Igathamost or Scrapetown was founded by six practitioners of martial arts and their friend with the hopes of creating a new kind of army to protect the dwarven race.
The founders were:
Obok and Datan Proficient biter/teacher
Litast and Mistem proficient striker/teacher
Shem and Onul proficient kicker/teacher
Melbil peasant/expedition leader
After making their claim to a small plot of land they all started working and after sufficient dwelling were carved out, some trees felled and farms built the six warriors formed three squads and dedicated themselves to practicing their combat skills leaving mundane chores to Melbil.
They practiced hard and bruises and broken limbs were common because they owned no protective gear and Melbils skill in setting bones was growing fast. When winter came and water froze Datan had a training accident that needed more than a splint and some sutures and Melbil took his pick and started digging downward in search of water. The first cavern was dry and when Melbil was digging even deeper Litast threw Mistem during sparring. Mistem landed on his head and died instantly and Datan died of thirst before the next cavern was found.
The four miserable warriors stopped their training dug four rooms, made four beds, four doors and smoothed the walls claiming them for themselves and drowned their sorrows in booze.
In spring a vein of tetrahedrite was found and copper armor was forged. Obok and Litast paired up and the training resumed.
Obok quickly absorbed the skill of punching from Litast and soon was regarded as the strongest warrior in the fort.
The four trained and by fall were capable fighters when from the bushes jumped out a werepanda. The fight was long but one sided. The panda was instantly pinned to the ground and mercilessly punched, kicked and bitten while the beast was seemingly unable to fight back. What happened next was most likely the result of overconfidence. After the beast turned into a human he received a bone crushing kick to the head by Shem. The warriors seemingly unhurt from the encounter resumed the training and no one inspected their bodies for any bite marks but some say that Obok suspected what would happen next and simply chose to believe that it would not.
When the moon became full Obok turned into a werepanda.
Oboks powerful jaws and his new skill in punching very hard powered by the curse let him overpower his fellow warriors with ease and soon he was attacking the general population. Eleven dwarves died on that night.
The terrified populace locked themselves behind raised drawbridges and Obok the cursed wrestler now practices his art alone on top of a hill.
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Topic: Igathamost. A short story (Read 702 times)