A shelter from the storm

Previously: Down to her last few coins and running out of options, Esmiralda reluctantly joins a group of men on a vague mission near the City of Alt. Following a suspicious man (along with a colleague of Mira's) into the forest, they discovered an evil plot to sell humans to giants for some grim purpose. After a brief, brutal battle, Mira and her companions flee the site of the violence as a growing storm bears down on them...

The wind shrieked around us and the forest offered scant shelter from the rain that drove into our flesh with stinging force. The trees bent and pitched wildly, shaken by winds that pushed them down like blades of grass. I was nearly blind, with my elbow cocked in front of my eyes squinting to see through the gloom. I barely heard Merrick shouting behind me, although his hand on my shoulder was strong as he guided me along. He pointed, and I saw the slight figure of Broo-Fang Tane darting through the churning forest. I lowered my head and ran that way, hoping he would keep his path relatively straight.

I don't know how long we ran or in which direction, I only knew that my breath burned in my lungs and my head swam with fatigue. Finally, I had to slow and halted, bent over and wheezing with my palms on my knees. Merrick was right along side me, his face flushed with effort. He could not speak, either, but pointed a quivering finger ahead and to our left. I squinted again into the night. The rain had settled into a straight, driving downpour that felt like a river flowing down my back. The wind had eased and the forest was silent save for the patter of fat raindrops. Through the dim, waterlogged night I saw the remnants of a forgotten dwelling of some kind. It was merely a vague shape split open by the trees around it, but it looked like it would offer some form of shelter from the elements. Tane was already inside, peering out with a hand cupped over his eyes. I heard Seymuhr lumbering up behind us--it was either that or a drunken bear, from the sound of it.

I willed myself to move toward the decaying structure. Tane bowed as I ducked my head and entered. I sprawled out on my back, panting, and trying to recover my breath. I was drenched, as wet as a fish, and chilly. I pulled my hair away from my face and squeezed enough water from it to fill a small pond. No one spoke. Rain trickled inside somewhere, but the floor beneath me was relatively dry. After a moment I checked myself to see if my belongings were still intact. I felt my pouch with its few coins inside still attached to my belt. My knife was still in its sheath and, more importantly, my Traveling Stone still secured around my neck. Of all, that was my most prized possession, the one thing that could not be replaced. Relief flooded through me and I marveled at all I had been through that night.

Had it really only been a few hours since I had turned in my last assignment—a more accurate depiction of the geography surrounding the Village of Alt? And how accurate had that map been, if we had since blundered into a pair of giants? A pair of giants hinted at the presence of more because it didn't look like they were a couple out on a camping trip. I wondered, not for the first time, if there was such a thing as truth in the world.

Merrick settled beside me, his chest still heaving from our flight through the night. Broo-Fang Tane sat quietly nearby, his ankles tucked up onto their opposing knee. Eyes closed, he leaned against the back of the wooden structure and if his position caused him as much discomfort as looking at it caused me, he didn't show it. I heard steady footfalls outside and saw Seymuhr's squat shape pacing there, a mace in one hand. Still, the wind howled and the rain pelted the side of our makeshift shelter, sounding like stones being thrown against a barn. Reluctantly, I pushed myself off the damp ground and moved toward the opening. I couldn't forgive the way he had tossed me over his shoulder and carried me away from the only scrap of civilization I had seen in the past fortnight, but he had saved us after all, and there was no reason for him to stand out in the driving rain.

"Are you injured?"

He seemed startled by the question. After a quick check of his body, he shook his head. "They barely touched me."

"Maybe so. But they are fearsome creatures that can hurt or maim with little effort."

He smiled then, a mischievous, lop-sided grin that showed gaps in his teeth. "As am I."

"I know now that you are not referring to your poetry." I backed away from the rain, which showed a nearly hound-like ability to track and follow me. "Why don't you come inside? There's room enough for all under this leaky old place."

He looked out into the forest for a moment and then, apparently satisfied by what he did—or did not—see there, followed me through the hole in the wall and settled down on the far side of the structure. He leaned back and his chin drooped toward his chest.

Two words formed at the tip of my mouth, alien things considering that he had stolen me away and put my life in this danger. Still, I felt a bizarre connection to Merrick and his troupe and, for now anyway, I was safe. I said the words anyway:

"Thank you."

If he heard, he didn't reply. Then I realized he was already asleep.

 

The battle, joined

Previously: Following a band of odd adventurers into the wilderness, Esmiralda, a freelance historian down to her last few coins, stumbles upon a gut-churning discovery: humans are being sold to a pair of giants and sent to a horrible fate. Just as shocking, Mira discovers that an acquaintance—fellow Falcuhn Connell Malak—has knowledge of this evil and has willingly led her and her companions into the trap...

Thunder rumbled overhead and lightning split the sky. Above the cacophony of the coming storm, I heard Seymuhr's voice raised in his bizarre battle song. A mace in each hand, he approached the laughing giants.

The wounded man was already dead, his skull crushed by a gigantic hand. Gray slime leaked between the giant’s fingers from which his torso twitched like a dangling puppet. The monster tossed the ruined body aside and swiped a bloody fist at Seymuhr, who stopped short, dodged, then lunged at the towering form. Voice raised in song, he brought the two maces together on either side of the Hustyn's knee. I saw flesh rupture and heard a sickening crunch followed by an inhuman howl of pain. Wild eyed and enraged, the giant toppled as Seymurh leapt aside. The thing struggled momentarily, clutching at its ruined leg, before Seymuhr knocked it completely flat with two more terrible blows. He lifted his head and roared at the heavens, which began to spit rain. His maces dripped with gore.

The other giant swung wildly at the ground and growled with frustration. It took me a moment to realize Broo-Fang Tane had engaged it and had worked it into a state of frenzied fury. Where Seymuhr had been all brute strength and thunder, Tane was as lithe and graceful as a feather on the wind. He slipped out of the giant's grasp and dodged blows that would have knocked him senseless. Like a cat, he stayed beyond the Hustyn's reach—but only just beyond it.

The thing screeched again in rage and slammed its knotted club into the soft earth hard enough to lodge it there. Tane had leapt back in a somersault and landed deftly on his feet. The wind was churning the trees around us and throwing rain that smacked my skin like little stones. Seymuhr lowered his shoulder and jumped at the back of the giant's legs, buckling his knees and sending him tottering backward. It struggled to rise but he was on it in a heartbeat. He swung both maces as one and I heard the sound of bones shattering above the furious wind and rumbling sky.

"Go!" Merrick had appeared and with a wary glance over his shoulder, pointed in my direction. "Our work is done here! We must flee!"

Behind him I saw a mass of clouds darker even than the night around us. It flickered with energy and crashed with violence—some kind of freakish storm that had formed and shook the trees as if they were blades of grass. He ran toward me, and past. Seymurh was right behind him, jogging and breathing heavily. I saw Tane's sleek form ahead of us. Of Malak there was no sign.

I turned away from the dead giants and fled from the coming storm.