The Wild Hunt

Muld, Syndi and Aloea are pursued by supernatural forces of nature.

14.

The Wild Hunt

 

They crashed madly through the underbrush, Muld’s light spell bouncing around so much in their wild scramble that it was not much help.

Branches and brambles whipped at their legs, threatening to tangle or trip them and cutting them in a hundred little places as they stumbled through it.

A strange grey fog had slowly filled the forest, giving an unworldly appearance to the night.    The sounds of large baying hounds were all around them, telling of the spectral dogs’ desire to encircle them.  

But equally as worrisome to them was the sound of a large horse galloping effortlessly by some supernatural means through the dense forest.    They could hear the creatures’ snorting and the hunter’s horn of its rider steadily growing louder and louder.

They weren’t going to evade the master of the Wild Hunt.

“They’re boxing us in!”   Muld told the two women, though it was not news to either one of them.

“What do we do?”  Syndi asked as she pushed aside a tree branch that seemed to grab at her face.

“We’ve got to stand and fight, or they’ll ambush us as we run.”

“How do we fight it?”   Syndi  asked as she and the Lizard-woman stopped and grouped close together to Muld.

“We fight magic with magic,” Muld managed to answer before at last, through the trees rushed their foes.

From four sides at once, four black hounds that were the size of adult lions with eyes of burning coal charged out of the brush at full speed, their maws of sharp teeth open to tear them apart.

Muld cast the first cantrip to jump into his mind - a simple ‘Clear Space’ cantrip used to sweep an area of debris and clutter so a surface could be clear for another spell to be cast.   He had pointed at the black hound as he had quickly chanted the spell and the spell did not affect it.   However, the small sapling trees in the range of the spell were immediately ripped free of the ground, along with several half-decayed logs and thorn bushes.   These slammed into the spectral hound as they were expelled from the area of effect of the ‘Clear Space’ cantrip, knocking the magic dog backwards onto its side.

Syndi chose a quick ‘Ice Shield’ spell which put up a five foot high, three foot wide block of ice, about an inch thick, immediately in front of the ghostly hound leaping at her.    When it hit the magic wall, the ice shattered, but the hound disappeared too, apparently neutralized.

The Lizard-woman had two hounds leaping at her, and her spell brought the plant life around her to her defense.    Branches, roots and saplings moved in front of her from all sides, then flayed at the two hounds as they tried to get to her, keeping them at bay.

Muld quickly chanted the Burning Hands spell that Syndi had taught him and as soon as the dog he had stunned jumped to his feet, it was hit between the eyes with a blast of fire and it vanished.

Syndi cast a Levitation spell on one of the two hounds still menacing the Lizard-woman, lifting it up into the air to tree top level, before dispelling the magic, which sent the spectral hound crashing to the ground.   It vanished immediately.

Meanwhile, the Lizard-woman had concentrated on the remaining dog, flogging it with a sapling that she still controlled with her magic.   But the dog pulled free and lunged at her throat, almost making it to her before the reptilian woman’s long tail snapped around like a whip, striking the dog sharply in the head.    It vanished at once.

But baying and growling still came from all around them as eight more hounds encircled them.   Instinctively, the three moved closer together, each of them chanting a new spell as the dogs moved in.

Muld cast an Ignite cantrip, pointing at the dog moving in first.    The spell was far less powerful than a Fireball, for it only singed its fur, causing it to smolder slightly, but the dog yelped and hesitated.

The Lizard-woman cast a spell that summoned instantly a huge cloud of insects which swarmed over a pair of dogs rushing toward her.    The two dogs fell to the ground, rolling and snapping at the biting, stinging insects.

Syndi’s spell was released last, a moment before one of the dogs would have bitten her ankle.    There was a loud crash of thunder, the smell of burning ozone and a flash of light as she sent a lightning bolt against the dog.   It vanished with a pop and two of the others moving against her were stunned by the light and sound.    But one behind her leaped on her back a moment after she released her bolt.    She fell forward, trying to shake the hound off of her while protecting her face and neck from its sharp teeth.   

It raked her back and shoulders with its claws and would have torn at her neck, but Muld grabbed the hound around the throat and tried to strangle it while pulling it off of his fiancée. 

