The houndsman 3 a base b.., p.1
The Houndsman 3: A Base-Building LitRPG Adventure, page 1
THE HOUNDSMAN: BOOK 3
©2022 J PAL
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ALSO IN SERIES
BOOK ONE
BOOK TWO
BOOK THREE
BOOK FOUR
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Thank you for reading The Houndsman Book Three
1
A sharp pain ripped Maya from the comfort of sleep. It was a warm, comfortable sleep that had taken her after she filled her belly. Her mate, Bjorn, lay next to her, whining and twitching in his sleep. It wasn’t any different from her litter. Given the warmth that surrounded her and the fog weighing down consciousness, she wanted to return to her slumber. However, something about the sudden, ongoing discomfort turned her stomach.
At first, Maya worried one of the litter had wandered away and gotten themselves into trouble. The empathic pulse that stirred her didn’t have the finesse the adult pack members projected. She groggily sat up, scanning her surroundings. Two of the little ones had indeed disappeared. Flint had named them Og and Ceri. Maya sent out an empathic pulse searching for them—she had learned to do so from studying her human—and much to her annoyance, they weren’t close.
Maya sensed Tobi and Gwen sleeping just outside their den. The pair only slept inside if the weather turned wet. However, she failed to detect the pack’s newest member, Willow. She hadn’t gotten to know the grassy dog yet, but Flint considered her a good girl, and Maya trusted his judgement. She hoped Willow had accompanied the missing pups wherever they’d gone. Maya worried about the pain-fueled pulse, of course. However, she knew her pups were strong and resilient—especially Og.
Between the little brown people and Flint’s glowing stones, she knew her litter could bounce back from anything. Besides, they weren’t ordinary pups. Flint had already changed Bjorn and her before she entered her last season and the bigger dog mounted her. The pups were different and touched by essence, like the two of them.
Then the sharp, painful pulse came again, with more violent tones than before. The sensation snapped Maya to full alert, blowing away the fog. Bjorn and the pups whined and stirred. Outside, Gwen and Tobi shuffled in their sleep. Maya heard one of them wake up too. It took a moment for her to identify the source, but when she did, Maya’s heart dropped.
Wake up!
Her bark and the following empathic spike caused the puppies to yelp and Bjorn to sit up. He stumbled on his first step but then righted himself, still appearing wobbly but concerned. Maya felt his worry and took off as fast as her still-sluggish legs would carry her. Gwen hadn’t yet stirred, but Tobi followed with a clumsy gait.
Maya’s heart pounded in her breast. She ignored her scared pups crying still in the kennel, but she didn’t worry about them. It was the food. One of the new residents in her and Flint’s territory had served her dinner earlier in the evening. Maya rarely accepted treats from strangers, but the pups ran her ragged and tired regularly, so she’d accepted the meat ravenously. It had knocked out all of them, including the physically strongest members of the pack. She was sure the pups wouldn’t hold onto consciousness long enough to get into trouble.
Another painful pulse ripped through Maya’s head. It was the worst one yet and for a moment robbed the evolved sheepdog of her sight. Her foot caught on an obstacle, sending her tumbling into a wall. A high-pitched yelp escaped Maya. She didn’t give herself the time to recover. Instead, she continued while her sight refocused and injured joints complained.
Bjorn caught up to Maya, barking, but she ignored him. A familiar but sickly stench filled the air, and Maya recognized it straight away. The bad men—Vikings, Flint had called them—carried the odor. It had come from their stomach and breath. This time, Maya didn’t smell spit or bile with the stench. It was purer and alive.
An involuntary growl blossomed in Maya’s throat when a black dome appeared in her path. It covered the entire slope around the glowing pillar, making it impossible to get by. Flint’s mate floated above, using wings of moonlight to stay afloat. Spears constructed with the same material materialized over her shoulder and drilled into the dome. They penetrated but the slimy darkness swelled, patching the opening within heartbeats. Even though her efforts didn’t provide any results, Winona didn’t stop. She continued to hit the same spot repeatedly.
Helga, the giant woman half the newcomers followed, stood at ground level, swinging her monstrous axe into the dome. Ice as clear as water extended from the blade’s edge, making it longer, and added a spike to the other end. It cut deeper than Winona’s attacks, but the darkness recovered from the damage just as swiftly.
