"... These mammoths weren't mad to begin with."
"..."
Grandpa's words were right on point. The mammoths that went mad seek death to rest from a certain pain as far as we know but there was nothing heard before about the mammoths being cured of that state.
This only meant that the mammoth returned back from the madness for the first time in history (as far as we know) or there madness wasn't natural.
"They were triggered by something!"
We all looked at the one who spoke and that was Nurina.
"Arch-Wizard Nurina, do you have an explanation?"
"I am not sure myself. It was fascinating to witness a mammoth in its rage but that wasn't normal. By the signs I read, this mammoth over here is too young to go on madness. Something or someone must have caused it to go mad. Don't you think so too, Jon?"
Why is he asking me?
I am not sure why she said that but I managed to take a hint.
Right as I got the idea, I turned around and walked to the mammoth that was lying on a mound over there. I didn't even get triggered at me at all.
"Hey, Furball! I need you to keep calm, no one will hurt you anymore."
The mammoth opened its eye and looked at me for a second then closed it calmly again. It somehow meant that it is fine with me getting close.
Uncle Balder followed me closely as he was to act with me, he is the most knowledgeable one in the clan about the animals and he even developed some medicines regarding there cases.
After a fast examination, he already guessed up what was going on.
"It seems what Arch-Wizard Nurina said was true. The last mammoth has traces of a strange substance around its snot. It seemed that these two hotheads have caused a high amount of heat to purge that substance out of the mammoth's body. Truly, idiots can be marvelous sometimes."
"Hey, Balder. You can call Jonrad whatever you like but Jon is a genius."
"I apologize, father."
I don't understand why but Uncle Balder usually treats the other people coldly. And regarding what Grandpa said about me being a genius, it is not only my case. Every Firemane is a genius.
Still, for a pacifist like Uncle Balder, he doesn't like warmongers like Jonrad the most. He may be the weakest uncle but he is a poet and a medicine master, his knowledge of alchemy is over what I have seen in even the College.
Anyway, he could determine that the mammoth was indeed acting under the effect of some drug that it inhaled.
"From the engravings on the tusks of the mammoth, this one was raised by giants. The giants value mammoths the most and will never hurt them."
"Which means this was done by a man."
"But for what reason?"
The conversation started going around in circles and most of the people around were trying to deny the fact that it may be what they think of.
"If what I am thinking about is correct, then this matter won't end by just this mammoth here. More will appear very soon." I said what was in my mind.
Once I said that, the people around me looked at me with displeasure. Of course no one would want my words to be true. Oblivion! Even I don't want them to be true.
But reality has proven to be a bitch as usual when we heard another loud cry of a mammoth.
Those who looked at me in disdain before glared at me this time. I could only shrug my shoulders saying 'I told you so!'
"You jinxed it, Jon!" Even Jull and Alina who were carrying Nurina's tools as if her maidservants were glaring at me.
"It seems like what we didn't want to think of is true. I think we have to fend off the mammoths that will come and send a team to investigate…" Grandpa started putting a plan, "... Any volunteers that will go with Jon?"
"Hey, Old Man! Why should I go?"
"You jinxed it, boy! Rules are rules."
"... What rules? And since when do the clan's rules get applied on me?"
"The punishment does."
"Tsk!"
These people!
"Fine! I am the only one that can fly anyway. Who wants to come with me? Good news... we will fly, bad news... we will fly!"
The family members in front of me looked at each other and sighed.
"I am coming!" Jonrad said.
"No! They will need you to use the strong Flame Magic to finish the mammoth faster." I said.
"I will come then." Hilda said.
"Okay!"
Hilda is easier to deal with that Jonrad anyway.
"You guys need to call reinforcements. This matter should be handled as someone trying to draw some of us out to deal a blow to us. I don't know what strategies you use in that situation but the number we have here is not promising to fend off two more mammoths."
I started bossing the Firemanes around.
We were around 120 but that is still not good. Only 20 of us are from the main house and we are the true fighting force around here. The soldiers of the clan will soon not be able to keep up.
