Tracking our prey had proven far more troublesome even than anticipated. Flanked by a dozen of my best and following the worthless fool who had retreated in the face of the enemy, we had no trouble finding the place of my son’s death. All we had found there were the remnants of our kin’s corpses, buried within the snow. We did manage to find the scent of our enemy, however, so the fool’s role was done. My lower ranking elites set upon him with enthusiasm, tearing him to shreds with tooth and claw so quickly he didn’t have time to scream.
With the chore settled and the scent obtained, we set off through the mountains. It was faint enough that even the best amongst us struggled to hold onto it, but we eventually followed it back to an unremarkable looking mountain. Something about the place pricked my instincts, and the scent seemed unusually thick, but there was nothing of interest in sight. We sniffed around for a while, but eventually decided to move on. There was another trail moving away from the mountain, and we chose to follow that.
It wasn’t long before a massive snowstorm set in, and our team struggled through a brutal blizzard that struck with little warning. Each of us was battle hardened and powerful, but even we balked at the power of the wind and the bite of the cold. Eventually, we acquiesced to the adverse circumstances and took shelter in a nearby cave. The storm lasted long enough that our supplies dwindled to nothingness as we waited.
We cannibalized the weakest member of our party in our irritation, but we were still irate and hungry by the time the snow stopped and we emerged from our shelter. We quickly found the collapsed ruins of a large snow shelter, but that was when the trail ran cold. My tongue flicked in irritation, eyes bulging in fury as I realized it was all for not. I nearly slaughtered a subordinate who suggested, demurely, that we give up the hunt. Another failure could truly endanger my position as chieftain.
I stewed in my frustration for a while, thinking furiously, before something clicked. We quickly backtracked, running all the way back to the strange mountain that we had left behind all those weeks ago. We also hunted game along the way, my kin eager for something to ease their hunger and some kind of success, no matter how minor. Arms laden with food, we approached the mountain’s clearing, but I had another idea. I brought my people to a nearby ledge and ordered them to stay put and stay out of sight. Confused, they obeyed, but I suspected some were considering mutiny due to their leader’s strange actions.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Ignoring the potential betrayal of my men, I settled down and prepared to wait. It wasn’t more than a half day before my patience was rewarded.
As the day transformed to night, a small group of strange looking black warriors began making their way towards the mountain from one of the other paths that lead into the clearing. I watched as they approached the stone face, and, incredibly, as the stone gave way to give them admittance to the inside. I recognized these warriors as old enemies of my clan, though we had very limited contact with them before now. I was more interested in their entrance into the mountain. The must have hollowed out the great rock and built a shelter within. It was hard to believe, but my eyes did not lie.
This information dredged up a new possibility, one that I was interested in verifying. With this new revelation, any dissent in my ranks was swiftly squelched and the entire hunting party was now participating in the stakeout with interest.
It took longer for our patience to be rewarded this time. Traffic to and from the mountain was sporadic and secretive, usually taking place in the earliest or latest hours of the day, sometimes even under the cover of night. But our night vision was good, and we made note of everyone and everything that took place. It took a few days for my idea to be vindicated, but when I finally saw the prey, I salivated in triumph. There, returning from a hunt and surrounded by a half dozen black ones, were four soft ones, laughing and joking in carefree manner with their newfound allies. They smelled exactly like the worms who had killed my son.
I thrummed with excitement at the opportunity to take my revenge and finally put this matter to rest. It would be a simple thing to ambush their party and kill them all. But something held me back. On one scale, one of their particularly tall companions smelled like danger, and even the soft ones themselves gave off a sense of pressure that hadn’t been mentioned in that fool’s reports. This prey would be thornier than anticipated. But more important than that was something entirely different.
What truly held me back was the remarkable opportunity that had wandered into my jaws. Our people had had little contact with the black warrior people, but when we did things were far from amicable. We had an opportunity here to destroy them once and for all, while plundering a good deal of treasure from them in the process. Even a poorer settlement of this size could hide significant treasures. Naturally, my little hunting party wasn’t up to such a substantial job, but I knew the information I possessed could bring both of my enemies down if used correctly.
It was time to call upon an old ally.
