Chapter 3

Golden rays of sunlight started to penetrate the undergrowth, bringing the warmth of a new day as the woodland creatures emerged from their dens and started to forage. The rich fragrant aromas of the forest were stirred up by a light breeze that passed through the trees, tossing around the dried leaves that littered the ground. The smaller creatures that called this forest their home scurried about on the woodland floor unhindered by any predators, they chirped pleasantly, calling to each other as they did every other day, but on this morning their pleasant chirping was quickly replaced by urgent calls and panicked responses as a party of adventurers charged through the underbrush like demons possessed.

"How in the world did an entire pack of stubbies manage to sneak up on us without anyone noticing. Who was supposed to be on watch last night?" called Riegert between breaths, as he tried to evade the wild beasts that were pursuing them through the forest.

"That would be me Riegert, but I swear I didn't fall asleep!" yelled Jackson, while trying to evade vicious attacks that left gouges in the trees that the beasts hit when they missed him.

"Wait, aren't those obsidianjaws?" yelled Fellaroth, now that the rising sun had finally given him a glimpse of what it was that they were running from. There behind him was a pack of enormous, snarling, snub-nosed hounds with jagged teeth protruding from their drool-dripping mouths. They had plated leathery skin that was almost completely impervious to stabbing, spiked spines that protected them from above and barbed tails that protected their rears. All of that coupled with their keen sense of sight and keener hearing, made these beasts a force to be reckoned with.

"They are, why, do you know some secret way to defeat them?" asked Calvin, silently hoping that the answer would be yes.

"Maybe if it were just one or two of them, but there must be nearly twenty of them!" yelled Fellaroth. "Our best bet is to either evade them or find them some better prey."

"Well, we are in a forest filled with monsters! Everyone pick a direction and run with everything you've got, find those things something else to hunt!" yelled Riegert, causing the group to split up and run in different directions.

Fellaroth looked over his shoulder as the group split up, trying to see how many beasts were following each member. The tall and generously proportioned Jackson, who for his size was surprisingly just as nimble when running away as he was when fighting, had turned right and was being chased by three beasts. Turning left and heading farthest from the group was the small slender frame of the ever-capable Calvin, leading five beasts away. Continuing in the same direction they had been going was Riegert, who Fellaroth was only able to spot thanks to the morning sun glinting off of his bald head. Though very well built, Riegert, much like the rest of his party was no slouch and was easily able to lead the five beasts that followed him. All of which meant that Fellaroth, who had chosen to double back on himself was now being followed by seven obsidianjaws, which for any normal man would be a serious problem, but thankfully Fellaroth was no normal man. After running for a reasonable amount of time and feeling sure that the others were far enough away, Fellaroth came to a dead stop, barely dodging the obsidianjaws that snapped at him as they ran past.

Now surrounded by ten snarling, grunting wild beasts, Fellaroth smiled a faint smile as he remembered a time long ago when he had found himself in a very similar situation. He pulled his spear from his back and extended it until it was almost as tall as he was and then waited to see what the beasts would do. Several tense moments passed as the obsidianjaws seemed to be sizing up their pray when suddenly from behind Fellaroth, one launched its attack. The creature moved swiftly and with true intent but was sadly not fast enough to catch a God off his guard. The beast passed by Fellaroth to his right and left him the perfect opportunity to drive his spear into the space between its leather plates, skewering its heart and killing it in an instant.

With the body of the first obsidianjaw hitting the ground, two more attacked from the rear, allowing Fellaroth the same chance to kill two more in the same fashion. Three beasts had fallen in as many seconds and the remaining four were growing wary of their prey. They stepped back and began to circle Fellaroth, growling and grunting all the while, as though communicating their intentions to each other, or debating what they should do next. After several more tense moments had passed, three obsidianjaws launched a simultaneous attack from the left, right, and front. This time as the beasts approached, Fellaroth used the side and pole of his spear to brutally bash in the skulls of the attacking monsters, leaving just one left to contend with.

Time stood still as the two able killers stared each other down with not a sound to be heard in the world, when suddenly the lone obsidianjaw, whether out of fear or a sense of self-preservation, decided that it would not fight this foe this day and chose to flee deeper into the forest from which it had first emerged. Fellaroth stood still for a moment and simply observed his surroundings, he listened intently to try and detect if there were any other monsters nearby that he might lead toward one of the others, when suddenly as though being drawn in by the smell of fresh blood, a lone vorpalbear, with its deceptively feline features, wandered out of the undergrowth, from which its striped coat allowed it to blend in almost flawlessly. "Well hello, big boy… or girl? I think you'll do just fine!" he said before turning on his heels and running in the direction, he had seen Jackson go.

