Chereads / Band of the Phoenix / Chapter 6 - The Grand Lieutenant

Chapter 6 - The Grand Lieutenant

He smelt smoke.

Zern's eyes shot open. He could smell smoke, thick and cold. Cold smoke? 

His ears readjusted. He heard screams, they were faint as the cloth that covered the wagon was thick and seemed to in the cold block much sound, but they undeniably screamed in the distance. No, much closer. 

He looked down next to him. Heede laid there still somehow asleep. 

The screaming became louder before the distinct clang of metal against metal echoed through the night.

Ambush, Zern thought to himself. 

The caravan had been tracked by someone, likely the hobgoblins or a wandering pack of bandits. Regardless, he needed to get out of here, if it was the hobgoblins they'd burn these highly flammable wagons to ashes with him inside of it.

"Heede, get up," Zern whispered to Heede who stirred.

"What is it?"

The screaming in the background needed no explanation. The man broke off his drowsiness and got up to alert, he jerked his head to the side.

Zern simply nodded.

Heede pointed towards the crates.

Zern shook his head. Trying to remove the creates in either a slow or quick fashion would cause too much risk. If they tried to carefully remove it slowly, it would take too long, they'd certainly be cornered and slaughtered. If they smashed through crates and out the other side they firstly risked injuring themselves, secondly they risked being herd and thus discovered and slaughtered.

Zern pointed towards the hatch in the floor where they'd previously received shipments of food when they'd been in too populated areas. They could open it from both the inside and the outside, and the bottom was just tall enough for them to walk while crouching.

Heede nodded before Zern opened the hatch and looked down. The ground was a thick brown from the mud, a pool of crimson red inched slowly across it filling every crevice like a deluge released from a broken dam across a valley.

Heede eyes him, Zern shrugged.

They didn't have much choice, if they stayed in here they died no matter what, if they tried to escape they at least had a chance to escape. But where were they? Which way would they need to go? He could worry about that after they'd escaped from the ambush.

Zern dangled his down into the hole and looked around, his unkempt hair occasionally blocked his vision and he had to hold it up to see properly. He looked around, the world upside down, he saw a corpse on the right side of the cart, it was the side he would not go. He spun around, he could see leather boots engaging within a beautiful dance with one another accompanied by grunts and shouts.

He lifted his head up once again and nodded towards the left hand side of the cart.

Heede quickly and quietly snatched a pair of forks from an unclaimed bowe. He hoped he wouldn't have to use them, but they would if the worse came to pass. He wasn't good with knives and a fork was certainly not as wieldy or effective as a knife.

Zern nodded to Heede in thanks as he passed him the knife and he slowly but surely lowered himself through the hole. He lowered himself into a crouching position before moving out of the way and allowing Heede to lower himself into an identical position.

Heede came down a little harder, there was a splash of blood, but amongst the fighting it was unnoticeable. Zerne cursed Heede in his mind for his carelessness but quickly refocused on the main goal.

Both slowly and carefully crouched walked across to the top left wheel which would be covered from the front by wood and cloth. The sounds of fighting were getting softer, but Zern knew it was the hobgoblins who'd won. You don't easily launch into an ambush you could lose, and it's near impossible to lose one where most of your enemy is presumably asleep. The Hamashasa would be slaughtered and along with their human guards, they'd take the Raja captive and kill the rest.

Heede crouched behind him but quickly they both progressed into a crawl which allowed them to move around easier and with less effort. The top wheels were larger than the back for some reason, it was a strange design, however the joints which connected them to the cart were higher as well keeping the clothen cage at a single height. The wheel was dirty, covered to its very joints mud and muck. 

Zern looked out through it. His suspicions were true, on this side he could see two pairs of human guardians the Hamashasa advisor they'd talked to previously as three lightly armoured but well armed hobgoblins attacked them. The hobgoblins were not as good as the guards, after all these were the best, however there was more and when it came to scuffles like this numbers often outweighed quality.

