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The Forging of a Sage
Chapter 59: Fall of a So-Called God

Chapter 59: Fall of a So-Called God

Beryn walked around the cage that had been made. Honestly, it exceeded her expectations. She was pleased it did, after all, she had given the blacksmiths priority of supply selection as payment for their help. They had it set up, cables tight, and one of them threw a sack of coal into the center.

The whole thing slammed together with a bang. “Gonna take at least five men on either side to pull it apart, but no sense in doin’ that til we get it into position, Lady Beryn,” the blacksmith said.

“I feel like if we are not careful, the trap could kill a man,” she looked at the angry teeth at the top of it.

“Yes, or take off a limb,” the black smith said. The trap had four sides, but came together at a point, like a pyramid. The metal had a lot of bend and resistance to it, so she was a little worried the badger could climb out the top if he tried hard enough. Then again, if the poison doesn’t work on him, we’ll just be stabbing him to death, she thought.

“All right, gather a crew that you trust to camouflage and set this trap at the spot we’ve chose. How long will the hunters need to be a diversion?”

“If we can get twenty men, we can be in and outta there in an half an hour or less, I should think. Even better with some of o’ your mages,” the lead blacksmith said.

“Very good.”

She had put a fair amount of thought into it, and she had set aside the bribes. Three of the hunters had been successful at eluding the angry badger who had taken up trying to keep them under siege - most everyone else was quick to give up.

***

Rozner accepted his quiver of poisoned tipped arrows. He could not say why he felt it to be so exhilarating to break through the badger-god’s guard and make it to the forest beyond to hunt. He knew why the old man standing with him, listening to Lady Beryn’s plan did it - if he didn’t get them food, then his grandkids wouldn’t eat. He imagined that was the same motivation for the middle-aged man, since he was married.

The woman was currently clinging to his arm, “This really going to work?”

“I am confident in all of you,” Lady Beryn said.

“It seems to use plants on us when we run across it, so as long as we stay close enough to retreat to the refinery, it’ll stop!” Rozner offered, trying to help soothe the woman.

He was pleased he got a little bit of a grateful look out of Lady Beryn when he said these things. I had pretty mixed feelings about her before, but she’s been very fair. Besides, gettin’ my own fixed up place if we can get the lumber and some new boots? Sign me up.

The town still looked terrible, but people’s attitudes were changing because it was cleaner, the water was better, it smelled a little nicer. She divided what she could, and what could not be divided fairly, she allowed people to earn. Her medic was a literal lifesaver, and his ma was doing much better now. This is my chance to stand out.

The old man rolled his eyes, “Or we split up and let him try to chase whichever one we pick if it gets bad. Hope it ain’t me.”

“Are we still hoping to take the thing alive?” the middle-aged man asked.

“If we can, but I will not hesitate to kill it if we cannot hold it or it is still dangerous. You should also not hesitate to use arrows to kill it.”

The old man shook his head. “Stealin’ food is one thing, I ain’t shootin’ at no God.”

“Some of them turn into people,” the other hunter said, uncertainly.

“Defend yourself,” Lady Beryn insisted. “You must keep him busy and on the other side of the ridge for an hour.”

“Understood!” Rozner said brightly.

Before he knew it, he was on his horse and heading out. He patted the gelding’s neck. “Today’s gonna be scary,” he said, knowing the beast couldn’t understand him.

“All right,” old man said, riding alongside them, “Plan is get it to chase us. Gets too close or we get into the trees, split up. We can help each other by riding near it, and tempting it to chase a different one o’ us.”

Rozner nodded.

They rode up the hill to the refinery, which was no longer operating since Beryn had gotten here. She had put those men to work getting the town fixed, even though it would hurt what they could trade. Apparently, with Rubis’ daughter backing them now, they had wealth from the dragon able to help them with supplies.

The badger didn’t show right away. Sometimes they could see him lurking just where the discarded slag stopped and the grass started, daring them to cross the green threshold.

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However, sometimes he also lurked, camouflaged deeper into the forest, even though he was the size of a regular bear, and would come springing out and charging with that awful uneven badger waddle at them. He’d definitely killed some men, and it would be good to see him be made to stop.

The massive and completely unsettling badger snarl from a copse of trees proved it was a lie-in-wait day. He nearly took the old codger’s horse out, but hesitated as both other men yelled at it - it was not used to groups of hunters after the first days meant that it almost always got one of them and the other got away and Lady Beryn had backed off from that plan. All three horses spooked, the badger-god was almost as big as they were, and Rozner had to beat a branch off of himself with his bow as they scattered.

The badger bolted after the old man, “TRESPASSERS!”

Rozner reached behind him and plucked one of the arrows from his quiver, and after letting his gelding gallop his adrenaline out a little, he turned him back, running parallel along with the badger. Gods are meant to be kind and compassionate. That is what we all learn. Then there’s you pompous, puffed up animals. He pulled back his bow - he had never hunted from horseback before. The rocking motion was unsettling, and of course, his stance couldn’t be square with his legs straddling the horse. He focused on his torso. He bent in his arrow, he focused on just the upper half of him being right. If I can do it while running, I can do it while riding. He loosed the arrow. It flew way off the mark and into the trees.

