The Battle of the Bones
You hurry back across the same paths you followed here, your old habits of digging up your trophies and replenishing your supplies left aside for now, they could wait. You only stop for water, sleep and when your legs could carry you no further, you have no idea how long it takes for an army to reach the coast you are familiar with, but you can take no chances, you will likely need every day you gain on them to prepare a defense.
The local tribes are disperse, a quite a few of them think fondly of you, either because of your trade, services or for ridding them of one cruel master or another. A few hate you, for stopping their own ambitions, those you might need to cull or bring to heel lest they join the army.
Everyone who can fight will likely need to, everyone who can't help will need to hide, you know what awaits those who are captured and carried back to their city. The Old man can help, maybe you can convince him to give the best warriors a few trinkets like those you carry, or to bless them for battle, you alone can hold perhaps a dozen at the same time, but even if you could get a 100 warriors half as good as you would still get overwhelmed.
The dried meat and fruit in your backpack dwindles every day, you forage what you can, but only from plants already in your path, you have taken to use little bits of a rage poison to grant you superhuman resilience, but know you can't use to much or risk dying before making it home, getting the message it's your first priority.
You finally arrive after a couple weeks, your legs burn and you have lost some weight, but you are here, the Old Man is waiting for you, having sensed your arrival, as you approach him he lays a hand on you and you can feel your sore muscles mending.
"You pushed yourself too hard, a couple more days and you would not have made it at all, what exactly had you running like a man possessed?"
You explain what happened in the city, the thing in the blood, the failure of your mission, and the Prince's threat.
"An army coming this way? You were right to hurry then, the villages need to be evacuated, we cannot allow more blood to flow into those stones, the bones told me stories of what the world used to be like, a horror from the old world cannot be allowed to awake in this weakened times"
"You will come with me then? They are more likely to listen to you, some still respect this place"
"No, I cannot go after this army, someone needs to tend to the forest, but I trained you well, they will listen, a blade or two will hasten the process when words will not" a crooked smile forms on his face at that last sentence, he is right you know, as distasteful as it is, you cannot afford to have an old chief delay the process, the brindled men respect might.
"Rest here tonight, you will begin in the morning" He took his staff and began drawing a crude map on the ground, "The clear invasion path is the river, if they are smart they will use swift canoes to scout and lure away predators, the main army will move behind them, our boats are not as large as yours, but they can navigate the shallows and take a bite or two without sinking"
He traced the path of the river as it moved away from the area, only paying some attention to the main tributaries, "this is as far as I have travelled, I will ask the bones for more information later, but I don't think they can arrive here faster than next month, plenty of time to prepare"
"We cannot stand against them in battle, they are seasoned warriors, the locals are just hunters"
"But a hunter knows the area better than anyone else, ask them for good places to lay traps, ask where the largest predators around live, the cares not whether we live or not, but we can point it in the right direction"
A plan began to form then, you planned what route you would use to meet the tribes, and what you would tell each one, the river was a fast way to move, but it hold a variety of predators, the great sailed lizards that hunted among the banks chief amongst them, they preferred the enormous fish that lived in the river, but perhaps they could be persuaded to go after the boats.
"But we have wasted enough time in this; tell me, what did you bring me this time?"
You could not help but smile at that, a much needed moment of levity among the war plans, you opened your pack and showed him a couple skulls and the large teeth from the Tyrant you slew, while recounting the tale of fight, and promising to go back for the rest later.
"No skull makes it harder, but yes, I can work with this, it is time you had your own weapons anyway, the connection is always stronger when you took the kill yourself, come back in a few days, they will be ready by then"
You slept in your cot that night, happy to at least have a plan going forward, you might still not survive, but you will not go down without a fight.
***
The boats moved silently through the water, almost a hundred of them, they stopped every once in a while to forage for fruit and herbs, and the occasional red meat to supplement their diet of fish. You had been watching them for a couple hours now; they were finally arriving to one of the riverside villages in what you now considered your portion of the jungle.
As expected they made way for the village, expecting to kill of subdue the villages with ease, or perhaps to gather more information. Archers were ready on the boats and some warrior on canoes had already reached the river bank, but only silence met them.
More men began to disembark now, and as they began to search the houses your trap was finally sprung, the bulbous spore sacks you and the locals had been collecting exploded when sufficiently disturbed, the sound in turn making nearby spore sacks explode too, the nearby men where only momentarily dazed, but then the spores began to make their work, exposed skin seemed to ripple as the spores made their way inside their victims and began consuming them to create more sacks.
