lying, wet and cold, at the edge of a small glade within a vast forest. And his eyesight was clear.
In the center of the glade stood a giant boar, grunting and snorting as he thrashed his feet in every direction to crush a mob that was attacking him. His massive bristled back reared eight feet high, his regal snout jutted two feet long, and along his flanks rippled muscles of incredible strength.
Merlin lay in awe, transfixed by the magnificence of the creature. Surely none like it existed in all creation. Outward from his mouth curved two tusks, each the length of Merlin’s forearm. Each swipe crushed or impaled an attacker — but these weren’t men!
Thousands of ratlike creatures, all carrying ropes and running on two legs. One belt-high creature scrambled past Merlin, its stinking fur coated in slime and a fang-toothed smile upon its face. Merlin watched in horror as they skittered around the boar, trying to bind his legs. The boar slew dozens of them, but for every one he slew, ten more took its place, and the boar was soon bound and cruelly stretched upon the forest floor.
Out from the shadows stalked a stranger, taller than Merlin, and he held a bronze sword. He was a beast in man’s shape, with yellowed skin, and his nose almost as long as the rats’. His pupils were a goatlike horizontal shape, and from his jagged teeth hung strings of raw meat. Antlers grew from his skull, and his head was covered with a mane of thick, silver-green hair.
A forked tongue slithered in and out of his mouth, and he turned to face Merlin. “Gettest thou gone, briiight one. Keep not Kernunnosss from his prey. It is I who claim the throne of the Lord of the Forestsss!”
Kernunnos jumped at the boar and drove his blade into his back.
The boar shrieked in mortal terror and thrashed wildly.
The fallen leaves became slick with blood.
Bile rose in Merlin’s throat. He wanted the boar to escape and turn on these vile hunters. He pulled Uther’s sword from where he had dropped it on the grass and tested it, sharpened to a deadly edge by his father just that morning. He stepped forward to save the boar.
By then Kernunnos had leaped around the great animal, and he lifted his bronze sword above the taut belly.
Merlin winced as he looked to the anguished face of the boar, who strangely was able to grunt the plaintive words of “Hhheelllppp. Hellpp maaay.”
It was Merlin’s last chance. He ran forward and yelled, “Stop … You will not harm this creature!” A half-dozen rats died under his swinging blade, and the rest backed away. He jumped into the center and started to sever the rope holding down the boar’s forelegs.
Before he could finish, however, Kernunnos ran toward him. “I warned youu, and ssso your flesh shall be feasssted as well!”
Their swords struck with a clang.
Again and again their blades met, and each time Kernunnos pushed Merlin back by the ferocity of his attack. Whenever Merlin tried to gain an advantage, his sword met either empty air or a slicing parry. Kernunnos pushed Merlin toward the rats, who now sported flint-tipped spears.
In desperation Merlin charged, but his foe jumped to the side.
Merlin tumbled to the ground with Uther’s sword flying from his hand. In panic, he stretched out and touched his fingers to the hilt.
He was too late.
Kernunnos had planted his foot on the flat of the blade, and try as he might, Merlin couldn’t wrench it free. The amber-colored blade of his enemy jabbed toward Merlin’s face, and the rats trussed him and hung him by his hands from a tree.
He kicked at the silent rats until he spied Kernunnos. Once again, the beast stood at the chest of the boar. This time he held Uther’s sword.
“No!” Merlin yelled.
Kernunnos’s goat eyes burned with glee. “You cannot ssstop mee, briight one, and now I use your own sssteel. There is only one Lord of the Foresssst, and I will have reeevenge!”
Uther’s blade plunged into the boar, who squealed in agony and arched his bristled back to pull away, but in vain. He shook his head, and blood poured from his mouth.
Kernunnos slit the boar down the front, and the rats rushed in to gorge their appetites.
Merlin wept, yet through his tears he beheld an angel in a blinding white robe. He spoke, and his mighty voice shook the trees.
“BEWARE EVIL, MERLIN!”
The angel disappeared in a flash of light.
And Merlin’s last memory