254: Abandoned
As soon as Brisc and his team noticed us, they quickly made their approach, which only put people further on edge. I noticed, however, that they had no weapons drawn.
The group had formed up closer, all except for Liane’s decoy, which was still sitting on her horse at the back.
“What’s happened?” Milo muttered as the whole caravan came to a halt.
Luis and Hari both had hands on their weapons, but personally, I wasn’t worried. If these were just regular adventurers, then I didn’t see what chance they would have against our group if they were up to something, and with how relaxed Gilain looked, he was clearly of the same mind.
Liane appeared next to Hari. “I don’t believe they have caused this, not today at least. They approached but haven’t gone inside. They appeared to be waiting for you to appear and were concerned as well, from the conversation I overheard.”
“I see. Stay ready,” Hari said, not moving.
As the group approached, Brisc was the first to speak. “I apologise for intruding again. We felt it would be best to wait for you.”
“Why is that?” Hari asked.
“Four days ago, when we passed here, this village was full of people. The fences were not broken. We don’t know what has happened here, and truthfully we’re not the most ideal team to deal with something like this, so we waited for you,” Brisc said.
Hari’s suspicion of the team didn’t seem to go away, but he turned his attention towards the town again.
“Liane, Jen, please check inside the town. You can all wait here until we know what’s happening,” Hari commanded.
There was no sound from Liane, but Jen dismounted and was gone, while the two other warriors on the team looked offended by Hari’s statement.
“You think we did it?” one asked.
“I can’t rule it out, correct,” Hari said simply.
The man was about to protest when the mage at the back, Altin I believe, spoke up, almost bored. “He’s right. We’d be suspicious as well if the roles were reversed.”
Although the warriors’ attention was all on Hari and the events happening in the town, I couldn’t help but notice Altin’s attention was instead on Crisplet, Lily, Gilain and Luis, studying us. He got a shock, however, when he stared at Lily, and she let out a growl that vibrated the earth.
Gilain let out a chuckle. “Yeah, I wouldn’t push the cat, young mage.”
Altin didn’t say anything, just turning his attention back to the town, where we could now see Jen entering through the broken-down fence.
“Any sign of attack down there where you were standing before?” Hari asked.
Brisc shrugged. “The fence looks like it was snapped. The front gate is locked. I couldn’t see any blood or bodies, however, so it’s possible they escaped.”
“Monster attack?” I muttered.
Milo, who was next to me and who so far had not taken his eyes off Altin, nodded.
“Yes, it seems that way, or at the very least made to seem that way. Jen will know,” Milo said, finally looking away.
I looked between them, as it didn’t seem like Altin had noticed Milo staring. “Do you know him or something?”
Milo shrugged. “He seems very familiar, but I can’t tell from where, or if it’s him or perhaps his parents.”
The group was quiet, as they all waited for Jen and Liane’s return. The only person who looked comfortable and enjoying himself right now was Gilain, who had a piece of his horrible-looking jerky out and was leaning up on the lead wagon, just waiting.
It wasn’t a long wait, as the gate to the town swung open and Jen walked out, followed closely by Liane, but neither seemed to panic, so it gave me a little bit of relief.
As soon as they got within earshot, I heard Jen. “It looks like a monster attack.”
“Survivors?” Hari asked.
“I didn’t see any blood or bodies, but I did see what appeared to be rough tracks leading out the northern gate. They appeared to be in a rush,” Jen said.
“Do you have any idea what it was?” Milo asked.
Jen shrugged. “Big.”
But Liane pulled out what looked to be a large stone spike. “Spikeback. Big one.”
She handed the spike to Hari, who appeared to study it. It was only then I realised it wasn’t stone at all, but rather a horn or spike of some kind from the creature.
“This looks old. What is an old spikeback doing in these parts?” Hari questioned.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
I tried to get closer to Luis, who had just been observing everything so far.
“Any idea what a spikeback is?” I asked.
He nodded. “Giant reptile-looking creature. The front is like a baelvryn, but twice as large. However, its skin is covered in keratin spikes and rough black bristles. The most dangerous part, however, is its tail. The end of its tail is a giant club as wide as a wagon’s wheel.”
“Why would it randomly attack a town?” I asked.
Luis shrugged. “From my understanding, they are omnivores. It likely caught wind of something cooking, or fresh meat or grain from a storehouse. Breaking in would have been like snapping twigs.”
Hari looked toward Brisc and his team. “I apologise for suspecting you of foul play.”
He waved it off. “It’s fine. If we had a stronger team, we would have investigated ourselves, but with three warriors and a pretty average mage, we didn’t want to take the risk.”
I heard Milo beside me mutter, “Average?”
But he didn’t push it further than that. It didn’t seem to be aimed at anyone, just voicing confusion.
Crisplet looked like he wanted to fight, expressing eagerness and strength.
