3.28 Pecking Order and Plans
turbofluffysnek
Getting sticky.
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3.28 Pecking Order and Plans
Mack drove the buggy in relative silence at first as the dark sky grew steadily brighter. Relative being the word since it didn't have any windows and only a half-plexi piece for a windshield. Dawn was coming, everybody was tired, but there was an energy in the air.
"So, uh, not far now, huh?"
"Nope." Bruno leaned back, fingers crossed behind his head.
"Not worried at all?"
"Nope. Got yer gun pointin' at me?"
"Uh…"
"Want mine? You know, threaten me with it a little? Keep me and yerself awake?"
"You're one crazy son of a bitch, you know that?" Mack glanced over, then fixed his eyes back on the road.
"Yeah, something like that. You can shoot me if you like, if you think it'll help. I mean it won't, it'd be a really bad idea for you." Bruno grinned. Mack shook his head. "But you could."
"You're not afraid of dying?"
"It's pretty scary, gotta say, but… naa. Friend of mine died. Then he got better." Bruno's teeth flashed white.
"He got better?"
"Uh huh."
Mack laughed, then took one look at Bruno, then they both laughed harder.
"You crazy son of a bitch."
***
Mack stole a few glances at Bruno and his goblin friend Krunk as he drove. The dark-skinned man was leaning back with his hands laced behind his head, apparently thoroughly enjoying himself. Mack knew in his bones that the six strangers, only three of them human after all, should have been bricking themselves in fear. He also knew that they'd not be harmed, not if Robert got his way at least, but… but that was the thing: The three of them and their weird friends were utterly, utterly unconcerned. And if Bruno's words were true, death didn't seem to be something he was overly worried about either.
Something was Wrong, with a capital W. The sense of wrongness only intensified the nearer the biker gang got to the three's home turf, as they became more and more relaxed instead of the opposite.
"Just pull up there," said Bruno. "Big show of force, parking in the middle out in the open, innit?"
"It's… it's not a trap?" asked Mack, squeezing his buggy through the rows of bikes.
"Did you see us make any calls? Naa, no traps. Come on, get yer gun out, point it at me if ya want. Make a good show of it. Just do me a favor, right? Get me right in the head, okay? If you're gonna shoot me, make sure you kill me first go, okay?"
Mack pulled his buggy around and came to a halt, shaking his head, then watched as first Krunk leaped out, then Bruno unfolded himself to his full height. Taking a good look at the gun in his hand, Mack half-heartedly pulled it out of his holster and held it, pointing down at the ground. Around him, the gang were still pulling up one at a time, setting their kickstands down and dismounting, or just pulling up what stood for a handbrake and clambering out in the case of other buggies, as they started to fill the open square. Around them all were groups of… what should generouslyl be described as people, and basic stalls, manned by humans, goblins, lizards, haflings… different types of lizards, animal people… a lot of non-humans, actually. The feeling of wrongness only intensified as the people watching utterly failed to run around screaming or indeed act with anything other than caution and curiosity.
"Do you want some free advice?" Bruno asked, grinning again as he watched the other man.
"Yeah?" Mack asked, hesitantly turning his head from the crowds to look at Bruno.
"Smile, and relax. I said I'd put a good word in. What's up Simmons, the boss in?"
"He's sleeping. You lot alright?"
Mack looked confused, switching his gaze between Bruno and the newcomer, an older fit man with thinning hair, as other similarly curious onlookers edged in, floodlights casting dancing shadows through the softly bustling crowds.
"Yeah, we've brought some prisoners in."
"Yeah, ah, 'scuse me. Name's Robert. I'm not sure what's happening here, yeah? But, ah, all of you, put your hands where I can see them, nobody move too quick and nobody gets hurt." Robert did his best to be self-deprecatingly threatening.
Simmons glanced down at his clipboard, then over at the puffed up biker, then to Bruno. "What's up Bruno, I'll get the boss, alright?"
"We'll wait."
"Oi! I said don't fucking move! Or I'll shoot!"
