Over a kilometre further downstream, the river broadens and becomes shallower. Suddenly, the surface water breaks as the Barh’groth bursts out, gasping for air. It had never been in deep water before, and any swimming capabilities it might have were negated by the bleeding stump on its left side. Finally, it had found a place where the river bottom was shallow and could push itself out.
With great effort the large creature wades to the right bank, before collapsing on the thin stretch of a gravel beach that had replaced the marshes from upstream. Tiredness threatens to send it into a deep and long slumber. However, its left stump is still bleeding. Normal wounds would long have started healing, and now the beast starts to become worried.
A thought flashes across its mind ‘That spell must be the cause’. Thinking only increases the sense of pain though. ‘This is new for me. Usually the pain sends me in a rage, a joyous red world. Now I only feel defeated and weak.’ Groaning, the beast now doubts how well it is liking this new situation.
The bleeding finally seems to be diminishing, and the Barh’groth stands up, first slipping away in the gravel, before limping into the foliage. There it sleeps for the first time in its life. The dark energies, combined with a supply of raw meat, that usually power its body are virtually absent now.
When it wakes, many hours later, the sun is setting and a red light filters through the leaves above. Hunger and thirst quickly occupy its thoughts. Quenching its thirst in the river, more thoughts flit through its mind, the first is ‘I wish this was blood’, the second is ‘I should cover my tracks, in case that wizard or the like decide to chase me again’. While it is walking back, sweeping its tail over any footprints, a third thought creeps up
‘I can name myself. I am free to lead my own life, so I should somehow celebrate my individuality’.
This new notion alleviates some of its previous glooming. The beast starts digging through the new information that it has available. Some words it recognizes as personal names of people, a few of those are connected to the people that it killed long ago. None of the names really stick out though, and it grumbles as it is now thinking about eating again.
Instead of bothering with names, it decides to get going. First, it orientates on the river, and then starts to move away diagonally. This seems to be the direction leading away from the elven cohort. Different ways to take revenge cross its mind, as it plunges into the darkening forest. Its eyes easily pierce the darkness of the night and its ears catch the sounds of small animals fleeing ahead.
Around midnight, a different sound reaches its ears. Slowing down, the beast lightly approaches the source. Soon the noise is accompanied by the flickering light of two campfires and the smell of roasted meat. ‘They are humans’, it thinks, ‘food’. Analysing the situation, it seems to be a small caravan, camping in the middle of a dirt road, with a dozen humans, a few horses and carts. Apparently these forests are usually a safe travelling route, because they do not seem to be very alert. Two guards are stationed at the perimeter, while the rest is sharing flagons of some alcohol around the fires.
‘This is easy, but it is better if none of them escape’
With this thought in mind, it starts to slowly approach the camp. The fires don’t reach far into the forest and the three moons that usually light the sky are hidden by thick clouds. One of the figures around the fire stands up and begins playing a lute, while singing a loud song. The men around the fire know the song and are happy to accompany the musician. At this point, the beast starts moving, quickly gaining momentum; it pounces on the first guard, who gets decapitated instantly. Next, its claws stab through a next person, ripping out his heart. The Barh’groth spins around, letting its tail slice into a bloody circle. If it wasn’t missing an arm, then this would go even faster. Now the monster staggers at times, regaining its balance. Most humans look at the enormous monster in shock. Some of them start to scream or scramble away. When the tail swoops towards the musician, his mouth halfway a verse, one of them cries out “Bard, no!”
It is too late, but suddenly the behemoth falters. It growls “Bard, Barh’groth, Bard.” While more than half of the travel group is lying dead on the forest floor, the monster had found its new name. It starts howling “Bard, Bard”, while the remaining men look on in horror. A howl changes to a roar, when the second guard stabs his halberd at stump where once the left arm was. The guard looks hopeful, but in the next moment is staring at the hole where once his right shoulder was located. When the second guard drops, all the remaining travellers start fleeing. One by one, they are caught. Finally, Bard, as beast likes calling itself now, also decides that ‘it’ is not a proper way to call itself. Instead, it feels like ‘he’ or ‘him’ is better. A small voice in its head whispers that this is the effect of the humans’ spell, which is influencing its mind in ways of which it is unaware. The idea is annoying, but the beast shrugs and turns in favour of more important matters.
He throws the last corpse back into the ring. The horses have fled, but so be it. Just as Bard rips off the first body part to start its meal, a soft whimper makes his head snap around to see a young human male hiding in one of the carts. In the blink of an eye, the monster stands in front of the cart, his claw poised to strike. Bard moves to strike, however, he suddenly hesitates. His vision swims, as the face of the boy is replaced with that of another kid, looking rather similar. The vision changes to this human kid running into his arms, human arms oddly. Other visions pass by; in one he is on a ship, looking down at a wharf where people are gathered, who waving goodbye to those on board. One of them is this boy, tears in his eyes.
