Knox of the Bloom

Chapter 6: Hunt for the Fugrah

By daybreak the hunting party had left Old-Sister's village and set off into the woods. Flint had learned that the beast had been seen in the northern forest the previous night. Yew-Bow took point in the hunt and had just disappeared into the undergrowth, leaving the men to wait behind. Jug and Flint were crouched down in front of Knox and motioned for everyone to keep low and quiet. The light of day failed to penetrate the dark canopy of ancient trees, and the thick mist clung to the ground like a spider's web, turning everything into blurred shadows. Any man worth his salt with a bow or spear had been ordered to take positions at the front and back of the group. The Red-Pines were adept hunters and were in these positions, leaving the Valley-Rain men to lumber in the centre of the group unhappily. Old-Sister had not allowed any of her people to join the hunt. Knox cleaned his dagger with a handful of moss once more, and Tapa nudged his hip anxiously. He patted her head to settle her.Yew-Bow reappeared out of the shadows then. 'This way, there's a dried up stream we can use to get through these brambles.''Good work Bow, you take point. Broken and Half-Haft, you flank Bow, if the beast appears he'll need your spears.'The two Red-Pine warriors nodded and crept silently behind Bow, the rest of the group followed after them, the three men's outlines lingering on the edge of the mist. They came to a steep decline into a narrow dried stream which snaked its way through the trees and thick undergrowth. The ground sloped downwards, and at river's end they found a circle of stones on an earth mound. Some were piled on top of each other; others had collapsed over time, with stones strewn down the hill and before the stream's lip. Most of the stones were covered with moss and the usual etched runes, what Hornbeard had called doldrums. Flint gave them the signal not to touch anything. At the centre of the circle they found bits and pieces of rags and dried blood. It seemed that this was the place Flint had been searching for, where one of the hunters' bodies had been found. Knox could only imagine what state it had been found in if it had left such an abundance of blood. Painted skulls were placed on top of some of the stones, past sacrifices to some forgotten old god, and the sinister presence of the site made the group uncomfortable.'What do you think, Bow?' Flint asked.'Old blood, be hard to follow the trail, if there was one. Wait...' He crouched and pushed around some leaves, picked up a piece of rope and crawled after it. Bow left the doldrums, crept down the hill, and picked up the ragged end of rope that had bits and pieces of clothing still clinging to it. 'Damn it, dead end.''We should break up into groups, be quicker,' Grey-Sap, the thin man from the Valley-Rain clan muttered. Blue-Moon nodded his agreement.'Well that's not your fuckin decision, is it?' growled Jug. 'You boys just keep nice and quiet like a good pack of mutts.''What you say, fat-man?' growled one of the other Valley-Rain men.'What, are you deaf?''Shut it, all of you!' hissed Bow.Jug's face was red, he looked at Flint. 'Why do we need these fools? We should send them on ahead of us. Let them get eaten by the beast.''Hornbeard told us to take them. That's that.'Jug cursed as he walked past Flint, still muttering under his breath, and he kicked a tree, then again, harder. Something began to rustle in the trees. Before Jug had time to look up, a dark object tumbled down from a branch. Knox watched as it fell, a black blur, with a long tail, and just as it was about to land on Jug, the tail end caught on the branch and the object bounced away from the startled man. It bobbled there, swinging back and forth, and Knox realized that the tail hadn't been a tail at all, but a rope. And at its end was a highly decomposed and bloated body of a young man. Maggots writhed and dripped down onto Jug's white face, clinging to the network of guts on display. The men had all drawn there weapons or readied spear and arrow, but the man wasn't going to do them any harm. Its eyes had been gouged from its head, throat ripped out and you could see the neck bone poking through, and worst of all, worse than the entrails hanging loosely from its stomach like grey eels, was its arms and legs. There were gone. Each limb had been gnawed off by some large animal, the fang marks easily visible from where Knox was standing.'God of Death and Destruction,' breathed Bow.'This is the work of a Fugrah,' one of the Red-Pine men at the back of the group said, panic brimming in his voice. 'We need to get out of here.''Quiet!' hissed Flint.They stared into the mist. The hairs on the back of Knox's arms were stood on end. In the distance something began rustling through the trees, scraping against bark and snapping twigs and branches as it moved. It sounded large. The men readied their spears and arrows. Flint motioned for them to form a line. Knox slid out his knife and stood between Bow and Jug. His heart was thumping in his ears, the rustling stopped, and they waited. His mouth was dry, and he needed to take a piss. Gods, why hadn't he stayed in the mountains?'Easy men,' said Flint.They jumped and spun around, as now the noise was coming from the other direction.Get to the stones, signalled Flint, and they crept back up the hill, just making it to the doldrums as something came rushing out of the mist towards them, a