Chapter 3

We had walked about three miles after I changed boots, and I suspect that Eglos was getting tired of hearing about how comfortable the new boots were. Suddenly, there was a loud noise behind us, and we looked back to see a wagon racing down the road in our direction. There was a woman and a child in the wagon, and they were both hanging on with both hands. The reins were flying in the wind, and the draft animal had a crazed look on its face.

As she passed us, the woman screamed for help. It was obvious that help was needed, so I took off running after the wagon in an effort to help the woman and child. I had no plan for what to do if I caught the draft animal because it was so large, but I felt compelled to try to help the woman any way that I could.

I have no idea how fast I ran, but I was able to catch up to the runaway within about 200 yards. I ran past the hysterical animal and vaulted to its back. The animal was so large that I had no trouble finding a place to sit on its neck near its shoulders.

The animal acted as if it did not even know that I was aboard it, so it did not try to shake me off. I grabbed the animal’s harness in a near death grip so that I would not fall off and began to pull on its bridle. I really don’t know where my strength came from, but I managed to pull the animal’s head back straight overhead so that it did not make any effort to turn toward the side of the road. The wagon surely would have turned over if that had happened.

The draft animal simply could not run with its head held in this position, so we came to a stop within a few feet. I released the animal so that its head could return to the normal position, and it simply stood in place while it puffed and blew air in an effort to get enough oxygen. I dropped to the ground as soon as I felt that the animal was over its mad dash and walked back to the woman to see if she and the child were okay and to find out what the animal was running from.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Sir! I thought that our end had surely come when I lost control of the bufton. A gang of demons charged us from the brush beside the road. They were screaming horrible sounds, and that is what I am sure frightened poor Floncy so much.”

“Oh, my God! Please wait here. I’ll be back soon. That gang of demons must have followed you, and is now attacking my companion.” I didn’t wait for an answer, but immediately started to run back toward Eglos. She was madly firing off arrows at the demons and obviously scoring a few hits. However, she was going to need help very damned soon if she was not going to be overcome by the demons.

I managed to get back to Eglos in even less time than it took to catch the runaway wagon. “Eglos, it is me, Linc. I am here to help you fight.”

“Thank the gods, Linc, that you have arrived. I am running out of arrows, and I will need a lot of help pretty soon. Thank you for coming back.”

I had drawn my knife, but it dawned on me that my gauntlets gave me all of the weapons that I needed. These demons were humanoid in shape, but were about half the size of a normal human. They were armed with short knives and stabbing spears, so I figured that I should concentrate on my mobility. Also, the new boots should give me a real advantage in movement speed. I sheathed my knife and charged toward where the demons had concentrated their numbers.

No human should have been able to move as fast as I did, and I was upon them long before they expected me. I held my arms out from my side and begin to twirl so fast that I was hard to see. I was going around like a piece of farm machinery cutting off the tops of wheat or something similar.

Those stabbing spears were not very long, so my extended arms could span about as much range as could be covered by the tips of the spears. My fists and arms bashed heads and shoulders with unstoppable momentum, and I soon had the demons laid out about as dead as they could get. I am very strong, but the strength I showed that day had to be augmented by something, probably the magic of the boots.

I did not kill every one of the demons. Some of them ran away, and I was so concerned for the women and the child that I did not make any effort to chase them down. We gathered up the arrows that we could find and took the time to loot the small amount of gold from the spleen of each demon. Finally, we were ready to rejoin the woman and child at the wagon.

The woman in the wagon thanked us for eliminating the large gang of demons that had been making life hard for the humans who lived around here. She said that there were other demon gangs, but none so large or so bold as the one we had nearly annihilated. Hopefully, there would be no more trouble from this group. The woman invited us to come by her house for lunch as a token of her thanks for saving her and her daughter. It would have been rude to turn her down, so we accepted her invitation.

I gathered up the reins and handed them to the woman. By now, the bufton had calmed down enough to pull the wagon at a slow and sedate speed. On the way, I told them about how I had caught and calmed the hysterical bufton. Even Eglos was amazed at how fast I could move with the boots that she had given me. She had never experienced the high running speed and did not know that such a feat was possible (please forgive the pun).

