"The bastards have robbed me! Robbed me!"
I lifted aside the tent flap. Outside, a slave girl kept her head down as she knelt and prepared a meal by a campfire. The anorexic zealot stood with his arms folded, his expression one of disgust and resignation. Fogrim sat wrapped in a blanket outside his tent, ignoring the world as he sipped his morning tea.
Onska lay naked beside me. The tall brunette's was on her belly, arms extended in front of her, wrists bound. Her legs were held wide apart: I'd found a spare wooden tent rod and used it as a spreader bar. Her ankles were tied to its ends. She rose on her elbows and peered out the tent. Chestnut hair fell across her face.
"Master? Is something the matter?"
I closed the tent flap and turned back to her.
She averted her eyes.
Outside, the yelling continued.
"Which way did they go? Which way did they go? Can anyone of you sons of bastards find their trail?"
"There is no trail, Commander." said another voice.
"Of course there's a trail, you idiot! Five gold to the man who finds it!"
I got on top of Onska and forced her down; her chin pressed against the tent floor. She grunted as I slipped my penis into her. My hand slid under her arm, coming up to grip her throat. My other hand bunched her hair and drew her head back. Her buttocks felt soft and cool against me as I used the pretty slave meat.
"How did they get four girls?" the angry voice continued.
"They paid for them, Commander."
"Paid?"
"Yes. Five silver, for just the night, with mine."
"You fool! And you didn't think there was anything odd about that?"
Onska started moaning. I bit her cheek gently - she tried to kiss me, but I wouldn't let her. I pounded harder.
"What kind of guard falls asleep on the first night? How are you so pathetic?"
"Commander, he gave me a spiced wine that put me to deepest slumber!"
"Who gave you a drink?"
"One of the Hataduri!"
"Oh? And just like that, you drank on duty! This is all your fault!"
I bit her neck as I came, her soft skin pressed to my face. When I was done, I licked between her shoulder blades, tasting the salt on her warm, soft skin. She put her head down and moaned.
"Thank you, Master!" she whispered.
I untied the slave girl, crawled out of the tent, and stood.
The camp was as it had been the night before - but one of the Hatadur thieves' tents was gone. The other was empty, flaps open. One of the supply sleds was missing as well. I looked about: I couldn't see either the two Shangs or the Darfuri that Kamo had.
I noticed something else - what I'd taken last evening for a close-by boulder, was really a three-meter tall 'termite' mound. I say 'termite' because those hadn't quite evolved yet. This was the work of their ancestors: wood-eating (giant) cockroaches. Two men were poking their spears inside one of its openings. I couldn't help but notice the hole was much larger than even giant roaches would have made.
Our commander, Stikken was his name, was towering over last night's guard. The man looked cowed, wringing his hands. Stikken's were in balled fists.
A small-made Shemite slave girl rushed past me - she gasped as I seized her arm and jerked her to me. I shoved her down on to her knees. She didn't move as I wiped my penis clean with her hair. I pushed her aside when I was done, and she crawled away. I looked back to the tent: Onska had crawled out and was holding up my pants to me. I dressed.
"Leave," Stikken said to the guard, "Go back to the fortress. You are no longer part of my expedition,"
"But-"
"Leave," his eyes became slits.
The guard turned and went to get his pack.
"Give me your waterskin," Stikken strode after him, hand out. "Go on, give it to me!"
"But I need it!"
"Cthulhu take you! What you need is a spear up your backside! It's a day's walk. Begone before I can no longer still my hand from my sword!"
The guard dropped his waterskin and fled.
"Was that wise?"
Commander Stikken turned and glared at me.
"What did you say?"
"I asked you, is that wise? We were down two men; now we're down three."
"He is deadweight, worse than useless. Had your friend's spear found his back instead, we would still have a sled and four slavestock!"
"I think I see something," said a man at the edge of our camp, looking down in the sand. "looks like a sled mark."
I walked over with the others to see it.
"Good man! That's five gold well earned. We set off after them at once. We need-"
"No, it's too obvious," I shook my head and crouched down by the mark. "See how deep it is, and how it is in the open sand here? It cannot be missed. Those two weren't idiots: this was meant to be found. They took the heavier tent too, not to light one. I guarantee they took it to drag behind the sled, wiping away its tracks."