The arcane dog twisted in his grasp and clamped down on his forearm tightly while two others dove on top of him from different directions.

There was no time to cast a spell now, he was too busy trying to protect his neck with one arm and free the other arm from the vice-like grip of the spectral hound.

He tried to slam the hound that had its jaws clamped around his arm into the ground, but the dog was too massive.   Fangs or claws cut his face and hand, but he managed to punch one of the dogs in the mouth.

Then the Lizard-woman and Syndi came to his aid.    The reptilian lady grabbed one of the hounds around the neck with her tail and snapped it backwards, flinging it into the side of a tree which dispelled it.

Although bleeding and bruised, Syndi stabbed the hound that had a hold of Muld’s arm with a short sword she had taken from one of the elven guards.

The sword was primitive in construction, but several pokes with it caused the dog to vanish, leaving five of the creatures for them to contend with.

Muld grabbed up a tree branch from the ground and used it to fend off the last hound threatening him.

Syndi chanted a Magic Missiles spell, sending a bolt of energy into one of the dogs, destroying it.   The Lizard-woman caught -with her tail- one of the Hounds attempting to jump on her back and flung it onto the ground, then slapped her tail against it until it retreated.

At the same time she was chanting a spell in her own language and she pointed at the dog she had grabbed, then at the ground.    There was a slight rumbling sound as the ground beneath the hound opened up like a mouth and swallowed it, closing around it again.   It vanished before the hole closed.

That left three of the beasts.

Muld chanted a quick Pull cantrip, pointing at one of the circling hounds.

The spell suddenly jerked the creature in close, catching it off guard.    Muld brought the tree branch that he held down on its skull as Syndi stabbed its back with her sword.   It disappeared after only a few seconds of struggle.

“Two left,”  Muld announced, “But the Master of the Hunt is nearby and he won’t be dispelled nearly as easily.”

The two hounds held back, as if waiting for their master, which gave the trio time to prepare.    Muld used a Sharpen cantrip on the branch he held, which made it into an improvised javelin.    Syndi chanted a Protection from Magic spell while the Lizard-woman’s chirps and croaks only hinted of the spell she was casting while closely watching the two growling hounds that kept circling around them.

Syndi’s spell was completed, which sent a transparent sphere around them.     One of the hounds lunged forward when it saw the protective sphere and as soon as it contacted the edge, the dog yelped and disappeared.

Suddenly there came the deep sound of a hunter’s horn from directly in front of them.     The last hound immediately sprang into action, perhaps fearing punishment from its master for hesitating.    It came in low, as if it hoped to go under the edge of the sphere, but like its companion, it too was vaporized upon contact.

However, this used up the power of the protective sphere and it faded just as the Master of the Hunt rode out of the brush in front of them.

It rode a terrible beast -  a huge jet black horse that seemed to be more shadow than substance, with burning red eyes like the hounds.    Projecting from its skull were a pair of large deer antlers as black in color as the rest of it.

But far worse was its rider.    It was a huge man, perhaps seven feet tall, also seemingly composed of darkest shadow.    He held a long scythe and like his mount and the hounds, had glowing red eyes.   Large antlers projected from the top of his head and a slight green glow radiated from him like an aura.   

He rode toward them without hesitation, his scythe pulled back as if he was about to reap through wheat from horseback.

Muld flung his make-shift javelin at the apparition a moment  before the Lizard-woman completed her spell.    His spear seemed to pass through the man as if he was indeed made of shadow, but as the spear was passing through his ghostly form, the Lizard-woman’s spell activated.    In a circle around them, everything turned snow white, including the spear that was at that instant, halfway through the form of the Master of the Hunt.    As soon as the spear turned white, the shadow man screamed out with a piercing yell and fell backward, off his mount.

There was the sound of a hunter’s horn and both vanished with the sounds of galloping hoof-beats riding rapidly away.

For a long moment, Muld, Syndi and the Lizard-woman just stood in the circle of white light, wildly looking all around them for new threats.

“Are they really gone?”   Syndi asked.

