A broken heart | Corruption of Lani

She stood proudly, her axe held high above her head as she gave the cry that sent them charging. It was a large open field between them and their target, but the rage inside her chest filled her with a fuel that made it seem like nothing. After marching through the night to reach here, she was so close to revenge. Those cowards had holed themselves up, clearly expecting them after what they had done.

Urnalo surged forward, joining her tribe in the charge, her legs pumping fast to keep up with her warriors. The wolf-shaped token hanging around the barbarian’s neck thumped rhythmically against her chest as she hurried forward, keeping a beat to their advance. She could see ahead small shapes standing atop a wooden wall. The Bear tribe was scrambling, hopefully filled with as much fear as Urnalo was filled with anger. She wanted to personally place her blade in that old goliath’s chest. Ergthok would die for what his people did.

A dark, whistling, cloud seemed to fill the sky before them. It wavered in the air, but was moving quickly. The tribal chief recognized it only at the last moment, shouting out a warning, but too late. The arrows fell upon them, hitting one warrior upon another. Bodies fell to the ground under the barrage, but many more still raced forward, fearlessly. Urnalo urged them on, charging through the raining arrows. Something was wrong, this was so unlike the Bear tribe. She glanced at one of the arrows on the ground as she passed it by, its finely crafted arrow head very unlike the primitive ones her own people were holding. The Bear tribe were strong, but they did not have warriors like this, nor this type of weaponry and tactics. Ergthok must have thrown in with outsiders!

The warrior could now hear the shouts from atop the wall directing the attacks. The shapes up there were no longer scrambling, they were focused, trained on the approaching group, and resolute. Another rain of missiles flew at the charging force of hundreds, but this time there were too many that fell at the front line. Her people faltered, beginning to show fear, scrambling to avoid the cloud of death from above.

“To the tree line!” Urnalo’s voice rang out, trying to bring order back to her horde. “REGROUP!”

Her people gathered themselves, the fear leaving their eyes as they heard their chief’s strong voice rallying them. Hundreds of sweating and bleeding figures crouched at the edge of the tree line as Urnalo considered their options.

Until the end

Under her direction, the tribe began cobbling together whatever chunks of wood, bark, sticks, and bushes they could find. Quickly arming themselves with their makeshift defenses, the group now advanced more slowly, stepping forward in a more deliberate march as they protected each other from the incoming swarms.

Arrows thunked into tree trunks, or bounced harmlessly off crude log-shields. Urnalo was proud of her tribe’s dedication to her and her people, their cunning, their fearlessness. They pushed forward, closing in steadily. Occasionally, an arrow would pierce through, taking down another warrior, but they were making better progress and her people seemed more focused.

At this speed, though, the long march across the field was a deadly one. As one large horde, their enemy was able to fire at will in their direction, knowing something would hit. Bear tribe seemed to have an unending supply of arrows and her people numbered only so many. Holding a large tree trunk above her head with her brother behind her, Urnalo quickly considered their options.

“Woryn, take the left, I will take the right. Grab as many as you can” she shouted to her brother as she let the trunk go and urged her warriors forward. “WITH ME!”

The Wolf tribe, much diminished since its first charge, split into two groups that charged across the field. They tried to split the attention of the Bear tribe’s archers, but whenever it seemed one of them could charge forward, they would hear shouts from atop the wall and the archers would pin them down again. The losses to her people were now numbering in the hundreds as bodies lay all around her.

She was close enough now that she could see the faces of those atop the makeshift battlements. One stood out to her, looking so much like his grandfather did in his youth. That young pup Audak was pointing in their direction, directing his tribesfolk, but Urnalo stood bravely, staring him down. Her voice shouted in anguish for all to hear across the field as she released all of her anger in a loud cry.

The arrow slammed into her leg, causing her to falter, but she pulled herself back up and kept moving forward. All around her the bodies of her people fell to the ground. Some from arrows, some from the strange magics of the figures upon the wall. She could see them now, dressed in strange armours and clothing. Raising her axe, Urnalo charged forward, her voice loud and full.

The chief of the Wolf tribe saw the archers train upon her, the arrows flying at her as she charged forward. Urnalo wasn’t even sure if any of her people were still with her. She could see Ergthok standing before the walls, taunting her. His tall frame holding that ridiculous club of his, that smug look on his face. She would make him pay.

And then everything went dark.

The interrogation

Pain surged through Urnalo’s mind as her body was suddenly filled with life again. Her eyes opened to find a dwarf leaning over her, tears streaming down the dwarf’s face. All around her were the bodies of her people, some unharmed and being taken away and others whose eyes would never see the sun rise again. Many lay groaning on the icy field, unable to even get up. Two large shadows crossed over her and lifted Urnalo to her feet, dragging the chief of the Wolf tribe through the gates and into the home of the Bear tribe.

Faces looked at her in disgust, as if she were the one at fault here. Ahead, she could see Olga, Ergthok’s advisor setting up a chair in the middle of their camp. Around the chair stood Ergthok and Audak, and some other faces she did not recognize. These must be the outsiders that Bear tribe had sided with! Though the little tiny one seemed too small to be a threat, and too aged, but Urnalo knew that power could take many forms.

The arms dragging her along shoved the chief into the seat, before standing aside to allow the elders of Bear tribe to begin. A hard slap rang against her cheek, trying to make her alert.

