Chapter Twenty Eight

Against Their Better Nature

Xavier, furious from pain, strikes again at the dire wolf. 'The Justifier' seems to glow a little as he lands a good blow on the dire wolf. The wolf still has a lot of life left in it, however. Roaring with anger, the dire wolf launches itself at the knight again and lands another horrific wound on the knight, leaving him very close to death. The pain of the wound forces Xavier to lose his grip on Riverdancer and he loses his balance, toppling off the horse landing, luckily, on the side that is not entangled.

Yaz, with his little remaining energy, launches himself for another attack on the worg, but he is weak and the blow is way off target. The worg strikes back and, again, bites at Yaz leaving him very close to death. The goblin tries to strike at the druid also, but is way off target.

Jihan sees that Xavier and Yaz are in real trouble - a lot more trouble than Winnacer is in currently. He starts to run over to this melee, shouting for Faewen'il to come with him, which she does.

Starting to tire, Winnacer again lashes out at the worg and its goblin rider. Perhaps the hand of Spravedelna guides him as he strikes twice, firstly cutting the awakened rider in two and then inflicting a terrible wound upon the worg, but still not sufficient to dispatch the beast. Yelping with pain, the beast is unable to strike back at Winnacer.

Xavier, somewhat dazed and winded, slowly picks himself up from the ground. Yaz, realizes that he is in a situation where it is either Riverdancer or him that is going to end up dead, and decides that it would be better for all (apart from Riverdancer) if it was not him. He backs away from the combat, and starts to utter more arcane utterings while gesturing. Yaz's wounds start to glow for an instance, and when the glowing has ended, he is a little recovered. However, the effects of the magick were weak, and Yaz is still not far from death.

Without the annoyances of the warriors, the dire wolf and worg attack Riverdancer with all of their fury. The dire wolf bites Riverdancer, but the wound is slight. The worg fails to connect. The goblin tries to urge the worg to ignore the horse and to move into contact with Yaz and Xavier, realizing that they are close to being slain, but the worg is focused only upon the horse.

Jihan and Faewen'il carry on towards the melee until they get within Jihan's optimum bow range.

Winnacer strikes again at the worg, but his blow is wide. The worg also fails to connect with the fighter.

Corrow rips ineffectually at his outer jacket, but cannot get enough of a grip on it to tear it. He mutters under his breath, and grinds his teeth, feeling terrified and helpless. He strips off his jacket and takes off his shirt, revealing another one underneath. He takes the knife he used to cut Darius free and slashes the shirt into strips.

"So I'm ripping up my best shirt to bandage a goblin now" he says, shaking his head. Swiftly, he bandages Darius wounds, though it is a hasty, sloppy job that will have to be redone later.

Darius' eyes flicker and he smiles.

"Thank you mommy," he mutters. "Ummm, nice warm blanky.."

Xavier struggles to his feet, very groggy and immediately looks around in order to locate 'The Justifier'. Luckily, it is just a couple of feet away from it, so he picks it up immediately.

He sees that their situation looks hopeless and cries to Yaz:

'By all the Holy Saints, elf, aid me. I am bleeding like a stuck pig. Ve must retreat to the grotto of the gnomes or der grim reaper shall take us to his home.'

There is fire in Yaz's eyes as he replies.

'No, I cannot flee when so many of Prirodna's subjects are in such grave danger. Go, Saxon and save yourself. I would not want to be responsible for your death also. Go and seek Faewen'il, if she still lives, and she will bind your wounds. I have the power of healing no more this day. Go, all I would ask of is the loan of one of your crossbows, and a case of quarrels.'

'For Rodengast's sake, don't be a fool' the Saxon shouts at him 'You don't have a chance. Come with me and save yourself.'

From the brightness of the fire in Yaz's eyes, Xavier sees that he is not going to talk the half-elf out of his wish. Willingly the knight reaches for one of his two crossbows and gives them to the druid. Then he stumbles forward using 'The Justifier' for support, his body wracked with not only pain, but also remorse and guilt for his mount.

Yaz investigates the crossbow, never having held one before, as he knows that such weapons are not suitable for followers of nature.

*F*** it* thinks Yaz to himself *I'm sure she'll make an exception this time!*

He swings the crossbow in the direction of the beast-to-beast combat to see that the goblin mounted on the worg in front of him has pulled his shortbow out and is about to shoot at Yaz.

