42. The Den (2)

Novum woke up a little surprised. He thought that Fang had crawled into his small bed during the night but when he looked up and saw him laying on the floor in front of his he was not sure what to think. He lifted the blanket gently and saw that Emily was cuddled up against his back. He let out a little chuckle and slipped out of bed as gently as he could. He walked out just in time to see a frantic Jane looking around.

"She thought that my bed was more comfortable. Apparently she crawled into my bed last night."

"I am so sorry. I, I am not sure what to say."

"Yeah that was a first for me. But I assure that she if fine. You can check on her if you want."

"She has never been that far from me during the night. Normally if I roll away from her just a little she wakes up looking for me. I never thought that she would do that."

"Jane it is fine. I am not sure what made her do that but you probably slept better. Without tiny feet in your back."

"I will admit that I do feel well rested. I will get the honey taken care of right away. I would love for Emily to have some with breakfast." Within a few minutes that other ladies that helped cook were up and they got started. As the aroma of food started permeating the air a lot more of the group started waking up. Novum stayed out of the way as much as he could but he was quick to help when they pointed at something or asked him to do something.

Once everyone was up and eating Novum grabbed a plate as well. Fang saw him eating and came up beside him. "Nope if you want something fresh to eat you need to go and catch it. Remember that the pigs and goats are off limits." When Fang heard him say goats he looked over at the pen and appeared to glare at the billy. "I warned you and you didn't listen. Don't blame the goat for that. Now go catch a rabbit or a squirrel or something. Don't bother with the chipmunks it would take all of them to fill you up." Fang got up and headed for the woods.

A few of the people were watching him talk to Fang and they were amazed that Fang seemed to understand more than he should. "Baron is that dog normal?"

"What do you mean by normal? I mean I guess I do talk to him a lot but I am not sure what he understands and what it appears he understands though coincidence. And he is not a dog actually. That is a wolf pup."

Mike raised an eyebrow. "How old is it? You called it a pup."

"A few months at the most. He was still with mom and dad when I came here."

"He is that big and he is only a few months old. Um he might not be normal. given his current size and the fact that he seems to be able to understand more than he should. I am wondering if he might be like the bears?"

"Well if he starts getting aggressive for no reason I will take care of it. But for now we will just have to see how things go." He had been wondering about that very things since he found out about the bees and the bears but he was going to wait for confirmation. He would hate to have to do that to Fang and based on everything that he had seen it was not an issue but he would still hate it.

The two hunters were close together whispering about the size of the tracks and he could see some extra fear on their faces. Novum walked over, "are you two okay?"

"Honestly my Lord we are concerned about the den. We are not sure how many there are and how many of them are that big. We were comparing notes and we think that there are at least two of them that are big and the one that you killed is a cub and the mom must have had at least twins and maybe triplets. We have seen two or more sets of tracks that look normal."

"That is good to know. I still plan on going out there if nothing else I need to see what I am dealing with in case I need to go and hire some outside help. If you do not want to go I will not blame you and just ask that you provide me with directions to get to the den."

"We are with you sir. We should have known better than to doubt you sir. We have seen to many nobles ordering their men into situation like this to use them as bait or fodder."

"I will give you my word right now that I will be one of the first few people through the opening if not the first. But please bring concerns like that to me if you have them. I need information like that to make informed decisions to keep from making a crazy mistake and getting someone killed or hurt."

Both men were looking down. "We are not used to a noble with your attitude sir. It will not happen again."

"Thank you. That is all that I ask for." After everyone was done eating he called the group hunting the bears over to him. "Okay I need you all to listen up." He waited about ten and then started talking. "It has come to my attention that it might be more than one of the bears that are bigger than normal. There also appears to be a few bears that are normal sized. We think that these are actually the cubs who have grown bigger, faster. I wanted you all to know before we left. I am going and I will be one of the ones in the front. If you no longer want to come with me then stay and get to work on your normal tasks. I will see you when I get back."

Novum willed his armor on and then fell into step behind the hunter that knew where the den was. He had not planned on bringing everyone over this early but he was worried that he would get overwhelmed if it was only him and the hunters. He heard people walking behind him but he did not look back over his shoulder to see who or how many. He did not want to only see a few and get disheartened. The walk was a lot longer than he expected but suddenly Fang let out a growl and he knew that they were getting close. The hunter in the lead also ducked down a little and started creeping forward.

