Metamor Keep -- A Long Patrol
By Christian O'kane

Part 6

The two scouts lay quietly in the brush and examined the clearing. In the center was a gnarled, old tree that they both recognized. It had taken them all day to find it, but there it was.

They measured off twenty feet to the north and that brought them to an empty spot in the woods. If nobody had found it, under the earth should be their canoe.

They circled the site four times looking for an ambush, but found nothing. While Misha stood guard Caroline slowly edged closer to the cache. Finally she reached the spot and searched for any traps. Nothing. She started carefully digging with a small folding shovel.

The two of them took turns alternating between guarding and digging. After an hour they had uncovered the boat and laboriously dragged it from the hole. After that the hole was filled in and the leaves and debris were replaced. Soon it looked as if the ground hadn't been disturbed. A careful examination of the canoe showed that it was still in excellent shape. A good piece of luck.

It was dark before they were ready to assault the river. The two scouts knelt on the riverbank and scanned the water. It was broad, and the surface was deceptively placid. Underneath, the currents were slow but very powerful, and the water itself was ice cold. There were countless bits of debris; trees, boards, branches and the like in the water. There was even a half-sunken row boat floating along with the current.

CRUNCH! Both of them jumped at the noise as it echoed across the water.

"It ate the row boat," Caroline said aloud and pointed towards the middle of the river.

Misha looked where the otter was pointing. Where the row boat had been was nothing but a scattered cluster of broken boards. As he watched a large black shape reared out of the water and swallowed the boards. Then it disappeared back into the river.

"What is that thing?" she signed quietly.

"Don't know, but its big trouble," came the silent reply.

"We can't use the canoe with that thing out there," she stated with sign language.

"Do you have any other ideas? The nearest bridge is three days walk east of here. You can be sure it's very well guarded. Two or three hundred soldiers at the least," was his answer.

The otter didn't answer but just looked out over the river. "Hmm. Did you bring any extra clothing?" she asked after a moment.

"HUH? Sure I brought more clothing. Why?" he asked a little confused.

"I have an idea how we can get past than thing in the river," Caroline explained.

Two hours later a canoe pulled out into the current and headed for the opposite shore. In the boat two figures were hunched over paddles.

Below the water a creature noticed something odd floating on the surface. With a flip of a thirty-foot long tail the creature propelled it's massive bulk towards the object. As it got closer the animal saw that the floating thing wasn't a log or tree. It was a human made thing. This was what it had been ordered to eat. The giant beast remembered the command clearly "Destroy any human or human made thing in the river."

It circled the boat a few times just to be sure. The huge animal had been trapped here for many days. Forced to swim back and forth in this tiny shallow river, instead of her nice big ocean. She could tell that the time of her service was nearly over. The spell binding her grew weaker by the day. When the spell had worn off she would leave, but that was still days away. Which meant she had to obey the commands.

She started to spiral closer and closer to the canoe, gliding just Below the surface. Then when she was close enough she closed her around the canoe with a loud CRUNCH!

Seated on a large log about twenty yards away Caroline and Misha looked back at the canoe they had been towing. Not so much as a splinter was left.

"Row gently, it might not realize that we're here," Caroline spoke aloud. The two of them kept paddling for the shore, a scant thirty yards away.

The shoreline seemed to creep closer at a snails pace. Then Misha felt the log rock back and forth twice. They both stopped rowing instantly. "It's checking us out. Not sure what we are," he said in a whisper.

Suddenly a massive head loomed out of the water, less than ten feet away. Two eyes each as large as a dinner plate stared at them. Both of them held perfectly still and waited.

It seemed like an eternity as the massive head looked at them. Then just suddenly as it has appeared the head disappeared. Neither of them moved but just let the log drift with the current. After a few moments there was a splash of water a good distance up stream. Misha risked turning his head to look. He saw a log spin end over end through the air. Suddenly that massive skull shot out of the water and caught the log in mid air. The creature sank back down into the water. Then with a toss of the head it threw the log into the air.