We enjoyed some very pleasant food and conversation before leaving to resume our journey. By the way, I am sure that Eglos was happy that I was finally able to shut up about how much I was enjoying the boots. Later on, I would ask her if she would like to have her current boots converted to feel like the ones I was wearing. If so, I would start looking for a sorcerer to put a magic spell on her boots.

The rest of the day was uneventful, and we spent the evening and night in our tent. We had only managed about 15 miles on the previous day because of the episode with the runaway wagon, but we really did not care. We did not have to meet any schedule and we could take as long as needed to get to Mt. Kesci. I really didn’t care because I was quite content to spend my time with Eglos. Truthfully, I was afraid that if we ever did find a treasure as the map suggested, Eglos would declare that she no longer needed me, and I should find other employment.

I didn’t say anything to Eglos about that worry of mine, but I could never forget it.

The next couple of days were also uneventful, and we managed to make a little over 50 miles in those two days. We still had not come to a town or city, but we did pass several places where the road forked. At those points, we naturally took the route that was more directly south toward Mr. Kesci. It looked like we were going to have to turn away from our most direct route if we were going to run into a town any time soon.

At the moment, that was not a problem, but I was expecting Eglos to announce that we were running short of food and would have to stop at a market to restock her fanny pack. I admit to some curiosity about what a town looked like, so I was close to suggesting that we take a northerly route at the next fork in the road.

By now, her wound in her arm was completely cured by the magic of the tent, and she was not even showing a scar. I was hoping that I would experience the same results when I eventually had a wound that bothered me. I figured that I had been unnaturally lucky not to have been wounded yet, considering my style of close-in fighting. Eventually, some bad luck was bound to catch up to me.

It was not long before I had a chance to test that ominous guess. Our next encounter with monsters was when a large predator charged at us from a cleared space in the forest. The beast was at least as large as the runaway female bufton that I had caught several days before. This beast was a tawny base color, but was covered with very dark brown spots about 1-3 inches in diameter, much as what I would have called leopard spots (another stray thought). This was excellent camouflage and made the beast very difficult to see as it moved among the trees of its native forest.

The camouflage was so effective that we probably would not have seen it in the tall dry grass if it had not been moving. At least, the first thing I noticed was that the grass was moving contrary to the way the wind was blowing. When the beast got to within about 25 yards, it rose from a crouch in preparation for charging us. That was when I saw the animal for the first time.

The beast let out a roar and charged at us. Fortunately, the charge was at a lumbering gait so that we had some time to react. Eglos shot off two arrows at the beast, but neither one seemed to do any good. The beast was just too large to be seriously affected by a couple of arrows.

I guess that my reaction was purely instinctive. I charged at the animal with all of the speed that I could generate. My only weapons were my gauntlets which I was holding out in front of me as I ran toward the predator. It already had its jaw open ready to take a bite out of whatever it first reached. In the few seconds I had to notice the thing, its mouth seemed to be filled with hundreds of long and very sharp teeth and a tongue that was hardly visible among all of those teeth.

My intention was to ram my hands into its mouth and break its jawbone and as many teeth as possible. I hoped to build up enough speed in the short distance that I had to hit the creature with enough force to do the job. My left fist hit the upper teeth like a battering ram and broke off teeth right and left. My right fist hit the lower jaw bone and snapped it in several places so that it could not bite down with what it had left. In effect, the animal’s mouth was eliminated as an offensive weapon.

There was no way that I could stop my forward motion before I banged into the beast’s snout. I can’t explain what happened exactly, but I seemed to bounce off the beast’s nose and land on my feet about 10 feet in front of the animal. I don’t have any idea what saved me, but I was totally unhurt by the impact or by being cast away. All I can say was that it had to be magic at work, and I was delighted with the result.

The creature also came to a sudden stop, and it was totally befuddled by the pain of its injuries. I didn’t take the time to stop and consider my options. Instead, I jumped toward the beast and landed astride its neck. I was facing in the wrong direction for an effective attack on its head, but there was nothing to keep me from attacking its backbone.

I interlaced my fingers and smashed my combined hands as hard as possible down on its spine. I hit it so hard that I split its skin, and blood gushed out at me in a torrent. I think that I must have completely broken the beast’s backbone because it immediately sank to the ground. I jumped clear of the animal and stood beside it, watching it die. That took about five minutes, but I was so impressed by the creature that I did not dare give it a chance to recover.