Gargoyle.
Chapter III First Blood.
Keeping my body as low as I possibly could to the ground, I carefully began to make my way around the right hand side of the camp, all the while keeping my eyes sharp for any sudden movements from the Gnolls that may hear my movements.
‘So far so good…’ I thought to myself.
I came to a stop by another tree after making a full semi-circle of the camp, from what I could gather, there must be at least seven Gnolls, judging from the number of tents they had set up. I also caught a glance at a Gnoll that was significantly larger than the others who was sitting on what looked like a makeshift chair, drinking heavily from a tankard.
Didn’t take a genius to work out he was the leader.
“Ya know what boyz?” I heard him say, “I fink dis calls for anotha’ round of ale!”
The others gave a roar of approval as I heard the sounds of barrels being opened and the sounds of liquid being poured into tankards.
“To da Hobolls! Da bestest race in the world!”
Another roar of approval rang out throughout the camp as I struggled not to burst out laughing at the name.
‘Hobolls… really?’
‘Focus, ´ my mind said, ‘remember we’re here to try and get some food without offending them.’
I nodded to myself as I began to try and find a way around the camp again, after a little while longer I had to hold back a groan of frustration as I couldn’t find a clear way of walking into the camp from the side I was hiding without startling the Hobolls.
‘Alright… doesn’t seem to be anyway I can get in from this side… what about the other?’ I wondered.
Like before, I kept my body as low as I could and began to sneak round to the other side of the camp, my body froze as I stepped on a twig which snapped loudly, louder than I’d of liked it to. I practically flattened myself to the forest floor and kept as quiet as I could, listening for any sign the Hoboll might have heard the twig.
“What was dat noise?”
“Go looks, ya waste of fur!”
‘Damn, now what?!’ I cursed to myself.
As I heard the sounds of at least two Hobolls coming closer, I glanced around and saw a fairly large-ish stone and quickly picked it up, with as little movement as I could so I wouldn’t get noticed, I chucked the stone towards my right deeper into the forest. The stone smacked into a tree from the sounds of it and I held my breath as I could feel the Hobolls presence nearby.
“Hmmm, musta been animal.”
“Long gone now, we go drink now!”
I waited till I heard the Hobolls move away and let out a sigh of relief and slowly lifted myself back up from the ground as I crept to the far side of the camp, looking from the forest floor to the camp as to avoid any other incidents like earlier, I grinned to myself.
“Guess my sneak roll was a perfect twenty this time.” I chuckled to myself softly at my little joke.
I soon came to the direct opposite side of the camp without being detected and I mentally gave myself some experience points, leaning against another tree I peeked my head out and glanced around at the camp, I saw a small section between two tents that looked like a good way to sneak into the camp and I closed my eyes, trying to focus on hearing sounds around me.
Like in an action film or something.
My eyes opened suddenly as I heard the sounds of… crying? Who on earth is crying?
I changed my position and looked in the other direction of the camp from my hiding place and I stopped myself from gasping at what I saw.
How I managed not to see that was beyond me.
Near to where the leader was sitting was a fairly large cage that was sitting on a platform on wheels, inside the cage was at least a dozen… small horses? Ponies maybe?
Some of them were visibly shaking, from what I don’t know but most likely fear, from what I could see I gathered that the majority of them were mares and foals.
Wait foals?!
I blinked as I confirmed what I saw, along with the mares there were at least five small foals, all with dirty coats and messy manes and were crying as they clung desperately to what I assumed was a parent.
“What on earth…?” I whispered.
‘I think… I think they’ve been captured.’
“Well no shit Sherlock,” I muttered, “questions is why though.”
‘I don’t know, food maybe?’
“I doubt it… I mean you saw the size of that boar… so maybe…”
I stopped mid-sentence and stiffled a gasp when one of the ponies spoke up.
“Mummy... I’m scared.”
“It’s ok Lilly Song... It’ll be ok...”
