Chapter 30
Using his beard to wipe blood off his face, Kagain then pointed at three men who had just been captured by his mercenaries after failing to flee with the remainder of their fellow bandits.
"Bring 'em here with the rest of 'em!"
At his order, the trio were shoved and booted to join the other half-dozen prisoners sitting on the ground.
One of them hesitated, looking around furtively, and Maija, who was sporting a heavily-bandaged shoulder, blood-streaked hair and an ugly sneer, struck him in the head with the haft of her axe to send him tumbling down into the dirt.
Kagain began to smile but stopped upon seeing Lene's face. He hesitated, then stomped over to stand in front of his men who were still shoving and hitting the bandits.
"Alright, alright, hey! HEY! Knock it off! Ya supposed ta be professionals! Act like it!"
He glowered at every one of his men, confirming that he had their full attention.
"Tie 'em up an' search 'em. An' if I see another bruise on any of the prisoners, I'll give all'a ya one myself!"
The mercenaries hesitated before stepping back from the bandits. Several of them, Maija included, glanced sullenly at their leader, but nobody dared voice their feelings on the matter. Kagain scowled at Lene, but said nothing further.
Bad form to argue with the sergeant-at-arms in front of the guys and the Fist, he reminded himself.
Speaking of the Fist...
He looked over at Vai standing in the battlefield a short distance away. She was speaking to one of her men, and her eyes briefly met his upon noticing his gaze.
"Right," said Kagain, turning to his men. "You three, stay here an' watch these losers. Rest'a ya, ya know the drill; check the bodies for potions an' bandages, everything else is secondary. Get on it!"
He spared a minute to oversee them before making his chainmail-clinking way across the battlefield towards Vai. As he stepped around a fallen horse, Kagain slowed down upon picking up the tail end of the officer's conversation with her subordinate.
"...up a perimeter and see to the wounded," said Vai.
The other mercenary saluted and turned around, but not before giving the approaching Kagain a disdainful look that Kagain was only too happy to return. Vai waited until the man was some distance away before she finally turned to face the dwarf.
"The Amnians are safe," she said, pulling an arrow from her shield. "The outsiders you brought in saved them from a cavalry unit a stone's throw west of here."
Kagain's bushy eyebrows linked into a frown. "The hells were they doing over there?"
Vai gave a heavy sigh. "The caravan travellers," she answered shortly.
Kagain growled through his beard, turning a baleful eye on the line of wagons where the surviving civilians were going about the tasks of treating their wounded, removing and collecting arrows from the wagons, and either gathering or grieving their dead.
"You'll keep your thugs away from them," Vai said firmly. "My men will deal with them. Not you."
Kagain turned his icy-blue eyes on her in response, but grudgingly kept quiet; as much as he hated to admit it (and he will never say it to her face, nor to any other bloody Fist), the Flaming Fist commanded more respect than the Dented Shield company likely ever would.
If I were a Grand Duke... he thought to himself for what felt like the hundredth time.
"No one dead on my side, Umberlee be praised," said Vai, removing another arrow from her shield. "Only dead are the enemy and the travellers. You?"
Kagain shook his head in answer. He then remembered what Dorean told him about the caravan that had been raided and destroyed the previous day, and looked down at the corpses strewn about and around them.
"These guys aren't Talons," he said, rolling over one of the prone bodies onto its back. He grimaced upon seeing that the dead bandit could not have been a year past human teen-hood at least, but did not look away. "My guys could not have lost a fight to these chumps." He looked up, surveying the battlefield. "Even with numbers an' horses, they couldn't kill a single one'a us."
Vai hesitated, then looked at the caravan. "I kept half my men back in case of an attack on our flank. But there wasn't one, aside from the ten horsemen, and they only went after-"
There was a sudden rush of air, a deafening explosion of sound, and a half-second later, three of the eleven wagons were in flames.
Kagain and Vai stared for a few seconds before simultaneously rushing forward, the latter easily outpacing him.
"Get those sodding fires out!"