The vision disappears and Bards claw strikes the cart to the side of the boys head. Upon inspection, the boy seems to have passed out. Bard understands that the kid must look similar to the offspring of one of the magicians that had cast the spell on him. He is still in doubt about whether that is a reason to spare this human. However, the young one isn’t dangerous at the moment, so instead it starts to eat, picking the bodies clean. Finally, the sky becomes lighter, as the sun is rising behind the cloud cover. Bard finishes feeding and looks around, wondering if it should do something about the mess here. His eyes fall on the young boy. Bard didn’t know much about human aging; it didn’t matter when killing them before. From the information he has, the boy should be in his late teens. He looked scrawny, even for a human.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
‘Perhaps, this one can be useful. I do not know anything about this place and he can tell me more.’
The sky breaks and soft rain starts falling. The water forms small rivulets that transport the blood from the road. Rain drops splatter into the kids face, and the boy laboriously starts to sit up straight, opening its eyes to his surroundings. Bard studies his face, as it takes in the ruins of the encampment. Tears well up in the boys eyes, mixing in with the steady rain. Finally, the boy looks at the monster that is crouching at the edge of the forest. Fear flickers across his face.
At this point, Bard stands straight and moves towards the boy. He can clearly see that the kid is scared out of his mind. ‘A very familiar look’, he thinks with faint amusement. Several meters in front of the cart, he stops and snarls
“Do not worry. I will not harm you.”
Bard understands what is going wrong right away. This is his language, the language of his old masters and the monsters they command. Humans speak something else, and this one is clearly not reassured by his words. Becoming frustrated, he thinks, and then points at himself and says in a low growl
“Bard”
The boy doesn’t seem to understand at first, but after a number of repetitions, cautiously moves a hand to his chest and responds with
“Keith”
Bard lets the sound flow through his mind, before saying as well
“Keith”
It comes out rumbling, but it is somewhat understandable. Bard once more points at the boy and says “Keith” and then points at himself “Bard”. This new development tells him that he will first have to learn to communicate.
‘This might take a while’
Now that this makeshift introduction is done, the monster starts to move through the encampment, looking here and there. Finally, it grabs a number of bags and crates. When he dumps them in front of Keith, the boy looks at the heap, questioningly. This monster killed everyone last night, all his companions, and now it seems to want to communicate somehow. He had never heard of such a thing happening. A low growl makes his attention snap back to the present situation. The beast looks somewhat impatient, if it even has the possibility to express such a thing. Keith also notices that one arm is just a stump at the shoulder, covered with relatively fresh blood, while the other arm points at the heap of crates and bags in front of him.
After taking three deep breathes, he comes down from the cart and looks through the stuff there. It seems the monster has selected the containers with food. Supposedly, he had to gather all the food that is in the caravan. Keith started gathering the rest with trepidation.
‘Clearly this monster doesn’t eat normal food, so why do I need to gather this food for it? Even fruit and bread?’
Keith had noticed the scraped bones and clothes of his former companions lying around. When he is finally done, the monster looks through them, then rips off the canvas from a cart, throws in the food containers and starts carrying the entire thing.
Bard moves to the forest, intent on looking for some kind of liar to use as a temporary home. Looking back, the human youngling is still standing in the middle of the open road, as rain continues to fall softly. Growling, Bard sets down the sack with human food, and gestures the kid to follow him. After confirming that the kid is walking behind him, he continues, thinking
‘Humans sure are slow creatures. It is unbelievable that they are not all dead yet.’
Eventually, the ground starts to slope and they start to climb the small mountain that Bard chose as target. Two breaks are necessary when the kid is not keeping up. Around mid-day, Bard moves to the right, through a few bushes and a cave appears. The cave is slightly sloping upwards into the marl mountain soil.
Keith moves behind the large Barh’groth, panting heavily. This appears to be the home of the monster. He walks in a large circle around the monster to approach the cave. However, the beast drops the sack with food and indicates to Keith to wait. The beast, who apparently is called ‘Bard’, growls, as it enters the cave. Soon another loud howl sounds, which ends in a whimpering squeak. A few moments later, the beast stomps back out, dragging behind it the corpse of a giant bear. The bear is thrown next to the cave and the monster gestures for Keith to enter now.
He does as commanded, fearful, and not understanding why he is still alive when everything else is mercilessly slaughtered. The monster trails behind him, head scrapping the ceiling. The food is thrown into one corner, while the beast sits down between Keith and the entrance. Keith is unsure of what to do, looking around, also spotting the bloody place where the bear once must have lain. After a while he looks back at the monster, and directly reeling back. The eyes of the Barh’groth stare at him intently, as if it is considering what to do with him. Avoiding its gaze only worked for so long, and eventually the rumbling breathing of the beast seems to fill the whole cave.
“Speak”
Confused, Keith looks over at the creature, uncertain what he had just heard. Once again, its jaws move and it says
“Speak”
“What should I speak off?” Keith asks.
However, there is no answer for a long time. Then Bard states
“Anything”
Pointing at Keith, he repeats
“Speak. Anything”