The leading hobgoblin swung down with his already blood covered glaive before the one next to him attacked the same guard with a short sword. The human guard blocked the glaive with his small rounded shield and blocked the short sword with his own gladius-like sword. The human's partner came in with a lunge towards the hobgoblin holding the shortsword but was blocked by the third hobgoblin who held a handaxe in one hand and a short sword in the other.

Zern cursed in his mind, he'd gotten distracted again.

He turned towards Heede and he talked within a voice barely as loud as whisper. "When I close my left hand, make a break for it."

Heede nodded and Zern turned back around. He watched the five combatants closely, they'd really only have one opportunity to run, and if he missed that opportunity, then they'd be dead.

The one with the handaxe swung around to strike the second guard but the second guard blocked with his shield, the handaxe hobgoblin smirked as he did so and rammed his shortsword toward that guard before it was blocked by the guard's own gladius sword. The glaive wielding goblin swung his weapon across from his first target and cursed as the guard managing the axe wielding one blocked it. The other guard charged and bashed the leading hobgoblin with his shield before raising his sword up in the air.

The Hamashasa advisor began to run from the ensuing fight.

The sword ignited itself in the sky and became a flaming beacon illuminating the night like a lighthouse would the ocean. The guard struck down towards the leading hobgoblin who'd been thrown onto the ground.

Zern watched at that moment. Had he miscalculated, perhaps the Hamashasa and humans could win. They were holding off the hobgoblins before even bringing out the flaming weapon.

The guard swung down, flames flared past in the night sky.

A loud scream came as the guard's hand came flying off, and a hand axe followed next to it.

The human guard screamed and stumbled back for a moment. The other guard said something else within their native language which he didn't make out.

The flaming sword fizzled out and fell next to the lead hobgoblin who kicked the wounded guard in the leg causing him to fall to the ground and drop his shield. The hobgoblin quickly scrambled and grabbed the hand axe to the side of him and began to swing down at the wounded guard and–

The other guard rammed into him with his shield and threw the lead hobgoblin to the ground. He screamed something in his language which sounded like a warcry towards the two hobgoblins that faced him.

The hobgoblin with the glaive swung down at the remaining guard as the other one ran towards the guard with his remaining shortsword. The glaive swung down, and the guard seeked to intercept it with his shield, but stepping forward, but the glaived suddenly changed direction and swung down on a different angle. The guard cringed and tried to readjust his block but had to dodge the thrust of the short sword wielding one. The glaive flung itself up as the hobgoblin redirected its force up into the guard's ribs. 

Clang.

The one handed guard had barely managed to get up and block the glaive with the shield. The guard fell forward as his blood spread across the ground around him. The uninjured guard cursed once again and thrusted with his sword towards the hobgoblin with the shortsword.

The guard let out a war cry and–

It never came. The guard dropped his sword and shield. He reached for his throat as it was dyed crimson and the man choked. The guard fell to the ground with his fellow brother in arms as the leading hobgoblin flicked the blood off the one-handed guard's sword.

The one-handed guard rolled up and stared at the lead goblin with open eyes.

Zern prepared to give the signal, it was just a little longer.

The lead hobgoblin walked over towards the wounded but not dying guard. The hobgoblin, skin leathery red and large bulbous nose, raised his sword into the air and swung down. The guard did not live, but he did die honorably. The lead hobgoblin stabbed the man directly in the chets, there would be no pain enduring pain as he died, only a short sharp one.

The light in the man's eyes left him. The pupil and iris lost its beauty, color faded, they both became dull. The death of color within a person's eyes was a seldom sight to see, often it happened while you were distracted fighting another opponent, or you just didn't care enough about the person to watch it.

The breathing stopped.

The guard was dead.

The hobgoblin inspected the once flaming sword and smiled. He said something within his own abominable language and then allowed for the other hobgoblins to scurry off after the Hamashasa advisor.

