Big ol' Grizzly

[Perun]

An orange giant opened a tavern door as rain beat down on the streets of Khathelet. He slid in, taking care to not open it all the way. No need to draw too much attention to himself. He was alone, for the first time in a while. He had not been given to his thoughts so utterly in some time, and while it was nice, he did miss his silver-tongued friend's company. Still, the young swordsman had things to do, and the older axe swinger had things to drink.

He stepped over the threshold of the tavern, and was greeted with the warmth of the indoors, and the cold stare of the indoor populace. Of course he would draw their attention, he towered over them, and loomed astride them. He was a walking tower of orange hair and meaty flesh. He did not move while they still stared at him, waiting for the last pair of eyes to fall back into a tankard of the drink in front of them. The orange giant strolled over to a seat, a stool high off the ground, next to the bar. He plopped himself down, and waited for the barman to ask him what he'd like to drink. Instead, it was a young woman who approached him a bit cautiously. She said, her voice very reserved, "What'll it be then sir?"

Perun smiled and said, "Perun is wanting a whiskey please." The woman's face expressed a moment's shock at the burly man's accent. "Well, we have Ostian, Bernese, or Ilian." Perun didn't have to think. "Bernese." The woman nodded and hurried off to the back. Perun turned away from the door, and began to trace the lines on his hand, feeling the thick calluses from years with the bow and axe. He contemplated all he had been through recently. The loss he had felt, the triumph he had won. The losses he had suffered.

While still deep in thought, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Perun turned his neck, seeing a man clearly drunk angry look on his face, standing behind him. The man was dressed like a farmer, with dirt on his trousers, and strong hands. The orange giant tried to speak too quickly, and let out a, "Schto?" as opposed to his intended, what.

The man seemed to be having trouble keeping himself upright. "Why're you here? You a mercenary." Perun simply nodded. The man nodded furiously. "Well, we don't need no damn, mercenary who can't even talk good." It was ironic that had the man insulted nearly any other traveler, they could have pointed out that he himself, did not speak well. Perun rose from the stool, and the man watched as what the bend of the giant's knees had hidden revealed itself. The man seemed to hesitate, then said, "Mercenaries, you come in, you break s**t, you steal s**t, you kill wome-" Perun was never the quickest man in a battle, but when angered he could strike fast. The man's head shot back, and took his body with it, the man's full figure crashing to the ground. He didn't move.

Once more, all eyes were on the orange giant. The lass from before quietly set Perun's whiskey down. A faint smile touched Perun's lips in thanks, but that was all. He had wanted to relax, but as he turned back to his seat, his blood was up.

[Perun]

Perun plopped down in the stool once more, but would not get to stay for long. He heard a few chairs scrape across the floor behind him, and turned his head to see three men, dressed similarly to the man now laying on the floor, walking towards him. Perun took a deep gulp of his whiskey, then placed both hands on the bar and rose once more. He turned, and saw the flicker of fear in the men's eyes. One of them partially lifted the man who Perun had punched, and drug him to the wall of the tavern. The other two got closer to Perun than he cared for.

"You shouldna done that." Perun didn't say anything. The man who had spoken first looked at his friend, who was almost as tall as Perun. "Yeah, you shouldna messed with one of ours, in our town." He shoved Perun in his left shoulder, hard. Perun didn't move. The men seemed to hesitate, another light of fear flickering into their eyes. "Be going ahead."

The taller man swung his right arm in a roundhouse toward Perun's stomach. The orange giant curled into the blow, letting the man hit him. It didn't hurt as much as Perun had expected, or as much as the man had probably expected. In moving into the blow, Perun was free to swing on the tall assailant. He rammed his fist into his stomach, but as he did, the second shorter man cracked him in the jaw. Perun stumbled for a second. The tall man crumbling, the shorter man pursuing the Ilian giant. The shorter man threw another punch, but Perun lifted his forearm and managed to block it. He rammed his forehead into the shorter mans, sending him to the floor.

By this time, the man who'd dragged away the unconscious fellow had gotten behind Perun, and now leapt onto his back, gripping his throat. Perun thrashed around, trying to throw the man off, but he was surprisingly strong. The tall man managed to gather enough breath to come at Perun again. By now, the lass working in the tavern had left, presumably to fetch someone. Other than that, a few patrons had left, but most stayed and watched. The tall man started to pummel Perun's stomach, and after a few quick blows, the hits started to take a toll on the giant's breathing. Perun spun around, the man on his back hitting the tall man with his legs. Perun wrapped his fingers around the mans forearm's and began to dig his finger nails into the man's skin as well as gripping the bones underneath with crushing pressure. After a few moments, he was able to tear the man's arms away.

