Onward to Adventure: Chapter 18

Brinvok felt the ashen earth as he knelt down and ran it through his fingers, it reminded him of the crops he was growing back home, he hoped that they would still be alive when he returned.  He glanced at Charred who was staring off into the distance, she seemed to know something he did not.  He stood up and asked her,

“ Will you return home?”

“Yes”, Charred replied, “ I need to make sure my shop has not been totally robbed in my absence, and I must make sure my father is alright”

“Your father, he means a lot to you doesn’t he?” Brinvok inquired, raising a soot covered eyebrow.

“Yes, shortly after I was born, my village was hit with a terrible disease, my mother got sick and my father had to raise me my entire life.” Charred responded still not looking into Brinvok’s eyes.

“Ah well, if he is half as strong as you, I am sure he will be ok”

“Thank you.” Charred said now looking into his eyes,”Now I have to go, thank you for saving my life, perhaps our paths will cross again”

With that, Charred walked away and Brinvok watched her until he could not see her anymore.  Brinvok was glad he had met her, he wished it was on better conditions but he was glad he found someone who was similiar to him.  Brinvok looked up at the sky and saw that it was early morning and the forest in the distance was waking up.  He knew that was the direction he had to go in, Brinvok walked down to the forest and made good progress on his walk home until he needed to stop for the night.  He made a shelter out of branches and leaves as well as a small fire.  As Brinvok sat by the fire he saw a rustling in the undergrowth, he readied his axe, he knew that if it was a threat that he would not hesitate.  Suddenly a small furry animal ran into his camp and charged into him, it was a pigmy mammoth, they are really rare and are often hunted for their meat which was sweet due to their diet of mostly berries, he wondered what it was doing here.  He did not need to wait long for an answer, two hunters charged into the clearing with their bows drawn, they were clearly after this animal.  Brinvok said in a cold voice,

“How can I help you gentlemen? This beast is not for hunting, go home.”

“Oh yeah? What are you going to do if we shoot it right now?” Said one of the hunters who shot an arrow near the foot of the little mammoth who let out a toot of surprise and ran behind Brinvok’s shelter.

“I’ll do this,” faster than either hunter could react, Brinvok drew his bow and shot an arrow into the leg of the hunter, “Leave. Now.”

With that both hunter’s ran away, more like one ran and one limped away.  The mammoth joined Brinvok by the fire that night and accompanied him on his way home.  As Brinvok finally found the city with his new friend by his side he found a familiar stack of hay by the gates entrance and he dug through it.  He found the skull of the Ulurugg, it was a little dusty but it was still in one piece.  He brought the skull to the huntress who gave him only 200 rables, she took 400 off for how late the skull was delivered.  

Brinvok walked out of the city and down a dirt road, it was now dusk and the stars were starting to show in the sky.  The moons were illuminating the sky and casted long shadows in the forest.  Brinvok found his log cabin, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his crops were still green and healthy, it must have rained while he was gone.  His boar was asleep by the door, he was so happy that he was ok that he ran up to him and gave him a big hug the boar buried his face in Brinvok’s chest.  Brinvok introduced his boar to their new companion and the two got along great. However Brinvok now realized how exhausted he was and he crawled into his bed and went to sleep.  At last his adventure was over.

Onward to Adventure: Chapter 17

Shadowbacks always work in pairs, one tends to do more thinking than the other.  Much like the Baolab, they can communicate through telepathy.  One of the Shadowbacks stepped back, not taking its eyes off of Brinvok and Charred.  It raised the spines on its back and it seemed to suck the little light out of the cavern with them.  Thee other seemed to blend into the shadows, it clacked its claws furiously and molded the shadows into a shape, that shape began to resemble a humanoid that he recognized.

“Mother…” Brinvok said as though the wind was knocked out of him.  The apparition slowly walked towards Brinvok, its footsteps made no noise as it moved.  The apparition began saying,

“It was your fault, you killed me Brinny.  If you were there instead of running off like the irresponsible child you are. I would still be alive Brinny”

“There was nothing I could have done, that monster was so powerful, it would have killed me too”  Brinvok said in reply.

