The rustling never ceased, it went against the wind and was far too irregular to be of natural cause. Laynah stood in the middle of the hillside, the furthest away from any cover possible. She wasn’t disturbed by the rustling at all. There were many things moving about in the high grass, the activity close by was from a different nature than the threatening rustling near the edges. Around her there was a comforting business, while at the edges of the grass plain she noticed many of those creatures looking her way. Maybe they sensed the corpse of one of their kind, even though Laynah had made sure there wasn’t any blood spilled to draw attention from. She was ready for them, that was what all the friendly rustling was about in fact, all that comforting business…xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Way up high she saw the tree part where the grave was. She would check that out later, first things first though. The big rock in front of her lied there out of place. She hit it with her foot once, as if she was making sure it wasn’t going to move.
‘A brave dwarf hides under a rock when things go rough, the bravest of all dwarves becomes that rock himself.’

This time she cited it from the top of her voice.
For a moment nothing happened, but than the rock seemed to soften up in the sunlight. It lost some of its dark greyness, some of the veins became less edged. Those veins soon became clear as being nothing but folds in the fabric. This whole thing wasn’t stone, or at least it wasn’t anymore now. Bit by bit one could see the contours of a lying shape. A broad short figure, covered in a leather tunic and with a dark beard draped over the larger part of it. It wasn’t simply a visual change, a few moments before there had been a rock hard stone there. Now there was a dwarf lying still in the grass, his hands covering his face.

Laynah took the dead creature she was holding and held the ugly twisted face straight above Muredin’s face. He hadn’t opened his eyes yet, and she held it there very lightly, unnoticeable. She waited, knowing he would take his time to fully awaken.
Muredin wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t already have his own opener though. He made the first sound that was heard from him, half conscious only, still coming back from his lethargic state.
He burped.

Loud.

Laynah held back her laugh, trying not to give away the little surprise she had for him. Muredin opened his eyes. The very instant a small fright escaped his lips, catching him not fully in control of his actions yet. He instinctively grabbed the dead thing’s throat and reached for his axe with his other hand.

‘What a girly squeal.’ Laynah giggled.

‘I’m going to slap you silly with this dead thing!’ Muredin rose up and already held the corpse above his head.

‘Keep it down, at the moment you’re holding up lunch to his friends under the trees over there.’

He calmed down, lowered the thing, and looked over to the side of the hill.

‘They’re still there you reckon?’

‘I doubt they even went away. They have been watching me for over an hour now. My guess is that they have been there since the fight a few days ago.’

‘Over an hour here already? A few days ago? You bloody took your time to come and wake me, didn’t you? It’s nice to see I am on your priority list!’

‘Relax. Now that you’re no longer breaking their teeth when they bite you, I’m sure they will come for the both of us any moment now.’

‘I see you caught one without it being eaten by the rest of them.’

‘The trick is to make sure it doesn’t bleed, you should have figured that out yourself.’

‘I’ll try to use my axes in a more surgical fashion next time.’

Muredin turned both his heavy small axes around in his hands.

‘You do realise I actually wanted them to be eaten by the rest, right lass?’

‘If you say so… Did you notice anything odd in their behaviour, like being commanded in some way?’

‘Indeed I did: something was controlling them. Odd thing was: I never saw anything myself giving any orders.’

‘The little girl, Leki, claims she saw that ghost from the grave commanding them.’

‘What? That Tekshi woman?’

‘Seems so.’

Muredin looked over to where the gravestone was, in fact a bit concerned.

‘Do you think that girl can know such things? I mean: she gave me the impression of being a bit sensitive in an odd fashion already. Like that horse they have, it’s like the girl can understand every word that animal snorts.’

‘That horse can outsmart you any day. But yes: I am convinced that girl picks up things others don’t. She can feel animals almost the same as I can, for example.’

Muredin frowned.