Perun spun around, and caught the man with a ringing blow to his ear. The shorter man who had suffered Perun's headbutt attempted to tackle Perun, but the orange giant grabbed the man around the middle, and rammed him into the ground. He did not give the other two men time to recover, he rushed to the tall man, and delivered a blow to his throat. When he looked at the final man, the one who'd jumped on his back, and simply stared at him. He was still on the ground, and did not seem to want to get up. The Ilian looked around the tavern, no one else seemed to be getting up. The giant finished the rest of his whiskey in a single gulp, then set it down. He fished one coin out, and placed it on the bar. Once again not opening the door all the way, he slid out of the tavern.

[Perun]

The large man walked with an angry stride as his feet slammed against the street. Quickly his hair was wet with the outside rain again. It would be winter soon, and he would be dealing with snow instead of rain. For now however, it was merely cold droplets of water. As his mustache grew heavy, gathering rain, his mouth set in a scowl. This was not a good day. He was far from his friends, it was raining, and a man had been willing to stare him in the face and accuse him of killing a woman. No, not a woman, women. Women in general, not anyone specific. Still, it made Perun think of her. There were no good days that he thought of her.

He made his way back to the inn he had stayed in, where he had left everything he owned save his coin purse and his clothes. Since leaving his valley, he had given no thought to trinkets, if he ever returned, he'd take no souvenirs. He was a few shirts, pants, and boots, and an axe and a bow. That was who he was in this outside world, not a collection of baubles and toys adults pretended weren't. He was almost to the inn, when a pair of men jogged up next to him. They were both cloaked, one being a bit frail, and older than the other. The other was a half head taller than the other, broader too, with a sword sticking out of his cloak just a bit. He was maybe a few years older than Donny, but did not look as tough.

They both sported broad smiles, but it was the older man who spoke, "Hello good fellow! I am Tristram, and this is my associate, Dorril." The young swordsman smiled even harder, then dipped his head. Tristram continued, "We could not help but notice that, back in that fine establishment, you handled those ruffians with expert efficiency." Dorril said, "Ya fight with the strength of many men mister." Without skipping a beat, Tristram said, "and how! Now, we ourselves happen to be of the fighters for hire profession you see, and the two of us just wanted to offer you our thanks for defending out position in the established wartime economy back at yonder establishment." Perun had trouble keeping up with some of the man's word choices.

"Of course, being Mercenaries, we are constantly on the lookout for new employment opportunists. A sellsword who stays in one job eventually becomes a soldier, does he not?" The man looked at Perun like he wanted an answer. Perun nodded. With another giant smile, the thin man continued, "Well, myself, my companion, and a group of stellar warriors have recently found a job listing, to root out a bandit camp hiding in the forest. What would you say to that, eh? Crack some skulls for a few more pieces of gold in your pocket?" Perun smiled. He liked the man, and his younger companion to tell the truth. Most people he met struck him as untrustworthy, especially when they tried to be friendly, but these two seemed somehow genuine.

He nodded, "Aye, Perun is thinking is good idea." Tristram clapped his hands, and Dorril said, "Why don't we take ya to meet our group then?" Perun thought for a moment, then said, "Perun is going to be getting his axe first." The two gave no objections, and he hurried into the inn. They seemed genuine, but there was no reason for him to go with them unnarmed.

[Perun]

Perun sped himself to his room on the second floor of the inn. His large fingers fumbled trying to lift the key from his pocket, and he dropped it onto the ground. Luckily no one was around him, and he quickly bent and scooped it up. Shoving it in the lock, Perun opened the door and hurried to his bed, where his various items were scattered about. He grabbed his axe and slid it into the loop on his belt. He was out of the inn as quickly as he had entered.

As the three walked, Tristram began to explain the further details of the job. A small group of bandits had been raiding farms and small towns all around Lycia. There were not many of them, but they were large, all skilled warriors, and frightening. They had burned all they had not taken, and few had managed to get away from them. The bounty was large, and whoever killed them or brought them in could keep whatever loot they obtained. It sounded to Perun like a good job, not too difficult. Tristram looked like he could make it out of a scrap, even though he was particularly small. Dorril was in fine shape, but Perun knew from Duma how swordsmen walked when they weren't strong fighters, and this boy didn't walk quit right. If he were a bit thicker, his walk might have been correct, but he just didn't look quick enough. If the other men these two were leading him too weren't too impressive, Perun might decide against the job.