smeared blur, streaking up the hill. The men loosed their arrows, but each went wide, even Bow's, and it came rushing at the men. Spears went next, but impaled themselves into the mud or tree, and the beast leaped over a fallen stone, using it to spring higher and landed on one of the Red-Pine men. They hit the ground, rolled, and before anyone could make a move for the beast, it was back up and rushing down the hill, away into the mist. Gods it was big. Blood sprayed after it, as if it were bleeding, but Knox soon saw it was the man's headless body that was spraying the blood. It writhed around on the ground, flailing its arms, digging its fingernails deep into the dirt and kicking its feet. The men watched, pale faced, and the nearest men to the body had to shield themselves from the rain of blood.'After it!' shouted Flint. They ran after the beast, down the hill, screams came from behind them. Knox looked back and saw one of the Valley-Rain men being hauled away into the mist by the Fugrah.'It's behind us!' screamed Half-Haft.'Make a ring!' They quickly done as Flint ordered, each man formed back-to-back, each muttering curses as the screams went silent.'This weren't our fight, this weren't our fight...' Grey-Sap was muttering to himself.'There!' A shadow stirred in the mist, and Broken flung his axe at it. 'Die, you fucker!' But the shadow had moved well before the axe even reached the mist, and it tumbled away into empty air harmlessly.'Plan, Flint?' said Jug.'Don't die,' said Flint, and he motioned for the men to crouch.'Sure, easy for you to say, you're lean as a twig. Look at the meat on me though,' said Jug, before taking a swig of his jug.'We need to get back to the doldrums. This mist will be the death of us,' said Bow. The men agreed and they decided to move back to the hill, watching every direction, which was slow going but safe. Through thick ferns and thickets of weeds they struggled, eventually retracing their steps until the doldrums circle stood above them one again. When they climbed the hill, they found the Valley-Rain man's body impaled on a thick branch, just above the circle, in a tree. They took up positions around the circle, and the light grew dim, the sun abandoned them, and they were left in the forest, to the mercy of the Fugrah.***The night was long, but the sun rose above the trees and chased away most of the mist. Flint led them through the forest, headed east. Two Valley-Rain men had disappeared during the night. Most of the men had said to leave them in the woods, but Blue-Moon looked like he would cut the throat of any man who took the first step. Flint was having none of it, saying that Hornbeard had entrusted him with their safety, he had to find them and bring them.The tracks stopped suddenly.'Which way Bow?' asked Flint. After some searching, they found a dagger to the south, and not long after that they came to the mouth of a cave. Bones were scattered around the entrance, not all were animal.'No way am I going in there,' said Jug.'You'll fuckin go in there if I tell you to in there,' growled Flint. 'And I'm telling you to. Actually, Jug, you can take point.''Come on, big guy,' Bow slapped Jug's belly. 'Drink some of your magic potion and fight the Fugrah.''Well that's just the problem, isn't it?' Jug tipped his jug upside down, and not a drop dripped.Just then a scream came from inside of the cave.'Don't matter. We're going in, now' Flint walked into the cave without looking back. Blue-Moon was close behind, and Bow lit a torch and followed them. Knox followed the Nordner into the inky black. The place reeked of sour meat and death. Bones crunched under Knox's boots. The rest of the group followed, and there weren't many now. Besides Flint, Bow, Jug and Blue-Moon, there were only Half-Haft and Broken left of the Red-Pines, along with the tall one with the blue eyes who never said anything. Broken said to call that one Nemain, but spoke no more of it. And of course Knox himself was there, not one bit out of place among these hardened warriors, and how much good would he do up against a beast like the Fugrah? And why was he thinking of all this now? Shouldn't he be devising a plan of attack? Or escape? He'd be little more than a pick to clean the fucker's fangs with, to think he would be coming face to face with this...Oh by the gods he didn't want to be here.'Easy,' Flint whispered, as they entered into a wide cavern, and the place was a nightmare. The screams came from deep inside the cave. They echoed off the slimy walls. Bones covering the floor reflected the light from the torch, turning the entire place into a nest of yellowy-orange snakes. Moss clung to the walls, slimy and dark with the gods knew what. Knox saw a finger bone pointing accusingly at him from a crevice and had to force himself to look away from the walls. He followed the men to a rock pool, where some tree trunks had been bound together by dark vine, and bones and other odd looking instruments clung from them.'Is that... Is that what I think it is?' muttered Broken.'Don't look at it, boy,' growled Jug, 'this is dark magic here, Flint. We need to move quickly.''Aye,' agreed Bow.'Help!' a voice called from deep within the cave. Blue-Moon went to run towards it, but Flint held out an arm, stopping him.'That's not your friend anymore; they belong to the Fugrah now.''We need to get this bastard.' Half-Haft was watching their back, clutching his spear like a lover. Nemaine was beside him, quiet