The boats closer to the village began turning back, but one of them was left behind, and soon caught fire as the other boats fired upon it to prevent the infection to reach the main force.
The next village they found still had people in it, fish was drying on racks and food cooking on fires, when the men descended the volunteers ran away as a hail of arrows descended upon the invaders, the men gave chase, but the path into the jungle hid plenty of traps, from burning moss to drive men into a stupor from which there was no return, to poisoned spike traps that made it impossible to heal the wounds. They quickly learned and returned to the boats.
This continued for a few nights, every village a trap, every easy disembark spot hiding a hazard or another, in one memorable occasion he led a group of sailed lizard to blindside the main force, using a bright burning mix of pitch and minerals he had trained them to associate with easy food.
The morale of the army had to be crumbling by now he knew, a few locals had been caught or died from arrows and lances, but overall they army had nothing to show for their losses. After a few days of this they finally decided to risk a land incursion instead of following the obvious path through the river.
The local warriors and hunter had been waiting in camps to harass the coming army, he informed the ones near the disembark point, here the losses would be greater, but they could not allow the army to make their way to the secluded locations where their families where in hiding.
The scouts were good he had to recognize, silent and skilled, always moving in pairs, deadly with a bow and using light but durable leather. Yet he was better, he killed half a dozen the first night, and they quickly learned to always stay within sight of one another.
All along, the main force had to repel attacks from archers and light armored hunters, many died, but the hunters always managed to retreat before the alarm was sounded and disappear into the jungle.
One of the caves hiding the tribes was found, the people inside taking poison instead of allowing themselves to be caught, as they had agreed, but the loss only seemed to make the locals angrier and more determined.
After what felt like months of fighting, of having to stay one step ahead of your enemies and to have to deal with daily complains and disputes within your own forces, the enemy finally seemed to break, like a great beast finally deciding that scoring a kill was not worth taking another dozen small bites, the army retreated to the river.
But then, instead of navigating back the way they came, they continued downriver, it took you a moment to realize what that meant, they could not chase you into the jungle, so instead they burned the abandoned villages, now they could not control the land, so they decided to strike at one target they knew could not run away.
***
Once again you arrived at a dead run to your master's threshold, he was waiting for you as always.
"You come once again to my domain, enemies at your heels right?"
"how did you know?" you asked between breaths as he moved to restore your strength.
"Stories like to repeat themselves, in a way I always knew it would end this way, from the moment the boy you were arrived almost dead chased by murderers, I knew, they killed my apprentice and now they come to finish the job, but you are a man now, and I am ready, here we face them" The Old Man seemed resigned, determined to face this foe but at the same time with the look of man that had been waiting for fate for a long time, and had made peace with it.
"You don't need to die here, let's hide, we can rebuild later" you almost pleaded
"No, This is not only my home, this is my responsibility, but don't worry too much, I don't plan on dying yet, you sit this one out, you did a good job whittling them down, now it's my turn" He had changed now, seeming almost eager to meet his foe.
"You told me you could not fight them" you accused
"I told you I could not go after them, out there I am just an old man with a few tricks, but in here
we are so much more" The forest of bones seemed to echo his word, the rustle of branches and leaves far more than the wind could explain.
"They are almost here, get a seat, I will save him for you" The forest was now coming alive, bones of a dozen small creatures falling to the ground and then raising again as a living storm of bones, or surrounding a medium sized skull to form white, ever-shifting snakes.
Here and there the skulls of huge predators rose from the ground, branches, leaves, stones and dirt giving them a new body as eerie green light filled the formerly empty eye sockets, some of the old skulls fell from their vines too, to meet white bones surging from below their perches, crude weapons and armor forming around them, even as some picked up what had to be their weapons from the ground.
The army began to arrive then, carrying torches and hammers, but clearly unprepared for what they found here, the giants tore into groups, trampling many and crushing the leaders in their jaws, the storms of bone crashing into skirmishers and leaving broken messes behind, as some of the skeletal warriors began picking fights here and there.
A small group of warriors made their way towards the Old Man, a few lobbed spears as they approached only for them to break against the Old Man's body in a display of magic you were familiar with. Your master retaliated with an explosive wave of sound from his helmet, the frills around it seeming to vibrate as the wave crashed into the men, a few of them falling dead to the ground, blood seeping from their ears and ruined eyes, the rest falling to their knees, clutching their ears and dropping their weapons.