Grandpa nodded to my words even though he didn't want to consider it a direct attack on the clan.
What worried me the most was the power of the clan itself. It is by no means bad and every one of the Elders can defeat me in less than three moves if they went serious. The thing that worried me was how massive and strong these mammoths are.
I tried to compare their size to a dragon like Paarthurnax and really got me bad. Paarthurnax is gigantic and there is no clue that the other dragons won't be as large as him. If that power level of the mammoth can make us troubled like that then the future where dragons will be on every mountain beak is something apocalyptic for the current day Nords.
The Firemanes can make it. They may have a free of charge Dragonborn if they encountered trouble but they can fend off a dragon if they worked like hell together.
Anyway, I think it is time to stop these depressing ideas. I was already done conjuring the Flame Atronach Hawks and rode with Hilda.
The mammoth that was lying around nearby moved up before I could fly and everyone tensed. However, it didn't move at us. It picked the direction where the angry mammoth cry came from just a while ago and started moving south.
"What is it doing?" Hilda was worried about the situation.
"Hey, Furball! Where to?"
The mammoth trumpeted as a response and hasted its pace ahead.
"That mammoth! Has it just told you to follow?"
"Seems so! It doesn't want to meet its drugged kin as it seems and wants to lead us somewhere."
I urged the atronach to fly and follow Furball.
It was Hilda's first time to fly and she seemed to be excited about it. She kept pointing at the places she knew from above and it was rather getting annoying.
Soon enough, we saw a mammoth 200 meters away and it was raging around and destroying stuff. This was the one we heard after I jinxed it. Good news is… it is not out of the marshland and can't be considered a threat anytime soon.
After a while, we say corpse of a mammoth and it seemed that this one got beaten up by another mammoth. Furball convoyed its sadness in a low sound.
"This is more chaotic than we thought."
"I don't want to say 'I told you so'. Seems like the bigger mammoths could rage around all they wanted and the smaller ones started escaping."
"I think the Giants are trying to deal up with the situation too."
"It won't matter to them if it is this human or that human, a human in troubled times like this will always be met with hostility."
I said as I didn't really care about giants too much. Those who played Skyrim must have experienced the 'Giants' Space Program' trauma. [A/N: A bug in the game that can get any high leveled played killed. Just one hit and you will fly so high that you can see the whole damn Skyrim from above.]
"Who said you can't reason with giants?" Hilda replied at me with something that made me taken aback.
"Can you?"
"Naturally."
"Naturally!"
"I have a friend."
"A giant friend?"
"Yes, her name is Shuna."
Shuna? Is that a giantess name?
As far as I know, it is hard to reason with giants. There was that annoying quest in the game where the player will try to trade a goat from a giant called Grok. This is the only possible interaction I know of in the game and the names of the giants are weird and primitive so it was hard to deal with these folk, even their language is unique and no one mastered before. (for the lack of interest)
"So, that friend of yours, can she help us with the investigation?"
"If she didn't find out that the situation is related to us so make sure not to say something weird around her if we met her, she can understand the common language very well."
"Okay."
"Also, don't try to act smart when giants are close by. Just be as peaceful as ever and they won't be a threat. Shuna is a matriarch so she holds more power than any giant you may have heard of."
I nodded.
Giantesses haven't appeared in the game so I am not sure how will they look like. When I asked Hilda more questions about the matters she told me that giantesses are few in number and higher in power so they get to be protected by a lot of males.
So giants are feminists, huh? Didn't see that one coming.
Anyway, we kept following Furball until we reached a cave, it looked rather massive but a bloody sight was beheld in front of the place.
Around three males giants were lying dead. A lot of arrows and wounds all over their bodies.
"I guess you are definitely right, Jonhild. This is Shuna's cave."
We kept following Furball until we reached a cave, it looked rather massive but a bloody sight was beheld in front of the place.
Around three males giants were lying dead. A lot of arrows and wounds all over their bodies.
"I guess you are definitely right, Jonhild. This is Shuna's cave."
