Age of the Gods: The Complete, twelve novel, fantasy series (The Blood and Brotherhood Saga) (146 page)

His movements had been anticipated. His foe awaited him. And now there was nothing to do but act and react. Springing into action, Gnak ducked the thrown spear and sprang forward into a roll. As he came to his feet, another spear lanced out of the shadows, slashing through his bicep, the impact turning him and shoving his balance off center. Still he did not retaliate. Instead he bent his knees, lowering his center of gravity, and turned to watch them close the distance, assuring himself there were not more lurking in the shadows. Cowards.

Flexing his muscles taut, it was finally time to fight. Swinging his spear overhead in a great arc as if it were a sword or club, he relaxed his grip and let the handle slide through his grasp until he held the butt end. Then tightening his grip, he swung yet another arc, lashing out with his arm at the last moment as if brandishing a whip. With perfect accuracy he slashed the forehead and scalp of the nearest foe, sending the charging Orc down upon his back, blood pouring down its face. Without hesitation, Gnak sprang upon his clansman and as he landed he drove the spear down through his opponent’s throat, watching the blood spurt and pool around the wound as it widened. Pinning the thrashing and gurgling attacker to the ground, he sprang away from the flailing limbs, leaving his spear behind. There remained yet another attacker and Gnak was prepared for him. But by all apparent sounds the secondary threat had decided to flee rather than fight. Gnak could not allow a coward to live among his clan, and as such he gave chase to the sounds of his enemy’s retreat.

It was only a mile further up the mountain when he knew he neared the other who had sought to remove him from the Catunga ceremony. He could smell the scent of her sweat, though found himself surprised that his second attacker had been a female. All Orcs were soldiers, and all Orcs were trained to fight from birth, but females rarely openly fought males, as males were bigger and stronger. Instead, females gained station by those she bred. Gnak assumed that this particular female had bred, or intended to breed the Orc he had just killed. The thought made him grin, as he broke through a line of trees to realize that the sounds ahead had stopped abruptly. So too did he stop.

A great roar sounded from just paces ahead, as a humongous beast reared back on its hind legs, caught by surprise. So close was his female attacker to the ancient bear that froth from the corners of the beast’s mouth rained down on her as the roar continued. She stood frozen for an instant, and Gnak knew that it was all the time she had before the beast even attacked. But when it did, he had not expected what he saw.

As if she were little more than a hare, the great bear, standing all of twenty feet on its hind legs, swatted the Orc female, now recognizable as Kagi, with one giant paw. So ferocious was the blow, and so great the claws upon its paw, that bits of her entrails and blood sprayed across his face as her broken carcass was flung more than forty feet from where she had stood. No scream. Nothing.

Gnak watched it, as if in slow motion, as the bear, graying from age, moved with such power it belied reality. Opening its great maw once more it roared in victory, twisting its head this way and that, as it came crashing down to the earth upon all four of its massive limbs. It was fall on the mountain and the bears were packing on as much weight as was possible, and this one was immense. The ground shook slightly at its massive weight crashing down, and with the movement Gnak met the eyes of the beast and knew the beast had the upper hand.

Having left his spear further down the mountain, he stood before the giant of a bear with naught but a torn bicep and a short sword. The bear charged.

Though it was not fear that drove him, the only viable option he could see was the one he took. Leaping aside, Gnak began to sprint down the mountainside with the great bear hot on his heels. Picking his path carefully, he dodged between trees too close together for the bear to pass, yet it kept coming, smashing trees aside as it growled and roared behind him in hatred and anger. The ground shook beneath them. Leaping through tangles of vines and brambles, he dove headfirst between two stout trees, rolling back to his feet before he turned.

