Author's Notes: Hello again everyone. Sorry that I haven't updated in a while hopefully this will help make up for that enjoy I still don't own Games Workshops's stuff.
The going proved to be even slower than Karl had anticipated. He had not realized just how fast he could travel in his other form or how slow human children could be. He had thought it would be simple; follow his own scent back to the village. It had taken him less than a day to go from there to where he had rescued the children; he had thought it would take no more than two to get back. They were now on their third day and they still weren't back yet.
One of the biggest impediments to their progress was that, with the exception of Ernst who had been cleaning the temple, all of them had been in bed at the time of the attack. Meaning they were all in night cloths and had no shoes and the ground seemed to consist of nothing but sharp pine needles, tree roots and rocks. So before long all of their feet were bruised, blistered and bleeding and they were all limping.
Karl did what he could to ease their pain, including the sacrifice of much of his spare clothing; cut to rags to wrap around feet. He, Clare and Ernst, who had insisted that Clare take his shoes, began carrying the smaller children for periods of time. This was hard on both Clare and Ernst but both continued on and neither grumbled; indeed Ernst tried to keep up moral by quoting a near constant stream of scripture, though if it raised anyone's moral Karl did not see it, his certainly wasn't.
Of even greater concern than sore feet was food. It went even faster than Karl had feared, despite efforts to ration it. Several times he left to go hunt, but he had little success. He could not leave them for long so he did not dare go far to hunt for game and there seemed to be little game to hunt. He had never been a woodsman and he knew little of beasts and birds but even he would have found their near absence mysterious, had he not had a horrible suspicion that he already had the answer.
As they had followed his trail back to the village he had also smelled the stench of the creatures he had been pursuing. He had done his best to ignore it but found he could not; it had taken him a while to figure out why, then it came to him on the second day while he was hunting, he was away from the rout they had taken and not only could still smell them the scent, it was stronger. There was only one explanation, there were more Beastmen in the woods. From the strength of the smell he guessed that they had been there less than a day ago but he could not tell in which direction they had gone. He did not say anything to the others, no sense in upsetting them, but he did his best to push them harder and kept vigil at night.
It was while he kept vigil on the third night that Ernst approached him.
"May I have a word with you Sir?"
Karl sighed. "Yes Ernst you may and I told you to call me Karl." He tried not to snap at the boy but it was a challenge. He had told the boy not to call him sir several times and he was tired and grumpy from travel and two nights robbed of sleep due to worries about an attack.
"Thank you S…Karl." Said Ernst; sitting down beside Karl. They sat there for several minutes as Ernst took a number of deep breaths and licked his lips nervously. Finally, he began to speak. "Do you remember when you rescued us; when you threw the hammer and you called on Sigmar and he answered?"
"Yes…" Said Karl; feeling distinctly uneasy.
"Well; I, I was wondering what it felt like to know you have Sigmar's favor."
Karl didn't have a clue as to how to answer, when clearly the truth would not do at all, then an idea struck him. "Surely you already know; aren't priests his favored children?" He had no idea if anyone actually thought that but it seemed like something that might be thought.
"If that is true;" said Ernst, "Then I am even worse off than I thought. I have struggled with my vocation ever since I received the call to the clergy;" here he gave a feeble and forced laugh, "call, what call? I did not hear any call, my parents heard the call. They are very devout and all throughout my childhood they kept saying how nothing could make them happier than if they had a child in the clergy.
"Of course I wanted to make my parents happy; so I told them what they wanted to hear, that I wanted to join the clergy. Well they could not have been happier. They were on very good terms with our priest and he saw to my acceptance as an initiate, first with him and then with Father Dietrich."
Ernst sighed heavily. "I've tried. I've tried so hard to be a good priest. I've done everything expected of me. I memorize scripture; I say all the prayers when I'm meant to say them, I quote scriptures and platitudes all day long, here I've tried to stay strong and raise the others spirits and I threw myself at the enemy like a priest of Sigmar is supposed to do. Yet in all this; I have never felt Sigmar's presence; not when I pray, not when I read and quote scripture, not even when I fought his enemies."
He looked at Karl with pleading eyes and when he spoke he sounded on the verge of tears. "What am I doing wrong?"
Karl had no idea what to say. The boy had just bared his soul to him and all Karl could do was lie. Perhaps this was Sigmar's punishment for his deception.
Before he could think of anything to say the wind shifted; bringing an all too familiar scent with it. Beastmen! The smell was getting stronger. They were coming closer!
