The Thrall (The Viking Hero Series Book 1) (5 page)

The dead walker was in a fury. It continued to
strike at Bjord, whom was no longer moving and no longer appeared to
even be alive anymore.

Rowan now disarmed and knowing he had to do
something, mustered the courage to get closer and try to fetch the
large battle ax that Bjord had dropped when the creature leapt upon
him.

After taking a quick
second to gather his courage, Rowan ran towards the ax. He slid
across the ground feet first trying to keep low and out of the
beast's reach. As he was sliding past the creature on the dirt and
gravel, he managed to grab the battle ax off the ground.

Rowan got back up to
his feet and picked up the ax with both hands. It was a large, heavy
and solid ax. Gripping it tightly, he raised the ax above his head
and then brought it down upon the beast with all his might.

He hit it and sunk the ax's blade deeply into the
creature's back.

In contrast to the arrows it ignored that were
embedded in its flesh, the creature felt the ax penetrate. It
violently roared in pain and turned around, swatting Rowan with the
back of its fist.

The blow knocked Rowan back several feet, causing
him to tumble hard to the ground.

Rowan had never been hit that hard in his life. He
was now dazed from the blow and had the wind knocked out of him. He
struggled to get up to his knees as he looked up at the creature. It
was violently turning about trying to grab the ax that was stuck in
its back.

Sven continued firing his remaining arrows into
the dead walker with no affect. The beast was completely unconcerned
with the arrows and appeared to ignore them. But the ax embedded into
its back definitely had its attention as it continued to struggle
trying to reach the ax and pull it out.

When the creature turned its back towards Rowan,
he could see that the ax was actually burning the creature's decaying
flesh.

He could see around the wound where the ax was
stuck in its back and he could see that its flesh was glowing red
like a hot iron. There also was some smoke coming from around the
wound where the ax was embedded.

It looked like the ax head was actually burning
its flesh.

Sven fired his last arrow into it and then threw
his bow down on the ground. He grabbed the ax that hung on his belt
and armed himself with it.

The beast was still reeling in pain and trying to
free the ax from its back.

Sven looked at Rowan and could see that he wasn't
armed and was still struggling to get up to his feet after being
knocked back so hard from the beast.

Sven knew what he had to do. He mustered all the
courage he could and charged at the creature. He swung his ax upon it
and sliced it on the arm. The creature released an ear p
iecing
roar and turned to face Sven as he swung his ax at it again. This
time
only nicking it on the
forearm.

This only angered the
creature even more. In a fury it reached over and grabbed Sven by the
head with its massive hands. Before Sven could react and swing his
ax again, it flung him in the air and into the brush near the side of
the clearing near the cliff.

Sven hit the ground
hard and dropped his ax. He nearly tumbled over the cliff when he hit
the ground. The wind was now knocked out of him and he struggled to
get up, but was unable.

He must have broken a
few bones when he hit the ground. Pain radiated all through his body
placing him on the edge of falling unconscious. He tried to call out
for help, but was only able to spit out blood as he slumped on the
ground.

The dead walker
clinched its fists and angrily roared at Sven as he struggled on the
ground. Rowan was able to get to his feet and looked around for a
weapon. A rock, a big stick, anything he could use as a weapon.

The dead walker was
infuriated. It stomped over to where Sven was laying on the ground,
broken and in terrible pain. It briefly looked down at him and then
grabbed Sven by the chest and leg. It picked him up and lifted him up
above its head while letting out a ferocious roar before it threw
Sven's broken body over the side of the cliff.

Sven couldn't even
scream.

Rowan was
unarmed and there was nothing he could do. He could see that the ax
he embedded into the back of the creature was still burning it. After
it hurl
ed Sven over the cliff, the creature continued
struggling trying to reach the ax and pull it out from its back.

Rowan knew he wouldn't be able to take the
creature out. He managed to wound it, but that was pure luck and he
no longer had a weapon anyways.

He took one last look at Bjord's lifeless broken
body on the ground and then turned towards the clearing in the brush
they originally came through and ran for his life.

He charged through the partially cut branches as
if they weren't even there. Pushing through the brush in a desperate
fury to escape the deadly wrath of the dead walker.

As he passing through the thickest part of the
brush, he heard the beast roar behind him. It not
iced
him fleeing. Just as Rowan passed through and reached the other side
where they tracked the sheep,
he
heard the beast howl again and then start charging through the brush
after him.

Rowan looked around in every direction trying to
decide what to do. If he ran down the path they came up, the beast
would surely catch up to him and run him down.

He looked through the hole in the bushes where the
sheep had ran over the cliff and decided to crawl through it in an
attempt to hide. He quickly crawled through, scrapping himself by
the broken branches as reached the other side. By time he got to the
other side where the cliff was, he heard the dead walker growling on
the other side where he had just been seconds ago.

It would have easily overcome him if he'd ran down
the trail.

The dead walker didn't continued down the pass
chasing after him as Rowan had hoped it would. It knew
he'd
gone through the bush to hide. Rowan knew he would have to do
something quick. But what? He was cornered at the edge of a steep
cliff with no where to go.

Thinking
quick
ly, he realized he still had the rope slung over his
shoulders. He removed the rope and took hold of one end. He looked
for something to tie the end of the rope on. If he could secure the
end of the rope, maybe he lower himself down the side of the cliff to
escape the creature.

Rowan searched for something sturdy to tie the
rope to and decided on the base of a bush that appeared to be deeply
rooted.

The creature was getting closer, but was
struggling to get through the hole.

Rowan's hands were shaking as he tied the knot and
secured it to the base of the bush stump. He then quickly tossed the
other end down the side of the cliff.

