Notes on Monster Hunting Read online

  Rexel and Heff are staying back today. First and Third are working as one squad. We’re all getting set up. Even the scouts are in the field. It’s going to be a hell of a day. Wennel, Groose, myself, and Palon are at site A, as we are calling it. Out at site B, which is more of a long line of people than a site, is the rest of the squad and all the professional loggers from town. There are at least fifty of us total. I’ve been standing guard, hatchet in hand, watching around us. Obviously writing and watching don’t go well together, but the wraiths haven’t moved in yet. I’ve seen them running between trees and watching from afar.

  Groose and Wennel have been working on setting up their munitions. I hope I’m not too close when they explode. I was given two firebombs in a small cloth shoulder bag. It’s resting on my hip, and I’m nervous about running with it. What if it hits my side too hard? They told me I just needed to throw it and run.

  Palon’s watching with me. Holding the woodcutting axe he was given yesterday. I wouldn’t be surprised if he kept it after all this was over.

  “We’re ready,” said Groose.

  I’m not.

  Back in the forest was the loudest, scariest, and most exciting hunt I’ve ever been on. There’s always the part of me that’s terrified and worried about getting hurt or killed. Sometimes that part hides, and today was one of those days.

  On Groose’s command, Palon began chopping at the tree we were beside. As we planned, the wood wraiths left the trees around and ran at us.

  “Now,” shouted Groose. I threw a firebomb at the wooden figures charging directly at me. The powder splashed across them and quickly engulfed all three in flames. They kept running at me like the fire didn’t hurt.

  “This isn’t all of them,” said Palon.

  “We just need to take out as many as possible. Now, Beatrice,” said Groose.

  I ran for site B and threw my second bomb at the base of the tree. Wennel did the same to a nearby tree and the three of them started running behind me. We were careful. We watched our feet and avoided tripping over any of the thousands of roots running above ground.

  Dead leaves and dirt lifted into the air around me as the ground violently shook and made me fall into a tree at my side. I scraped up my arm on the bark and looked behind me where the area we left was covered in flames and smoke and debris falling from the sky.

  “Keep running,” shouted Groose. “Straight past the line.” He was running slower to stay beside Palon.

  The trees rushed by my side and my ears painfully rang and buzzed. Everything sounded like it was coming from far away. My eyes were blurry and everything looked dark. After another minute, Lekk, Urny, and Rux came into view with firebombs in their hands. The line stretched in both directions, but I just ran forward, forcing Lekk to stumble to the side to let me pass. By the time I was gathered and turned around, Wennel, Groose, and Palon were beside me. Skrale’s distant voice shouted orders and everything around us was quickly illuminated. The heat of the fire dried my eyes and stung my face. I watched between Lekk and Urny’s legs and I could only see flames. Fires burned on both my left and right as our company burned the wood wraiths. The powder inside the firebombs splashed onto some trees and ignited the wood. It was quickly getting to a point of being uncontrollable.

  “Beatrice.” Groose grabbed my shoulder. He shoved a small leather bag into my hand. It looked like it was filled with flour. “Torol powder.”

  I nodded. He rushed off to hand more bags out to the hunters near us. The ground shook as explosives and firebombs erupted nearby. My hearing vanished and I fell to the ground. Everything was quiet, apart from the ringing inside my skull. It felt as if somebody was squeezing the sides of my head.

  I stared out at the chaos, unsure what to do. Lekk and Urny ran up to the edge of the fire and tried to kick back burning wraiths crawling out of flames. They were grabbing at and pulling Rux toward the fire. It was bright and my eyes hurt. It looked like figures were crawling and walking out of the flames at our men all the way down. The wraiths weren’t dying fast enough. Rux stumbled back to me. His mouth was moving and I could feel the spit and breath on my face as he yelled, but I couldn’t hear a thing. Over his shoulder, I saw Lekk and Urny running back to us when a wraith jumped out of the top of a burning tree. It landed on Urny and smashed him into the ground. I shoved Rux’s shoulder and the two of us charged and tackled the wraith off. Lekk pulled Urny back to the line and we kicked the wraith back into flames. Urny seemed fine. He was standing and watching, looking really pissed off with blood running from his nose. I stood on the line with them and watched for anymore wraiths escaping. Down the line in both directions, I could see fighting and scrambling.