Another tavern, much like the one Perun had just brawled in, and Perun got his chance to meet them. There were four of them, seated around a large table. Tristram slid up next to them as soon as they were inside, and spoke directly to a burly man, maybe as thick as Perun, with white hair. He said, "Captain, I have found a suitable candidate! As you can see he is rather large, and Dorril and myself will both attest that in a scrap, he is entirely scrappy!" The white haired man looked up, and ran his eyes over Perun. The giant Ilian was shocked to see that the man's face was younger than his own. The white hair threw him.

The man then simply looked back at Tristram and nodded. The thin man whirled around on his heels and with a flash of teeth said, "Well, mister Perun, we are the Band of Fellows, and this is our Captain, Mernatel, a the greatest wall of girth or armor Elibe has ever seen." The White haired man gave a slight smile to the Ilian. "Over here, the fellow with the black hair is our second in command, Horace, quite capable, quite capable." A handsome young man raised his hand and gave Perun a toothy grin. "This is Kesh, our resident spellbound spitfire!" Tristram indicated to a man with a peice of cloth wrapped around his eye, smoking a pipe. The man's eye that was not covered shot Perun a momentary look, but then looked back at his drink. "Last, but most certainly, irrevocably not least, we have Janum, an eagle eyed tracker who's lent us his services out of the kindness of his heart enough times we assumed we must start paying him." The last man lifted his fingers from the table, and gave a slight nod of his head before taking a drink.

[Perun]

Mernatel, the band's leader rose to shake Perun's hand, and both men were shocked at the other's grip. Not that the Bernese man was anywhere near hurting the large Ilian man, but he came much closer than most other outsiders. The snow haired youth smiled and said, "Well met mister Perun, like Tristram said, I'm Mernatel. Thought you'd like to hear it in normal words." The commander grinned while Kesh, Dorril, and Horace laughed. Tristram's face fell, and the slim man looked incredibly distraught. Mernatel laughed and clapped him on the back, "If you can't tell by how he talks, Tristram here is the one who came up with our name. Band of Fellows indeed." The same grin, the same laughter except this time the mage was quiet. Perun knit his eye brows at the way this snow haired man talked. It was unlike any voice he'd ever heard, not quite a noble's voice but certainly not that of a commoner. Still he seemed somehow genuine.

"So, the job. A group of brigands have been wreaking havoc all around the territory. They've burned a number of farmers, and even ran out an entire small village a week or so back. What's ludicrous about it? There's only a handful of them. If what we've heard is right, with you we're a match in number. I'm pretty confident that Tristram and Janum can find them, now its just a matter of managing to beat them. Are you in Perun?" Each of the mercenaries looked at Perun, and the giant scratched his chin. The second in command, Horace said, "Well, with you we probably outnumber them, I mean you count as two men if not three."[/color] Perun let his face creep into a soft smile, then said, "Okay."

---

Perun crept along slowly with Janum as the hunter got into position. The other fellows would get into position to begin their part of the mission, but for now it was only the two bowmen getting behind the group of brigands. As they waited, Perun noticed something, these men were huge. As in the smallest of them was a little bit thinner than he, and the biggest was thicker and taller than him. It was unsettling. Still waiting, Perun could hear them faintly speaking, and once more he was shocked. <"I do not understand Donar, why would we be looking for just one man."> The biggest of all the men, straightened his back and let out an incredibly loud laugh, throwing his head back. From where he was Perun saw that the man had a mane and beard of fire. His voice was one too familiar to Perun, <"Because he is not a man, his people have made him the Thunderbolt, and for that I will grab him out of the sky.">

Perun's eyes were huge as Janum wondered what these men said. He could understand these men perfectly. They were from his home valley.