Shuna's cave has three dead giants in front of it. I say this is not looking good for giants at this end of the situation. The giants were around twelve feet in height (3.5 Meters) which was rather impressive to kill them. I wonder how many they had to face to die with this number of arrows and spears.
"What should we do from now onward?"
"... I have no idea. If there are giants left in the cave, I doubt we will be able to even reason with them."
"Hmmm! I see."
Meanwhile, as I and Hilda were trying to figure out what to do, Furball walked to one of the giants and made some sad groans. Hilda and I managed to understand that this giant was Furball's friend.
"I say we have someone who can talk some sense into the giants for us." I said.
"And if it failed, we will just run."
"Sounds like a plan."
I then conjured a familiar cat and sent it into the cave of Shuna. With some simple commanding the familiar found its way to the inner parts of the cave and suddenly the connection got lost.
"Someone must have attacked my familiar inside the cave."
"Then we can guarantee to get some answers."
We decided to wait for whoever inside the cave to respond and it took about two minutes for us to feel a movement from inside.
What came out from the cave were two giants, they appeared to have some long, powerful limbs, thick skin, with large hands and feet, and decorative scars on their chest that are mainly tribal or religious symbols, their hair was braided with decorative beads and their faces were wrinkled. They also had elf-like pointy ears.
The two held crudely made weapons as they were simply some large stone and wood clubs. For clothing, they wore pelts of fur and bones and simple loincloths.
They didn't quite look like the giants from the game as they were just the same model over and over but these two looked like an old giant and a youthful giant. What they have in common, however, was the angry look they had on their faces when they looked at me and Hilda.
"Don't harm them, Jonhild. Just oppress them with your Aura."
As Hilda said, we both released our Auras at the same time. Hilda's bloody red Aura and My light green Aura didn't seem to hinder one another at all and made a unique harmonious effect as the giants retreated from the shock they felt. It was hard to threaten a giant but this is enough to cause them to hold back their temper. If a fight started, it would be better not to stay around the area.
"Bring me Shuna! Tell her that Hilda wants to meet."
Hilda glared at the giants and kept oppressing them. The giants raised their clubs to warn her from getting closer and the situation was like a challenge between two stubborn brats.
"Hey, Furball. A little help here, buddy."
I called for the mammoth that was still lamenting its friend and diverted the attention of the giants towards it.
The Giants indeed noticed it and seemed to be on guard against the mammoth for a second but they realized it is not mad anymore.
I retreated my aura and the atmosphere calmed down.
"Tell Shuna to come and talk with Hilda."
After a short staring contest with the two giants, the elder one turned around and left the younger one to guard the cave's entrance after he went in.
Hilda and I were still on guard of whatever comes out from the cave. I had prepared a 'Teleport' spell on hand and was ready to take Hilda and escape any second.
Still, we felt some heavy footsteps and something came out of the cave. It was indeed a female giant but the difference between males and females was big…
First, her limbs looked wider than most giants. She had a lot more muscles than them. She held a scary club and wore a lot more hide and fur than the other giants. Her hair was a bit light grey and her skin was darker than the males. It really seemed that she is the boss around the male giants.
The discovery was strange but it wasn't anything important right now. However, I remembered some mod that added female giants to the game and it was a bit hilarious and very inaccurate for a lot of reasons. Especially when all the giantesses looked really sexy in that mod.
Anyway, here it is in front of us. Shuna, the matriarch of giants in this territory.
"What's going on Shuna? You look a bit pale." Hilda walked forward and greeted Shuna nonchalantly.
"... Skadi!"
"Eh? No, I am Hilda."
The giantess glared at Hilda and stomped on the ground causing us to feel it shaking.
"SKADI?"
The giantess shouted in a different tone.
"Oh, you mean where is Skadi? She is home looking at the matter of your mammoths going mad."
"... Mamaf?"
"Yes, we brought one over there."
Shuna the giantess looked at Furball and seemed to have an understanding that we came to help. The way she asked about Aunt Skadi was because she was more familiar with her than Hilda as I was told. Still, for her to tell the difference between Hilda and Skadi who are identical twins explains that this giantess is very smart.
Still, I was being looked at by the giantess.
