The next day, the group gathered their belongings and headed out west to the crossroads. There was a fairly large clearing ahead with a weathered old wooden signpost splitting off to three different trails with major town names listed alongside. Iron Town was to the northwest, Serpent’s Cove and Elmwood to the south and southwest, and Dusklin to the far west. The group said their farewells, the cubs hugged each other, and they departed to their unfamiliar destinations and unknown futures. Mari and Maurus were accompanied by another female adult named Lona, and a smaller female cub named Krys who was Maurus’ junior by two years. She had arctic white fur with black spots and amber eyes. The road to Iron Town, although relatively safe compared to the wildlands of the frontier, still harbored dangerous creatures, such as goblins and orcs, but as long as one stayed on the well-traveled roads, the risk was minimal. The real danger were the occasional highwaymen looking for easy riches from unsuspecting travelers. The journey to Iron Town would take approximately nine days by foot without any delays. The first three days were quiet and sunny, they traipsed along the road, wearing hooded cloaks to conceal their faces from any passerby they might encounter. They saw a few dwarven travelers pulling a wagon of metalware along the way heading in the opposite direction they were traveling, but none approached them to speak. North of Iron Town were the Gryphon Claw Mountains, where the Pale Dwarves lived within the mountains and created their splendid metalwork. They were called Pale Dwarves due to their pallid complexion because they only lived within the mountain and never saw sunlight. They were very proficient at vision with very little ambient light. A subset population of them had emerged from the underground and adjusted to life above ground and were thus called Surface Dwarves. Their skin was tan, and they helped facilitate trade between the Pale Dwarves and the surface dwellers. The fourth day was rather gloomy, a steady rain was falling, the road was a muddy quagmire, and pacing had slowed. Up ahead they could see a few torches and what looked like a wagon with a wheel stuck in the mud. The two brown horses pulling the wagon looked skittish. As they got closer to the wagon, Mari noticed there were eight individuals in the group, small stature, with hooded cloaks concealing their faces. She dismissed them as probably more dwarves peddling wares. One of the individuals noticed Mari and her group and seemed to signal to the others. He approached Mari and spoked in a garbled common tongue, “Please help us, we have become stuck in the mud and could use your help in pushing the wheel free from the muck. We will reward you with some of our wares for your trouble.” Lona went over to the rear wagon wheel and started pushing on it while Mari was pulling on the reigns of the horses with Maurus and Krys. The strangers pushed on the back end of the wagon. After a few pushes and pulls the wagon wheel was free of the mud, but as soon as Lona was getting up, she saw a flash of steel from the corner of her eye, and the hood flew back to reveal an ugly goblin face as the stranger lunged for her. “Here is your reward!” he yelled as he swung his sword into her shoulder. She growled in pain and rage as she turned and grabbed the grubby goblin by his tunic, lifted him up off his feet and ripped his neck apart with her bare teeth. Arterial blood sprayed across her face and cloak as the goblin twitched in his death throes. Two of the goblins immediately ran for the woods in fear after seeing their leader ripped apart. The remaining five seeing their clear advantage over the injured Lona, decided to stay and fight. She had no weapon of her own, so she picked up the slain goblin’s short sword and placed her back to the back of the wagon in a defensive stance. She parried and blocked thrusts from the many swords lunging at her, but she knew she could not keep this up for long with her bleeding shoulder and so many enemies attacking at once.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Death Knell Chronicles is a dark fantasy tale of survival, loss, and vengeance — told through the eyes of a young beastfolk warrior fighting to reclaim what was taken from him.