I let out a low growl, my mouth forming into a snarl as I quickly worked out just exactly what they were for.
“Slavery…” I growled softly, “it has to be slavery...”
‘I think you’re right...’
“HA HA HA! Great haul boyz! Da master is gunna be chuffed wiff dis haul!”
I snapped out of my growl as the leader let out a disgusting cackle along with the other Hobolls, I watched as he swigged from his tankard and look over at the cage of sniffling ponies, their eyes widened as he snarled loudly at them.
“QUIT CRYIN! YUR RUINING ME ALE!” He barked at them.
He threw his tankard at the cage, the wooden tankard smashing on impact and coating the ponies in the contents. The ponies whimpered as the Hobolls laughed at them, I could feel my anger boiling up inside of me and my body began to shake slightly, I let out a low growl and was about to make a move when I noticed a Hoboll walk over to the cage.
“I should help them.” I whispered
‘What, are you crazy?! You can’t possibly take that risk, you CAN die remember?”
“But I can’t just do nothing…”
‘Look, I know this looks bad and trust me that it’s a sad scene. But this is just a dream, remember? Nothing more, nothing less. They aren’t real.”
“Oi, boss. Can I take one of dese ponies and ‘ave some fun?” He asked looking to the leader.
“Whatever, just don’t kill da bitch.” The leader shrugged as he was given a new tankard.
The Hoboll grinned as he opened the cage and violently pulled out one of the ponies, a mare with white fur and matching mane. She had wings on the sides of her body but they were tied down with rope preventing her from being able to fly away.
“N-no please!” She cried.
“Mummy!” The little foal I had heard speak cried out trying to run after her.
“Let her go!” A stallion cried.
“QUIT YUR CRYIN!” The Hoboll shouted, shoving the foal back into the cage into the stallion who held onto her tightly.
He slammed the cage shut and locked it, and grabbed the mare by her front hoof and started to drag her away.
“SNOW WING!” The stallion shouted as the foal began to cry.
I’d seen enough.
I had to do something, dream or not.
Against the protesting in my mind, I quickly made my way back again around the camp, all the while hearing the poor mare screaming for the Hoboll to let her go, I could feel something inside of me burning up alongside my anger and I didn’t notice I was growling lowly as I quickly made my way across the camp. I watched as the Hoboll strode into the tent with the crying mare behind him and close the tent flap, seeing that there was no other Hobolls about I moved out of the trees and quietly to the tent.
“N-No please… please don’t!” I heard the mare whimper.
“Shut it!” The Hoboll barked back.
I heard a loud slap and the mare let out a cry of pain, gritting my teeth and letting out a low snarl I slipped into the tent carefully. I could feel my anger boiling up inside me, all concerns of being overwhelmed by the Hobolls or being attacked by them had practically gone, leaving anger in its place. The Hoboll had his back to me and was towering over the mare who, from her point of view, didn’t see me.
“I’m gunna enjoy dis…” The Hoboll laughed.
I slowly stood up behind him, my height slowly towering over his, the mare saw me and her eyes widened as she stopped whimpering and stared at me with shock and fear.
“What you lookin’ at?” the Hoboll asked turning round.
The Hoboll’s eyes widened in surprise and before he could let out a sound, I grabbed his head and violently twisted it, snapping his neck with a sickening crunch as his body gave a sudden twitch and went limp.
I growled as I tossed the body into the side of the tent, letting out a snort of disgust.
‘What the hell are you doing?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
I started to tune out my thoughts, I didn’t need to hear them at the moment.
I was only interested in dealing with one thing and one thing only at that moment, the Hobolls.
I looked down at the mare as she lay there on her back simply staring at me with her shrunken pupils and began to slowly shake in fear, I saw she was about to scream and quickly placed a hand over her mouth, muffling her.
“Shh… stay here…” I whispered to her.
She nodded silently and let go of her mouth, I turned and was about to leave the tent when I glanced back at the corpse of the Hoboll and an idea came to mind. I grabbed the body and slipped out of the tent quietly and back into the tree line, carefully making my way away from the tent.