He relaxed, and made a rowing motion with his paddle. In a few short moments they made it to dry land. Both of them leapt off the log and ran for higher ground. They didn't stop until they least fifty feet inland. The two rested under cover of some bushes. Behind them the sea creature continued to toss and catch its toy in the river, oblivious to how close it had come to killing the two scouts.

They were exhausted. They hadn't slept in two days. It had been a week since they had eaten the last of their food, and muddy river water was a poor substitute for drinking water, even if it was cool and wet. It was almost an hour after sunrise before they could muster the strength to start walking.

They headed east along the riverbank towards the cache. That had been where the canoe had been hidden before they first crossed the river. That was over a month ago. The canoe was gone, but there were still water and rations stored there.

The march should have taken all day and most of the night with most of that time taken up by dodging lutin patrols and sentries. Instead the journey took less than six hours. They didn't run across a single lutin during the entire trip. A trail that should have seen a constant flow of lutins was deserted. Alone and growing more easy by the minute the two scouts headed up river.

Nervous, the two scouts lay hidden under cover and carefully examined the rock outcropping. Five steps from that rock was a small stone that marked the location of the cache. He could see it clearly from where he was hiding. They slowly circled the site, moving carefully checking for an ambush.

He was halfway around when he spotted the ambush. There, less than thirty feet in front of him someone lay in hiding. Misha paused to consider what to do next. Just as he knew the ambusher was there, he was sure the other person knew that Misha and Carol were there.

Carol lay next to him and signed to him, "How many are there?"

"At least one, probably more. It's hard to tell, these boys are good." The wind shifted and it brought a scent to them. Misha caught the faint whiff of some animal. It was an exotic creature, not native to this area, and it was very familiar. It was a prairie dog.

"Craig, is that you?" he said in a barely audible whisper. The figure motioned them closer, but didn't speak.

Clutching his axe he crept closer to the person. He was ten feet away when a voice whispered, "Halt."

The figure moved closer to him, and Misha recognized Craig, immediately. The prairie dog morph came closer and spoke in a whisper, "It's all clear you two. We've swept the area, we're alone," he said aloud.

In few moments a woman, a pine marten, and a young girl joined the prairie dog, fox and otter. All of the newcomers were dressed in the camouflage armor that marked them as Long Scouts. There were hugs and handshakes all round for the two returning heroes. A pair of canteens were produced at handed over to the two thirsty scouts.

Misha took a long drink of water emptying half the canteen in the process. The water was cool, fresh and went down easily. No wine ever made tasted so good.

The Marten touched Carol on the arm, "Can I see it?" she ask in a low whisper.

"See what," Carol asked, a little confused.

"The proof that he's really dead," the marten replied.

"Who?"

"Furlin!"

"It's right here Danielle," Misha said interrupting. He held up an leather thong with a human ear on it.

Danielle reached out with her hand but didn't touch it. "Great," she whispered.

"Where are all the lutins? This area should be crawling with them," Misha asked.

The young girl pointed off to the south, "They're a little busy at the moment." Misha looked in the direction Lisa had pointed. About ten miles away a large column of thick black smoke billowed up from the woods.

"Neat! That should keep the Silver Knives busy for a while," Misha said with obvious delight.

"What's that?" Carol asked staring at the smoke.

"That, my love is why you build castles out of stone, not wood," Misha said.

"Great, all I want is a simple answer. Instead I get a lesson in architecture," Carol said sarcastically.

There was a smattering of laughter, from the group. "That pillar of smoke is from fortress Long Knife. Laura and her team must have the Silver Knives believing the Duke himself is attacking," Danielle answered.

"Let's get going, you can fill us in on the details as we move," the fox ordered.

"Hey," Caroline said indignantly, "What about some food? I'm hungry." Danielle handed a rucksack full of trail rations to Caroline.

Misha took a ration without bothering to identify it, and started eating. It was filled with beef. "Ready to go home, dear?" He asked Caroline.

The otter had already half finished a trail ration and answered between bites. "Yes honey, let's go home."

End Long Patrol

Return to Metamor Page