Morthis: Eve of Wars' Awakening

Terror Imbued Roars

Artos threw his body over a log, rolled in a somersault and righted himself. Morthis followed suit, doing the same movement as his brother. They were chasing a massive, wild boar along a warn animal trail. “By the gods—, this boar is fast!” Artos yelled, gritting his teeth and squinting his eyes in determination. Catching a glimpse of brown hide, Artos felt the exhilarating feeling of adrenaline rush into his veins. He shot forward with new energy.

***

Morthis soon lost sight of Artos. Catching his breath, he slowed and then stopped. He looked at the ground, and then looked in the direction he saw his brother traveling. While Artos had kept going straight, the boar had gone left at this point. Morthis knew this because his brother had been teaching him a lot about tracking during this trip. Morthis turned to follow the boar. He stopped, looked at where his brother was going, decided that Artos would figure out that he wasn't following the boar anymore. At that point he would turn around, and back track until he saw the boar's tracks branching off of the trail. Morthis broke into a quick run to catch up with the boar.

***

Artos swatted leaves out of his way as he ran through the trees. He put his right foot on a stump and launched himself. Sliding to a halt, he listened for the pounding of hoofs. Artos crouched low as he heard labored breathing quite a ways ahead. He tossed his hunting javelin and caught it again, positioning his hand so it was upside-down, with his thumb facing backward; a better way to throw it. Artos checked his grip, and then slowly crept forward.

***

Morthis knelt down by the tracks in front of him and examined them. He looked up in the direction the boar was traveling and back down. The track was not as deep as before and the dirt was not as packed up in the back. He's walking now, Morthis thought to himself. He smiled and looked back down at the tracks. He's only a little ways in front of me. I should be able to quickly overtake him. Morthis straightened into a crouch and crept forward.

***

Artos was now only a short distance away from his target. He could see a small section of the beast through the surrounding foliage. Thinking this was the center of the boar’s chest, he launched the javelin at his intended target. A roar smashed through the trees and Artos’ eyes widened. A searing feeling of dread overtook his chest as Artos thought, Boars don't roar!

***

Morthis crept into a clearing and then dodged back behind a tree. Right in front of him, not ten paces away was the boar. Peering around the tree, he could see it. The boar was eating blackberries by tearing the vines down with his tusks. Morthis ducked back behind the tree, smiled to himself, and readied his own javelin. He took one more glance around the tree to make sure of his target, the heart, behind the front leg and between the ribs. He ducked behind the tree for the last time, took a deep breath, imagined his target again, and then threw his body sideways away from the tree, launching the javelin in midair. As Morthis hit the ground, he heard a thud and then the sounds of squealing while brush was being thrashed. He lay as still as death itself. He had closed his eyes as if that would help mask his presence. He opened them and tentatively looked in the direction of the boar. It was gone. Morthis slowly got up, puzzled, and looked around the small clearing. Did it really go across the fallen log next to the black berries? The black berry bush was a ransacked mess of shredded vegetation, and all of the plants near them were trampled with tusk marks digging into the ground. He slowly walked towards the log, hand on his sheathed hunting knife’s hilt. Looking over the log he could see more thrashed vegetation. The thing he did not see though was blood. He was looking for it like his brother had shown him when they had hunted small game the other night. The other night, when they had come across this guys tracks, his brother could tell Morthis, just by the tracks alone, not only where it was heading, but roughly how long ago, a range of its size, and also how fast it had been moving. Morthis had been mesmerized with glassed over eyes. His brother had commented that boars were dangerous and that they should just move on. Morthis had pleaded with his brother, reminding him that there were two of them compared to the one boar, and that if it was really as big as Artos was saying they would have a lot of meat from it. Artos had said no, but after some badgering Artos had given in, not wanting to disappoint his little brother. That night, he had been very specific. When they returned to their campsite, he had explained to Morthis how dangerous boars were, and commanded him that if they were somehow separated, he was to wait for his brother, because otherwise, the wild pig would kill him easily, without hesitation. Morthis was becoming more hauntingly aware of his brother’s warnings as he looked around, focusing at only small sections of the ground near himself, looking frantically for anything that would tell him where the boar had gone.

Where is the stupid blood?! Morthis mentally cursed.

There wasn’t any. None. Not even a sparse smear on a leaf. Morthis turned to go back to the tree and look from his throwing spot, because for sure he must be looking in the wrong areas. As he walked back toward the tree he had hidden behind, he spun back around, doubting himself, and thinking that another look in that spot by the log and blackberries might show him something. He yelped in surprise, halting. He had just missed gouging his own eye out with the butt of his javelin.

