Wulf the Eternal Warrior

Finally, late in the afternoon, Conan signaled a halt to the group. The pilgrims were tired, yet still jubilant, continuing to revel in their new-found freedom and improved conditions. Many of his soldiers had paired up with the young women, and they were enjoying the camaraderie of young love.

They were at the base of a rocky peak. Jagged rocks rose high overhead, in a cascade of boulders that seemed to the plains dwelling jungle folk the barbarian led to be an inaccessible barrier. To these folk of the savannah, rocky bluffs and hills were not a part of their lives, and so were best avoided. Conan intended to show them differently.

“I will need you to make ropes,” he spoke to the group, “you make them thus.” And he demonstrated, twining vines into coils, over and over, and twisting them. He showed how to attach them one to another, and the young women and men immediately set about copying his instructions. “Tomorrow,” he continued, “we will ascend this cliff, and then descend into the valley of beyond! So work with a will, since it is your freedom you are buying, along with your future safety.”

Conan was happy to see the assiduousness with which the people labored, making rope for the morrow, and preparing the camp. Truth to tell, he had been afraid for these folk, since he had witnessed before among people that had been enslaved that oftentimes they lost their will to strive. Too long in slavery, too long being supported by others, even amidst evil conditions, and many ex-slaves found they could not make themselves work, strive, and support themselves no matter what- they had lost their very human-ness!

“Crom’s devils!” he said to Jamba, who stood beside him watching the work. “Glad am I that I am not wasting freedom on a folk too weak and indolent to work and strive. Tomorrow we will send these folks to a future worth living!” Jamba nodded, and smiled a wide, white toothed grin at his leader. He held up a large wineskin, and Conan smiled as well. The two moved off towards the campfire, to spend an enjoyable evening swilling wine before the labors of the morn.

The next dawn, all in the camp arose early, since such was Wulf’s instruction. Many long coils of rope had been made, and were stacked at the base of the cliffs that rose upwards from the plains. The barbarian, standing before those he led, gave last minute instructions. Then, dressed only in a rough tunic, with his sandals and sword strapped to his back, and a poniard in a sheath on his waist, he grasped a long coil of the rope. Placing it over his shoulder, he started upwards, straight up the cliff side!

Long experience in his native Germania had made him as sure footed as a goat on rocky outcroppings, and he clambered up the cliff rapidly, finding such minuscule projections as existed intuitively. What looked like a sheer, smooth vertical rise to the plains bred black folk was to him a well defined staircase of a sort. To the awe of his followers, he soon reached the very peak of the cliff and looked down from above with a wave. He looked quite small, high above!

Uncoiling his rope, he dropped the end back down to the plains, where Jamba grasped it. Jamba, another coil of rope on his back, walked up the cliff, slowly, as Wulf pulled him upwards by main force- up the sheer cliff, with no perceivable exertion from lifting a very large man straight up a wall! Jamba helped where he could, pushing upwards on small ledges and cracks, and before long he stood on the cliff along with his leader. Jamba also dropped the end of his rope down, after loosing Wulf’s rope from about his waist, and dropping that down again as well.

The pilgrims had been well instructed as to what to do now- they quickly dragged forward a long platform they had made of wood, branches and vines- on this they set their few possessions, the weapons of the soldiers, and a few of the smaller children and women. Wulf and Jamba had made their ropes fast by tying them to some large boulders that they placed at the edge of the cliff on the other side, which was about as sheer as the one they had just ascended. Then, with the platform loaded, they pushed the boulders over the cliff on the inward side, counterbalancing the platform enough that they could easily pull the whole thing up, equipment, children, women and all, up to the peak! They repeated this process a number of times, sending the platform back down with a large boulder on it each time, which the people would remove, and replace with themselves- soon, the entire band was on the cliff.

Before them was the land that Wulf had promised them, but fairer it appeared even than his words had described! A broad plain was set before them, with woods, and ample clearings for crops. Fruit trees and bushes abounded, and they could see large herds of the aurochs roaming over the fertile savannah. There was no sign of the large jungle cats, gorillas, or other predators of the jungle here- this land was surrounded as if by a large wall all about; the cliffs that ringed their promised land had kept all within protected for eons. Here they could be safe!

Many of the women, and soldiers too fell to their knees in front of the barbarian, tears falling from grateful eyes. Wulf shook his head, lion-like, and addressed them, blue eyes blazing: “Nay- never kneel again- now you are free, and you abase yourselves to no one! So- get up, and let’s go down the other side!” The readiness to kneel and surrender authority- this was something he could not understand, and could not abide in these races of the South- and under his charge he would not abide.

Before that evening, all of the pilgrims were safe on their new land, along with their possessions. After setting up a hasty camp, they danced and sang before the camp fire, as a small band of men was discharged on a hunting and exploring expedition. Wulf led the group, made up of most of his best warriors, since they were headed off into what was largely unknown terrain. Although the barbarian had been here before, as he had stated, he had not fully explored the large area of this natural bowl made of cliffs surrounding a vast plain. But, he did know of a large source of fresh water, and to this he led his men.