There was an earth-shattering bellow. Lars' head snapped up, looking around for all the world to see where the leviathan sized bear might've come from. Every instinct he'd been raised with told him he should run, flee for help. A beast who could produce a noise like that would shake even the most staunch hunter to his core.
He tried to move, cry out for help, when the ropes tightened around him.
Looking about in a panic, he realized he was tied up, and what was worse, the knot of rope in his mouth made it impossible to do more than groan out in alarm.
Still, it was enough to get someone's attention. Looking to the voice that had shouted back at him, he saw a rough looking human in tattered clothes gesturing at him with free hands. His ankles were bound to a length of chain that ended in a massive boulder.
Lars couldn't understand why the human was there, why he was…
It all came rushing back to him. The forest. The road. Looking closer at the human, he realized this was not Eric.
Of course it wasn't. Lars began to remember watching Eric gurgle out his last.
Still, that was on the road, in the middle of the day. Why was it now dark?
"You're going to have to come to me," the human said again, "I can't get to you with these," he kicked his ankles to emphasize the chains, making them jingle.
"Hurry, before that thing decides to eat us."
Lars looked to where the human pointed to see a, true to his estimations, wholly massive bear chomping down on the head of a wolf. With a sharp crack and a twist, the wolf's body flailed once and ceased to move.
Off to one side, a bugbear roared in what appeared to be pain and indignation, pulling a bolt out of its shoulder and looking at the now headless wolf in dismay.
To the other side, two goblins harried a dwarf, wielding a pair of axes and trying his best to keep them at bay, a large, now empty crossbow seemingly tossed off behind him.
"Hurry!" the human repeated, and this time Lars heeded the urging.
He did his best to wiggle towards the human, head-first, and when he got near enough, began trying to shout as best he could through the gag for the human to start there.
The man seemed to get the message, and, despite cringing at the amount of drool and slime running down Lars' chin, he managed to pull the rope out of the warrior's mouth.
It would have to do, Lars thought to himself.
He could see that the bear was more than capable of keeping the bugbear busy, but that Dane, for who else could that dwarf be at this point, was struggling to keep up with his foes.
The goblins were highly coordinated, and seemed to know they were dealing with a seasoned warrior.
As Lars quickly assessed the situation, the human now moving to try and undo the ropes around his shoulders, binding his arms to his sides, the northman could see that Dane was clearly experienced, but his age was making it difficult for him to keep up in these conditions.
"No," Lars grunted, moving his wrists towards the human as best as he could, "these first."
The human looked aghast, "Surely you don't think you can–"
"I can and I will. The wrists. First."
Lars could feel the roiling fury bubbling in his chest again. He needed to get free, and soon.
The human shrugged, moving to untie his wrists. As they came free, Lars nodded to his ankles, "Those next. And then, stay clear."
The human moved to his ankles, but looked at him questioningly, "Of what?"
Lars smiled savagely as his ankles came free, "You will see, southlander."
As Sildar managed to get the northman's ankles free, which required him to look down briefly, he looked back to see the man's pupils dilating to almost entirely cover his irises.
Before he could cry out or thrust himself away, he saw them narrow to pin pricks, and in one fluid motion, the great, fiery haired human heaved with all his might.
The ropes that bound his arms to his chest came free with a sharp set of snaps.
Sildar was amazed at the sheer strength that feat must have taken. As the northman stood, whirling, Sildar finally did as he had been instructed, scrabbling backwards as the other man's hand nearly came to backhand him.
Without waiting, the northlander roared, a sound not unlike the one the bear had made when it first entered the cavern.
In a dead sprint, the human threw himself not at the bear, or the bugbear, but at the two goblins harassing the dwarf at the entrance of the cave.
Realizing his possibly fatal error, Sildar looked to the rear of the cave, where the other five goblins stood, almost huddled together. At first, he'd worried they were going to stick him with arrows. It had seemed that way at first, when the bear had entered.
However, something about the bear and the man now being free had persuaded them to drop their weapons entirely and huddle together, all four of them looking–
Wait, four?
Sildar searched the back of the cave intently, his eyes struggling in the lack of light, even with the fire still sputtering in the middle of the room.
The clink of chains at his feet drew him back to himself, and he saw the fifth goblin, whom he'd gathered to be some kind of leader from his time here as a prisoner, trying to undo the lock at his chains.
Everything in him screamed at him to kick the goblin away, and yet, the goblin held keys, and was focusing so intently on the lock, hands shaking, that Sildar stopped himself.
Slowly, trying to catch his breath as the first lock was undone, freeing his left foot, he gathered himself.
"What," he asked softly, "are you doing?"
The goblin looked up at him sharply, hand lunging for the dagger at his side, but not drawing it, looking at Sildar with a mix of terror and mistrust.
"Free you," came a croaky, hoarse version of common from the goblin's mouth.
"Why?" Sildar asked, still calm, though his hand had started to inch behind him, to the hand-sized stone he'd gathered for just such an occasion.
"Help," the goblin said, pointing over behind him without breaking the human's gaze.
"Help…who?"
"Them," the goblin said, his voice evening out slightly, looking away to correct his gesture to point generally at the human, dwarf and bear.
Sildar raised an eyebrow, his hand stopping in its pursuit of the stone, "Why?"
Snark glowered, a real look of menace from this rather limited proximity, "Enough goblins die for fat stupid bugbear-scum."
That was all Sildar needed to hear. His hand closed around the stone.
"Free me, then."
Klarg was having a bad day.
The bear was slow and lumbering, and its coloring around the face and paws suggested a rather long life already lived.
Yet, it was incredibly large, and though his mace had found purchase a half dozen times, the creature didn't seem to be phased by the blows.
Klarg was not a meekling himself, but this animal was on a level unto itself in terms of strength and prowess.
Looking quickly to his bodyguards, he caught sight of one of them falling to an ax, the dwarf burying it in the goblin's chest, while the other seemed to be getting strangled by some human prisoner Snark had barely just brought to him.
Where was that little bastard, anyway? And didn't he bring a bunch of his people with him?
Stepping away from the bear's latest swipe, he looked to the clutch of goblins. There they stood, shivering and clutching one another.
He'd give them a reason to shiv–where was Snark?
A sudden, icy feeling went through Klarg as he looked to where the other human prisoner had been chained, seeing no human there. Only Snark, smirking defiantly, holding out a hand with a single finger raised.
"You f–"
Klarg never saw the now unchained human coming, and the stone that connected with his temple had all the force of vengeance behind it.
It was true, Klarg was having a very bad day.