Break of Dawne: Waruk 2
An hour later, Waruk approached a familiar peak with an unfamiliar feature. He had visited this particular peak numerous times to enjoy the hot springs that dotted the top. He’d even wooed a few rockbiter women by taking them there. However, this time he was greeted by a purple fog that creeped down the slopes with wispy tendrils. The sky was otherwise clear and sunny, but nothing was visible through the fog on the mountain’s surface.
Could this be a product of the monster? The razed structures of High Crag were covered in purple sludge after the attack. He’d spotted the sludge at various points during his journey across the mountain range. A cursory examination revealed it to be noxious and acidic, tingling his finger and burning his nostrils. This fog shared the sludge’s color and smell.
Waruk stopped in front of a small, wispy tendril that extended from the main cloud. The cloud towered above his head, double his height. The tendril coiled then lurched toward Waruk. He spun away, grabbing his galviron axe as he assumed a combat stance.
The tendril swept back and forth in the air, searching. Waruk approached it from the side, using his axe to slice it off from the main cloud. It fell like a feather then dissipated and hissed like a drop of water in a heated pan. Easy enough.
Waruk cut down a few other nearby tendrils while his pack filed in behind him. “Hunters,” he began as he positioned himself on a nearby rock. “This foe is new to us, yet the challenge is not. What creature of land or sky has ever defied our reign?” He looked out over his hunters to find and make eye contact with Rayben before the timid hunter dropped his head.
Waruk met every gaze as he spoke. “The snarlbeasts have tried and failed to raid our food stores. The aerothrashers have tried and failed to carry our cattle back to their pitiful peaks. The bloatskins… Well, they’ve never tried anything, and why would they?”
Laughs echoed from the burly hunters before him.
“Our sovereignty is self-evident. Our dominion, obvious. Let this newcomer be instructed in the way of the rockbiter. Let him fall before the pride of High Crag.”
The pack roared in ascent. Except one. Rayben.
After the cheers faded, Rayben moved toward the back of the pack.
“Rayben,” Waruk shouted, “Are you going to play the role of bait? Or will you be joining the rest of us for battle?”
Rayben stopped abruptly then turned slowly around to face a sea of scowls and crossed arms. “I just, uh, think we ought to consider, maybe, the, er, risks involved with this endeavor,” Rayben said softly.
His eyes darted around the pack. After collecting himself and taking a deep breath, he straightened his posture and resumed his case. “Strong we may be, but we’ve never seen anything like this.” He pointed at the pack. “You saw how it tore through our stronghold. What’s going to stop it from tearing through us? If we are defeated, who will defend High Crag? Who will hunt?”
He looked directly into Waruk’s eyes. “Who will lead?”
The pack turned to Waruk. Every beady black eye looked up at him, alone on the rock. Such was the lot of the chief’s son. Every eye on him. Every decision criticized. Every mistake magnified.
Waruk had made his fair share of mistakes. He’d lost a member of the pack to a mother aerothrasher who returned early from a morning foraging trip as Waruk’s pack raided her nest. Another to a massive snarlbeast who bit the head off of the hunter who stabbed him. Even a bloatskin claimed one of his pack when he ventured out too deep looking for eggs, but that was very early in his tenure as leader.
The only sound on the slope was the hissing of the acidic wisps as they scraped the ground.
“I will lead,” said Waruk, “because I will survive. I will hunt because that is what I was born to do. I will defend High Crag and the memory of my mother — your queen — because my honor demands it. I’ve been training for this moment since I was old enough to hold an axe. We all have. If we can’t defend our home from this lumbering oaf of a creature, then we don’t deserve this mountain!”
Author’s note: Although these passages from Waruk’s POV are intended to be chronological (for now), they are not necessarily whole chapters. I think of each individual entry as a single scene or event from Waruk’s story. I’ll worry about chapter divisions later.
To be continued…
Previous Post in this series: Break of Dawne: Waruk 1
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