"Depending on how deep the brook is, I can conjure a platform to ferry us across. Erm, what's wrong?"
The wizard looked about, hoping they weren't lost.
"Stay out of this", he warns the Aestherics. "This is between us."
Bjorkus grabs the prisoner by the collar. "Get on your damned feet. I've heard enough b#%*@&++ outta you!"
Ahead is a line through the frozen ground where the burbling noise is coming from. There is a single, five foot wide wooden bridge crossing it. On the far side of it is a giant. It looks like a thick, muscular human with pale blue skin, except it stands roughly twelve feet tall. Resting on it's shoulder is a great axe of equal proportions. He also has a single javelin on his back.
Standing off to the sides of him, one on each side, are two large primitive creatures with light blue-green skin and cold, piercing eyes. They are dressed in rough furs and have tusked jaws jutting forth from their long underbites. In their clawed hands they have battleaxes, and on their backs they each have half a dozen javelins.
Viktor growls. "That's a snow giant, and those two are ice trolls. The giant's in charge, sure as s%+$." He calls out. "Can't imagine you're going to let us cross, will you?"
The trolls grunt to each other in giant, but the snow giant calls out in a thick common accent. "You, pass. Dwarf not pass."
~Snow Giants~
~Ice Trolls~
Raul snorts and spits at Bjorkus's feet. "You'd know all about b+&#~%!@. I bet you were fed it straight from your father's arse as a babe."
Toramin calls out in giant,
"Jeg vil kjempe deg for passering, med mindre du er redd for en ekte sønn av fjellet? En mot en?"
He snow giant peers through the ranks of people in front of him, eyes going back to Toramin. "Du har en avtale , jord gyte . Til døden , vil for jeg bli drept hvis du passerer uansett. Jeg vil ha min troll kaste en stein , når den treffer bakken vi skal kjempe." He raises his axe, beckoning Toramin forward. He barks at one of the trolls, who quickly searches the ground until he gets a fist-sized rock in his hand.
"Vi har en avtale."
Toramin moves forward to engage in some honorable combat with the bridge guardian.
Viktor grunts in disapproval as Toramin moves forward, apparently understanding the conversation. "Toramin, you're your own man and I can't stop you from doing this, but it's damned foolish. All of us backing you is stronger than those two trolls backing him." Viktor turns to the others and translates what was said.
The moment the scarred former commander spits, Bjorkus slugs him with a huge hairy fist.
Bjorkus claps the dwarf on the shoulder and speaks in his usual bass rumble with a slight melodic tone to it.
"Toramin defeated the immortal witch Acera. I doubt one giant will give our dwarf trouble."
"Yes. He knows that as well. His people honor valiant death in a duel more than they do other forms of failure. If violence is the only path forward, then I wanted to give him to path he would find more honorable. Simply because he makes himself my enemy doesn't mean that I cannot show him respect."
Toramin isn't an idiot, however, and drinks the extract that Rilka gave him in the morning.
The Aestheric who was speaking swears and barks his men forward. They pile on Bjorkus to try to restrain him. Even with eight men on Bjorkus they just barely manage to pull him off, the combined weight and strength hardly keeping the raging bull away from Raul. "Gods be damned, calm down!"
Raul woozily grabs onto the bench he was sitting at. "Keep mindlessly fighting calf." He unsteadily drags himself back into the seat, dropping his teeth into the cup of water. "Your life will turn out as useless as you were in those fights."
~The Grand Tour~
Both of the ice trolls start barking out in giant as Bjorkus touches Toramin on the shoulder. The snow giant frowns. "Vil du ikke kjempe meg rettferdig, jord gyte? Må du bruke magi for å jukse?" However none of the three make any comment about the potion drinking. They seem to assume it's just a normal drink, or maybe a last drink.
Dalton respected Toramin's game ... for now.
"Allow me to strengthen you before you set out."
If Toramin can interrupt Bjorkus, he will. In any case, he resists the spell.
"Nei, min venn, må jeg gjøre dette alene. Jeg trenger ingen annen magi; Jeg vil vinne eller dø som våre ferdigheter og gudene bestemme."
