it nocked and drawn as the wooden dummy slammed into him, sending him flying backwards to land on the soft leaf covered ground.
The wind was knocked from his lungs and he was gasping for air struggling to get up. The wood dummy appeared above him just as a foot came down on his chest, pinning him to the ground.
Lambeck popped his head out from behind the dummy smiling down at Jonas. The other men had emerged from their concealed locations and surrounded Jonas with equally beaming smiles. They seemed to enjoy Jonas’s precarious position, as if they had been there themselves, which Jonas reasoned they had.
“What did you just learn, Jonas?” Lambeck asked.
“That a man is not dead until you know he is dead?” Jonas replied finally reclaiming his breath. The men around him laughed at the joke.
“Exactly. A charging man may not fall with one shot. I’ve seen men die from just that scenario because they assumed the dying man was out of the fight. To their own demise they learned that lesson the hard way.”
“Good lesson, Lambeck. I will remember it,” Jonas replied, getting up from the ground.
“Well done, though. Good movement and foot work, and your aim was true, except the first shot. What happened there?” Lambeck asked.
“I was shaking, nervous anticipation I guess.”
“That happens. The only way to get rid of that is through experience, and the only way to get experience is…”
“To survive!” all the men, including Jonas, said in unison.
Lambeck laughed with the men, enjoying the camaraderie together.
Jonas was also taught how to shoot from a galloping horse. They spent many evenings hunting wild boar and deer and hiking the mountain trails that spider webbed the peaks around them.
It was on one of these excursions that Jonas, Kiln, and Lambeck came across some tracks that worried them. They had been hunting for several days in the mountains when Lambeck, who was in the lead, motioned for them to stop moving and be silent. He squatted down, inspecting something on the ground. Kiln, who was just behind him, moved up slowly while Jonas scanned the open grasslands that blanketed the tall peaks. The scenery was filled with meadows of grass and wild flowers, dotted with pockets of trees and surrounded by boulder strewn cliff faces. They were high in the Dragon Spine, a small range of jutting peaks that Kiln had named many years ago. A fitting name thought Jonas, for the sharp peaks looked like the spiked spine of a dragon. It was a difficult climb that took them several days but it was one of the best locations to hunt the nimble footed mountain goats.
Kiln moved up beside Lambeck to see what had grabbed his attention. On the ground was a series of impressions that crossed the game trail, disappearing into the tall prairie grass that draped most of the high mountain landscape. They were tracks that looked like human feet but much larger and tipped with claws.
“Fresh tracks, maybe an hour old,” Lambeck commented, tracing the outline with his finger.
“Gnoll track?” asked Kiln, his expression cold.
“Yup. Must be some of One Eye’s vermin,” replied Lambeck.
“This far east? Seems unlikely,” Kiln replied in thought.
“It’s been a hard winter, maybe it’s a hunting party looking for food, or even a raiding party finally getting bold enough to claim our cattle and attack us.”
Jonas quietly moved next to the duo to find out what was happening.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Gnoll tracks,” replied Lambeck.
“Way up here?” questioned, Jonas. Just two years ago Jonas would not even know what a gnoll was, but he had learned at Finarth that they were tall furry creatures with dog-like snouts and mouths filled with sharp teeth. They spoke a guttural language and sometimes allied themselves with orcs or goblins. They were strong and formidable warriors but not very common.
“We’ve long known of a band of gnolls living several days west of here. The group is led by a big gnoll that we call Chief One Eye. It’s a small group that has not ventured close to us, as of now anyway. These tracks were probably made by a scout.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Jonas.
Kiln looked at Lambeck and smiled. “We follow the tracks and kill them.”
“Just the three of us?” Jonas asked, a hint of concern in his voice.
“More than enough for gnolls,” Kiln replied, standing up confidently. “Lead the way Lambeck.”
Lambeck guided them for several hours, stopping now and again to inspect a blade of grass or