NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14
Grud and Nita traveled for three days to find their way back to the route that the tribe usually uses and continued their travel towards The Ancestor Rock. The travel was peaceful, but it was weirdly too peaceful, for the past four days since Grud started his travel with Nita, he would do some hunting in the nearby areas, but the weird thing was that he could not find any of the larger animals to hunt.
The only game he managed to hunt were animals small enough that could hide in burrows or fly away. This meant something was chasing the larger prey away and Grud suspected it was the wolf pack that his tribe wiped out so he was not so worried. The larger animals would return in time.
Besides the area being weirdly too peaceful, Grud found another thing to be weird. Whenever he was about to get frisky with Nita, he would feel the same tingle he got from touching the tree back in the cave while he was touching and fucking Nita, and some time after the tingling sensation would go away.
But the weirdness did not stop there, as they traveled Grud would feel the tingling sensation pass in different directions of his body, when he looked in the direction he felt the tingling sensation from, he would sometimes see a fluttering blue glow dissipate out of sight behind a tree or rock followed by a little giggle that sounded like Nita but airier.
When Grud told Nita about what was weird and what he saw and heard, Nita would have worried if Grud was right in the head, if not for the fact that she also saw and heard what Grud did except for the tingling sensation.
On better news, the veins all over his body had subsided, Grud was back to his suntanned skin and felt more powerful than ever, to which Nita definitely felt that power when she was getting fucked.
When Grud and Nita got back to the route that their tribe was traveling on, they followed it. After a day of following the trail, Grud felt something was wrong. The traces left by the tribe of more than seventy people were so extremely obvious, that even Nita who only knew bits and pieces of what to look for could tell that the tribe diverted from the usual route and traveled into a thicker part of the woods.
As they followed the trail left by the tribe’s passing, Grud started picking up on something with his enhanced senses. Paw prints were going in the same direction as the tribe and as he took a sniff of the air and the tracks the paws left behind, he realized they belonged to wolves but the track smelled as old as the track left behind by the tribe. This could most likely mean one thing, “Our tribe is being chased by wolves”.
Nita turned to look at Grud with worry on her face “I thought the wolf pack got wiped out by our hunters before I fell into the river.” Grud looked back and nodded “From the number of tracks and what I can smell, the number of wolves is most likely big enough for a pack. This may be a different pack chasing our tribe.”
“In any case we better hurry to rejoin our people. From the tracks, the tribe got about two or three days ahead of us” Grud then proceeded to front carry his vine-woven basket, knelt down and looked at Nita. “Get on my back. We are going to catch up with them.” When Nita got onto Grud, she wrapped her arms around his neck while Grud held her legs, when Nita was as comfortable as she could get, Grud followed the trail at a fast jog.
—
It has been four days since the wolves attacked and forced the tribe off the usual path and Froll was getting tired and angrier at the wolves' constant nightly harassment, so far none of his people had died, but a few of his hunters got badly injured from wolves suddenly rushing a single hunter on the defensive line but the rest of the hunters managed to push the wolves back and even kill a few.
Froll scowled into the night where the wolves were prowling ‘We only need to survive a few more days before we can make it to the rocky hills, I doubt they would follow us there and leave behind their hunting ground and I think the wolves know that too’ Froll and the hunters had noticed that as they got further towards the rocky hills the wolves had been getting more aggressive and reckless which might lead to more of his hunters getting injured, maimed for life or possibly getting killed.
Tonight the tribe made camp in a pretty shallow cave that had a wide entrance. The men did what they could to barricade the place and even some of the older men had been assigned to guard the entrance.
It was midnight when Froll was awoken by shouts coming from the main entrance. As he grabbed his spear and ran to join the defense line. That was when he saw it for the first time, behind the pack of more than thirty wolves was one huge wolf that was half times bigger than the biggest wolf in the pack.
This made Froll’s worry skyrocket, now that the alpha of the wolf pack showed up to prey that was essentially cornered in the cave, “They may be trying to finish us off here tonight before we exit their territory.” Just as Froll got to the defense line the alpha of the pack howled and the wolf pack charged the defense line while the wolf alpha stood in the back.
