"DRUIDS BANE" A Tundrawolf Story

DRUIDS-BANE 'Winter's Fortress'

Part Ten     3500 - 2500 BC     'Winter's Fortress'

     Before the sun came up the next morning Arthfael and Drest could hear orders being shouted in the High King's camp. They moved closer and watched as torches moved around below and in their faint light they could see warriors lining up. The attack on the village would come at first light. The High King's Generals were so confident in their numbers they did not bother to disguise the intentions of their warriors. It looked as if they would actually attack the wall in many places.

     Arthfael could see row after row of fires being lit in narrow ditches cut into the snow. The fire lines went almost the whole distance around the village. Archers stood along the lines ready to light fire arrows and launch them into the village. Arthfael whispered a short spell to carve out a group of thirty of his strongest slave warriors. These he would send to attack the archers in front of the gate when the time came. He knew it would not be long now and the fight would be on.

     The sun came up slowly illuminating the solid cover of steely gray clouds above. Arthfael and Drest moved their rag-tag group of camp followers and warriors up to the forest line behind the tents of the High King and his Lords. All eyes were on the village and no guards were set up behind the lines. Arthfael and his band had gone unnoticed, just as he hoped and planned.

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     The High King Criofan and the High Druid Priest Matha stood side by side outside their tents as the sun came up behind the cloud cover. Matha had been hoping for a sunny day as he had been told by many that the evil Druid sorcerers did not fair well in the direct sunlight. But it looked as if it would be cloudy all day and probably more snow.

     "I am not in agreement my King! Have thine men march on the gates only, once those be down thine men can route out this evil!" Matha said.

     "Now, now Druid, the Generals and Clan Chiefs have this well in hand. Why art thou so upset?" the High King asked.

     "We have been on the trail of this prey for many, many moons now. I would not toss it all away on an ill timed attack. This must be thought through Criofan!" the High Druid said. He knew something was not right, that this was going too easy. He could not feel his son down there and that worried him. But the King and his advisors did not feel what he felt, they could not understand it. They were men of action and the only way they knew to defeat their enemy was by fighting and their enemy, by all accounts, was right before them.

     "Abide ye here and watch Druid, no one be tossing anything away!" the King said. "I and mine men wilt send this evil yon way and thou may stamp it out thine self if'n that may ease thine mind."

     Matha looked up and down the line at all of the Clan banners blowing in the breeze. Some he did not know as they were Albion but many he did for they were from the County of Meath. He knew a lot of these men and knew what they had sacrificed to be here. Clan Holds with no leaders for turns on-end leaving their women and young ones unprotected. All of them had lost someone to this evil and all of them wanted it stamped out just as much as he and the High King did. He knew many men would probably not live through this day.

     He brandished his oaken Druid's staff and uncovered the slashing bronze spear head on the end. The weapon was from another time, when he served the land as a Warrior Druid. It was a lifetime ago it seemed, before Arthfael, before he turned to the Druidic ways of peace. He carried it as a reminder of those days, a reminder never to go back to the killing. Now on this journey he has used it to kill again and would probably kill some more. But hopefully the last death dealt from his spear would be that of his son. Other warrior Druids gathered around him with weapons drawn, ready for the coming battle.