Immediately, Yaz aims and pulls the trigger. Not at all used to the weapon, his shot is far wide. He quickly replaces the bolt in the chamber and draws back the string.

The goblin immediately shoots at Yaz. The druid looks up briefly to see an arrow heading towards him, straight between the eyes. With lightning fast reactions, he goes to dodge. The arrow gouges a large deep gash in his cheek, sending Yaz crying out in pain, but his reactions most certainly saved his life.

Jihan sees Yaz's close brush with death and aims at taking out the goblin before it can get a second fatal shot in on Yaz, but his shot flies over the goblin's head.

As he draws his next arrow and goes to fire, he speaks with Faewen'il who is next to him:

'Go, Faewen'il, aid Xavier and get him to Heimlin's burrow. I have to aid Yaz and the animals. It is Prirodna's wish.'

'I'm coming with ' she replies determinedly. 'I canna' let the two of ye take them on alone.'

'It's not the way,' Jihan replies. ''You've already done your part in the battle and it would be foolish for both of those among us with healing powers to put themselves at such risk. Xavier and Darius need your help. Please, I beg of , leave Yaz and I to face this threat alone.'

Faewen'il has tears rolling down her cheeks as she sees the determination in the elf's face and realizes why he must do so. She kisses him quickly on the cheek and then rushes away to help Xavier get to the grotto, wondering whether she will see Jihan alive again.

As Jihan sees Faewen'il run from him, an arrow from the goblin flies in his direction, but it is way off target. The elf fires another arrow at it in retaliation and sees that the goblin is hit, but does not go down. Jihan's feeling of some degree of success, however, is somewhat shattered as he sees the dire wolf catch Riverdancer with its massive jaws, almost taking the unfortunate horse's head off in one savage bite. The dire wolf and worg begin to gorge themselves on Riverdancer's flesh.

Over at the other worg feast, Winnacer sees the disastrous turn that the combat is taking and realizes that it is time to regroup. He bellows out between labored breaths:

'Head for Heimlin's grotto! We must regroup! Corrow, try and drag Darius into the entrance of the grotto.'

It is hard work for the illusionist to drag the now bandaged goblin from the bushes, but luckily the entrance is only 20 yards away, and it is all downhill.

Winnacer, meanwhile, attempts to take out as many of the worgs as possible before they finish gorging on Warwinner's flesh, which would leave him as the most obvious choice as a dessert. He slashes twice at the worg he has been locked in combat with for several minutes now, but the worg manages to avoid his blows. Winnacer manages to also avoid the worg's jaws yet again.

Yaz pulls back the string of Xavier's crossbow and aims again at the goblin with the shortbow. To his immense delight, the bolt finds its mark this time, piercing the goblin through its stomach. The goblin keels over, quite dead.

Seeing the goblin go down, Jihan aims at the dire wolf, but both of his shots are off target. As he pulls out yet another arrow, he notices that the sleeping sargeant mounted upon the dire wolf is starting to stir.

Xavier and Faewen'il get closer to the entrance of the grotto, seeing Corrow dragging Darius through the entrance as it comes into sight.

Bravely, Winnacer strikes once more at the worg, but again does not penetrate the beast's side. The worg, however, finds a gap in the knight's mail and bites a huge chunk out of Winnacer's shoulder, leaving him moaning in agony.

To make matters worse, he sees the goblin standard bearer, which has been asleep in the saddle of the worg brought down by Jihan earlier, start to come to. Aware of the fact that he is already outnumbered, Winnacer starts to back towards the mouth of Heimlin's grotto.

Seeing the sargeant coming round, Yaz tries to repeat his earlier luck with Xavier's crossbow, but just misses the orc. Jihan also tries to shoot at the orc, but both shots are deflected by the orc's mail. The orc brings up its bow and returns fire at Jihan, but without success.

Realizing that the entanglement spell has only a minute or so left to run, Yaz yells at Jihan to fall back to the copse. The two of them start sprinting towards the cover.

Winnacer lashes out at the worg again, twice. His second attempt manages to connect with the worg inflicting some serious damage, but still not enough to finish the beast. The angry worg tries to strike back, but it cannot find another chink in Winnacer's armor this time.

The goblin standard bearer looks around with bleary eyes, trying to figure out where the hell he is. He sees the sargeant from his position on the southern end of the hill. Picking his standard up, he starts to run towards where the sargeant is situated atop the dire wolf gorging upon Riverdancer.

