Deebus ate Ceta's heart, hoping to gain what wisdom and cunning the bear had acquired in his long years. He took the bear's skin as well to wrap about himself. Already having one bearskin cloak, though, he took some of Ceta's claws for pins and fashioned the skin into a robe. Helping the eldermothers with the sewing as a whelp had proven very useful in his adventures, it turned out. He would thank all of them in person when he returned home.
Wearing his new warm robe he climbed out of the dread hole of Perishedcavern. There were only two targets left now. Zoku the troglodyte, far in the north of the world, and Torrejus the grizzly bear, who was northeast of here and west of home. Debus decided that he would kill Zoku first so that he could finish off Torrejus on the way home. With that he set off once more.
His northward journey took him over green hills almost all day, but in the afternoon he came into wide steppes and finally the swamp of groves at nightfall. The sun began to set. Deebus knew he would not be able to reach the cave of Zoku that day, so he lit a ring of fires about him to ward off the evil spirits. With the warmth of the fires he melted some ice from his waterskin to drink, warmed some horse meat to eat, and then settled down for a cautious sleep.
Day 5 1st of Galena, 200
At dawn he found the fires low, but he had not been bothered as he slept. Relieved, he continued on his way. The sun was barely risen, just enough to melt the water in his waterskins, when he came upon the mud hole of Stalkscarred. Zoku Omeptega was large with a broad face, and seemed quite miserable in his swampy den. The eyes had a cruel set to them, but this was not intimidating. Deebus shot him three times until an arrow landed in his gut, then came over. The beast threw his arms over his head, though, so Deebus jumped and kicked him in the chest. This failed to floor him, though, so he danced around the troglodyte to stab him in the leg. Zoku curled up when he fell over, though, and his head could not be reached. Deebus stabbed his chest, breaking several ribs, but still not giving an opening. Only after several strikes to the limbs and hands did he get a shot at the head, but when he did it failed to kill. Zoku soon passed out from the pain, though, and now there was no defense against a spear through the eye and into the brain.
Like all the other troglodytes, there was nothing else of interest in Zoku's lair, so Deebus left to track down his final target. By mid morning, Deebus was out of the swamp and well on his way through another tundra. At noon he had passed through another swamp, the Branded Mire, which was familiar to his tribe, and came to the edge of a forest. Here was the lair, a tunnel going into the side of a bank, and Torrejus was visible near the entrance. Torrejus seemed unremarkable looking for a bear, though all bears looked fearsome. As such there was nothing about him to startle Deebus.
Deebus fired an arrow into the cave from his place on the grass, striking the grizzly bear's right flank, and another into the chest. Torrejus fell over and blacked out. Once more Deebus found he could not penetrate the thick skull of a bear, though, so he dug his spear deep into the beast's chest where it stuck, and proceeded to strangle him. The grizzly bear managed to come to while he was doing this, and began to stand up, but Deebus wrapped his arms tighter and Torrejus fell down again. To make sure this would not happen again, Deebus gouged out Torrejus's eyes and stabbed his throat before proceeding to strangling once more. After a few minutes the bear finally bled out.
Cleaning the blood from himself, Deebus pondered. He had no more names now, or places. It was time to return home. Hopefully he would discover more lairs on own as he went, though. He crossed a river to leave the swamp, filled all his vessels with water to drink, and set off once more. He crossed 2 more rivers as the afternoon wore on, coming again into the familiar country around his home. As he passed through the swamp, though, he was surprised to see two trolls running around in the late afternoon. They were likely on a hunt for kobold flesh!
Deebus slipped into hiding to observe them.
From the stories he knew, he thought he recognized them. One looked like Inervion the Solemn; large, lean, and ferocious. The other must have been his mate then, Cango Aradiki, who was much smaller, very much so for a troll, but still enormous to a kobold and still very deadly. Deebus knew they must be stopped.
He loosed an arrow at Inervion, which bit into his elbow, making him roar. Deebus could not get a shot at Cango with him in the way, though, so he bust from hiding and yelled at them as loud as he could. They seemed startled, but when Inervion fell over in pain Cango became enraged at this attack on her mate and charged the puny little figure. Deebus ducked down a slope and slipped away, leaving the troll confused. Deebus shot an arrow into her back. He ran over to kill her, stabbing her face, arms, throat, and feet, then left her to die as Inervion stood back up. He was met with another arrow in the chest, and with his throat soon slit, joined his mate in forming a huge pool of sky-blue blood on the ground.
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Topic: The journey of Deebus, a kobold story. (Read 193102 times)