The Swordsman of Faerûn

Chapter 148 The Thorn Bird's Nest ([-])

Legend has it that a thorn bird sings only once in its life.
Her singing is euphemistic and melodious, incomparable among all things.

From the moment she left the nest, she has been searching, sleepless, just to find the thorn tree that belongs to her. — Song of the Thorn Bird
Hills is a small village with no more than twenty households and a small grocery store.It is close to Silvermoon City, and most of the residents are working for that beautiful city, such as providing food, milk eggs, wild animals and other materials that cannot be produced in the city.

Wood is also one of the urgent needs, but no one would be foolish enough to offend those mysterious druids for just a few trees, unless you have enough face and ability to get their approval.Obviously, no one in this village can impress those stubborn naturalists for the time being. The logging camp that existed many years ago can only be left there to be abandoned, and few people take care of it.

Now the residents of Hills are starting to care about the lumber mill, because more than half a month ago four strange guys occupied it, three "humans" and a guy who might be a giant, they "brutely" pushed down the original and built a new house in ten days. The style of the house is a bit strange, but it is very beautiful.

The residents are not very worried about the origins of these strangers, because it is close enough to Silvermoon City, even if it takes half a day to walk, the guards of Silvermoon City are enough to protect them, not to mention that Hills also has his own Defensive force - a dozen grown men trained in a simple militia, the people of Hills are more of a curiosity for strangers.

Elm, the owner of the grocery store, is one of the curious ones. For the past ten days, he has taken the opportunity to check the animal traps every morning to take a stroll around the lumber field.Most of the time, Elm will meet the man who often makes strange movements, and occasionally see the woman who is so tall that she is not human. She always holds a delicate-looking tomahawk and gestures. A great fighter, and of course beautiful, just a little too tall.

This morning, Elm routinely went to the woods to check the animal traps again. When he arrived at the place where the traps were set, he found that the traps constructed with leather ropes and iron rings had been destroyed, leaving only a small area on the ground. A pool of blood and some scattered feathers.After Elm took a closer look at the scene, he suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart. Based on his past experience, Elm believed that a big guy weighing at least five hundred pounds appeared in the vicinity, and he was also despicable. Steal his prey.

Elm re-examined the old hunting bow he carried with him, and took out a single-shot hand crossbow and hung it by his side.After rearranging the traps, Elm continued to inspect the animal traps at the next location. At this time, he was much more careful when moving.

Different from the situation in the wilderness, the snow in the jungle is not uniform, and there are various bird and animal tracks on it. Elm carefully avoided the animal paths of those large animals and walked along a small path. Stop and go, and observe the surrounding situation from time to time.When he arrived at the second trap setting point, Elm was fortunate to find that the animal trap was still intact and undamaged, and of course there was no prey to harvest.

Elm checked the rest of the traps, and they were all as usual, and he even got an adult rat boar (rat boar: a small rodent, The head is a bit like a wild boar), which is a nice bonus.Elm couldn't wait to rush home and let the lovely Xiaomi Luna share his joy. This thought made Elm involuntarily let down his vigilance, and unknowingly, a terrifying predator began to stare at him. fucked him.

Elm still needs to go to the abandoned lumberyard and take a look at the outsiders from a distance.To be honest, this work is not very satisfying. Elm would rather fight the agents of Zhentarim than waste time on these "non-threatening" people, not to mention he has more important tasks To do, although this task has been going on for more than ten years.

Elm carried the rather fat rat hog and carried his old hunting bow, and walked up a small ramp. The object to be observed was tens of meters away. A very strange movement was maintained in the distance. He was clearly standing still there, but it made people feel that he was doing extremely violent exercise again.There is also a red-haired little girl playing not far from the ramp. The little girl looks about the same age as Xiaomi Luna, but she is much more lively and has the crisp laughter that Xiaomi Luna lacks.The little girl wore a playful little horned helmet on her little head, and Elm thought he should buy one for Miluna later.

Elm looked thoughtfully at the little girl frolicking in the snow, feeling a strange warmth in his heart. At this moment, he suddenly felt something was wrong behind him. His past experience made Elm react quickly, and he quickly Turn around and pounce sideways and block the body of the rat hog behind.Elm, who jumped out, only felt his hand tighten and lighten, but it was the rat hog who blocked the attacker's fatal blow instead. Elm let go of the palm holding the rat hog without hesitation, and rolled down the slope .