Yaz and Jihan run for their lives towards the copse. A couple of shots from the sargeant are aimed at Jihan as he dashes towards cover, but fall far wide. With some relief, albeit temporary, the two reach the relative safety of the copse.

Seeing Warwinner's carcass almost picked clean, with the other three worgs fighting over the remaining scraps of flesh, Winnacer realizes that this is just about his last chance to finish off the worg he has been fighting for over ten minutes now, before the others start on him. However, it is not to be, as his last attack fails to connect with the beast, nor does the beast connect with him.

The knight makes a dash to cover the final ground to the entrance to the grotto while hoping that all of the worgs will not follow him in. As he turns his back, the worg snaps at him as he rushes after him, but misses.

Winnacer makes it into the entrance of the grotto and turns to strike the worg that has followed him. He strikes at the beast twice, with almost the last of his energy, and sees the second blow from 'Old Bohavia' slice the beast in two.

He stays panting for a while, expecting to see three more of the beasts coming at him through the entrance, but it is not to be. He waits for a few minutes, but nothing comes through the entrance. He moves into the grotto itself in order to check on the others.

Xavier, Corrow, Darius and Faewen'il are all inside the living room, where all of the party was sleeping comfortably just a few hours earlier, unaware of the approaching terror that the morning was to bring. Faewen'il is hard at work bandaging up both Darius and Xavier, with Corrow assisting her. Darius is now conscious again, though still in a great deal of pain.

Somewhat relieved that most of the party is safe, Winnacer returns to the entrance to the grotto, nursing his aching shoulder. He listens for the sound of the worgs, hearing howling only some distance from the grotto.

Yaz and Jihan reach the center of the copse seeing the horses, Giselle and the cart tethered to a tree. The animals are more nervous than ever now, sensing the worgs presence as being very close. The two of them clamber up the tallest tree that they can find and pull out their bows, ready for the final showdown.

Jihan suddenly grimaces in pain and brings his hands up to cover his ears.

'What's up?' asks Yaz, concerned.

'It's some kind of high frequency sound' cries Jihan.

The sound stops after just a few seconds.

'How many arrows have got?' asks Yaz.

Jihan looks into his quiver.

'About 20,' he replies 'Quarrels?'

'Thirteen' replies Yaz. 'Lets hope that it will be enough. As soon as they get within range, I'll entangle them. We need to go for the sargeant first, any other goblins second, any beasts getting into contact with the animals third. Ready?'

'As I'll ever be' replies Jihan.

As they wait for the enemy to appear, both start silently chanting to Prirodna to save them and the animals during the coming fight.

After a couple of minutes, they appear. The orc sargeant on the dire wolf, the standard bearing goblin who has found a different worg as a mount, and another riderless worg following them. As the twosome see the Nyemetz coming, they notice that the sargeant has a silver whistle in his mouth. He blows it again and Jihan again grimaces in pain.

As they come within range, Yaz summons up the very last of his magickal energy, and chants once again. The trees and grass surrounding the beasts and riders comes to life once more. Yaz prays that the spell will be more successful than the last one.

Nearly. The two worgs and the standard bearer are stuck fast. The cursed dire wolf, however, breaks free of the entanglement once again and starts to carry on its way slowly towards the animals. The sargeant is stuck fast, however, as branches start to wrap around his arms and torso. As the dire wolf moves out, the sargeant is suspended in the middle of the air, totally immobilized. The whistle falls out of the sargeant's mouth and drops on the ground, where it is consumed by the grass.

Seeing the dire wolf as the only threat currently, Jihan and Yaz both aim at the beast as it ploughs through the forest. One of Jihan's two shots gets through to the beast, injuring it slightly.

Bellowing in pain, the beast changes direction, heading for the tree containing Yaz and Jihan rather than the animals now.

Yaz brings up his crossbow and aims at the dire wolf, but is way off target. Prirodna is guiding Jihan's arm as both of his next shots are bang on target. As the dire wolf finally breaks free of the entangled area, it collapses in a heap at the foot of the tree.

The fact that they have rid themselves of this most troublesome of creatures revigorates the two of them. They start to aim at the orc sargeant who is now screaming with rage and frustration.

Yaz's bolt is on target, but the sargeant's mail protects him from damage. Jihan's first shot is wide, and his second also glances off the orc's mail.