  After some time, Lekk nudged me and poked the bag of powder. Nothing had come out for some time, and nothing should survive in flames that long.

  I walked up to the wall of fire and started tossing torol powder onto the flames. They quickly vanished and the heat backed away. The air still hurt to breathe. Everything on the ground was blackened and burnt. I could feel the heat soaking into the base of my boots as I stepped further into the fires. Others followed me and tossed powder around. I walked in a straight line and tossed powder in front of me until I only had a small collection left in the bottom of the bag. Wisps of smoke rose from the ground behind me. I didn’t have a large bag, but it put out a lot of the flames.

  I gripped the bottom of the bag and let the last of the powder trickle onto the fire. At my feet laid a somewhat intact wood wraith body. Most of its head was burned away and the majority of the body was blackened and burnt.

  The wood wraith rolled over and grabbed my shin. I kicked it with my other leg. The wood was weak from the fire, so I kicked the arm right off the wraith. Palon came up beside me and stomped on the wraith’s head. We both stomped on it until there was nothing but ashes. When I looked at Palon, he just shrugged. He probably couldn’t hear anything either.

  All of us in the area walked around and checked that all the wood wraiths were dead. Ash stuck to my boots and painted them black. We gathered after searching the area and started to head back towards Tublin. Groose had run around with Wennel, giving orders and lighting fires, so I was no longer sure where he was.

  We reached the site A, but it looked entirely different. The two trees were gone and the area was pitted with small craters. Ash floated down like snow and smoke cloaked the sky above. We all exchanged glances before continuing our trek back. Usually I’d want to check in with the rest of the company before leaving, but the ringing in my ears and pain in my lungs was too strong to remain in the ash and smoke.

  Everyone came back covered in soot. Kully and Ralet came and sat with Palon, Groose, and myself and wiped off their faces with their shirts. We all sat with no fire, as we’ve had enough of it today, and smiled at each other. Ralet’s teeth were darkened, which had to taste terrible. The ringing in all our ears continued, so we didn’t try to communicate. I grabbed mugs and poured beer for everyone. Ralet spat after his first drink and laughed at the black spit.

  After some time, I wandered through camp until I reached Teke’s area, where he was scrambling to treat some pretty severe burns. I felt guilty watching, but I didn’t know how to help. Carner and Cremn were both lying on the ground. Carner has burned himself quite a bit.The burns running up his arms look mild. Cremn’s clothes and armor were burned and revealed small patches of bright red bubbled skin along his torso.

  I went back to camp and began writing. Now I’m here. Ready to go to sleep. Cremn came to camp with his torso bandaged up. He’ll probably be fine. It is Cremn. Nothing can hurt him. He took some beer and leaned against me as he quickly drained the mug.

  The rest of Groose’s story:

  Cremn and I found the alchemist hiding in the inn’s rubble. He was a scrawny man with burn scars on his hands and arms. The man was terrified, but Cremn’s calm words helped him relax. I sat beside him and asked his name. Groose, he said. We asked about his alchemy, which he was h
appy to talk about. Cremn and I both listened with intense interest as the scrawny man told us about his use of oiled, heetan, and other powders to make a variety of explosives that he created entirely on his own. Cremn asked why he burned the buildings and Groose immediately denied it and said he was terrified of the locals. He adamantly claimed he didn’t know how they burned. He admitted he had caused problems in the past and created more house fires than he should’ve when he first started his tests, but he tried to become far more careful.

  I asked about his intended use with his explosives. He had none, he just became interested in experimenting. I told him about our company and asked if he’d like to travel with us if we helped him escape. Cremn and I made it very clear that we wouldn’t protect him if he did burn the buildings down. He again promised he didn’t and expressed his interest in joining our company.