After a violent tumble, Elm, who had reached the bottom of the ramp, got up a little top-heavy. He finally saw the appearance of the attacker clearly. It was a large jackal-like monster with clusters of gray-black spots on its sides. The bones are bony, and the shaggy khaki fur hides a greedy and evil desire—a ferocious jackal, a predator with an evil nature.

This unusually ugly monster had already swallowed the whole pig, but it was nothing more than a gap between its teeth for its gluttony. The brutal jackal had already turned its target to the two humans down the ramp.

Elm looked at the monster ready to pounce with cold hands and feet, how could such an evil thing appear nearby?Am I going to die here today?
Ferocious jackals are extremely vicious creatures whose close relatives are said to be gnolls, both of which love to feed on intelligent creatures and take pleasure in teasing and torturing their prey before killing them.

Both gnolls and ferocious jackals are used to thinking about things in terms of their bellies. The difference is that gnolls will eat any non-gnoll allies such as bear goblins, hobgoblins, ogres, or orcs as delicacies when they are hungry; Jackals not only eat allies, they even eat other ferocious jackals (including their brothers, mates, and children) as food when they are hungry.
It is said that the brutal jackals used to be the pets of the abyss lord Inohu, but in the end even the lord of the jackals couldn't stand their backlash, and had to exile these monsters who had no loyalty and awe at all from their territory.
Elm knew that a disaster was about to befall the residents of Hills, he suppressed the despair in his heart, turned his head and shouted to the curious little girl not far away: "Child! Run!" He lowered the hunting bow on his body, only then did he realize that the hunting bow had been bitten off by the brutal jackal and could not be used, and the hand crossbow hanging by his side also disappeared.

Elm laughed miserably, holding the broken hunting bow with his left hand, and pulling out the spare dagger with his right hand, preparing to fight the ferocious jackal to the death, at least delaying a little time for the child behind him.He didn't have extravagant hopes that the little girl would escape the catastrophe, he just wanted to attract the attention of others, such as the remaining three people, so that they would have the opportunity to inform the villagers of Hills.

Although the unknown monster not far away looked ugly and ferocious, Misha'er didn't feel scared. She even thought about counting the teeth exposed by the brutal jackal. When Elm yelled to let her When running away, the little girl turned around and yelled: "William, there is a monster here!" The little girl was startled by the snow wave rising behind her, which was the snow powder brought by William when he ran at high speed.

Elm bravely faced the brutal jackal, and he sent the broken bow in his left hand, including his palm, into the monster's bloody mouth, while the dagger in his right hand slashed fiercely at the brutal jackal's. In the left eye, at this time Elm actually had a joyful thought in his heart: "It turns out that my skills haven't regressed so much!"

It's a pity that Elm was doomed to be disappointed. The brutal jackal, who had no intention of avoiding it, just closed his left eyelid, and the dagger made of fine steel only left a bloodstain on the monster's thick skin before returning in vain.Elm, who was stunned for a while, suddenly felt a pain in his left hand, and the entire left palm was bitten off by the monster.

Elm, who had lost his palm, couldn't help screaming, and a cruel excitement flowed in the eyes of the brutal jackal. It used its forelimbs to step the human in front of it on the snow, and opened its big mouth with jagged teeth to continue biting Elm's. left arm.

Elm kept screaming loudly, although he could still bear the pain, but Elm had to pretend to scream like this, cruel jackals like to hear the screams of their prey when they are tortured before they die, and take it for granted. Intoxicated, if the prey stops screaming, they will quickly kill the tortured and look for the next target if possible.Many creatures who understand this will suppress the pain and keep silent when attacked by ferocious jackals, so that they will suffer less torture before dying.

Elm's left arm was broken again at the elbow, and the wound was bloody and bloody. When he was about to meet the third attack of the brutal jackal, he found that the monster had already diverted his attention. Could it be that it was going to attack the red-haired man? Is there a little girl?Elm's heart was once again filled with despair and sorrow, and he roared loudly and struggled to attract the monster's attention.

"Boom!" There was a muffled sound of punching fists, accompanied by a slight sound of bone cracking, and Elm suddenly found that the terrifying monster standing on him was howling and flying backwards.A flushed figure appeared in front of him, his breathing was like an elephant exhaling, with a fierce roar, it turned out to be the man who was more than a hundred meters away just now, Elm really didn't understand how he Such a long distance was covered in a few breaths.

(End of this chapter)