The Thrall (The Viking Hero Series Book 1) (10 page)

With a ferocious charge, it hit the line of men
and bashed three of them back several feet onto their backs while
they were trying to reform their shield wall.

The creature then turned on one of the men armed
with a spear. It grabbed the weapon out of his hands while smashing
down on his head with his fist. The injured man's legs gave way and
he slumped the ground dead. The creature's strength was unnatural.

While the beast was
attacking the man armed with a spear, another man behind it thrust
his sword into the monstrosity's back and caused it to roar in pain.
As he swung his sword for another hit, the fiend spun around and
bashed him to the side with the back of its fist.

The hit caused
the man to tumble feebly to the side as another man with an ax swung
his weapon down upon the beast, hitting
it in the shoulder.
The beast angrily punched through that man's shield and caused it the
shatter and spray wood splinters in the air. The beast hit him in the
chest so powerfully that the man fell a couple feet backward. The ax
wielder fell onto his back while spitting blood, dying from his chest
being crushed from the powerful hit.

The men who had previously been knocked back, got
up from the ground and jumped back into the fight. They swung their
weapons, trying to hit the beast while at the same time trying not to
get hit by the extremely powerful swings from its arms.

Rowan got up from the ground, being careful not to
fall from the cliff he was almost swatted over and took a few steps
forward before noticing Bjord's ax on the ground. It was hidden in
the tall grass and was the very ax that Rowan sunk into the beast's
back before making his escape previously. The creature must have
pulled it free and tossed it there. Rowan picked up Bjord's battle ax
off the ground and slowly made his way to join the men fighting. He
wasn't sure if it was really a good idea to fight in contrast to
running.

The men kept getting knocked back as their hits on
the beast appeared to be useless. Hakon was knocked back on the
ground in front of Rowan. He was hit so hard that he had actually
dropped his sword. His shield already had been shattered from one of
the creature's strikes and discarded moments before. The Housekarl
laid on the ground for a moment choking as he tried to reclaim the
breath that had been knocked out of him by the hit.

Rowan stepped around Hakon and raised the ax he
retrieved from the ground and began to approach the beast with the
intent of striking it with all his might.

He was stopped short of his attack when he felt
the Housekarl's hand grab his leg.

"No Thrall, it is useless. Run!"

Rowan lowered the ax and looked at him, not
totally believing his words.

Hakon picked up his sword and rose to his feet and
yelled, "it's useless men! Run! Run for your very lives!"

And with that retreating command, he lunged
forward and grabbed one of the fighting men by the shoulder and
yelled, "RUN!"

The remaining men turned and began running down
the towards the path that lead them to the mound.

One man wasn't so lucky when the beast grabbed him
from behind when he tried to run away.

The man swung feebly at the creature as it raised
him above its head. This was enough to make Rowan join the rest of
the men and run.

The beast threw the man he held at the group of
others that were just now beginning to run and m
ake
their way through the passage. The beast managed to throw the man and
hit two of the other men simultaneously and cause them to fall
forward as they were attempti
ng to run away. The beast was on
them instantly before they could get back up on their feet.

Rowan ran with the Housekarl Hakon closely behind
him. They had already passed through the bush path and continued to
run as fast as they could down the hill.

Glancing back, Rowan could see that the creature
already upon two of the last men that remained behind. It was one of
the men that had been knocked down by the man that the beast had
thrown at them and the man that was actually thrown, whom was
miraculously still alive and fighting to the very end.

The other man that was knocked down had managed to
get up to his feet and tore off running behind the rest of the men
without looking back.

The Draug was beating the two men to death as the
rest of the men continued to run down the hill. The man who had
managed to get up and run after having being knocked down, still had
his bow and turned to fire an arrow at the creature.

It was a solid shot and the arrow hit the beast in
the eye. The dead walker roared with the most hideous howl that
chilled everything that could hear it miles away right to the bone.
Rowan was sure the village could hear it too. The beast's agonizing
howl was that loud.

The creature grabbed the arrow that was stuck in
its eye and began trying to pull it out. This was different than when
he was hit by Sven's arrows. When the creature was hit by Sven's
arrows, the dead walker ignored them. The arrow fired by the Karl
seemed to really bother the monster and caused it great pain.

The archer fired another arrow into the creature
with such great skill that he actually managed to hit the hand the
creature was using to pull the first arrow out to his face and pinned
its hand to its face. It was an incredible shot.

Both Rowan and Hakon momentarily stopped running
to look in amazement.

The marksman's arrow hit made the creature
extremely angry and it let out another ear piercing howl. It howled
both from pain and from a furious anger never seen before.

It ripped its hand free with great force, leaving
the arrow head and part of the shaft in its head with the first arrow
still in its eye.

Everyone running had briefly considered turning
back to fight the creature now that it appeared to be injured. But
that notion was quickly thrown away when they seen the beast roar
again and then leap a great distance. The beast landed directly on
the archer, crushing him mercilessly.

Seeing the impossible great speed that the
creature managed and its ability to leap great distances, even after
being wounded, everyone knew they'd best keep running.

Which was what they all did. The remaining men
continued to run down the hill with all their speed. This time not
one person bothered looking back.

It was all they could do. Already losing most of
the men immediately upon meeting this beast, it was clear that they
would not be able to take down the beast. It was better to run and
live to fight another day.

They continued to run as long as they could until
exhaustion had taken over. They stopped running to rest for a moment
and see if the beast still gave chase. It had been a few minutes
since they heard the beast's howling in the distance.

It was safe to assume that they'd got ahead of it,
but more in probably the beast just decided to not give chase. This
was more probable due to the fact that the abomination was obviously
faster than they were and it had proven: if it wanted to catch them,
it could have easily.

