Book 4, Chapter 33: Food on the Hoof
The next few days, Brundle positioned Gun and his phalanx at the rear, so no more officer parties. At least, no more large ones. It was a breath of fresh air for me, no longer being under Gun’s desiring gaze. It dawned on me then that I hadn’t seen Maitlan so far this trip. Probably bonding with his men. Good for me, good for him. I had yet to give him his necklace, but there was no rush.
A cool spring morning, the leather gambeson keeping me warm, and I hadn’t put on the plate armor yet. It was easier to pack up without being encased in metal. Finding spots for everything in the saddle bags, putting my blanket away, patting the horse in between, my after-breakfast morning routine. Had Brin been here, someone would be doing this for me, but I rather liked packing myself, with the added benefit that I’d know just where to find all my stuff.
As I finished, pulling the belt of the saddle bags closed, Cloud pulled her neck up, eyes white, ears erect and twitching, a deep animal roar blasted from down the train. I patted her neck, “Hey, hey, it’s ok.” Then turned and shouted over at Morry, who had just stopped rolling up his blanket and stood, “What was that?”
He cocked his head, listening. “A wyvern. You’d better stay here.”
I vaguely remembered them telling me I’d seen one before, flying high in the clouds. I’d thought it was an airplane, but it was too slow. Not a dragon, they’d said. A flying lizard, but not a pterodactyl apparently. Not that they’d know my society’s scientific names for long extinct flying lizards. At the time, I didn’t imagine such things existed, so I didn’t inquire further.
Another loud roar and in between, I could just hear the sounds of men shouting. Not screaming, shouting.
“In fact,” Morry said, “I’ll stay with you. I’m sure they have it sorted. Probably going after the cattle.”
“That roar sounds terrifying! Are they large?”
“Very. They don’t usually hunt together, though, and it’s early in the year. It normally wouldn’t attack this many men, but for the magic hiding us. I’d guess a mother trying to feed her offspring.”
“Damn. Hey.” I mounted Cloud.
He gave me a ‘No you don’t’ look, “Princess, it’ll be safer if you stay here.”
“Is it bad that I want to go look? I’ve never seen one before!”
“Yes, it’s bad. You’ll get to see it if they kill it.”
“I’m going to go see what it looks like alive. You stay here and be safe.” Cloud and I turned and rode off, swiftly, toward the commotion, me patting her neck and saying, “Don’t worry, we won’t get too close. Just close enough to take a look. I won’t let it eat you.”
Morry’s curses blue shifted behind me, we rode so fast toward danger.
***
Dust and dirt billowed about near the commotion, tents were trampled and horses running free a few hundred yards distant. The loud roar again and a man’s body came crashing down in front of us.
“Jesus!” I jumped down, “Are you ok?”
The soldier opened his eyes and sat up, “Yeah, whoa, that fucker knocked the wind out of me. Watch out!” He grabbed me and pulled me down – a whooshing sound went over our heads, then a loud crack, a tail as thick as a tree whipped passed us.
I log rolled away because I couldn’t think of anything else to do. At some point, I stopped, and the world spun for a bit while I got my bearings. Any visions of me, the foreigner to this world, taming the fearsome creature, gaining the respect of all, and exploring these lands high atop its back, aloft in the air, vanished as my heart raced and body tensed.
The man was somehow kneeling beside me, must have followed along, and stood up, “We’re out of its reach now. I’m gonna go find a spear.”
“Yeah, ok.”
He jogged off. I looked around, Cloud was gone. Probably bolted, wise horse that she is. I headed back and around, trying to get a different angle, one that wasn’t so dangerous. So far, I hadn’t even seen the body and the tail had nearly taken my head off.
Coming around a few tents, a cloud of dust settling on them and me, men grunting and Gun shouting, “Pull on those ropes! Now!”
The beast was as large as a tree, its taut and shiny wings outstretched but oddly deformed with heavy ropes slung over the animal, men yanking on them, struggling to contain its massive power. There were bodies lying about, some crawling away, and then the end of the tail slammed into one of the rope holders, he collapsed, holding his side, blood pouring out of it.
Spears were thrown into the beast’s belly, but they barely sunk in, kind of dangling off, when a bolt pierced into its chest, then another and another. It bellowed, put its wings down and tried to crawl forward, and the men tightened the ropes crisscrossing its back.
It reared its head, screaming at the little figures hindering it, pulling at its wings. Like a bat, its wings doubled as feet, but were bird-like in appearance, two giant toes forward and one back, dagger sized claws extending from each. It drew the right one in, straining against the ropes, hissing and roaring at the soldiers on the other ends.
“Grapples! Get them around its claws!”
Soldiers ran up on each side, throwing large hooks at its forelimbs. One grappling hook hit the dirt in front of it and the beast’s head rushed in, its jaws clamping on that soldier, pulling him high into the air and shaking violently, the body torn in half, blood and entrails falling from its teeth.
It screamed as the other hook broke through the wing just before the claws, men rushed to pull it taut behind the thrower. It pulled against the ropes, but its leg slipped in the blood and mud underneath, and it couldn’t get enough traction to dislodge the many men fighting its strength. It was like a deadly game of tug of war.
Gun sprang forward, spear held over his head and, bending slightly back, threw the spear with his entire body almost jackknifing forward. The deadly weapon flew straight and true, piercing deep into the giant lizard’s right eye. Its head yanked back, shook, then fell, its body shuddered once, twice, then collapsed, sending dirt and pebbles into the air and away.
The beast’s wings folded inward, pulling forward the soldiers who yet held the ropes taut, tail slithered back and forth near the tip, claws weakly clenching and unclenching. My own body was backing up when I saw all the crumpled men lying about, their moans loud enough to be heard now that the monster was no longer roaring.