The two look around them and see, to their horror, that another three worgs have appeared. One of them charges into the area of the entanglement spell, but the other two are heading for the animals. Jihan and Yaz change targets yet again in order to stop the two loose worgs from reaching them.

Yaz's shot is wide, but one of Jihan's arrow hits one of the worgs. Although the damage caused is slight, it is enough to infuriate the worg, which turns away from the animals towards the two.

They both try and repeat the exercise with the second worg as the creature gets ready to pounce on the animals. Yaz again, is way off target, but Prirodna's hand guides two of Jihan's arrows into the worg's flesh. The arrows do some serious damage, although not enough to kill the beast, but it comes towards the treedwellers instead of the animals.

Yaz tries to finish off the injured one and hits it, leaving it just a hair's breadth from death. Jihan targets the other and again hits with both arrows damaging it too, severely.

The worgs desperately try to get at the two, but they are sufficiently high in the tree in order for the beasts attempts to reach them to be in vain.

Yaz checks the ammunition situation and sees that they have less than ten missiles each. The entanglement has just another four minutes to run.

Realizing that they need to dispatch the orc and goblin before the spell ends and they run out of missiles, they resume firing at the sargeant., but with absolutely no luck this time.

They try again. Yaz fires again at the sargeant and sees his bolt strike the orc's armor, but not pierce it.

Then, disaster strikes.

Jihan frantically grabs another arrow from his quiver. As he does so, he feels the bow slip from his hand. The two of them look on as if everything goes into slow motion as they see the precious weapon fall to the ground to land between the snarling wolves.

Jihan knows that without the weapon, they are surely doomed. There is nothing for it. He will just have to go down and pick it up.

Yaz changes targets again to the standard bearer, realizing that there are less than two minutes before the entanglement ends and they will be faced with two archers. His strategy was in vain, however, as his bolt is way off target.

Jihan quickly descends the tree whilst praying to Prirodna. As he gets to the bottom, both worgs lash out at him. The first misses, but the second bites deep into the elf's flank, inflicting a terrible wound. Jihan falls unconscious immediately, falling flat on his face.

Yaz realizes that he must keep the worgs away from Jihan's body at all costs. He fires the crossbow at them, but misses both. He tries everything he can think of to annoy the worgs. He takes his club and leans out as far as he can without falling to taunt the worgs, while screaming and shouting at them as loud as he can.

It's working, but he knows this cannot last forever. As he carries on these activities for another couple of minutes, he hears a muted thump as the entanglement spell ends and the sargeant falls to the ground. He reaches for the whistle and blows it. As he does so, the worgs quieten and come towards the sargeant.

Yaz looks around to see that the standard bearer has his shortbow trained on Yaz.

The druid then hears a gutteral voice cry out from the sargeant in broken Bohavian:

'Treeman. Sword, bow, club, me to give. If fight and elf die will. See to your friend now so may he live. Worg no will hurt if come from tree down . If no come down shoot down will we.'

Yaz drops his scimitar, club, and crossbow immediately, and scampers down the tree whereupon he takes Jihan's longbladed knife Langzhan and adds it to the pile of weapons, wanting to avoid any trouble.

Barely conscious, Jihan checks his wrists to see that Link and Recht, his two silver daggers, are hidden in their holders. He sees that they are hidden well and will not be spotted unless the orc or goblin make a thorough inspection of him.

Yaz starts to work on bandaging Jihan's wounds, paying no heed to the orc and goblin. As he leans close to Jihan he whispers to his ear in Elvish:

'We've been taken, comrade, but we live. Steel rself - the orcish way is harsh.'

At that moment, the orc sargeant comes over towards them with his hand on the pommel of his broadsword. The goblin standard bearer is still covering them, not taking its eyes off them for an instance.

The orc sargeant kicks the weapons away in amongst the worgs, which are all either sitting or lying down. He then looks over where Yaz is kneeling, applying bandages and herbs to Jihan's wound. Yaz braces himself as he feels the orc's presence standing over him for an uncomfortable length of time. Then the orc bends down towards Jihan and reaches out towards him. Both Jihan and Yaz brace themselves for whatever the sargeant is going to do next.

Gently, the sargeant touches the pointed tip of Jihan's ear, tracing its curve with his finger, backwards and forwards. Then he speaks:

'Your friend. Elf is he?'