"Pur sushnu?"
"Yes, he is a Firemane, my son."
"Hilda sushnu! Su mamaf, gwarshta."
"She is thanking you for returning the mammoth."
"Oh, you welcome."
Well, she is friendly at least.
"Shuna, there are some strange things happening around the land, what do you know."
The conversation later started going between Hilda's responses and Shuna's giant language. I was really trying to pick up some words from that language but it was a complete strange territory to me. How the hell did an airhead like Hilda managed to learn that? It is a very primitive language.
After a while, Hilda looked at me and said what she understood.
"Shuna is saying that two suns ago, which means two days ago, some evil people that she called 'Marti gwasha' came and attacked the giants with a lot of arrows and threw weird substances on the mammoths and made some fire."
"What does that word you just said mean?"
"Marti means death, Gwasha means walk."
Death and Walk…
"Necromancers?"
"It may be the case. For a gang of necromancers to come out in broad daylight only means how strong they are, this only means one thing to our clan."
"And it is?"
"The 'Blackrock Clan'."
***
We left the place immediately.
This may be a very dangerous situation right now. We need all the power the clan can muster.
The Blackrock Clan is one of the Hidden Clans that had an old grudge against the Firemanes and they managed to play us out of our den so far. This will prove troublesome if they were planning an all-out attack on the Firemane's hunting party that has a lot of the key figures of the clan.
This is troublesome. I was planning to return to Winterhold by tomorrow but this may cause me to wait for a few more days.
Once we reached the last place we met the party in, we found some tracks and discovered that they have retreated to Kynesgrove once again.
We headed to the village and found that Uncle Tyr was managing the troops of the clan around the village and fortifying its barricade. Also, Grandpa and the rest were in the inn and told us that there was a sudden update to the situation.
"Our docks were attacked. It is the Bloodsails doing."
"So we are under attack, just as Jonhild predicted."
"It seems the peace is about to be over. The Dare Dragon Company's existence and its alliance with the righteous clans caused our old enemies to feel threatened. The Bloodsails have moved in haste and called their allies too."
"So it is the Bloodsails and the Blackrock this time."
"Indeed, now we need to stop their sudden aggression and call for reinforcements from home. We also need to return Jonhild to Winterhold and Sigurd to his clan immediately."
"Wait, won't I be fighting?"
"Everyone will fight but you need to be among your troops and in your stronghold, no one knows when will the try to sneak attack us once again and how many clans are involved in their conspiracy."
"I see!"
"Father, when will the reinforcements come? And who is leading it?"
"It is your mother who is leading it and Arch-Wizard Nurina has just sent some mind message to her telling her to come with the rest and around two hundred troops."
"Isn't it a bit risky?" I asked.
"Risky?"
"Yes, the Blackrock Clan troops are around somewhere and the Bloodsails are marching from the north. This is the perfect opportunity for the Blackrock who have a horde of undead to trap our reinforcements with their undead as a suicide squad."
The undead are the perfect suicide troops, what is dead can never die.
Grandpa fell in silence and nodded to my words.
"We need to move based on what Jonhild's idea. Who will go?"
"There will be no need to move in numbers." I said.
"Huh?"
"Nurina, what do you think?" I said.
"... Hm? I can only participate in communications. Not really interested in fights. My identity as Nurina Aren will cause trouble in the College if I was found out that I participated in a fight between the natives."
Huh? You are just being lazy. Admit it!
"Well, looks like I have to explain the situation to you… We can conjure undead, right?" I said.
"Right."
"The Blackrocks are also necromancers, right?"
"Right."
"When was the last time we compared our Undead others? Especially someone who is specialized in undeath."
Nurina lagged for a second and looked at me.
"Jull, Alina! Prepare my stuff."
I knew how easy she can be lured. She would never resist the opportunity after all.
Sorry for the late publish! There was a storm last night and I couldn't do anything.
Also, what do you think of the cover? The volume is at its end after all and we will start the adventuring volume from the next go.
And about the language of the giants. I used the Wenja Language of Far Cry Primal! Is it good?
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