The Home Stone

Blick had his hands full, for the barbarians attacked time after time and were driven back with every attempt, with heavy losses on their side and only few on the dwarfs’. Then suddenly as the Snowlanders began their wave upon wave attacks, they stopped. Slowly they retreated back to their lines out of range of the arrows of the longbow men. The dwarfs roared as the barbarians retreated, but that sign of jubilance soon ended with utter silence. From way back behind the enemy lines came something that no dwarf or elf had ever seen before. Something was slowly advancing towards them. Something that burned, as it went. So fearsome was that what was advancing that even the barbarians gave it plenty of room and dared not get too close.

Blick stopped what he was doing when he heard his men fall into silence and turned to see why. There about five hundred yards from the bridge came a creature about the size of a Bison, blazing from the tip of its nose to the very end of its tail with bright flames. Everywhere it stepped it left the ground scorched. The elves moved in closer and began with a barrage of arrows, but to no avail. Each one that hit the creature burned up and left no damage to whatever was coming for them. The dwarfs with huge shields made of ironwood now took up the space in front of the bridge. Behind the creature the enemy began to advance. Seeing that their arrows had no effect on the creature, the elves concentrated on the soldiers advancing behind the fire monster. The enemy’s shields were no match for the longbows and the arrows penetrated and slew warrior after warrior. Still the monster came on. By the time the fire monster or Flame Demon, as it was really called, reached the far side of the bridge, Blick had his men with their wall of thick ironwood shields blocking the east side, still the fiery creature blundered forward. From its mouth one could hear the agonizing roar as it stepped onto the cold stone walkway of the old structure. In some places there were still some leftover puddles of water from the rain that had soaked just about everything. Every time it stepped into one of these a steam of vapor rose up and the creature screamed. The wet ground seemed to anger it even more as it advanced towards the dwarfs and their wall of wood.

Blick knew that his men would not be able to hold back such a menace for long, so he had a second wall set up right behind the first. This should give him time to think of how to defeat this thing. Meanwhile the barbarians retreated back out of arrow range after taking heavy losses. They had thought that the dwarfs would turn and run for their lives, but they did not expect them to stay and stand their ground.

The Flame Demon reached the dwarf’s side of the bridge and crashed into the first wall. It tore at the ironwood and then tore and burned whoever was holding it up. Men screamed as they were ripped in half and cast aside like little wooden dolls. The first wall collapsed and the creature went for the second. The strategy slowed the creature enough that Blick ordered a third and fourth wall to be in place, hoping that the creature would tire and return to wherever it came from, but that did not happen. The demon just kept on coming and wreaking havoc with Blick’s lines of defense. Finally it broke through the lines and headed straight for the village. The first building in its line of sight was the inn where Blick and his generals had slept the first few nights. Blick had about two hundred men surround the fire creature and harass it hoping to turn it, but the monster did not appear to notice the men. It only moved against them whenever a dwarf got close enough to spear the creature. Then it attacked, but only for a minute. It seemed to have only one thing on its mind. Destroy the village. Apparently it and the barbarians were under the impression that if it razed the village the dwarfs would give up and go home, leaving the Hillshire to them.

They could not have been more wrong. Blick realized this when the monster did not continue attacking his men. It only destroyed whatever, or whoever was in front of it. Still the dwarfs tried to turn the thing and get it away from Maryton. If they did not succeed then the village would be lost, for they had no idea on how to kill this flaming creature. Slowly it neared the inn and the dwarfs were scattered. Everywhere the monster went it blackened the earth and outside the village where the grass grew tall, fires raged. Blick took about a hundred men and squelched the flames as quickly as they began. Closer and closer it came to the inn and Blick began to worry. He thought of using the giant birds and had them drop large stone on it, but that did not stop it. All it did was to anger it more. Finally Blick was about give up as the creature stopped in front of the inn. From the top floor at one of the front windows stood Bathilda screaming at the fire demon.

“You’re not taking this house without a good fight from me!” she screamed at the thing and threw a bucket of water down on top of it.

Suddenly the creature reared up on its hind legs and roared in pain. Some of the flames on its back went out. It screamed in pain. Such a sound that would make the hair stand up on the back of the neck of any man. There right before his eyes Blick saw what water could do to this thing, from some other plane of existence. Immediately he ordered his men to bring buckets of water and pour it onto the creature. By the time the first dwarf arrived with the liquid, the monster had rekindled the flames on its back. Now it was back at full strength and even angrier. Again it started for the inn, but more and more dwarfs came and poured water onto the monster. It fought and grabbed a few of Blick’s men. It tore at the ranks of dwarfs, but the men held fast and more and more water was poured onto it. Now the ground was saturated with cold water and everywhere the creature stepped its pain grew. Finally after a long time and with hundreds of men pouring water on the monster it collapsed. The steam came off the body of the creature and hissed like pit of snakes. Less and less it moved trying to raise itself from the wet ground, but with the constant supply of water being poured on it, the weaker it became until it moved no more. Breathing a sigh of relief, Blick order all of his men back to the bridge. With a triumphant cry they returned, but the enemy stayed well back. With the creature gone they did not have the nerve to attack again. That night Blick and a few of his senior officers went to the inn and celebrate they victory. Bathilda cooked them up a delicious meal and presented them with a small barrel of good strong ale to thank them in saving her establishment.