Table of Contents – (spoilers)
Pinch led the way from Gotthilf’s cottage, heading towards the trail up to North Ridge, back the way they had come. Peep followed close on his heels, with Knuckle and Choke right behind her. Dom took up the rear.
Peep had now opted to have her Scythan warbow in hand. She was focusing most of her attention up at the sky as she rode.
“Where’s that fuckin crow-loving eagle?” she said, mostly to herself.
Pinch was only about five meters from the trail mouth at the edge of the clearing, when, from just inside the trees, there was the sound of something very heavy moving swiftly through the brush. It was just a second before the creature burst out at Pinch. It was a huge, bull moose in full charge.
The animal was easily eight-hundred kilos, with a full rack about two meters across, moving with horrifying speed and agility. Pinch’s horse, Knickers, reared to spin away from the beast. The bull moose dropped its head low and drove its antlers up into Knickers’ barrel. The palmate antlers were like two, giant, open hands, with multiple sharp points. Dirt flew up from the bull’s front feet as they dug in, and he raised his head up high to flip Knickers off her feet and over onto her back. Whether by innate agility, or just blind luck in the physics of the attack, Pinch flew from the saddle and fell hard in the grass clear of his horse.
Everyone else froze in shock as their horses balked and whirled to run. Choke was just able to control Nike and keep his seat, but had to take precious seconds to do so. Peep’s mount, Gorgeous Boy, reared up high, throwing Peep from the saddle. She fell well enough and was able to roll as she hit the ground. Surprisingly, Knuckle kept his seat and dragged his black stallion’s head around hard to get control of it. Dom kept his seat and allowed his horse to bolt for a stretch before pulling it back around to stop beside Gotthilf’s cottage.
The bull moose did not waste any time. With Knickers on the ground in front of him, he rose his head up and slammed his antlers down into her. Then he stepped over top of her and stomped straight down with all four legs, again and again, bludgeoning her with his sheer weight. So ferocious was the attack, the poor little bush horse could not even manage a scream.
The moose was still at this when Choke regained control of Nike. He kicked the warhorse into a charge straight at the beast and drove his lance deep into its side. His strike was perfect, taking it just behind the shoulder for a lung shot. It was like hitting the side of a barn, and Choke dropped his lance as the impact crashed up his arm and into his shoulder. The bull whirled and swung his head to reach out with his antlers, but Choke had performed his pass perfectly and he and Nike were well out of reach. The moose groaned deeply and stumbled, but did not fall.
By this time Knuckle had dismounted and managed a shot with his longbow at the bull. He did so hurriedly, however, and missed. Peep stumbled to her feet with her warbow in hand, but had to drop that since the quivers with its arrows were on Gorgeous Boy, who was heading around the back of the cottage in full flight. She pulled her shortbow and was about to notch an arrow when their next problem came gliding in over the treetops.
The large eagle dipped a wing and wheeled down into the clearing as though to land in the grass on the far side from the trail entrance. However, at the last instant, the bird seemed to unfold from within itself and transformed into a woman, who landed in the grass as easily as if she had hopped down from a tree stump.
Peep had spotted the eagle coming in and tracked it to the landing while she notched her arrow. Witnessing the transformation, Peep lost a couple of seconds as she goggled in stupefaction.
With the bull moose still stomping the last shreds of life out of Knickers, no one else noticed the eagle. Choke wheeled Nike around as he pulled his saber; Dom had wheeled his horse and dismounted behind Knuckle to collect his stallion’s reins so that Knuckle could dismount; and Pinch had only just managed to stagger to his feet, having dropped his bow.
The giant moose stopped its attack and raised its head into a magnificent pose as it stared at the woman now standing across the clearing. Then it seemed to shimmer, before dissipating like morning mist above the hills, vanishing into thin air. Choke’s lance that had pierced it fell down across Knickers.
