A night in the woods

His breath pushed downward as he exhaled through his nose in the fire light. The amber hew coloring everything as Wynne pulled his arms tighter to ward off the cold. It was doing nothing but make him feel even more chilled than previously. Across from the small campfire was the older of their group. An aged and battle-hardened fighter who didn’t heed the chill air, but busied himself with the care and maintenance of his short sword. Ahroun studied his blade with a scrutinized look of mild contempt before he sighed and continued.

An angry snap from the fire and two others broke the silence of the night, shifting as they sat opposite one another. They looked around at the party as Ahroun dabbed an oil rag down the edge of steel. Jessic’s eyes ran left to right as she read from her book of spells and Orlen laid another of their wood logs into the fire.

“We should sell the furs of those rabbits we ate in the next town.” The elder said as he sheathed his short sword, looking around at the other three.

“Next town on this road is Lengmoore, mostly farmers and a few inns that we could post up in as well.” Jessic said as she gazed deeper into the fire from the top her book. “We could stock up on some spices and herbs, maybe even top off our supplies.”

“We could do with more dried fruits and nuts, it’ll be better than the rations we have.” Orlen spoke softly before picking up a stick near by and poking at the fire to adjust the log in place.

“Lengmoore is it?” All of them looked over to Ahroun as he reached for his water pouch. He uncorked it and took a few gulps of water before offering it to Jessic who looked at it sideways and shook her head. Then to Orlen who took it and with a silent salute took a deep gulp of its contents. It was offered to Wynne who nodded and accepted the pouch. They all knew Ahroun was about to tell them a story and patiently waited as the water pouch reached its owner. He took it and corked it before setting it aside and inhaled a slow steady stream of cold air.

“I remember once when I was with the garrison, we were sent out to Lengmoore to help the farmers get rid of some sorta pests. I was about your age Wynne, just barely a man and like you, full of the fight. We arrived to a small, well I wouldn’t say it’s the town it is now, more like a homestead. Anyway, my captain tells us to bung up for the night on the tree line and he would go in and speak to the people there.” He gave a wry grin to them all and lightly chuckled to himself as he recalled. “Soon as he was out of hearing, we all started making a bit of a fuss about setting up camp when there was a perfectly good farm house just a few hundred yards away. With a smoke coming from her chimney and the smell of pies and bakery goods for each of us.”

They all adjusted near the fire, some on thoughts of a bed and others with the promise of sweet cakes and pies. Orlen licked his lips at the thought of a nice hot bath with wine and possibly a young woman to help him bathe. Jessic could taste the sweet cakes and freshly baked bread. Wynne only felt a shiver as he could feel the warmth of a room with a fireplace and a roaring fire to dry and warm himself to.

“So we hear the horn and we gather round the captain, he tells us that its not bandits that are mucking about the place. No, there’s a huge cave system and rats have taken it over because that’s the only place they can store many of their goods. Years supplies of grain and the like are fouled by them and so they need us to do our duty.”

“So you killed a bunch of rats?” Jessic asked with a brow raised.

“A years supply of grains?” Wynne asked blinking back to reality.

“Not just rats, oh not just rats. Think bigger and scarier than that.” Ahroun said as he held his hand up and expanded them. “Bigger and scarier.”

“Dire rats?” Orlen asked. Ahroun, shook his head and then leaned a bit closer to the fire as he looked at them.

“Were-rats! A pack of them and with cousins of the dire rats to boot. They sniffed it out from the caves they had and saw it was only guarded by no more than two men at a time. Easy pickings and they dove right in, killed one of the guards and didn’t bother with the other. He makes it back to the village and they send word out to us.”

“Correct me if I am wrong but weren’t they driven from the kingdom over a thousand years ago by Prince Hellar?” Jessic spoke before she went back into her book.

“Driven doesn’t mean killed off.” Orlen replied looking back to the fire with the stick once more in hand.

“How many were there?” Wynne asked, trying to hide his curiosity.