Eager to assist them in breaking down the barrier, Maya pulled essence into her limbs and let them carry her all the way to the dome in the blink of an eye. Lightning crackled from her claws and fangs, and she used them to rip into the blackness. Much to her disappointment, the results were no different.
The empathic pulses from Flint had ceased. In fact, she could barely feel them at all. Maya didn’t know what she’d do without him. Willow and the pups remained present in her honed senses. They felt more scared than hurt. Maya refused to lose them too. Instead of continuing to attack blindly like the others, she stepped back and studied the dome for a moment. While it remained thick around Helga, the darkness’s recovery had slowed around the moonlight attacks.
Maya knew what she had to do. It surprised her the human or fae hadn’t come to the same conclusion. They were either thinking too much or not thinking at all. With enough light, they’d eventually overcome the darkness.
Using her new essence abilities, Maya called on all five of her lightning spheres. They existed as constant extensions of herself, following like a tail. She directed them to form a tight ring in front of her snout and then willed their energy to strike the same spot on the dome. Gold and blue energy ripped from the spheres and arced toward her target. It took several painstakingly long seconds to adjust their positions to ensure the chains of lightning connected at a singular point.
The blinding light that pulsed from the continuous impact forced Helga to cease attacking and shield her eyes. However, Winona didn’t stop. Instead, she redirected her attacks to hit the same point as Maya. The sheepdog felt her essence drain and the spheres dimmed, but she refused to give up. Flint and the pups needed her.
Eventually, Helga overcame the assault on the senses and trudged toward the impact point despite the violent energies dancing around it. A bolt of lightning arced away from the dome and struck her axe. It staggered Helga and dropped her to her knees. The giant woman recovered in a heartbeat and pushed on. Once close, she pressed her hands to the ground and raised curving walls of ice the same way Flint would’ve with stone. The glow brightened and the darkness finally gave way.
Maya wasn’t sure how to process what she saw as the breeze carried away the dome like ripped cloth. The concept of “down” appeared to have changed around the glowing pillar. In respect to her, everything looked the same. Except th
The strange world had little light, but she saw Willow’s outline and her pups nestled in the grassy fur. Odd people covered in ugly slugs trudged toward her babies and the gate. Maya barked at them to retreat, but the sound didn’t reach her pack over the sound of falling rock. She tried reaching out to them empathically too. However, using too much essence in a short period left her drained. The fog brought on by the food threatened to consume her once again.
When Willow leapt from where she stood, disappearing through a hole in the ground, Maya knew she had to move. She leapt into the strange space and whatever magic kept her feet glued to the ground shifted. It sucked her toward the gate, and she scrambled to adjust.
Winona followed unimpeded, using her wings to remain high above the ground. She shot toward Ed as he lifted people over the arch’s side. They stood or sat on the cliff wall like it was flat ground. Most of them appeared dazed, like they too had heavy fogs clouding their minds. Lyra, the woman who often eyed Flint, helped Ed, running between the two worlds. The change in down barely affected her as the ground transformed under her feet to keep her movements smooth.
“That should be everyone,” Lyra yelled over the chaos. “It’s just Flint down there.”
“You stay here!” Ed said. “I’ll go get him.”
“No!” Lyra exclaimed. She pointed at Winona. The woman hovered in front of the arch, launching moonlight spears at the slug-covered people. “You help her keep them back. I’ll go in undetected and pull him out.”
Ed appeared hesitant but nodded. He stood over the arch’s edge, looking into the dark world. Stone spears grew out of the ground and into his hands, and he threw them with enough force to rip the slugs free of the people they covered. As they screeched and squirmed, the stomach-turning stench intensified. The creatures probably served as the Viking’s source of strength.
Maya’s instincts told her to stay away from them, but she pushed such thoughts aside. Flint and the pups were in trouble. She didn’t trust Lyra to pull them out alone. So she skidded along the ground, moving toward the dark world with care. Then Bjorn yelped from above. He fell over the side of a building and dropped like a rock toward the archway. He’d fall straight past Ed and Winona into the slug people. Chances were he’d plummet past them into the waterfall of ugly creatures behind them. Maya had no choice. She changed targets to save him first.
Essence left Maya once again as she flickered through space and barreled into Bjorn’s side. She lacked the strength to carry him, but the force altered his fall and he struck a recently fixed building. The wall crumbled as the giant snow dog fell through it. Pain arched through Maya’s shoulder and front-right limb. Yet she didn’t stop, returning her attention to the archway. Then, just as she started toward it again, a deafening explosion shook the dark world with the eye in the sky. Instead of lessening, the trembling intensified until the bright lights on the gate went out and the dark world disappeared. Only gray rock remained in its place.