Simmons tilted his head at Robert, frowning. "Yeah? Bad idea. Let me get the boss. He's gonna be so pissed." Simmons turned around again and started walking away. There was a relatively quiet 'click' and then a very loud 'BANG!'.
Simmons turned around. "Did you just fucking fire that thing? Well, now you've done it."
"Damned right I did it! Now you will—" Robert started, lowering his gun, but he didn't get much further as from further back, there was first a loud snort, and then a rumbling growl that grew and grew in intensity.
"What the shit is that?" hissed Mack, hoarsely.
"That's the boss," said Bruno, matter-of-factly. "Stay next to me, try to look harmless."
"What sort of… does your boss keep some sort of monster as a pet?"
"You know," chuckled Bruno, "I don't think I'm gonna answer that. A few of his actual pets might get offended, and they're bigger than me."
There was a series of loud thumps and scraping noises as something very, very large came closer and closer, and then a gigantic form leaped up onto a building and peered down at the eclectic group in the middle of the square, eyes gleaming in the semi-darkness.
"Hrrmmmm, Are we going to have a very brief problem here? Or are you going to put your toy down and apologize for waking me up?"
Mack grabbed his crotch as an uncomfortable warmth very swiftly turned to an equally uncomfortable cold, and his shoes grew more than a little soggy. "D-d-d-d-d…"
"Yep."
"Dra… dra… dra…"
"Breathe… you're fine. That's just the boss. We'll, ah, get you some clean clothes after."
"Fukken priceless," cackled Krunk.
"Hey, Robert?" called Bruno.
"What!?" shouted Robert, as he pointed his gun at the dragon, the muzzle wavering as he breathed hard, grip tight.
"I really, really suggest you put the gun down. Or failing that, everyone else near him, stand well back. Boss, I don't think he's gonna hurt anyone. You don't wanna hurt anybody, right Rob? You came here for a nice, polite chat, right? Simmons, got any good booze left?"
"Yeah, but I'm not gonna get it. I'll get the cheap shit. I'm tired as shit and this chucklefuck really hasn't earned anything better." The man wandered off, complaining as he went.
"Wasn't kidding about the standing back, by the way," Bruno called.
Robert glanced around himself as the bikers near him took more than a few steps back. He suddenly felt quite alone.
"Alright, Boss," called Denver, waving to the dragon. "Sorry about this."
The dragon narrowed his eyes, then rumbled out, "Are you unhurt?"
"Yeah, we're fine. We're all fine."
"Apparently I can tame animals now," added Smitty, waving too.
"Then my men can learn to call upon the Arts. Interesting. Now, human, you have a very simple choice before you." The dragon spread his wings and slinked down from the building like the worlds largest, angriest gecko. "You can drop to your knees and pledge yourself to me, or you can die."
"Yeah, he kinda does that," called Smitty, "and he does mean it."
***
I looked down at the man standing in the middle of the slowly growing circle. Ordinarily I'd have melted him by now, especially for actually firing that little pea-shooter he held, but since my minions not only weren't too worried but were urging me to be lenient, I was inclined to give him a single chance to not be a complete tit. After all, I had my own minions to think of, and a pitched battle wouldn't do any of them any favours and I'd rather avoid one.
"Well?" I asked, after a good few seconds. I narrowed my eyes as his body language shifted. "I really do urge you not to do anything rash. I promise you, none of you will be harmed, not if you do as I say. Not now, not ever, not by me or mine at least."
I moved closer one slow step at a time, slithering up to face this 'Robert' closely, turning my head to the side. I stared at him in silence. I could read the indecision on his face as plain as day. It was fear that had him now, fear held him, gripped him tight, warred with him. It wasn't just fear of me, but fear for his people. Admirable, really. I lifted a claw and very slowly, very gently, pushed his gun hand down.
"Kneel," I said. "Kneel, pledge yourself to me. All of you," I lifted my head, gazing around the square, "kneel, pledge to follow me, and you will not be harmed. I would see you lifted up, not — and I stress this — beaten down."