Just as the old man’s horse was screaming with panic, the other hunter galloped his horse down a hill and leapt over the badger, distracting it. The old man turned his mare sharply to the right and headed back toward the town. Rozner made a disappointed noise as the badger chased the other man back toward the refinery.

“Hey!” he yelled at the hunter. “Hey!” Are you really just going to lead it back over the ridge?

He reached behind him again, this time not for the poisoned arrows, but just some of his regular hunting ones, and he let loose, the arrow bouncing off a stone not too far form the badger’s feet as it nearly crested the ridge.

It stopped dead. It’s brown eyes gleamed green auras at Rozner. Its voice boomed through the trees, which creaked and came to life all around them. “I am Setsy! God of the Forest, and you dare attack me?”

Several tree branches grabbed at him, and he knew he was in serious trouble, but his gelding leaped into action, skittering side to side from animated trees as it raced for a creek, where the trees were not so dense, and they galloped down it, deeper into the forest.

For what felt like eternity, it was really touch and go, but just as he thought he was really done for, the other hunter managed to come up behind the badger, “Leave my friend alone!” he hollered at it.

Badgers, even magical talking ones, were not good at sprinting like horse endlessly. He was so tired and focused that he looked really startled to hear a human behind him. He stopped in his tracks and tried to pivot, but he was so big that the other human was well out of his reach and racing back toward the ridge in plenty of time.

Rozner used his knees to guide his gelding the same direction, not comfortable with how deep they had rushed into the woods. This whole plan could be wrecked if they ran into another forest god, after all.

Soon enough, the blackened ridge was in sight, and he had a more open shot at the badger, who once again was about to crest the ridge. Rozner took another regular hunting arrow, and fired.

This time, he had been better at anticipating how the movements of the horse were going to time out to effect his shot, and his eyes bulged out as the arrow struck the badger in the meaty part of a back leg.

The forest god fell down, his momentum tearing up the earth as he slid to a stop. His scream was harsh, and then plaintive, and Rozner worried he was going to call for help.

Then, green aura intensified all around the creature, and it had nothing but eyes for him. Even the old man running his mare alongside it; gave no response; it was charging at Rozner with furious rage.

My father was a hunter, and he always said don’t shoot at badgers and bears, because they don’t die, he thought with panic as he turned back and loosed another arrow, this time it hit the badger somewhere on his chest, but clearly got stuck in a bone and didn’t go very far. Setsy screamed, but he didn’t even hesitate from the blow.

Fear of death filled Rozner as they crossed back into the green threshold and plants grabbed his gelding by the legs. There was a horrible cracking sound as they both came to a halt, and Rozner was flung over the poor thing’s head. He was afraid that a leg had been broken, but it didn’t matter as the badger caught it and gripped the poor guy by the head and broke him with a viscous death shake.

It broke his heart, and he felt his own rage as he reached into his quiver right where he was sitting and fired a poison arrow straight at the thing’s head. It missed and went into the meaty part of his shoulder. It didn’t stop. The poison seemed to have no effect as it seemed to get more energy and rage to charge him. He frantically fired off two more shots - missing with both of them before the old man managed to scoop him the ground by the back of the shirt.

The only good thing about the arrows sticking into the angry forest got was that it was a little slower as it chased them.

Relief filled him as they heard the horn call, the trap was set. He scrabbled to hold the old man’s waist as they galloped out of the green and back into the refinery. They skirted it, the badger actually chasing them across it.

Lady Beryn, at the bottom of the hill, near the gorge where the trees still were, sounded her horn again, guiding them that way.

***

Lady Beryn, watched during the whole trap set up. Twice she thought they were going to get given away, but her men did well. The blacksmiths were also faster than they had estimated. “Run! Back to town!” she said sharply, the men near her scattering except her two mages, who stood on guard nearby.

She blew her horn; the hunters almost immediately came back over the ridge, the badger chasing them with fury - and a couple arrows sticking out of him that didn’t bother him nearly as much as Beryn would have liked them to do. I wonder if any of them are the poison-tipped ones. I will have to ask later.

She drew her dirk. “Hey! Forest God! The men were following my orders! I am the one reclaiming Miron!”

The badger did not pay her particular mind, but the old hunter was wise enough to bring his frothed mare behind her. The kid was bloodied up, but looked mostly all right.

The badger was so enraged he didn’t have the sense to realize something was off as he charged them, and as he came almost within swiping distance, his massive weight sprang the trap shut on him.

It became instantly apparent it would take him only seconds to get out though, and so Beryn moved in, where his head was trapped and drove home her blade several times in succession, until the beast stopped twitching.

There was a hush over the world. All her men, the people in the town, the woods themselves seemed quiet, as the blood ran from the cage and began to trickle off the edge of the cliff.

She held her bloody blade over hear head, “Do real Gods bleed?”

“No!” the youngest hunter yelled back.

“Do real GODS BLEED?”

“NO!” many more voices answered.

People poured out of the town to see the spectacle of it all, the corpse of something that just turned out to be a creature, and not a mysterious divinity of the forest.