As his men gathered to hurl dirt and water onto one of the three raging infernos, Kagain had a sinking feeling that this was only going to be the start to yet another bad day.
..
"Ya shittin' me."
"No, Captain, I'm not" Lene replied wearily, wiping ash and soot from her forehead. "All the supplies. Food, water, medicine." She paused. "Only things' intact are the cargo."
Kagain blinked up at her, breathing slowly and heavily. Lene remained still, steadily returning his stony gaze.
The sound of laughter floated to them from the battlefield, and both of them slowly turned their heads to look at the offending bandit, who alone out of the dozen prisoners was giggling mockingly at them. He continued to laugh even after one of the three mercenaries guarding him struck him hard across the face with a mailed fist.
After a moment, Kagain marched slowly and deliberately over to him, carefully stepping over bodies along the way, until he was standing in front of the seated prisoner.
"Real funny, huh?" he asked, his voice calm and steady while his eyes bored into the man's.
The bandit nodded in reply and grinned from behind his broken nose. The smile remained plastered on his face even after Kagain's axe cleaved his head from his shoulders.
Without missing a beat, Kagain turned around and strode back to the caravan, returning his bloodied axe to his belt. He ignored the stares of the caravan travellers and the other mercenaries, especially Lene's, and did not stop until he was standing directly in front of Vai and several of her men.
"You told ya people to set up a perimeter," he said, his voice dangerously low.
Vai stared back at him for a moment. Then she slowly planted her feet in the grass, her eyes narrowing to slits as she returned the dwarf's accusing glare.
"There was a mutiny among your people yesterday," she replied, her tone matching his.
Kagain's teeth grinded loudly and threateningly, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. The Flaming Fist mercenaries with Vai tensed at the sight, their hands moving to their weapons.
"I'm startin' to think Imoen has a point," a bored, disinterested voice said dryly. They both turned to see Montaron approaching them with the party just behind him. "Ye horns are locked every time I see ye together."
Kagain's glare intensified; his mood was already black and Montaron's demeanour and words were not helping in the slightest. His axe was still dripping blood, and he briefly imagined sending Montaron's head flying from his shoulders into the air.
Ignoring him, the halfling turned to Vai, jerking his chin at the other Flaming Fist mercenaries.
"Send them away."
The officer blinked and then glared at him, but then turned and nodded to her men, all of whom obeyed hesitantly, shooting looks over their shoulders at the party.
"Found traces of a potion in one of the blown-up wagons," said Montaron.
"Oil of Burning," Xzar said cheerfully. Kagain scowled at him on principle.
"What could have caused the explosions?" asked Dorean. Xzar blinked twice at him before answering.
"Another potion, or a spell. Either would work well, though I am more inclined towards the former; place a Potion of Explosion in the centre of the target zone, then pour the Oil and set it alight. Then, preferably, get some distance before the fire reaches the vial."
"You know much about this," said Jaheira. Xzar frowned, but otherwise ignored her.
"Your headquarters is stocked with potions and oils," Vai snarled to Kagain.
"An' yours ain't?" Kagain growled back. "An' who's got war-mages with her right now, eh? An' ya still haven't explained why ya people failed ta see anythin' while they were supposed ta be settin' up-"
"Throwing blame around isn't going to help us," Jaheira interrupted harshly, stepping forward and planting her quarterstaff in the dirt. "We need to decide what is to be done next."
"Last time I checked, elf, I'm in charge'a this escort," said Kagain.
"What then should we do?" Dorean said loudly, cutting off and earning a frown from Jaheira.
Kagain narrowed his eyes at the gold dwarf's calm, neutral expression.
The cargo, yeah. The Amnian noble, yeah. But him too? What the hells for? The friggin' bounty?
"Excuse me," Xzar said, bringing Kagain out of his thoughts. "My companion asked you a question."
Kagain glowered up at the necromancer and momentarily glanced at Montaron before he addressed Dorean.
"We get up an' get movin'."
