The Last Wolfson

Chapter 4: The ogres

It was morning and the tent was gone. He was sleeping on the ground and he wondered how she got the tent out from under him. Altima had put the tent back... wherever it came from. She was filling some carved rock water cups.
"Hey." She said nonchalantly.
(I mean it wasn't some big deal they were just going on a deadly mission that would probably kill them)
He felt his joints creaking and groaning into place as he sat up. "Hey" he replied in like.
She screwed the lids on and said, "sleep well?"
"I slept." He replied.
"Good. You'll need it. Come here."
Phang staggered over to her.
"We are here." She pointed to a place on a map in front of the thunder mountains."The slavelands are here." She pointed at a place next to fire plains and behind the thunder mountains. "We should probably take the path that goes up spider peak."
"Wait what? Spider peak? I've never heard of that."
"The Unknowns somehow genetically engineered the spiders to be the guards of the thunder mountains and the slavelands. Where the last tribe or two of the thunderdraks are. The slavelands are just inside that bowl of mountains. I've never seen one but the spiders are supposed to be totally huge and I also heard something about paralysis."
"Maybe in their venom? Phang inquired.
"Probably. Sooooo... Let's not let any of them bite us. Or eat us."
"So how are we planning on getting past them?"
"Hmmmmmmm." She thought. Tunnel!"
"No. Uh uh. Nada. No thank you. We'd somehow end up in one of their nests!"
"Yeah, that's true. Maybe we could...wait. Aren't most spiders nocturnal? Yeah! So we could see if they sleep during the day!"
"That would be an...option. I say lets think about it."

They set off on the path that led to spider peak and the thunder mountains behind it. The path was dirt and it wasn't very well marked, so they almost got lost a few times. On the way Altima explained to Phang what she brought along the trip.
"I brought this super cool pack that I stole from my mom. I'm pretty sure that it is magical so that you could put anything in it and it would always stay the same size. The village elder enchanted it. They do that. I have supplies. Flint and steel water canteens and food."
"Did you bring any weapons?"
She paused for a second."I don't believe I did! How silly. I forgot!"
Phang sighed. "This is not starting out well." He muttered. "Oh crud."
A fallen tree. It's trunk the width of a humongous Boulder had fallen in the path. He looked either way but the forest was so thick he couldn't see the top of the tree or the roots. He sniffed the air.
"Altima..." He warned. "I don't like this."
"Oh don't be a worrywart. We'll just go around. Even better!" Her eyes bugged and she sprinted off to the right.
"Altima wait! It's a..."
She jumped into a crack in the tree and something moved at the top of the tree and a chunk of tree came down right where the crack was.
"Trap." He finished. Two dirt ogres moved out from either side of the forest and one came out of a burrow that was nearly impossible to see unless you knew where to look.
"Well, well, well." One grunted. He was obviously the leader. They had gnarled and calloused hands and feet and one was missing a toe. They carried clubs in their fat hands. They had piggy eyes that greedily searched him for any valuables. The worst thing though was their mouths. Each hung open greedily, and had teeth in them that looked like they could easily crush a mountain between them. One had a gold stud planted on one of them and it dripped with drool as they circled him.
"Any last words?" The smallest one growled.
"Sure. Die." He flung himself at them.
This was the best moment. He felt his teeth grow, each growing longer and sharper, his fingernails narrowed and sharpened as they too grew. His eyes, pupils changing in color and size. He longed for blood, battle. He hit the first one, hard with a bone shattering punch. It flew back into a tree and collapsed, probably unconscious. He crushed the neck of the other one with his powerful jaws and launched himself at the last one he batted this one into the dirt and then kicked it in the head.
Then it was over. He once again was the scruffy, but normal looking man who looked like easy prey for the robbers. He ran to the place where Altima had disappeared and sighed. It was solid tree that was here. He couldn't move it.
It looked like a three ogre job. Altima screamed. She pounded her fists against the wall.
"Phang!"
She whirled around. She started walking, timidly in the passageway. She tried to tunnel, but it was too hard. She kept walking down the tunnel because it was the only thing to do. It was a pretty twisty turny passage and the passage was pretty well carved. Suddenly she reached the end of the tunnel. She felt around the hall and fell in a burrow. It was carved out of wood so when she tried to tunnel it was futile. She looked around. The burrow was filled with trinkets and so forth from travelers that they had successfully robbed. It was dirty, which she liked. Although it was dark it was comforting. As she looked a bit more carefully she realized she could see a faint light.
What was that? She wondered. As she drew closer to whatever was making the light she realized it was the blade of a broadsword. Where is the handle? She wondered. The sword blade of the glowed faintly and pulsed like it was...alive. She shivered. This place was giving her the creeps. She turned to walk away, but something stopped her. The blade pulsed almost like it was calling to her. She stroked the beautiful blade, her fingertips lightly dusting it off. Then she heard it, a faint voice in her head.
"Please, reunite me with my brother. Please!" She ripped her hand away from the blade and the voice faded away. A small chuckle came from behind her. She whirled around. A dirt ogre stood in front of the only way out. The blade of the sword pulsed expectantly. She knew what she had to do. She lifted the dusty blade out of its resting place and she heard the voice once more in her head.
"Brother! Bring me to him. I need him!"
Altima swung the sword blade! The ogre parried with its dagger and knocked her back with a hairy foot. The sword blade clattered onto the floor. The dirt ogre chuckled again and swung his dagger, this time for her head. She closed her eyes and raised her hand in a feeble attempt to block the sword. If I ever needed a miracle, she thought, now would be the time. She didn't realize this but at this moment a section of her brain that she never knew existed and never used flared up. She took a breath. And another. She peeked up. The dirt ogre had been pinned the the wall by green roots! The ogre tore through a root holding it up. And another! She bounced up, suddenly having an adrenaline rush and grabbing her sword blade she swung it at the dirt ogre. It's eyes widened as the sword sliced into the ogre. It disintegrated turning into dirt and falling to the ground. She suddenly realized how tired she felt. The fight must have drained me. she thought. What she didn't realize is that it was not the fight, but the use of her rainbow stone. She walked over to the roots and stroked them. They curled and twisted outward towards her. She jerked her hand back. The roots froze. She stumbled back with more than a few backward glances at the roots that somehow erupted out of the wall to save her. She looked down at the sword in her hand and threw it in the bag. True to its name, the bag didn't get any bigger. The voices were silent. She climbed back out of he burrow and took a few turns in the tree. Thankfully, she lucked out and took a right turn that led to the way out. She burst into the sunlight and stuffed her hands and feet into the dirt.
"Watch out." She heard. She looked up and saw Phang dropping down from the side of the tree. "Took me forever to climb that." He grunted.
"Check out what I found!" She opened the bag and shoved her hand in. She pulled out the sword blade that she found in the burrow. "I found this in their underground lair!" He picked it up and almost dropped it in surprise.
"It talks!" He said in surprise. "What is it saying though? And where is the hilt!?"
"Something about its brother. Hmmmmm. What could it mean?"
"I have no idea.
And on that happy thought, they walked along the road on their way to spider peak. Where they had even more of a chance to be eaten by demonic spiders that had been genetically engineered to kill stuff that tried to get past the peak.