The woman gesticulated with her hands and spoke in a strange language, casting a spell to no obvious effect. In the sudden quiet of the clearing, this brought everyone’s attention to her. Peep was the first to react. She snapped out of her daze and pivoted to loose her arrow at the woman. The shot was roughly a hundred meters and it was immediately obvious to Peep that she was going to miss. However, it would not have mattered if her aim had been perfect. When the arrow was about twenty meters from the woman, it was suddenly whisked straight upwards as though buffeted by a gale-force wind.
With his second arrow notched, Knuckle shot at the woman just a couple of seconds after Peep. His arrow, too, was harmlessly blown up and away.
From the other side of the clearing, roughly where Peep and Pinch had made their approach to the cottage from, there was another crash through the bush. A massive, tusked boar came charging out into the clearing. It stopped after just ten meters, however, and cast its malevolent gaze across the party, as though considering who it would most like to gore to death.
Behind the boar, back in the forest, an archer stepped out from behind a tree with a full-powered longbow in hand.
“Missing left!” he called out, just before sending an arrow no more than twenty centimeters to the left of Choke’s head.
Peep already had an arrow notched. As she drew it back to return a shot, the archer stepped back behind the tree. The boar in front of him charged forward about five meters before halting again. This time it snorted and fixed its murderous gaze on Peep alone. It was only about twenty meters from her.
“I coulda picked off any one of ye!” the archer called from his cover. “And Peep: I just need to think it and that tusker is gonna rip ye open!”
On foot, and staring the beast in the eye, Peep had to concede that the man was probably correct.
“The woman wants a word!” the man called out again. “So stand down! Dismount! Put yar weapons away! And then we can all go on about our day! Nothing more needs to happen here!”
Peep glanced over the woman’s way. She had walked towards them and stopped at roughly the area that the arrows had been blown up and away. At a range of about eighty meters, it seemed to Peep that the woman was smiling at her.
“Lieutenant!” the man in the woods shouted. “The woman wants a parlay! Stand down! If she wanted ye dead, ye’d be dead!”
“Very well!” Choke called out. “Stand down, everyone! Put your weapons away!”
Choke dismounted and sheathed his sword before leading Nike towards Dom and Knuckle. Peep nodded in agreement with his judgement as she muttered a curse. She picked up her warbow and held it and her shortbow together over her head as she backed away from the boar still pawing the ground at her. Knuckle simply slid his longbow back into its saddle case.
Peep and Choke converged on Knuckle and Dom, who took Nike’s reins. With her horse long gone, Peep wedged her warbow into Knuckle’s saddle case with his longbow. Then she slid her shortbow back into her back case.
Pinch was the last to join them. He had followed Peep’s lead and was holding his bow up above his head with both hands. He seemed to be moving well enough after his fall, but his face was grim.
“Sergeant Pinch!” the man in the woods called. “Unstring yar bow! And if yar gonna keep it on ye, Peep, too. Unstring that shit!”
“Motherfucker,” Peep muttered.
“Is that Gotthilf out there? Did he go out a tunnel?” Choke whispered.
“Don’t think so. Voice aint right,” Peep said.
“Hey!” the man shouted, sounding angry for the first time. “Enough chit chat! Unstring them bows!”
“Yeah, I heard ye the first time!” Peep yelled back.
She and Pinch unstrung their bows.
“Good! Now, Peep and Lieutenant Pekot! Ye can walk over and talk with her! Sergeants Knuckle and Pinch, ye stay right there with yar man and wait. I’m gonna be watching. Any funny shit, and I start putting lumber through yar necks! Let’s all be smart! Right?”
“You doing this?” Knuckle asked Choke, glaring daggers at the woman still standing in the grass watching them.
“Do we have another choice?”
“It’s gonna be fine,” Peep said with absolute conviction. “She’s just turned our game around on us. I need to talk to her. No doubt about that.”
“If ye say so, Peep,” Knuckle said.
“I do.”
As Peep spoke, the wild boar melted away into mist, just as the bull moose had.
“Plenty more where he came from!” the man called out. He was now in a different location, hidden in the woods further up towards the trail. “Remember: keep it smart! I’m watching!”
“Let’s get this over with,” Choke said. He met Peep’s eye, and the two of them strode out towards the woman waiting for them.