Jackson ran through the forest as fast as his large body would allow him, using his axes in each hand to fend off any attacks that did manage to reach him, before abruptly changing directions, while still searching for something else that might catch the obsidianjaws attention better than himself. "Come on you stinking beasts! This forest is always crawling with monsters prowling around every corner just waiting to kill you, where are you now that I need one of you!" he yelled, feeling his stamina starting to fade. 'If I don't find something else for them to hunt and quick, I'm not going to make it. I can't keep running at this pace for much longer. Dear Gods, if any of you can hear me, please send something or someone to help me!' 

"Jackson, I need you to run straight toward me!" yelled a familiar voice from off to his right. Jackson looked over to his right and saw Fellaroth running toward him with a vorpalbear hot on his heels.

"That's a great idea Fell, but how do we make sure that we're not caught in the middle?"

"Up ahead, you see where the ground on the left is higher than the ground on the right? Head there!" yelled Fellaroth pointing ahead of them both.

Looking ahead to where Fellaroth had been pointing, Jackson saw nothing but a cliff, but he chose to believe Fellaroth who at this point had at least managed to prove that he could escape some obsidianjaws. Jackson used the last of his stamina to run toward and then along the cliff, which by now he could see was not as high as he had previously thought. With the obsidianjaws snapping at his heels, he looked off the side of the cliff and saw there just below him was Fellaroth, still being chased by the enormous vorpalbear, which he could now see had a large wound on its back. After Jackson noticed the gaping wound on the back of the vorpalbear, it wasn't long before one of the obsidianjaws saw it and took its opportunity to pounce on the injured animal, which caused the others to follow suit, allowing Jackson to finally slow down and catch his breath.

"Great job Jackson, that worked perfectly!" said Fellaroth, resting a hand on Jackson's shoulder as he bent over trying to catch his breath.

"Woah! Oh Fell, it's just you, I'm glad you managed to get away too! Thanks for that, I'm not sure how much longer I would have been able to last."

"It's all good Jackson, catch your breath and we'll head off to see if we can find out what happened to Calvin and Riegert."

"I'm good, I'm good! Riegert should be the closest right? I think I saw him headed in that direction." Said Jackson, who to Fellaroth's surprise had pointed in the exact direction that Riegert had gone. The two walked on in silence for some time until they reached the spot where the group had originally split up. Jackson kneeled down and examined the ground before saying, "Riegert had five on his tail and so did Calvin, those aren't very good odds." He then walked a little further down the path the group had followed before they split up, and turned back to face Fellaroth. "You had seven on your tail and managed to lose them, that's impressive! Perhaps there is hope for the others."

"Wow, Jackson, you're a pretty skilled tracker. Were you seriously able to tell all that by just looking at the tracks on the ground?"

"Jackson's quite amazing that way!" said the voice of Calvin approaching from their left.

"Ah, Calvin, so you too managed to get away from those beasts!" called Jackson upon seeing his friend returning unharmed.

"As it turns out, they can't climb trees very well. I just climbed the tallest tree I could find and waited for them to get bored and run off."

"That's really all it took?" asked Jackson in disbelief.

"It is! I think we should probably head in the direction that Riegert had gone, if I'm not mistaken it's also the direction of the farming village that was being raided by the goblins."

"You don't mean that Riegert would have led those beasts toward that village, do you?"

"I can't believe that you would even ask such a thing Fell, of course he wouldn't do that, but it is the most likely place for us to find him after he has lost those stubbies." Answered Jackson.

"Fell, I like that, you mind if I call you that too?" asked Calvin, after hearing Jackson abbreviate Fellaroth's name for the first time.

"If you'd like, I mean it doesn't disturb me."

"Fantastic! Then Fell it is!" called Jackson, far louder than he ought to have.

"Must you always be so loud?" asked a voice from high above the group.

"Boss, you made it!"

"Why do you sound so surprised? Is it really that hard to believe that I would be able to evade a handful of those things, especially considering that you lot all managed to evade the ones chasing you?"

"Well, to be honest, I wouldn't have been able to escape them if it weren't for Fell, who came to my rescue."

"Is that so? Well, Fell, thank you for saving Jackson. Today you have officially wiped away any doubts that I might have had about letting you join our party."

"Thanks, Riegert, that means a lot. I know it couldn't have been easy to accept a random stranger into your party like that, but I will continue to do my best to prove to each of you that you were not wrong to let me join you."

"Great stuff! Now on to the task at hand. Before we head back to Pivoton to collect the reward for this job, I want us to check on the village that was being raided by those goblins. I just want to be sure that we didn't miss any of the buggers." Said Riegert, leading his party out of the forest at last.