d think they’d died and gone to bandit heaven. It’s a pretty soft target here, is what I’m saying. And the woods up north of here are pretty notorious for bandits. But they never bother ye, huh?” Peep pushed.
“Nope!” Lucky said proudly.
“Ye don’t know why that is, do ye?”
“Well, it’s on account of this being a blessed valley, is why,” Lucky said, pronouncing the word “blessed” as thought the name “Ed” was tacked onto “bless.”
“Okay. So… what does that mean? I mean, nobody ever comes around making trouble? Nothing ye can remember? What happens when bad men come around here and try to fuck with people? That’s gotta happen sometimes, right?” Peep asked.
“Well, yeah, I guess. Sometimes people don’t know no better. And then the forest takes care of them. Mostly they just disappear. Sometimes we hear some screaming in the night. Sometimes it lasts all night. And then they’re gone.”
“Okay…” Peep said, looking around at Choke, Pinch, and Knuckle in turn. “That’s good to know. And it aint a person doing that, ye say? It’s the forest eating them up?”
“Yup! That’s what people say, anyways. Bristlenook is a blessed valley, all right!” Lucky beamed.
“Yeah, I guess it is. Okay then. So, thanks for yar help today, Lucky. That was a good chat,” Peep said.
“Sure thing! Ye sure ye don’t want an ale or something?”
“Well, actually, Lucky,” Choke said. “When we were last here, you had some snack food with the ale that was excellent. Pine nuts with dried cheese, if I remember correctly. Do I have that right?”
“Yup!”
“Good. Well, I don’t suppose you could sell us some of that, could you? A sack of it, if you have it. Or, if not, as much as you can spare. I think it would be a nice treat for our men back at the barracks tonight,” Choke said.
“Ah. Good call, LT!” Peep said.
“Oh! Yeah! I could sell ye a batch of that. I’ll be right back!” Lucky said before running back to the kitchen.
“We have a lot to discuss this evening,” Choke said to Peep, Pinch, and Knuckle. Then he touched the side of his nose in a conspiratorial gesture and pointed up at the three magpies that were still up on the tavern’s roof, watching them intently.
“I don’t think any of them is Nester,” Pinch said. “I remember him being a lot bigger. He was just about the size of a crow.”
“Yeah, well those fuckers talk to each other, ye know,” Peep said. “One of them figures out a scam on humans and in a couple of weeks there are dozens of them doing it.”
“There is no telling who might be able to talk to all kinds of animals around here. Or who might just be hidden nearby spying on us in a more conventional way,” Choke said, his voice low. “Be all that as it may, this is not the place to discuss it.”
Lucky then returned with a burlap sack about the size of his head. Choke dismounted and went to get it from him.
“This is excellent, Lucky! Thank you so much! Here: this is for the beer mix and the conversation today. Keep the change,” Choke handed Lucky a couple of mid-sized copper coins.
“Oh! Thank ye, sir! Thank ye, indeed!” Lucky bobbed.
“No, thank you Lucky. And you say hello to your wife for us. I do hope she is well,” Choke said as he stuck the sack into one of his saddlebags.
“Oh, yeah. She’s alright. She’s just feeling off today, on account of the magpies’ danger dance and all. She’ll be okay soon.”
Well, that’s good. I appreciate all your help. Thank you, again. You take care, Lucky,” Choke said as he mounted up.
“No problem, sir! Always happy to have ye! Yar a nice guy, too!” Lucky waved happily as Choke signaled for his sergeants to get the men moving back the way they had come.
Muse Vassal 