The woman was standing, relaxed and smiling. She was in later middle-age, probably in her fifties. While fat, she was also robust and healthy looking, with an intelligent liveliness about her. She was dressed in a rustic, homespun, linen blouse over loose deerskin pants. She had no belt or visible weapons on her. Her smile widened as Peep and Choke got within five meters of her. It seemed friendly.
“That’s close enough,” she said, her tone as welcoming as her smile. “No offense, but ye folk of iron do make me a bit nervous.”
“Is that what we are?” Peep asked, her fingers taping out a rhythm on the hilt of her shortsword.
“Surely, yes. Amongst other things. Good to finally meet ye, Peep,” the woman said.
“Is it?” Peep asked.
“Yes. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I dunno. We’re meant to be working on killing each other, aint we? Yar Diya, right?” Peep said.
“I am. And it may come to killing yet. But even if that must be so, it is still good to meet yar adversary, isn’t it? And, to be honest, I do not think we need to engage in further hostilities.”
“Ye don’t? Yar moose there, or whatever it was, just killed our man’s horse. Nearly killed him, too. What was that if it aint hostile?” Peep snapped.
“No worse than what yar man Choke’s horse did to poor Gotthilf’s dog. Eye for an eye. Horse for a dog,” Diya said with a cold gleam in her eye. “Ye came here to play the bully. To throw yar weight around and see what might come of it. To provoke a reaction. Well, ye got one. So, now what, Miss Otilla of the Holy Fire?”
Peep and Diya stared at each other for a good while. Off to the side, and completely marginalized in the parlay, Choke had no inclination to thrust himself into it. He stood as still as he could, and focused on mentally preparing for a fast draw of his saber in a charge at Diya.
“I dunno what now,” Peep finally answered. “This is yar show here, aint it?”
“I am glad you recognize it. But if you were a good minion of Stron, shouldn’t you unleash that fire in yar palms to burn me up as the demon worshiper that I am?”
“That’s a good question. Ye got some balls to let me come this close to ask it.”
“I don’t have balls. I don’t need them. And I don’t take unnecessary risks like those fools that let theirs do their thinking for them. But I sure would like to see the fire ye sling for that dark god of yars.”
“I’m sure ye would. I’m guessing ye had a word with old Hargarl about whatever he saw in these brands of mine,” Peep said with a smirk, holding the backs of her hands up towards Diya, withholding the palms from her. Peep’s bright, steel Stronian Wheel ring flashed in the sunlight.
“Oh, my! Now that is pretty! Not my style of course, but suits you wonderfully. Wherever did you dig it up?” Diya asked Peep sweetly.
“Never you mind where. And I think I’ve had enough of this bullshit. So whatever it is this is, let’s just get on with it, huh? This is yar parlay, right? So what the fuck ye got to say to us? Or was this just a big flex?”
“I have nothing to say to the both of you,” Diya said with a sneer Choke’s way. “With you, Peep, I would like to converse. If that is not possible, however, then I suppose I am content to leave this having been a flex, as you put it.”
“What? Ye think I’m gonna go someplace with you? Send Choke away? Are ye nuts, woman?”
“Many have said so. But I think I can talk you into it. So, I will offer you a gesture of goodwill, and a proposal that may be suitable. Not far from here at all, there is a pretty little spring pool with a lovely grove of lilac in bloom. If you come there with me, Peep, I will put the kettle on and we can talk. We have much to discuss that will be to your benefit. Now, I understand that your men will be loath to let you go, and that is understandable. So, if you come with me, I shall leave a hostage with them that they may find suitable.”
Diya let this sit for a while. When it seemed Peep was going to speak up, Diya interrupted her:
“You need not respond. I shall first offer you my gift, and then present your hostage. You may make up your mind then. Yes?”
“What-the-fuck-ever,” Peep muttered.
Diya smiled. “I shall take that as a, ‘talk is cheap, woman.’ And you are quite right. So, please, bear with me a moment as I make the arrangements.”