Robert deflated. He sighed, and dropped to his knees. "Just don't hurt them, and I'll do anything you say."
One by one, the bikers got down on their knees. Some put their hands in the air, some put their hands behind their heads, but each one popped into my awareness. I backed up, striding a good ways away. "Stand, friends. I will have some instructions for you soon enough, but first, it's early and I for one am still tired. Rest, recuperate, and then be ready to report."
I felt my will settle over them as I turned and strode back to the building I'd been sleeping in, the kobolds who'd been attending me brightening as their scurrying to tidy the area paid dividends. I did worry, as I curled back up into the residual warmth, that all this pampering was going to my head. As I fought for sleep, I found myself also deep in thought about how easy it was now, how palpable, to have my will extend to my new minions. It was growing easier, more natural, more nuanced with every acquisition. With every new soul, a voice joined a growing choir that sang in the recesses of my mind, and that choir swelled within me, expanded my essence, spread my dominion wider, thicker, like a blanket of intent that spread slowly but surely across this mall, this block, this town… how far could it go? And where and what would I be at the end?
***
Big Mack twiddled his finger in his ear, peered at it, peeled off what he found and flicked it. Working for a dragon. That hadn't really been on his bucket list, but it was… surprisingly easy to do? He probed how he felt about it, like one would a filling, or a long-removed wisdom tooth. There was this… presence, he found, in his head. A weight. Not a voice, not some peering eyeball, just a presence, like a hand on his shoulder. Mack found it strangely reassuring, and not only because he was now surrounded by hundreds if not thousands of more or less new family members. And odd feeling, but not unwelcome.
"So you say you've been tracking… something big? Moving roughly North West? Well we've been moving North East for the last couple of weeks, more or less. Our base is here, the old steelworks, it's only really an accident we met in the middle, so whatever your boys are after," Simmons tapped the map, which now sported a series of plastic figures and thick sharpie lines all over it, "it's avoided our boys. Think that's deliberate?"
"Not sure," said another of the bikers that formed this impromptu council, a bottle of cheap beer in his hand. He pointed a finger at the map and traced the known path of the whatever-it-was, "I could believe it, see how it started heading back up North a few days back? I think I know where it's gone, but that's gonna make things harder. This whole area, it's not really for the faint of heart. Dunno what you've been finding so far, but up here… it's not pretty. Well, it's really pretty, just not very friendly. Not a lot of people live there any more." The man ran his finger in a rough circle, indicating the whole North West of the city.
"It's been a bit hard to tell where we stand, really," Denver ran his hand through his hair. "We've been picking up what stragglers we can, but there's been a lot of empty houses, a lot of shallow graves. Just… just not enough shallow graves."
Everybody knew it, it was the worst kept secret there was, but with the way the world had stretched like taffy, expanded like risen dough, a lot of people had been cut off from water, food, electricity… and the result should have been a lot of dead or at least dying, desperate people. The reality was that folks were wandering out into the wilderness looking for supplies or shelter or other survivors, and they were just… not coming back. Worse, the dead were disappearing. Not because they were walking off by themselves, but because there were a lot of hungry creatures quite happy to scavenge that sort of readily available meal. It was a ticking time-bomb. The creatures, whatever they were, were cautious with live humans mostly because there wasn't a good reason to bother with them so far, not that they wouldn't jump at an opportunity if given one. The real issue was, that at some point in the relatively near future, those easy meals would stop, and those populations of well-fed, wild, grown into their own killers would fasten their gazes on the next best thing. Live humans.
Normal humans, even armed, were no match for larger numbers of the kinds of beasts that now inhabited the wild spaces between the scraps of civilisation that still existed; the worgs, the bullettes, the rocs, the wendigo, the chupacabra, the chimerae… all of these could finish off a lone human nine times out of ten. And a pack of them could decimate a town of unprepared women and children without breaking a sweat. Even the mundane dangers were lethal to most humans, such as bears, wolves and mountain lions, and there were plenty of those around.