[Perun]

There was the sound of a small grunt as the archer next to Perun strung his bow, then set an arrow to his string. The orange giant looked over at the shorter thinner man, and then remembered why he was there and followed suit. As they stood in the cover Perun felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at Donar, a man he'd fought to a standstill in a raid back in the valley. The large man with a beard red like a dragon's fire was the son of the greatest warrior of the Hrun clan, and to Perun's great pain, the brother of the dead mother of his child. The massive man stood with his arm crossed in front of his mail shirt, a buckler hanging on his back and a large hammer hanging at his belt. Perun squinted past the band of Hrun and spied Kesh and Tristram walking towards the six or so large men. As they walked, Donar continued to speak, <"It has been the way for years young one. My great uncle was hunted by the Ysling clan, and killed when he was fifteen. For a clan to call a child Perun, the Thunderbolt, is to challenge the rest of the clans. If he reaches his thirty and fifth winter, there is the risk that he will unleash a beast into the valley that could level the very mountains."> Then Donar's head snapped to look at the approaching fellows, both in cloaks with their arms hidden in their robes. <"Hold, some smallfolk approach, be ready, we cannot risk their revealing our position.">

As the Hrun shifted into position, spreading themselves around the camp and grabbing up their weapons, Tristram began to yell across the little encampment, "Hello, good friends, my companion and I were just out and about looking for a lost child. Perhaps you've seen him, dark red hair, large beard, doesn't understand a single word which I am saying?" The Hrun, including Donar, all produced their weapons, and both Janum and Perun drew back an arrow and took aim. Tristram sighed then, and yelled once more, "I suppose not. NOW!" In a flash the battle began. Instinctively a young Hrun warrior began to run out towards the two travelers at the sudden sharp word that he couldn't understand, Janum whispered to Perun, "Him." As both archers loosed their arrows, a pair of knives suddenly flew through the air from deep within Tristram's cloak, and the Hrun warrior was caught, pierced four times. Kesh threw up a hand and shouting a string of incantations, and suddenly a bolt of Thunder crashed down onto the head of a man who stood nearest to the two fellows. The man was fried, and went down to his knees, yelling in agony, but still alive. Three Hrun then took a run for the thief and the mage, but one turned smartly, and began to run towards Perun and Janum. Donar looked back and forth, smiling as he spied the larger man with orange hair.

From a ways behind Tristram and Kesh now came Horace and Dorril, followed by Mernatel some ten paces behind them. The large man was strong enough to move considerably well in his armor, but was still slower than any of the men he commanded. The Hrun running toward Perun and Janum threw his spear at the shorter archer, but the long haired young man twisted and lowered himself, and the speark sailed past him. As the man drew a broadsword at his hip, both archers fired at him, Janum's blow glancing off his mailed shoulder, and Perun's seemed to get caught in the man's chains without doing any damage to the flesh underneath. Janum began to back pedal as he notched another arrow, and Perun leant his bow against the brush and leaped forward, producing his axe from his belt. An arrow flew past him, and took the man in the chest, seeming to actually punch into the man's muscle a bit, as the man cursed, "Yeblat!" Still however the man fought on, and swung his sword hard and fast in a horizontal arc upon reaching Perun. The giant jumped back, and the Sword narrowly missed his stomach. Perun choked up on his axe, and got in close with the man, striking a quick jab with the blade of his axe against the man's left side that cut through the mail, but didn't go more than an inch or two into his flesh before the man wriggled away.

Janum's arrow flew again, but not at the man Perun was fighting as they were now too close. Perun avoided a thrust from the broadsword, and brought his axe around hard. It bit into the man between his shoulder the man cried out, and Perun dug deeper, til the man's blood covered his hands and the Hrun crumbled to the ground. Turning to the rest of the battle, he saw Kesh make the same motion as before, and with another incantation, he saw a bolt of lightning crackle with the sound of thunder that crashed down at Donar. However, before the bolt had come, Donar had lifted the hammer that had hung at his belt, and now held it over his head. The bolt hit the metal of the Hammer, and seemed to simply fizzle. He lowered teh hammer, and looking at Perun said, "Zdravstvuyte, Grombol."

[Perun]

Another young Hrun came running at Perun then, this one holding an axe, and Perun had to drag his eyes away from Donar. He blocked a hard diagonal swing from the man's right by hooking his own axe around the other man's haft. For a moment they were locked holding each other in place before Perun managed to wrench the weapon from the other man's hands. Before the final blow was struck, a sword pierced the man through the chest, and Perun looking over his shoulder saw Horace, standing with a spear on his back and sword in hand. The man gave Perun a curt nod before turning and returning to the battle, now with Perun behind him. The lightly armored man and Perun sprinted forward, both running at Donar, Horace straight on and Perun coming from the side. If he'd been fighting with Donovan, the timing would have been better, but instead the smaller man was a bit ahead of him.

