The Elder Gods by David Eddings, Leigh Eddings Page B

Misty-Water, I went out to trap one of them. They know very little about the forest, so it’s easy to conceal a trap from them. I found many tracks of their small feet, which told me where I might have some luck with a trap, and then I dug a pit and concealed it under fallen leaves and twigs. It was a fairly deep pit, and I lined the bottom with sharpened stakes, and then, when it was well-concealed, I waited. It took a while, but finally one of the Vlagh’s servants fell into my trap, and the stakes at the bottom greeted it. Everything worked out quite well, except that it took the creature two days to finish dying. Then I pulled it up out of the pit and boiled all the meat off its bones so that we might better see its peculiarities.” One-Who-Heals shrugged. “After we’ve learned what we need to know, you might want to take the skull to Misty-Water’s grave as a gift to her spirit.”
    Longbow’s eyes, which had seemed almost dead, suddenly brightened. “It might please her spirit at that,” he conceded, “and more of these heads might even please her spirit more.”
    “It’s quite possible, my son,” Old-Bear agreed.
    “Now, then,” the shaman said, picking up the skull, “notice that this creature’s fangs are folded back to keep them concealed—much in the same way that the fangs of a venomous snake are hidden. The fangs spring forward when the creature strikes. This is how it hides its weapons until it attacks.” He set the skull aside and picked up the bones of one of the creature’s arms. “As you can see, the creature has sharp spines along the outer sides of its arm from the wrist to the elbow. The spines are much like the stings of wasps or hornets. The spines, like the fangs, are venomous, and they also remain out of sight until the creature wishes to attack. Then they spring forward. Be wary when you approach one of these creatures, Longbow, for they can move very fast. That-Called-the-Vlagh has made a very effective killer, but it has to be close to kill. It cannot kill from any great distance.”
    “That’s a useful thing to know,” Longbow said, his voice coming to life now. “Does this venom cause pain?”
    One-Who-Heals nodded. “Unbearable pain, I think.”
    “And is it even able to kill creatures of its own kind?” Longbow pressed.
    “I’m certain that it can.”
    “Then if I were to smear the venom of one of them on the point of my arrow, it would carry pain and death to any other one I happened to meet, wouldn’t it?”
    One-Who-Heals blinked. “Why would you need to do that? You never miss your target when you shoot one of your arrows.”
    “The creatures of the Wasteland have caused me much pain, and I think I owe them a great deal of pain in return. An honest man always pays what he owes.”
    “Be very careful, Longbow,” the shaman cautioned. “These creatures hunt by concealing themselves, and they strike only when their intended prey is very close.”
    “I’m a hunter, One-Who-Heals,” Longbow reminded the shaman. “Nothing in the forest can hide itself from me. The servants of That-Called-the-Vlagh have been sent into our lands because the Vlagh hungers for information. I think it will be my lifelong task to make certain that the Vlagh’s hunger remains unsatisfied, for I will kill all servants it sends here and deliver their heads to Misty-Water’s grave as gifts to her spirit, as a sign that I love her still.”
    “And will you now go to the hunt, my son?” Chief Old-Bear asked.
    “If it pleases you, my father.”
    “It pleases me very much, Longbow.”
    And so it was that Longbow of the tribe of Old-Bear vanished into the forest to seek out the venomous servants of That-Called-the-Vlagh. It was rumored over the next decades that the Vlagh sent many of its servants into the lands of the tribe, but few if any of its servants returned, for Longbow had become one with the forest, and the creatures of the Wasteland could neither see nor hear him, nor