He turned to Ernst, "Get your hammer!" Before Ernst could ask what was going on Karl had jumped to his feet and run over to where Clare was sleeping. He shook her awake and hissed at her, "Get the children into the trees, and get up there yourself!"
Turning back to Ernst they positioned themselves between the Beastmen, whom they could now hear through the trees and the children as the latter scrambled up trees.
The creatures burst into view seconds later. Karl was pleased to see that they all appeared to be similar to the smaller creatures; none were even remotely as large as the leader he had fought before. What they lacked in size, however, they made up for in numbers. Karl counted at least fifteen of them and while he was fairly confident that he could take them in his wolven form that was not an option here. The two sides looked at one another for a second, though it seemed far longer and then rushed each other.
The first one Karl screwed with his makeshift spear. But fire-hardened wood did not go in or out as easily as steel and he received a glancing blow from another as he sought to free his spear. Once he did he employed it as a quarterstaff. Though he had no training with such a weapon his blows were powerful, especially since he figured it was dark enough he could allow his arms to bulge with just a little extra muscle.
Just then a cry from behind caught his attention. Turning he saw that a second group of similar creatures had come through the trees on the other side of the campsite. They seemed to be focused on those in the trees, leaving Karl and Ernst to the first group. Even as he watched several of the beasts jumped up and caught the lower branches. The terrified crying of the children seemed to encourage the creatures.
Hate made Karl's vision turn red. He hurled his spear at one that was just reaching for Peter, it took it right in the back pining it to the tree. He turned to look over his shoulder at Ernst, "Come on!" And ran back to the children.
He barreled into one. He grabbed it by the neck and rammed it into the tree, crushing the front of its skull. He grabbed another and lifted it over his head and threw it into two of its compatriots.
Just as he was looking for more foes a shout went up. At first he feared it was another band of the creatures, but it was not. Ten men armored and on horseback thundered through the trees into the creatures. Within seconds thirteen of the Beastmen were dead, either cut down by the men or trampled by the horses, and the rest fled.
In the sudden stillness Karl cautiously approached the men, making sure his arms were back to normal. The men were all armored in full plate mail and all their shields bore the same device; but the armor was all battered and worn and here and here and there were dents and holes in the armor. Karl could not imagine knights or state troops allowing their gear to get into such a state. He feared the men may be deserters or bandits.
Approaching the nearest one he bowed low, "Greetings good Sir, your timing is exhalent. Might I have the names of our rescuers?"
The man closest to them rode up to Karl and lifted the visor of his helmet. He had a weather beaten face and several days' worth of stubble. "I am Sir Jonathan Bach; I am my fellows of the order of the Hunters of Sigmar. Now, who are you and what are you doing here?"
"If it please you sir knight;" said Ernst stepping forward to stand beside Karl, "We are refugees. Our village of Treefell was destroyed by Beastmen and we were taken captive till this adventurer found and rescued us."
The knights looked at Karl, as if they were not sure if they believed Ernst. "You took on an entire Beastman raiding party by yourself?" Asked Bach; a clear note of skepticism in his voice.
Karl decided the best course of action would be some selective half-truths. "Well there weren't very many, most were drunk and some seemed far more interested in killing one another than me and I felt no compulsion to interrupt them."
One of the other knights chuckled, "Aye, that's usually the way of that lot."
The knights seemed relax at Karl's story. "Well;" said Bach, "It was fortunate for you that we found you. The beasts that attacked your village are just a part of a far larger force. My brothers and I have been observing them and harassing them when we could. Unfortunately there are too few of us here to attack them directly so we have been warning the villages here about. I am afraid we reached yours too late. Baron Von Strab has ordered all to flee to the town of Three Rivers. The beasts are headed there as well but it is the strongest fortified town about, if we can stop them anywhere it is there. We are the last patrol and we are headed there now. I advise you to come with us."
Karl and his self-appointed wards were only too happy to agree.
Author's Notes: Well what did you all think? In the reviews I was advised to do some character development for Ernst and Clare, this was Ernst's chapter Clare will have the next one. I got the line about the call from the Hallmark movie What the deaf man heard, which I highly recommend. For those of you who don't know the Hunter of Sigmar is a knightly order. Their founder believed it was foolish to allow Beastmen armies to gather in the woods and wait for them to emerge. These knights go into the woods and attempt to defeat them there before they leave the forests; which is why they have such a battered appearance, from all the time in the woods. They are, as you can guess, very popular with villagers. Hoped you liked it please review and please pray for those in Oklahoma and Colorado Springs, which is having a big fire, and Shaw who has cancer. Bye for now and may Jesus bless you all.