Seems that asking random people about surroundings isn't a good plan to find lairs, because they just tell me about my own exploits.
The day was still young and the sun still in the east. Deebus had no idea where to go specifically, but decided to head to the north of the World. He had only passed through there before, so perhaps there were more beasts there. And perhaps he could find one of the other tribes, who might know where more beasts lay. That day he encountered no beasts, though. Only long miles of swamp, forest and tundra. As the sky darkened, though, and he lit the watchfires, something made him feel uneasy. The feeling of being watched grey as the stars came out, and when the sun finally set, the darkness erupted with unnatural howling. The evil spirits were upon him!
Through the light of the watchfire a face poked out of the shadows. It was horrible, a cracked-skin face full of horns and empty of eyes. Deebus readied an arrow hastily and fired it, but the spirit easily dodged out of the way. It gave a terrible laugh, taunting him, but Deebus realized that the legends were true; it could not pass through his watch-fires. Deebus more carefully readied another arrow. This found it's mark in the chest of the spirit, cutting it's mocking giggle short. He quickly shot another arrow and nailed the leg, sending it to the ground.
He looked around, hearing more cackling, though he could not see into the darkness as the light of his fires hindered his dark-sight. By the sounds of the laughter he tried to guess where the evil spirits were. He fired arrows into the night, one after the other, but none struck the spirits. Then, as their whirling motions to dodge his shots revealed them, they found themselves slowly crippled. A spirit rolled into his fire by accident, though before it could more than punch him he decapitated it with a swift spear strike. There were four more, two lying prone near his campfire and two he could see through a gap in the trees. One of them was hunched over, injured with arrows, the other unharmed. Several arrows merely struck the trees, so he turned his attention to the spirits around his fire. Tonight he would make the spirits of darkness know fear.
These two monsters he filled with arrows until their blood pooled, sizzling against the edge of his watch fires. One of them shuddered and dissolved into blue smoke. Now, with the other bleeding to death, he fired his remaining arrows at the uninjured one. Each missed, and it taunted him with it's laughter. It taunted too soon, though. Deebus had many small stones within the ring of his fires. He hurled dozens of stones at the spirit between the trees, missing each time, but at last one struck it in the arm, breaking it almost in half as the flesh of the spirits was weak. After that it merely ducked behind a tree.
With only one target now he rapidly pelted the other one near his fire with stones, breaking it's limbs in many places, but it escaped and crawled slowly off into the darkness. No matter. All Deebus had to do now was wait. Sure enough, the unharmed one emerged and was quickly met with a stone that shattered it's hip. A fresh spirit appeared in his circle of vision, though, and he threw stones at it until it too ducked behind a tree. The other wounded spirits crawled away to disappear and be replaced. Deebus merely sharpened his stones as he waited.
Sure enough another fresh spirit appeared, in view of his circle, and he watched it. Another one appeared after a while. Then Deebus sat next to his pile of sharp rocks. For the next hour he pelted the two of them. They were utterly battered, and though their injuries were horrific they refused to die. Eventually one of his stones split one of their skulls wide open, and the spirit faded into smoke. He tormented the other for more hours long into the night. Eventually a stone found it's home in the spirit's chest, spraying blood everywhere from the heart.
The one behind the tree ran out then, but Deebus was quick and broke it's leg with a stone. It took agonizingly long, the night wearing onwards, but eventually, it vanished. Deebus no longer felt the malicious sensation of being watched. He had won.
He slept peacefully through the rest of the night. At dawn he woke again. He only managed to find about 5 of his arrows, so he knew he should make more soon, but for now he celebrated his victory with cave crawler brain to eat. The shadows belonged to him. The spirits of darkness no longer had claim to them.
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Topic: The journey of Deebus, a kobold story. (Read 193090 times)