‘Not control them, relax. She’s no family. She can read into their feelings mostly. But in the end it’s a weaker version of the same: I don’t really control anyone, they merely offer to help me all the time.’ Laynah laughed, but at the same time loaded her blunderbuss. She had her own way of doing that. Kildur had designed the weapon with a lever to reload very fast, bullet after bullet from the built in storage. Where Kildur himself loaded the gun by holding it straight up, pinned to the ground, and using his free hand to pull the lever, Laynah simply swung the weapon holding it one handed by the lever only. She let it turn back and forth thus switching the mechanic. Muredin had come up with that idea of handling this gun. Something others saw as blasphemy since it was by far the best gun Kildur had ever designed. The dwarven leader himself merely said that if the gun couldn’t take that type of handling, it was made for the wrong purpose and should be used for clay pigeon shooting only.

‘So, what’s the plan for this than? If they are looking at us for dinner, than how you figure we get out of here?’

Laynah said nothing and pulled the dead creature up from the ground again.

‘Throw it.’ She pulled it at the feet of the stou dwarf.

‘Come again?’

‘I don’t plan of getting out of here at all. These things are dying as we speak anyhow, and the only right thing to do is release them from their misery.’

‘Sounds reasonable. Ok for you if I don’t do it out of philanthropy like you, but merely out of bloody revenge?’

‘Whatever makes you feel happy good sir.’

‘So let me get this straight: I throw the thing, they jump it and we… run in and slay all hundreds of them before they notice us?’

‘That’s about right, apart from maybe the running in. I would advise letting them run to us instead.’

‘Why? They are bloody fast, you know.’

‘Not fast enough.’ Laynah nodded at the dead thing still lying at Muredin’s feet.

 ‘Still there must be hundreds still alive.’

‘Hence the ‘not run in’ part.’

‘Just spit it out already, what are you up to?’

‘Throw it near that bush there. When they run in, some surprises are waiting for them. Even this much of a party it will totally block them from getting to us.’

‘Sounds lovely, but what do I do than? Spit on them from here?’

‘You focus on the other side of the hill, they will come from the right as well.’

Muredin looked over the other side, mumbling something.

‘We kill that side first, by than it should be easy to finish of the initial bunch on the left here.’

‘So that was what you have been doing instead of saving me straight away. But how exactly can you be sure they didn’t notice you laying down a trap or two?’

‘I didn’t.’

‘Oh, you let your little friends do all the hard work again, did you…’

‘You should know by now I never fight alone.’

‘Of course you don’t, I’m always there to cover your skinny back.’

‘One more remark like that and I’ll be kissing you.’

Muredin spit on the ground.

‘Throw the dam thing already, will you.’

‘Too heavy for your delicate back?’ Muredin took up the corpse and held it behind him. With a massive swing he launched it way up in the air. It flew higher than you would expect even from a dwarf. In mid air Laynah suddenly shot the flying body. Blood splattered as it flew it’s last end. With a dull smack it hit the grassy ground not too far from the designated spot.

Muredin gave Laynah a dirty look. She raised her shoulders in innocence. He sighed.

‘You missed the bush, but it will do I guess.’ Laynah reloaded.

‘Want me to hurl you over there too, so you can carry it back here and I throw it again?’

The bait worked, especially after spilling blood in mid flight. From under the trees on left side the grass started moving a lot. They tried to remain hidden to some extend, but soon their hunger took over and the first ones were leaping forward with a remarkable speed. It was a matter of seconds before one reached the corpse. Muredin looked at Laynah: wasn’t something supposed to happen now?

‘One.’ she counted.

Two followed very soon after, closely followed by three and four.

Upon Laynah saying: ‘Five.’ flames rose up in a long line to the left, from above that bush till all the way down to the road almost. It burned those first creatures at the corpse, and it startled all the others running in. As they backed of, looking for a way around the fire, a second explosion came, louder now. Behind them, close to the trees on the left in fact, more fire rose up. Heavier and wider spread this time. At this point all the creatures that had rushed from the left side of the hill were trapped. The traps were delayed just enough so they would all have rushed in. Muredin made a complement on the traps, but he didn’t look at Laynah.

‘Those critters have done a nice job.’