The bikers were as prepared as they could be. They'd lost a number of men as they'd begun staking out their territory, not only to wild creatures of all stripes but also to other humans, opportunists, thugs and criminals. Mack snorted to himself as he thought about how that effort had all gone to waste now. Sort of. It all belonged to the dragon, not that it seemed to be an issue, the dragon didn't seem to want much, not now it owned everything.
"So if you weren't tracking us and we haven't seen this thing either, what the hell do you think it is?"
"Large, starts at nine feet, ends at what, eighteen? More? We're not sure. They're roughly humanoid. They eat, well, anything and everything they can catch. They especially like humans, particularly children. We…" Robert paused, a hitch in his voice, "we weren't fast or strong enough to stop them when we first heard of them, but we've done a good job of driving them away from our, your, territory."
"It is our territory, friend," the dragon said, in its deep, rumbling voice. "What's yours is mine, and so it is all ours. But tell me, what is it you are hunting?"
"They move only at night," Robert continued. "It is very, very hard to find them during the day. They like the dark, I think direct sunlight actively harms them in some fashion, renders them… if not easy pickings, then at least vulnerable. That's the good news. The bad news? They're heading to somewhere where it's very dark a lot of the time, and where I think they can hide all the time."
"...Shit," swore Simmons. "No fucking way. Get me the book."
Some kobolds ran up shortly after with a loose collection of photocopied, stapled-together pages of various stock, from various printers, photocopiers and the like. Simmons flipped through it, then started swearing more. He folded the pages back and slammed the lot onto the table, pointing at it accusingly. "You're talking about fucking trolls."
Robert nodded, turned his head and spat. "Trolls. And they're heading to the caves."
Mack glared at the map. Once upon a time there'd been a babbling river that'd cut its way through the hills in the North, perfect for swimming, hiking and hunting along, creating some caves many found fun spelunking their way through. Now, from what scant reports they'd got, it had become a treacherous canyon with a raging torrent at its heart. Trolls apparently liked caves, and the whole damned area was rife with them, with enveloping shadows and yawning chasms. Troll heaven, and a nightmare for anybody trying to dig them out.
Mack drove the buggy in relative silence at first as the dark sky grew steadily brighter. Relative being the word since it didn't have any windows and only a half-plexi piece for a windshield. Dawn was coming, everybody was tired, but there was an energy in the air.
"So, uh, not far now, huh?"
"Nope." Bruno leaned back, fingers crossed behind his head.
"Not worried at all?"
"Nope. Got yer gun pointin' at me?"
"Uh…"
"Want mine? You know, threaten me with it a little? Keep me and yerself awake?"
"You're one crazy son of a bitch, you know that?" Mack glanced over, then fixed his eyes back on the road.
"Yeah, something like that. You can shoot me if you like, if you think it'll help. I mean it won't, it'd be a really bad idea for you." Bruno grinned. Mack shook his head. "But you could."
"You're not afraid of dying?"
"It's pretty scary, gotta say, but… naa. Friend of mine died. Then he got better." Bruno's teeth flashed white.
"He got better?"
"Uh huh."
Mack laughed, then took one look at Bruno, then they both laughed harder.
"You crazy son of a bitch."
***
Mack stole a few glances at Bruno and his goblin friend Krunk as he drove. The dark-skinned man was leaning back with his hands laced behind his head, apparently thoroughly enjoying himself. Mack knew in his bones that the six strangers, only three of them human after all, should have been bricking themselves in fear. He also knew that they'd not be harmed, not if Robert got his way at least, but… but that was the thing: The three of them and their weird friends were utterly, utterly unconcerned. And if Bruno's words were true, death didn't seem to be something he was overly worried about either.
Something was Wrong, with a capital W. The sense of wrongness only intensified the nearer the biker gang got to the three's home turf, as they became more and more relaxed instead of the opposite.
"Just pull up there," said Bruno. "Big show of force, parking in the middle out in the open, innit?"
"It's… it's not a trap?" asked Mack, squeezing his buggy through the rows of bikes.
