Chapter 7: Reunion

He found the trace of the warrior band that was ahead of him easily enough. They didn’t try to hide their tracks, why should they, they didn’t know or expect someone would be trying to follow. He guessed it had to be about two hundred men and were about five days ahead, but traveling by foot. He could catch up to them within a week, and it was more than a week’s march to Hithad.

His plan was simple; anything other than a simple plan would involve more thinking. Roban’s thinking somehow always led to many dead people. That meant the more he would think the more people were going to die. So one could argue the plan was an attempt to cause as few casualties as possible. He could have tried to pass the warriors, enter the village, find his sister and leave before the raid. He just didn’t see any advantage in that. Somehow he liked the thought the Macathry’s would search and find his sister for him. He just had to take her out of their hands after that. That was a plan just made for him. Well, it should, it was his plan after all. They would do all the actual work, and he just had to kill them. Perfect! Their number didn’t really matter. He wouldn’t even have to kill all of them, just enough to get away. Anyhow, he liked the plan, and didn’t want to think about it anymore.

Catching up wasn’t a problem, but trotting along behind them at walking pace, knowing they stood between his sister and him, was wearing down his patience. Her birthday was the worst. He was so close, but not close enough. Luckily it only took three more days after catching up to them until they reached Hithad. He could understand why the Macathry didn’t raid villages like this so readily. It was a bigger village, and there were actual archers on top of sections of the wooden fence. Or at least people armed with bows. The raiding band had built wooden ladders that morning. They would use them in addition to the grappling hooks they carried. Taking it all in, Roban was wondering if they would be able to successfully raid the town at all. The raiders where equipped just like the Canbierra raiding party. Not much protection against arrows. It wouldn’t take many defenders to throw back the raiders.

They attacked!

It was a remarkable sight to Roban. He had never seen anything like the fight between the attacking clan warriors and the defending villagers. He wondered why they bothered with it at all. They should roll dice to declare a winner. The village archers were bad, really bad. They didn’t even hit the warriors who put a ladder up where they were standing at the fence. Of course Roban also wondered why the raiders put the ladders on the only section of the fence with defenders on it. It was a laughable fight. It took about twenty minutes until the first warrior was seriously hurt. He fell down a ladder when a defender hit him with his bow. Not with an arrow shot from the bow, but with the bow itself.

About fifty warriors were pulling ropes to collapse the wooden gate, like he had seen the Canbierra do as well. Just this gate was built more solid and they’d never collapse it that way. Roban had just accepted he would have to climb the fence to enter the village, when sounds of screaming and fighting could be heard behind the gate. Somehow some raiders must have gotten inside the village; sneaky bastards. Maybe they were a day ahead and spent the night at the local tavern. However, the gate was opened from the inside and a battle of epic proportions erupted at the gateway.

Roban couldn’t watch it any longer. He walked up to one of the ladders the raiders had left behind and climbed the fence. All attackers and defenders were fighting at the gate now. Once inside the village he began to walk through the small alleys, wondering where he could find his little sister. He came across a few villagers heading for the gates, but they just watched him and continued on without bothering Roban. He probably didn’t seem to be a threat. It took a while, but the sounds of fighting and screaming spread from the gate through the village. In all likelihood some raiders had enough of the fighting and started plundering and raping already.

He was walking up a narrow street to a crossing, as a girl turned around the corner. She ran at full speed straight into him, as if he was invisible to her. He could have prevented the collision, but was frozen in wonder and awe. The girl bounced back from him and her butt hit the street with a thud. Roban shook off his shock and knelt to help her up. The same moment he heard running men coming closer, she looked up to him. He couldn’t help but smile widely.

“Hello little sister.”

Athea watched as he offered his hand to her and took it without thinking. He pulled her up, but he didn’t stop there. Her feet left the ground as the giant hugged her to his chest, almost crushing her in the process. He had one of his big arms around her back and the other arm just under her butt. The side of her face was scratched by his stubby chin and cheeks. She could hear him whisper a single word,

“Finally!”

He almost squashed her at his chest. Athea couldn’t breathe properly and started to struggle in his arms. The sounds of running men behind her came to a sudden stop close by. She felt his body tense slightly and suddenly found herself back on her feet at the ground. Her mind slowly cleared. “Hello little sister,” he had said. Somewhere in her mind it had registered and even in that short moment she had recognized his eyes. The giant was her brother Roban. The thought that after more than eight years, after all that had happened, turning at a corner in this hellhole, fleeing from unknown invaders straight into the arms of her brother, it was just too absurd. Her mind simply refused to accept it as reality, yet.

She turned around and saw six rough looking men coming around the corner. They came to a sudden stop, or tried to. Their eyes went wide in shocked realization of a deadly threat. A moment ago they were hunting a little girl, a second later around the corner the hunters became the prey. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the huge figure of the giant move. The impressively tall man, with the wide shoulders and big muscled arms, who claimed to be her brother, turned into an apparition out of a nightmare. He flew by, straight into the group of rough looking men. He whirled among the group in a blur of impossibly fast motions, his huge ax swinging wildly up, down and around in pattern her eyes couldn’t follow quickly enough. Suddenly he stopped all his movement and just stood there; the center in a horrifying picture of death and violence. There was a mess of gore and scattered body parts all around him, but the most terrifying part of that picture were his eyes. Those eyes, just a moment ago a pale blue memory of love and affection from her childhood, were now two shards of soulless ice. When he looked back at her, there was a smile on his face. Deep down in a corner of her soul something awoke, lazily purring, like a cat after a nap in a ray of sunshine, and it wanted to return the smile.

Athea didn’t have the time to dwell on any of it. A new ruffian was catching her attention as he turned around the corner to arrive on the scene. He was huge, almost seven feet tall and pretty fat. He carried a crying girl over his shoulder. Athea could only see her ass and legs, but they looked familiar - Denyssa!

Athea watched Roban shaking himself like a wet dog, drops of gore, small pieces of flesh and bones spraying away from him.

“We should leave now,” he said, ignoring the fat man and Denyssa.

The fat man was watching the remains of the carnage, unable to associate them with the group of comrades he was following just a few yards behind. Denyssa sobbed in despair, hanging limp over the fat man’s shoulder.