Knowing the bear would be forced to squeeze between the thick trunks, he watched as it reared and jumped to find more space between the trees the higher they grew. Without a plan for retreat, Gnak sprang towards the great beast instead of away. Landing beneath the creature as it came barreling down to the soft loam beneath them, Gnak pulled his blade from his belt and thrust it straight up into the falling behemoth. Blade, hilt, hand, and arm all penetrated up into the steaming heat that was the bear’s chest cavity. Gnak felt as he severed muscle, blood vessels, and finally organs as blood rained down in a torrent upon him. The bear half roared, half screamed in pain as it batted at him, its weight crashing down upon him. He tried to extract himself, releasing the sword in an attempt to dive aside, but to no avail.

Down the beast came, trapping him beneath its great weight, a full half of his body becoming pinned beneath the creature. Fortunately for Gnak, the beast was a great deal fur and soft tissue surrounding the majority of its bulk. For even though he awaited the sounds and sensations of his bones shattering beneath the creature, he was relieved when only one snap sounded, just a finger that he had broken dozens of times before.

The bear scratched and trashed but seemed unable, momentarily, to regain its feet. Whether the beast’s inability to rise was from the damage he had done, or its own immense weight, he could not be certain, but Gnak knew he would not survive if the beast recovered.

Growling much like the bear atop him, Gnak struggled to shift himself further beneath the creature instead of free from it. Twisting and shoving, he thrust his hand into the wound his sword had made and found the weapon in absence. With no other option available to him, he reached further still into the wound and there he felt that which he sought.

Feeling through the hot and sticky blood, he brushed the pulsing of the great beast’s heart and, finding it too big for even his hand, he grasped at the huge vessels that entered the organ and tore with all his might. An unnatural moan broke free from the ancient bear’s throat as blood poured from the chest cavity, coating them both in its gore. Thrashing wildly, the bear clawed and snapped but could not reach him. Tearing more and more of the vessels in his grasp, with a final yank the bear ceased its screams. Gnak relished in the silence.

Now all he needed to do was figure out how to get free from the massive creature, and get it down from the mountain without one of his kin trying to claim it for their own.

Thanks to the copious amounts of blood and other internal fluids, the act of extracting himself from the beast turned out fairly easy with the added lubrication. Rounding the corpse of the bear he found his crude blade, and smiled at the giant tongue lolling out the side of the bear’s mouth. Sticking his own tongue back at the creature momentarily, he pulled it back in and snapped his thick, jutting jaw shut. It was odd how all dead things stuck out their tongues. Pondering it a moment, he decided he liked dead things. He could eat them, skin them and wear them, make things from their bones. They really were quite handy, and this one provided him with all sorts of possibilities.

Knowing that none could easily steal his kill, he rushed back to the nearest of his fallen brethren. Rolling over her shattered corpse, he was amazed to find her still breathing. Pulling his blade from his belt he straddled her, taking her head by the hair. Wrenching her head back, he flipped his blade over and smashed her face with the pommel of his sword. Over and over he smashed her brutally, until he had thought the deed complete. Then, reaching into her wrecked mouth he extracted the pair of large, tusk like, canine teeth from her bottom jaw.

Dropping them into the pouch on his belt he rose, turning and striding further still down the mountainside. Approaching the ring of fir trees he cautiously ducked between them, spying his dead foe still pinned to the ground. Looking around, making certain no further attackers lingered, he decided it was safe and proceeded.

Stepping upon the chest of the fallen Orc he grasped the shaft of his spear with both hands and ripped it free from soil and foe in a single tug. Still requiring his prize, he used his foot to turn the dead Orc’s staring face to the side. Then, pinning it there with his foot he slid the tip of his spear into its mouth, wedging it behind the large pair of teeth he sought. Then, prying against the back of the mouth, a series of cracking sounds followed as the teeth’s roots tore free from the jaw.

Then, without hesitation, he collected the tusks and quickly returned to his game. The great beast was exactly as he had left it, and even now he could see no way of getting the mammoth back to camp. It was a massive thing covered in matted bristling hair of brown, gold, and grey. Its large head was the size of Gnak’s torso, and paws the size of his chest. He would need to devise a way to transport the enormous corpse, and quickly.

