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Fantasy Fiction
Chronicles of War I: The Warfarer's Exodus
Before the Wall
Chapter 1 Page 20
Chronicles of War I: The Warfarer's Exodus
Before the Wall
Chapter 1 Page 20
"No."
"Good, then. Sit back easy now, and let Deldric tell you the tale in his own time." The forester took a deep breath, followed it with a quaff from the last horn on the table, and started off. "Now, like I said, the town was set alight and burned nearly to the last home. By the time me and some of the other men from Farther Heights had arrived there, all was blackened and deserted. Many burned people and some children lay in the ruins, but they were not left alone in death.
"For there, near the center of town, I found the smoldering corpse of a great monstrous beast that never could have passed unknown on this side of the Wall. It had wings where its forelimbs should have been, wings like a bat, I guess, but somehow different. And though it was burned to a crumbling ash, I could yet see how fierce its claws and savage maw must have been in life. The charred remains of Underlander arrows protruded from its flesh, maybe a score or more, but I do not believe those wounds were its undoing. A great portion of its hindquarters was missing, and seemed to have been bitten away by yet another, much larger and perhaps hungrier behemoth. This was, no doubt, its death wound, most likely received somewhere in the Wilderlands. Out of perversity, perhaps, or blind agony, the abomination had descended on Underland Town to die or be killed. I shudder to think what it might have done in absolute health, and doubt gravely that the Farther Heights would have long escaped the beast's deadly attentions.
"I thought you might like to hear of this monster first, since it has been the largest Wilderland transgressor I can recall in my clearest memories. Its wings might have stretched the span of five men or more in life, and its trunk was the size of a large pony. It had a long, serpentine tail that might have been barbed like a scorpion's. The Underlanders' presented us with varied accounts of what all had happened, but the one thing upon which they all agreed, warrior and elder alike, was the fact that the animal seemed ravenously violent. Its every move was a singularly potent threat of death. Five grown men were killed in battle with it, ere the fire set its hairy flesh alight. I still have not learned the final number of the slain, though it is sure to grow as the many wounded succumb to their poisoned injuries.
"I say this was the largest intruder in recent memory, but it has not been the first nor the last. Intrusions of this nature are common, but not so generally deadly. Just this e'en, near sunset, I myself destroyed a small squirming thing of vile, unknown nature. It was digging in the dirt, and might have passed beneath the Wall in search of food.
"Good, then. Sit back easy now, and let Deldric tell you the tale in his own time." The forester took a deep breath, followed it with a quaff from the last horn on the table, and started off. "Now, like I said, the town was set alight and burned nearly to the last home. By the time me and some of the other men from Farther Heights had arrived there, all was blackened and deserted. Many burned people and some children lay in the ruins, but they were not left alone in death.
"For there, near the center of town, I found the smoldering corpse of a great monstrous beast that never could have passed unknown on this side of the Wall. It had wings where its forelimbs should have been, wings like a bat, I guess, but somehow different. And though it was burned to a crumbling ash, I could yet see how fierce its claws and savage maw must have been in life. The charred remains of Underlander arrows protruded from its flesh, maybe a score or more, but I do not believe those wounds were its undoing. A great portion of its hindquarters was missing, and seemed to have been bitten away by yet another, much larger and perhaps hungrier behemoth. This was, no doubt, its death wound, most likely received somewhere in the Wilderlands. Out of perversity, perhaps, or blind agony, the abomination had descended on Underland Town to die or be killed. I shudder to think what it might have done in absolute health, and doubt gravely that the Farther Heights would have long escaped the beast's deadly attentions.
"I thought you might like to hear of this monster first, since it has been the largest Wilderland transgressor I can recall in my clearest memories. Its wings might have stretched the span of five men or more in life, and its trunk was the size of a large pony. It had a long, serpentine tail that might have been barbed like a scorpion's. The Underlanders' presented us with varied accounts of what all had happened, but the one thing upon which they all agreed, warrior and elder alike, was the fact that the animal seemed ravenously violent. Its every move was a singularly potent threat of death. Five grown men were killed in battle with it, ere the fire set its hairy flesh alight. I still have not learned the final number of the slain, though it is sure to grow as the many wounded succumb to their poisoned injuries.
"I say this was the largest intruder in recent memory, but it has not been the first nor the last. Intrusions of this nature are common, but not so generally deadly. Just this e'en, near sunset, I myself destroyed a small squirming thing of vile, unknown nature. It was digging in the dirt, and might have passed beneath the Wall in search of food.
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