“I think so… our combined magic was enough,”  Muld turned to the Lizard-woman, who was protectively rubbing her pregnant belly, “That was an awesome spell choice; I wish you could tell me what it was.”

To his surprise, the expectant reptilian lady used the claw of one of her toes to scratch into the mud the word SANCTUARY.

“Ah, like the Cleric spell?   But this was the druid version?”  He asked her, and she nodded, giving him her race’s rather menacing toothy grin.

“Well, good choice!    But Calarom is probably not far off along with his people and so we’ve got to decide what to do.   None of us know this island, right?”   He looked to the Lizard-woman, and she nodded in agreement.

“They have the advantage to us in that.    We’re injured and yet we have no place to go or hide that they can’t get to.”

“Except for the pool, “  Syndi suggested, “They consider it a holy place, so Calarom probably won’t desecrate it by trying to harm or kill us there.    Plus, our spells seemed amplified when we were in the pool, remember?”

Muld nodded, “I think you’re right.   What about you?”   He was speaking to the Lizard-woman, who nodded as well.

“Then let’s try to get back to that pool before Calarom casts another wicked spell,”   Muld went over to Syndi and knelt to look at her back through the tattered imperial cloak, “I wish I had a healing potion.”

The Lizard-woman joined them, and began chirping a spell, then touched Syndi on the shoulder.     Her back glowed a pleasant green for a moment and the wounds disappeared.

“Thank you,”   She said to the reptilian woman, “I wish you could tell us your name.”

The Lizard-woman grinned again and went over to the place where she had written the name of her spell.   Muld cast a flame cantrip so they could read what she scratched into the mud:

CALL ME ALOEA

“Aloea; what a pretty name,”  Syndi replied with a smile, “Aloea, it is an honor to be formally introduced.”

She grinned and turned to Muld, chirped out another spell and then touched his arm.    Healing power flowed from her and he felt the bite wounds heal quickly.     He nodded thanks.  

Aloea gestured for them to follow her.

Muld and Syndi didn’t hesitate and soon the three of them were cautiously pushing their way through the forest, alert to every noise.

For a few minutes they just walked in the dark, fearful of using any light in case they were seen.   Muld and Syndi could see only slightly, their elven eyesight giving them an advantage over most races.    But Aloea seemed to not have any problems now that they were moving at a relaxed pace and she led them until they came across a narrow, but very definite foot path cutting through the forest in the general direction of where they thought the pool should be located.

For an hour they walked in silence, and thankfully they encountered nothing other than a couple of deer bolting across the path.    The trail curved in an easterly direction and began descending.    Aloea stopped abruptly and turned to them, making sniffling sounds.

“Do you smell something?   Some of those elves?”   Muld asked and the Lizard-woman nodded, pointing ahead, though they couldn’t see through the underbrush.

“Muld, I think I hear water… Aloea, do you smell the faerie pool, too?”   Syndi asked the reptilian lady in a whisper.   

Aloea nodded and held a finger to her mouth to indicate quiet, then gestured for them to follow her.    They crept forward slowly and almost stumbled over a dead body sprawled across the path.    Muld knelt down and felt the body - it was a dead Imperial soldier, apparently killed when Calarom’s people attacked the Southern Empire’s legionnaire camp.   Groping in the darkness, he was pleased to find that the soldier was armed.    He handed Aloea a spear and took the dead man’s short sword for himself, since Syndi still had a short sword.

He also took the soldier’s helmet and cloak, but not to wear, for he was formulating a plan.   Pulling both of the women aside, they huddled close together and he shared his idea.

 

***

 

Calarom knew what the mixed-bloods and the lizard creature would do, for there were few options left for them.   He had cast the Wild Hunt not to kill them, but to force them to return to the holy pool, where he and his followers would capture them.    He’d kill the reptilian abomination, but keep the two mixed-bloods alive until the human soldiers could be defeated, then he’d seek the will of Mórálach as to what to do with them.   

They had been reborn in the holy pool, but they were of a human-tainted race, which was clearly not the will of Mórálach.    But he would ponder this problem later; for now he had to merely wait, for the Wild Hunt would certainly drive them back to the pool.

