Elvenshore: 03 - Elf's Bane (6 page)

When everyone had sat down, an elder from clan Lathan, Petrad Lathan
, got up and spoke, “We have several issues that we must talk about, but first there is news from the war that Narwig of clan Jul has found out.”

Narwig stood up, “The war goes badly for the Elves. The Cavalry has been decimated on Mount Ealdwine, Vil Athid has been destroyed along with the village that was built on the mountain. The Elves of Vil Falcress have abandoned their village and are heading here, in hopes that we will take them in.”

There was a great murmur among the elders at that last statement. Petrad got up and held up his arms to regain the control of the crowd, “We need to decide where to put the Elves when they get here.”

“Send them back! We don’t have room or food for them,” yelled an elder from clan Regaulis. There was sporadic agreement amount a small minority of the elders.

“This is not an option,” Darnic said as he stood up, “They are a good race and have helped out many of us in the past. We cannot stand by and watch them get slaughtered, while we sit here in the safety of the swampland, and not at the very least take some of them in for protection.”

Most of the elders shouted their approval.

Narwig stood back up, “Where shall we put them?”

“How about in this clearing? A lot of us had tents that we brought with us. We can pitch all the tents here in the clearing and give them shelter at least temporarily,” Darnic said.

An elder from clan Garle asked, “We can’t have them here
. What if we need to have another meeting?” He was shouted down by most of the other elders.

“What about food
? We will be in bad shape if this war lasts a long time,” protested the elder from clan Regaulis.

“The elves don’t eat the same foods we eat normally, beside I think we should ask for volunteers to go and round up some livestock from Bon Jul, Bon Tewl and Bon Garle. That would help greatly with the food supply,” Darnic suggested.

“One thing at a time,” Petrad said, “all in favor of setting up tents in this clearing for the Elves, raise your hands.”

The vast majority approved the motion.

“Now, as for the matter of asking for volunteers to round up livestock from the nearby villages raise your hands.” That motion passed also.

An
Narwig Jul stood up, “Our young men want to take up arms and go fight side by side with the Elves instead of sit here and watch them get slaughtered.”

Darnic’s heart dropped
. He had hoped that this subject would not come up.

The elder from Rega
ulis said, “No young men from clan Regaulis will participate in this endeavor.”

A
clan Kartan elder said, “We will strongly discourage any of our young men to participate, but if it is the will of this meeting to do so, we will ask for volunteers.”

Petrad got up and spoke, “Clan Lathan will ask for volunteers.”

The other clans agreed with Petrad. When Darnic rose he said, “You will need an elder to lead this group. I will volunteer for that position, but I will not do anything rash. Our first duty will be to get the Elves of Vil Falcress here safely and then we will round up the cattle and other livestock from the nearby villages and bring them here. It will be plain at that point forward, what the situation is with the Elves and then we will help in any way we can.”

Petrad got up and said, “All in favor of asking for volunteers to go back across the bridges to do the missions that Darnic has laid out, raise your hands.”

It was a clear majority in favor.

It was Darnic’s only way of delaying the young men to give them other missions to do besides fighting an impossible war. The clans had learned to
o late how to battle the beasts. By the time they learned, they had lost too many of the men. Now there only hope was the lessons learned long ago. There were only five of the original warriors left. Fritred was too fat, the other three were going blind, or were too feeble to lead an army. So Darnic knew it was going to fall on him. Might was well volunteer if you are going to get selected anyway, he mused.

After discussing a few more minor items, the
Meeting of Sticks adjourned.

When the news of the defeat of the Elf Calvary reached the village of Vil Falcress, the people started packing and loading their wagons. They were anxious that the Trolls would come their way next.

They had seen long lines of the Human clans moving toward the swampland. Some of the villagers had wanted to try and make it to the seashore, but  that would take them right past the mountain, so the majority decided to make for the swampland in hopes that the Humans would take them in. It was an eerie sight to ride through the deserted village of Bon Jul that first night. There were no lights, no fires and no sounds. They would
travel day and night without stopping.

On the second night they could see their village burning in the distance
behind them. With broken hearts they continued on. Then later on that night they heard heavy footsteps behind them. They turned to see that the Trolls were after them. The men stayed behind to delay the enemy while the women reined the horses and sped as fast as they could down the road. When they went through Bon Garle it was the same thing. Then they arrived at the muddy flats, the road will still torn up and the horses were not making very much headway.

Darnic had been able to arm and find horses for all of his volunteers. He took his sword back from his son, but was able to talk
Fritred out of his old sword for Aron to use. He even had the young men from clan Regalus volunteer. When the young men from that clan saw that the other clans were going to war, they debated with the elders. In the end the elders relented and let them go.  Darnic now had one hundred and twenty young men under his command. None were trained and he was the only one that had ever seen war. But they were young, healthy and eager. They rode out across the bridge towards Vil Falcress in the early afternoon. Bon Garle was still in front of them when they came across the Elf women and children. They had been slowed down by the mud and not making good time.

One of the Elf women was panicking, “They are coming, they are coming,” sh
e screamed over and over again. The group reassured them that the Humans were there to help.

Darnic took his forces past the wagons in an effort to slow the monsters down and have the women make good their escape.