"What we need to do is to return to Beregost," said Vai. "We're in no condition to-"
"I'm in charge here, an' I say we keep movin'," Kagain growled. "We had a deal, remember? The caravan escorts are the Shield's; ya only here for soddin' support."
He saw Vai's lips tighten and her hands clench tightly, and could not stop himself from sneering in response.
"I could just leave," she said. "Take my men with me."
"Fine. Go. Explain it ta Kelddath while ya-"
"Enough," said Jaheira, thumping the ground with her quarterstaff. "I thought you are both supposed to be professionals," she said, stressing the word and causing Kagain to bar his teeth at her.
Heard me, did ya?
"We will never make it to the city," said Khalid. "Not in the state we're in. We need to-"
"Ya need ta shut up," Kagain snapped. "Didn't I tell ya? I know every rock in this soddin' wasteland." He looked around at the party, his gaze finally resting on Vai. "Go, all'a yas. Especially you," he added, glaring at the Flaming Fist officer. "I see any of ya boys near me when I'm talkin' strategy, an' I'll fillet 'em myself."
With a contemptuous glare, Vai slowly turned around and stalked away. The party followed her, Khalid glancing coldy at Kagain.
"He's right," Lene said quietly, walking over to Kagain and glancing at the freelancers. "We'll never make it to Baldur's Gate like this."
"Ya think I don't know that?" Kagain growled. He scowled up at the half-orc's stoic, calm stare and then huffed loudly.
"...gimme the map."
As he was fumbling with the scroll, Kagain looked up at the party's retreating backs.
Imoen, who had fallen uncharacteristically quiet, was averting her gaze from the battlefield as well as the nearby bodies around the wagons. Dorean, however, appeared unmoved by the sight, and was calmly wiping blood from his gloves with a cloth at his belt.
Kagain's brow furrowed. Feeling Lene's eyes on him, he silently returned to opening the map.
..
The saboteur had been thorough. Despite their efforts, the mercenaries found nothing in the wreckage that could be saved or salvaged, and all three wagons were deemed beyond repair.
It took over two hours to loot the bodies, treat the wounded and bury the dead. On top of everything else, the blasted Fist insisted on executing the bandit prisoners in formal fashion by marching them to a copse of trees, loudly announcing their crimes, and then hanging them one by one from the branches.
The only compensation for all of this were the bandit horses that they captured during and after the attack, and it was small consolation since they only managed to acquire six.
It was well past noon bordering into dusk when the caravan finally started moving, and by then Kagain's already frayed temper was steadily worsening. No one dared to look him in the eye as he angrily stomped to the head of the column, which suited him just fine; he felt ready to split in twain the next person to look at him wrong.
To make things even better, one of the wagon wheels decided to break its spokes an hour into their journey, delaying the caravan by another half-hour due to the nit-wit driver not knowing anything about repairing carriages he had allegedly driven for years.
The sun had long set by the time the caravan reached the road leading north to the Friendly Arm Inn. Glaring up at the stars as though they too were responsible for his plight, Kagain ordered the caravan to cross the road and head west into the forest. When various merchants, travellers and mercenaries started to protest, he answered by drawing and brandishing his axe at them.
"For the last soddin' time, I'm in charge, an' you'll do what I say, or ya can get the hell outta here an' make for the city yaself!"
His men exchanged looks with one another, but none of them dared to speak or even mutter while in eyesight of him. Breathing heavily, Kagain belted his axe and stomped off into the trees.
He heard the familiar tread of Lene's wolf-hide boots marching up beside him, but set his jaw and kept his gaze fixed straight ahead.
"You need to calm down."
He neither answered nor looked at her, though he noticed after a while that his breathing had steadied. She continued to walk at his side, and said nothing further.
It was slow going in the forest, and the mercenaries were forced to cut down tree branches and foliage in the path of the wagons. The moon loomed high above them by the time they arrived in a large, sizable clearing where a boulder lay in the centre.
Calling for a halt, Kagain ordered the wagons to be drawn in a circle and a camp to be set up within.
