Spear

Branches crashed, trees snapped, a deep yell cut through the trumpeting chaos of the forest. The young Jotunn hunter, Jhonas, was thrown against a conifer. The tree snapped like a child tumbling into a sapling.

He groaned on the snow covered ground. His shoulder bled from a deep wound. His fur-lined tunic was torn. His face was covered in blood and dark hair a tangled mess. He looked up with his black eyes just as thundering crashes hurtled in his direction.

He had lost his cannon in the failed attack.

Jhonas climbed to his feet. Eight feet of Siberian Jotunn. He was battered, but never beaten.

The trumpeting calls grew closer. Birds scattered from the forest.

Jhonas considered drawing his pick-axe and dagger, but he saw a broken tree trunk a few yards away. Straight and strong enough to hold effectively with a jagged point.

From between a pair of snow swept conifers charged the attacking beast. A Gompho.

Half the size of a mammoth, therefore bigger than a bull rhino, it charged towards Jhonas. Squat burly body covered in bristly brown fur. From its upper and lower jaws grew short pointed tusks. A four pronged charge of interlocking ivory, with a short flexible trunk.

Its stampede shook the ground. Snow fell from trees.

Jhonas jumped for the rudimentary spear. He gripped it with white-knuckled desperation to survive. He braced it against the ground, point out.

An unintelligible roar slipped from his lips.

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