Down returned to its correct location. Maya, Ed, and all the people sitting or standing on the cliff face fell on their side. The sheepdog’s breath caught in her throat as her connection to Flint, the pups, and Willow cut off abruptly. An involuntary yelping whine burst from her, and Bjorn matched it, emerging from the crumbled wall.
“No!” Ed screamed. He looked up at Winona. “You have to open the gate! We need to bring back Mr. Flint.”
Winona descended to ground level and her wings disappeared. She raced to the archway and pressed her hand to the stone. “You do it too, Helga!” Winona exclaimed.
“But I’m not a council member,” the larger woman protested.
“With the arsehole gone, you’ve inherited his position. Just do it!”
Helga obeyed, but nothing happened. Ed pressed a hand to the stone too. The shapes carved into the archway didn’t shine like before.
“Boulders rained after the girl jumped in,” Helga said. “I doubt she or Flint survived.”
“That can’t be true.” Winona always projected strength, but for the first time since they’d met, she sounded weak. Maya understood the woman. Her legs wobbled as she took the final steps to the archway.
“I’m afraid that might be the case,” Ed mumbled, collapsing onto his knees. “I saw Mr. Flint just before Lyra went down.” He hesitantly looked up at Winona. Then his eyes moved to Maya. “A massive boulder lay over his lower half. I hoped it wasn’t the case, but it looked like—”
“What will we do now?” Helga sighed. “Your people will never trust mine again. Flint was the one who kept everyone together, wasn’t he?”
“Stop talking like he’s dead!” Winona exclaimed. “The Council will continue to function until he returns.” Her eyes drifted to Maya. The woman sculpted from moonlight rushed to the sheepdog’s side and hugged her. Together, they collapsed to the ground with their backs pressed to the stone. “Given everything he’s survived, Flint will get through this too,” she said. “Won’t he, Maya?”
Maya whined. Even though the empathic link was broken, something inside told her Flint was still alive. That meant her pups had probably survived too. Her human would come back to her. Maya was sure of it.
Hours turned into days. The latter blended together until the sun rose later over the disk and set earlier. Flint didn’t return. As the head of the pack, Maya had responsibilities. She needed to teach the pups how to behave with her territory’s residents and also hunt. They took to the latter easily but needed guiding hands from the little brown-green folk to achieve the former.
Maya hated leaving the archway’s vicinity. Yet she accompanied the pack on hunts since the pups needed teaching. As expected, Gwen didn’t help keep them from wandering away or getting distracted. However, Tobi and Bjorn stepped up to take care of the little ones. The pups’ cleverness and physical ability didn’t surprise Maya. After all, she and Bjorn had created them, and Flint had empowered them. Thinking of Flint left Maya’s chest aching.
The pack needed Flint. She understood that he had the means to gain incredible strength and power but had used the opportunity to strengthen the pack. Without his dedication and hard work, they’d still be ordinary dogs. Perhaps most of them would’ve died when the many armies attacked their territory.
After the hunts, the pups, Gwen, and Tobi would run straight to the gardens where Flint had built their den. Maya refused to climb the slope past the glowing pillar. She’d slump down against the archway and resume her wait for Flint to return. Bjorn would sit with her for a while, then whine and paw her. Maya understood that he wanted to play with the pups and would like for her to join. Having completed the day’s responsibilities to the pack, she refused. Eventually, Bjorn’s sad insistence would turn into annoyance, and he’d leave her to join them.
At first, Winona would join her. The woman made of moonlight brought her food and water. They’d sit together, watching people work, play, and eat around the glowing pillar. Winona would talk and Maya would listen to most of it. Then, as the seasons changed, Winona stopped joining her. Maya missed the company, but she remained seated at her post.
When the pups got faster and learned to keep up with Bjorn and Tobi, Maya knew she could trust her mate to lead the way. While Gwen never helped to herd the pups or teach them, she kept flanking threats at bay and away from the little ones. Maya stopped leaving the walls altogether. She found new spots to empty her bowels—do her business as Flint used to call it—and stayed close to the archway. She watched and waited, counting the sunsets and sunrises until her human returned.