He then turned away from where his personal tent was being set up and marched over to the boulder. He smiled upon seeing that the ring hidden in the crevice was still there, satisfied that it had not been disturbed, and rolled the boulder aside to reveal the well underneath.
"Alright, form a line," he announced to the travellers moving eagerly forward. "I said form a bloody line! Genn, Tenny! Get some rope an' a bucket, collect an' pass the water. My guys'll be drinkin' first!" he added to the reluctantly queuing civilians.
He then marched over to Lene, who alone out of the Dented Shield mercenaries had declined to approach the well.
"Once they're done havin' a drink, take Maija an' a couple others into the woods. Get as much food as ya can."
"We won't find enough to feed all these people," the half-orc answered.
"So we ration then, what's the soddin' problem?"
She looked down at him, her expression stony. Kagain barred his teeth, but once again reined in his temper.
"Look, just get it done. Let me worry about the rest."
He turned away and marched off towards his tent, feeling her eyes on his back.
As he entered the tent, the mutiny from yesterday came to the forefront of his mind, and he spent a few minutes checking the interior for booby traps before allowing himself to sit down and remove his helmet.
Clangeddin, please let nothing else go wrong tonight.
..
"Captain Kagain?"
He looked up from the map on the table to see Ajantis and Witton standing at the open tent entrance with, to his annoyance, Jaheira and Montaron.
"What?"
"My lord Witton wishes to spea-"
"I demand to know why you have brought us out here!" the diplomat interrupted, stepping around his bodyguard into the tent.
Kagain briefly contemplated hurling a throwing axe past the pompous nobleman's head. He then removed his hands from the table and leaned back to look up at Witton with a condescending eye.
"Because we were out of water, in case ya haven't noticed."
Witton hesitated, seeming to shrink under Kagain's gaze. "Far be it from me to question your competence..."
"Sounds like ya about to," Kagain replied, his voice becoming dangerously low.
"Why have you not done anything to find whoever destroyed our supplies? The culprit could still be among us!"
"He has a valid point," said Jaheira, stepping into the tent as well. "Khalid and I questioned the people who were near the burnt wagons."
Kagain blinked stonily up at the two Harpers. "All of 'em?"
"Including the Flaming Fist mercenaries," Jaheira answered. "As well as your own men." She paused. "They all denied seeing anything suspicious."
Kagain slowly folded his arms across his broad chest. "There a point to this?"
"We want your permission to search your men," said Jaheira. "With you present to keep them from resisting."
Kagain went very still, staring up at her. His eyes moved briefly to Montaron, who had also entered the tent and was now studying the map.
"No," he answered shortly.
"But-" said Witton.
"The answer is no. Don't make me repeat myself. I don't like doin' that."
Witton looked from Kagain to Jaheira and back again before turning on his heel and stalking out of the tent. With a small sigh, Ajantis gave a bow before exiting the tent as well.
"Is that it, or do ya have another reason ta bother me?" Kagain asked, looking back down at the map.
"When were you going to tell us that the raiders attacking the caravans are Blacktalon mercenaries?"
Kagain hesitated before slowly looking up at Jaheira.
"You didn't choose this place because it had water," she said. "It is also defensible."
Kagain said nothing, his eyes moving between her and Montaron.
"You want the bandits to attack us again," Jaheira added, glaring down at the dwarf.
"They will either way," Kagain answered slowly. "Be it here or by ambush on the road." He paused, glancing at Montaron again. "Might as well be inna place of our choosin'; break 'em here, then make for the Friendly Arm. Ain't the first time I've done this, elf. It's worked for me before."
"Unless they know about this place an' have poisoned the well," Montaron said casually, still studying the map.
Kagain and Jaheira both stared at him before looking up at the sounds of a commotion outside.
Cursing loudly, the dwarf donned his helmet and rushed past them out of the tent.
..
One of his men was now dead, and two others in critical condition.
Kagain watched as all three were carried away by Lene and several of his other mercenaries, grinding his teeth behind his beard. He then looked over at the well where Jaheira was examining a bucketful of water and shaking her head at Vai, then glaring at Xzar as the latter leaned over her and scooped some of it into a glass vial.
