Wil Ogden - The Nightstone

Three extremely ugly people emerged from the forest, blocking her. Two carried oddly curved swords and steel shields. One held a two handed axe. They were Vulak, surmised Kehet. He charged over to intercept the three before they could get to Heather. He swung wildly trying to cause them to step away. It worked on the Vulak with the axe and one of those with the shields, but the other stepped towards him, catching Kehet in the shoulder. Kehet was able to roll with the hit, but not enough to stop it from biting deep.

Kehet grabbed that Vulak’s sword arm and yanked him off balance. With a twist of his blade and a tug, Kehet pulled the attacker onto his sword then used both hands to swing the Vulak away, off the blade. Kehet then attacked the Vulak with the axe, cutting furiously, forcing the Vulak to block constantly. A splash of flame to Kehet’s left told him Heather was throwing fire at the other Vulak. Kehet knocked the axe free of one of the Vulak’s hands, leaving an opening for his next strike which cut deep into the Vulak’s chest. It fell to the ground gasping and spitting blood.

The last Vulak was retreating towards the forest with his shield between himself and Heather’s continuous onslaught of fiery balls. Its shield glowed bright yellow and was bending around his arm with each ball that bounced from it. The Vulak screamed and threw his shield to the ground and sprinted back into the forest. Heather stopped her attack when the Vulak turned away.

“We should get back to camp,” Kehet said.

“Your arm!” Heather said, “Are you okay?”

“Well, it hurts like hell,” Kehet said. “I can move it. It hurts to move it, but I can do it. We should get back and then worry about the wound.”

“I could cauterize it,” Heather said, her voice lilting with humor.

Kehet laughed. “I’ll heal, possibly before we reach camp.”

“Now would be one of those times it would be really handy if I could ride you,” Heather said.

Kehet agreed. “I wish I understood enough about this to know if and how to change such silly rules.” It was more of a fact than a rule. Earlier they’d even tried to tie her on but it didn’t help. The ropes either came untied or slid off as well. She could sit on him as long as he didn’t move, but riding was impossible.

They jogged back to the camp of the Wandering Rose to find the camp already under attack. Only the Gypsies were not fighting back. All of the Gypsies simply sat in the dining clearing as a couple dozen Vulak ran around them. The Vulak ignored the sitting Gypsies and crowded around a person by the fire pit. Kehet couldn’t tell who.

A Vulak noticed them and screamed, pointing their direction. Several others joined that one and headed towards them.

As soon as they did, Heather said, “I’m going to try something different. I hope this works.” She said a brief chant and her forearms became covered in flame. She pointed her arm towards a Vulak a dozen paces away and the flames arced outward, spraying the oncoming attacker. The Vulak dropped. Heather picked new targets and three others fell in a similar manner. The rest of the Vulak stopped, keeping their distance from Heather. Several rushed to join the others by the fire pit.

Diten stood from where she’d been sitting and approached Kehet and Heather. The Vulak stepped out of her way, but made no action to stop or harm her.

“There are archers among them,” she said when she got close. “And Jonah is among the best in the world with his sword, but he won’t last forever against this many.” She nodded towards the fire pit.

“Then we should go help him,” Kehet said.

“You and Heather, yes.” Diten said. “I don’t participate in combat and combat doesn’t participate with me. It’s a restriction and benefit of my role with my goddess. I should be able to heal minor injuries after the fight, so don’t get hurt too badly.”

Heather’s toe nudged Kehet’s boot and she said, “Jonah?”

“Let’s go!” Kehet said then ran towards the fire pit.

“Archers!” Heather said. She pointed to several Vulak around the clearing who were readying bows. “They’re too far for this spell.”

“I’ll get them,” Kehet said. He touched his ring and imagined changing to his Unicorn form mid-stride. It worked. He charged the closest archer and impaled it on his horn. He hadn’t thought it through and it took a bit of effort to shake the Vulak off.

Across the clearing another had an arrow nocked and began drawing back his bow. With his speed, Kehet was able to get there before the Vulak finished the draw-back. This time he just knocked the Vulak aside with his shoulder then kicked him with a hind leg as he passed.

The other archers were on the ground, dead or dying within seconds. By the time Kehet was back at Heather’s side, the Vulak were all screaming the same word. By their scurrying, Kehet guessed the word meant ‘retreat’.

They rushed over to where Jonah stood alone by the fire pit. From Diten’s explanation and the time that had passed, Kehet had expected to find him bleeding from several wounds and surrounded by Vulak bodies. Jonah was unhurt and there were no bodies near him

“You don’t kill either?” Kehet asked after reassuming his human form.

“I have no qualms with killing,” Jonah said. “But, that wouldn’t have been the prudent course for that situation.”

“You were surrounded,” Kehet said. “Shouldn’t you have been thinning their numbers?”

“I’d challenged one of their champions to single-combat,” Jonah said. “I wasn’t going to win a fight against all of them at once but one at a time, it was they that didn’t have a chance. I didn’t want to risk the others not accepting the single-combat challenge, so I made the duel last. I figured when you two showed up we’d be able to work together and kill them all. That part of the plan worked well enough. Getting them to retreat is a win, for now. They may come back.”

“They may not,” Diten said. “Heather is frightening, and though a Unicorn horn would be a prestigious hunting trophy, they’re not dumb enough to attack one in open combat.”

“Aren’t we in the nation of Melnith, one of the Abvi Kingdoms?” Kehet asked. “Why are there Vulak here?”

“Vulak are everywhere that other people are not,” Jonah said. “They live in the mountains, the swamps, and even the untamed forests. They do occasionally raid the civilized folk nearby. But it is odd they were here. There are no such places within thirty leagues of here. Our winter camp is occasionally subject to raids, but this is a first for our summer camp. That was a very large group for a raiding party.”

“They didn’t attack anyone but the three of us,” Kehet said.

Jonah explained that Vulak didn’t fight people who didn’t fight back; they just enslaved them and plundered their possessions, after they killed anything that did resist. “The Gypsies have never seen Vulak as more than a nuisance since the Gypsies of the Wandering Rose are extremely pacifistic. Still, two seasons of slavery and having to rebuild the camp is enough for me to fight to defend them.”

“And Diten?” Kehet asked.

“No living creature can see her as something to harm,” Jonah said. “I’m sure there’s a story behind that. I just don’t know it.”

“There is a good long story,” Diten said. “For another day, however. We should know what the Vulak are up to. I think someone needs to track them back to where they came from.”

“I’ll go,” Jonah said. “I know how to read tracks.”

“You should stay,” Kehet said. “The Unicorns here should be able to sprint out, gather some details and get back before the Vulak have time so set Unicorn traps.”