Milo shook his head. “No, we can’t chase a spikeback, unfortunately. We’d be leaving the caravan, but also they are very dangerous if provoked or hungry.”
There was a slight pause as he seemed to consider something. “Though I would be curious to see what sort of bacon you could make out of it.”
The mention of bacon immediately got Lily’s attention.
Brisc seemed to laugh at that, overhearing it. “Why would you chase a spikeback for food? It would be impossible to move that much.”
Clearly not believing it was possible, and I wasn’t about to correct him.
Hari, on the other hand, got their attention. “I apologise, but we’ll separate now. We don’t need more guards for the caravan. You’re welcome to stay within sight if you’re concerned about the creature, though I imagine with us leaving the forest, it will be behind us now.”
Brisc had a momentary appearance of being shocked before shaking it off. “Oh, of course. Sorry. Yes, we’ll be on our way.”
“Quickly, before you go. You, Altin, was it? What is your surname? Have we met before?” Milo asked.
Altin waved it off. “No, no, we’ve not met.” It was as if he had been noticed doing something, because he quickly turned his horse and led the group, heading back towards the town.
“That’s a bit odd, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Very,” Milo said.
We waited, watching the group head into the town, giving them plenty of time to get ahead of us, as Anthony and Paro both approached the front now, clearly figuring it was safe.
After a quick rundown from Hari on what had occurred, we mounted our horses again when an ear-piercing roar came from deep in the forest, followed by a large crack, sounding similar to when Gilain broke a tree.
Then there was silence.
All eyes were glued to the treeline, and I was surprised that Hari and Milo were keeping us here. My mind was yelling, run. Looking around, it appeared as though nobody was missing, and we just watched the group pass through the town.
It was only then that I noticed someone was missing.
Lily.
I let out a deep sigh, catching the attention of Jen and Liane next to me.
“What is it?” Jen asked.
I didn’t answer her directly; instead, instead just called out to Milo, who was up ahead. “This is your fault, Milo.”
He looked back, confused. “What did I do?”
Shaking my head, “You mentioned bacon.”
It took a moment for it to dawn on everyone exactly what was happening, with only the merchants and the drivers still looking concerned. Gilain just looked curious as to what was happening.
He got his answer pretty quickly. A loud sound of cracking branches came from the forest next to us, as Lily was dragging out an absolutely behemoth-sized creature by a giant spiked ball on its tail.
It was nearly the size of the drake, only slightly smaller. Its body appeared to be covered in stone at first glance, but I quickly noticed they were all spikes covering its back and shoulders, and anywhere it had a scar, it looked like a spike grew out of it, giving it a strange mismatch.
The face and front paws really were close to that of a giant bear. The claws on the paws looked to be longer than my arm, while the face really appeared to be bear-like. That was all thrown away by the tail, though. That was thick and covered in spikes, with an absolutely giant ball on the end. Saying it was as wide as a wagon wheel didn’t do it justice.
That description didn’t include the spikes.
I dismounted Sable and approached where Lily was sitting next to her kill at the edge of the forest, clearly very proud of herself.
I first gave her a scratch behind the ears before reaching out, placing my hand on the beast, which was still warm, and storing it all.
“I’ll make you the best bacon out of that one. Thanks, Lily,” I said quietly.
Turning back to the group, I had all eyes on me, especially Gilain, the drivers, and the merchants.
I couldn’t hide the grin on my face as I walked back to Sable.
“What? Can’t pass up trying new meat,” I said.
This earned me a boisterous laugh from Gilain as Hari got control again and started calling for the group to move forward.
I overheard Anthony speaking to Nero as I walked back to Sable. “Just how large is his storage?”
Moving through the village itself, Milo spent a couple of minutes repairing the hole in the wall with a stone replacement to stop any further beasts from entering, and we also made sure to shut the gate behind us.
That, however, wouldn’t help all the destroyed buildings in the village itself. It seemed like anywhere there were food stores, the walls were ripped out, with giant claw marks on the wooden walls, and several buildings looking half collapsed.
All around me were signs of the village leaving in a rush. I saw clothes hanging outside, cooking pots still on fireplaces that now looked very charred.
The worst hit must have been a storage building, as there was almost nothing left. The walls were torn to pieces and scattered around, while there was scattered grain on the ground itself mixed with wood splinters.
“For now, Trev, we’ll likely need to show the carcass of the creature, just as proof for the villagers to return home,” Jen was saying.
Looking around, I couldn’t help but ask, “What home? It’s all ruined.”
“Buildings are easy to rebuild. I’ll just be happy to find out no one lost their lives. This could have been so much worse,” Jen said.
I was struggling to imagine all the work and effort vanishing in an instant, all because a creature wandered too close.
Looking back as we left the village through the north gate, again shutting it behind us, I couldn’t help but feel that if it were me, I wouldn’t want to return.