"Did you see us make any calls? Naa, no traps. Come on, get yer gun out, point it at me if ya want. Make a good show of it. Just do me a favor, right? Get me right in the head, okay? If you're gonna shoot me, make sure you kill me first go, okay?"
Mack pulled his buggy around and came to a halt, shaking his head, then watched as first Krunk leaped out, then Bruno unfolded himself to his full height. Taking a good look at the gun in his hand, Mack half-heartedly pulled it out of his holster and held it, pointing down at the ground. Around him, the gang were still pulling up one at a time, setting their kickstands down and dismounting, or just pulling up what stood for a handbrake and clambering out in the case of other buggies, as they started to fill the open square. Around them all were groups of… what should generouslyl be described as people, and basic stalls, manned by humans, goblins, lizards, haflings… different types of lizards, animal people… a lot of non-humans, actually. The feeling of wrongness only intensified as the people watching utterly failed to run around screaming or indeed act with anything other than caution and curiosity.
"Do you want some free advice?" Bruno asked, grinning again as he watched the other man.
"Yeah?" Mack asked, hesitantly turning his head from the crowds to look at Bruno.
"Smile, and relax. I said I'd put a good word in. What's up Simmons, the boss in?"
"He's sleeping. You lot alright?"
Mack looked confused, switching his gaze between Bruno and the newcomer, an older fit man with thinning hair, as other similarly curious onlookers edged in, floodlights casting dancing shadows through the softly bustling crowds.
"Yeah, we've brought some prisoners in."
"Yeah, ah, 'scuse me. Name's Robert. I'm not sure what's happening here, yeah? But, ah, all of you, put your hands where I can see them, nobody move too quick and nobody gets hurt." Robert did his best to be self-deprecatingly threatening.
Simmons glanced down at his clipboard, then over at the puffed up biker, then to Bruno. "What's up Bruno, I'll get the boss, alright?"
"We'll wait."
"Oi! I said don't fucking move! Or I'll shoot!"
Simmons tilted his head at Robert, frowning. "Yeah? Bad idea. Let me get the boss. He's gonna be so pissed." Simmons turned around again and started walking away. There was a relatively quiet 'click' and then a very loud 'BANG!'.
Simmons turned around. "Did you just fucking fire that thing? Well, now you've done it."
"Damned right I did it! Now you will—" Robert started, lowering his gun, but he didn't get much further as from further back, there was first a loud snort, and then a rumbling growl that grew and grew in intensity.
"What the shit is that?" hissed Mack, hoarsely.
"That's the boss," said Bruno, matter-of-factly. "Stay next to me, try to look harmless."
"What sort of… does your boss keep some sort of monster as a pet?"
"You know," chuckled Bruno, "I don't think I'm gonna answer that. A few of his actual pets might get offended, and they're bigger than me."
There was a series of loud thumps and scraping noises as something very, very large came closer and closer, and then a gigantic form leaped up onto a building and peered down at the eclectic group in the middle of the square, eyes gleaming in the semi-darkness.
"Hrrmmmm, Are we going to have a very brief problem here? Or are you going to put your toy down and apologize for waking me up?"
Mack grabbed his crotch as an uncomfortable warmth very swiftly turned to an equally uncomfortable cold, and his shoes grew more than a little soggy. "D-d-d-d-d…"
"Yep."
"Dra… dra… dra…"
"Breathe… you're fine. That's just the boss. We'll, ah, get you some clean clothes after."
"Fukken priceless," cackled Krunk.
"Hey, Robert?" called Bruno.
"What!?" shouted Robert, as he pointed his gun at the dragon, the muzzle wavering as he breathed hard, grip tight.
"I really, really suggest you put the gun down. Or failing that, everyone else near him, stand well back. Boss, I don't think he's gonna hurt anyone. You don't wanna hurt anybody, right Rob? You came here for a nice, polite chat, right? Simmons, got any good booze left?"
"Yeah, but I'm not gonna get it. I'll get the cheap shit. I'm tired as shit and this chucklefuck really hasn't earned anything better." The man wandered off, complaining as he went.