A crowd had formed around the well, speaking either loudly or in hushed tones. Kagain heard their laments, suspicions, superstitions and accusations, more than a few directed his way. Their voices sounded distorted to him, as though he were listening to them through a thick bubble.
He felt rather than heard a presence at his side and looked up to see Lene tiredly running a hand over her scalp.
"We're running low on healing potions and the healers have already spent most of their spells." She paused. "Not sure if they're gonna pull through."
Kagain looked away from her and said nothing, watching Jaheira telling Vai that she would attempt to purify the water. Xzar was walking around the well, his eyes fixed on the glass vial between his fingers and muttering loudly to himself. Dorean and Imoen were following the mad wizard, blinking repeatedly up at him as he circled the well a second time. Khalid was watching Xzar from beside Jaheira, and Kagain's eyes narrowed upon seeing the Calishite's hand resting on the pommel of his sword.
"If Jaheira or the Fist mages can't do something about the water, we will have nothing to drink as long as we stay here," Lene added.
Kagain still said nothing. Montaron was nowhere to be seen, which suited him just fine; the casual manner in which he revealed the conditioning of the well's water was so deliberate that the dwarf tightly clenched his right fist at the thought that he had done it just to get him angry.
Like he didn't already have enough to be pissed about.
"This place is compromised," said Lene, raising her voice at Kagain's continued silence. "We can't stay here."
"We move, we get ambushed," Kagain replied coldly without looking at her. "Ain't havin' that."
"I know you don't want to hear this, but maybe we should send a message to Jardak and ask-"
"Maybe," Kagain snarled, turning to face her. "You oughta quit botherin' me an' do ya soddin' job!"
Silence fell on the camp like a meteorite, with every eye on the dwarf and the half-orc.
Lene's expression slowly turned cold and distant, and she bowed her head to him before marching back towards the med-tent.
Without looking at anyone, Kagain stalked back to his tent, where upon entry he took off and hurled his helmet into a corner before flipping over the table.
He cursed everyone and everything, then plopped down and leaned back in the chair, tilting his head and glowering darkly at the ceiling of the tent.
If you want me dead, Clangeddin, at least have the damn stones to come and do it yourself.
..
He did not know how long he remained in the chair, be it five minutes or five hours.
It was only at the sound of scrapping wood that he finally lowered his gaze from the tent's ceiling to see Dorean righting the table and drawing up another chair.
Kagain blinked stonily, watching in silence as the other dwarf climbed onto the chair to sit opposite him, then calmly placed a wine bottle and a package of brown paper on the table and slid it across to him.
For a long moment, Kagain remained still, his eyes moving from the two unopened gifts to Dorean. He then slowly leaned forward, unwrapped the package, and blinked slowly at the two thick slices of salted beef.
"It's all I have," Dorean said quietly. "Imoen insisted that we give our food to the sick and wounded."
The two dwarves looked at each other. Kagain then slowly took the bottle, brought it to his lips, removed the cork with his teeth, and sniffed. After a moment, he looked up at Dorean.
"I took it from one of the merchants," he said.
Kagain hesitated. With a heaving exhale, he then spat the cork to one side and took a long draught.
The bottle was half-empty by the time he lowered it back onto the table, and he momentarily closed his eyes as the feeling of fuzzy warmth swept over him. His eyes went to the slices of beef, and he reached out and took one of them.
The next few minutes were spent in silence, Kagain watching Dorean as he ate while Dorean leaned back in his chair and calmly looked around the tent.
"What do ya want?" Kagain asked at last.
Dorean did not answer; he simply looked at Kagain, his expression annoyingly calm.
"Ya scared I'm gonna give ya ta the bandits?" he asked, lifting his chin at the smaller dwarf. "That why ya brought this ta me?"
"I am concerned about the bounty, yes. But not that you might try to collect it." He paused. "I just wanted to improve your mood."
"Why?"