I placed the body on the ground and looked towards the camp, looking for a perfect spot to start my plan. With a sick grin I grabbed the body by the neck and hurled it towards the camp, I watched as it sailed through the air and crashed into the ground beside the group near the fire, startling the life out of them.
I could feel a rush of energy flow over me as watched the panic within the campsite.
As cries of panic ran in the air as the Hobolls tried to work out what the hell just happened, I silently made my way to another part of the tree line near the camp and waited.
“FIND DA ONE WHO DID DIS, NOW! I WANT DER ‘EAD!” I heard the leader bark.
I smirked at his tone, although it was confident I could hear just ever so slightly a hint of fear. Some of the Hobolls began to head towards the edge of the forest, with two remaining by the cage of ponies. I watched as two of them started to come towards me, as they came closer I had a strange sensation fill me as my body warmed up and I felt myself start to salivate lightly. Ignoring it for the time being I climbed up into a tree and using the shadows to my advantage I was able to hide, my back against the tree as I looked downwards.
As the Hobolls slowly walked past, I shot my tail down when the one furthest away from me looked away and wrapped it around the neck of the one closest tightly preventing him from making any noise and hoisted him into the tree, where my hands quickly found his head and like the first Hoboll, I quickly snapped his neck.
I watched the other as I held the limp form of the Hoboll in my grip; I chuckled softly at the stupidity of the Hoboll when he suddenly heard a faint snap noise and noticed that he was now all alone. The Hoboll looked around trying to see where his friend had gone, his ears lowered as a soft whimper left his mouth.
‘No sense keeping them apart…’ I growled.
With a soft grunt I flung the corpse from the tree at the Hoboll, he spun round when he heard the grunt I made only to have the corpse slam into him and catching him off guard, causing him to fall to the ground. Quick as a shot I leaped from my hiding place and outstretched my wings for intimidation, the Hoboll shoved the body off and saw me and let out a yelp of panic as I landed on him, the weight of my body crushing his chest with a crunch as a spurt of blood shot from his mouth. His eyes widened before his head slumped to the side as the blood leaked from his mouth, I inhaled deeply as the blood pooled around his head and smelt something I couldn’t put my finger on.
But it smelt good.
I heard the other Hobolls barking and the sound of footsteps rushing to where I was, I figured they had heard the yelp as I had thrown the body at the Hoboll. I quickly grabbed the sword one of the dead Hobolls was carrying and quietly went into the bushes, careful to keep my body as low to the ground as I could and once more waited in the shadows. The strange smell was getting more and more intense and it was making me more alert, my limbs feeling lighter and my eyes began to sharpen in the darkness letting me see more than I normally could. Soon after, three more Hobolls appeared.
“WHAT DA FUCK!” A Hoboll cried as he looked over the two dead ones.
“I dun like dis…” Another muttered.
“Spread out! Dis fing can’t be too far!” One barked.
I held back the urge to chuckle again at the blatant stupidity of the Hobolls; I waited till they had begun to spread out before I made my move, I lashed out with my tail at the closest one who fell with a startled yelp as I tripped him, before letting out a cry of pain as I plunged a sword into his throat. The two others turned to see what happened and froze upon seeing me, seizing their temporary paralysation; I charged at the one closest to me and tackled him to the ground and plunged the sword into his throat as well.
It gave a choked cry of surprise as it spluttered blood from his mouth but I suddenly hissed loudly in pain, the other Hoboll had snapped itself out of its temporary paralyzation and stuck his spear into my right shoulder blade and although I heard the spear snap as the toughness of my skin prevented the tip from fully sinking into me, I did still feel the sharp sting of pain as it cut into me.