"Wasn't kidding about the standing back, by the way," Bruno called.
Robert glanced around himself as the bikers near him took more than a few steps back. He suddenly felt quite alone.
"Alright, Boss," called Denver, waving to the dragon. "Sorry about this."
The dragon narrowed his eyes, then rumbled out, "Are you unhurt?"
"Yeah, we're fine. We're all fine."
"Apparently I can tame animals now," added Smitty, waving too.
"Then my men can learn to call upon the Arts. Interesting. Now, human, you have a very simple choice before you." The dragon spread his wings and slinked down from the building like the worlds largest, angriest gecko. "You can drop to your knees and pledge yourself to me, or you can die."
"Yeah, he kinda does that," called Smitty, "and he does mean it."
***
I looked down at the man standing in the middle of the slowly growing circle. Ordinarily I'd have melted him by now, especially for actually firing that little pea-shooter he held, but since my minions not only weren't too worried but were urging me to be lenient, I was inclined to give him a single chance to not be a complete tit. After all, I had my own minions to think of, and a pitched battle wouldn't do any of them any favours and I'd rather avoid one.
"Well?" I asked, after a good few seconds. I narrowed my eyes as his body language shifted. "I really do urge you not to do anything rash. I promise you, none of you will be harmed, not if you do as I say. Not now, not ever, not by me or mine at least."
I moved closer one slow step at a time, slithering up to face this 'Robert' closely, turning my head to the side. I stared at him in silence. I could read the indecision on his face as plain as day. It was fear that had him now, fear held him, gripped him tight, warred with him. It wasn't just fear of me, but fear for his people. Admirable, really. I lifted a claw and very slowly, very gently, pushed his gun hand down.
"Kneel," I said. "Kneel, pledge yourself to me. All of you," I lifted my head, gazing around the square, "kneel, pledge to follow me, and you will not be harmed. I would see you lifted up, not — and I stress this — beaten down."
Robert deflated. He sighed, and dropped to his knees. "Just don't hurt them, and I'll do anything you say."
One by one, the bikers got down on their knees. Some put their hands in the air, some put their hands behind their heads, but each one popped into my awareness. I backed up, striding a good ways away. "Stand, friends. I will have some instructions for you soon enough, but first, it's early and I for one am still tired. Rest, recuperate, and then be ready to report."
I felt my will settle over them as I turned and strode back to the building I'd been sleeping in, the kobolds who'd been attending me brightening as their scurrying to tidy the area paid dividends. I did worry, as I curled back up into the residual warmth, that all this pampering was going to my head. As I fought for sleep, I found myself also deep in thought about how easy it was now, how palpable, to have my will extend to my new minions. It was growing easier, more natural, more nuanced with every acquisition. With every new soul, a voice joined a growing choir that sang in the recesses of my mind, and that choir swelled within me, expanded my essence, spread my dominion wider, thicker, like a blanket of intent that spread slowly but surely across this mall, this block, this town… how far could it go? And where and what would I be at the end?
***
Big Mack twiddled his finger in his ear, peered at it, peeled off what he found and flicked it. Working for a dragon. That hadn't really been on his bucket list, but it was… surprisingly easy to do? He probed how he felt about it, like one would a filling, or a long-removed wisdom tooth. There was this… presence, he found, in his head. A weight. Not a voice, not some peering eyeball, just a presence, like a hand on his shoulder. Mack found it strangely reassuring, and not only because he was now surrounded by hundreds if not thousands of more or less new family members. And odd feeling, but not unwelcome.
"So you say you've been tracking… something big? Moving roughly North West? Well we've been moving North East for the last couple of weeks, more or less. Our base is here, the old steelworks, it's only really an accident we met in the middle, so whatever your boys are after," Simmons tapped the map, which now sported a series of plastic figures and thick sharpie lines all over it, "it's avoided our boys. Think that's deliberate?"