"Because we're all in a bad spot, and we're counting on you to see us through it."
Kagain glowered at him. "Ya sayin' I ain't doin' my job?"
"I think you have had a lot to handle, what with...everything."
"If ya mean the mutiny, then just soddin' say it."
"...the mutiny, yes. I just...wanted to thank you for today. You didn't have to do that."
Kagain sneered.
"Don't think you're so special, nugget. That idiot wanted the iron an' the noble too, remember?" He snorted. "An don't think ya know what I do an' do not have ta do."
He frowned again when Dorean appeared neither angered nor even bristled; he merely nodded slowly and smiled.
"I understand," he said, hopping off the chair. "I have to go help Jaheira now. If-"
He suddenly froze in place, one hand still gripping the seat of the chair.
Kagain's brow furrowed. He watched Dorean swiftly unclasp his cloak and begin wrapping it around his right arm.
Kagain opened his mouth to say something, but stopped upon seeing Dorean's face.
It was now grim and hard, with a ferocity in the eyes; the same expression Kagain had seen in his fellow shield dwarves as they readied themselves for battle.
The screams, howls and snarls from outside spurred Kagain into action. Leaping off his chair, he grabbed and donned his helmet before turning around.
Dorean was already gone, with not even a flap of the tent entrance to hint at his exit.
Yelling a string of curses to the heavens, Kagain unhooked his axe and ran out to face the source of his latest headache.
..
The instant Kagain left the tent, a mass of slavering teeth and fur leapt straight at his face, and he instinctively swung his axe up in a diagonal arc, catapulting it into the air to crash against a stack of crates.
"Dogs!" yelled the distant voice of the appointed lookout. "Everyone get-" It dissolved into a high-pitched scream, joining the wails and cries in the camp.
Racing as fast as his chain-mail would allow, Kagain reached the well where Ajantis and several of his mercenaries including Lene had formed a ring of shields and weapons around a cowering and trembling Witton.
"Kagain!" Lene shouted as he approached. "Where the hells did these dogs come from?!"
"They're soddin' war hounds!" Kagain answered. His eyes widened as one of the beasts appeared out of the shadows. It leapt up five feet into the air at Lene, who pivoted and brought her scimitar down in an overhead chop, cleaving it in two.
"Where are the freelancers?!" Kagain demanded.
"They went to find the girl, the pink one!" Lene replied, briefly glancing over her left shoulder as Ajantis batted aside another hound with his shield.
To his own surprise, Kagain turned and ran in the direction of the medical tent, roughly shoving aside two scrambling travellers in his path.
He heard a loud snarl behind him and spun around to see a pair of red-lipped jaws filling his vision. His left arm came up, the hound's jaws clamping on the chain-mail, and he swung the hound up into the air before smashing it onto the ground and stomping his steel boot onto its head. Dark blood spurted from the crushed skull, spattering his beard.
"Stinkin' little-" he cursed, forcefully freeing his arm from the hound's mouth and grimacing at the torn chain-mail before resuming his run for the med-tent. "Where the hell is that kid?!" he yelled out loud.
As if in answer, another hound barrelled into him from behind, trying and failing to find purchase on his broad neck.
"Argh, ya mangy-!" Kagain raged, reaching up over his shoulders with both hands and bodily flinging the animal into a nearby campfire. Ignoring its agonized howls, he turned and sped nosily away, narrowly avoiding a collusion with a Flaming Fist mercenary.
He rounded a corner of a tent and spotted a pink shirt among the masses. Imoen was crouching at the entrance to the med-tent about thirty paces away, her bow out and ready, with Khalid and Jaheira standing on either side of her. Four war hounds lay dead at their feet.
"Hey!" Kagain hollered, almost irritably backhanding aside a war hound attacking him from the left. "Where's the nugget?!"
"He's not with you?!" Imoen yelled back. She immediately stood up and began to run forward when Jaheira grabbed her by her collar.
"Imoen, no-"
"Let me go!"