“Why did you do this? Why do you bring this hate to our door?” cried Ergthok, full of anger. It seemed he was a good actor, pretending like he didn’t know. She spat in his face.

“COWARD!” she cried out, her voice rough and tearing. “You brought this upon yourself!”

“How could you?” came a sobbing voice from behind Urnalo. She turned to see the same dwarf that had healed her. The dwarf’s face was full of despair, as if she was not able to comprehend what was happening. The violence. The slaughter. This was not the world that the cleric knew. “What could make you bring all of your people here, to their deaths?”

“Wouldn’t you?” Urnalo yelled in reply, her voice cracking with emotion. The dwarf’s compassion was affecting her. “If they killed your son, wouldn’t you do anything to get revenge on the cowards that did that? Those that came in the night, like assassins?”

“You lie, Urnalo” stated Ergthok, calmly. “Bear tribe did no such thing. It was you who came in the night, attacking our people, unprovoked.”

“Impossible!” she replied, her voice filled with confusion. “Wolf tribe has been travelling to get here for this morning. There is no way we could have been here at that time.”

Doubt was beginning to fill her mind. Nothing was adding up. Urnalo was not a wise sage like her father but she had enough cunning to know that Ergthok was not deceiving her and that she may have made a horrible mistake.

“I think you’ve all been tricked” piped up a little voice from the edge of the circle. It was the halfling, leaning on his ornate staff with a pensive look on his face. “Somebody wanted this to happen.”

“Get Kayono and the other hunters” requested Olga, calmly, who had stayed silent during the interrogation. The woman clearly was heeding the words of the halfling and also seemed to have a trace of doubt upon her face. Urnalo was not certain what Ergthok’s advisor had planned.

Audak, and another young Bear tribe member who seemed to shadow the boy giant, nodded and turned away, leaving the others to talk amongst themselves about what had happened.

Into the woods

Audak couldn’t believe what was happening. A day ago, he had returned home a hero and now, this morning, he lead his people in the slaughter of hundreds of others. As they neared the gates, he could still see the field ahead of the walls dyed pink with the blood of so many. Several shapes were moving amongst the bodies, looking for survivors and carrying them to a makeshift pen that had been hastily put together outside the gates. For a people who lived under the stars in order to escape the prisons of the city, trapping them like animals was possibly a worse offense than the death that had been given to those lying motionless in the field.

“Kayono! Olga asked for you!” cried out Thorin, trying to get the hunter’s attention. Thorin had spotted the hunter helping set up the pen and waved, trying to gesture Kayono to come over.

Audak noticed a strange look on Kayono’s face. It was a mixture of surprise and confusion and fear. The man looked around him quickly and then simply took off at full stride, headed for the forest. At the sight of his bolting, the Stonedigger siblings and Villir all started running as well, following Kayono into the woods. The rest of the clan were taken completely by surprise, not expecting the sudden chase to be needed.

Tanthalas, waiting upon the fence, saw the scene unfolding below and raised the alarm. Dozens began running after them, a stampede of Bear clan members following Audak and Thorin’s lead. Flynver and Brylla, far from the action, looked over to the gates and immediately began racing for the field, leaving the clan leaders to deal with Urnalo. Ergthok looked over at his friend Bleg, the minotaur, who had been standing guard. The chief nodded towards the gates, sending the chef with them. The minotaur rolled his eyes and his shoulders sagged, but he lowered his horns and began charging forward, his massive frame chewing up the snowy ground as his hooves dug deep into the ground, easily propelling him past the dwarf and halfling.

Another shape also moved surprisingly fast across the field as the dragonborn monster hunter, Al, ran past one tribe member and then another. The rogue had always loved a good chase and any chance to best his short distance run time. Like a predator after a small prey, his draconic eyes were focused ahead, all attention on chasing down the group of fleeing hunters.

An arrow thunked into a tree nearby as one of them fired back, covering their retreat. Villir was now standing near some elevated rocks, longbow in hand, already reaching to notch another arrow. The others were charging down a rough path between the trees, trying to spread out into the shrubs and foliage, looking for a place to hide. The Bear tribe pursued, chasing down Kayono and the others. Arrows fired, swords swung, and Kayono stumbled as he tried to get away. The fleeing man heeded no warnings, refusing to stop, but was reaching for something.

The sound of hooves upon the ground thundered through the trees, branches breaking between Bleg’s mighty charge. He closed on Kayono, great axe raised high, and swung. At the last moment, he turned the blade so that the flat would hit Kayono squarely, knocking the man to the ground. The minotaur stood over the man, huffing from the exertion, only to back away in surprise.

The other retreating hunters split off into the woods, chased by the Bear tribe members while Audak and his friends approached Bleg’s side. The thing on the ground wore Kayono’s clothing and armour, but its frame was thin and covered in a gray skin. It moaned, its eyes fluttering open for a moment, revealing two bulging yellow eyes set in its large head. Whatever it was, it was not one of the Bear tribe! It reached for something next to it on the ground, but Bleg knocked out the gray-skinned creature with the butt end of his axe, unable to look the thing in the eye. The minotaur shook his head in annoyance and grumbled.

Bleg had seen something like this before, long ago, and far away. It always spelled trouble.