The Hoboll gave a confused yelp as the crude wooden pole snapped and its eyes shot open as I suddenly twisted my body round and pounced him, growling loudly as I sunk my teeth into his throat and began to tear into him, the blood spraying all over my face as I continued to rip apart his throat. The Hoboll gargled and choked on its own blood as it flailed helplessly, trying to push me off him to no avail. As blood rushed down my throat I happily drank it down, the feeling I had earlier after smelling the strange smell overtaking me again when I realised what I was experiencing.
Blood lust.
I raised form the body of the Hoboll, blood dripping from my mouth as I licked my lips and wiped the remaining blood off my face. That’s when I felt myself calming down slightly, and then I saw the body of the Hoboll and my eyes widened slightly.
“Did... did I just do that?” I whispered to myself, slightly disgusted.
I stared at the body for a few more moments, just processing what I actually just did.
I’d never killed anything before in my life, in fact, I’d never acted like such an... animal before. I looked at my hands which were covered in blood and I gritted my teeth.
I was brought out of my shock by the sound of the Hoboll leader’s.
“WELL? ‘AVE YOU FOUND EET YET?”
I felt my anger boiling up again at his voice, I don’t know what it was about it but it just hit a nerve and my sudden shock was quickly overwhelmed by the smell of the blood flowed into my nostrils again and I turned towards the camp.
“Six down…” I growled. “Three to go…”
As I grabbed the legs of the two corpses I heard something whisper to me. I stopped momentarily as I looked around me, wondering if I had made a miscalculation on how many Hobolls there actually were. Waiting for a brief moment and hearing nothing, I turned around to start heading into the camp.
‘Calm...’
I heard the whisper louder this time, but it didn’t feel as if it was coming from around me, and it didn’t sound like the usual voice in my head either. I shook my head and chose to ignore it for now as I had other things I needed to focus on. I slowly began to make my way towards the campsite, dragging two of the bodies with me as I walked. I remained in the shadows between two tents, looking over at the leader who was tapping the side of his makeshift throne impatiently.
“Where da hell is they?” He growled.
“Maybe dey is dead boss? We did ‘ear a cry…”
“Serves dem right fer being weak den, guess I better go sort it out...” he grunted and stood up, “you two stay ‘er and keep an eye on da prisoners!”
“Right boss!”
I chose that moment to make myself known, with a grunt I threw both corpses, one after the other, into the middle of the camp watching them as they rolled on the ground. The Hoboll leader looked up slowly from the corpses in my direction and his eyes widened slightly as I slowly stepped into the clearing. The ponies were silent save for a few gasps as I emerged, the light from the flames danced over my body adding to the intimidation factor, I knew the leader could smell the blood on me because he began to growl lowly.
“You da one dat killed me boyz?!” He shouted.
“Yes.” I growled in response, more deeply than normal.
“DEN YOU IS DEAD!”
He suddenly charged at me on all fours the speed of which took me by surprise; he tackled my midsection and sent me hurtling to the ground with him on top of me. I growled in pain as I felt his teeth sink into my neck but thanks to the added toughness of my skin they didn’t fully go in, only grazing it which confused the leader, I gripped his sides and brought my leg up and with a mighty push I flipped him behind me before scrambling up to my feet and standing in a defensive position.
He snarled and tried to rush me again but I managed to sidestep at the last moment and brought my fist into his stomach, winding him as I spun on the spot, gripping his fur in my hand and hurled him into his makeshift chair, smirking as it smashed on impact.
He got out with a low growl, spitting out a glob of blood from his mouth and slowly rising from the wreck of his chair. He looked to his right and grabbed a spear that was nearby before charging me again, he let out a roar as he tried to stab me with it but I again narrowly sidestepped and swung my tail round into his stomach, he let out a pained howl as something inside broke and he crashed to the floor, rolling a few feet.
I growled and swished my tail waiting for him to make his next move; as he got up shakily I could see the anger in his eyes as he bared his teeth and roared again.
“YOU TWO, GET ‘IM!” He roared at the two Hobolls guarding the ponies.
Up until that moment, they had been watching the fight with open mouths, unsure as to what to do but as soon as they heard the leader roar at them they snapped out of their shocked states and rushed me, both armed with spears.
