I was suddenly very uncomfortable with how much of my body was being treated to the head nuzzling of the giant cat, but there was nothing much to be done at this point. My matrons were then taken and presented to the various creatures to obtain their own mounts, all except Risavis who relaxed, sitting and leaning up against Irsivir.
“I don’t know how to repay you for the service of these… partners.” I caught myself. I had noticed that ‘partner’ was the term they used for their mounts, but I had almost called them animals. I got the feeling that wouldn’t go over very well. “I admit, while I’ve spent my time with the Wood Elves, they’ve never really given or asked for money.”
“If you rid us of a single hive of the kanegs, you’ll have paid us in full, and then some.” The guide, who had retrieved a saddle, assured me.
The saddle for the great cat had six straps, two that went over the friror’s shoulders, two that went just under its arms, and two that cinched at the bottom of its ribs. The guide made me put it on Jauna, guiding and correcting me as I went. Paired with the saddle was a wide belt, like a weightlifting belt, that had two springed rings, sort of like carabiners. These are clasped onto one of several rings on the saddle to keep you in the saddle.
“So… are there reins or some other way to steer?” I wondered.
“Reins? No, a properly trained partner will follow where your weight leads it.” The guide explained.
Okay, so… lean to steer? I guess I could work that.
I was then told the basic commands my partner had been trained to obey. “Crof” commanded Jauna to lay down so I could easily climb on her back, “Yut” was the command to stand and start moving, “Hoy” was the command to stop whatever they were doing, and all I had to do was hiss through my teeth to command her to attack.
“That’s all the commands?” I marveled.
“Well, yes.” The guide stated with amusement. “She is your partner, not a cow to be pushed around in all things. She’s smart enough to generally understand what you are trying to tell her. Call her name, she will come. Shoo her away, she will leave. What other commands would you need?”
Damn, I wish training a dog was so simple. I’d helped Jacob with training his mutt and you had to teach that little shit anything you wanted it to do.
By this point, it seemed like all my matrons had been paired with a mount. Sevrina and Mavrin were mounted on two of the hiersver, as was Nauveir. Creadean was the only other one mounted on a Friror. The rest were astride their Grass Drakes.
I swallowed and turned to Jauna.
“Crof.” I commanded.
The cat settled down on its stomach and I put my foot in the stirrups and pulled myself into the saddle. It took some settling for my rifles and my sword but after a minute, I was ready. The saddle had no horn, but once I connected my rings to the saddle, I felt secure enough. There were plenty of other rings that I guessed were for tying equipment too, or saddle bags.
“Are you prepared, Master?” Risavis asked from Irsivir’s back.
“As ready as I’m going to be,” I replied.
“Then we should be off.” She accepted with a nod.
Four Wild elves began cracking a system of ropes and pulleys, lifting another lid that covered a ramp down from the surface into the stables of the Wild Elves. Risavis gave a whistle and led us out.
Riding a friror, was like riding a bolt of lightning. When Jauna decided to go, she went from stopped to full speed like a spring being released. She also jerked left, right, up, and down as she wanted. It took me a minute to get my center, but once I did, it was exhilarating. The guide hadn’t been wrong about the steering either. When I leaned, Jauna followed and it made the experience really interesting when I was off balance at the beginning, leaving me a touch behind, but Jauna caught up with relative ease.
Looking around, Risavis was unsurprisingly the most comfortable on her mount. Creadean seemed to get the knack of riding her friror faster than I did and almost made it look easy. The ones riding their grass drakes seemed to have it easier than I did, as the grass drakes’ stride was much smoother, though they weren’t quite as fast as the friror. For a second I thought I had lost a few matrons before I remembered that three of my matrons were riding the Hiersver birds, and I looked up. There was a bit of a jealous pang as I saw the three birds rising high into the sky. With my magic-enhanced sight I could still make out their faces and by the exhilaration on their faces as they banked to turn in great wheeling circles overhead, it must be amazing.
