Day 24: Negotiations (So to Speak)

Everyone held their breath as we listened for the tyrannosaurus. Nothing. After a minute Tallow broke the silence.

"Well Chief, maybe you ought to get that thing covered," he said, pointing toward the exposed light. "But this doesn't change things much. See uh, we were sent out here as a sort of welcoming committee for you."

It made me nervous to hear Tallow lay it all out on the table like that, but it seemed like for the time being we had the upper hand. They wanted more of their people tended in the morning, and killing us or pissing us off wasn't going to help them. Still, I kept my hand on my sword hilt and my eye on our hostages.

"So what, to threaten us? Kick us off the mighty lord's land?" The chief seemed more amused than anything.

Tallow waited a moment, like he was sizing up the guy. Then he went on. "Nah, sort of the opposite. Count Yank de Frank, gods bless his ancient line, is always looking for talented warriors to grace his army."

"What?" I looked around the group in confusion. Grens was emotionless as always. Gunther looked surprised, but said nothing. The chief seemed pretty thrown off too.

"Esh-akgar, or im tehr-dash!" His orders sent hobgoblins scurrying about the camp. I didn't like this turn of events.

"What would a human chief want with us?" The hobgoblin leader asked. "And why would we want to join him anyway?"

Tallow snorted. "Fuck if I know, Chief. He's got an offer for you and whatever it is it's better than your head on a spike. Which is what happened to the last band of beast men to wander into the County, if you'll recall. And I am reaching," he added, "for the message." He produced an ivory scroll-tube from within his jacket and tossed it nonchalantly to the hobgoblin. "Can you read?"

The chief caught the tube but didn't open it. Instead he glowered at Tallow.

One of the hobgoblin hostages growled a low, rumbling growl. I tightened my hand on his shoulder and he quieted.

"Can you read?" Repeated Tallow.

"I can read," he confirmed. "I can also hear and see. What I hear are words of war. What I see before me are frightened, hairless babies. Maybe your count can catch us, maybe not. Maybe he can even defeat us. It will not save your lives tonight if he kills me two, three, six months from now. You will respect our hospitality and you will talk with deference or you--"

"Yeah, or we'll wh--?" Tallow's words were drowned out in the thundering destruction of trees that suddenly surrounded the camp. Even the roar the hobgoblins let out was muted. I saw an entire fifty-foot tree sheared off of its trunk and flung over the camp like so much bad produce. Two angular eyes gleamed in the darkness of the edge of camp as the tyrannosaurus plunged into view.

The brush barricades were immediately destroyed where it came through. It must have bolted through the trees at a dead run, itself tree-sized, and came at us full force. As soon as it entered the open clearing of the camp it snapped up a hobgoblin in its jaws and tilted its head back, chomping. Writhing legs fell to the ground as the man's screams stopped short.

The hobgoblin chief began barking orders in his native language, not bothering to conceal himself. I suppose he wanted his men to rally around him. I had no such delusions and dove behind the nearest stack of crates, not realising until after I hit the ground that I had dragged the growling hostage along with me. Shoving him rudely against a barrel I drew my sword, ignored his wide eyes, and cut the poor thing free. We would need all the arms we could get to survive this thing.

Tallow dove in next to me. "Grens!" he yelled. The death magician had run past both of us, darting toward the tree line at the edge of camp. "Grens, get back here!"

Gunther went after him. I saw the big man chase after the little man in robes and for a second I thought he was going to tackle him. But instead he grabbed him by one shoulder, shoved him behind a tree and spun to protect him. Then his eyes went wide.

It had only been a few seconds since the monster charged into camp, and it had come from the far side. But it moved quick. I could hear its big footsteps thudding toward me and the ground actually trembled under me with each one. Gunther was treated to seeing it face-to-face as it charged in our direction.

I tried to jump up but Tallow used all of his weight to hold me down. "Wait... for it!" he moaned through clenched teeth.

The footsteps stopped. A moment of quiet, with the distant yells of hobgoblins trying to get organised for an attack. A rustling sound like bird wings, and I saw a large sheaf of tent flung to our left. Then the screaming started.

The sick tent must have been like a feasting hall for the dinosaur, and Tallow had figured it out before I did. That's why he wanted us to stay down, because he knew we wouldn't be the first targets. Recently mended wounds burst open again as broadsword-teeth tore sloppy, crunching bites from the infirm. I struggled to think rationally and figure out what to do.

Beside me the freed hostage found a hatchet and took off running toward the sick tent. Tallow pushed me to the side and darted past me. For a second I thought he was going after the hostage, but he went the other way, toward the closest section of brush barricade. I wasn't stupid, so I followed him.

As I stood up I got my first look at the grisly events in the camp. The torch was exposed again and lit up the whole scene: the tyrannosaurus had a mouthful of gore and gangrene, biting indiscriminately through anything that couldn't run away from it. The freed hostage ran toward it with his hatchet, harrying its legs and delivering a few good chops before being knocked flat by a flick of the great predator's jaws. Armed hobgoblins advanced from the other side, a couple firing arrows but most pressing in with lowered spears in a small and shakey infantry formation. The chief was with them, in the second row brandishing a bloody sword and ordering them on with what I can only imagine were threats.

I dove behind the brush barricade right after Tallow. Gunth and the wizard bolted over when they saw us. "We're gonna have to run a long ways," Tallow explained between heavy breaths. Gunther nodded.