'Errrm…yes' Yaz replies cautiously, unsure of what the orc is up to.

The orc smiles, revealing a row of vicious looking teeth.

'Elf Sklad no see. Like humans they but ears not.'

He starts chuckling to himself.

'Live will he?' he asks.

'Errm…I think so…yes' replies Yaz.

'Good that is. Much death here been. Is bad. No more.'

'Errm…that's fine by me' says Yaz, nodding his head.

The sargeant thrusts a large clawed hand towards him, open.

'I Sklad. ?'

Nervously, Yaz shakes his hand, feeling a powerful grip.

'Errrm…I'm…errr…Bazz, and my friend is Bejam.'

'Bazz, Bejam, fight well did …for elfs!'

Sklad starts laughing again, a deep belly laugh.

Yaz is about to make a witty retort, but thinks better of it.

'Hah, hah, hah' Yaz laughs, falsely, 'Thank you.'

Sklad stops laughing and carries on peering at Yaz working away at dressing Jihan's wounds.

'Stop no more must Sklad. Go from here must we.'

He walks away. While Sklad has his back turned, Yaz removes some holly and some cannabis from his herb pouch and puts them in amongst the other twigs and dirt in his hair, casually.

The goblin standard bearer is still covering him, but does not notice anything strange.

Sklad strolls over towards the animals and the cart full of Granny's goodies, but stops over the body of the dire wolf. He crouches down next to him, staring at the dead brute. He brings his hand down and gently starts to stroke the beast's huge head. There is definite sadness in his eyes as he does so.

He looks towards Yaz and Jihan and sees that they are observing him. He points towards the dead wolf.

'Vlchek' he says 'Vlchek Sklad friend.'

He brings his hands together, holding them a couple of feet from each other.

'Vlchek baby wolf mine' he says with a sad smile. 'Vlchek gone now. No more Sklad friend. Run now with Turlik.'

He stands up and walks towards the horses and Giselle. He starts to rub them on the muzzle in turn. They're still very nervous and step back from his touch, whinnying.

'Nie, nie, milachky, klid, klid' Sklad says, stroking their manes. The horses start to quieten.

'Horses ?' he shouts to Yaz. Yaz nods.

'Pretty, pretty. Horse like Sklad. Vlchek no like. Sorry me.'

'Horse free now.' he says.

With that, he takes his broadsword and cuts their tethers, Giselle too. Yaz and Jihan look on sadly as the horses take off, putting as much distance between them and the worgs as they can. Jihan gets a last look at Wisenose as she gallops away.

'Is best they free' explains Sklad 'not eats here they'

Ignoring the cart, Sklad then starts to look around the copse for dead dry wood. He takes several minutes to collect a big pile, placing the branches on top of Vlchek's body. When he has completely covered it. He reaches into his pouch and produces flint and steel.

He sighs deeply and then sets fire to the tinder. Orange flames takes hold of the tinder and ignite the larger branches. Sklad then kneels besides the pyre and starts to chant.

He's chanting in Nyemetz, so the two of them don't understand what he's saying, but notice the word Turlik coming up often as he chants. They listen to the chanting as Yaz finishes applying the bandages to Jihan. As they listen, they notice that the rhythms of the chanting are not a million miles away from the rhythms of the funeral chant of Prirodna.

Having finished attending to Jihan, Yaz rises to his feet. While Sklad is occupied with his chanting, he turns away from the goblin and takes his pet squirrel Nuts out of his shirt and puts him on the ground.

'Follow if can, little one … we may need you,'

He then turns round and holds his hands in the air. The goblin hasn't batted an eyelid.

Pale and shivering, Jihan attempts to stand, leaning heavily on the druid as he feels himself aching like he has never ached before.

Sklad finishes his chanting and bows deeply towards the pyre. He then gets to his feet and walks towards .

Jihan is interested in the rites that he has seen the orc performing and starts to converse with him:

"What will you do with us, brother... er... Sklad?" he says in as calm a voice as he can muster, barely noticing the slip himself. He looks up at the strange orc inquisitively.

'We must to go to our home to Dvur Kralovye. Came here with witchfinder only. Now she dead. I must take to my big boss. He will to speak with.'

"Do you like what do?"

'Sklad is what Sklad is. Elf is what Elf is. Tree is what tree is. Does tree like what tree do? Nyemetz is strong. Like to be with strong to make more strong. Sklad like also to be with worgs. Worgs friends to Sklad.'