Wait why and how is it — Oh no! His thoughts screamed at the barriers of his skull. His fear and awareness skyrocketing. He spun around in a circle. Looking in every direction, his vision tunneling, his eyes bouncing from leaf to twig, to berries, to log, down to broken bark and continuing their frantic searching. He felt faint. Clutching at the air, trying to secure his standing, his knuckles rapped against the shaft of his javelin. Morthis looked at it, comprehension swallowed him. This was sunk into a tree, head level from him, so it had never hit the boar. The boar had simply been scrambling in startled panic. Morthis’ vision whirled again as he spun his head in all directions, looking, searching. His grip was still on the javelin. After a few, full weight tugs he ripped it free from the tree. Again his vision whirled. His brother had instructed him to listen for a grunting sound. That it changed to a squeal when frightened and that it was like snorting when they talked to other boars. Not watching where he was going, Morthis tripped over a stick and fell to his knees. As he began to get to his feet he saw something in the surrounding foliage. At first he thought it was just his mind playing tricks on him, but then he saw it blink. Morthis was mere inches away from a set of tusks. Morthis didn’t move, didn’t breathe, not even daring to blink. He simply froze, staring at the boar, eye to eye.

***

The beast smashed its leg down in pain. The javelin had entered its thigh. It reached down and tore it out. It then looked for its attacker. By scent it found Artos. It smashed the tree that Artos was hiding behind with its brute strength. The tree was uprooted by the force. Smashed bark and large wood splinters scattered as it fell sideways. The beast stood over Artos. Artos pulled his sword out of its sheath, which was slung across his back. At four feet long and five inches wide, it was an impressive weapon, but not as impressive to the nine-and-a-half foot tall, monstrous beast that now stood in front of him.

“Stupid human, how stupid, you think you kill me with stick.” It threw the javelin at a tree three feet from Artos’ head. The javelin sank halfway into the hard oak tree and was seven feet off the ground, seven inches above Artos’ head. This fight would probably end quickly and not in Artos’ favor.

***

Both stood as silent as the beats of a butterfly’s wings. Only the sound of the boar’s breathing being audible. Their eyes were locked, waiting. Then it happened. A roar ripped through the trees. The boar whipped into a panic. The beast wildly kicked and flung its head, trying to hurt this new, startling attacker. Morthis tried to jump out of the way in time, but he wasn’t fast enough. The boar’s tusk narrowly missed the point of piercing his leg, but his ankle was pinched between the snout and tusk. Again, he tripped. Morthis frantically rolled onto his back. He looked into the face of a pissed off, massive, horned monster and screamed at the top of his lungs.

***

Artos lunged for the cover of yet another tree. This fight had just started but he was already drenched in sweat, panting, and feeling exhausted. His veins flooding with adrenaline as they tried to fuel this fleeing gnat who was about to be squished. Morthis’ scream pierced the air. The creature halted, arm raised, and looked in the direction of the scream. The boar! Artos’ thoughts screamed. Get to him! He needs you! Charged his instincts. Artos followed them as he jumped out from behind his tree, slashing the creatures legs and then tried to flee this newly created clearing. It was folly. The creature simply roared again in pain, backhanding the fleeing hunter, flinging him like a rag doll. Artos’ leg smacked into a tree, rotating his body, with him head-butting the bark’s surface before descending the small distance to the ground.

***

The boar had made a sound like a snort and a grunt, and then it had dug at Morthis’ chest. He had already dropped his javelin when he had fallen. He frantically grabbed the beast’s tusks. Its head shot up as he heard a roar tear through the forest. He threw himself into another, writhing panic. It kicked, bucked, and threw its tusks out in every direction. The slight relief was that it wasn’t focused on Morthis, let alone trying to hurt him. It was in a shocked panic, fighting a monster that was not near it. Morthis’ vision tried to tunnel again, but he forced himself to put all of his strength into shoving the black rings away from his vision and find that blasted javelin. His hands scrambled in the dirt, in directions foreign to his vision’s. Leaves, twigs, moss, and dirt were all discarded, thrown away to keep his hands clear as he searched. He was about to throw another stick away when his whole hand wrapped around it and he realized it was his javelin. Just then though, he screamed as the boar pounded down on his legs, still bucking and kicking.

***

Artos shook his head, dazed, but conscious. He turned to see a log soaring in his direction. He scrambled to his feet, hand still tightly clutching his sword. He just missed the log as he felt the air around it brush his trousers. The creature roared again in anger and charged Artos.

***

The boar jumped again, now going after Morthis. It snorted and grunted. Morthis screamed again as it connected with his legs. They felt like they were being smashed like a fruit under a hammer. Morthis rolled onto his back, and screamed a challenge as he gripped the javelin in both hands, left hand in front of right, butt of the javelin leaning against the side of his ribs. The boar lunged mid-buck. Morthis felt the javelin ripped from his hands. His scream continued at the top of his lungs, passed their seeming capacity. He felt smashed and then something warm dripped on his face. He opened his eyes, while his body felt like it was in a juicer press. Something was above him. He looked up to see tusks. He yelped but then realized what the warmth on his face was. It was blood. His javelin had been ripped from hands, but then sank into the ground as its tip tore through the boar’s bottom jaw and up into its skull, with just its tip partially poking out of the top. He felt a drop land on his eyelid and blinked instinctively. He then began to push on the behemoth of a creature and began scrambling out from under it, panic taking him over as he began to feel anxiety at the thought of being smashed to death by not a live beast but rather a dead one with dead weight.