“The pack was twelve strong, their cousins were another fourteen. We were led to the cave the very next day and all six of us used our spears until they broke and splintered. The dire rats came charging out at us first, we ended up losing three of our group when we breached into the caves. The were-rats fought us and cut them down until we were nearly at a stand still with swords drawn.”

The three eyed Ahroun as he picked up his water pouch again and drank it empty. Jessic made a note on her meticulous notes on their rations. Orlen eyed the empty pouch as it was set by Ahroun’s feet. Wynne was busy imagined a large battle with a younger Ahroun swinging his sword about and slashing open giant rat monsters. A battle cry echoing in the cave as one then two then a third member of their group fell to the beasts. Ahroun gloriously yelling as he felled the last one in violent glory.

“The three we lost were good men, not soldiers like the rest of us who survived but good men. When the swords were drawn is when the casualties began, whenever you fight in a closed in area. Don’t swing your sword about, thrust and thrust and advance is what you should do.” Ahroun looked at Wynne as he spoke, more a lesson that should be noted now than regretted later on.

“The captain was next to me and was thrusting and from behind us and breaking into the front were the three new comers to the garrison. Too much hot blood in them and drunk on the mild victory outside the cave. The broke formation and cut down one of the were rats, but because they were now ahead of the torches, they couldn’t see what was in the darkness. One struck his friends in his blind fury and ended up getting cut to shreds by the remaining were rats. We tried to yell at him to get behind us but it was too late. Step by step we had to advance and push them back. We took them out one by one until we made it to the end of the cave.”

Wynne lowered his head and looked down at his feet, taking in the realization that jumping in blindly would cost him dearly if he was to lose control. The other two sat quietly and watched him.

“By the time we were done with the clearing of the cave, it was already dawn and we dragged all the bodies out of there. I broke my sword on the walls of that cave and ended up having it reworked into my trust short sword.” Ahroun patted the handle of his short sword he had finished cleaning. “The village leader had brought some of the folk up and waited until either we came out or they came out. When he saw it was us dragging our men out, they ran to us and helped us bury our friends.”

“Was there anything special for their grave sight?” Jessic asked as she closed her book for the night and put it in her pack.

“Yes, they buried the three fallen heroes just at the front of the village. Planted an oak tree there and one of the spell casters told me that he put a spell on the tree. Said the three fallen souls would be the guardians of the village. One of the wood carvers set to work on making a statue for them. Three young men with their swords ready, when people came to the village, that would be the first thing they saw.”

“A poor village setting up a monument like that?” Orlen asked as he studied Ahroun.

“If you don’t believe me then care to place a wager on your spiteful tongue?” Ahroun replied.

“I’ll take you on your wager, silver coin says there isn’t a statue of three soldiers from the garrison outside the town of Longmoore.” Orlen smiled back.

“Well, then you might want to give me that beautiful coin now since you’re gonna lose it tomorrow.”

The group began chuckling as the light hearted banter between Ahroun and Orlen continued. Wynne had begun to wrap himself in his woolen cloak and Orlen took the first watch for the night. Ahroun and Jessic settled next to the fire under their blankets and were just about ready to doze off when a loud screech was heard above them in the trees. Wynne was the only one to jolt to standing as Ahroun just looked up to find the source of the screech.

“It’s a barn owl, probably from Longmoore out for a nightly hunt.” Jessic spoke as she too was looking for the sound, she saw it and pointed for Wynne to see. “There, up there on that large branch.”

Wynne looked and calmed down once he had spotted the owl in the tree branch above them. He squinted as he looked at it, large with white feathers for its face. Speckled feathers on its wings and large eyes staring at them from above.

“Looks like it caught something for dinner too.” Orlen said as he picked up another log from their slowly diminishing pile of wood and set it on the fire.

“What is it?’ Asked Ahroun.

Orlen smiled as he sat at his place and motioned Wynne to get some sleep. He glanced back up at the Owl and chuckled.

“A rat.”