[Mkguild] Lucky number 13

[Mark Ewing]

Here's my thirteenth tale for you guy's perusal, I hope you all enjoy it.

  The Raid


 Oberon Snowcat


 The trial of Sir Guy DeHarancourt had taken five days, but in the end that
particular fanatic had been sentenced to stay in the keep had been sentenced
to stay in the keep under the supervision of Father Francis Hough, the local
priest of the Ecclesia. The reason for the Duke's apparent mercy was because
of the form that Sir DeHarancourt had been given by the Curse of the Keep.
He was now in the form of a age regressed wildcat morph, he had also lost
his mind in the transformation, he was reduced to the mental state of a
child, which I had learned was quite rare here at the keep. I was now free
to focus my attention on my work as a member of the Metamor Keep Army
Scouting Command. Although during the trial I had managed to repair my
battle armour, ensuring that I would be adequately protected when my patrol
encountered the enemy, and that was something that was inevitable
considering what George had told me when he had assigned me to my current
unit. Basically he had told me that he would test the limits of my
abilities, so far he had learned of my weakness against magic, other than
that I believe that he already knew just how dangerous I really was.

This morning I was able to sleep in because my unit was leaving in the
afternoon for our next assignment. When I finally did wake up I had to get
ready ready for work. As soon as I had stretched my muscles, tended to my
hand and foot claws, and groomed my fur I began to pull on my work clothes.

An hour later I was standing with the rest of the unit while Jonah told us
of the mission that we were taking part in.

"Tonight we will be taking part in a combined raid with a squadron of
cavalry and a team of Long Scouts. Our target is a lutin encampment that
lies only half a days ride from here. The reason we must attack together is
because this encampment is larger than any one of our units alone can
handle, but together our units will be able to destroy this threat against
our people." I was glad that I had decided that I would only take my light
raiders pack. It contained only the barest of essentials, four days rations,
a field medicine kit, and a few odds and ends. In my side pouch on my belt I
carried two spare bowstrings for my monster of a longbow, and my tinderbox.
When I was involved in raiding I preferred to pack light so that I could
move fast. I was talking with Trent, the bison morph, about a battle that he
had fought in more than ten years ago, when there was a clatter of horse
hooves as the cavalry detachment that was to take part in the raid joined
us. The leader of the squad was none other than the Knight Sir Edmund
Delacote, though he was riding a lighter horse than was normal for a knight.
Then again that was to be expected considering the fact that he now
possessed the slender figure of a cheetah morph. He looked around at the
people gathered in the courtyard before he asked Jonah something about our
unit. Jonah laughed before he replied, even with my sensitive hearing I
wasn't able to pick up what he had said. After several more minutes Jonah
finally turned and said "OK everyone lets move out, we've got a lot of
terrain to cover and only a few hours to cover it before darkness comes."
Almost as soon as I got under way Jonah asked me why I was moving so quickly

"Sir in the past when I've conducted raiding operations the imperative was
to hit the enemy by moving as fast as possible."

"Oberon we also must hit them while we are strong and fresh, therefore we
must try and conserve our strength." I nodded and scaled back my speed of
movement a little, but I was still moving pretty quickly. Our unit moved
quickly and quietly through the trees towards the enemy encampment for
several hours, the cavalry was following behind us on previously established
paths while we made our own paths into the wilderness. Of course we knew
that we were preceded by at least two Long Scouts who were conducting
reconnaissance of the enemy camp and determine what direction that we would
attack from. We marched through most of the night to at a point fairly close
to the camp. When we stopped I crouched down and pulled off my raiding pack
and placed it under a tree, but not before I took out two of my large trail
rations from the pack. Once I was happy that it was properly concealed I
consumed the rations with a little water from a water-skin before I hid that
item as well. As I checked over my equipment a Long Scout that I recognized
came over to Jonah and said softly, though not softly enough for my
sensitive ears to pick up

"We've managed to take out most of their sentries, especially on the side
where the cavalry will be hitting them but you could be in for a tough
fight, I thought I smelled a troll out here."

"A troll, that wasn't exactly in the plan."

"Well then I guess that we will have to alter the plan."

