ERedBoyd
It's all in ur head
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2022
- Posts
- 826
Balin The Swift leapt through crept through the northern shire forests of Breem, quite close to the borders of the notorious Troll Kings studying and watching and listening for sounds of any kind of invasion or intrusion into the lands of the wood elves for which he was a scout of. More than 20 scouts had been dispatched to the west scout camps near the Barrow falls which flowed from the west into the Troll Kings realms. with a bow in his hand with an arrow notched on it, he was prepared to strike any enemy from afar. If the enemy came too close whe sported two long daggers for which he was equally lethal with.
He had been with this camp for nearly a month now, following a particular routine. The bands of scouts would return to base camp at night once they siren charms were placed. The siren charms were designed to make a loud screeching sound should a troll, ogre, Gremlin, or dark knight drew too close to it. At night they would sit around their camp fires, enjoy a few meals based on what they could scavenge, sleep and then post out in random patterns throughout the forest. Should any invader, bandit, or foreign army were to be detected, he would be charged with launching a screech arrow directly into the air which would send a terrible scream through the entire forest, alerting all to invaders.
Today, Balin was dispatched to monitor and observe the Barrow Falls directly. It was normally once of his favorite assignments. He had located a perch up near the top of the falls that he would sit down in, giving him access all the way down the river. No one would get past him from that perch.
He found his spot and then took a seat on it, pulling out a Gold apple to munch on as he looked out and watched. For nearly 4 hours, he saw nothing but animals along the river's edge.... and was just about to think that this would be just another day on duty. He was just starting to think about that roll of lamen bread being roasted lightly over the fire with a piece of quail from his catch earlier when he heard the scream. His instinct was a scream arrow or a screeching charm... but a second later realized that wasn't the sound at all. It was the sound of ... an animal of some kind... like a dog or fox. He kept his eyes open watching the river when he first saw her....
A small red looking fox darted from the tree-line leaping from stone to stone over the river... making leaps no normal animal should be able to make.... till it got to the other side of the water.... about 5 seconds behind the small creature... 3 large black dire wolves darted out barking and howling and screaming in rage as they took to the river as well! He stood up and watched closely as the dire wolves made it over the river current to the other side, but slower so the fox creature had about 15 seconds up on them. The fox headed up the river towards the falls. That was a foolish move as the falls were essentially cliffs that made a giant semi-circle. There was no escape on this path that he had been aware of.
He dropped down a couple of feet to get a better shot, notching an arrow. What the dire wolves lost in the water, they quickly gained on the ground closing quickly on the creature! THere was no way the fox thing was going to make it to safety at this point so he pulled his bow to his face, drew back the bow and counted.... 3.... 2... 1....
He loosed the first arrow and it flew in a giant arch in the air.... and landed mid shoulder of the middle wolf! It stumbled and fell, flipping over and over, knocking the legs out from the third wolf in the back. He drew another arrow and was just about to fire again when the first dire wolf leapt through the air and landed on the fox! The red thing screamed in pain as the wolf went to bite at it, catching it's neck solidly! A half a second later, it released it's bite and went slump... a scout arrow buried in the middle of it's skull.
The fox thing didn't move though as the first dire wolf died and as the third wolf gained it's traction again, he had had another arrow notched.... the third wolf looked past the prey to the attacker of his pack... stopped it's attack.... then turned and ran off.... dire wolves were incredibly intelligent.
Balin let his eyes lock on the fox and waited.... and waited... it didn't move for several minutes and he feared it had died... then to his amazement, saw it's paw move..... It was weak... it was hurt.... and it was alone. He leaped down the path along the waterfall... ready to see if he could help the creature.... and cut off some dire wolf steaks for dinner.