A single warrior seemed to emerge unscathed from the attack, managing to jump aside and apparently enduring the force much better than his companions, he closed into your master with his weapon raised, you jumped to stop him, only to watch as the warrior was impaled into spectral claws rising from your master's wrist. Seemingly without effort, your master raised the warrior into the air, making the claws sink deeper into him, and then casting him aside, making him crash against a nearby tree.
The battle, if it could be called that, was over soon, the men who broke were still chased and picked off by the many predators present in the forest, some fighting could still be heard from the edges of the forest, but less and less at every passing moment.
Then someone else arrived, you smiled when you saw the prince being harried back by a couple large predators, he seemed unharmed but was clearly on the verge of panic. You readied your new daggers and strode forward to meet him.
He met your eyes, and seemed to regain his composure.
"So this is what this was all about? I am not about to go down like an animal, meet me like a warrior!" He was wielding the cruel weapon you saw him with last time, around him the skeletal beast formed a wide circle, leaving you alone with him. The Old Man was watching from the sides, maybe waiting to intervene if things went wrong, it did not matter, you would not fail again.
You twirled your daggers, waiting for him to make a move; you had learned the price of underestimating an opponent. He however, seemed confident in his skills and charged you, choosing to avoid another contest of strength, you moved aside and jumped to one of the trees, climbing a short distance and perching on a thick branch.
"You cannot escape me! Face your fate!" The Prince seemed to believe you feared him, and began climbing the tree behind you, you allowed him to climb a few feet before you dropped from your branch and used it to sling towards him, sinking one of your daggers in his shoulder and bringing him with you to the ground.
You rolled to diminish the blow, while he dropped like a stone, hitting the ground and releasing a grunt of pain. He took his weapon and began walking towards you, but you noticed him favouring his unharmed arm, the wound in his shoulder draining his strength.
Once again he swung towards you, and like last time you met his weapon with yours, he smiled, probably expecting you to attempt to retreat like last time, but it was short lived, instead you planted your feet and used your daggers to force him weapon away from him.
You used him moment of confusion to stab towards him, but he managed to raise his arm, expecting the metal studded leather shield strapped to it to take the hit, but your daggers now had the power of a predator used to crushing through bone and armor, and your hit went through the shield unimpeded, impaling his arm.
He dropped to the ground then, and you kicked him further away from his weapon.
"You have doomed us, Bonekeeper, you ought to have known better, magic shall return, and our people will not survive it, without me to guide them they shall be picked apart"
The Old Man seemed happy to humor him, and stepped into the circle "Your way did not lead to salvation Prince, you wished to plunge us into darkness, hoping that darkness might spare us, but all it does it's consume that which falls into its maw, sacrifice or prey"
"I had seen our future, my God whispered to me, I was meant to rule an empire"
"You both talk too much" you decided to interrupt, unwilling to keep listening to the madman's ravings, and plunged your dagger into his neck and straight to his heart.
"Shall I take his skull?" you asked your master, he might have been mad, but he was a powerful warrior, no need to waste his skills.
"I.. I do not know, this took too much power from the forest, I am not sure if we can add new bones until it is repaired, and with so few magic around, I am not sure I can repair it" a deep sadness seemed to have replaced the eagerness for battle in the Old Man now, around you the bones were returning to their places, but you could see that things were no longer the same, the previously pristine, bright white bones now showed the signs of age, cracks and fissures appearing as their color dulled.
At the end you did take the skull, and hanged it from the vines around those of older warriors, the bones of his warriors also joined the forest, if in less privileged positions. The formerly eager vines had to be manually woven around the bones so secure them in place.
Your masters spend most of his days meditating and chanting, he did not tell you what he was doing but you trusted him.
He died two weeks later, you cleaned his remains and placed them in the center of the forest, for a moment you could almost see a glint in his eye socket as you wove the vines around it, but dismissed it as a product of your hopes and fancies.
No other grave in this place wore a gravestone, much less an epitaph, but you felt you needed to write something, since the bones could no longer tell their own stories.
"Here lies Ateyamanti, last of the Bonekeepers,
May the tides of magic bring new life to your old bones one day"
You left your second home for the last time the next day, there was still work to do, and if magic was coming back one day, there were things you did not want around went it happened.
