Not really knowing how to proceed, the two brothers stood about in the field beside the crude fencing scratching their heads.
Seeing that his two friends were unable to come up with a start to the adventuring, spurned Dittat to jump off from Kano’s shoulder and onto the ground. Where he excited chirped to announce his presence to the surprise of Gelg who easily dwarfed the diminutive green monster.
She came over from the fencing to inspect her new friend with a healthy dose of slobbering and was rewarded with a whack from Dittat’s feeler that sent her yelping back in surprise. But instead of attacking the Woodwurm, Gelg yapped excitedly before bouncing around Dittat in a playful manner. Dittat who was unable to communicate with the Beakhound except for his chirping, was still able to realize that she wanted to start playing together. He was more than happy to oblige as he started scuttling about after her as the two young monsters started a game of tag around the legs of the Brownwhisker boys.
The two boys were momentarily distracted by the playing pair whilst Karl only sat on his haunches, seemingly bored and disinterested with the whole fiasco.
“So umm… what are we supposed to do?” asked Nosal as he shifted about nervously before scratching an itch above his right buttock before inspecting his nails.
“Well ahhhh… I don’t know Nose, I guess we just jump over the fence and…” started Kano before a dreaded realization started dawning on him. In their greedy haste to earn money, they had forgotten to equip themselves with anything to fight with and would have to rely solely on the hounds and Dittat to dispose of the Burrowers. Otherwise they would have to punch the monsters to death.
“Brother… I think we should head off to grab some sticks or something to use from the barracks first..” Kano then suggested with a sheepish look on his face to his younger brother.
“Ouuuieehh! How could we forget to get something to hit with!? What the Realms Kano! Were we supposed to just beat them to death?!” moaned Nosal with a musk of annoyance as he started to shake his head angrily with his hands on his hips.
“Hey! That’s not fair, you forgot it too!” complained Kano before pushing his little brother by the shoulder.
“Yeah yeah.. whatever Kano the PRO-FEE-SION-NAL! Your doing such a great job on you first daaeeyy,” taunted Nosal as he wiggled about in a little spline-like dance past his brother.
Kano in turn was starting to quickly get annoyed and was just about to whip around and hit his little brother again, but upon looking down at the Crow-wolf he stopped to take an exasperated breath before turning round to follow Nosal. For the Crow-wolf was looking at him with a look that was projecting pure disdain and even without using his brother as a proxy, he knew that the large jet black beak-hound also found his professionalism lacking.
“You guys can wait here, we will be right back… please?” Kano tried to command the monsters and gain back some measure of respect from the crow-wolf. But he had once again failed miserably with the inclusion of the “please,” with his begging tone and was rewarded with a disappointed snort from Karl.
What the Realms? Why am I trying to please a beakhound? Kano thought to himself as he trudged through the farm after his brother.
Half an hour later and the brothers returned now equipped with two wooden training swords curtesy of the ever-moody Fellclaw. The flame-hardened wooden weapons were fashioned after short swords and were the lightest weapons in the armory, yet in the hands of the two diminutive brothers they ended up looking more like longswords.
But even with the unwieldy weaponry, the brothers still eagerly gamboled about on their return trip with the swords swinging about in great gusto. Closer to the end of the return trip, the fun atmosphere between the two devolved into one of wariness with the occasional stink-eye thrown towards each other. This was due too the overly enthusiastic swinging of their newly-acquired toys as soon as the swords left the hands off a very reluctant Fellclaw, which resulted in a few accidental smacks on each other.
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Back at the work-site the grumpy brothers were greeted with the sight of a overly eager Dittat and Gelg who were both covered in dirt beside a large hole that was dug down beside one of the stakes that surrounded the Burrower nest. Off to the side was Karl who was still sat on his haunches with an impassive look on his corvid face, but he now had the new addition of a weird corpse that sat beside his front paws. The dead and mangled creature was mole-like in nature except for all of its Delmar-coloured carapace that was leaking a thick and viscous green-colored blood. The corpse was barely even the size of Dittat who was quite small in nature but what was alarming was the sharp claws on the end of the creature’s front paws that was presumably used to shovel dirt.
“Holy Realms, you reckon that’s one of them Burrowers we’re supposed to get rid’of?” asked Kano nervously before sqirting his musk of fear as he approached the dead corpse. Upon reaching the body the boy then gave a few inquisitive pokes with his new weapon before crouching down to better inspect the dead creature. Meanwhile the two happy diggers briefly paused in their work to greet the two brothers before quickly resuming in their work of trying to breach the cordon of stakes.
“I’m not to sure, but I can ask Karl about it,” suggested Nosal as he walked on over towards the Beakhound whilst nervously looking over towards the alien corpse. Reaching a timid hand down towards the back of the disinterested Beakhound, Nosal then made a connection using his glowing green skill.
“Hello Karl… Can you tell me what happned?” Nosal telepathically queried as he sent over the image of the dead creature by the feet of Karl.
“Nothing much to say youngling, stupid preyling jumped out on the younglings when they were digging… so I dispatched of it,” came a deep and coarse monotone reply from Karl’s mind. There was no surprise or any emotion in his reply at all which in turn actually surprised Nosal who was more used to more animate conversation partners whenever he deployed his communication skill.
Waiting for the Beakhound to elaborate and finding nothing but silence as his reply, left Nosal feeling slightly awkward before he quickly cut off his communications with Karl as he went on to rub his hand lamely on the side of his leg.
“So?” asked Kano who was still crouched beside the dead creature as he waited patiently for his brother’s conversation to be over.
“I think so… Karl said he killed it when it jumped out on Dittat and Gelg.. but he didn’t say anything else, but I do think it’s one of the Burrowers Kano,” replied Nosal as he placed his new training sword before him with the pointed tip stabbed into the ground before resting both hands atop it’s wooden hilt that was wrapped in cloth.
“Hmmm… that was pointless wasn’t it? Even I could of worked that out myself O’great brother of mine with his Unsung class,” snorted out Kano before standing up and hefting his own weapon onto his shoulder.
The trio then turned their attention towards a small hubbub of excitement from the smaller Beakhound and the Woodwurm who were exclaiming with excited chirping and barks to announce their breakthrough in the parameter of the cordoned farmland. Amidst the hole they had dug the two were performing some action that was causing the stake they were digging under to wobble before eventually falling down towards the hole that they had dug.
The two brothers then looked over at each other before deciding to walk on over towards the dig-site nearby. But as they were doing so, Karl started to growl before a sudden rumbling noise was starting to emanate from the cordoned section of the farm.
It was as if a multitude of Delmar tunnels were being furiously being shoveled into existence before the alarming sound was quickly cut off.
Even as the two Brownwhiskers stood paralyzed into inaction Karl was already a slick streak that shoot towards the little dig site that was being evacuated by the puppy and the green little scamp who were both covered in dirt.
Beyond the fallen stake where the ground of the farmland that was covered with dying vegetation that was criss-crossing with tunnels a whole army of creatures suddenly erupted from the ground.
A veritable horde of sqaut Delmar-colored creatures, that were all identical to the dead corpse that lay just behind the brothers, now were all facing towards the new gap in the parameter with emotionless insectile eyes that reflected the twins in a sinister sheen.
The brothers were now rooted in fear rather than just confusion at the multitude of Burrowers that lay before them as the creatures waved their feelers about in the morning air before quickly rushing forwards in a scuttle of armored legs towards the breach.
But before they could get into the breach, Kar who easily dwarfed any of the Burrowers by nearly a dozen times had already shot through the gap in a sinuous blur of dark sinew and muscle was now amongst the rushing insectile army.
That was when the carnage began.