"No, that's the way they went," insisted the man, whose dirty look told me he'd not be cheated out of his five gold. "There's another mark, there," he pointed where there wasn't one.
"Really?" I asked.
"Y-Yes."
"Huh."
I got up and left while the rest of the group found or didn't find sled marks based on their biases. I went over to the two remaining sleds and looked through the supplies. Two casks of water had been taken - the others had not been touched.
"If we cannot tell where they went, then you will all spread out and look for them," said Stikken. "Take food and a day's worth of water, and go at once. Report back here when you find them, and we will give chase."
"They left our water," I called out to him.
"So?" He gave me another glare.
"So they could have broached the casks they didn't take and poured them into the sand. We would have had to turn back, no hope of catching them. We're a day from camp; we would have made it. But they left us our water. That wasn't an oversight."
"Are you saying we should be glad for your friends' kindness?"
"Friends?"
"I saw you talking with them!"
"Whatever."
Then men poking at the proto-termite mound came back. One carried a bag that was part-soaked and dripping from the bottom. The other carried the carcass of a scorpion that was longer than his arm. Pulmonoscorpius! The largest land scorpion that ever lived.
The first upended the dripping bag in the middle of the camp. Several, brown-yellow, translucent roaches, as large as dinner plates, fell out. The seeped white ichor from stab wounds, and feebly jerked their legs in the air.
The other twisted off the pulmonoscorpius' stinger and hurled at away, like an apple core. He dropped the carcass down with the dying roaches.
"Feed!" he commanded.
Slave girls stopped what they were doing and went to kneel around the insect pile. A Bharaji with skin the tone of milky-tea, with shoulder-length hair, held a roach up over her head and squeezed the ichor into her mouth. Some splattered on her chin and delightfully large breasts. She wiped it with her fingers and licked them clean before breaking open the carapace and scooping out a handful of innards. She offered the dripping handful to the blonde Fogrim had used last night. The blonde took the innards in both hands and sucked them dry, before tearing off pieces with her teeth.
I looked back at Onska. I heard her stomach grumble.
"Go and feed."
"Thank you, Master."
She got up and rushed to join the other girls. I watched as she and another brunette pried the giant scorpion's carapace off with stones before putting their heads down to eat, like dogs.
I shielded my eyes with my hand and looked about - there were other roach mounds scattered about the ruins.
"You see our problem, too?" said Fogrim, standing up.
"This is scorpion country. If Stikken makes us split up and go looking for the Hataduri, he's going to lose more men."
"These are city-folk," he cracked his neck and knuckles. "They are not ready for this."
"I'm going to tell him."
"He won't listen, and he does not like you."
"Too bad. I'm going to tell him."
"We are pretending to be cultists, Gerard."
"Even cultists got rights, bro."
I went over to Stikken. He had just finished instructing some men and had stepped away.
"Commander, there's a problem," I made sure we couldn't be heard. I didn't need any complications dealing with Captain-Small-Penis.
"What is it, Tenth Man?"
"Those are roach mounds. This land is full of giant scorpions," I pointed to the one the slave girls were eating. "They are too dangerous for the men to handle if they encounter them on their own."
"Nonsense," he waved off my point. "The men have spears."
"Have you ever tried spearing one? While it's attacking in the open? I've heard that some kinds hunt in packs."
He glared.
"Are you questioning my order, Tenth Man?"
"No," I held up my hands. "Just pointing out the risks."
"I would that you take those risks instead. Find me those Hataduri bastards, and then you won't have to worry about the scorpions, now will you?"
***
I watched the giant scorpions from up on a shattered building.
There were three of them, two slightly larger, but all three as long as my arm. They crept out from under fallen masonry and rocks, one after the other. Scorpions have poor eyesight, though they can have as many as five pairs looking laterally, in addition to two in the front. However, they sensed vibration through their legs and brushes under their abdomens. As long as I was completely still, they would not notice me.
I waited for them to notice each other and then fight or flee - but they didn't. After some back and forth, they settled into maintaining about thirty feet of distance between each other - in a crude line.
