Chess sent all her mental mojo forward to penetrate Caldur’s thick skull. Please, in Freya’s name, let us stop! She groaned when her prayers weren’t answered and the crotch punishing ride continued without pause.
Instead, as if in a mockery of her efforts, the word passed back that they were to eat in the saddle. Walking barefoot was better than this crap.
Beside her, Ashley pulled her bag around into her lap and dug out some biscuits and berries, passing them out to Chess and Lynn. Ashley's casual skill with the horse made Chess regret turning down Gramps' repeated offers to teach her when she was a kid.
Chess took the food with a muttered thanks and ate in sullen silence. Working to keep a proper seat on the horse but otherwise giving it its head to follow the beast before it, as Ashley had suggested.
“How you holding up?” Kan asked, having dropped back to ride beside her.
“Sore,” Chess said glancing over. “Stressed.”
“Riding is like that at the start, you’ll get used to it,” Kan said.
“Wish I could skip the time from now till then,” Chess groused.
“Stressed?” Kan asked.
“About, you know," She waved her hand vaguely. "I’m not sure I should be here; if I made the right choice coming along,” she said, making a point of rubbing her legs.
Kan grunted in an affirmative before falling silent. He watched one of the outriders making his way back towards the group through an open section of the forest they were passing.
Chess recognized the young soldier as Adit when he pulled alongside. The tall young man had a deep frown creasing his face.
“Sarge, Jalp saw Greenlion sign. Less than an hour old,” he reported crisply, before turning to ride right back out.
“Thanks,” Kan said to his retreating form before nodding a bow at Chess. “Lady,” he said, before giving his horse a light kick.
“Greenlion?” Chess asked, turning to Lynn.
“Greenwood lions, they are fast ambush hunters. If it’s a lone male, he probably won't bother us, but if it’s a pride...” Lynn clarified with a shrug, paying closer attention to the forest around them and holding tight to the pendant she wore around her neck.
“Dismount and form up!” the word carried back from man to man and Chess saw Caldur and Kan had stopped to let the drawn-out column collect. Men slipped from their saddles moving their shields from their backs to their arms.
Caldur and an older soldier opened vaults to distribute short spears with long leaf-shaped blades and a straight bar before the shaft. The bar was the main distinction between it and the spears the men had in holders on their saddles.
Adit came back with another man, presumably Jalp, and they conversed with Caldur in whispers before he nodded, turning to address everyone.
“Jalp here found sign of a Greenwood lion pride,” Caldur said thumping the man on the back. “We’ve done the drills and I sure as shit hope you listened to the creature briefing. Mind the man beside you and keep your shields tight. We have two mages, keep them safe and by Kite’s broken shield, use your abilities if you must. If we’re lucky the cats will ignore us or take some horses instead. Questions?” He finished.
“How many?” Kan prompted. He sounded like they'd rehearsed it.
“Big pride. At least 12 adults, same with the young,” Jalp said.
“How big are they? Why are they here? I haven’t seen anything for them to prey on,” Chess asked, feeling lost in the new bustle of the men. They’d all dismounted and faced outward with spears resting on their shoulders watching the forest.
“Full-grown males tend to be 'round 1000 pounds; females are a little smaller, 800 on average. The real danger is if the older ones have developed any abilities,” Kan said.
Chess gulped looking around at the men. She did a quick count now that the last of the outriders had returned and joined the formation. 23 men plus Ashley, Lynn, and herself made 26 people against over two dozen lions.
“They prey on Red-deer and the Dashelk herds that call these woods home. You likely haven’t seen them because they are hard to spot for the untrained,” Caldur added.
Chess felt a weight of dread settle in her stomach and felt foolish being one of the three people still mounted.
Kan noticed her look and approached to stand at her hip grabbing Pedal's saddle. “Don’t worry, if we wound enough of them, or kill a couple, they will leave us be and probably take a few horses. There's more meat on a horse. Just stay in the center and we'll keep you safe." Kan reassured her. "Now, hop down, it's not safe up there if they attack.”
Chess nodded mutely and slipped from the horse, summoning her guitar, and swinging it onto her back in case she needed it. Needing a guitar for a fight, will I ever get used to that? She shook her head at the thought.
She pulled Sprig from the spear holder on her saddle and contemplated it. It lost 100 durability last time I changed it and only regained 5 since. Is it worth changing? she asked herself, before turning to Caldur but stopped herself short of asking for a spear. Instead, she hooked Sprig on her belt and crouched so the short cape of vines and brambles she wore touched the ground; growing them to the full-length cloak she’d gotten used to.
She took up a position in the middle of the group with Lynn and Ashley.
It wasn’t long before the group set out again; the horses trailing in a long line. Chess marveled at how they followed along obediently, at the direction of one of the men, without being tied together.
Every creak of a branch far overhead or beneath the feet of the men tightened the muscles in Chess’s shoulders and made her jerk her gaze. The previous comfortable ease of the journey, created by the confidence of the men, was gone. Even the deep earthy smell of the loam took on more sinister rotten overtones in her mind as she waited for the attack to come. The more she looked around and enmeshed herself in the surroundings the deeper her anxiety became.
