Added reactions for more survivability!
Anyways...
Deebus had wanted to go hunting with the other adults one day. He had practiced the skills when he was a kid, and consequently the task of skinning game often came down to him. He also often helped the elderly kobolds with chewing the hide into leather and making clothes. So, it was with little difficulty that he skinned the voracious cave crawler and wrapped the hide about him for a cloak. After the pounding-heart feeling (or adrenaline rush, as we say) and the confusion wore off, it was really starting to become apparent that he was in the middle of a snowy plain with nothing but a loincloth and a tunic on his skin. Thinking also of his hunger, he cut off 15 or so chunks of meat from the carcass; what he deemed would be enough to carry. That left him with 19 total portions of food (since he had eaten one of the 5 chunks of draltha heart.)
He left the little burrow to go back and see what there was to be scavenged from the troglodyte's den. After all that had seemed to happen to him, he couldn't believe that it was still before noon!
When he reached the site of the other den again, he saw something sticking out of the snow some 15 feet away from where the storm had landed him. Picking it up, he once more could not believe his luck; the iron shield from his home! Deebus had thought it was lost in the storm, but it had only been separated from him by a small distance. He happily affixed it to his arm and walked away, happy to have something to protect him in this strange place.
Searching the den showed up only pieces of troglodyte scattered during the fight an hour before, so Deebus left the place. With the day still young, Deebus resolved to head as far north as possible; the northern end of the world was the greener one (as the tales told). With some difficulty he also recalled the tale about which way north was from the rising sun. He thought for a moment about leaving the only sure shelter for miles around, but then he had a suspicion that such holes might be frequent.
All during this travel, the mountains had appeared over the horizon. Though he had stumbled upon their foothills earlier, seeing the mountains themselves looming ever higher as he traveled put a sort of dread upon his heart. How could ANYTHING be so big? They scared him, but they also put a sense of wonder into him. Mountains! This could be shaping up to be a real adventure, after all. So, he kept on walking, hoping to reach a green place before he reached the mountains.
At around noon, Deebus came to a place where the snow thinned out, with green grass and thicker (though still sparse) trees ahead. The mountains were not in fact directly north. Here, they were close by, stretching all the way back to the east of him and the northeast, but this green country ran alongside it to the west. His northward journey would not be taking him up the evil peaks.
However, there were other things to fear than mountains. Entering the wooded plains, Deebus was greeted with the sight of yet more terrifying creatures. They were huge and sleek, with big black eyes on the sides of their heads; eyes with a wild look in them, a look like they might become mad at a moments notice and destroy you. They were muscled beyond belief, and pounded the ground with their strange, stone-like feet. They had long manes of hair running down their necks, and tails alike. And when they snorted, deebus could see their huge, slab-like teeth. He had heard legends from far-off places of these creatures, and the vivid stories left no mistake as to what these horrors were:
Deebus tried to sneak past it, but sneaking, the greatest natural defense of kobolds, failed him. The beasts spotted him and let out the most terrible sound he had ever heard. Most of them seemed to panic and scattered, but the biggest one charged straight at him. She reared up on her hind legs to impale Deebus with her hooves, nearly paralyzing him. He steeled himself, though, and dived out of the way. Her eyes bulging with utter madness, the horse snapped at deebus with foaming jaws. This he barely blocked with the iron shield. Deebus jumped to the left of the horse and drove his spear into her side. This didn't seem to slow her down at all though, as she promptly turned about and kicked him with her back leg. This he caught nearly square in the hip, sending him backwards. There was a searing pain in his leg, and a feeling like something out of place, something bending which shouldn't. Deebus screamed, feeling like he was about to die. He recovered himself, though, moving out of the way before he actually did. Overcome by pain, Deebus knew he couldn't dodge many more blows. Looking up, however, Deebus saw that the horse was limping off, bleeding profusely from the side.
The pain in his leg was nearly unbearable. Though he did not know it, Deebus had an uncommonly high tolerance for pain, so with an injury that would have driven other kobolds to unconsciousness Deebus dragged himself to a hollow in the hillside. In his pain-clouded mind Deebus still knew that he would probably be there for a while. He light some fires around him to ward off the evil spirits who were said to come in the night, and probed at his leg. It felt like one of the bones was out of place, as if there was a gap between his groin and the top of his leg. He wasn't a medicine elder, so he couldn't feel sure, but the bone didn't seem broken. This didn't seem quite as bad, so he attempted to jam the bone back into place. Feeling a pop and a searing pain, Deebus knew no more.
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Topic: The journey of Deebus, a kobold story. (Read 190266 times)