I pulled my arms up and beckoned the earth, causing two large vines to twist their way out of the soil. I brought one arm back and began to swing it forward, commanding the vine toward the Elven assassin. Before I could extend my arm, a series of snapping twigs and rustling leaves alerted me to something much bigger just beyond the berry patch.
An ogre bellowed as he climbed to his feet from behind a nearby boulder. His body was mostly hairless and he stood like a mountain before us. His canine teeth were too big for his mouth and saliva dripped below them. He leveled a large tree trunk above his head, and with one harsh stroke he slammed it down at me.
I dove, landing on my back with my hands touching the edge of the cliff. Chipry bolted. The club missed by more than I expected. I looked up to see an arrow sticking out of the ogre's ribs. Blood ran down his side.
I looked at the Elf. He had a panic on his face that I can only assume mirrored my own. He readied another arrow. We made eye contact. And then he turned back to the ogre.
Was he helping me? I thought. Why wouldn't he just run and let me die?
I saw Chipry breathing heavily in the treetops above. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I sucked it back in as the ogre raised his tree once more. I looked to the vines I had created and found them smashed to a pulp. That could have been me, I thought. Having less to work with, I raised one arm creating a smaller vine behind the ogre. It reached up and snagged the tree trunk in the middle of his windup.
The vine wasn't strong, but I hoped it was enough. The ogre tried to pull the trunk back over his head, and presumably onto mine, but the vine stopped it. It held out long enough to make the ogre lose his balance, and then the vine broke away. The ogre fell back into a sitting position, with the tree trunk behind him.
He roared with a ferocity that shook the ground. He reached for me with one hand as he pushed himself to his feet with the other. With my back to the cliff, I had nowhere to go. His hand came close enough that I could see the swirls of fingerprints on his pale gray fingers.
Thwwmmp. An arrow pierced his arm before he could grab me and he reeled back in pain. He turned to face the Elf. The ogre tore a small tree from the ground and charged in the Elf's direction. I saw glimpses of the Elf running away between the ogre's thick legs.
I tried to trip the ogre up again by forcing roots to rise in front of his footfalls, but the ogre only stumbled, obliterating the roots in his charge. He brought the trunk back to swing. I tried once more to throw him off balance with a vine, but he swung from side to side this time. My small vine barely slowed him down. The tree trunk slammed into the Elf and he went flying across the forest. He fell in a heap at the base of a tree.
I had to think fast. Otherwise, this Elf, the first person to help me with anything, was going to be ogre food.
"Hey, over here!" I yelled. The oaf kept lumbering toward the limp Elf. I looked down at the blackberry bush that Chipry and I were previously feasting on. They covered themselves in thorns to protect the fruit within.
I looked back at the ogre and then the Elf and began building a cage of vines covered in large thorns. By the time the ogre came close to reaching the Elf, the archer was hidden inside a dense thicket of thorns. Smaller thorned vines crawled outward, covering the ground to keep the ogre out of reach.
The ogre tried to walk across the blanket of vines to the Elf, but the spines tore at his bare flesh. As small as they were, they still managed to slow the giant. He began ripping at them, groaning with each pull as they sliced at his hands. Then, a small rock hit him right in the side of the head. He looked in the direction it came from, enraged, and found me, once more.
"Come get me! No thorns over here!" I yelled, and this time he was angry enough to listen.
He barrelled through the clearing as I stood in place at the edge of the cliff. Blood now covered the creature, each arrow wound and tear in his flesh sent streams of blood flowing down his arms, torso, and legs. Each footfall made the earth shake, but in that moment, I was calm.
I waited until he was within arm's length. I pulled tight on a thick vine that I had made while he was fighting against the thorn bushes. It was about the thickness of my upper arm and wrapped around two trees on either side of the ogre's path. The ogre reached for me and I ran toward him as the vine caught his feet. He began to stumble. By the time the vines ripped away from the trees, the giant was already falling. I dodged his grasping hands before he could catch me, and I slipped down to slide through the monster's legs.
I laid on the forest floor, panting as I watched the ogre slide off the cliff. His body fell, but before he could plummet to his death, he managed to get a handhold on the cliff's edge. He hung with only a single bloody hand to keep him from falling.
I whistled to Chipry. He flew to the Ogre, then began chirping and attacking his face. Chipry would be fine. He was a fast little guy, and the ogre was already struggling enough to maintain his grip.
I pulled the remaining thorns back into the ground and ran to the Elf, who still laid bent against a tree.
What do I do? How do I know he's not going to attack me when he wakes up? I thought. I was pretty sure he was helping me earlier, but why?
I looked back toward the cliffside. The Ogre now had a second hand on the cliff. It was trying to pull itself back up, failing to swat Chipry outright.
I grabbed the Elf in my arms, causing his hood to fall off, revealing what he must have been hiding. He had an Elven looking face, but his ears weren't as pointed as any of the other Elves I had seen. With a clearer view of his face, I noticed his nose was wider and his face was more round than a typical Elf. In fact, I had spent a lot of time around people with similar facial features. He still looked Elven, but he also didn't. I thought for a moment.
My eyes went wide. He's half Human?
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