Silvermoon. A Tale of a Young Werewolf. A YA Novel. 12-18 (17 page)

Jason hacked the trolls head off in two savage strokes as it fell to its knees. He shouted above the commotion, “In that case we had better leave.”

They left the camp and sped along the goblin trail, spurred on as half-a-dozen javelins flew past them with inches to spare. Jason gathered them up as he ran along and handed Jennifer her sword. They heard the howling mob behind them, Jennifer risked a quick look, “They are after us, but they aren’t as fast as we are.”

After twenty minutes they reached the lake, they grabbed their equipment and climbed the slippery shore and rested at the top. Jennifer peered into the distance. “They are still after us, but they are hampered by the width of the trail, they can only run three abreast.”

Jason looked up at his sister, his eyes wide and he spoke with a hint of pride in his voice, “So this is what a werewolf looks like. You fought magnificently.”

Yvette bared her fangs in a grin, “What about you, brother?”

He stuck the ends of his javelins in the snow, “I am quite content, anyhow, I don’t know what to do.”

Yvette handed him the spear, a thick roughly hewn shaft with a broad-bladed razor sharp head. Then she held up her bloody knife, “Here, take this too, I have enough with these,” she held up her bloodied hands, long-fingered with retractable talons.

Her scent pervaded his nostrils, mixed with goblin blood. His own blood pounded through his veins and thinking it was from the fight he stuck the knife and spear in the snow and loosened his anorak and pulled it over his head. “I can’t breath, my head-Aaagh!” He cried out as his anorak tore in two in his haste. He flung the pieces to the ground as his chest expanded. His head swelled out, covered in fur and he opened his mouth as fangs appeared in his jaw, which now stretched in the shape of a wolf.

Yvette said, “Don’t be alarmed, you are transforming, it always hurts the first time, but it isn’t the pain of injury, Jason, your bones and sinew are forming, your muscles are stretching and growing.”

He watched as his hands changed shape, he felt his arms and shoulder muscles growing. He towered way above Jennifer as she gazed at him in wonder. His fur was silver, stark in contrast to his sister’s charcoal black form.

Jennifer said wide-eyed, “That is the first transformation I have ever seen, and you are such a handsome beast, Silvermoon,” then she said with a glint in her eyes, “You are both magnificent.”

She came to him and he stretched out his hand and she smoothed it against her cheek.  She compared his size to Yvette’s. He stood a good head taller and possessed more muscle. She looked to his sister as she growled, “They are here, Lavendel, not many, but they are coming.”

Jennifer drew her sword and peered across the lake at the inlet, she could make out several goblins as they made their way down. They were heavily armed and armoured, they seemed leaderless as they jostled one another, stumbling and shouldering one another in their attempt to stay in front, typical goblin behaviour, always wanting to be first.  “They number over three hundred, but they are not organised, they are in groups of fifty or so, they will charge uncontrolled, it will be easy to kill them, individually.”

She moved several paces up the slope and Yvette and Jason stood on either side of her, Jason picked up his javelins in one huge fist and said quietly. “Let them come.”

Jennifer said, “I can see trolls.”

Jason said, “The more the merrier.”

Chapter fourteen
.

The battle of the lake
.

A dozen young, male go
blins appeared out of the inlet
with their
shields strapped to their backs
carrying clubs and axes, javelins and spears. The first three flew backwards one after the other in rapid succession, pierce by a javelin, knocking the trio behind them on their backs. Another three ran past them and skidded to a stop at the sight,
and
then fell as javelins struck them down too. The remaining half-dozen cowered behind the cadavers and one, a youngster named Gribb asked, “What was that?”

“Javelins,” came the muffled reply.

Gribb’s ugly head popped up, and down again. “I can’t see anything.”

“Neither did they,” came another muffled reply.

Gribb glanced about him fearfully and then he realized his comrade had meant the fallen. His bladder weakened slightly at a rumbling clattering sound behind him, he turned startled as a horde of screaming goblins rushed past, no longer in threes, separating as the fastest took the lead. Gribb and his companions stood up, their fear gone and he growled and said
to them
, “Let’s get’em, boy
s,” and they ran off
to join the stragglers.

After hurling the javelins across the lake to the compliments of the others, Jason picked up Yvette’s knife and handed it to Jennifer. “Here, take it, it’s too small, I’ll use this.” Jennifer took the long-bladed knife and Jason picked up the spear, smeared with goblin blood.

They watched as over a hundred goblins charged across the lake, they hurled their javelins as they came nearer, some flew past the defenders and others, easy to dodge, landed between them. Jason plucked one, shouldered it and hurled it back. It pierced the chest of one of the leaders, the force knocked him back and the head of the javelin buried itself in the belly of the goblin behind him. Jason busied himself by gathering up javelins and throwing them one by one, without seeming to aim, but skewering several goblins each time.

A group, headed by a huge male, waving a battle axe, charged up the slope. Jennifer and Jason watched as Yvette kicked him in the belly, sending
him
flying backwards, felling the others like skittles. Yvette lunged forward, grabbed one female goblin by the arm and pulled her to her feet. “Need a hand?” she asked. The goblin nodded feebly and Yvette bit her head off. She spat the head out, removed the shield from the body and picked up the battle axe - double-bladed with a spike on the end - then waited
for her foes to reach her.

