The Hogboon

“Lloel, stay put. Stay hidden behind the stones if you can. Jonas! I’m coming!” Shellah shouted as she cast off her pack and slid back down the mound. She drew her blade as she came to the foot of the slope next to Jonas, Nessah protected behind his back. The hogboon loomed over them, much taller than she remembered from its first visit on the beach. It opened its fetid jaws and roared. “Go up to Lloel and try to figure out how we get rid of this thing, and hide!” she hissed at Nessah. “If things get too quiet, run back to the boat and get out of here!”

Jonas parried the enraged hogboon as Shellah joined in the fray. It screamed, furious. The hogboon whipped around to slash at her with its thorn-clawed hands. Jonas swung wide to cast it back, slashing through the thistles and brush that comprised much of the hogboon. The half-decayed ram's skull of the creature gaped as it reformed itself effortlessly. Shellah coughed at its putrid bog stink. It raised both arms high to strike her. As she attempted to block, her sword got caught in the tattered plaid of the creature’s cloak, and she thought she saw the glint of a green-corroded bronze cloak pin. It bore the triple spiral of Finnah? Jonas cut through the leg of the hogboon from behind. It stumbled, but turned back swiftly as it healed, the two pieces of bracken knitting themselves together seamlessly.

“Lloel!!!” Shellah shouted, as she attempted to pull on the Hogboon’s cloak to distract it as it swiped at Jonas from below. The fabric shredded and she fell back, catching her balance hard as her knee twisted. She gasped as she crumpled down. “The token isn’t inside the mound. It’s on the mound!!! It’s on the mound! The triple spiral on the top of the old rock at the east end!”

“What do I do?” she heard from above. The hogboon growled at her as it swung back around, thrashing its long arms towards her face. She slashed its legs as Jonas hit it hard from behind. The hogboon turned its grisly head to face up the slope of the mound. They would only be able to distract it for so long.

“Break it off somehow and toss it down!” she hollered back up.

“With what?”

Shellah groaned. “Finnah protect me,” she grumbled as she struggled to get back up. “There’s a small shovel in my pack! Try that!” She smacked at the hogboon’s knee as it returned its fury to Jonas.

“Where’s your pack?”

“We’re a little busy down here, figure it out!” she shouted up the hill. The hogboon snarled back at her. Jonas gave it a quick whack, just enough to turn its attention back towards him. With a strong backhand sweep, Shellah’s sword clove through the grassy neck of the creature, and its sheepshead rolled towards the bog. Its body convulsed in the battle-broken tussocks.

“Do you think it’s slain?” Jonas asked, panting. She shuddered for a moment, and rubbed her sore knee before rising. Nothing in guild training or her many years in merchant service prepared her for fighting supernatural grave-protecting creatures. Even Reavers were men.

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“No?” she responded. “I think it’ll pull itself back together in a moment.” She kicked the head a little further away from the body as discouragement. “We don’t have that much time!” she shouted up the hill. Frustrated banging then a loud crash echoed from above.

“Got it!” A chunk of rock bounced down the side of the mound. The hogboon’s body twitched, and its skull started to wriggle back towards its trunk. Sheathing her sword, Shellah hefted the stone and gave it a quick inspection against the hogboon’s brooch while she still could easily view it. The triple spirals matched.

“What are you going to do?” asked Jonas, as the hogboon’s body shook more strongly, its head inching along the tussocks.

“I’m going to lead it away from here. Or try to, anyway.” She was tired and the stone was a little heavy. “I don’t think it will hurt me as long as I carry this.”

“Need any help?”

“No.” She looked up towards the top of the mound where she could see Nessah and Lloel silhouetted against the afternoon light. “See if they’ve found anything? It's already the middle of the afternoon and we’re still not done here. I’ll be back.”

Shellah slowly started to limp back the way they had come through the bog, and from the corner of her eye saw a tall shadow following behind, keeping pace but not approaching fast enough to overcome her. Nearby she saw a shimmering pool reflecting the overcast skies above. Lloel had said a hogboon might be dispelled if its token was cast into a bog. She held the chunk of rock out, its triple spiral clearly visible at this angle. This was Finnah’s creature, in Finnah’s own home. She felt the hogboon come to stand behind her. It smelled somehow less rank.

“What do you think, Hogboon? If I cast this stone into the water, does this free you?”

“I am the last of my kind,” the hogboon said, its voice croaking in its repaired throat of grass and twigs. “The last protector of this place.”

Shellah sighed. “Let’s keep going, then.” She turned and continued her slow pace across the moor until she found the path through the other mounds, which she followed until she came to the barrow they had investigated earlier that day. She entered. Within an empty niche by the door she placed the stone. She fumbled in her small belt pouch for the crumbling remains of her stale scone as an offering. It would have to do.

“I hope you enjoy your new job, Hogboon,” Shellah said. “Protect our people and their spirits. This is a peaceful place. I have a feeling that other barrow came to house an evil man.”

“That mound’s curse still stands, Woman of the Shielings. It is not mine to dispel,” she heard from outside. “But its doom will not come from my hands.”

The light was starting to fade for the day when Shellah exited the barrow. Backlit against the muted sunset, she could see what she thought was the hogboon, but wearing a fresh Auchundy plaid and a proud white aurochs skull. Polished bronze gleamed at its throat.

“Until we meet again, Woman of the Shielings,” the hogboon said, its voice much richer than before.

“May Finnah protect us all,” she said quietly as she found the path back towards the others as the night fell on Mundy Head.