Rori was unclear as to what exactly was happening.

  What was clear was that he was lying down in some tall grass, but he couldn’t remember how he’d gotten there or even where ‘there’ was. He also had a feeling that he should not be in a hurry to get up and look around.

  Instead, he stared up at the clouds for a moment, took a deep breath and tried to assess the situation.

  There was an odd metallic smell in the air that he couldn’t place at all.

  He also realized his ears were ringing quite a bit. Even so, he could still hear another sound behind the ringing that he couldn’t make out.

  He shut his eyes and tried to concentrate on ignoring the ringing and focusing instead on the other noise.

  Another deep breath and he realized it was people shouting about something.

  He opened his eyes again.

  This time he noticed that there was a plume of smoke rising into the sky from somewhere close by.

  He further realized he could feel the warmth of a fire down past his feet.

  “How did I get here?”

  His voice sounded muffled in his own ears.

  Ringing ears. Bad hearing. Was there an explosion?

  He thought back to what he could remember.

  He had been sitting with Meredith. She’d asked him something.

  Then . . .something.

  He took two more deep breaths.

  He realized there was something on him. Something scattered around him.

  He moved his hand and could feel small bits of something shifting on his arm and chest. He reached over and picked up whatever was nearby.

  It was a piece of wood.

  It was brightly painted on one side.

  Much like a wagon.

  A wagon had exploded!

  It was all coming back to him now. He’d been on the wagon. He’d woken up from talking to Meredith and there had been a buzzing sound.

  Something flying by his head had buzzed.

  Another deep breath.

  It had been darts. Blowgun darts.

  One had missed and flown by his head, but there must have been something wrong with the dart because it had made a buzzing sound as it flew.

  And then another had gotten stuck beside him near the top of the wagon.

  He’d leapt off the top of the wagon in the direction the darts had come from.

  And then . . .

  And then lightning had struck the wagon and it had exploded!

  He carefully reassessed himself but came to the conclusion that besides being covered in the detritus of an exploded wagon he was essentially unhurt.

  Had someone intentionally caused a bolt of lightning to strike his wagon?

  As if in answer to his question, another bolt shot out of the sky and slammed into the ground nearby. It was close enough that the explosion of sound set his ears ringing anew and the metallic smell of ozone refilled the air.

  Rori rolled onto his stomach and carefully raised his head above the tall grass to try and look around without being seen.

  Three of the clan’s wagons had stopped a fair distance back in the direction they had come from. The rest of the wagons had moved further forward and away from the remains of his wagon which sat fifteen feet away. Three of the wheels from his wagon were still identifiable as they crookedly held up what had been the bottom half. The entire thing was a blazing fire and there would soon be nothing recognizable left.

  There was a dead horse just in front of the wreckage. He couldn’t remember which horse it was, but it didn’t matter. Horses were a valuable commodity and were not cheap to come by.

  The rest of the clan stood around the other wagons. Most were looking towards the scene of destruction, but a handful of them were looking off towards the trees in the distance that looked like they were probably the edge of a forest. Some people in the groups were shouting across the distance to each other.

  Not far from where he lay, the ground where the second bolt of lightning had hit was also smoking. It was too soon to know if the grass had caught fire or not.

  The hair on his head and arms began to stand on end and his entire body began to tingle. A third bolt slammed into the ground about two feet away on the opposite side of him. The clap of thunder was so loud it was literally deafening. The ringing in his head amplified and he could no longer hear the shouts of his clanmates.

  Three things became abundantly clear.

  First, somebody was clearly using magic to attack with lightning bolts from out of the sky.

  Second, they were currently not sure where exactly he was, but they were willing to keep taking potshots into the field in hopes that they got lucky; and

  Three, if he didn’t move soon, they probably would.

  He took three more deep breaths as quickly as he could, leapt to his feet and began racing towards the tree line.

  As he ran, he tried to scan the woods in front of him to see who might be amongst the trees. At this distance the only people he could see in any direction were the members of his own clan. Thus, the people responsible for this attack either had to be hiding in the trees or completely invisible and since several of his clanmates were staring towards the trees, he was betting on the first.

  He closed a third of the distance before his hair began standing on end again. The realization that he would never make it to the trees before the next bolt of lightning struck was something he hadn’t anticipated. He mentally prepped himself for what was likely to hurt quite a lot, but as the bolt came slamming down, despite the fact that it had to be traveling insanely fast, he somehow managed to fling himself to the side, just as it hit.

  He hit the ground with a thud and half slid, half rolled into an ungraceful heap with a lot of dirt up his shirt and in his mouth. Nearby, the bolt had singed another large section of the ground, but he remained essentially unhurt.

  Rori leapt back to his feet and ran on, spitting dirt and grass out of his mouth as he went.

  He crossed half of the remaining distance and could now see the people in the wood. He corrected his path and headed straight for them. There appeared to be three of them. Immediately after one of them pointed his finger directly at Rori, the hairs on Rori’s arm jumped up.

  This time Rori was better prepared.