—
After a few days of jogging with Nita on his back, Grud Could practically catch the scent of his tribe but he could also smell the wolves in the same direction. Grud stopped by a stream to take a break before the sunset and they both started unpacking some fruits and smoked meat. After doing so, Nita got up, “I am going to collect some firewood, just stay here and rest, I will take care of the fire.” After taking a few steps away, Grud called out to her after thinking about something “Nita, wait.” Getting Nita’s attention, Grud continued “I don't think we should build a fire, I can smell the wolves not that far away”.
Grud had kept Nita updated with what he found from the tracks and told her what he was thinking of now “We are a few hours behind the tribe, if we run after their trail, we will be able to rejoin with the tribe by tonight. But we will most likely run into the wolves that are chasing our tribe. If I run into them, I intend to fight them. I think I am strong enough to do that now.”
Nita thought about it for a moment then nodded her head “Ok, if we run into the wolves, just put me in a tall tree with a spear, do not worry about me and survive.” She sat down next to Grud and kissed him, “But for now take some food and rest, we will leave when you are ready”.
About an hour later, the sun had set, Grud and Nita packed up their belongings and Grud jogged along with Nita on his back into the night. After a few hours of jogging, his keen hearing picked up the sound of barking, growling and howling, along with the fierce shouts of the tribe hunters. He stopped, looked back at Nita and whispered to her, “I can hear our tribe being attacked, time to go up the tree.” Nita nodded and hummed in acknowledgment and Grud went to find a nearby tree to keep Nita safe.
After finding a suitable tree, he climbed to one of its thick branches and sat Nita on it along with his vine-weaved basket, kissed Nita and descended the tree with his spear, two axes and knife. After taking a deep calming breath he ran in the direction of the fighting.
When Grud came up near where the fighting was happening, he saw his tribe’s defense line being spread thin with the wolves cornering them, he also saw a wolf that was bigger than the rest, just hanging back while observing the fight, Grud decided that would be his first target. What Grud forgot to take into account due to him rushing to help his tribe, was the wind that was carrying his scent toward the wolves.
Just as Grud took aim and was about to throw his spear at the big wolf, it sniffed the air, perked up and turned around just in time to see Grud about to throw his spear and managed to jump out of the way when Grud threw the spear. The only thing Grud’s spear throw accomplished was scratching the big wolf’s shoulder and planting his spear into the ground.
The failed surprise attack elicited a few barks and growls from the big wolf, causing five of the wolves to break off from attacking the tribe and join the big wolf to charge at Grud. Grud drew the two axes that were strapped to his side and charged, things were different now, he had nobody to defend and could move as he pleased.
As adrenaline pumped through his veins, Grud’s world seemed to slow down and soon he came to clash with the wolves. The first clash was against two wolves, one pounced toward his upper body and the other lunged toward his feet. Grud jumped to avoid the wolf going for his feet and swung one of his axes into the temple of the wolf that pounced, killing it before it hit the floor.
When Grud landed, three more wolves were already pouncing at him and he did not have time to make proper swings, so he did a front kick to the wolf coming at him from the front and swung his axes wildly at the other two wolves coming at him from the sides. Grud’s foot smashed into the snout of the wolf coming from the front, sending it a few feet away with a yelp and his axe swings caught one wolf in the ribs and the other in its shoulder, eliciting more yelp but before he could recover, the wolf that he dodged earlier came back and chomped on Grud’s right leg from behind.
While Grud was being kept busy by the leg biter, the wolf alpha let out some more barks and seven more wolves broke off from the side that was attacking the tribe and gathered around the alpha then as one they charged, this was a tactic to take down strong prey with the weight of numbers in one shot.
Just as Grud was pulling his axe out of the leg biter’s skull, he was attacked from the side by the wolf that got hit in the ribs but that was easy to take care of with a swipe of his axe. As he turned his head to look for that big wolf, he saw eight wolves already coming upon him. Grud swung his axe with reckless abandon only managing to kill one with a strike to the head and his other axe taking off another wolf’s ear, even with his greatly improved response time and superhuman strength, he could not avoid or withstand the bulk of eight wolves crashing into him.