“We would have ran away, I was too slow on my own, but you could have gotten us out of there. You selfish poor excuse for a son.”

“No!” Brinvok yelled at the shadow, “ I made one mistake, I cannot let this memory define me.  I have put all of this blame on myself. I think I finally understand that there is no point in reliving the pain of that moment.  I Brinvok, have hunted beasts larger than a mammoth but those do not compare to the might of my inner monsters. You embody a moment that has caused me such discomfort in thinking about that I shut it out and did not think about it. Now I smite the”

With those words Brinvok unsheathed his axe and charged straight at the apparition, piercing through its torso.  Brinvok kept charging until he hit the underbelly of the Shadowback, the monster let out a screech and the shadow it created disappeared and all Brinvok saw was the crimson blood of the Shadowback.  After almost penetrating right through the Shadowback, Brinvok turned to the other shadow back who was now trying to escape to the outside world, Brinvok charged after the beast at an alarming speed as he was closing in on it he heard an arrow whisp by and saw it sink deep into the back of the neck of the Shadowback.  This caused the beast to slow down enough for Brinvok to whack the beast in the side of the neck.  It fell with a thud and Brinvok dislodged his axe from its neck.  He turned around to see Charred with her bow drawn, it was her who shot the Shadowback, he looked at her and nodded, she nodded back.  For the first time in a long time, as Brinvok stepped out of the Cavern that he finally felt as though he truly conquered a monster.

Onward to Adventure: Chapter 16

Brinvok drudged up the cavern carrying the woman in his arms, he knew he had to move fast but the extra weight of this woman was preventing him from gaining any real speed.  Suddenly he felt something hitting his back, it was the woman, who then began screaming for him to let her go.  Brinvok ran to the side of the cavern and sat her down against the wall.  

“Who are you? Where am I? How did I get here? Where is my father?” the woman began pelting him with questions, after a few minutes Brinvok finally was able to answer some of her questions

“My name is Brinvok, you are in the Far North in the birthplace of the Guardians, I am not sure how you got here or where your father is.  Now, who are you?”

“My name is Charred, I guess I should thank you for saving my life, the last thing I remember was fighting that Swamp Monger and it knocked my father down and I just….”

“Was immobilized by fear? Yeah, I’ve been there, you can’t let it get to you, now I hate to cut this short but we need to get going, when I killed that monster, the rest of them began bellowing, it stopped a little while ago but I don’t know what it signaled and I don’t want to stay here to find out, sound like a plan?”

“Yeah, it does.”

Brinvok and Charred began running through the cavern, Brinvok had his axe unsheathed incase any monsters jumped out of the holes in the walls.  Charred was slightly behind Brinvok but was keeping good pace.  It felt as though they had been walking for hours, in a nearly pitch black cavern.  They needed to stop to rest, so the two of them ducked behind a large stalagmite to catch their breath.  Brinvok decided to take this time to learn more about this mysterious girl named Charred, she had bright green eyes and hair that was gray like ash.  She had a muscular physique, like someone who has spent almost their entire life doing manual labor.

“So where are you from? I never saw you in my village of Dracoro.”

“I am from Slydrec, it is in the South, we are known for our honey.”

“Ah, so are you a beekeeper?”

“I am, I also work with my father in the iron mine that he runs.”

“You seem very capable of holding on your own, that monster back must have had a tough time getting you down.”

“I could say the same thing about you, I don’t know what could have taken you down”

“It is a long story, it was a monster that used mind control to manipulate me”

“Wow, that seems a lot worse than being taken on physically, something that can get into your head truly knows more about you than anyone else.”

“Yeah, so we should get moving again, I’m beginning to feel uneasy just sitting here.”

As if  on que, the cavern began to shake and two Shadowbacks walked down the cavern, they appeared to be looking for something, or someone.  Brinvok grabbed Charred by the hand and crawled along the edge of the wall, in the shadows out of the line of sight of the two monsters.  Suddenly, Brinvok felt the cold rush of air, and saw the opening of the cavern, he saw this as their chance to make a break for the outside.  When they began running, Charred knocked into a stalagmite and toppled it over.  The two Shadowbacks glared at Charred and Brinvok with their orange eyes.