Social giant scorpions.
Scorpions are not social creatures; I had taken talk of hunting packs as an unpleasant but popular myth. Certainly, there were none in our time. What caused them to die out?
No, I was asking the wrong question. Why did they evolve in the first place?
To take down large prey.
They reached an open patch of sand. The two larger ones held back then found some rocks and spiny bushes to hide in. The smaller one stepped into the open sand - and flipped on its back.
What the hell?
It remained like that, fidgeting a bit before remaining very still. Its legs curled inwards as if it was dead. Nothing more happened for the next ten minutes or so. I contemplated getting up and carrying on until I realized watching social scorpions, one of which was playing dead, was the most useful thing I would accomplish today.
Except, maybe, tormenting and playing with Onska some more. Kamo and Razin had been right - even after just one night, Onska was more fearful, eager to please, and attracted to me - she had the energy and glow that a free woman had after finally having sex with a sought after partner. I was keen to-
A giant vulture swooped down and landed just six feet from the scorpion.
Hyperborea's giant vultures were spectacular beasts. They were not actually vultures but the carrion-preferring Argentavis magnificens, or the Giant Teratorn. They were creatures stolen from the late Miocene Epoch, some of the largest birds to have ever flown. A fully grown one could reach 20 feet and was not too shy to go after a child or a short slave girl. They went extinct in 10,000 BC - not before inspiring tales of the mythical Roc.
The vulture stood much taller than me, and its head was as big as my torso. It looked this way and that like a curious rooster, and then flared its wings. They spanned wider than a lorry! I almost broke and ran. That's what a sensible person does when a carnivore bigger than a horse appears out of the sky.
Sonofabitch had been circling me the whole time.
It took a step towards the scorpion, head tilting this way and that. It suddenly affixed me with an evil, yellow eye before carrying on, unimpressed. It drew closer, opening its beak to gobble the scorpion in a single bite.
The other two scorpions burst out from the bushes.
A lingering doubt saved the majestic beast; it turned to look back at me and saw one scorpion coming. It turned on a dime and stabbed, the giant beak seizing the scorpion whole. There was a crushing sound, and it swallowed.
On its other side, the second scorpion had halted. The vulture turned and ate it as well.
The scorpion playing dead squirmed and flipped itself on its front. The vulture watched as it raced forward, sting ready. I both felt and heard the low woosh of its wings as it rose effortlessly into the air, came down on the scorpion, and crushed it. It swallowed the corpse and took off.
I watched it ascend into a dark speck against the blue sky.
Then I noticed there were more. What if they became just a bit more ambitious, or hungry? Feeling quite vulnerable, I got down off my perch and turned to head back before it turned dark.
***
About an hour later, I came upon a giant scorpion lying on its back.
It was in the middle of the path straight ahead. It was in a sandy break, with rocks and broken masonry around it. I looked up at the sky - I didn't see any vultures.
Was I the prey?
I could take one scorpion. Two, with some care. I didn't want to face three - they only needed to sting me once. I looked back the way I had come, there was a detour I could take around a ruined ziggurat, but it would add hours to my walk. I'd be out of water, and stumbling about in the dark. If I got lost, I wouldn't survive the next day.
Fuck it. What's the worst that could happen? Short-legged buggers.
Emboldened by hubris, I ran and leaped over the scorpion. The thud of my landing triggered it, and it flipped on to its front. Scrambling out from under rocks came six more scorpions.
All seven rushed at me.
I threw the spear, skewering one through the back. It scrabbled at the weapon and fell on to its side. The others continued racing to me, stings bared. I threw a couple of large rocks at them, but they hardly noticed.
I started running. I looked back after I'd gained some distance - they were still coming, and they were fast. I ran a greater distance and looked - still they came. Ahead of me, some distance away was a dead tree, twisted and sun-bleached. Fallen around it were bone dry twigs and branches.
I ran to it. When I reached, I looked back - the scorpions were still coming - and five more had joined them. The pounding of my mad, panicked run must have been sounded like a siren to them.
I got my tinder box and flints out.