and wide-eyed.'We'll get it this bastard, don't you worry your blue balls, Moon. Any plans, Flint?' Jug asked.'Stay behind me. And don't get lost.' Flint began moving towards one of the many tunnels at the back of the cavern. Blue-Moon followed, as did they all.They inched along, skirting the altar like trunks covered with dozens of human waste. Bows and spears were sheathed, and now each man held axe, knife or sword. If any fighting was to be done, it would be close at hand. The air became fouler the deeper they went, if that could be possible. The screams grew closer. Knox knew that voice, not Grey-Sap's, but the other man's, Cliff. Damn screams gave him the chills. No human could make those kind of sounds.He soothed Tapa, or more correctly the wolf soothed him, she nudged into him, running her mask along his arm for comfort.Why hadn't he stayed in the mountains?The tunnel grew narrow, and they went one by one into the darkness. The torchlight was the only noise now, sputtering. The screams stopped. Wind began to blow through the tunnel, and Knox had to blink, thinking he was imagining it. But no, there it was again. Cool wind kissed his face, making his hair stir and the torch Bow was carrying waver and almost die.'By the gods...' Knox heard Flint whisper.They entered onto a ledge; the ledge ran around wide rock pool. There in the midst of it, impaled or bound against these sharp rock columns, were dozens of skeletons. On one a form writhed and kicked its legs in silence. Grey sap's ribs had been ripped out from his chest, his organs, heart, lungs, all could be seen. Below it, a creature that looked covered in metallic feathers licked at these. It turned then, thin slits of yellow for its eyes stared at them from inside that hideous form of darkness.Bow was the first to act, he flung his axe at the beast, which leapt out of the way and vanished between the columns.'Put him out of his misery,' Flint ordered Bow, pointing at Grey-Sap. Bow knocked an arrow, and Knox watched as Grey-Sap's bulging eyes looked back at them, before the arrow took him in the heart, and his head drooped.Blue-Moon roared then, making Knox near drop his dagger. The giant of a man went storming after the Fugrah, sending the dark and rancid water splashing up in his wake.'After him!' someone yelled, and they were all racing toward the columns. Tapa bounded off in front of Knox, and his feet felt like they were moving by their own accord, two long and heavy lumps of meat dangling at the end of his body.'Over there!' shouted Half-Haft. Knox just saw the shadow lingering beyond the columns, before it came at them in a blur of fangs and fearlessness. Blue-Moon brought his great war-axe down in a mighty swing, but the blade bit into empty space and found naught but rock where the beast had just been. The Fugrah rolled through the water, then back onto its feet, swerving between the columns. The tall Red-Pine warrior, Nemain, brought up a shield just in time, and the beast shattered it instead of the warrior's helmet and skull, and the man went sprawling to the floor.'Surround it!' and Flint ran around the columns. The beast hissed back at them, and Knox saw it clearly now, as it crawled up a column, its long claws wrapping around the rock. A damn mountainous spiky bastard of a beast is all Knox could think of.'Yah!' Half-Haft sent his spear darting through the air, but the beast lashed out with its long claws, cutting the spear's haft and sending the head tumbling harmlessly against its many layers of what he could only imagine was rock.'Aim for its breast, it seems vulnerable there.' Bow aimed his next arrow, 'Broken, give it your spear!' And the man did, and when the beast snatched out and cut if from the air aswell, Bow sent his arrow twirling through the air. Knox saw it hit below the beast's arm, and it thudded into flesh!Knox roared at it when the others screamed their hatred, and they stormed at it. Blue-Moon came at it with Broken and Half-Haft from the left, Knox and the rest to the right of it. The beast had nowhere to run and it knew it, because it pounced off of the column, stretching out its sinewy arms and sharp claws, and by the gods it was coming for him! Knox's foot slipped then, and he hit the floor, and that was lucky, because the damn thing slammed against his shoulder, where his head would've been a breath ago. Knox shoved the dagger up, not looking, but shoving with all his might. He was flattened against the ground. The gagger's point jarred against something solid, but he followed through just as the fucker's claws were biting into his flesh all the deeper and the rest of the men were around him now, and the weight of the thing was crushing him!He heard Tapa, growling and biting and snarling. Axe's thudded into it, swords, and the Fugrah raised its head and let out a mighty roar. Knox screamed at it, challenging the bastard, by the gods if he was going to die then he was taking this fuck with him. He rammed the knife in again, and again. Dark blood splashed and frothed down over his arm, his face, and it burned into his eyes, but he kept stabbing, even when the thing's claws had stopped digging into him, and its teeth had stopped chomping at his arm. He felt the dead weight settle on him, and nothing of the world beyond the Fugrah could he hear. Not the sound of his wolf, nor his companions. He felt hands then, and words, but he made no sense of them.He was in the mountains now. That was all. He was home.