Just a few more moments, Zern thought to himself, any moment.

The opportunity was close, but he could also feel the door closing in at a quicker rate. Questions in the back of his began to emerge from the worst and most shadowed points of his consciousness. They bombarded him with questions about the timing, the possibility of being discovered, tripping or Heede being a liability, the questions attacked him and Heede all the while praising the guards. Why did his mind always betray him?

The lead hobgoblin sheathed the sword and kneeled down towards the ground.

Don't pray now! Zern screamed in his mind.

He turned back towards Heede. The burned man's face seemed uncertain, he knew that the timeframe to escape was running out. The window was closing far faster then he'd hoped or imagined it would. If he waited too long then…

Then…

Then…

Death.

Don't think like a dying man, he told himself, think like a man on the edge, ready to make it or die trying.

He calmed himself and turned back towards the lead hobgoblin. The man had placed his hands face up on his knees and kneeled their talking in his beastly tongue to himself. It couldn't have been towards his gods could it? No, he reminded himself, the hobgoblins had none, they'd cast them aside like their philosophy demanded, a godless religion wasn't any religion at all.

Heede began to move.

Not yet you fool!

Zern spun around in the mud and grabbed the man trying to stop him from moving.

There was a loud squelch from the movement, the fighting had begun to subside, any noise they made would be far more noticeable. 

The ears of the hobgoblin perked up. His long elf-like ears, shapes like long thin knives pointed up and seemed to search like a watch tower.

He put hands around both his own and Heede's mouth. At this moment even their breaths might've been noticeable to the hobgoblin and his inhumane hearing.

Ba-dump.

Ba-dump.

Ba-dump.

He could hear his own heartbeat; it was that quiet in the moment.

Ba-dump.

Ba-dump.

Ba-dump.

The hobgoblin began to stand up.

Zern closed his fist and began his escape to freedom.

He clawed up as the hobgoblin began to straighten up, Heede was close behind him.

He rushed out from under the wagon and almost slipped as he rushed up. He was covered from chest to toe in filthy brown crimson mud, but that did not stop him. 

He ran.

He ran.

He ran and the hobgoblin turned.

He'd been compromised, by the cruel nature of the beasts that occupied the accursed world.

He cursed under his breath and pulled out his fork. He wouldn't be able to get past the hobgoblin. Oh god, he'd need to fight wouldn't he?

No, he told himself. You don't need to fight, not right now, just run. 

Run.

Run!

Run!!

He breathed heavily and his filthy run turned into a spurned sprint. He ran away from the hobgoblin towards his right side.

Specks of the mud from his shoes flicked in the air behind him as Heede ran closely next to him.

The hobgoblin turned on his heel and pulled something from his pocket which he didn't make out.

Don't worry, just run, that was all he needed to do run. Why did he care, did he really care about his life that much, after all of it. Yes, yes he did, was he denying himself? What was he thinking, why run. Shut up! Why did his mind betray him like a beast's scent would him to the hunter. No he wouldn't die he wouldn't, he could live, he wanted to live. Yes he wanted to live–

A javelin stuck out through the center of his chest.

His sprint collapsed underneath himself and he was thrown thirty yards down the hill by his own momentum.

Heede's face went white, he tripped and quickly crawled up towards Zern.

"Get up you damn fool." Heede said, trying to find the javelin–which had snapped in half–in the darkness. "You didn't kill that damn monster just to die by a stray arrow!"

Zern face down, turned to look towards Heede. He could feel the crimson spreading around him. "Heede, go."

"No," Heede said, giving up on finding the javelin piece and picking him up, "you're coming with me!"

The burned man struggled to lift him, he wasn't heavy, the man was simply not used to this type of exercise after so long as a slave. The man was wheezing after only a few steps and his grip was unsteady.

Zern looked behind him, the hobgoblin was following. He wasn't running, he knew that Heede would have to drop him, he was reveling in the hunt. The man's leathery red skin oozed of death, like a demon that had come to take him away into the depths of the worst place imaginable.

