Disclaimer: I do not own Warhammer or any of its elements that are used in this story.
A/N: Second try at longer story. Was going to use SI as I was inspired other SI stories, but decided an OC would work just as well.
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Grendiberg was a decent sized looking village. Disorganized rows of single story houses made of rough-hewn stone blocks set in timber frames with thatched roofs were centered around a series of taller slate roofed stone buildings. A short looking stone wall separated it from the strips of farm land that surrounded it. The dirt road became a simple wood bridge on its way to the village as it crossed a narrow stream that ran from the forest. The stream snaked through several leafy green fields to a pond at the edge of one. And a path lead out to the far side of the village to the forest that stretched in either direction as far as could be seen with logging evident along the edges.
It looked picturesque in the afternoon sun. Like something Jared might have found in a history book. Too bad his was not in the mood to appreciate it. And this just made him more worried as he started down the hill the dirt road he was following went over, the wind ruffling his short brown hair, blue jacket and jeans. Because while finally seeing some form of human civilization again did make him feel a bit better after walking for a day and a half without seeing any of it. He couldn't see anything he considered normal.
No telephone or power lines. Street lights or store signs. Cars or vehicles of any kind, the streets in the village didn't even look paved. He supposed it could be an Amish or Mennonite community, as it would explain the wheel and horse tracks, and droppings, on the road. But he was pretty sure there weren't any close to Greenville.
Not that he was even sure he was close to where he lived. As the last he remembered was being at a friend's party. Then darkness before he woke up at a cross road with a rickety looking pole with signs nailed to it that had faded and strange looking lettering. From where he had woken one pointed left to a place called Essen, right to Horutenfurt, forward to Gendiberg, and the opposite to Sloddinheim. None of which he recognized in the slightest besides sounding European.
At first he had thought it was a prank by one of his friends or someone at the party, after all enough alcohol could make anything seem worth doing. But after discovering his wallet, phone, and keys, including the emergency twenty he stashed in his left sock in case something like this happened to him while he was drunk. He decided it wasn't a prank, especially after yelling for a good ten minutes that whoever it was had got him. So he dusted off himself off, did up his jacket as it was pretty windy and headed off towards Gendiberg because the wind was blowing that way.
He had regretted his decision a few hours later, if the he went by the sun. As the relatively flat grassland with the occasional grove of trees that surrounded the crossroads swiftly gave way to scattered trees and rolling hills of rock and bushes that made the dirt road curve and bend.
And while he did think about going back and trying a different direction as sunset arrived. The howl of wolves and movement of shadowy figures on the surrounding hill tops had him resting up in a large sparsely leaved tree. In spite of how bright the moon and stars were now that he was away from the light of a city.
Sleep turned out to be as elusive as the figures he kept seeing around him. The light bothered him and trying to sleep in a tree was very uncomfortable. Resulting in maybe four or five hours slept about an hour at a time. As he listened and watched for anything threatening, how rough and hard the bark he was on was, and tried not fall out of the tree.
Heading up a hill the when the sun rose though filled him with hope and determination. As he made out distant wisps of dark smoke he recognised as coming chimneys from his time at his grandfather's cottage.
It had been hours since then, again judging from the sun. And having eaten or drank nothing since the party while continuously walking left him feeling terrible. Honestly, he could not remember ever feeling this bad. Each step sent a spike of pain up his legs. His stomach constantly growled and ached. And his head throbbed leaving him feeling woozy.
Still he pushed himself forward. He told himself that each step brought him closer to the stream he could drink from before seeking help from whoever lived in the village. He could call with a phone or if it was Amish get a ride to somewhere that had one. All he had to do was make it to stone wall or even the fields and people were sure to notice him and help.
At least the wind is still behind me he thought and smiled to himself as he rounded the hill. Ah, there are the fields he thought even as a frown replaced his smile. Where is everybody? He wondered as he looked around the fields. All were empty except for birds pecking at the plants and scratching at the soil.
Stranger still there was still no sign of anyone as he reached the bridge. For a moment the wind stopped and faint sounds of voices and noise reached his ears. Then it picked back up leaving Jared to shrug and kneel beside the stream and had a drink.