We tore through the miles on our mounts. What would have taken us a week or more on foot, we crossed in hours. It was a touch strange seeing a mount get hungry and swoop in on some unsuspecting prey, snatch it up, and devour it before running to catch up to the rest of the group. The Hiersver was by far the fastest, having to circle and meander through the skies to not leave the rest of us behind, but we all moved at a fast pace.
By the position of the sun, it was nearly five in the afternoon when we caught sight of the hive. At first, I thought it was just a bump on the horizon, and as we approached I realized that it was reminiscent of a termite mound, but at least fifty feet tall and about half that in diameter.
We slowed as we got closer, stopping around a half mile away. I dismounted and crept to the crest of a hill where I peaked over the top to use my scope to check on the structure.
“So, has anyone ever faced one of these things before?” I asked.
“No,” Tavorwen admitted. “They do not come into our forest and most of us have only faced foes who came to our lands.”
“I was still too young to be traveling this far beyond the forests when the Massacre happened,” Creadean confessed. “After that, we were too busy surviving to explore.”
“Okay, well. I guess our only course of action is to have the hiersver take to the air, and we’ll poke the hive and see what comes wriggling out.” I accepted with a sigh.
It took only a minute for the hiersver to be wheeling overhead.
“Alright, let’s see what we’re up against.” I sighed.
I chambered a round in my sniper aiming at the center of the mass and just squeezed one out. The round nailed the structure, but if you’ve ever shot into the dirt, you know just how little a round does to a dirt pile. The magic seemed to make the hole it would have punched into a bit of a crater, but the round was designed for penetration, not widespread destruction.
I should see about making explosive rounds, I thought. The adamantine rounds seemed to be the best I could get as far as armor penetration, but an explosive round could have good application too.
“Where are they?” I breathed.
Most insects I knew of would swarm as soon as anything touched their hive, and even if it hadn’t caused massive destruction, they should have been able to notice a magically enhanced. 50 caliber round hitting their home.
Then the ground underneath me began to shake.
“Shit.” I cursed and threw myself to the side.
Mandibles burst through the surface, barely missing me and as I scrambled backward, I got my first look at a kaneg, as the monster emerged from the soil.
The beast had a thick, brown carapace, riddled with ridges and spikes. It appeared to have six body segments. The first held its head and mandibles. It had two compound eyes and two solid black eyes, four antennae, then the mandibles and mouth. The mandibles were spiked and hairy and had what looked like a fang or claw at the ends. The mouth appeared to be a gigantic four-sectioned toothy maw. The next body section had two clawed sections like a crab and two grabbing legs, more like a mantis. The next three sections had the legs it walked on, two per section. The last section appeared to just be a body section for organs or some other function, with two long stiff tails coming out.
I raised my rifle, pointed directly at the beast’s second body section, and fired. The kaneg jerked as the round slammed into it, but with a cracking sound, the round ricocheted off and luckily into the soil.
“Fuck.” I cursed, scrambling back further.
The ground erupted as two more emerged from the soil around us, and all my matrons went into battle mode. I heard blades sing as they rang free of their scabbards, but I was focused on the enormous crab-bug that was now skittering toward me.
“Shit, shit, shit.” I breathed, my brain panicking for a second.
If my. 50 caliber rifle couldn’t even dent their exoskeleton, how in hell was I supposed to do anything to these fuckers?!
One of the mantis’ raptorial claws rose to slash at me, but with a howl, Jaunas leaped on the creature’s back and started tearing at its head and antennae. With an angry chittering noise, the kaneg began to spin and try to dislodge the great cat. Jauna managed to hold on for a few seconds but then was sent flying over my head and the creature began moving toward us again.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! What do I do?!
In a moment of instinct, I raised my hand, fingers close together, my palm pointed at the great beast.
“Hafrivark!” I commanded, my mind racing through the steps of the spell.
My ember bolt slammed into the center of the beast’s second body segment, the fire seeming to spin and grind against the carapace, warming it until it turned white with heat, but it couldn’t break through. I saw the exoskeleton begin to flex under the magical onslaught, and in desperation aimed my rifle at the superheated section.