"Do you know why we fight, Sklad?"

'I fight for to save me and goblins and worgs. You friends us to try kill. Know not why. You try show have much power, but Sklad and worgs we show that more power have we.'

"Who is your boss? Will he speak, or will he demand?"

'Captain Zasran big boss worgriders is. Much strong is he. Captain Artok big boss was. Sargeant Zasran more strong was, so now is Sargeant Artok and Captain Zasran. Sklad too old is for big boss be. Sargeant is Sklad now but get old. Young orc sargeant will take from Sklad soon. Zasran like Sklad only warrior be. Zasran do what Zasran do.'

"Were you here when the gnomes were taken?"

'Gnomes? Where is gnomes? Gnomes weak are. They to serve us. It is the way of Turlik.'

"How long have you been in this war, brother?"

'Life is war, war is life. All is one.'

"We fight because you killed our friends, and took their sons. We fight because we want to be free, like those horses," he says, nodding in the direction which they ran out in.

'Horses Turlik made in other way. Horses weak made by Her only to serve. Horses no want power. Horses like gnomes. They to serve. Humans, elfs, orcs, wolves, goblin Turlik made to want power. Free is human, elf lie. Serve ruler same as like Nyemetz. Not want to be free. Want only power for they.'

"It is easy to be strong when others around you are strong. But it feels better to be strong when others around you are weak, because they feel strong, and know that it is because of you. You give them of your strength, and with it, you give hope. The strong can have their freedom and take it for granted, forgetting about those beneath them, forgetting about how others must work for it and fight for it. They do not realize how important it is until it is taken away from them, and so often oppress the weak. Yet freedom is what matters most."

'Turlik's way is that the strong will have power over weak. To be with weak makes only pack more weak. To be with more strong make pack more strong. It is not Her way.'

At the mention of war, Jihan's eyes grow sad for an instant, yet are veiled again as he responds.

"All is one, but war brings death, and death ends life..."

'War is good. War take out weak. Leave only strong. Make always more strong and more strong. If you and friends were weak, I would all to kill. But are strong. Come to join with Nyemetz pack.'

Silent for a moment, and not liking the tension that builds because of it, Jihan continues:

"Turlik? who is he? You speak with much devotion when you talk of him. Are all we others to be slaves by his way? ... Have you been a slave, brother?"

'Turlik, She makes all. She makes trees, elves, orcs, grass, worgs. She is all power.'

"But the weak live, and the weak can become strong, both those in will and those in body when the situation is right. The horse you say is weak, but when his hooves come crushing down on your head, how strong do you feel?

'Horse weak in mind, not in body. Horse not to crush my head through mind of horse, but mind of rider. Rider use horse to more strong become, use tool of Turlik. Horse not want power, weak in mind. Horse only to serve strong'

When a thousand birds flock on you for laughing at their weakness and eating their eggs, are still master?

'See thousand birds to strike one man? I not. I think never did not. You prove that wrong are.'

'For the weak can band together to become strong, and the strong are not masters of all. There can be no master. '

'Numbers to make power yes, true is, but hundred strong better is than hundred weak. Turlik say hundred strong more good than thousand weak. They eat less, kill less.'

'If all were strong, then some would be stronger than others, and those would be weak. This would go on until there was only one left, the strongest.'

'You wrong that end only with one strong. Weak shall follow strong. Work together. Leader of pack does not kill other wolf. More wolves make prey more easy to kill. More good for all pack strong leader to have.'

'But this will never happen, because the weak will not stand to be slaughtered, and those strong but less strong will not be dominated."

'Weak WILL to stand to serve. Bohavians more weak than Nyemetz. Law of Turlik say they must to serve Nyemetz. Only if Bohavia have strong, more strong than Nyemetz, will Bohavia be free of Nyemetz. But Bohavia no are wolves. Bohavia are horses. Nyemetz are wolves.'

"Do all Nyemetz think like you do?"

'All Nyemetz not like Sklad in mind. Few Nyemetz know laws of Turlik, but follow them most all do. Like wolves are they. Wolves not worship Turlik, but follow Her rules do they.'

'Nyemetz pray to many gods, and many to no gods. But way of Turlik is only way. Other gods have not power of Her. Smurt, Nemotz, Kozlo follow laws of Turlik too.'

'Come, we must …'

*crack* - a twig snaps.