‘They have been rustling to and fro for ever, but not one of those creatures had the sense of looking at anything other than me.’

‘Maybe they don’t eat mice and rats and hamsters, or whatever it was this time you had laying your traps for you.’

Laynah smiled and let the fires do their job. They had another side of the hill to worry about now.

Of course there was a whole bunch of creatures on the right side too. Triggered less by that dead body flying to the left, they still were moving out. Not in as big a mass as their unlucky mates on the other side. Hiding in the grass more, focusing on the dwarf and the hunter in their sight. Still stirred just the same by all the shooting and exploding that was done.
Muredin moved out to meet them. He duck a bit in the grass, and in fact he became less noticeable as he progressed further.

‘Mind the fires.’

He looked over at Laynah who was grinning wickedly.

‘Great, more traps from rodents…’

The fires on the right side spawned random here and there, simply triggered by the first creature running into them. The fires were blue-ish this time though. Muredin questioned Laynah, who was still standing behind him, waiting.

‘I got some flacons from the lady of the house of scents.’

As the first creature moved between the fires without getting caught, he jumped for Muredin. One hard blow of a small but heavy axe later it dropped dead to the ground. Funnily enough the second one getting there jumped the fallen one instead of Muredin. A second axe hammered it down on top of it’s desired mate.

‘By the way: she says you’re invited for tea.’

‘Lovely. Could you stop chattering now perhaps?’

Two creatures leaped for Muredin, confused but aroused by the fires. Laynah shot one, he avoided while she reloaded swiftly, and she shot the second.

‘Slowpoke.’

The dwarf rushed in now, not awaiting any more to reach him but going out to look for them himself amongst the fires. He was fast as ever, his axes hacking and slashing at every turn. Laynah was shooting from the middle still. Not a single creature ever got close enough to reach her alive. In the midst of the fires, Muredin noticed he wasn’t the only one fighting there. A grey wolf he recognised very well, was tearing at the creatures limbs. The wolf didn’t fight them full out however: he grabbed them and pulled them into one of the fires. Each time avoiding to be hit by the fire himself. That wolf was fast, but above all he was tenacious.

‘I’ll be damned,’ laughed Muredin, ‘that I should be taking lessons from a wolf!’ Upon which he simply tossed the nearest creature at hand into a fire. And than he knocked back the next, into the fire. He punched one while his axe stuck into the previous one still. Both into the fire again. Those blue flames devoured those poor creatures. Being burned meant instant death. It seemed a cold but lethal fire. Flaming ice, Muredin called it. That Sentinella sure knew how to brew a potion…

The entire bunch on the right side was being caught in flames and turned to each other out of sheer desperation. Meantime, Muredin and the wolf held a big clean up at the right side, throwing anything that moved into that purgatory blue fire. Laynah simply stood there shooting, as if she was mainly waiting for the important part to happen yet.

It happened. As by command all of the creatures, on either side even, started fighting each other. They fought ferociously and really tried to kill each other. Any one of them being thus clawed or bitten immediately got jumped by all the others near. They ignored the fires, and they ignored Muredin, Laynah and the wolf.

This was the sign Laynah had been waiting for.

‘They have been given an order Muredin, we have to find whoever did that!’

Muredin searched his surroundings as good as his keen eyes could. The wolf dashed of to the trees on the left side. Over the trees at the left an owl suddenly was searing in circles, looking for one in command as well. Laynah did her best to pick up any signal in between the fires and the howling of the last creatures killing of each other.

No one could find anything. The owl came down to sit on Laynah’s wrist. The wolf still scouted the tree side, but not picking up any trail. Muredin was rounding up the last creatures in the remaining fires. He too had seen nothing.
Laynah looked up at the grave, decided. Muredin saw that and he sighed. He knew she would turn that grave inside out, following down every worm that as much as nibbled on the rotten flesh. She wouldn’t stop until she was a hundred percent sure where the corpse went. To the last fingernail…

He didn’t like meddling with the dead. He didn’t like it at all.