An Iron Pawn
Wooden Fangs
We had been walking for a while in silence. I could tell that Cora was a bit confused. After a bit longer she decided to speak up.
"What happened between you and my sister?"
'Well... You know that I've been in multiple games before this one.'
I quickly moved to the side a a manticore leaped out of the underbrush.
"Yep."
'So a while back I was in a game. My sponsors for it were Poseidon, Thor, and Terra. Now that I think about it, I have absolutely no idea of how they even could have met each other.'
The manticore tried to sting me, but it was completely ineffective.
"And what happened?"
'Well, I entered a contract with them. They would grant me access to a portion of their powers, and in turn I would win them the game as quickly as I could. Which I did.'
I grabbed the manticore be the tail and pulled it towards me.
"...what else?"
'Nothing else.'
I snapped a small sapling as I rushed by it, pulling the manticore along.
"But that doesn't explain why she doesn't like you."
'Let's just say that she didn't like how I won the game, and since Poseidon and Thor both supported my way of doing things, she couldn't stop me.'
I shoved me hands into the manticore's mouth and quickly pulled its jaw apart.
"Well that's just silly. She should be mad at those two, not you. You were just doing what you did best. That's no reason to dislike someone."
I dropped the corpse to the ground and threw my arms into the air.
'That's exactly what I said! But no, she decided to blame me.'
"Well I'll see if I can get her to forgive you. Then everything will be all better."
'Good luck with that.'
I stopped as we reached what looked like a solid wall of trees. I glanced over at Cora, who had a slightly guilty look.
'Cora...'
"We...We've reached the wall."
'The...wall.'
"Yeah. We've... come from the wrong side. The entrance is on the other side."
I picked Cora up off my shoulder, and placed her down on the ground.
"I said we have to go around."
'No we don't.' I said while backing up.
"But we do. There's no other way in."
'I'm going to make one.'
I bolted forward and slammed my body into the wall of vegetation, like a humanoid wrecking ball. I crunched through the wood and vines, leaving a large hole, and many crushed plants in my wake. Cora looked at the hole I had opened up.
"Oh."
She ran up to me and I picked her back up.
"Don't you think that my sister's going to be a bit upset with you over this?"
'Didn't you say you were going to get her to forgive me?'
Cora was silent for a moment, before giving me a big grin.
"Right! But you might want to wash up if you want to see her."
I glanced down at my body and noticed that it was still caked with red, from the fight with the dogs, and my hands still dripped with fresh blood from the manticore.
'Mmmmmm'kay. Let's find a stream or something.'
After tromping through the forest for a few minutes we came across a small river. I wasn't going to question the convenience of it. I placed Cora down on the riverbank and proceeded to wash the dried blood off my body.
"Hey. I just thought of something."
'What?'
"You said that Skeleton Jack," Cora stifled a giggle, "was an old friend."
'And?'
"Well you've reincarnated a bunch of times, right?"
'Yes.'
"And in your story, when you first met her, you were reincarnating."
'Yes.'
"And you told her that in the life you were about to be reborn into, you would be called Adam."
'So?'
"Well, that's your name this time. So relatively speaking she wouldn't really be an 'old friend'."
'Cora...'
"Uh-huh?"
I have been called Adam in more than just this life.'
"Oh... never-mind then."
I just shook my head and got out of the river.
'Ready to go?'
Cora was determining the direction of her sister again. While sitting on my shoulder, she had her eyes closed, her head slightly bowed, and her arms spread out in front of her. After a moment she opened her eyes and pointed slightly to the left.
"This way."
We had been walking for the better part of an hour, and every ten minutes or so Cora would ask that we stop, so she could correct our course. I, on the other hand, had been very careful not to get any blood on me, while I defended us from wild animals. So far we had been attacked by another manticore, two cockatrices, a leopard, and an anaconda. In order to minimize the amount of mess, I resorted to cracking the manticore's skull, snapping the cockatrices' and the leopard's necks, and I just threw the snake.
