Thrum
Chapter 04
Struggle
by E.L. Logan
A long moment passed before either boy stirred. Evrit was the first, refusing to miss such an unheard of opportunity. He began to scan the visible area, looking for some advantage to seize. A good sapling for another spear? He’d have to risk losing a knife to use as a spear tip. Better to use Thrum’s knife, then, but would that give enough killing power? A heavy rock to drop from above, perhaps? None were nearby, so he reverted to his initial idea and set to work cutting a small tree down.
Lost in thoughts of killing he paid little attention to Thrum, who had made his way to Radish’s flat. He returned with a long towing rope. This he stretched around the axis of a tree near enough to the steep slope. He tied a lasso noose on the long end that would hopefully trap their tetherhorn. The opposite end he anchored to something with reliable roots. Evrit slipped over to see what he was up to... and to borrow a knife he wouldn’t miss if the beast escaped with it.
“Evrit, today we’re fishing for tetherhorns. What’s that going to be?” He asked with a nod to the trimmed haft in Evrit’s hand.
“If I can use your knife, it’s another spear. I figure we’ll have a decent chance with two. And all that?”
“I’ll slip it around one of them if I can. Then we drag it up the bank where the horde can’t see us, and finish it. If they stampede, it won’t be up that slope.”
“I guess it’s better than chucking our only weapons all the way down hoping for a lucky shot. How do we drag a beast like that?”
After handing his blade over, Thrum pointed at a knot in the rope. “Radish will help, he’s good for that much if we pull, too. Once we have it over the edge, we should circle Radish around a tree with his rope to lock it up here. I aim to catch it by the ball, so we should be able to get close without earning a flail to the skull.”
“Sky’s Might! Wjere, that could actually work!” Evrit gave his approval as he lashed the knife to his crude spear with a strip of leather cord produced from his pack. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Thrum fetched another rope to hitch the horse to the knot before sliding up to the steepest part of the drop. With slow care, he lowered the noose down just above the edge of the horde. The first few attempts just slapped uselessly against the beasts’ faces or shoulders. A heavy bull turned its head to absently regard the dangling thing, causing its tether to hang forward. Thrum swung the loop to connect with it and pulled it a little way up the appendage before the bull realized something was amiss. When the noose tugged shut around it, the beast broke into a trot as though distance would free it.
Then it whipped its head against the rope. While there was a little slack, Thrum braced his stance at the edge and waved at Evrit before locking his grip and tugging. The big creature yanked again, once it began to be pulled in the wrong direction. Thrum could barely shout, “Hold it down!” before the thing began to thrash below. This was no calf, no simple cow. Every snatch was a thunderbolt upon Thrum’s body. Still the team kept their grip. They would, as long as old Luck and the rope would allow.
When the thrashing stopped, Thrum yelled “Take it back!” and they began to pull for every bit of ground they could get. As they did, he had to gradually step toward the less drastic slope. They would need that if there was to be any hope of getting something this big uphill against its will. “Hold!” he yelled when he saw its big head tuck down for another thrash.
Thrum felt the ground beneath him giving, but he could scarcely do anything about it without letting go, and that could cost them everything. When the earth began to slide, he fell to his rear but held on. He was scrabbling at the hillside to regain the peak, his bodyweight adding to the immense burden upon Evrit and Radish. The tetherhorn stopped thrashing when a wave of soil peppered it, thankfully giving Thrum a moment to pull himself back over the precipice. He found a new fire in himself now. “TAKE IT BACK!”
They managed to bring the bull a few feet up the slope this time before it thrashed again. As before, they held steady while it raged against them, waiting for the right time to drag it a little more. Adrenaline could only last so long. The tantrums became shorter and shorter as the contest stretched across twenty minutes or more. The fits gave way to reluctant obedience about halfway up as the beast thought to seek the least resistance. It could no longer see its opponent above now that Thrum was back within the tree line pulling, which brought a false measure of safety.
Evrit finally saw their target for himself when a knobby ball of horn as big as three fists pulled into view, ahead of a long tendril of flesh. Next, he got a real sense of what they had been fighting for the better part of an hour. A head as large as his own torso crested the edge of the bank. The massive muscled shoulder hump and legs reminded him that a flail was not the only weapon in its arsenal.
The beast clambered to its feet and looked around, seeing two humans pulling it where it had no wish to go, but behind it was an intimidating slope. It was just as well to the tetherhorn bull, who was anything but shy of a good fight. After all, these runt creatures had insulted its pride by trapping it. Why were they even here!? Did they not know? Could they not feel the disturbance? At any rate, the beast thought in the way all great beasts do, something had to be done about this delay.
It charged the nearest of them, but the two-leg critter ducked behind a tree before he could get close. He pursued it around the tree briefly, but even before a full circle, the bull realized the two-leg was too nimble to reach this way. He raised his powerful head and whipped his horn around the curvature of the trunk and… nothing. For the first time in its decades of wandering savage lands, its tether had failed it.
The other human had it bound to a line, pulling tight. The bull rushed this one now, determined to grind its form under mighty hooves. The vexing little critter skittered behind its own tree just like the first did, but the bull was undaunted this time. He trotted just a bit further and in one fluid motion pivoted on his front hooves to reorient with his rear ones landing bent enough to enter an immediate follow-up charge. The stupid two-leg had just stepped out to pull the line once more right when the pivot maneuver became a charge. Poor timing on the human’s part. It barely began to sidestep when the bull’s broad forehead barreled into its chest. The critter was knocked aside, stunned for a second. The bull’s momentum carried it a little further into another pivot. This was it! He would trample the fool and get free of this confounded trap.
The charge was a good one, fueled by a supreme sense of victory. In a sound like thunder, the earth begged for mercy with every kick. The creature was almost up, but it would be too late to hide this time. Again, the big head sent the creature to the ground. A killing blow, that’s what he should get. The bull turned to face the impudent two-leg and reared back on hind legs to give the freed horn as much downward force as possible.
The tetherhorn bellowed his fury, about to slam downward. Thrum appeared from the its left side at the very same time, and a sharp pain fired through the bull’s lung. Jutting between its ribs, the bull saw what looked like a long shaft, its polished surface glittering in the dappled sunlight. In Thrum’s other hand, he saw a stick. This held a huge metal claw on the tip, however. When Thrum put the makeshift weapon through the second lung, lost was the struggle.
.
Previous Chapters:
Ch01 Runner
https://steemit.com/writing/@rasgriz311/thrum-a-fantasy-chapter-01
Ch02 The Wjere
https://steemit.com/writing/@rasgriz311/thrum-a-fantasy-chapter-02
Ch03 Tetherhorn
https://steemit.com/writing/@rasgriz311/thrum-a-fantasy-chapter-03
I should've posted this chapter weeks ago, but I forgot somehow. Anyway, here's some stuff I like to listen to while I write. I find that vastly different genres in short succession helps to keep the mind fresh.
twenty one pilots: Car Radio [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
Five Finger Death Punch - I Apologize
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