Bjorkus tosses the guards piled on him off as if they were rag dolls. He wanted to cave their skulls in too - to punish them for defending this bastard - but he knew their just following orders... even if following orders is what made Raul the monster he is. If folks weren't always blindly followin' orders there'd be a whole lot less Targ's in the world.
"Where was all this honor when Targ made you his b&*!~? Or when Acera's monsters were killin' us and you were out of control?" he roars."Fight back!"
Spotted by the surprisingly magic-savvy giant and trolls, Bjorkus shrugs and cancels his spell.
~~~~~Grand Tour, Day 17~~~~~
Rilka follows the conversation in Giant, listening closely to the giant’s accent so her’s could improve. She also listens to Viktor’s translation, measuring how their understanding of the conversation differed. A few slight words. She swallows nervously and shakes her head slightly when the duel to the death is agreed upon. It’s honorable, but unnecessary. We could have found a different way.
“Good luck,” she says, giving Toramin an hug.
She passes the blistering invective vial to Bjorkus. ”Fire will hurt the ice trolls if we need to fight them. You’re more intimidating than me, so you have a better chance of getting them to burn.”
The Aestherics lunge back in. "Damnit Bjorkus, don't make us hurt you!" This time they can't bring him down, so the mage steps up and casts a spell, but Bjorkus throws off its effects. He frowns and starts speaking into his earring.
The snow giant waits for Toramin to get close enough to hit. He slowly brings the great axe off his shoulder, icy breath washing over Toramin. This is a monster Toramin would never have been able to fight weeks ago when he left his home.
He barks at the troll with the rock, who whips it up into the air. After a few seconds it arcs back down. The giant never takes his eyes off of Toramin. The silence is palpable. Then with the rock hits the snow with a thud.
Toramin stands before the giant spinning his chain with increasing speed. At the beginning of this journey, Toramin said the average dwarf was no match alone against the average giant. But Toramin was no longer an average dwarf. He had aided two different regicides. He had crossed deserts. He had started a city on a better path.
He briefly regrets the necessity of this battle. He bore the giant no particular ill will. In fact, he believed that the giant possessed the same spark of personhood that he himself possessed. Both of their choices had lead them to this moment of juncture. Toramin was resolved to see that it was he who survived this juncture.
The earth strengthened and sheltered Toramin in a way that it had not a few weeks before. His very flesh and blood were stone. He could feel the beating hearts of these great mounts beneath the earth, lending him their eternal strength. The earth loved Toramin. He hoped it loved him more than the winter loved this giant. Drawing on that chthonic power, he sends Talev's Legacy in a brutal arc at the giant's knees.
Bjorkus shrugs the Aestherics off of him again.
"You say I'm a fool? I say you're a coward! If only your 'great' wisdom had kept your men alive instead of bein' infected with a zombie plague by the tyrant and the witch you were helpin' keep in power. You lead 'em like lambs to be sacrificed to Acera's magic and now they're dead. Worse-than-dead even, some of 'em were raised as walkin' corpses and denied a peaceful death - all because they believed in your 'wisdom'."
"Yet here you are alive, while they're all rottin' in the ground or undead monsters."
Both of Toramin's swings hit, bloodying the giant. He roars in response and swings his great axe twice at the stubborn dwarf. But the insane defenses deflect both blows.
Raul shrugs again as he starts fitting his teeth back into his jaw. "I was in over my head and I made mistakes. It's true." He pushes one in with a pained grunt. "They knew the risks, I don't blindly lead. They're at rest now, your allies made sure of that. No sense in brooding over it while I'm still alive." He pushes in another tooth, causing a line of blood to dribble down his chin into his beard. "No sense at all while I can make things better." He gives Bjorkus a pitying look. "Try not to live in the past. There is nothing there for you."
Toramin swings again after deftly dodging the giant's blows. His training growing up served him well, giants often misjudged the distance between themselves and their dwarven opponents.
The giant starts to topple, bloodies and broken. He growls in anger. "Rarrrhhh!" And brings his axe down again, but it glances off impenetrable defenses. He hits a knee, shaking his head. "Drepe meg."