Once Cora had indicated the new direction I began to walk again.
We ended up at the edge of a cliff. It wasn’t very high, only a hundred feet or so. I looked at Cora.
‘Are you sure that this is the way?’
“Yep, definitely this way.”
‘Because once we go down that, it’s going to take a while to get back up.’
Cora crossed her arms and gave a little pout.
“I said it’s this way, and I mean it’s this way!”
‘Alright then. Hold on.’
After cradling Cora in my arms, I jumped over the edge. I hit the bottom with a loud CRASH. It took a while, but soon I was up again. Cora had been completely fine.
“Let’s do that again!”
‘No.’
I continued to walk in the direction we were supposed to be going. We were getting fairly deep into the forest at this point, and I was a bit suspicious. In forests, jungles, and even small woods there are always animals. You can always hear them, be it birds cheeping or monkeys chittering.
That is why I wasn’t completely taken by surprise when I heard a low growl.
They slowly began to reveal themselves.
‘Timber wolves. Just perfect.’
These timber wolves were huge, in fact they were just a bit shorter than I was. They slowly began to spread out, attempting to surround us.
“Timber wolves! These are her’s!”
Cora jumped down from my shoulder and walked up to the nearest wolf, and reached out her hand.
‘I don’t think that a good idea.’
“I’m sure that she just sent them as an escort.”
The wolf lunged at Cora. I reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her to my chest. I swiftly lashed out and smashed the timber wolf’s head. I quickly turned around, and swung out my elbow catching another lunging wolf, sending wood chips everywhere. I started running back the way we came. The remaining wolves took up the chase.
“Why are we running?”
‘I’m getting us to a place where I can fight without worrying about you.’
“Where?”
‘There.’
I pointed up ahead to the cliff we had jumped down. The sheer face gave me a place to defend, without worrying about being flanked. I dropped Cora, and turned to face my opponents. There were about a dozen remaining.
The lumber lupines charged as one. I lunged forward and crushed the nearest one with a two handed overhead smash, forcing it into the ground. I then whipped out my arm and bashed another sending it flying into a tree, which buckled under the force of the hit. One of the remaining wolves lunged for my throat. It managed to get a tentative grasp, and I wrapped my arms around it and squeezed, until it snapped in half. The wolves howled at me, and I charged at them. I barreled into two more, crushing them together.
I looked up and saw 9 wolves remaining, but one was hanging out in the back, hiding among the trees. I decided to ignore it for now, and I turned my attention back to the others. I leaped towards them, slamming into another wolf, as they scrambled to avoid my lunge. I grabbed the closest one by its tail and swung it around, before throwing it high into the air. It fell back down, and hit the ground with a crunch.
The six remaining had managed to surround me, and they lunged as one. I started pivoting, and allowed the centripetal force to force my arms wide, turning them into two makeshift maces. The wolves yelped and were blasted away. I leaped at the nearest one and buried it under my body. The others jumped atop me, and tried to claw and bite me, but since I was made of iron, all of their attacks did more damage to themselves than to me. I shook my head started to force myself up. These wolves were pretty heavy. Once I managed to stand back up, two of them were still clinging to my back. This upset my balance, and I toppled over backwards, crushing the wolves in the process. Two of the remaining wolves charged at me again, and when they were close I reached out an snapped their legs. The fell and I used their heads to help stand back up, crushing them in the process. I picked up one of the corpses and launched it at the last wolf, who dodged it only to be crushed between my shoulder and a tree, as I bull-rushed it.
I glanced around for any remaining combatants. I spotted the wolf that had stayed in the back during the battle, and when it turned to run, I scooped up Cora and chased after it.
"Did you have fun?"
'Lots.'
A/N
Sup readers?
This has been the first chapter in a crossover with Zombie_Lizard's story, Broken Howls and Tattered Leaves, which is amazing. Seriously you should give it a look.
Anyways, how did you all find the chapter?
And as always: comments, criticism, and corrections are always appreciated.
~Eathlome