I growled deeply and braced myself and as the closest one tried to stab his spear into me, I ducked down and grabbed part of the pole and forcibly pulled it towards me. As the Hoboll stumbled off balance my fist connected into its side causing it to howl in pain and drop the spear, I quickly took a small jump back as the second Hoboll rammed his spear towards me, the tip of it just catching me in the arm I used to punch the first.
I hissed as I felt some blood trickle down my arm and snarled at the Hobolls, the leader smirked as the second Hoboll went for me again. I blocked his spear with the one I had taken from the other and pushed him back slightly, he stumbled a bit before falling to the ground as my tail swung round and swept him of his feet. Taking the opportunity I plunged the spear I was wielding into the Hoboll’s chest, eliciting a pained howl as I felt the spear go straight through him and embed into the ground below.
The first Hoboll shakily got to his feet and jumped at me, catching me off guard and latched onto my arm, trying to sink his teeth into it.
The Hoboll must of gotten a weaker part of the skin as I felt some of his teeth sink in and I let out a pain roar, I brought my fist down onto his head repeatedly as I tried to get him to let go. Finally the Hoboll let go with a whimper and I brought my knee up into his chest hard, knocking the wind out of him before grabbing his body and with all my strength I threw him onto the fire.
The Hoboll screamed out in pain as it got up on fire and rolled on the floor trying to put itself out but to no avail, I suddenly heard a soft whistle sound and turned round before I cried out in pain as a spear slammed into me and embedded itself into my chest. I looked up to see the leader reaching for another spear, I roared out and charged at him, ripping out the spear from my chest and holding back another pained cry and tackled him into the tent that was behind where his throne had been. As we collided with the tent it collapsed around us and we struggled amidst the fabric of it, I managed to find his neck under part of the tent that was covering his head and wrapped my hands around it and squeezed.
As the leader choked and let out gasps and tried to breath and push my hand off him, I stared down at him and growled as I felt a familiar energy wash over me again as he thrashed about.
“Calm yourself!”
My head snapped up as I heard the whisper again, I shook my head trying to ignore it as I applied more pressure to the Hoboll leader’s throat.
“Scott... calm down!”
My eyes widened in surprise, I wasn’t expecting the voice to know my name. I suddenly became aware of what I was doing just at the moment I felt the leaders hands, which were trying to push mine off, go limp and he let out a last breath.
I stood up slowly from the body breathing in deep, shallow breaths as I took a couple of steps back.
I couldn’t believe what I just managed to do, I looked at my hands which were shaking slightly. I just killed another creature, and several others all within the space of an hour...
… and I liked it.
But that voice in my head... it was something that concerned me, unlike the other voice in my head I had argued with ,it didn’t sound like me. It was more deeper and slightly darker, yet it had the tone of wisdom in it.
Shaking my head as I clenched my fists, I quickly strode over to the cage with the ponies in it - who were now backed as far as they could against the bars in fear- and inspected the lock silently.
I chuckled softly to myself at the utter simplicity of the Hoboll lock and easily ripped it off the door, I then grabbed the door itself and ripped it off the bars and threw it aside, leaving a very large gap in the cage. I took a few steps back to allow the ponies to get out and I smiled at them.
Big mistake.
“EVERPONY RUN! HURRY!”
They all screamed and burst out of the cage and began to run away from the camp, I realised that my grin might of given them the impression I had wanted to take them as my meal or something else. I turned around quickly looking after the disappearing bodies and tried to speak but blinked as my vision became slightly blurry.
Stumbling to my knee I winced as I felt myself feeling weaker and weaker and looked down at my body, where the spear from the leader had thrown at me was blood, but mixed in that blood was an orange looking liquid.
It didn’t take a genius to work out it must of been some form of poison.
I winced as I clutched the wound and fell onto my back and began to pant, my eyes feeling heavier as the world around me began to fade into black.