"I've never faced a troll before other than back at the Battle of Three
Gates and during the Winter Assault, and that was when I was comfortably
behind a good sized wall."

"Well we'll just have to make due under the circumstances."

"It won't be easy to kill that."

"Well I have a couple big guys in my unit who might be able to do the job,
one is especially dangerous."

"The troll will be the big problem. the rest we can kill easy enough. We can
try and lure him into an ambush." Jonah pointed over to me and Kent before
he replied

"In case ambushing the troll doesn't work those two are going to take care
of it."

"Oberon can handle it." Finbar jokes. "He's as big as a troll!"

"And twice as quick." Interjects Jonah with a chuckle. At that commend
Finbar laughed before he regained his composure and spread a map out onto
the ground and began to point out a few salient features in the camp that
was our objective. While they were taking care of those little details I
checked my bow and pulled an arrow out of my quiver and nocked it without
drawing the bow. I wanted to be ready in case we were expected by the lutins
even though that was highly unlikely. We slowly made our way through the
bushes for the next hour, being very careful in our movements, we didn't
want to tip this encampment off that we were about to attack until the
moment came when we actually hit them.

A short time later I positioned myself in a small hedge of bushes and pulled
my quiver off an placed in on the ground in a position that would allow we
to grab arrows as quickly as I could. The signal for the attack had been
agreed upon earlier was a single blast on a horn, this was something that
Sir Edmund Delacote would do. I took my nocked bow and raised it up into the
air and pointed it at the camp and waited for the signal. I didn't have long
to wait, the sun was just cresting the ridge behind us when the horn called
out its cry of death. I acted automatically pulling the bow back to its
maximum and releasing the arrow into the morning sky. My hand flashed down
to the quiver almost as soon as it released the string to grab the next
arrow. I kept this rate of fire up until I reached my hand down to find that
there were no more arrows in the quiver. I had fired off twenty-five arrows
in roughly three and a half minutes and now I had to drop my bow and head
down to the encampment where some members of the raiding party were already
engaged in combat with the lutins. As I ran down into the encampment I drew
both the Claw of the Dragon and my broadsword, getting them ready for
action. As soon as I cleared the trees on the perimeter I found myself
almost surrounded by lutins. I grinned at the test to my skills that this
provided and began to move through the enemy force in a whirlwind of steel
and white fur. After a several moments I sheathed my broadsword grabbed a
lutin behind me with my left hand, claws fully extended and wrenched his
neck around until it snapped with a dry sounding crack. Now that I had only
one sword I began to dance around my own pattern of 'Sung Dranatk ek Grect',
or in common tongue; The Dance of Death. Each Kelmar Bladelord had his own
version of this dance and each one was very lethal to those who were coming
up against it. I moved through the horde of lutins in a flowing pattern that
left nothing but corpses behind me and blood on my left arm whenever I used
it as a weapon in my fight. I was just rising from a crouch after
dispatching four lutins with a sweep of my blade when I heard a loud roar
sound out, this wasn't a roar from a member of the raiding party but a roar
from the enemy. The sound was full of malice and mindless hatred that even I
could detect. I laid my ears back and replied with my own roar. There was a
loud thumping sound of footsteps before I finally was able to see what had
roared. It was an ugly man shaped beast that was roughly eight and a half
feet tall. As it got closer it swung its club at a nearby lutin, sending the
unfortunate creature flying up into the air. He then swung his club at one
of the members of the other squad that was involved in the raid smashing the
poor fellow flatter than a skillet cake. As he swung his club for the third
time, this time at me, I dodged out of the way and struck out at him with my
own blade. He was bigger than I was but he was also surprisingly quick, he
dodged my own strike and swung with his monstrous club again. I just managed
to duck underneath the blow at the same time I stabbed upwards with my sword
catching the giant man on his thigh, but the sword didn't penetrate all that
far. This was unreal, the Claw of the Dragon had never failed to penetrate
anything and yet here it had only managed to create a superficial wound. I
rolled out from my dangerous position and came to my feet just out of range
of the monster. This was going to take me a little more effort than I had
originally planned. The monster didn't give me all that much time to
consider what I should do next as he charged me swinging that huge club over
his head. I managed to dodge his next few blows, each time he attacked I
would avoid his attacks and counterattack with a slash of my sword. We
tramped our way through the encampment fighting our own private fight, while
at the same time the forces from the Keep were making quick work of the
lutins in the camp. Every so often I had to either ward off a lutin with my
free hand or kill it. I found out there that my left hand, with its claw
tipped fingers, was very effective in ripping the throats out of a lutin's
neck. Finally after dodging a particularly vicious blow from the monster's
club that hit the ground with a dull thud I swung my sword with both hands
at his wrists as he tried to pick the club up again. I was well pleased when
the when the blade sheered through both wrists leaving the monster with
nothing but stumps on the end of his arms. He roared and then dashed at me
bearing me to the ground with his weight. I was concerned now because in
this position this monster could do with me what it wanted to. However, I
still had a few tricks up my sleeve, I opened my mouth and clamped my jaws
on his throat. All I can say about that is yuck, this guy tasted worse than
nine day old moldy porridge. At the same time I kicked his belly with my
feet, claws fully extended so that I scored eight long gashes in his belly.
They weren't serious injuries but they were painful, the most dangerous of
my actions was definitely my flicking my wrists to unsheathe the stilettos
that I had strapped to my bracers. Once those knives were unsheathed I
stabbed into the monster with a stiletto in each hand, trying to hit
something vital. The monster yowled in pain, even though his throat was now
restricted because of my teeth on his neck. Finally it attempted to stand up
and I let go and retreated, the monster was bleeding from several different
places and it was clearly on its last legs. I managed to sheath my two
slender stilettos and picked my sword up off of the ground, where it was
covered in gore. Then I dashed in under the monster's arms and swung the
sword once, there was a heavy jerk on my arms followed by a heavy thump. I
stepped back as the now headless body staggered once and then hit the ground
with its knees before falling onto it chest with a pathetic wheeze. I shook
my head panting to clear my vision before I looked around for more lutins,
but it appeared that the encampment was empty of the enemy. I leaned on my
sword for a moment before I slowly made my way to the nearby creek where the
camp had been getting its fresh water and began trying to get the sticky
blood out of my fur, I was covered in gore form the top of my head to my
feet. Just as I put my hands into the water when someone came up beside me
and said