Gulping down handful after handful of water, any worries of it being dirty or full bacteria were pushed to the back of his mind as he quenched his thirst. Standing back up he felt his headache ease and stomach quieten. His legs didn't hurt any less, but he was okay with that given how close he was to the village and smiled again through the pain.
However as he looked back at the village something struck him as wrong. It wasn't just the continuing lack of people. Thinking back to the sounds he had heard by the stream the feeling continued to grow as he got close enough to make out the wood shuttered windows of the houses.
Smoke, as it came to him and shifted his gaze higher, there is too much of it coming from the village. Too much even if every single one had a fire burning. And judging from the thick dark clouds it was a fire at the other side of village. That was likely where everyone was, helping to put it out. He hoped they had it under control as he reached the wall.
The village seemed a rather eerie with no one around. The stillness and quiet, except for the gusting wind, made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Heading between two houses as the road ended a few feet into the village Jared was shocked as the sounds he had heard before at the stream returned much louder and clearer.
It was the sounds of battle. And while Jared had never heard a real one before he still had a pretty good idea from movies and video games. It was like hearing a great off tune symphony of noise. An endless clash of metal on metal mixed with shouts of rage, pain and horror from voices both human and inhuman. Occasionally the inhuman voices would give guttural roars of triumph and dull sounding hunting horns sounded and were followed by a chorus of disparaging human cries. And even more worrying to Jared, he could make out the thumping of footsteps echoing through the rows of houses.
The noise turned the ominous feeling into the gnawing of fear and settled in his guts. He had to get out of there. A battle, particularly one as savage sounding as this one, was no place for him.
Turning around he started moving back to the road out from between the houses. He found himself frozen though as he reached the corner of the left house as the sound of two of the inhuman voices reached his ears. These ones sounded different from the rough roaring ones involved in the battle. They were high-pitched and came in short almost whining bursts of improperly pronounced words.
Jared crept slowly backwards to avoid making any noise and attracting the owners of the bizarre sounding voices. Even as he did though, curiosity at what could be possibly making them had him leaning over slightly. Just enough so that he could see around the edge of the house get a glimpse of said owners. And promptly almost fell over in surprise at what he saw.
They were Beastmen. A pair of Ungors in fact, as he recognised them from the models his friend Ralf had used for the Warband campaign Alexis had come up with.
Stubby horns sprouted from the brows of their ugly half-human half-goat faces. Patches of matted red-brown fur covered their limbs leaving more than he wanted to see of their thin wiry frames exposed.
Oh I'm dreaming, I have to be dreaming, he thought as the pair came to a house. That's why I can't remember anything, I must have slipped and hit my head at the party and now I am dreaming about Warhammer because Alexis and Jamie were organising that Hero zombie kill challenge.
Jared watched as one, armed with a stone axe and simple shield, kicked down the door of a house and looked around inside. It grunted dismissively a few seconds later and the other one, armed with a stone spear and burning branch, squealed in delight as it touched the branch to the roof and set it on fire. Both watched the flames crackle and spread across the dry looking straw before turning to the next closest house which happened to be the one on his right.
Except as much as he wanted to believe it was all a dream he just couldn't. After all, you didn't feel tired in dreams after walking down dirt roads all day. Hell in dreams, at least his dreams, didn't make you walk down roads at all to get where the action was. His were more like a movie and just moved you to where the next exciting thing was happening. And that fire sure smelled real and the pair did too as a gust ruffled their fur and brought a putrid smell to his nose that mixed rotten meat, blood, unwashed skin, and excrement into one eye watering odor.
Crap, crap, crap as he sped up as much as he dared to while walking backwards. He wanted sigh in relief a second later as he lost sight of them around the corner of the house but stopped himself in case one of the ungors heard. Just have to get to the wall hop over it and run… somewhere, figure that out later when I am not near things that will kill me.
He had just turned around to face the wall when a wet snorting sound came from the house the ungors were at. Shit was all that came to mind as he remembered their animal level senses and an excited bark preceded a scrambling of paws.