“I think knowing something might be coming is worse than just being attacked,” Chess said weakly, after an hour of marching in the tight formation. “Look at them all strung out like bait. I bet they’d run if they knew,” she murmured looking back at the horses.
“Why don’t you play something? You can do that and walk right?” Kan teased her gently. He’d taken a position in the center with her and the girls; acting as a last line of defense for them. His solid presence was one of the only reasons she could keep it together. The men were occasionally turning to report to Kan; mostly that their extra senses hadn’t caught anything new. Caldur had taken the point with Serus a step behind.
“Don’t you need to be able to hear? You know, in case they attack?” Chess asked, secretly ashamed of doing that when she’d first arrived in this world. She looked down at Ashley noting how her ears were rigid and twitched with every sound.
Kan shrugged and shook his head. “Steven and Jack have Forest-Sense Pyth, besides the horses will let us know. We will have a little warning, just don’t be too loud. Besides, you’re not the only one who is apprehensive.”
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“Now you tell me!” Chess said, punching him in the shoulder then shaking her hand. “You had me on tenterhooks thinking they would drop from the trees overhead,” she grumped.
“Those trees? Their lowest large branches are a little high for lions to pounce from,” Lynn said gesturing to the nearest branches; a good 30 feet overhead. There were other smaller trees and branches but none that could hold an 800lb cat.
She sighed before pulling her guitar around and settling it. I can’t recall any marching songs, she thought, before the name of the soldier Kan mentioned struck her. The name was almost exactly like its English counterpart. She tried a few other words to see how they felt before a wide smile split her face and she started belting out Hit the road Jack in the native language. By the third play through many of the men had joined in, some teasingly directing it at the man in question.
She stopped after the third for breath and one of the men beside her looked over his shoulder at her.
“Never heard that one before, know any others in Brastian?” he asked.
“It’s a song from home that translates well. I’ll have to think about others,” she said, then giggled at the thought of translating ‘the song that doesn’t end’ but stopped herself short of inflicting it on this world.
She eventually shrugged and started playing the tune for a song Kan had taught her and let him and the others sing it. The music went a long way to reduce her anxiety, though the odd sound still drew a sharp look.
After running through the songs Kan had taught her, she started to fiddle with relearning an old favorite and adjusting it to her new voice.
The men seemed to draw comfort from her efforts and the march became less intimidating; with conversation popping up again. Though Kan and Caldur made sure that no one's attention wavered from their duties.
“Brace!” Jack yelled.
It was almost surreal when the attack finally came in the lull between two songs. Chess stared in mild awe as four huge green and black cats materialized out of the underbrush and pounced on two of the trailing horses, just as she swept her gaze behind at Jack’s yell. One cat landed on each flank of the last horse in line and another large cat hamstrung the next in line bringing it down with a swipe before another took its neck. The rest of the small herd of horses collapsed in on itself turning into a tight roiling circling mass of thundering hooves and floating dust and debris.
Her focus on the horses, Chess missed the beginning of the attack on the front of the column. Grunts of effort followed by a loud yowl drew her gaze to where Caldur and the others were fending off two smaller lions. One was already backing off and Kan dragged a man to the center of the formation. Chess glanced down and saw the man's mauled leg; the armor covering his thigh was mangled and small rivulets of blood seeped out around his knee. Lynn immediately knelt and drew a knife.
Chess looked back to the fight.
“Mind your sectors,” Kan bellowed, and the men formed up tighter, taking two steps back towards the center.
Chess realized she was taller than most of the men in the troop and had a clear view over their heads. The tight formation highlighted the fact that most of the men were a full head shorter; with only Kan, Caldur, Adit, and the gangly Serus as the exceptions. The fact hadn’t sunk in before, but now the utility of this advantage became plain and she had the clarity to think, I wonder if this is partly why they thought me a noble.
One of the lionesses jumped on Caldur, who interspersed his shield between its maw and his face, falling to one knee under its weight a few paces in front of the men. An errant rear claw hooked his greave and cut its bindings, pulling it to hang from the last strap above his boot. His whole body was suddenly infused with a muted blue glow and he stood.
The cat slipped off Caldur nimbly. It opened its muzzle wide, fangs dripping saliva, to roar. Serus and another man blurred forward when it crouched to attack Caldur again, stabbing the beast with their short spears. The wide blades sunk to the bar, behind the cat's front legs: one on each side. Both men let go of their spears and stepped back behind their fellows, shield held low and tight. Both were quickly handed new spears by men in the center of the formation.
“Back!” Caldur barked, and the men took two steps back and tightened the formation further: forcing Chess along.
Chess studied the magnificent creatures. They were a beautiful mix of dark green and black with dark eyes but otherwise looked exactly like the lions on the discovery channel with big heads and paws and strong bodies. They weren’t as big as they'd told her they could get earlier but still close to 7 feet long excluding the tail. She could only guess at their weights.