He could hear the dead walker starting to tear its
way through the bushes towards him. It was coming after him and would
reach him any second. There was no time to waste. It was do or die.

Having no other choice, Rowan began climbing down
the rope over the side of the cliff.

As he lowered himself down he heard the dead
walker roaring. He looked up and seen it looking down at him,
towering over the edge of the cliff with a broken bush hanging off it
where it had tore its way through the brush.

Rowan began climbing down the rope even quicker in
his desperate attempt to escape. He didn't even know if the rope was
long enough to reach the bottom or not, but he had nowhere else to
go.

The creature grunted as it reached down and
grabbed the rope. Rowan felt the rope being pulled up and seen the
creature was hauling him up.

He began sliding down the rope in a desperate
attempt gain distance between him and the creature. His hands burned
from the friction of the rope as he loosened his grip to slide down
it.

Looking down, Rowan noticed a ledge on the side of
the cliff and tightened his grip on the rope, stopping his slid. The
friction burn cause Rowan to wince in pain bu the managed to stop
himself.

He began trying swing himself towards the side of
the cliff and was almost able to reach a root that was sticking out
of the side of the cliff above the ledge. He felt the rope being
tugged and being pulled up ferociously.

The creature was going to pull him up if he didn't
do something now.

Burning his hands even more, he slid down the rope
even further only to discovered that he was now at the end of the
rope and couldn't go down any further.

The creature kept pulling the rope up.

Rowan would have to make a desperate lunge for the
root that hanging from the side of that cliff. He swung hard one last
time before he felt the rope
being
pulled up again. Rowan let go of the rope as he swung towards the
cliff side and tried to grab the protruding tree root.

Despite his best
effort, he fell short of the tree root and crashed hard into the face
of the cliff wall.

Rowan then fell from
the side and down onto the lower cliff ledge. Luckily he didn't fall
to his death, but he was still too high up and fell hard on the
ledge's rocky surface. When he landed on the ledge, he dropped so
hard that he managed to hit his head on a rock.

The world went black
as Rowan was knocked unconscious.

Rowan woke up to rain drops hitting him in the
face. Groggy and hazy, he slowly opened his eyes and looked around.
Seeing the ledge he was on, he quickly remembered where he was and
what had happened.

His body ached in nearly every place.

He noticed that he was laying on the edge of the
cliff's small ledge, so he carefully sat up and shifted himself back
safely away from the edge. His head pounded with a throbbing pain at
the back of his head and neck.

He looked around hardly able to believe he was
still alive. Recapping the events of everything that had taken place,
he realized what had happened when he fell and why his head hurt.

It looked like it was early morning. He'd been
knocked unconscious when he landed and must have slept the rest of
the day and through the night.

It was now raining lightly. He wasn't soaking wet,
so it must have just started. Rowan looked up the cliff for any sign
of the beast. It appeared to be gone and so was the rope he used to
get do
wn there
in
the first place.

He wasn't sure how he
was going to get down. He survived the attack, but now can he survive
the escape? Rowan looked down over the side of the small cliff,
trying to figure out how exactly was he going to get down.

He noticed that on the
left side of the cliff it sloped at such an angle that he might be
able to climb down.

The rocks on the slope
looked very loose. He'd have to be careful climbing down and keep his
body close to the slope due to the steepness. It only went down like
that for a short way until it became too steep to climb down. He
would have to scoot across to the further end where he could try to
climb down further.

Rowan scooted to the
edge and carefully slid his body down the slope, hugging the side of
the cliff wall with his body.

Already some small
rocks were starting to tumble down from under him. He even slid
slightly when some of the loose dirt on the cliff wall broke free.

He tried to dig his
fingers deep into the slope to prevent sliding down any further as he
continued to gingerly descend down the side.

The descent was thus
far going as planned as he continued to make his way down. Just as he
was nearing the ledge where he had planned to shift over, a rock came
loose under him and caused him to slide down.

He tried to stop
himself from sliding anymore by digging his fingers into the dirt and
pressing his body against t
he hillside. His efforts w
ere
all to no avail as he became the center of a mini rock slide that
dragged him down with it.

Rowan slide down
cliff's ledge and went over the side, tumbling in the air towards the
ground beneath him.

As he headed toward
the ground, the top of a pine tree broke his fall, but it broke as
well. He tumbled into the next one which also broke. He bounced to
the next and then to the next as he fell and tumbled his way to the
ground through the tree. Each limb either broke from his falling on
it or bent down, rolling him to the side to drop down even further.

He fell through
the tree crashing limb to limb
until
with a loud and
dull thud, Rowan finally hit the
ground...hard.

He hurt from just about every place on his body as
he feebly gasped for air. The wind had been knocked out of him so
times on the way down he almost wasn't sure how to breathe again.

The tree had beaten him to a pulp, but it had
broken his fall and saved his life. He was alive and that surprised
even him.

Rowan rested on the ground for a few minutes,
reflecting upon his luck on escaping the dead walker and then
surviving the fall. That and the fact he couldn't move yet and was
still trying to catch his breath again.

He was definitely lucky, but for how long.

After a few minutes Rowan finally rolled to his
side and looked around. He was in a ravine on the mountain side. He
tried to figure out which way to go.

He prided himself on having a pretty good sense of
direction and he did know 'about' which way he needed to go to get
back to the longhouse. But he'd never seen this place before.

Below him, he could see where the ravine led down.
It was not as steep as before, although it was much more rocky.

It was different down here than it had been up
where the dead walker was. There was a sense of peacefulness. He
could hear the birds chirping and it didn't seem as 'dead' and
strange. Plus the intense smell of rot wasn't present.