it jerked back and inched away while it inspected its wounded paw. The barbarian tried to keep the tree between himself and it before it rushed into motion again. The beast was about the size of a small troll and it took all the willpower he had in him to stand his ground as it closed on him again, wounded and angrier than before.
He dove under a swipe and his shoulder caught a root and twisted awkwardly. A jolt of pain streaked through his body before he found his feet and attacked his adversary before it had the time to turn and attempt another assault. He swung the ax down on the creature's neck as hard as he could as a paw swiped his legs out from under him. The weapon bit deep and he twisted it and felt the crack of bone breaking under his falling weight.
It could only be the spine from the way the whole beast suddenly stopped and fell like all the life had fled from it. The head continued to move and the massive jaws snapped at him as it tried to swing to catch him.
The rest of its body did not cooperate, however, and Skharr dragged himself slowly to his feet. He scowled at an ache in his legs where the claws had caught him.
"My apologies, big-un," he said quietly. "It was a choice between you or me."
The bear didn't appear to understand what he was saying but he felt the apology was necessary regardless. He had intruded on its territory, after all, and it had reacted to defend itself, even if he hadn't meant it any harm.
But in the end, he wouldn’t lay down and die for that, nor would he regret fighting for his life.
He did feel like there was a painful lack of purpose in their fight, however. The barbarian shook his head and swung his ax to finish the beast before he plucked his arrows from its body.
"Now," he muttered, "where the fuck was that road?"
He didn't want to wait to find out what scavengers were probably waiting in the shadows.
He wouldn’t leave Skharr behind. The barbarian had gone off to do things his way, and Brahgen had no doubt that he was capable of looking after himself.
Dozens of stories, tales, and ballads had begun to circle that described the wide variety of reasons why doubting his abilities was a bad idea. Still, as he trudged on in silence, he did have a few moments where he wondered how much of what he’d heard was fact and how much was good storytelling. He hadn’t walked very far, however, before he heard more footsteps ahead of them, breaking branches, and the crunch of dry leaves.
Skharr had said that the only creatures that moved about and made that much noise were those that didn't worry about what else was out there.
There weren't many humans who would feel that way in these woods, and Brahgen wasn't entirely surprised when he saw the barbarian standing on the other side of a bend in the road.
He was covered in blood and sucked in deep breaths as he looked around the forest like he was annoyed over the necessity to work a little harder than he intended to. Claw marks were visible across his shoulder, back, and legs, although it was difficult to tell which of the blood was his and which was that of whatever owned the claws that had left those injuries.
Although he also favored his right leg a little, it wasn’t enough to suggest that the wound was deep.
"So you had a fight of your own, did you?" the dwarf asked as he approached the barbarian. Despite his relief at seeing his travel companion, he made sure to sweep his gaze continually over the forest around them in case something still lurked, determined to attack the man.
Skharr shrugged and scowled into the forest as he walked to where Horse had come to a halt and showed no sign whatsoever of having missed him.
"It was a little bloody," he explained as he took some cloth from his pack, doused it with water, and began to clean himself. "If you are bored, it is certainly a good way to get the blood flowing."
"There are ways to accomplish it that don't involve charging into a cursed forest without so much as a second thought."
"I did have second thoughts," the warrior admitted. "And third thoughts, if the truth be told. It was about the time that the