"No." Aww shit. What am I doing? That was my first thought. My second thought was, Wait, what am I doing? It was me--I was the one making my choices, and in the middle of a battle at that. It's not that I couldn't feel that thing with me. It's just that it didn't seem to want to change anything I was doing. Either it and I were in complete agreement--crappy thought, that--or it was giving me a moment of freedom. I relished it and dove all the more boldly into the plan that formed in my mind.

"Roger, you crazy?" Gunth almost seemed sympathetic, except for the murderous anger in his eye. "We gotta go!"

"No!" I jumped back over the barricade before anyone could stop me. Step after step, I brought myself closer to the scene of carnage unfolding before us. And closer to the pathetic sight I had seen, that no one else wanted to notice: the other hostages.

We had tied them up good, even hobbled them at the ankles. Now they were left scattered around where we'd had our discussion with the chief. Struggle as they might they could not get free of their ropes, or even crawl away effectively. The tyrannosaurus was finishing up his infirmary snacks and would surely move on to the other easy targets next. Beast men or not, no one deserved to die that way.

So with the voices of my companions fading behind me, the roar of the monster shaking all the camp, and the clamour of the frightened phalanx opposite me I dove over the row of crates that had been my refuge before and rushed to cut all the ropes off one of the hostages. As I chopped at his bonds he yelled something at me in goatspeak. I looked at him blankly and quickly went back to my work. When he was free he stood up and darted away. I moved to the second hostage.

It wasn't long before the first one was back, however. It seemed he had grabbed several spears. I cut rope, he handed out spears, and soon we had a little group of fighting men ready. I was both spooked and relieved to see Junior run up beside us and shore up the line.

Why I didn't flee after they were free, I don't know. Maybe it was because they seemed so confident that I was there to fight beside them. Maybe it was sheer stupidity. But I think it was the sight of the big, beautiful target that suddenly presented itself to us.

The tyrannosaur was not pleased with the infantry formation pressing it from the other side, and had turned to fight them. It was doing well--gruesomely well--but it left its huge, leathery, unprotected ass pointing right toward me and the hostages. I couldn't resist. Pulling out my second sword and forgetting the language barrier for a moment, I bellowed in my old field-commander voice: "Chaaaarge!"

The beast men understood. We trampled forward, jumping tent canvass and occasional body parts to meet our prize. We converged on the giant reptile with a loud if garbled cheer and I felt a piss-warm spray of blood on my face. Spearheads and swords tore into the thing. It shrieked like a dying cougar.

But dying it was not. It was simply enraged. It snapped up one more hobgoblin from just beside the chief and flung half his body across the camp as it spun to face us. I kept hacking away at it, but I lost my stride as one of my companions disappeared into its mouth. This thing could take us each out in a single bite. There were no wounds or near-misses. If it chose you, you would die.

The chief's men kept pressing it on the far side. Their ranks were long since broken, but the remains of the spear wall began to circle around and join with our ranks. We had the thing surrounded, however long that would last, and it had a hard time warding off our attacks. Even so, it seemed merely angered by each wound--not actually in danger.

The chief was the only person using a sword besides me. Everyone else had spears. Soon he was directly opposite me and we caught each other's eyes between the stomping legs of the beast.

"Human!" he yelled. "The father treasures! The father treasures!" His Common really was terrible. I didn't know what he was talking about.

But then I did. As the dinosaur spun again to face my side I was almost hit in the face with its swinging testicles. I don't know why they were down. Most animals don't dangle those things around just any old time. Maybe the beast enjoyed this rampage too much. But I saw my chance and I took it.

A high guard with my left hand. A stabbing stroke with my right hand. A whirling underhand strike from the left. Like sheep shears, my swords came together. The explosion of blood, blood vessels and shrieking were like nothing I've ever heard. I stumbled back a step and tried to keep my guard up as gonad poured down my face. I risked a glance upwards, and really wish I hadn't.

He looked me in the eyes as he drew back his shoulders to strike. His mouth opened and I knew I had delivered my last attack.

Or I thought so. I didn't see anything further as murmuring rose up behind me and fog rushed over the battlefield. Soon no one could see anything at all. A pair of jaws as big as a pony clapped shut just a foot from my head, the first clean miss the tyrannosaurus had delivered all night. Shaking, I fell back. Others did too.

I think it was some kind of unspoken command that we all fled while the fleeing was good. I headed back the same way I had come in, as near as I could figure toward my companions at the edge of the clearing. I was pretty sure the man in front of me was Grens. Seemed like the hobgoblins chose the same route, for the most part, because there were a lot of us moving altogether. At least a few straggled out of the fog, because I heard their dying screams behind me. The tyrannosaurus itself must have seen the magical fog as a golden opportunity, because its massive footsteps took off in the opposite direction. Maybe the magic spooked him, but I think he was sick of the fight. He must have had his fill of food by now and at this point was simply fighting to stay alive. Like most predators, he backed off as soon as he got the chance, especially with his testes in a thresher.

I barely made it over the remains of the brush barricade before I collapsed to the ground shaking and exhausted. My face, hair and swords were soaked in blood. I felt sticky and smelly and afraid for my life. I tried to struggle to my feet again to keep running but Tallow pushed me down. "He's gone now, Captain." I couldn't see him very well in the mist but he seemed to look me up and down. "And may I be the first to say, holy shit."

The hobgoblin chief sat next to me and clapped me on the shoulder. "A brave one here," he said. He didn't seem tired at all from the run. "Brave and stupid like a hobgoblin hero."

Gosh, I thought. So kind.