  Lekk went and fetched a few cloaks from our cart. We all wore the cloaks with the hoods raised. We walked out of the inn with Groose in the center. I wished the locals luck in their hunt and we left without any suspicions. Groose has since created munitions and helped train others in the company how to safely use his bombs.

  Day 105

  I was just awakened by Teke. He said everyone needed to “sleep off the deafness.” Skrale is gathering everyone now that most of us will be able to hear. There’s still an ache deep in my ears, but it isn’t stopping me from hearing. The clouds are orange and yellow from the rays of the sun just starting to rise. It looks like it’ll be a good day. Most of the ash and smoke has blown away. Cremn’s already at First squad’s camp with Teke, making sure his burns aren’t getting worse, so he asked me to gather everyone else.

  Skrale and Teke were kind enough to offer tea since they know it’s too early for this kind of thing. The mug is warm and the rising sunlight is warming the back of my neck. It’s all relaxing. I’m holding the mug between my knees and I keep sniffing it. Teke made the mixture of leaves and herbs. I didn’t ask what it was, but it smells strongly of lavender and lemongrass.

  “Can everyone hear me?” Skrale asked with a smirk. He didn’t get any laughter. Not even from Widdy, who usually laughs at all of his jokes. “Okay, I get it. Too early.” Skrale took a huge drink of tea and finished off his mug. I could still see steam rising before he drank it. I have no idea how he did that without burning himself. “I think yesterday’s mission was a success, thanks to Groose and our munitions team.”

  Groose smiled and looked around, probably waiting for a cheer of some kind. He didn’t receive any. I elbowed Ralet and nodded at Groose. Ralet leaned over and whispered something encouraging. Hopefully. I couldn’t hear what he said, but Groose looked happy. Kully and Palon also patted him on the back. He looked like a proud little child.

  “Kendral and I talked last night and decided that we need to sweep through as much of the forest and possible to check for any more wood wraiths. The problem is that these ones haven’t been staying in trees for long, so there will be some of the ghosts, as they called them, on empty trees. Pairs of two will cover a set route and hit any ghosts you find to check if a wraith is hiding. Handle any wraiths however you see fit. Dismissed.”

  Ralet nudged me and rose his eyebrows a couple times.

  “Sure,” I said.

  Ralet and I ran into town and bought a bag of dried yune berries to eat before we left for the forest. I hoped nobody would find any wraiths. It would be good to move on.

  Our path didn’t cross the battleground, yet the leaves above were grayed from smoke and ash. There was still a hint of the fires and violence around the woods.

  The deeper we went into the forest, the more green and lively it looked. Ralet thinks the wraiths stayed near town and watched the people until we arrived. Kendral showed us all the dead trees that the wraiths had killed the first time we were out. We saw more the other times. Ralet and I haven’t seen any since the initial few we passed, which we had seen before. The forest out here is beautiful. It’s a shame these people will cut it down someday.

  Ralet found a ghost and we cautiously tried to bait the wraith out by hitting the tree with an axe. After the first few times Ralet swung, I decided to sit back and eat berries.

  Just a tree. Ralet had to catch his breath.

  We found several more ghosts. Some of the trees were even a bit withered. There weren’t any wood wraiths, which was nice because I wasn’t up for killing more. Ralet and I headed back after finishing the whole bag of berries. The juice felt like it left a coating on my tongue and throat. A bit unpleasant.

  We searched around and looked even closer on our walk back, but we found nothing new. Most people arrived back before we did. The calmness of camp made me think nobody found any living wraiths. We checked on Cremn. He said he’s fine and just needs a bit of sleep. I’m glad Teke and Kully are checking his burns a few times a day.

  We’ve been paid. Our work is officially finished in Tublin. Skrale’s given the orders to pack up and head back down the road. The scouts are still with us since we already have an idea of our next contract. Kendral gave us some directions when we asked about Gettleville, where the clay mason contract is. He recommended we stop in Ornoberg first, which is the biggest city Kendral has ever been to. I have a feeling he hasn’t been to many cities, but I’m still curious.