The stonelord continues to duck and bob the giant's attacks. No doubt they would be deadly if only they could find the wily dwarf.
Toramin continues to spin Talev's Legacy but he holds back from striking.
"Det er en annen måte. Ikke alle møter mellom våre folk trenger å ende i døden. Vi kunne fortsette på vår vei, og du kan si ingenting av å ha sett oss."
With a few words Toramin offers a more peaceful path, more peaceful but still backed by his force of arms.
The giant roars in response at Toramin's mercy, standing up and swinging futile blows at the dwarf. "Det blir ingen fred! Du vil dø eller drepe meg!"
Toramin shakes his head sadly at the giant's intransigence.
"Deretter la ære være fornøyd."
Feeling he has a firmer grasp of the giant's capacities, Toramin doesn't draw more power to strengthen his blows.
With one blow he cracks the giant's sternum, and the next he caves his skull in. The giant falls on his back, moving no more.
The ice trolls chatter to each other for a brief moment, then flee to the north.
Viktor shakes his head at the corpse. "Gods be damned, you made that look like child's play. I wonder why he kept fighting though. Giant's usually back out if they're given the chance."
"If I had to guess it is because there is a more powerful giant in the region of whom he was more afraid. We must hurry on, and, if possible, obscure our passage. Those trolls are reporting to someone, I would wager. I think we will all be glad of Bjorkus' song soon."
"Rilka, do you have another of those defensive extracts?"
Viktor nods, still musing over what has happened, pulling at his beard. "Yes, that would probably be for the best." He looks to the left, at a rise. "I'm thinking about taking an alternate route. It'd be high as the gods themselves, but we'd avoid any likely ambushes."
"Then let us make all due haste."
If we go to the high places, then Bjorkus might meet one of my sisters sooner than he expects.
Dalton asks some questions and learns that any casks of food or drink that was hidden is being opened to the public to start patching over the wounds. However there is more than once merchant who stood with the Aestherics and thus have not been raided.
Entering the shop, he greeted the owner. "Good evening. What will it cost to get a splash of something with a bite?"
Bjorkus is lead outside the command tent where Krokar is standing amongst half a dozen Aestherics, both officers and low ranked individuals, chatting and laughing. When he sees Bjorkus the smile falls from his face. "Excuse me for a moment." He motions Bjorkus inside, following a step after.
Krokar does not offer a drink, nor does his he sit next to Bjorkus like he normally does. He sits in the commanders chair, higher up and across the desk. He examines Bjorkus for a moment, then sighs. "So I imagine you already know why you're here. What's your side of the story?"
"The second-highest quality you have. Half of it. How much might that be?"
It's fairly crowded, more than an average bar, but nothing crazy.
His helpless anger boiling over, Bjorkus vents.
”I’m sick of Akropash, nothin’ here makes any sense. Out on the seas my life made sense. I sailed; I fought; I f&%&ed. I felt like I was strong, like I was in charge. Here, everything’s soddin’ backwards. I get humiliated and everyone calls me a hero. I didn’t beat Targ, I didn’t touch Acera, and I tried but I didn’t even really start the soddin’ revolution! Not a single story they've been tellin' 'bout me out there is true. This whole mission has been one defeat after another for me.”
"And Now Heff tells me you’re gunna help me get my ship and my crew back. I thought that's what I wanted but I don't think so anymore. I'm not strong enough to lead ‘em. F&#*!"
He comes to the other side of the table, sitting next to Bjorkus again. "What we do isn't simple. If you want to be taken off the special forces squad, I can make sure you only get missions that are clear cut and dry. You have to understand, we are an organization about truth and freedom, but sometimes we have to use lies and restraints to realize our goals. We use lies to tell truths and chains to make freedom. You're the perceived hero of Akropash because that's what we needed you to be, so we spread those fantastic stories about your heroics. It's not what was true, it's what the people needed. That's what we do here. We sacrifice for what's right. We don't do this for the glory, we do it for the people. This isn't about one person, it's about every person."