When the wolves crashed into him, Grud was sent off his feet as the wolves bit onto him and tried to pin down his limbs while one of them tried to go for his neck. The only thing that was keeping Grud alive was his tough skin and super dense muscles that the wolves were unable to tear apart. With his great strength, he was able to avoid getting his limbs stretched and pinned down, thus allowing him to block the bite coming toward his neck.
Grud curled up under the onslaught of the wolves and only attacked with one arm while the other arm was busy defending his neck. After a few ineffective swings of his axe from his curled-up position, he abandoned his axe, threw out a few punches to some snouts to give himself some space, drew out his stone knife and stabbed a wolf in the eye.
It was at that moment when his arm was hyperextended from the stab that the big wolf chomped onto the hyperextended arm, and with a few growls the other wolves ignored the rest of his body and concentrated on spreading his arms out, leaving his throat exposed. Grud Now had three wolves latched onto each of his arms and each wolf was bigger than the average man with the seventh wolf fast approaching to bite down on his throat.
Given some time without the wolf that was coming for his throat, Grud was confident we could overpower or maybe kick away the wolves holding onto his arms but he did not have time for that, as the wolf coming for his throat was about to bite down. In a moment of panic, fear and anger, something bubbled all over his body, especially that grain size Monster Core in his chest. Grud let out a roar of anger at these beasts that attacked his tribe, at the pain they caused him and at the possibility of never seeing Nita’s loving smile ever again.
As he roared again in a rage, a violent pulse of force burst out from Grud’s body, flinging the wolves that were biting onto him away from him into the nearby trees. The only wolf that hung onto Grud was the big wolf and it was stunned by the burst of force, before the big wolf could recover, Grud swung down the axe that was in the hand he was using to defend his throat and caved in the big wolf’s head. Grud did not know what happened, but he was kind of sure he did something to make those wolves fly away
Now that his body was wolf free, he stood up, but as he stood up, he felt light-headed and somehow hollow. He still felt he could move and fight but he felt somehow weaker, but now was not the time for that, there was still killing to be done. He dropped his knife, picked up his axe and rushed the wolves that were still recovering, after a quick strike to the heads of the six stunned wolves, Grud rushed the wolves that were still attacking the tribe and oblivious to the death of their alpha.
When Grud flanked the wolves from the back he immediately reaped the lives of two wolves while letting out a battle cry which attracted the attention of the wolves, the hunters did not let this opportunity of Grud’s distraction go to waste and launched a counterattack. Without the wolf alpha to direct them, the wolves were quickly routed with many of the wolves being killed in the counterattack.
With the wolves gone, the tribe cheered “Grud is back!”, “We survived!” and many other shouts of joy. All except one person, Froll pushed through the men giving Grud shoulder pats and back slaps, grabbed Grud by the shoulders and asked him with an intensity only a father could understand, “Where is Nita?! Is she alive?!” This quieted down the excitement of the people crowded around “Yes, I put her up in a tree before I came here to fight.” Hope and relief welled up in Froll as he gathered up some of the men “Let's go get her.”
A short while later, the small group of men along with Grud, Nita and Froll made it back to the tribe where Rae and Iko ran up to Nita and started hugging and crying while fussing over her. Now that the fighting was over and the adrenaline was leaving his body, Grud was feeling tired from the whole day of running, the short but intense fight and whatever he did to make those wolves fly away from him.
—
After the crying and fussing was over Nita asked her mothers about something in hushed whispers, Iko pointed to somewhere deeper in the cave that looked like it had some privacy. Nita then went up to Grud who was talking to her father and told her father that Grud was tired and that whatever they had to talk about could wait for tomorrow.
Nita took a water skin, some healing salves from Dhuk and brought Grud to the private area deeper in the cave to clean and dress his wounds. After which she proceeded to relieve her husband of the excitement that was building up somewhere else in his body before she went to sleep with a full belly.