They gathered together to catch their breath and
see who had survived. There was only four of them left, including
Rowan. Five armed veteran men had fallen to the creature and they
don't even think they really even hurt it. They all witnessed how it
reacted when the weapons struck it. They also knew they hurt it with
the arrows as well, but it continued its attack as if unscathed by
anything.

There was one thing beneficial to the whole
predicament, at least in Rowan's eyes. He was no longer going to be
accused of and executed for murder. Although his future was still in
question, at least he wasn't going to be put to death for a crime he
didn't commit.

There was still the fact that they'd lost over
half the expedition, not mentioning finding an acceptable reason why
they ran in the eyes of the other men in the village. It was
considered a cowardly act to run away from any battle.

They gathered themselves and made one final look
back to make sure the dead walker wasn't coming for them. Once
satisfied that they weren't being pursued, they made their way back
to the village.

The expedition's survivors made their way back to
the village. Word quickly passed of their arrival and many of the men
in the village dropped what they were doing to gather in the Great
Hall of the Jarl to find out what had happened. The fact that only
four souls returned of the nine that had left, gathered much interest
and curiosity.

It was close to dusk and there were already men
gathered in the Hall that had been awaiting the return of the
expedition. The four defeated men went into the Hall and all inside
went quiet.

Silently the survivors walked past everyone as
they made their way to the Jarl. Rowan gathered strange looks being
that he was not bound and instead was carrying a battle ax. He was
carrying Bjord's ax that he recovered near the mound.

Alvis the lawspeaker was already there and seated
next to the Jarl.

As soon as they were in front of the Jarl, he
questioned them.

"What happened? Where is the rest of the men
that went with you?"

The Housekarl Hakon spoke softly stating, "Lord,
all that the thrall Rowan had told us was the truth. We met the dead
walker and I regret to report that we were defeated in battle. The
other men have fallen."

The Hall immediately lit up with the loud voices
of men as they demanded to know what had happened and why the Thrall
dare enter the Jarl's Hall armed.

"Silence!" yelled the Jarl into the
Hall, bringing everyone to a hushed quiet. Looking back at Hakon, he
said, "tell me everything that has happened. Tell me why were
you defeated?"

"My lord, we left this morning as planned.
The thrall took us to the blacksmith's longhouse and showed us the
trail where their sheep had ran in the darkness of night. We
followed the trail through the woods and up the mountain for a
distance. We had also found the remains of two different sheep along
the way."

"Remains? What happened to them?"

"My lord, it appeared that animals had found
their corpses and feasted upon them. The thrall informed us that the
sheep were dead when they first followed the trail in search of them
with the blacksmith. However, they were intact at that time.
Wildlife had apparently discovered them since that time."

"I understand, continue."

"We continued following the path, led by the
thrall, until we came to the location the thrall claimed he escaped
the creature he described to us."

"Yes, were there any signs of Bjord or his
son? Did you find their bodies?"

"Not at that specific location, my lord.
There was a passageway torn through bushes that led to the burial
mound that the thrall told us they had found. The bodies of Bjord
the blacksmith and his son were there."

"Were you able to tell how they were killed?
Were they murdered?"

"My lord, the bodies were mutilated by
something that was not a man."

"Not a man? What do you mean?"

"My lord, we were met by the very monster
that the thrall had said killed the blacksmith and his son."

Upon hearing the word, 'monster' the men in Hall
began talking loudly amongst themselves again. They questioned the
very existence of such a thing. A few even mocked the notion and
laughed the moment they heard it.

Jarl Erling was growing very annoyed by everyone's
inability to remain quiet enough in his Hall to allow him the ability
to question Hakon, the Captain of his Housekarls.

"Silence!" yelled Jarl Erling as he
stood up, red faced and angered. "I demand that this Hall remain
quiet when I am trying to talk to this man and find out what happened
or I will clear this Hall by force to quieted it!"

The Jarl's Housekarl guard present in the Hall
immediately took to stepping forward at the ready for his command.

The men in the Hall quietened themselves, seeing
the Jarl was becoming irritated and his guard ready to physically
quieten them for him if need be.

Satisfied, Jarl Erling sat back down and then
looked at Hakon and calmly said, "continue."

"Yes my lord, the monster or rather the dead
walker. It was a huge beast, bigger than a man, bigger than a bear.
It had dead eyes and its flesh was rotting. The smell was
horrendous."

"I have never heard of such a thing. Are you
sure?" inquired the Jarl.

"My lord Erling," said the elder
lawspeaker Alvis. "Your captain's description fits how I've
heard of the Draug being described by the elders of my day. It also
fits with the young thrall's telling of a cat coming to him in the
night trying to kill him. It is said they can shape shift into such
things."

The Jarl thought on this for a few minutes before
speaking again.

"Were your men able to slay the creature?
This 'Draug' or dead walker thing."

"My lord," continued Hakon telling his
story. "The beast was too powerful. It was on us like the speed
of lightning and as powerful as we've heard in the legends of trolls.
We were unable to inflict any damage upon it and were lucky to
escape it."

"You weren't able to harm it in any way?"
asked Jarl Erling. "There must be a way to slay this
abomination."

Rowan looked up at the Jarl as if he wanted to say
something, but remained quiet. Jarl Erling noticed his hesitation
and spoke directly to him, "speak thrall, you may speak freely."

"My lord, I think the weapons burned it when
they hit it." Rowan explained.

The lawspeaker then
said, "legend states how most unseen creatures can be harmed
only with weapons made of iron. Perhaps the iron weapons burned it.
It may be the key to destroying the draug."