  He evaded the bolt without slowing his advance at all.

  As he closed the last bit of distance, he could now see some of the details about who he was facing.

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  All three of them were human. Two of them had stepped in front of the third and now stood ready to fight. It would be a bit of a generalization to say that they both looked like musclebound oafs, but it wouldn’t be far off either. Their hair was cut so short they were almost bald. They both wielded maces and had large metal shields strapped to their arms. The third man also had a mace but his hung off of his belt at his side. He did not appear to have a shield. All three had tabards over their chainmail armor.

  While none of that made them particularly identifiable, identifying them wasn’t a problem. Because emblazoned on all three tabards and on the two shields was a large burning sun. These were all identical to the holy symbol held in the hand of the third man. It was the holy symbol of Azire. It was a fair bet the man was a cleric of the severely prejudiced god.

  “I think you guys must have gotten lost. You seem to have wandered off your island,” said Rori as he approached the trio. His own voice still sounded a bit muted in his ears, but the magic of Meredith’s amulet was slowly taking care of it.

  The two in front raised their shields and maces as they prepared to engage Rori. The one in back continued a barely audible mumble that Rori assumed was the incantation necessarily to keep the lightning spell going.

  The wood they were standing in wasn’t overly thick but there were still plenty of trees which should hopefully be at least a small hindrance to the men with the maces. There was also a fair amount of bushes and underbrush off to the side, maybe he could use that to his advantage somehow.

  But for now, Rori simply ran right up to the pair and stopped in front of them. He could read a moment of confusion on the two men’s faces as they tried to understand what this unarmed and unarmored man standing in front of them hoped to do. Then taking advantage of what looked like their good fortune, the two men both brought their maces down in long sweeping blows.

  Rori easily dodged them both. The head of the first mace slammed into the ground with a large thud. As Rori ducked under the second man’s arm he shoved it to the side causing the head of the second man’s mace to come slamming down on the arm of the first. There was a sickening crunch as the arm was shattered. Howls of pain started quickly thereafter.

  Rori turned and half jumped, half ran up the trunk of a nearby tree. He shoved off of the trunk and tumbled over the two soldiers to land between them and the cleric. The caster was trying to keep his concentration so that his spell would continue, but Rori could see the worry in his eyes, and he could hear a speeding up of the incantations.

  “I’m pretty sure saying it faster doesn’t make it happen faster,” said Rori, his hearing now completely returned.

  There appeared a look of success in the man’s eyes as he brought up his holy symbol in one hand and began pointing directly at Rori with the other. The hairs on Rori’s arms and head began standing on end once again.

  Rori fell backward, tucking at the last instant into an odd combination of a roll and a flop. Behind him the uninjured soldier had been approaching hoping to strike Rori from behind. Instead Rori’s maneuver ended with him under the legs of the advancing man. Lightning slashed down from the sky and directly onto the man standing over him. Rori could feel the energy pass through the man’s legs and into the ground. Rori scrambled out from under the man to stand and face the other mace wielder. Behind him, he heard a thud as the man behind him hit the ground.

  The man with the broken arm had thrown down his shield and now held his mace in his off hand. A quick appraisal revealed that while he would probably not be as proficient with the mace in his shield hand, he would still be able to do plenty of damage if he connected.

  Behind him the man struck by lightning let out a groan from where he lay on the ground.

  “Wow! I’d heard you guys could take a beating and keep on fighting,” said Rori. “But nevertheless, I’m still impressed.”

  “You will die, traitor!” growled the man with the broken arm as he swung at Rori’s head.

  Rori had no problem ducking the blow. He could also see that the man had his teeth clenched from the pain in his arm.

  “Sorry, not sure who I’m supposed to be a traitor to,” admitted Rori.

  “You’re a traitor to your race,” growled the man.

  Rori moved back as the soldier stepped forward and swung again. This time Rori ended up standing on the man who had been struck by lightning. Behind him Rori could hear the spell-caster calling for another bolt and he could feel the tingle of the coming strike.

  Rori leapt backward and the bolt missed Rori again. It however stuck home in the back of the man lying on the ground and his groaning ceased.

  “I’m a traitor?” said Rori with mock confusion in his voice. “You guys are trying to collect on a bounty on a human that is being offered by the phren. Which, in case you hadn’t heard, are a race of rat folk. Meaning non-humans. Seems to me if anyone is a traitor to the human race, it’s you guys.”

  There came a crashing sound from behind the thicket.

  “You expecting friends?” asked Rori.

  However, instead of more Azirites appearing, one of the largest boars Rori had even seen exploded through the brush and into the clearing. It was easily taller than Rori and wider than four people. A large horse could have stood behind it and you wouldn’t be able to see any sign of the horse. It probably weighed over a ton and it looked completely pissed off. Though Rori suspected that was probably more a factor of what boars’ faces normally looked like than a necessary indication of its mood.

  As if all of that wasn’t enough, then there were its tusks. They were massive. They would have both been several feet long if one of them hadn’t been broken off about halfway down. Which didn’t diminish its danger at all because the jagged end looked more vicious than the undamaged one.

