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Windhammer, Copyright Wayne Densley 2007 All Rights Reserved
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50
 The sounds of violent combat are too enticing to ignore. You can feel the blood pounding at your temples as you carefully pull the tapestry aside by a finger's width and peer into the room beyond. What greets you is a vision from your worst nightmares, one that plays itself out before you as a bloody tableau. In what is indeed a large chamber you discover a makeshift sleeping quarters, but all furniture has been pushed aside and a large area laid bare at the room's centre. In this open space more than fifty Jotun warriors are crowded around the walls, and all are shouting and jeering as two giant Chieftains engage in a deadly combat upon the bare ground before them.
Within this melee of noise your attention is drawn completely to the battle, and for a moment you forget the peril that your curiosity has placed you in. The Jotun are huge muscled warriors, their ochre skins slick with the sweat of their exertions and upon the cleared ground they circle each other, testing the reach of their hammers and screaming obscenities as they search out weaknesses in their foe's defenses. In the flickering light of a dozen torches the Jotun are towering creatures, four metres tall and with a reach greatly enhanced by the long handles of the enormous warhammers they wield with devastating effect. Armoured only with metal breastplates the Hordim fight with an abandon that is both reckless and merciless. Every blow of their huge warhammers is met with shuddering impacts against steel, rock or bare flesh, and every successful strike is greeted with shouts of bloodlust from the watching warriors. Without question you are witnessing a fight to the death.
As the battle continues you recognise the breast insignia worn by one of the Jotun. The uniform is the same as a number of Hordim you saw searching the corridors as you hid in the ventilation shaft. For whatever reason there is a matter of honour being settled here, and you have no doubt that it will end only when one of the combatants is dead.
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Do you wish to stay and see the end of the battle? If you do turn to section 218. If you think it more prudent to depart now turn to section 30.
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This book, and its associated books and other documents in the Chronicles of Arborell series are the intellectual property of the author, Wayne F Densley, and all rights are reserved by him. Windhammer is best viewed at 1024 x 768 resolution. Any questions regarding the Chronicles of Arborell can be answered by emailing the author at densleyw@shoal.net.au
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Windhammer, Copyright Wayne Densley 2008 All Rights Reserved
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