"You all wait here for a few and let me get a closer look and a lay of the land." Novum closed the distance with the hunter and they both saw the opening of the cave just coming into view. He could feel Fang's growls vibrating his armor and knew that they were really close. Suddenly the wind changed directions as a huge gust came blowing through the woods behind him. Within a few seconds a huge bellow of rage came out of the cave. Novum and the hunter took another stop forward and saw the opening more fully but more importantly they saw the huge bear charging out of it.

The hunter saw the bear coming out and drew to full draw in a matter of a heartbeat. The hunter aimed at the bear's front leg in hopes of slowing it down. The arrow hit the mark but he might as well been shooting at a tree for all the damage that it did. Novum saw the arrow hit and knew that this was not going to be as easy as he thought, and he thought it was going to be horrible to start with.

Rurik saw Novum charge forward and bellowed out. "Follow the Baron, charge." He sprinted forward faster than he little legs should have been able to carry him and did not slow down when he saw the size of the bear. Mike was running beside him and stuttered his steps for a second after seeing the bear but kept running. The archers stopped as soon as they were in range and started firing arrows.

Novum charged right past the hunter and saw several more arrows come flying in and one of them hit the bear in the ear and ripped it in half. The bear bellowed in pain and stopped running as it shook its head in pain. That lucky shot gave Novum the time that he needed and he got in range of the huge beast.

As he got closer the stalled and angry bear drew up to its full height and Novum was sure that it was at least two and a half times his height. The bear swatted at him and he got his shield in the way but the blow knocked him back over ten feet and he had to roll in order to get back to his feet. The bear pounced at him but thankfully a few of the other heavily armored fighters were close enough that it did not focus solely on him. Mike and Rurik came up on each side of Novum and attacked. A few of the other hunters moved behind the bear. Not so much to attack is since they doubted they could hurt it at all but to annoy it enough to shift its focus. They also were the sentinels if the other bears came out of the den.

The three fighters were still not in the best position. Mike's axe was just basic and without his massive strength it would barely be able to cut through the thick hide and Rurik fought with an axe as well. It was not heavily enchanted but without any enchantments it would not have even annoyed the bear through its thick layer of fat and been treated more like a hammer.

The bear attacked Novum again and he knew better than to block it with his shield so this time he simply attacked the bear's paw. The blow was not enough to take the end of the paw off but the combined force of Novum and Bear was enough that Novum felt his sword hit bone. The enchantment on the sword activated and they all smelled burning meat and the bear bellowed again, this time in pain more than rage.

The bear dropped back down to all fours and almost fell over when the wounded paw hit the ground. Both fighters on the side took the opportunity to attack the bear full force. Even on all fours the bear head was high enough the it could easily looked Novum in the eyes. Both Mike and Rurik landed heavy blows but neither of them could do the damage that Novum did and the bear ignored them. It needed to take out the biggest threat first.

A few more arrows came slamming it the bear but only two arrows seemed to be able to both the bear in any way. Novum knew that the arrows belonged to his two hunters. Novum dodged a few more attacked from the bears wounded paw and he even dared to block one of them but the bow was still overpowering but not near as bad as before. Thankfully with the two fighters still attacking from each side the bear did not try and pounce on him.

Unfortunately that small break gave the bear time to shift its focus and it landed a heavy blow on Mike's armor. The blow threw the big man even further than Novum. Mike managed to do the same roll that Novum did but once he was back to his feet he dropped to a knee in pain. There was not blood but they could all see that he was struggling the breath. They assumed that the blow had probably broken a few ribs.

Novum stepped back in close and the bear turned back to face him. It was still not as fast as it was since it was not using the wounded paw but it was still faster than you would expect. A few more arrows cam flying in and one past close enough to slightly startle Novum but the arrow slammed into the shoulder joint of the bear's other front leg. On instinct, hoping to limit the pain in both legs, the bear stood back up to its full height.

Novum saw the bear go to its full height in pain and charge forward to the exposed chest before the bear could react. He drove the tip of the sword right into the middle of the bears chest and right in between the ribs. Novum just kept pushing until half of his huge blade was in the animals chest and then he shifted his sword left and right and destroyed everything in the chest of the bear.

Novum pulled out the sword and stepped back as the bear fell towards him. He moved over to Mike and handed him a bottle of healing potion that he bought in the capitol. Mike nodded his thanks and drank it down. It felt like a fire was in his chest as the bones knitted back together. "Thank you sir. That was harder than I have even been hit before. Without the armor I would have been done for."

"And that is why we got the armor."

"Lord Novum you might want to come and look at this."

Novum saw one of the hunters was with Rurik beside the bear and quickly headed over. The hunter pointed at the bear's butt and that was when he realized that this bear was the female and most of the time females were smaller than their male mates. About that time there was another bellow from deeper in the cave.