  Nevertheless, Rori smiled. Thank goodness Trill had finally gotten here.

  “Sorry, I misspoke,” he said to the Azirites. “I don’t think he’s on your side. What do you want to bet he’s on mine?”

  The boar let out a terrific sound that was half squeal and half roar. This time when the Azirite cleric pointed his finger it was at the boar and not at Rori. When the bolt of lightning struck it had no trouble hitting its intended target. However, if it had any effect other than further enraging the boar it was hard to tell.

  The boar charged the spell-caster. Its head lowered, it slammed into the man and tossed him to the side like a rag. The cleric flew ten feet to the side and barely missed having his head connect with a tree. Apparently unsatisfied with that, the boar immediately turned and trampled over the fallen cleric.

  “Azire help us,” muttered the man with the broken arm.

  “Think he will?” asked Rori with a smile. “In my experience he doesn’t seem to care about his followers that much. Especially when they are off the island of Aziria.”

  The man’s gaze shifted from the boar to Rori’s face for an instant, but then immediately went back to the boar. Though the boar was behind him, Rori could easily hear the thrashing sounds as it stopped, turned and began charging back towards the fray.

  The man shifted two steps to the side to be behind a thick tree trunk.

  Rori waited for a brief moment as Trill got closer and then flipped as high up and backward as he could. His timing had been perfect. He watched the dire boar pass underneath him with its head lowered. Rori landed just in time to see the boar slam into the tree without stopping.

  The trunk was over a foot thick, but it was no match for the massive boar. The trunk had fared about as well as the stem of a flower crushed between your fingers. The spot where the boar had hit was splintered and buckled. There was a loud groan of twisted wood as the majority of the tree that was above the impact began leaning back and to the left.

  “Coming over the top!” said Rori as he leapt onto Trill’s back and raced up to the front of the boar. He planted his foot on the top of the boar’s head just as the animal thrust forward with its tusk. The force was quite a bit greater than Rori had been expecting and he went sailing over the Azirite and nearly ended up slamming into a tree of his own.

  Instead, Rori twisted to the side and wrapped his arms around the trunk. He slung around the tree and dropped to the ground behind it.

  The Azirite had regained enough of his senses to realize there was no way he could take a dire boar on his own. He turned and ran away from the boar, which meant he was coming directly at Rori.

  Rori stepped from behind his tree and said, “Where are you going?”

  Rather than change directions, the Azirite lowered his head and shoulder as he prepared to bull rush a path straight through Rori.

  Rori waited until the man was close and then simply stepped to the side and let the man pass. Once he was by, Rori hooked his foot under the man’s ankle and flicked the man’s right foot behind his left leg. That combined with the man’s momentum sent him tumbling into the nearby tree. There was an audible ‘thwock’ sound as his head connected with the trunk.

  “Of the two, I’m going to have to give this one to the boar,” said Rori. “Your head didn’t even make a mark on the bark.”

  The man didn’t reply as his unconscious body slumped against the trunk.

  Rori turned to look back to Trill. The giant boar was still standing by the damaged tree. It snorted twice and looked ready to charge again.

  “It’s over,” Rori called back but before any reply could be made, the damaged tree let out a tremendous wrenching sound and toppled to the ground. It landed between Rori and the boar with a crash. Its branches and leaves creating a substantial obstacle between them.

  “What happened then?” asked Baxter.

  “Nothing. Two of the Azirites were unconscious and the other was dead. I guess Trill went running back off into the woods, because I lost sight of him.”

  “Dire boars are no joke,” said Baxter. “They can unleash a lot of destruction. I saw one get mad at a fully loaded wagon once. It flipped the entire wagon onto its side and then proceeded to demolish the entire thing. There wasn’t a scrap of anything left worth a copper.”

  “I can believe it. I would have been worried if I hadn’t realized it was Trill.”

  “Realized what was me?” asked Trill walking up to the campfire.

  “The dire boar,” said Rori. “I’ve never seen you turn into one of those before. Is that something new?”

  “No, you are right it is not something I would normally choose. In point of fact, I actually avoid it. Something about the boar’s brains makes thinking hard. But I can’t remember ever having taken that shape when you were around. When was this?”

  “Ha! You’re a real kidder,” said Rori with a smile. “Seriously though, thanks for helping me with those Azirites.”

  “What Azirites?” said Trill with confusion.

  Baxter let out a loud guffaw with obvious joy on his face. “Oh, please Trill, please tell me you aren’t having Rori on. I would so love it if Rori just played acrobat on an actual dire boar.”

  “Then I’m glad I can do so. I honestly have no idea what you two are talking about. I was asleep in one of the wagons at the back of the line. I was up late casting spells and was catching up on some sleep.”

  “I don’t believe you,” said Rori with a little less of a smile.

  “Believe what you want,” said Trill. “But you shouldn’t mess around with dire boars. They’re unpredictable and exceedingly violent.”