Jared headed for the nearest house, knowing trying to climbing over the wall while being chased by bloodthirsty mutants would just get him killed. His legs temporarily free of pain as his fear lent him a burst of energy. Blind panic filled his mind as he ran past the house and dodged around another to crouch behind a stack of firewood. His brain screamed at him to run and hide somewhere, anywhere really, as long as it was away from those things. However the rationale part of him knew that wasn't going happen. They would just sniff him out again if he hid and could easily catch if he tried to run. And when either happened they would kill him.
Therefore he had to fight, even if he didn't have a clue how to.
Forcing himself not to bolt for the next house, Jared looked around and spotted an axe leaning against the firewood. A desperate idea formed as he grabbed it and moved to the corner of the house he had just come around. His only chance was to surprise them as they came around it so they had no chance of dodging it as the only experience he had using an axe was chopping wood when camping.
"Just breathe, breathe." He whispered to himself and took a deep breath as the sound paws got closer. As he let it out and took another he raised the axe and hoped both ungors would come around the same side of the house as he did.
Letting out the breath he strained his ears listening for the ungors and ignoring the frantic pounding of his heart and battle elsewhere in the village.
He tightened his grip as one of them gave a yip of recognition on the other side of the house. Quick excited breathes and steps followed. Then just as the sound seemed to be right next to him he swung as hard as he could.
A meaty thud and crunch bone breaking filled the air as the axe head connected with the spear carrying one's chest. Jared winced as it shrieked in pain and tumbled to the ground, pulling him over the axe remained stuck in the twisted creature.
"Dammit, stupid thing, let, go." He growled as he yanked again and again to free the axe from the thing's ribs as it writhed and screamed on the ground. The pair must have split up to look for him as he could hear the other approaching from behind the house on his left. Fear chilled his blood as he stomped down on the downed mutant in the neck to silence it and make it easier to pull the axe. He quickly freed the axe head with a wet sucking noise that left the dead ungor's muscle and bone exposed to the air, and him swallowing down his vomit, as blood seeped from the opening.
Forcing his gaze away from it, and his mind that he had just killed something, he lifted the axe and turned in time to see other mutant come around the house. It howled in rage as it spotted still body of it's fellow and charged. Jared barely managed to jump backwards away as it lashed out with the axe. He swung back and almost had the axe knocked from his hands as the warped thing blocked it with a slam from it's shield.
Moving back to avoid another blow he tried an overhead swing only to receive a painful kick in the leg as it lashed out with the claws on it's paw-like feet. A hideous smile showed the ungor's broken black teeth as it realized Jared had gotten lucky with it's partner.
It kicked again before following up with a slash followed by a blow with it's shield that had him staggering about in front of the houses to avoid the attacks like he was dancing. He swung at the beastman as it howled again but had to stop as it slashed with it's axe. This is it, I'm dead, he thought as it lunged at him and he nearly fell over as the attack drove him over the body of the spear ungor.
As he recovered he tried to put some distance between him and the mutant. But once again it pressed forward to keep attacking. Half-heartedly he raised the axe and immediately the thing batted it aside, he knew the thing was just playing with him. But he wanted to make at least some effort as the idea of giving up meant all his effort so far was for nothing. And hey, maybe Sigmar or Morr would take him if he died fighting, after all he was in a world that had gods who granted their priests power.
So as he raise the axe again he was very surprised when it staggered back yelping in pain as it tried to keep it's right paw off the ground. Glancing down he noticed the still glowing end of the branch the spear ungor had had and realized the axe wielding one had stepped on it.
"That's why people wear shoes!" he yelled realizing his chance and swung the axe. The ungor still managed to block it with it's shield but it was also forced it to put it's burnt paw down to steady itself and staggered again in pain.
"You, stupid, pathetic, warped, freak of nature!" punctuating each word with another swing that battered it's shield and axe away and he drove the bloody axe head into it's neck. Dark blood squirted from the wound as he drew the axe back and the beastman gave low gurgle as it fell to the ground.
"Hah, got, you…" said Jared breathing heavily as he stepped over to the closest house and leaned against it. Whatever energy he had been using to fight was gone now that the fight was over; leaving him aching in his legs and his arms. Now to get out of here he thought as he started to let go of the axe and turned towards the road.
Only for a terrified and very human sounding scream to come from somewhere close by.
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A/N: So how did I do?