to master his magic as quickly as possible. Even Cinder was polite enough to refrain from baiting him when she felt his magic and knew he was training. After going through what he’d mastered on all four elements, to keep it fresh, he started to try and master other things and train his subconscious so he could use it in battle.
When they were close, he stopped and became more vigilant. Not that he’d truly let down his guard, but his vigilance was partially degraded while practicing to master new applications of magic. His April had also been back for a while, but she’d waited until he was ready. He took that as a good sign, if she hadn’t found indications of their prey at the farm, she’d have told him immediately.
“So, what are we looking at?”
April landed on his shoulder grabbing a tiny fistful of hair to steady herself, then reported, “The bounty seems accurate, there are six sets of tracks heading to the south east toward the rocky hills. They’re probably holed up in a fissure or cave somewhere in there. Tracking them on the stone will be difficult, but there’s enough scrub brush to pick up an occasional sign. There’s a lot of crags and crevasses, so we should leave the horses behind.”
Cinder said, “Perhaps. Dire wolves are smart, not human smart, but smarter than wolves. They might be using the rocky area merely to break their trail before setting off for a different destination.”
He replied, “Only one way to find out. Either way Tansya won’t fail to track them down. Let’s leave the horses on the farm.”
He decided to cut back on the compliments, at the dreamy lustful look his dryad sent his way.
It took a few minutes to find the farmer, and another few minutes to persuade him to put up the horses for a few copper while they went after the Dire wolves.
They headed off to the southwest with April scouting around them, and Tansya in the lead as he and Cinder followed closely. He didn’t like her out in front, but with April roaming a large circle around them he didn’t think they’d get ambushed, not to mention his own sharp senses on the job at hand.
He also admitted Cinder wasn’t a slacker that way either. After all, she’d seen the lesser dragons coming long before anyone else had. She just appeared not to be paying attention.
It wasn’t long before they decided April’s guess was correct. The trail headed straight into the rough hills with no signs of looping back. If they’d simply been breaking their trail, they’d have stayed on the outskirts. He had a small stream of magic channeling and transmuted into life magic as he scanned ahead of them and to the sides. He should feel them long before they saw them, or more importantly, before the dire wolves saw them.
He frowned and halted them, as he felt them ahead.
“It’s more than just the wolves. There’s another lifeform up ahead, and it’s big.”
April zoomed off, and she was back before he could wonder how long it would take.
“Hill giant, at least twenty feet high. My guess is the pack is his, and he’s been sending them to bring back food as well as feed themselves.”
Tansya nodded, “I saw some signs of blood on the trail. That’s likely.”
Right, six wolves the size of a pony, and a twenty-foot humanoid. Just a man and his dogs.
Hill giants looked like large humans, though their faces were a bit off in proportion, but in truth their skin was a lot thicker. Thicker than an ogre’s, and though they were stupider than a stump, they could absorb a lot of damage. They could also move quickly, hit hard, and were naturally canny in a fight. Intelligence wasn’t everything, instinct had a lot to do with fighting ability and tactics. At least on the one on one level.
“Any traps?”
April said, “Not that I saw. They’re in a deep depression with an amphitheater on one end. Not so much a cave, as a deeply curved wall with an overhang to provide minimal shelter from rain.”
I nodded, “Let’s thin them out with arrows, bolts, and fire from the ridge of the depression, then we’ll move in to finish them off. Try not to turn them into ash, we’ll need proof there was a hill giant with them.”
Cinder giggled, “No promises,” and gave him an excited smile. She was just as bloodthirsty as the rest of his women, and she