"Khalid!" Jaheira shouted. Her husband turned to assist her, but was then distracted by two more hounds loping towards them out of the darkness.
"Gods damn it! I'll find him!" Kagain announced. He turned and ran into the crowds, shoving, shoulder and elbowing aside any traveller, merchant or mercenary in his way, calling Dorean's name.
How the hell am I supposed ta protect him if he-
Everyone around him suddenly scattered in all but one direction, and upon turning his head towards it Kagain spotted Dorean about twenty paces away and being chased by two war hounds.
"Shit-!" Kagain hefted his axe and ran, but he knew before he had taken the first step that he would be too late; the leading one of the two dogs was only a few paces behind Dorean, who could not hope to outpace it even if he were a human.
Dorean caught Kagain's eye, and the latter nearly froze in mid-step upon realizing that the younger dwarf's expression was calm; almost serene.
Dorean dove forward just as the leading hound's legs left the ground, its jaws spread wide to claim the back of his neck. He rolled perfectly, coming up on one knee, and then stuck his knife upward as the dog passed overhead. The creature howled in rage and pain as the blade sliced open its belly, covering Dorean in blood and gore, and tumbled lifeless to the ground. He then whirled around and raised his right arm just as the second hound slammed him back-first into the grass. Kagain barred his teeth in a grimace as the creature's jaws closed around Dorean's right arm, tearing through his cloak.
Then Dorean's knife plunged into the side of it's neck, up to the hilt, and the beast froze and died near-instantaneously.
Retrieving his knife and levering the second hound's teeth from his arm, Dorean rolled sideways and stood up, turning to face Kagain, who realized that he had frozen where he stood with his axe raised instead of rushing to help him.
Without a word, the younger dwarf sped past him towards the med-tent, and it took a full second for Kagain to come to his senses and follow him. He forced himself to tear his eyes from the blood flowing from Dorean's right arm as yet another pair of rending jaws approached him from the side.
They swiftly reached the med-tent within minutes, where Imoen wailed and immediately pulled Dorean inside upon seeing him covered in blood and gore. At her high-pitched yells, Jaheira hurriedly followed them in, leaving Khalid to stand with Kagain at the entrance. The latter scanned the ground, noting another three war hounds dead at the half-elf's feet.
"Not bad, soldier-boy!" said Kagain. "Ya might prove ta be useful yet!"
Before Khalid could reply, the snarls, roars and howls throughout the camp suddenly stopped, replaced by a mass pattering of paws.
"They're running for it!" Vai's voice shouted in the distance. Kagain watched a pack of war hounds run past him and Khalid barely ten paces away.
"Owner's callin' 'em back," said Kagain, breathing heavily. "Guess they've had enough."
A chorus of victory cries chased the hounds as they fled the camp, leaping over bodies, barrels and crates and ducking under the wagons to escape the circle-formation of the camp.
For a few seconds after the last one had disappeared into the shadows of the trees beyond the campfires, all of the hounds seemed to become silent, and there was not a single howl or patter of feet.
Then a blinding green light erupted in the direction that the animals had fled, followed a half-second later by an explosion nearly twice as loud as the ones that destroyed the three wagons. Travellers and mercenaries ducked down and turned away, covering their eyes and ears.
Kagain and Khalid, however, did not so much as flinch. They watched as the light slowly receded, and listened to the screams of the hounds.
"...or," Khalid said slowly. "He was forced to call them back."
Kagain slowly looked around, surveying the area around them.
"Was wonderin' where those two bastards got to," he said. "About soddin' time," he added with a growl, noting several of his own men among the dead.
He then lifted his beard to wipe his face and then cursed when he realized too late that it too was covered in blood.
"Just great," he muttered, walking over and tearing a section of cloth from a dead traveller's shirt. His eyes lingered on the man's torn throat before he turned away and wiped his face. "Just sodding great."
Ignoring Khalid's glance, Kagain stood outside the med-tent, listening to Imoen frantically fuss over Dorean and Jaheira telling her to stop interfering and getting in her way.
What a cursed trip this is turning out to be.