Chapter 20! A TERRIBLE IDEA Vs THE MUCH WORSE COLD OPTION!
1588 Words
The summer ended.
Between the skills of Mal the soldier, Granny Phug the master forest bandit, and the Nartulaist Gren Sisters, The wildlands gave plenty of food as the constant moving camp started moving into early autumn.
Hiding the Sin-Eater had a simple solution.
Simply throwing a load of low-level magical charms around his neck.
The Sin-Eaters neck constantly jiggled with the weight of over a hundred cheap mass-produced charms around his neck.
His arms constantly rattled from an almost silly number of cheap enchanted bangles around each wrist and ankle.
They would not do anything for him in themselves.
(Because he was immune to ALL direct magic!)
But they radiated enough low-level background magic energy between them all to no longer make him a “Cold Spot” on the local magical landscape.
However, you could now hear his slightest movement from a fair good distance!
Also, because of the combined knowledge of Mal the soldier, Granny Phug the master forest bandit, and the Nartulaist Gren Sisters, these joint leaders of this group knew that this camp could never survive winter without heavy losses.
The clock was ticking.
The season would move on whether or not they were ready, regardless as to how prepared they might or might not be!
They needed a place ‘to winter’!
And they needed it now.
If winter happened unseasonally early it would be a major problem!
Sometimes that could happen.
They had dependents to look after now, some of them young children.
It was not a gamble worth taking.
Granny Phug had been semi-prepared with a solution as soon as the very first refugees turned up.
She was hoping that someone else would have a different idea first.
Her solution was not an easy or safe one. Granny Phug had hoped that it would not come to this.
Unfortunately, as the night past, she could see the others silently struggle and wrestle to find some solution.
After nearly ten days of seeing unspoken worry, wrinkle foreheads and suppressed stress, in all the others, Granny Phug knew that they had nothing.
She really did not want to offer her idea.
Because it was a bad idea.
But it was still two hundred per cent better than doing nothing at all.
It was with deep regret, that she offered up her idea. Cringing inside as she did so.
So one night, around the campfire, on the coldest night so far this year, Granny Phug looked at the night sky.
There was a slight yet notable silver ring around the full moon.
There would be this years first hard frost tonight.
Granny, with as much confidence as she could bluff, presented her idea to the others.
They looked at her,
They all listened very politely.
They exchanged glances and blinked far too much.
No one spoke.
“Please,” She thought to herself, “Think of a bitter idea! Please!”
“That is a stupid idea,” Said Mal.
Internally Granny Phug groaned. Of course, the insecure young warrior would tear the idea down. She already knew it was a dumb idea! She did not care if it got torn down as long as it was replaced with something, almost anything else! But Mal had not offered an alternative, he has only instead stated the sickenly obvious.
She thought quickly, With no time to think in, and fell into the vulnerable old lady routine.
Hopefully, it would spur the young man's ego into offing some other solution.
Young men liked being in charge.
“Yes,” Granny Phug said, “It was a silly notion, Sorry!”
Then she tried to hold his stare with a non-challenging pleading look.
Like a puppy begging for scraps.
“Ok then.” Said Mal, getting back to his strew.
“WIPE!” thought Grammy, “Don’t just accept that and move on! Give an alternative you wipe head!”
For a few minutes, Mal tried to eat while ignoring her look,
Then he snapped,
“WHAT!”
“Errr nothing, “ Said Granny.
“Is there any of that mushroom and nut stew left?” She asked.
“There is a bit! Why?” said Mal
“No reason, I might have some later,” Granny Rach Phug replied
“Ok then,” Said Mal,
But Rach Phug kept starring.
“Now what?” Snapped Mal again.
“Nothing” Said Rach Phug,
“I just wondered how much longer we will be able to find so many nuts and mushrooms before winter sets in?” She continued innocently.
“How the hell should I know!” Mal snapped, not getting the hint.
“Not all that much longer,” Said Sue Gren.
“Not much longer at all,” Added Sally Gren.
“Hunting might get a bit harder as well,” Continued young Vert Gren.
“I know! I have worried about it for weeks!” Said Mal.
“Grannies idea is hugely, amazingly stupid though!” Stated Sue Gren.
“I know, Don’t rub it in! She said sorry about it!” said Mal Wear.
“It IS a VERY silly idea,” Said Sally.
“Leave it alone now!” He went on.
“But!” Said, Vert Gren.
“But what!” Snapped Mal irritably putting his wooden bowl down.
“But…” Said, Sally Gren
“It IS the only idea we have!” Finished Sue Gren.
“So then we obviously don’t use IT then!” Mal glared.
“Accept that we might have to unless…” Said, Sue Gren.
“Unless WHAT!” Said Mal.
“…Unless one of us happens to think of a better idea!” Said Sue.
“Any other idea would do!” Said Sally.
“Any at all!” Said Vert.
“Well?” Said Mal.
“Do you happen to have a better idea?” Said Sue.
“Any other idea would do!” repeated Sally.
“Any at all!” repeated Vert again.
Mal for the first time started to see where this was going.
“It is almost certain death to us all!” He snapped in exasperation.
“Almost certain is better than absolute certain death!” Said Granny Rach Phug.
“Pretty please, give us another solution!” Pleaded granny, without any sarcasm!
Granny Phug would have loved to have another option available!
She did not survive this long by nursing an inflated ego.
Mal went to open his mouth,
Mal opened his mouth a few more times, but no other idea came out!
He sighed,
“Ok, theoretically, how would we even start to do this!”
But he knew that this was not theoretical.
His heart sank with the knowledge that this was their ONLY shot as surviving winter!
But the odds were terrible, even IF everything went to plan!
And that “IF” was a bloody huge highly unlikely one!
“The bandit camp is heavily guarded!”
“The spotters are experts, they have to be!”
“To spot law and caravan and travel victims alike!” Stated Granny Phug
“Are there any blind spot’s” Asked Mal
“None said” Granny Phug
“So What's the plan then?” Asked Mal.
“There is none, yet,” Said Granny Phug.
“Then why…” Started Mal
“Because,” Interrupted Granny,
“It is secure, sheltered, and there are years of supplies there!” She said.
“And winter will most definitely kill us!” Granny ended.
“What we need is a military expert, someone who knows tactics!” Said Sue sweetly.
Mal gave in,
“Ok, so what is the first problem we will face?” The Former Captain Mal Wear asked.
“Well, Our first obstacle would be getting past those constant watches on the cliff tops,” Said Granny Phug.
They would not know it yet.
They would not know it until they got there.
But their first problem would NOT be the bandit spotters on the cliff tops!
Because there were not any bandit spotter on those cliff tops!
It was not safe on the cliff tops.
Anyone on the cliff tops got killed very quickly.
The bandits were all hiding in the deeper caves, scared to come out.
They were facing constant deadly pitched against goblins from the deeper caves,
The bandits lost most of these battles and many had been killed
But to try and leave the cave system was far more frightening!
The “Prey Monster” was out there!
It would give a loud screech of death and a loud flutter of giant feathers making all nearby victims blindly panic.
Then swoop down silently picking off a chosen victim and then silently swoop off into the distance.
No one knew what the thing was or what it clearly looked like.
Only that is was huge, and feathered and could fly in perfect silence when it chose to!
It could easily pick up a large fully laden horse but much preferred man-flesh!
As I already stated dear reader,
Our “rebels” would not know any of that yet.
They would not know it until they got there.
Their first problem would NOT be the bandit spotters on the cliff tops!
It would instead, be the deadly “Prey Monster”
After that, they still had a small army of ruthless bloodthirsty bandits to deal with!
- Writer