The one Caldur had shrugged off was breathing its last, bubbles of blood frothing from its mouth. The other limped backward slowly, a spear lodge in front of its back-hip. Rivulets of blood poured down the shaft, filling the groove the pole was digging into the road. Chess frowned for a moment before realizing Caldur no longer had his spear and had drawn his short sword.
Chess turned to look back at the horses but not much had changed. The four cats were dragging their prizes into the brush and the horses still circled in a growing cloud of dust.
Chess hugged her guitar, uncertain how to contribute. She didn’t understand the attack. The loss of a lion and the maiming of another in exchange for a couple of horses didn’t seem right and she said as much.
“Young males eager to prove themselves. The weaker ones are driven from the pride when they’re two or three by the older stronger males,” Kan explained. His spear rested on his shoulder while his eyes panned the brush.
“If we’re lucky the horses will be enough for the pride to leave us alone. The other one is done for too, no point in getting close until it passes,” Ashley added sagely.
“We’re lucky the lionesses went for the horses, they wouldn’t've targeted Lord Caldur,” Steven agreed.
“You all seem well informed,” Chess observed.
“Only way to stay alive in our line of work,” another man said.
“Fair enough,” Chess conceded. “Only, I felt useless. No one told me what I should be doing and it was over so fast.”
“Beast attacks can be like that. Now, if your so inclined, you can grow a pen for the horses and an area for us with your brambles. We'll be camping here. Make sure there are plenty of large thorns,” Caldur suggested before bending to wrap a bandage about his leg and removing his the last strap on his greave. “Otherwise, when we are fighting look for opportunities and let us do what we do best. Sometimes doing nothing is your best option,” he added straightening and picking up his blade and shield.
“Over there, where there are no branches overhead,” Kan corrected her, pointing to the middle of the road further ahead by the dead lion when she moved to the side of the road.
“In the middle of the road?” Chess asked baffled. “You do know I can’t ungrow plants, right? Just move them a few feet.” Or can I?
“I'd rather be safe,” he said looking up. “Now hurry, the quicker you can get it up the faster we can get them dressed.”
"That's what she said," Chess said by reflex following his gaze up apprehensively, “I thought you said they wouldn’t drop from that height?” she accused Lynn.
Serus choked on a laugh and someone slapped the back of his helm.
Lynn shrugged unapologetically. “A stationary target is easier to land on,” she explained.
Chess harrumphed and angrily played hit the road jack, hoping the lions heard and left them alone.
A woven and thorny palisade slowly but steadily took shape where the men indicated.
“Good call on putting the oldest horses last Dustin,” Caldur said to one of the men nearby.
After she’d finished a perimeter, the men spread out to check the tightness of her barricade. Chess felt a moment of indignation at their prodding before she took a deep breath and let it go. Forcing a smile as she added to the growth where they asked. They'd asked for only one small entrance and made her close it once the small group of men returned dragging the body of the other lion.
“Wasn’t that a little risky?” Chess asked when they’d returned, nodding at the second corpse.
“Nah, Greenies don’t eat anything they don’t kill, even their own,” Serus supplied. He sat on his pack sharpening a knife with a stone, along with three other men. Nearby, Jalp and another man were kneeling beside the bodies drawing mana into a complex blanket over them, the air electric with the draw. Chess felt a buzz, like tasting a nine-volt battery, on her tongue that didn’t stop until the two men held a few filled Pyth bags in each hand.
“Right, let's get to it then,” Caldur said glancing up, a coiled length of rope at his feet and a small weighted loop lazily swirling overhead.
Chess followed his gaze, noting one lone branch that still hung over the encampment a good 40 feet above. That’s impossible she thought, glancing at the rope. But Caldur proved her wrong as the bit arched over the branch and thumped down nearby. The men moved quickly, tying and hoisting the lions.
Chess watched the whole process with interest, noting that it was like what she’d done in the past, with animals she’d taken. Though the men here kept almost everything, only discarding some bones and some of the intestines. Most of it they wrapped in linen and placed in the inventories of a pair of the men. They only left some organ meat and hides out. Others worked at starting a fire while Lynn tended to the injured man throwing the odd worried look at Caldur.
Caldur walked stiffly over to where she and Ashley sat on a bench she’d grown.
“Lady, do you have room to fit a hide or two in your vault? I’m afraid we’re all nearly full up,” he asked gesturing at the pile.
“Sorry,” Chess shook her head.
“How close are you? If you upgraded, could you fit both and some meat?” he pushed.
“I need another 7 doses, and I think so,” Chess said eyeing the hides.
“Done,” he said with a nod. Opening his own vault, he drew out a box similar to the ones she’d gotten. He dug around in it and pulled out a couple of Pyth bags pouring some from one to the other before offering her the smaller one.
“Are you sure?” Chess asked, eyeing the bag like it came with strings attached.
“Definitely. Even an equal amount of meat would be worth 7/10ths to preserve,” he explained. “Consider it payment for storing the hides.”
“In that case,” Chess smiled taking the bag she performed a taste test knowing she'd have to eat it now. It was all she could do not to spit it out. “Gah, cilantro!” She cursed.