The not-immortal Blacksmith

2291 years since the new gods came.

"Why are we running?" Pendelton gasped out, still moving as fast as his short legs could move.

"Because that thing can kill us!" Sarah yelled over her shoulder.

"Because, without my god powers, even if I hit it with a killing blow, it will still try to kill us for a while!" Maximilian yelled back, front of the running trio of gods.

Pendelton sagged against a tree, energy spent, "But it's just a pig!"

The "pig" in question, some nine feet in length and 800 pounds of muscle and hate, charged past the smallest of the three gods, and continued after the other two.

-

Meanwhile, a somewhat great distance away, Sam, Molly, and Hesh sat around a small cooking fire. They had set up their meager one tent camp in a small clearing amongst the rolling hills of the forest. As the sun dipped to the horizon, the first of the three moons snuck into the sky.

"I wonder how the three moons effect the tides on this world?" Molly asked, laying back on the long grass. "Do they pull the water different directions at the same time? Or does the big one overpower the other two?"

Hesh looked up from stirring the stew. "With the amount of magic being slung around, and the active interference of the gods here, I'm willing to bet the moons haven't any influence."

Sam lumbered out of the forest a moment later, "I think the last vestiges of the gods power is leaving us. I just had to punch a bear three times in the head to get it to back off while I was pooping."

Hesh and Molly looked at each other for a moment, then began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Sam asked, eyes squinting, and lips curled down into a frown.

"Punched it three times!" Hesh laughed.

"In the head!" Molly chortled.

"Last time I punched a bear in the head, it died!" Sam defended himself.

After several moments of gasping, Molly was finally able to speak, "You do remember that even trying to punch a bear in the head would get you killed back home, right?"

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Sam blinked a couple of times, then his face turned red. "Well, whatever! Point still stands, we're losing our power!"

"And gaining our own." Hesh stated. "I have… more power than I did before… It's… just different now." They took a deep breath, "And much more concerning. I… I keep falling into an emotional trap and losing control." Hesh slumped over the stewpot. "And then everything goes sideways."

Sam walked over to his obviously depressed friend, and gently kicked them in the ancle, "But you keep working on it. You'll eventually get it!"

Hesh gave a wan smile, "Thanks man."

-

Lord Graystone of Dys stared into the full-length mirror in his bathing chamber. When had his beautiful hair started to thin? And why were there polyps appearing amid his beard and on his neck? He absently scratched at his armpit, then stepped into his bath. As he lay back in the tub, the previously steaming water chilled, and began to turn a light reddish-green color.

His thoughts turned from his physical problems, to the book he had been deciphering. He had started to be able to concentrate hard enough to pin the lines of text to the page and had begun to understand the underlying language. He was certain that soon, he would have a spell for the destruction of everything…everything necromantic, that was.

-

Pendleton slowly walked the path of destruction the boar had left in the undergrowth, uprooted shrubs, broken trees, and even a shattered rock, lined the passage. "Dear me, this thing made a path!" Eventually he came to a gentle hill with a rock outcropping jutting out a good way about three quarters of the way up. An outcropping with a pair of very tired gods on top, and a very dazed boar laying at the bottom.

He looked up at Mil and Sarah, down at the boar, then back up. "What happened?" He quietly called.

"We split up to get around the outcrop, and the boar went straight up." Mil answered. "He brained himself on the impact. The whole outcrop seemed to shake with the impact!"

As Pendleton stared at the scene, the boar slowly staggered to its feet, and wobbled its way down the hill and into the wood line, soon disappearing in the undergrowth. "Wow… Remind me not to piss one of those things off."

Sarah and Mil looked at each other and began to giggle hysterically.

-

Morning had come and gone for Hesh, Molly, and Sam. They were following their map, and making good time to the next abandoned graveyard. "Are either of you growing tired of this?" Sam asked.

"Not really?" Molly replied, munching on a piece of dried mystery meat. "Why?"

"It's just the same old thing, day after day." Sam said. "We show up, the undead attack, Hesh holds them immobile, then you and I destroy them." He shook his head. "It's gotten so repetitive."

Hesh looked up from the map, "I like it. Nice. Simple. No deviation. Easy. I mean, I could stop holding them in place, if you wanted?"

"No, that's okay." Sam sighed. "I guess… I guess this just wasn't what I thought being heroes would be like. All this trapsing around, getting scratched by thorny thorn things, eaten alive by mosquitoes, just… Just not what I was expecting."

"Yeah." Hesh agreed. "And what idiot thought mosquitos were a good idea?"

All three of them laughed as they trekked on.

-

Lord Graystone sat at his desk, concentrating on the first page of the book. There was what can be described as a snap in his mind, and suddenly the words on the page became smooth, anchored, legible. He giggled to himself, ignoring the small clumps of hair that fell from his brow, as he began to read the pages in earnest.