Time passed and his concealed men were growing restless and anxious.    They heard the horn of the Master of the Hunt several times, then one last, loud blast and nothing else was heard.

Calarom considered recasting the spell, though he hesitated, as if he brought two Masters into the same area at the same time, they would hunt and kill each other, then turn on the one who summoned them for daring try something so stupid.

He was considering sending a group of his men out into the forest to see what had happened, when there came a strange groaning sound floating out of the night.     The mournful sound continued for a while and with a flick of his hands, he ordered some of his followers to travel up the footpath to determine what the sound was.

But just as the men were moving forward, the source of the sound appeared.

It floated forward, a blue glow covering it and giving it an unearthly appearance.     For a few moments he couldn’t tell what it was, but as it slowly came down the path, he could make out a tattered soldier’s cloak with a helmet above it, as if an invisible soldier wore it.   

He wasn’t fooled easily though, and neither were his men.    As soon as the apparition appeared, they opened fire upon it with their bows and arrows.

Twenty-five arrows struck the helmet and the cloak, but there was no form underneath and they passed through or bounced off, not slowing the forward movement of the apparition at all.

The groaning intensified and a fog began lifting off the ground around it, as if the specter was summoning the souls of the dead out of the earth to join it.

 

Calarom’s men crept out of their places of concealment, firing volley after volley of arrows at the ghostly form moving down the path.  The arrows were shredding the already tattered cloak, but doing little else.   

Still, Calarom suspected a trick by the mixed-bloods.   They hoped to scare them, but he wasn’t about to be intimidated by them.    He began chanting a Dispel Magic spell to end the trick.

He was halfway through the incantation when he heard something bouncing off the rocks of the path to his right and immediately everything went pitch black dark and all sound - even the sound of his own voice- ceased.

In spite of himself, the Arch-Druid panicked, fleeing backwards blindly and crashing into someone, which sent both of them down on top of each other.     It was one of his own men and he was wild with terror, punching and clawing as he tried to pull himself out from underneath him.

Calarom could do nothing but defend himself and struggle to crawl away from the terrified elf.   He crawled and rolled out of range of the hysterical man and then groped and felt his way forward until suddenly he exited into sound and star light.  

For a moment he orientated himself, finding that he was almost onto the beach of the holy pool.     A large black sphere covered a sizable area in front of him, and he guessed that it was some sort of sound and vision masking spell, perhaps cast upon an object and tossed down on the path.    But it had done the trick, for all of his followers not caught in the area of effect of the spell had fled when they saw him disappear into the darkness.

Angrily he spun around and was not surprised to find the two mixed bloods and the pregnant Lizard-woman standing waist deep in Mórálach’s holy pool.

 

***

 

Muld knew the Arch-Druid would be livid when he saw them standing in the ‘holy pool’, but they were prepared.    They had used simple spells to create the ‘ghost’ - Placement cantrip to suspend the helmet, Levitation on the cloak, a push spell to send it moving down the path and a Faerie Fire spell to make it glow.    An Amplify spell caused his voice to carry as he did his best ghostly groan.    Syndi’s fog spell was an added touch and they had cast a Darkness spell on one stone and a Silence spell on another (using the old Drow strategy) then thrown them forward to cause a panic among the primitive elves.

Then they’d rushed to the pool in the confusion and Aloea chanted her spell as Calarom struggled to free himself from the darkness and silence.

Now she pointed her finger at the enraged druid and generated a howling icy wind that pelted him with icy crystals.    Syndi used an Amplification spell and when she had completed chanting it, the icy wind of Aloea’s spell became a hurricane of winter.    Calarom was blown backwards into the trees, his skin and face coated with ice crystals.

“The pool amplified your Amplification spell!”  Muld told his fiancée as they watched the effect, “That should keep him occupied for a while; come on, let’s dive down to the cave.”

The women complied, diving after him, which dispelled the magic that they had used against the druid.    But he was half-frozen and unconscious from their attack and the three were unhindered as they swam toward the hidden cave.

Aloea easily out swam them, for even hugely pregnant, she swam as graceful as a fish.    They surfaced in the concealed cave, relieved to be free of adversaries and danger for at least a while.