"Good Lord Oberon, you're covered in blood are you all right?" I looked at
the person and was able to recognize that it was Caroline, Misha's
companion, and one of the four Long Scouts who had been involved in the
raid. I grinned slightly

"It;s all mostly from those lutins and that huge monster that I had to fight
with. I have a few scratches but nothing really serious." I commented before
I dipped my head into the water and tried to get the blood out of my
head-fur.

"You fought a troll?" She asked in surprise. "And won!" I lifted my head up
to look her in the eyes before I replied

"It was a hard fight, that thing was faster than I expected with that club.
The gods only know how dangerous it wouldn've been if it had possessed a
sword. It was even tougher when I had disarmed it, since it decided to
tackle me and try and fight me at very close quarters. In the end though I
managed to remove its head, once that happened the fight was over." She
shook her head while I ran some water through my face-fur and finally
managed to say

"That was a troll Oberon. They've been known to kill ogres easily and you
killed one single-handed. Amazing!"

"Well my sword," I indicated the weapon with its glowing ruby pommel-stone
at my side ", gave me a little assistance when it mattered."

"Your sword may have helped but I think that you were the one that did most
of the fighting." I chuckled and ran my claws through my throat ruff before
I conceded that I would probably need a good bath at the keep to get the
stains out of my fur.

"Well when you're fighting for you life you can exceed even what you know
that you can do. Besides that there is the fact that I've either been
training to fight or fighting for sixty-five years." Caroline shook her head

"Still it's incredible that you managed to kill a troll single-handed!" I
was cleaning as much blood as I could from my left arm while she spoke
before I finally had to concede that even that blood was something that I
needed a serious bath to take care of. Since I wasn't getting anywhere with
my impromptu washing here I stood up to my full height before I responded

"That monster was the first really serious challenge to my abilities that
I've had out here while in the service to the keep, other than that dumb
lutin mage a week and a half ago."

