Chapter 3: A Warm Welcome

Noble:

With the sky clear, the localised lighting storm gone and the angelic feathers faded back in the Nether all signs of an Angel Fall ever taking place had vanished bar the crater I was still standing in.

The first thing I noticed was the breeze it was pleasantly cool against my skin. The second thing was that I was naked which in hindsight explained why I had any skin exposed to feel the breeze in the first place.

The third and at the time the most important was that I was about to vomit. After a few elegant minutes on my knees hurling I unsteadily rose to my feet.

The problem with Angel Fall was that being pulled apart and being promptly fired out of a warp powered lightning bolt and then being put back together planetside had the unfortunate side effect of making even the most experienced and veteran of my kin green around the gills.

Looking back up from whence I came, I saw that the sky was a familiar shade of blue without a cloud in sight.

Climbing out of the crater I got the first proper look at my immediate surroundings. The ground was while scorched around my impact zone otherwise a lush and vibrant green, the grass pleasantly soft beneath my feet.

I was situated in the centre of a small clearing, the trees in a ring around me where towering giants thrusting into the sky like a million spears.

After a few minutes of walking around the clearing to see if the gravity was any different than that of Terra ‘hmm there’s something but it’s negligible’. I didn’t feel any lighter or heavier for that matter just different.

The sun was no longer in sight and the sky was slowly darkening. I hurried around the edge of the clearing collecting stones and sticks and larger pieces of wood.

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Several minutes and a couple of blisters later I had achieved in setting a handful of kindling aflame. Moving quickly I placed it in a campfire I had encircled with larger rocks. With fire light to see by I set to work on the collection of stones I had acquired.

’damn it been awhile since flint napping was a relevant skill of mine’ wiping my brow I appraise the sharpened and shaped stones and flint shards. I feel a smile tug at the corners of my mouth.

Before I could continue with my Stone Age construction project a howl cuts through the quiet of the dusk. With the sun rapidly falling under the horizon the woodlands where cloaked in shadow the uneven light negating my semi-decent night vision.

The howl sounds again this time from another direction. This time it was close.

Standing up I see movement at the edge of the clearing. They were staying within the forestry to hide their numbers. I grab a branch as long as my forearm, setting the branch aflame. I hold the make shift torch out from my body and peer into the darkness.

They came quiet as a mouse too quiet for my ears to pick up. Standing over a meter at the shoulder, the large almost hulking forms of the wolves stalked into the clearing keeping close together the dozen monstrous creatures eyes reflecting the light of the fire.

One larger than the others snarls and the advance stops 20 metres from my position. Never having been one to wait for others to strike first I throw the torch at the wolf pack.

The orange glow traversed the space between us in a heartbeat. Striking one of the beasts, the wolves looked curiously at the torch before a bark from the Alpha brought their attention back to me.

Standing with my back to the campfire I stood waiting for them to advance and they did so. The thrown torch succeeding in making them come to me. After all it would suck to charge out heroically only to be surrounded and torn to shreds much better to fight them near the fire.

Accelerating rapidly into a sprint the wolf pack crosses to me faster than they had any right to, the one in the lead leaps at me it means to tear me apart with fang and claw. Dodging to the side I move out the way only to be tackled by the second wolf.

The first wolf landed in the fire its pained cries brought with it the final moments of sunlight.

The wolf that hit me was a metre away grabbing one the sharpened stones I had made earlier from the ground, I dash over to the wolf just as it turned to meet me. Holding the stone knife underhand I arc it into the wolf’s eye.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Until the wolves writhing ceased I plunged the jagged rock into the creature. Covered in blood I rose from the corpse. Throwing my arms outwards a savage howl of my own tears from my throat. This is how a fight should be, no rules of engagement, objective other than survival. One where the only thing at stake was the one thing truly yours. Your life. I had forgotten what it felt like.

The remaining 10 wolves circled cautiously, now wary of the tool in my hand. Slowly changing which hand in which the knife is held I eye up the pack.

Simultaneously we all explode into movement. The pack moves inwards and I wove outwards to meet their furious charge.

What followed was a short but unbelievably brutal melee, afterwards as I lay their under the corpse of the Alpha I struggled to remember any details of what had occurred. All I could recollect was flashes of movement each one stealing the life of my immediate opponent my body moving entirely on instinct and muscle memory.

Exhausted from everything that had occurred since my final orbital drop I passed out next to a crackling fire and surrounded by corpses.