Son of Thunder - Murray J. D. Leeder [8]
"Has King Gundar any answers for you today?" asked Thluna.
"Silence only. I asked him how he became so loved by his people," Sungar told him. "Even those who disagreed with him. The songs don't tell that. Hazred and the other skalds tell of how he so impressed the Red Tiger tribe by slaughtering a leucrotta, armed only with one of their ritual claws. And of the time he and his warriors lay siege to the Black Raven aerie near Raven Rock, and smashed fifty raven eggs."
"Weren't you with him that day?" asked Thluna. "Was it truly fifty eggs?"
Sungar smiled. "That legend is for Gundar, not me."
"You must forge your own legends," said Thluna. "The Thunderbeast has told us how."
"No easy directive," Sungar said. "The shamans tell us that the behemoths still live in the depths of the High Forest, but they also say nobody has seen them since before the time of Uthgar."
"A great adventure in the making," Thluna said. "A chance to undo what has been."
"We did nothing wrong!" Sungar's voice echoed across the Crags.
"They don't see it that way," Thluna informed him, pointing toward the camp in the distance.
"They weren't there."
"No," Thluna said, "but they've heard the story. No songs will be sung of it, but the whispers will linger for a long time."
"Then we must find something for them to sing," Sungar declared, "and sing proudly. When we return to Rauvin Vale, I will pick a party and lead it into the High Forest. The Thunderbeast would not assign an impossible task. Now, how fares the chosen vessel?"
"Vell? He has not yet roused, but Keirkrad believes he is himself again."
"Odd that the beast should choose him. What do they say about Vell the Brown?"
"Apart from the color of his eyes, there's little exceptional about him. He is one of the warriors who generally stays behind to guard the camp during expeditions."
"By his own choice?" asked Sungar.
"I don't know," Thluna admitted. "He has few close friends. Though he has already reached the age to claim a mate, he has not. He defers to the warriors with more glory to their names."
"He may find himself with more friends after this, and women besides," Sungar said. "The beast chose him, and when we go into the High Forest, Vell will be with us."
Thluna nodded. "I will let him know when he wakes. For the moment, I have a recommendation." He looked down at the grave of King Gundar. "We are but a day's ride from Grunwald. Some of the men plan to visit it. Most of them were born there."
Grunwald was the abandoned dwarf hold on the edge of the Lurkwood, discovered and settled by the Thunderbeasts. For a few generations they forsook their nomadic ways and thrived at tree felling and lumber cutting. But when Gundar died, the first act of his successor Sungar was to withdraw from Grunwald.
"If orcs have settled in Grunwald," said Thluna, "then the men wish to clear them out."
Sungar stroked his beard. "They may go, if they wish. I will not prevent them."
"You should go, too," advised Thluna. "The men were denied a Runehunt, so let them have this instead."
Sungar cocked his head. "Is a chief to obey his warriors, or the other way around?" he asked, a trace of annoyance in his voice.
"Both, when the cause is right," said Thluna. "But a chief should not put his own considerations above those of his tribe."
"Is that what you think I'm doing?" snarled Sungar.
"No," Thluna said firmly. "But there are those who might."
Sungar paced. He saw the wisdom of Thluna's words.
"Why should I go to Grunwald?" asked Sungar. "To invite more comparisons between me and Gundar; or to let them all plead to move the tribe back there?"
"Neither. Show them you're above those concerns," Thluna said. He paused a moment, gauging Sungar's reaction. "You cannot make them forget Grunwald. Many of our people never had the opportunity to properly leave it behind. You need to give them that now. It is like a fallen comrade. Only when he