"If a troll is a challenge I don't want to what would be able to beat you in
a fight. A dragon?" I laughed before I interjected

"I have yet to experience their type in battle, though they may be similar
to the Night Gryphons from my homeland. Now those are a serious threat to a
warrior, no matter how good that warrior is. If you are able to beat one in
single combat you are really something special."

"Up here we thankfully have dragons on our side. Several members of the
Keep's population are dragons, but there are a few dragons that serve our
enemies up north." I nodded my head before rubbing a spot just behind my
left ear before I finally said.

"Right now I really wouldn't appreciate getting into another fight. All I
really need is to simply return home to the Keep so that I can get some
rest." She nodded in understanding

"We should be home by nightfall, but don't let your guard down, we can still
be ambushed on the way back to the keep."

"Oh joy, joy, well at least I can go back to our staging point to pick up my
raiding pack with my rations. With some food in my stomach I should be ok
for a little while longer."

"Trail rations may not be tasty but at least they are filling. Though I
suspect that a big guy like yourself probably needs at least a dozen of them
to begin feeling full." I smiled at her comment

"I've had the cooks at the keep make up triple sized rations for me. That's
better than carrying around a hundred of the bloody things. However, if we
are lucky I should be able to track down something that is considerably
fresher." She laughed

"I eat one and I'm full but you need at least a dozen of the standard sized
rations to even begin to feel it."

"I guess that's the price that a I've got to pay for getting a form that is
so ideally suited for my profession."

"Just be glad I don't share my fish flavoured ones. Misha HATES those with a
passion."

"Fish isn't all THAT bad is it?"

"Try telling Misha that. He can't even stand the smell of them. He makes me
eat them down wind of him!" I tilted my head back and gave a gruff shout of
laughter before I managed to say

"You mean he will actually turn down food?"

"There are certain things even HE won't eat."

"Well I know that I can't touch vegetables, they give me the worst
stomachaches and worse. On the other hand if it is a type of meat I can
pretty well eat it without too much trouble."

"Well Misha can eat fish. He just can't stand the taste of it. All he'll say
on the matter is that he grew up in landlocked country where you simply
couldn't get fish."

"He wouldn't have like my home town, I remember that there was a fish market
in the central square. Our town was located on the shore of the largest lake
in the entire Clanlands."

"Here at the keep the only fish that we have access to are small river fish
or what can be imported from the south!"

"I think I understand." I commented before I began to walk towards the place
where I had concealed my longbow and my quiver. When I reached the bush
where I had shot my arrows from I pulled it all from its concealment and
placed it on my body, though I still had to go back and retrieve my pack. As
I was about to un-string my bow I heard Caroline comment in an interested
voice

"That bow is beautiful, can I hold it?"

"Sure thing, though Misha said it was a little on the large side for his
taste." I told her before I handed it to her. She took the bow into her
hands and and then exclaimed,

"This thing is huge, its taller than I am! How heavy of a does it have?" as
she examined it with a professional eye.

"That bow there has a pull of two hundred and fifty pounds, though the runes
on the metal parts make it so that the arrows leave the string as if it had
the equivalent force of a bow with a pull resistance of five hundred
pounds."

"FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS?" she exclaimed. "You could put an arrow through
several people with that much power." I shrugged my shoulders before I
slowly replied

"I think that I saw several arrows that had gone through more than one lutin
back there in the encampment, or at least I think I saw some like that." She
laughed

"Impressive! I've never seen a bow this powerful before."

"Didn't Misha tell you about this monster of a bow?" She nodded

"He mentioned it but he didn't tell me that it was this powerful."

"Well I can't demonstrate it right now, I used up all of my arrows in the
assault on that encampment and I'll have to make some more when I get back
to the keep."

"Plenty of time back at the keep to shoot arrows." She commented "After we
get a meal and a good night's sleep."

"Well before I shoot any arrows I'll have to make some more because your
standard arrows don't work in that bow."

"Standard arrows don't work? She asked in surprise "Why?"

"They aren't long enough for my bow." I took the bow back from her and then
pulled the string back to my ear. She looked at the distance between the
string and the arch of the bow before she finally managed to say

"I've never seen arrows that have to by THAT long! They're more like a
javelin than a arrow."