Diya raised her hand in the air and pursed her lips to issue a pleasing trill of birdsong. Immediately, Nester, the large magpie flew from a nearby tree and coasted in to land on her upraised hand. She brought him down to her face level.
“Nester: you have met Peep and her man, Lieutenant Pekot, haven’t you?”
“Ack! Ack-ack-ack!”
“Yes. I know. There are larger considerations now, however. So, I must ask you to do me a favor.”
“Ack!” Nester bobbed his head enthusiastically.
Diya now switched to making funny chirping and warbling sounds for about fifteen second. Nester listened intently. When she had finished, he bobbed his head several times and flew off, heading for the village of Bristlenook.
“Now I shall go and arrange your gift: my gesture of goodwill to you. It should only be a few minutes. Please be patient. If you choose to reject my proposal, you are free to go. You shall not be impeded. However, if you do so, I suggest that you do not come around here again. You will find it much more hostile next time. But I trust that you’ll wait and see what I have for you.”
With this, Diya turned her back on Peep and Choke and walked towards the edge of the clearing. While they were on the path through the grass that ultimately went to Bristlenook, she left this to head straight through the tall grass. Peep tensed as she noticed that in her passage through the grass, Diya left no trace of her passing. Diya soon slipped into the trees and was gone.
“So… what are we doing?” Choke asked.
“Yar asking me?” Peep asked.
“Yes. You said you had a feeling that something needed to be done out here. Is it talking with her?”
Peep thought for a moment. “Not really. It’s something more. Something deeper. But she’s probably part of it. Anyways, I don’t get any feeling that she needs to die. And I do want to talk to her.”
“Okay. That’s a big risk, though. Can we trust her?”
“No. But what the fuck does that have to do with anything? We’re down two horses here. If we light outta here and they decide to fuckin come after us, they’re gonna get us,” Peep said.
“Agreed. And she seems reasonable enough, in her way. The offer of a hostage is how this tends to be done, from what I understand. So, Peep, if you are willing to go with her, then we will keep whatever hostage she brings. Assuming everything until then is peaceful and without surprises.”
“Okay, then. We’ll see what the bitch has. Let’s go back to the lads and let them in on it,” Peep said.
She and Choke went back to where Knuckle, Pinch, and Dom were with their remaining horses out in front of Gotthilf’s cottage. When told of Diya’s proposal, Pinch barely responded, seemingly morose at the loss of another horse. Dom held his tongue. Knuckle did not like it, but accepted Choke’s word on the matter.
It took almost fifteen minutes for Diya to arrive on the trail from Bristlenook. It was immediately apparent what her gesture of goodwill was, and it was a good one. She was riding on Peep’s horse, Gorgeous Boy.
“Oh, fuckin A, man!” Peep exclaimed. “And… yup. All them new bows look to still be on the saddle. That’s fuckin huge!”
Diya stopped Gorgeous Boy at precisely the spot she had been standing at before. Then she dismounted and waved.
“I guess we go and see who this hostage is going to be,” Choke said. “Me and Peep are going to walk back over there. When she brings our hostage out, if we decide they are suitable, I’ll bring them back here, and Peep will go with Diya to this spot of hers. That’s what we’re doing here, right?”
Choke now looked completely unsure of this plan as he articulated it. Peep nodded emphatically, though.
“Fuckin rights,” she said.
“Ah. Wait,” Pinch said. “Just wait.”
He ran over to his dead horse, Knickers, and bent down at her saddle. He soon came back with his bandit horn, which he handed to Peep.
“You blow that if anything goes off, Peep. We hear it, and we’re gonna gut whatever fucker she’s left with us. Then we’re charging straight for ye. Right?” he asked Choke.
Choke now nodded emphatically. “Absolutely,” he said.
“Fuckin rights,” Knuckle said.
Dom nodded.
“Right. Good call, Pinch. Sorry about yar horse. She was uhhhh… yeah. She was a horse. Okay, let’s get on it,” Peep said, swatting Choke.
She and Choke struck out down the path, heading to Diya and Gorgeous Boy.
Muse Vassal 