The other fellows were mostly fairing well. Dorril had taken a harsh wound to his shoulder, but from the corner of Perun's eye he could see that the young man's blade was covered in blood. Mernatel walked a bit groggily, and it looked as if he'd suffered something of a blow upsid his helmet. other then that the ambush seemed to have worked in their favor, with many of the Hrun laying dead on the ground. All that was left was a Hrun that seemed to be preoccupied with Kesh and Tristram, and Donar. Horace had almost reached the fiery maned man when the Hrun warrior grabbed a bit of leather that hung off the hammer's shaft that was meant to be worn around the wrist. Then he began to spin the hammer, which started to generate blue lightning all around the hammer head. Moments before Horace would have been able to make a thrust or slash against the massive man, Donar let go of the hammer, and from his hand it flew straight into the lightly armored man's chest. As the hammer somehow flew back to the man's hand, Horace was knocked back a few yards, and gave out a cry that faded out incredibly quickly.

Perun roared in response to the short cry from his newer comrade, and hurried himself on toward the other large man. The orange giant swung a fierce crushing blow against the other man of the valley's shoulder, but the warrior sidestepped, and in his motion he swung the shield around his back so that he could slide it on his arm. Mernatel had managed to make it to Donar by then, but as he brought his lance back the tall warrior slammed his shield into the Bernese man's face, and a blue energy seemed to burn around his arm at the moment of impact. Then, quick as a flash, Mernatel soared through the air, armor and all and landed with an ugly thud some twenty yards back in the road. [DONAR SMITE USED] The rest of the fellows screamed at that, and Dorril foolishly rushed towards the two giants while Janum hurried over to where Mernatel had landed. Kesh roasted the man who'd been creating trouble for he and Tristram, and Tristram then moved towards Donar as well. Donar wheeled about and lifted his hammer, then brought it down in what would have been a crushing strike against Perun's head, but the big Ilian jumped out of the way. He called out to the fellows, "No! You are not being able to be being hit and live."

Then the two giants were at each other's throats as they had been back in the valley. An attack from Perun was blocked by the man's buckler, and a blow from the hammer was locked over Perun's axe haft so that Perun didn't take the full force of the strike, however, trough his arm he felt the electricty of Donar's strange hammer. So they went, for what must have been at least ten minutes, with Perun getting shocked but for the most part being kept on the defensive. However, the orange giant managed to make a bad step, and the other Ilian managed an underhanded blow with his hammer to Perun's stomach, that brought Perun crashing to the ground, writhing and calling out in pain at the shock that went through his body.

Donar stepped closer to Perun, who now sat motionless on the ground. He raised his hammer above his head, and from a cloud that Perun could not see called down a bolt of blue lightning. However before he could strike the broad Ilian, a ball of fire struck him across his back, and Dorril suddenly jumped between Donar and Perun. Tristram hurried and stood next to the young swordsman, and Janum pulled back his bowstring with a steel tipped arrow ready to loose. Donar slowly looked at all of them and laughed, a laugh like a lion's roar. <"Do not return to the valley Thunderbolt. If you do my whole clan will rally to kill you."> Then he brought his hammer down in a strike that hit the Earth just below his feet, and a ball of Lightning seemed to form up around him. From it Perun saw the man sprint away, at a speed that he had only seen once before, by a similar man, unnaturally strong who had only fled a battle because he was outnumbered. [DONAR CELERITY USED]

A wave of relief washed over the fellows, and Janum returned to stripping armor off Mernatel. Tristram and Dorril both slowly brought Perun to his feet, and Kesh hurried over to Horace. As Mernatel was being helped up by Janum, the captain barely awake, Kesh spoke bluntly and loud enough so that the whole band could hear, "Horace is dead." Everyone was silent.

Eventually, Mernatel spoke, and looked at Perun, "That man, you knew him?" Perun nodded and said, "Aye, is from Perun's home valley." "You think you'll ever fight him again?" Perun nodded once more, "Will have to." "Well then, until that day, we're with you Perun. To avenge Horace we'll stick by you until we can see that monster dead. The only way I see us beating a beast like him is to have a beast of our own, and that's what you are, a beast, like a bear. A grizzly bear with orange fur and twice the strength."

As the band set about burying their fallen friend, Perun thought on that sentiment. He was strong, but not strong enough.

[End thread.]