A litter like those used for the injured was not even likely to work, as the beast was simply too heavy to drag. What he really needed was a cart of some sort, or some way to leverage the beast down the hill. He thought of simply placing a sturdy branch beneath the creature and trying to roll it, but such a thing was not likely to have good results. Then it struck him. He needed to make the bear roll of its own accord.

It took hours, breaking the green branches from the pines, sliding them beneath the bear and bending them into hoops before binding them with vines scavenged from the forest floor. It too took hours more to then twist the various hoops made of green limbs within one another and lash them into place. But before the sun broke the horizon, marking a new day, Gnak appraised his work with a grunt of satisfaction.

Before him stood an immense cage-like structure made of intertwined vines and limbs, that for all basic description had formed a giant ball. Within the ball, the corpse of the great bear laid, a mass of blood-soaked and matted fur, claws, and great pink tongue. From either side of the great wooden orb a log protruded, acting as a central shaft, and upon each opposite end of the shaft a vine was looped. Gnak hoped that the two reins upon each side of the contraption would be enough to allow him a controlled descent, simply following behind the rolling ball, creating resistance upon one direction or the other to guide the thing. He also hoped the ball would not shoot down the mountainside like a bat out of the abyss, and drag him to his death behind it. He would have to keep its momentum to a minimum, at least until he neared the bottom. There was only one way to test his control, however, and he cracked his knuckles, and grabbed the reins to begin his trek down the slopes.

Approaching the makeshift ball, he gave it one great shove and watched as it rocked forward. Preparing to dig in his heels, to prevent an uncontrolled descent, he was summarily disappointed. For no further than a few degrees did the contraption roll, before the weight of the bear within it caused it to roll right back where it started. He would need to push harder.

Bending at his knees, he dug his toes into the soil and, reaching down to grab as low as was possible, he thrust upwards with his legs, back, shoulders, and arms as the great ball of limbs rolled nearly half way over. Inside it, the great bear appeared to cling to the outer wall of the device until it neared the apex, where it fell unceremoniously back to the bottom, bringing it once again to an immediate stop. “Gaaack!” Gnak roared in frustration.

Stomping around his contraption for a moment, his arms thrown up in momentary defeat, he quickly devised a plan. Scrounging up more lengths of vine, he laced it through and through the device, securing the great beast in place. Satisfied with his quick decision-making and solution, he again squatted down, this time with his back to the device. Reaching low behind him, he found suitable handholds and thrust upwards with all his might, nearly jumping as his muscles recoiled with such energy. Turning to watch the results, he was pleased to see the contraption make a revolution.

Over it turned, the weight of the bear slowing it as the mass of fat and fur reached the top, then over the other side the bear rolled, and the giant ball of pine limbs and vines seemed to pick up momentum as it made the second half of the rotation.

Again, up the bear came as it slowed, and again Gnak watched as it picked up speed as the bear again descended within the ball. Then again, as it really began to gather momentum. “Gaaack!” he swore again.

Racing after the ball, having forgotten to reclaim the reins, he watched as they bounced and whipped about behind the ball as it continued to increase in speed and momentum. It was only a matter of time before it crashed into a large tree that would leave him starting over yet again.

Half bowling over, half bouncing off of a small green pine, the giant ball took to the air momentarily before crashing hard to the ground again as vines and boughs within it creaked, a few cracking beneath the assault. Gnak ran furiously behind it and without fear for life or limb he sprang headlong into the air, grasping the first of the reins with his fingertips. Bouncing behind the ball, he clung to the vine for all he was worth, rolling and waiting for the proper conditions to regain his feet. Branches, rocks, and even ferns battered him from all angles as he tumbled, dragged ceaselessly on. It was only seconds before the cage smashed first into a sapling and then glanced off a larger tree, slowing its speed slightly. It was enough for Gnak to right himself, and finding his feet he took up the chase, one vine securely in hand.