Zern looked down at the javelin piercing through him. It was the only thing keeping him alive, once removed he would die.

Was it really all for this? He wondered to himself. Did you really kill a giant monster just to die to a stray javelin? 

Yes he had. He was going to die. Die. Die. He was going to die. 

He cursed himself and threw Heede's arm off.

"I'm dead," he said to Heede, "get going."

Heede stared at him for a moment and as if realising his own exhaustion nodded before running off down the hill into the darkness.

Zern turned towards the smirking hobgoblin.

The thing said something to him in its native tongue.

Zern didn't respond to the man, he didn't have the strength. He barely had the strength to stand and walk. He growled under the pain and walked a step up the hill, and then another. The pain spread like a virus through his body, every corner infected, every body part replicating the pain of the next. It was like a million beetles biting him all at once in every corner of his body, crawling inside his mouth, picking at his throat, up his nose, in his eyes. Painful, so painful. Beetles was that what death felt like?

The hobgoblin said, raising an eyebrow as Zern shambled up towards him. It was probably a comment of some form in regards to his persistence or sacrifice.

Zern took another step forwards, he still had the fork in his hand, hidden behind his bloodied arm. He just needed to get close enough to the thing, if he killed it then… then perhaps Heede at least could get away, perhaps Heede could run away to his home, away from all this war.

The hobgoblin took another few strides towards him and was so close. He was so close, all he needed was a few more weak steps and a final burst of strength. He took another step forward.

He fell.

He fit the ground face first and the piece of javelin stuck in him moved around. 

He screamed and squirmed, the more he did so the more it hurt.

The hobgoblin kneeled down next to him. The beast knew he was dying, no one, not even the most resilient of people survived a javelin straight through the body. The hobgoblin said something within his accursed language before standing up over him and reaching down.

No, Zern thought to himself trying to gather the strength to move. Don't take it out.

He was tired, he barely had enough energy to think, it was dedicated to the screaming and processing of the pain. The pain whirred and whirred in his mind, no longer was it a simple virus that had overtaken his body now it was in his mind, every facet of it, every memory and thought was overtaken by a screaming in his body. It was nowhere near as painful as when he'd died and died again underneath the beast he'd slain but it still hurt beyond what words could describe. 

The hobgoblin grasped the end of the javelin and began to tug.

Zern's screaming became louder.

Stop!

The tugging continued.

Please, stop!

The pain swelled, the tugging intensified.

There's nothing left to take!

The javelin's metal point began to move up through his body once again.

The pain…

The pain, it became something even his mind couldn't configure into clear thoughts. The brain had become a hurricane flinging thoughts around as if they were stones stuck in the sadistic storm.

The metal point was halfway through his body.

A single thought pierced through that storm. It was soft at first, barely able to heard through the hurricane's oppressive winds. Then it repeated itself, it became louder, and louder yet again till it became a word, one clear and crisp.

With a furious tug the hobgoblin removed the javelin and its metal point from the body.

Zern gripped the fork and screamed the one word that had been clear amongst the chaos of the storm.

"Fight!"

He spun himself around towards the surprised hobgoblin and rammed the fork into the side of the beast's neck. It wanted to howl and scream, but it couldn't, much like the very guard it had slain by stabbing it through the neck one couldn't scream. The hobgoblin fell to the side and choked upon his own blood.

Zern smiled. 

He looked up into the night sky and felt the blood oozing out from him, without the javelin inside there was nothing clogging the blood but also nothing else causing the excruciating pain. 

He smiled. 

He'd at least done something, he'd at least given Heede a real chance to escape. If he wasn't spotted later on then nobody in this ambush party would know of his existence, the man could have a new start in life.

The stars began to mix and merge, the clear collage melting away into a muddy blur of darker and lighter spots.

He smiled.

The man known as Zern–formerly Loofceen–died.