"Not sure," said another of the bikers that formed this impromptu council, a bottle of cheap beer in his hand. He pointed a finger at the map and traced the known path of the whatever-it-was, "I could believe it, see how it started heading back up North a few days back? I think I know where it's gone, but that's gonna make things harder. This whole area, it's not really for the faint of heart. Dunno what you've been finding so far, but up here… it's not pretty. Well, it's really pretty, just not very friendly. Not a lot of people live there any more." The man ran his finger in a rough circle, indicating the whole North West of the city.
"It's been a bit hard to tell where we stand, really," Denver ran his hand through his hair. "We've been picking up what stragglers we can, but there's been a lot of empty houses, a lot of shallow graves. Just… just not enough shallow graves."
Everybody knew it, it was the worst kept secret there was, but with the way the world had stretched like taffy, expanded like risen dough, a lot of people had been cut off from water, food, electricity… and the result should have been a lot of dead or at least dying, desperate people. The reality was that folks were wandering out into the wilderness looking for supplies or shelter or other survivors, and they were just… not coming back. Worse, the dead were disappearing. Not because they were walking off by themselves, but because there were a lot of hungry creatures quite happy to scavenge that sort of readily available meal. It was a ticking time-bomb. The creatures, whatever they were, were cautious with live humans mostly because there wasn't a good reason to bother with them so far, not that they wouldn't jump at an opportunity if given one. The real issue was, that at some point in the relatively near future, those easy meals would stop, and those populations of well-fed, wild, grown into their own killers would fasten their gazes on the next best thing. Live humans.
Normal humans, even armed, were no match for larger numbers of the kinds of beasts that now inhabited the wild spaces between the scraps of civilisation that still existed; the worgs, the bullettes, the rocs, the wendigo, the chupacabra, the chimerae… all of these could finish off a lone human nine times out of ten. And a pack of them could decimate a town of unprepared women and children without breaking a sweat. Even the mundane dangers were lethal to most humans, such as bears, wolves and mountain lions, and there were plenty of those around.
The bikers were as prepared as they could be. They'd lost a number of men as they'd begun staking out their territory, not only to wild creatures of all stripes but also to other humans, opportunists, thugs and criminals. Mack snorted to himself as he thought about how that effort had all gone to waste now. Sort of. It all belonged to the dragon, not that it seemed to be an issue, the dragon didn't seem to want much, not now it owned everything.
"So if you weren't tracking us and we haven't seen this thing either, what the hell do you think it is?"
"Large, starts at nine feet, ends at what, eighteen? More? We're not sure. They're roughly humanoid. They eat, well, anything and everything they can catch. They especially like humans, particularly children. We…" Robert paused, a hitch in his voice, "we weren't fast or strong enough to stop them when we first heard of them, but we've done a good job of driving them away from our, your, territory."
"It is our territory, friend," the dragon said, in its deep, rumbling voice. "What's yours is mine, and so it is all ours. But tell me, what is it you are hunting?"
"They move only at night," Robert continued. "It is very, very hard to find them during the day. They like the dark, I think direct sunlight actively harms them in some fashion, renders them… if not easy pickings, then at least vulnerable. That's the good news. The bad news? They're heading to somewhere where it's very dark a lot of the time, and where I think they can hide all the time."
"...Shit," swore Simmons. "No fucking way. Get me the book."
Some kobolds ran up shortly after with a loose collection of photocopied, stapled-together pages of various stock, from various printers, photocopiers and the like. Simmons flipped through it, then started swearing more. He folded the pages back and slammed the lot onto the table, pointing at it accusingly. "You're talking about fucking trolls."
Robert nodded, turned his head and spat. "Trolls. And they're heading to the caves."
Mack glared at the map. Once upon a time there'd been a babbling river that'd cut its way through the hills in the North, perfect for swimming, hiking and hunting along, creating some caves many found fun spelunking their way through. Now, from what scant reports they'd got, it had become a treacherous canyon with a raging torrent at its heart. Trolls apparently liked caves, and the whole damned area was rife with them, with enveloping shadows and yawning chasms. Troll heaven, and a nightmare for anybody trying to dig them out.