  Wood Wraith Hunt - Day 103-105 of the year 546

  After gathering information on scouting missions, our company set a trap planned by Groose and our munitions team. An initial explosion scared the wood wraiths into an ambush of a joint group of hunters and loggers from town. The wraiths were burned using firebombs until there was nothing left.

  Note: Unusual wood wraiths. These lacked facial features and stayed in groups, despite wood wraiths often being lone creatures. They ate the life of the trees faster than any wraith previously recorded.

  Payment: 500 gold coins

  Warning: Physical attacks caused no harm to wraiths. They have the ability to go inside trees and leave in a wooden body. The wooden body needs to be completely destroyed to ensure wraiths are dead. Semi-intelligent creatures. They planned an ambush for us early on, resulting in some serious injuries on our side. No casualties.

  Day 106

  I wonder what the coast will be like. Nobody in the company has seen the ocean. Except Teke. He won’t talk about it though, which isn’t surprising. Ornoberg is still a couple more days from the coast, but we’re taking Kendral’s advice and spending some time within. Cremn and Rexel need to finish healing up before we head out. Heff can travel with his injury, but it would be nice for him to rest as well. Oitter said it will be about two more days before we reach the city. Him and Jenn left a bit ago to let people know we would be arriving. They are responsible for finding us a place to sleep and someone to provide some food.

  The blades of grass here are wide and thick. I used to lie in the grass on sunny days. It was comfortable and relaxing. This grass looks like really small knives. I wouldn’t want to take a nap on that.

  Some birds have flown over us a few times throughout the day. I can’t tell if it has been the same birds or several that look identical.

  What if the wraiths learned from their mistakes? If any escaped the fire, maybe they realized they shouldn’t come back out of the trees they hid in. The trees Ralet and I chopped at could’ve had wood wraiths in them that knew they couldn’t come out without getting killed. Hopefully any that lived will act like most do and just live long lives deep in the forest, away from Kendral and his friends. I hope there are some left. Maybe one that learned and hides until people have forgotten about it.

  Day 107

  Our day started before the sun rose. We were all eager to stop and take a few days off from everything. Cremn’s side is healing well. It might not even scar. He’s feeling great too.

  Unfortunately, Rexel’s leg has become infected. Some pus oozed from his leg when Teke unwrapped last night’s bandages. Henli, Kully, and Lopuk met with Teke and thought of ways to treat the infe
ction. They decided to wait until we reached the city before doing anything major so Rexel wouldn’t have to move or be moved anymore until his leg is better.

  We reached Ornoberg before midday. It’s an impressive city. Wooden walls surround the town and almost all the buildings have an upper floor. Oitter and Jenn managed to book the rooms at two inns about a block from each other. Sleeping in a real bed always sounds great, but I know I’ll quickly grow uncomfortable.

  Kully and Palon immediately grouped up and Ralet was nice enough to ask if I wanted to stay with him. Groose enjoys sleeping on the floor, so Cremn won’t mind staying with him. The inn we were assigned is called The Damp Cloth Inn. I asked the innkeeper why he named it that and he said, “It gets muggy and a bit sweaty during the nights.”

  “In here?”

  “Everywhere. It’s a sweaty town.”

  I told my squad that I won’t talk to that man again. He looked like he sweat enough for everyone in town. I’ve seen him a couple times now and his thinning hair is always wet and stuck to his scalp. I try to be kind, but he really does look and smell awful.

  Day 109

  The innkeep was right. Humidity hangs in the air like a wall of water inside the walls. My skin and lips feel full. Not dried out like they can while we’re traveling and hunting. We only moved a bit south since leaving Tublin, so what makes the weather so different?

  Palon, Kully, and myself were very eager to go do something last night. It’s always great to relax and eat and sleep, but today we have much better plans. There was a man back in Tublin that was responsible for the upkeep of the axes and tools for felling trees. That’s where his set of skills ended. We’ve passed through towns that had talented individuals, which is where my sword comes from, and we’re always grateful for the work those men do for our company. We haven’t been to one of those towns since last year. That’s well over a hundred days of mediocre blacksmithing.