“Hey!” I shouted at the guy who got me out of the way of the tail, looks like he didn’t run far, “Go get Reese! The head nurse.”
“What? You do it. I’m busy!”
I stared at him, not really used to non-earls contradicting me. “Look, these men are hurt. Reese can help.”
He walked up to me, “You know, me and the boys need a campy.” His eyes traveled up and down my body, head to foot and back again, “I can guarantee you we’ll pay more than your current regiment. And treat you right, no beatings.”
He was offering me a job? “What?”
“Princess!” Morry’s voice rang out as he rode up, “I told you this was dangerous. Where’s your horse?”
I turned away from the soldier to face the general, “The horses can wait. There’s wounded men here. Let’s organize medical help and then we’ll see about them.”
He dismounted, looked off in the distance to where some of the horses were straying, then back at me, “You don’t need to be here, it’ll get organized.”
I folded my arms. “Morry.”
“Right. Ok. You see to the men here, I’ve got to get those horses back before something else comes to eat them.”
“Wait, there are more of these things?”
He jumped back on his mount, “Horses are food out here, Princess, we have to round them up as quickly as possible.”
He rode off, calling orders out to soldiers, and I moved on to help treating the wounded. The soldier who’d just proposed that I become, I don’t know, his personal maid and bed warmer, had wisely snuck away. Hopefully to get Reese, but likely just to hide once he learned who I was.
I regretted, not for the first time, wearing only my gambeson. Yes, next time there’s a sudden attack, I’ll put my plate mail on before investigating. If the suddenness doesn’t mind waiting the twenty minutes or so while I dress.
Kneeling down to the wounded man who was sitting up, I asked, “You need immediate help?” If he was sitting, I assumed he was better off than those crawling or lying prone but wanted to double check.
“Ah, leg’s broken.”
“Alright, just sit tight. The, uh, hospital staff will be here shortly.” I moved on to a man who wasn’t moving.
Cheers and laughter broke out and, looking up, lots of men were clapping Gun on the back, smiling, and congratulating him. They walked over to the beast’s head, Gun patted it, making some joke, another round of laughing. He unsheathed a knife and started cutting the intact eye out, for reasons that I couldn’t imagine.
I shook my head, staring, then tore my eyes off the spectacle. More people were helping with the injured now, and Reese and the other nurse had arrived. His name escaped me for the moment, and I focused my attention on the fallen.
A man was lying face down in the dirt. Turned him over, I gasped and backed up involuntarily. The left side of his face, helmet and all, had been crushed, left eye purple and bulging out. His other eye blinked, then his face relaxed and I had to fight the urge to turn him back over, and I won that battle, and knelt, taking his pulse. It had ceased, mercifully for him.
“Your Highness! Did you see the kill?” Gun, standing behind me, “Tonight we dine on its heart and gain its strength. Here, I brought you the best part of the beast, the tender meat behind its eyeball. It tastes like bread dough.”
That was it for me, I stood up and tried to restrain myself from shouting, but I may have shouted, “Major! What are you doing sauntering around and boasting? There’s injured! Organize treatment for them!”
He stood there, in front of me for a bit, the silence growing uncomfortable, pulled his outstretched hand and offering back, then said, “Yes, my lady,” a quick bow from his head, and started barking orders at those around him. Treatment finally began to be organized, with those who could be moved taken to a central location where Reese and Echo – his name came to me by then – worked their magic.
One of the soldiers, in fine darkened armor, well stained with blood, kneeling beside a wounded man, was staring at me. Taking off his helmet, it was Maitlan. He nodded once, briefly, then patted the man beside him on the back and moved onto another of the injured.
Maitlan. The thought struck me then, and I knew it was true, that Hafthon would likewise see to his fallen first. The young earl, who lost his castle and most of his family, was growing into a good leader. Time would tell if he’d also be a strong one. He was less devious than Hafthon, though, and that was to his credit.
Taking my eyes off the young earl, still shaking a bit from my confrontation with Gun, or the adrenaline from the entirety of the encounter washing out, I wondered where I could help, and remembered the soldier with the broken leg. When I found him, he was leaning over, resting. “Hey, let’s get you over to the nurses.”
No answer. I placed my hand on his shoulder, a little shake. “Can you stand?”
He still didn’t answer and that’s when I noticed blood coming from under his hauberk, running down his ankles. Pushing it up, his right leg was heavily swollen, nearly double the size of his left. Shit! It wasn’t just a broken bone, it was a broken thigh and likely a ruptured femoral artery, internally bleeding.
I pushed him back, propped his leg up, then checked his pulse – all for nothing, no heartbeat, wasn’t breathing. He must have died soon after I went to check on the other corpse. The dying man, I mean, corpse now. Damn.
I sunk to the ground, sitting beside him.
The grass was torn, black dirt, thick mud, and little grey stones everywhere. Deep gouges where the beast clawed in, fighting to survive. Sitting back, I took in the wyvern. Its neck was long and thick, like its tail, but now full of cuts, blood covering it, pieces of wing torn and fluttering in the wind, lots of holes in those wings, where spears, arrows and bolts had gone through. Gun’s spear, in its eye, forced its massive, lizard-like head to lean, its jaw pressed against the dirt, tongue hanging out.
Oddly, its teeth were yellow, many broken. Now that I was examining it, the beast’s skin was cracked, with gouges and scars from before today’s battle apparent. Its scales faded and in bad shape. Made me wonder how old these lived, how old this one was before it met us today.
With the field hospital up and running, I’d have been a bother, so I stood, turned, and walked the other way. A part of me wondered where Cloud was. Off in the distance, Morry had rounded up a bunch of riders and they, in turn, were rounding up the horses that’d fled.
We’d killed the thing, I guess.
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