When they were clear of the women Darnic commanded, “Dismount. A rider on a horse just gives them a better target. When they swing at you, duck down as their clubs don’t come all the way to the ground. Their feet are there weak spot. The skin is too thick on the rest of the body for you to hurt it, but the skin on the feet is very thin. The feet are also extra sensitive, so duck their clubs and rush forward to attack their feet. You cannot hope to kill any of them, but if you can hurt their feet badly enough, they will not make it back to the mountain in time for the rising of the sun and they will turn to stone.”

The men dismounted and readied their weapons.
Each one fighting their own anxiety.

Darnic looked at the men gathering in groups
. “Spread out, do not allow them to hit more than one of you at a time. You must be several feet away from the man next to you,” he commanded.

The men spread out. When the Trolls crested the hill and looked down at the group of men the Trolls stopped. It was the first time these young men had seen the monsters and several of them started backing up. No one could describe the horror of seeing
these beasts for the first time. As bad as they had been described, seeing one was a whole different story. All of the men’s courage faltered.

“Hold your
ground,” Darnic yelled, “A man running away will make the best target for their clubs as the runner won’t see it coming.”

The men stopped backing up and were waiting for the monster’s next move
s. To the surprise of everyone, the monsters turned and headed back towards the mountains.

“Sheath your weapons, they will not be back this night,” Darnic said.
He was greatly relived at the turn of events. He had held out no hope for success against the beasts.

The men r
ode back to help the Elves.They helped the Elf women get the wagons pulled out of the mud and the women continued on. All of them were asking about the men. When the women were safely on their way Darnic turned back around and went to see what happened to the Elf men. Ten miles down the road, the question was answered. There were bodies on both sides of the road, all dead. They had been crushed and thrown around like discarded toys by the blows of the clubs. Darnic looked at the destruction with a heavy heart. He had seen it all before and it was bringing back bad memories. He had found his father and brother sprawled out and dead, like the Elves were now. The men watched Vil Falcress burn in the distance.

“Bury them,” Darnic ordered.

It was late afternoon before all of the Elves were buried.

Aron came up to Darnic and in a low tone asked, “How can we defeat these monsters if we can only hurt their feet?”

Darnic looked at him  seriously. “We cannot defeat these monsters.”

After the burial,
the group rode to Bon Garle and were shocked to see that the village was still there. The monsters had walked straight through the town without damaging a single building.

“This does not make any sense to me,” Darnic said.

“Maybe they were pursuing the Elves so fast that they didn’t have time to destroy the town,” Aron suggested.

“Maybe,” Darnic said, but he knew it went against all behaviors of the beasts from the previous encounters.

That afternoon Darnic allowed his band of warriors to rest at Bon Garle. “We will rest in the afternoons and move at night,” he told them. “Our task for tomorrow will be to get the livestock from Bon Garle back to the swampland safely, so we will divide into two groups, one to herd livestock and the other to patrol for the enemy. If we are attacked, we will spread out in all directions and leave the livestock. It is more important that you make it back alive than the sheep and cows.”

As Soric rode out of Morgus Tier on his way to Vil Falcress, he could see the fires of the village from a long way off. He slowed down as he arrived there. All the buildings were fully engulfed in flame. He could see the shadows of the Trolls as they left the town and moved down the road, in the direction of the retreating townspeople. When he looked to his left, he could see another horseman riding at full speed towards the enemy. He could not see a face, but he recognized the robes of the Grand Chancellor.

“
Father,” Soric yelled as he spurred his horse forward, trying to stop him. The two of them were riding forward when one of the Trolls noticed them. The Troll turned and took a few steps in their direction. With two swings of its massive club, both of the riders and their horses were dead.

 
The men of Armurous were manning the battlements of Morgus Tier as evening of yet another day was slipping into night. The commander knew that the attack would most likely come that night for the Trolls were  running out of things to destroy. The villages that had burned to the ground had been unfortified and unprotected by troops. This was the first time the Trolls would come against a fortified town manned with regular warriors. Armurous had no illusion that things were going to go his way. The destruction of the Calvary had put a chill down the commander’s spine, but at least he had a better chance than on any of the villages had.

As darkness f
ell, it was not long before he heard the heavy footsteps of the enemy. He was correct as they were heading right for them. He could start to see the shapes as they crested the hill and started moving towards the town. The look of terror on the faces of his warriors made Armurous fear that the men would break and run, something that the Elves had never done before.

“Aim for their eyes,” he yelled down from the tower in which he stood. It would give the men something to think about other than their fear. The arrows let fly, but mostly bounced off the monsters. Those arrows that did stick were more like splinters to the Trolls
; annoying, but nothing else. When the Trolls were near enough, they started hammering on the walls with their massive clubs. The shockwaves on the walls knocked several of the Elf archers off. Others were crushed and fell from the Trolls clubs that they swung over the wall. Soon everyone on the north wall, the wall that the Trolls were attacking, was moving off. The arrow fire slackened as the archers looked for safer places to hide.

 
Armurous could see that the wall was starting to crack from the pounding. “Brace the wall,” he yelled and several of the men quickly propped up posts against it to steady it.

One of the Trolls had moved around to the east wall where the watchtower was
, and with a massive swing of his club, hit the tower so hard it crumbled into pieces. The two guards and Armurous fell to the ground along with crush of wood timbers and rocks. A timber from the roof of the tower fell across both of Armurous’ legs, instantly crushing them. It was starting to look hopeless for the wounded Armurous. Most of his archers from the north wall were casualties or had retreated to safer positions. The wall was starting to crack and would soon fall down, but just as he was thinking that, the battle was over. The Trolls had run out of time and turned to walk back to the mountain.