"So you see why I need to make more. I wasn't able to recover any of my
spent arrows either. Most of them are broken or too deeply embedded in their
victims to be pulled out." I replied before I unstrung the bow and placed it
in its soft leather case. While we were walking she said

"You'd best make a lot of arrows Oberon. From what I've experienced as a
scout and a Long Scout we usually prefer to use bows to pick off our enemies
at a distance. Its less of a risk for us that way." I nodded my head as I
headed up to the original launch point of the raid and located my raiding
pack and picked it up. I pulled out two trail rations and offered on to
Caroline as a simple courtesy. She took the proffered food into her hand and
then said

"Thank you Oberon. This thing is huge, I could eat this thing for a week."

"Your welcome." I said before I polished off my own ration in four bites. I
took a swig of water from my canteen before I mentioned "I guess that we had
better be getting back down there, my commander, Lieutenant Jonah will be
wondering where I am." Caroline nibbled at a corner of the ration in her
hand. Hmm, beef. Not as good as fish but still good."

"Sorry I don't usually request fish in my diet." Then a brainwave came to me
because I remembered something that George had told me about locating
something that I needed for making his sword. "By the way Caroline I was
wondering if you could ask Misha where he gets his coal from? George tells
me that he can get his hands on some antracite coal and I need some for my
own uses."

"Anthracite coal? The hard coal he used to fix Madog? He has a merchant that
brings it in from the Midlands. I can find his name out for you if you would
like it."

"Thank you. I would much appreciate it, I don't like working with second
rate materials when I am making weapons, I absolutely despise cheap
materials." Caroline laughed softly

"Misha prefers it too, even for heating his apartment. He says that it burns
longer and hotter than normal coal." I laughed along with her as we rejoined
the rest of the contingent in the center of the clearing where the lutin
encampment had been. I looked at her for a moment before I drew my
broadsword and held it out to Caroline hilt first.

"Here is an example of what I can do when it comes to creating weapons." She
took the weapon carefully and glanced along the blade.

"This is beautiful. I've never seen a sword quite like this. Are you sure
that you made this weapon? I've never seen a sword this finely made before."
I laughed at her question before I responded

"Would you like me to make a sword like this for you Caroline?" She looked
up at me before she managed to reply.

"I would like a new sword, but nothin so big! Can you make something a
little more my size? A nice short sword perhaps?"

"I certainly can make one for you fine lady. You will get a fine short-sword
and scabbard with a by knife, a sword-belt, and a dagger with a scabbard,
they come as a set, like all of my weapons." She handed my broadsword back
to me and said

"All right. Whatever the cost is to make them I am willing to pay for a
weapon as fine as that sword of yours."

"Ok I'll try and make your order as soon as I'm finished George's set. Your
set will not be cheap though. I estimate the cost for it to be in the area
of sixty garrets and furthermore I will need you to drop by my forge as soon
as you can tomorrow so that I can take my measurements to make sure that
your new weapons are perfectly suited to you."

"All right. I have the coins, and a little to spare, though I don't have
them here with me right now." I nodded in understanding

"That's perfectly ok Caroline. If you wouldn't mind could you please drop by
my forge at nine-o-clock tomorrow morning so that we can get everything
worked out." I told her just before Jonah called out to me

"Oberon get your stripped white tail over here, we're moving out."

"I'll do that. You'd better get going you don't want to annoy Jonah any more
than he already is." I nodded my head and joined the rest of the squad. Each
member of the squad had a few scratches and Jonah had his arm in a sling,
though I don't really think it was really all that serious

"A nice little fight eh Oberon." I chuckled before I replied

"You can say that again Jonah." He looked me up and down before he said

"I heard that you had more fun than the rest of us."

"If you consider troll wrestling to be fun, then I guess that I did have
more fun." He shook his head slightly and sighed before he turned and
focussed his attention on the trail ahead of his feet. I looked at the rest
of the members of the squad and then settled myself to my own marching
rythm. I was looking forward to a good bath at the bath-house and a full
night's sleep in my own bed tonight.
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