The Viper Bites Twice
Disclaimer: I don't own Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, Michelle Paver does. I wish I did though, that would be awesome. Anyway, enjoy!
Dark applied a poultice to Sialot's chest, which an axe had cleaved a huge hole in. it was clear that he and Poi weren't going to live. The Mage's shelter's supplies of medical herbs and roots was running low.
Fin-Kedinn crashed into the shelter. Tearing an arrow out of his shoulder, he gasped, 'Dark, there's no hope for them! We need you to fight out there! Thull and I need more axemen, now!' Dark offered Fin-Kedinn some yarrow leaves for his shoulder, but he slapped his hand away.
Dark yanked his axe out of its sheath and walked out into the smoky, destroyed camp. Three shelters had been set on fire. Bodies from both clans lay scattered. Out of the smoke, a pale-faced Viper clan hunter swung into the attack. Dark dodged back, strafed up behind the hunter and with a powerful swing, buried his axe in the hunter's spine.
After dispatching another hunter, Dark spotted Fin-Kedinn and Thull fighting with the Viper Leader and Mage. He snuck up behind the enemies, winked at Thull, and disembowelled the Viper clan's new Mage with a strong axe swipe. But as Fin-Kedinn and Thull battled it out with the incredibly skilled Viper Leader, five enemy hunters rushed out of the gloom. They mobbed Thull, slicing his throat, legs and face open, and the wound that Fin-Kedinn had received from the demon bear was reopened with an axe swipe.
Roaring with anger and grief for Thull, Dark whirled into the battle. With strong axe attacks he beat them back, cleaving a hole in one of their chests, who fell screaming to the floor and lay still. In the gloom, he made out Bera and Etan fiercely defending the nine-year old Dari, who cowered between them. Etan's bow sang, and a Viper clan dog fell with a shattered skull. Bera threw her slate knife, which buried itself in the chest of one of Dark's four remaining adversaries, who fell and did not stir again.
Dark was on the brink of defeat when a birch-bark horn was sounded, and the Vipers he was fighting retreated into the fog. He threw himself down in the dirt. Fin-Kedinn came to join him. Wincing from his injured leg, he spoke in his powerful voice. 'Dark, you fought well, but I suspect this isn't over.
It wasn't.
The birch-bark horn sounded again, and a throng of at least thirteen Vipers emerged from the fog, clutching spears, axes and knives. Dark stood up, drew his knife, and braced himself. The throng came closer, closer, closer…
Dark fell with an arrow in his right lung. Gasping in pain, he uttered a message to Torak and Renn, hoping his Magecraft would reach their minds.
Help us… the Vipers… Come, we beg you!
Impossibly, he saw Boar clan hunters rushing over him and smashing the Vipers back. Half of the enemy fell, and the rest retreated. Before he blacked out, he saw Aki lean over and pick him up, and Ark circling over his head. He felt himself being carried away, then… nothing.
What next? Ooohhh…