I chipped away with my flints, and right as despair was setting in, I managed to get a large branch burning. I looked about: the scorpions, now 16 in number, had surrounded me! Feelings of dread and amazement competed. I picked up the now brightly burning branch and shook it at them.
"Come on, you fuckers!" I walked up to one, waving the branch.
It fell back.
I stooped to pick up and fling a large rock. It smashed into its side: the scorpion staggered backwards in drunken circles, dragging crushed legs after it.
"Ha! That's right!" I regressed back to that first Homo Erectus in my lineage, who realized that leopards would never scare him again. "You've got nothing on fire!"
I stooped to pick up another rock, and that's what saved my life.
The air wooshed! around me, and a huge shadow passed right over. The teratorn vulture landed thirty feet away and turned to face me. A different species, it was larger than the last one, and its plumage was camouflaged sky blue. It flexed huge talons and snapped a beak evolved for hunting. Yellow eyes glared, and the wings wooshed as they flared. The beast roared - the sort of deep sound only a large animal's throat can make.
I felt the calm only life-or-death danger brings. I raised the branch, drew my sword, and charged.
The teratorn flexed its wings and leaped back. I blinked as sand swirled into my eyes. It was like fighting a small storm! I charged again, and again it leaped back.
The burning branch blew out.
The teratorn roared and stabbed, giant beak open.
Reflex brought my sword up. The steel cut through its beak like soft bone.
The great bird screamed and staggered back, rising into the air. Blood sprayed as it climbed, then the beast came crashing down. It launched upwards a second time but didn't do any better. It flailed in the sand, screeching and bleeding.
I would have beheaded it to end its suffering, but it was too dangerous to approach. One good kick and its talons would gut me!
Behind me, the rest of the tree had caught fire. The heat became searing.
I picked up a chunk of masonry with both hands and flung it at the bird's head. There was a loud crack as it struck and broke its neck. The legs and wings spasmed, and the teratorn died.
I knelt by the grand beast, running my hand over a wing twice my size. The feathers were huge, some long as a man's thigh bone! I wrenched out a few, gritting my teeth at the effort. Killing it felt like a great crime.
I looked about. The scorpions kept their distance from the burning tree, but they were coming towards the giant bird. I pulled off more feathers, stuffed them into my pack, and stepped away.
As I passed the tree and got back on my way, I looked back. The first scorpions had arrived and were ripping into the corpse with their giant claws. Two began fighting; stingers held high. None paid me the slightest heed.
Perhaps I'd not been the prey, but the bait.
***
"You've had an adventure."
Fogrim eyed the feathers sticking out of my pack with approval. He had his iron spear down beside him, and he was shouldering his pack.
"I refuse to drink my own piss," I gestured for his still-sloshing waterskin. "You did okay? No anti-Darfuri curses?"
"None, but I cannot say the same for our fellows," he gestured to the camp. There were only three other men there and Stikken. There seemed a grimness to their moods: they were silent with eyes cast down. One was pulling down tents, and two others were re-harnessing the slaves to the sleds. Stikken just watched them, hands on his hips.
"Why are they packing up?"
Fogrim shrugged.
"Remember," he gave me a knowing look, "we must give appearance of well-behaved, loyal, Servants."
"Screw that!" I strode towards Stikken. "Hey! Hey! What's going on?"
He seemed both surprised and disappointed to see me.
"We cannot wait any longer," he checked the ropes on a sled. "We have work to do."
"There's men out there!"
He paused.
"If they survived the hunting scorpions - which no previous band has ever seen fit to ever report - then they get can just follow our trail."
"But they won't have water. We only took a day's worth."
"That is your foolishness for not planning for misadventure. I cannot do everything for you. Would you have me tell the men when to piss and shit?"
I had no words.
"Get to work. We must leave this place for safer grounds this night."
"We're marching through the night? We've just been crawling all over the gods damned ruins!"
"Do you want to tell the scorpions that?" he stopped what he was doing. "Well, Tenth Man? Shall I just tell them not to kill us all in our sleep tonight, and to attend till morning on account of your comfort?"
I turned and walked away.
Circling up in the sky were more vultures than there had been in the morning.