"DRUIDS BANE" A Tundrawolf Story

DRUIDS-BANE 'After'

Part Eight     3500 BC     'After'

     The screaming and howling  above the longship grew in intensity causing everyone on the deck to cower and hide. Most of the Alban raiders were below decks manning the ores with only a few above working the rigging. Even in their entranced state they were fearful of whatever was assailing them from above.

     Arthfael had no idea if they were under attack from the entity that was flying in the mist shrouded rigging above. If it indeed was a banshee it was not acting like any he had heard of in the tales. This lament for the dead was not the keening described of in the lessons. Instead of a weeping and wailing song this sounded more like loud tones of threats and anger. What Arthfael could see of the figure sailing overhead reminded him more of the spirit of the Black Druid Lugubelenus in the ancient tumulus, not a ghost-woman heralding the death of their friend Haerviu. Arthfael was much afraid for a moment the fade had escaped the crypt and came to seek revenge on him for killing his new body.

     Just when Arthfael steeled himself to stand against this unknown threat the angry screaming stopped. At the very top of the mast barely seen through mist the fade seemed to be drawing more darkness unto itself and became a more solid figure in a flowing tattered black robe. They could see the hole under the hood of the robes where the face should be become intensely black as it looked down upon them. The screaming started back up again causing them all to put their hands over their ears as it grew more intense with every second. The already dim day became even dimmer as specks of light went rushing towards the fade turning the maw under the hood from pitch black to a light so bright it equaled the sun that was hidden by the mist. It was as if all the light was being sucked out of the air around them and into the specter of the wraith.

     A brilliant ball of light formed where the wraith had been, as if a thousand lightning bolts had all been forced together. It gave off a huge thunderclap knocking all of those on the deck off their feet as it shot down the mast. So fast the ball of lightning traveled it was just a white line that went straight into a young Alban raider who had been holding a rigging lines to the main sail. The young warrior was consumed with white fire as he screamed and fell lifeless to the deck. In that instant all went back to normal as if nothing had happened with the wind blowing the mist gently through the main sail pushing the longship farther out to sea. The only indication that something remarkable had happened was the body of the young raider laying on the deck with smoke and steam rising from him to mix with the mist.

     The four young Druids regained their feet and walked towards the body laying by the base of the main mast while the rest of the Alban raiders resumed what they were doing before the wraith had appeared. They watched as the body slowly started coming around and with spastic movements attempted to rise to its feet. The boys were at first alarmed that the body had been possessed by an evil spirit like that of the Black Druid until they noticed the features of the young man start changing to resemble that of their friend Haerviu. To their surprise and astonishment he had come back to them.

     With no reason to be disguised, the young Druids had dropped their spells of glamour showing their true selves. Their heads had become round and bulbous with heavy brows over deep set eyes. The skin covering their heads had become thick and leathery and gone from the slick gray to a dried cracked brown color. Their ears and nose were turning black and starting to flake off as if they were dying from frostbite. What little hair they had floated freely around their head thin and white. The eyes had become the most disturbing part of their faces for they were sunk deep under their brows, under heavy lids and had become almost totally white except for a little black dot in each that were the pupils. Under the eyes were thick leathery bags that stacked one over the other giving them a terrible visage.