The Goblins
hesitated
,
until two male trolls arrived, ambling slowly across the ice. Yvette threw the axe at the leading one. Several goblins shouted a warning, knowing who its intended target was, the troll stopped and its jaw dropped just before the axe buried itself in his chest. The blow sent him tottering backwards into the second one
’
s arms. A loud mewing escaped its lips just before blood fountained out of its mouth. Its companion laid him down gently and proceeded to comfort him.

Angered by this act, the goblins charged once more up the slope. Yvette, now in her element, waded into them; she slashed with her claws, sending heads and limbs flying, while blocking spear thrusts with the goblin shield. Jennifer and Jason watched, slightly mesmerised as she killed two dozen goblins in half as many seconds before he could step forward to imitate her actions. He was suddenly forced to move aside as Jennifer pushed at him, she cleaved one club-wielding goblin through the breast bone with her sword and stabbed his colleague, who was hiding partly behind him, in the throat with her knife.

Jason couldn’t hear anything anymore, everything going on around was happening in slow motion, blood fountained upwards outwards, Jennifer’s sword flashed and Yvette’s arms flailed, spreading gore everywhere, and he found it strange, as if he were
trapped inside this huge frame.

He heard a voice from far off, then nearer as Jennifer screamed, “Jason, watch out,” he turned and lunged with his spear as a huge goblin came at him from the side, wielding a huge club, the spear went in easily and the goblin’s momentum carried him forward. Jason released his hold on the spear and grabbed the club from the goblin
’
s hand. He stepped forward and pounded one female goblin into the ground then crushed the skull of another. He threw the club at a goblin who
had
raised his spear
and prepared
to throw
it,
and it smashed his face to a bloody pulp.

He watched Yvette once more, using her hands, jaws and feet to maim and kill and he copied her actions. He soon found
out
his size and reach
was
an advantage
,
and killing came easy to him, slash, grab, bite, rip and tear. The dead piled up around them, and Jason seized a female goblin, armed with a spear, by the foot as she slipped on the red snow. He climbed over the mound of bodies and spun her above him, using her as a flail, sending her comrades tumbling down the slope, and when her leg broke of
f at the knee he
picked up a fallen spear and reverted to stabbing as the goblins tried to reach him.

“Another troll,” said Jennifer, her arms drenched with blood. The troll, having left his dead companion approached them at a run, wielding the bloodied axe.

Jason transfixed
two more goblins, huge fellows and a
s he struggled to free the spear
from the second one’s belly,
he peered over the wall of dead and sure enough a huge grey monster made its way quickly up the slope, glaring balefully at Jennifer. In its haste to reach her
,
it trampled a number of live goblins, crushing their bodies, snapping their bones with his feet
, which became tang
led in the bloody mass of corpses and he stumbled and fell to his knees
. Jennifer stepped back as the giant crawled over the bodies and stood up before her. He reached out with his free hand and raised the axe as if to throw it and faltered as Jason
ran to him and
stabbed him in the side of the neck with his spear. He grinned and said, “The neck you said, Jennifer, a weak spot I see.”

Jennifer watched as the troll dropped the axe and clawed at the spear, she jumped back as blood fountained out. Jason sawed the spear back and forth until it rasped against the dying troll’s spine, then he yanked it out and the monster sank to his knees, gave one last bubbling sigh and toppled over onto his side.

At the sight of this, the remaining three dozen attackers faltered, Gribb and his comrades included, and fled dropping their weapons in their haste.

Yvette howled and pounded down the slope after the fleeing goblins. Jason and Jennifer followed her, but were unable to join in the kill as Yvette decapitated each and every one of them, taking her time as she loped across the ice.

Gribb, being the youngest and the fastest, his legs pumping madly, almost made it to the inlet, the last thing he saw as he turned his head was Yvette’s claws as they swung down on him.

The three arrived at the inlet and Yvette examined the six bodies, she pulled out the javelins and handed them one by one to Jason. She shook her head and said, “That was some throw, I mean all six of them. I saw you let fly, but I never believed you would hit them. Jennifer with her elven eyes confirmed it.” She came closer and said, “You’ll have to teach me how to throw.”

He recalled her
one hundred yard throw with a goblin battle-axe with which she downed the troll and said, “Teach you, the way you threw that…” he paused and sniffed, his ears erect, then said, “They’re coming.”

Jennifer said, “Yes and there will be more this time.”

They returned, picking up axes, spears and Javelins as they went.

They arranged the fallen into a makeshift, crescent-shaped barrier. They stood well apart and each held a shield to defend themselves against a javelin attack.

Jennifer and Yvette watched as the far lake turned black with goblin armour,
forming in line of battle standing shoulder to shoulder waiting for the command to attack. A
nd then they watched Jason as he, without hesitation, reached out to t
he javelins, arranged in rows and in a continuous fluid motion,
cast the javelins on by one towards the enemy. His movements
a blur
as he hurled the metal tipped sh
afts across the ice
.

Jennifer
, with her high-resolution eyesight,
watched open-mouthed as eight goblins fell one after the other in such a rapid succession that even the last one to fall at the end of the front rank didn’t know what hit him. There were several goblins, javelin throwers themselves, lightly armoured for agility
,
who flew backwards with the force of the blow, injuring or killing the goblin behind as the projectile exited the first victim’s body and passed through into the next. The goblins broke ranks, but were goaded back into line by their superiors.