He gathered himself next to the beast and checked his legs. They screamed angrily at his own touch, but nothing was broken. He then looked at the boar and surveyed the clearing, noting all of the damage. Lost in his own thoughts he prepared to gut the boar. Another roar vibrated the surrounding forest. Morthis grasped the still dirty, but free javelin in his hands, becoming silent. There it is again, but it is nowhere near me; it is up the original trail that me and— No! Morthis jumped up, running back to the trail. He threw himself into a dead run, adrenaline pounding in his veins; not caring what plants grabbed at him, only knowing that his older brother needed help, and while he was much younger and smaller than his brother, that help would have to be him. If he could just get there in time! As Morthis ran, he heard the crashing and snapping of trees and the occasional angry roar of the beast. I've got to get there in time. I have to!

***

Artos dove as large brown hands clapped where he had just been. The beast roared in anger as it leaned back to its full stature. Artos just gaped at its sheer, massive size. It lurched forward the way most humans would. In the briefest of thoughts Artos thought, This can’t be human! It is too massive! It matches those ridiculous tales the old men used to tell! Artos sliced a leg as he flung himself out of the way of the beast. When he spun around finding the beast again, another thought stole away his precious reasoning time. But what else could it be? They talked of gigantic men, but this isn’t quite as large as those human like beasts. This is fatter, and has slower, deliberate strides while being cumbersome. But how can it be real, and They only talked of them being under bridges. WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FOREST! THERE ARE NO BRIDGES FOR LEAGUES! Artos again dove and tried to swing his blade at the beast as simply a deterrent. It was either very stupid, or it didn’t care that it was being cut because it surged forward even still.

***

A roar of victory sounded through the forest from the direction it had first sounded. Fear shot through Morthis like air in his veins. He screamed, “No! I could move faster if these pointless plants in this stupid forest weren't in my way!” He tightened his grip on the javelin. The truth was that, without running into a tree, no human could have ran as fast as he was running. The vegetation around him was a blur to him and to an onlooker he would have also been as well, twisting, turning, and diving out of the way of the trees.

***

The beast stood above Artos, his unconscious body on the ground. Artos had been hit in the head with a log. He was not as nimble as his younger brother. The vegetation around them showed the product of their fight. Trees deformed or just gone and brush smashed beyond recognition.

The beast was about to kill Artos when a voice behind him asked, “When you can't kill him when he is awake, why kill a great warrior when he sleeps?”

The beast turned and fell to one knee. “But Wisgath, it a fair fight. Look what he did!”

Wisgath nodded his head absentmindedly again, “Yes, killing an enemy who sleeps is a shame.” Wisgath turned and spoke over his shoulder, “Now come and bring the boy.” Wisgath walked into the foliage. The beast who had fought Artos looked on after Wisgath. Wisgath was short for his species to begin with, but he was now even shorter having his legs cut off at the knees in the last war. The last war was the war that had won him the most respect, because even after falling to the enemy, he had gotten back up standing on his knee stubs and had killed his opponent and fifty other enemies making it the most enemies that he killed in one battle, more than any other of his species. Even though Wisgath was a different species than the beast and He walked with a staff, the beast who had fought Artos knew that Wisgath could destroy him at any time. He also knew that Wisgath was wise, so he picked up Artos, and followed him.

***

Morthis broke through the clearing. There in front of him was destruction. There in front of him was blood. There in front of him was his brother's sword but where was his brother? Then Morthis saw the tracks. They were strange massive human like tracks but by them were even stranger circular/oval tracks. Morthis ran along the tracks until the tracks led into a swamp. He frantically began thrashing the water’s surface, only to find himself increasing the murkiness of it, destroying any sign of their tracks. He sank to his knees in despair. He knew he could not tell his mother that his brother had been carried off by a weird, human footed, roaring beast; but he could, with a good conscience, tell his father and uncles of what he found in the clearing and of the beast. Maybe if he told them, they could help him find his brother, wherever he has been taken. If he were to tell his mother of the beast, it would kill her.

Morthis turned back. Walking to the clearing, Morthis retrieved his brother's sword, and then returned to the original trail. As he arrived at where he had left the boar, Morthis dressed it, and then began the long trek home.

Two eyes watched with approval as he had fearlessly followed the tracks and quit when he knew that it was over. You are brave, you are smart, and you are strong. You will become a great warrior Morthis, and I will watch over you. The eyes disappeared into the forest as if they had never been.