The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington Page A

they both realized the hopelessness of their
     plight. The creature waited on a stump just downstream, making no attempt to hide. Realizing the futility of an action and
     altering said action are two entirely different matters, however, and the Grossbarts plunged off into the forest anew, away
     from their stalker.
    Wheezing and wide-eyed, they stumbled over rocks that hid beneath the loam. A thick grove of yews covered a steep decline,
     and before one brother could caution the other they both slid down the embankment. They caught themselves midway down on slick
     branches, but before they regained their balance the thing had appeared between them in the mossy tangle of tree limbs.
    Hegel almost dived down the slope but paused, more from fear of later facing their adversary alone than from true courage.
     Manfried held on to a bough ten feet up the hill, the lattice of branches allowing the creature to advance above him. A tapered
     limb sagged under its weight just above Manfried. Instead of jumping up to meet his end the Grossbart leaped toward a lower
     tree. He slid past it and his brother, who now hurried after, the trees shaking around them.
    At the bottom Manfried scrambled up but his brother crashed into him, both of them wet with dirt and bruised with rock. They
     seemed to dance a few steps, arms wrapped around each other to keep from falling. The trees overhead swayed and the creature
     lunged.
    The Grossbarts shoved themselves apart, making it land between rather than atop them. Even disoriented, exhausted, and terrified,
     the Brothers excelled at this sort of scrape. Operating purely on instinct, they fell on the beast before it could get out
     from between the two. Manfried embedded the flanged mace in its haunches and Hegel brought his blade across its face, slicing
     into the bridge of its nose and eyes. It swiped Hegel’s arm in the process but he held his sword even though it suddenly felt
     a hundreds pounds heavier.
    It blindly tried to run but Manfried’s mace moored it, and it kicked at him with its hind legs. He let go of his weapon to
     avoid the claws, but as it skittered away into the hollow Hegel pounced, aiming for his brother’s weapon protruding from its
     back. The sword ricocheted off the head of the mace even as that weapon came loose from its flesh, and Hegel’s blade cleaved
     into the creature’s raised spine.
    Toppling forward, it let out a distinctly human scream. Hegel stared in shock, the thing pulling itself forward with its front
     legs despite the wreckage of its haunches and the wound to its face. Manfried appeared beside him, hefting a large rock he
     had unearthed. A delighted grin appearing from under his beard, he slammed it into the monster’s wispy pate. It went still,
     shitting itself all over their boots. They beamed at each other, then each grabbed a back leg and dragged it out of the thicket.
    A loud crack came from behind them but after the initial fear they understood thunder to be the culprit. Snow lightly filtered
     through the canopy as they pulled the dead thing into a small clearing. Manfried retrieved his mace and kissed its gory head.
     Hegel’s numb right arm dripped even after he clumsily bound it. They both poked at the corpse, their earlier jubilation now
     darkened by the sheer nastiness of the thing.
    “Four legs,” Hegel mumbled, “four goddamn legs.”
    “Stands to reason,” said Manfried, not needing to elaborate.
    After a period of quiet observation Manfried turned and vomited. His brother moved to heckle him but something in the corner
     of his eye stopped him dead. He turned back, his hackles rising.
    “Mary’s Teats!” Hegel barked, pawing his brother’s back as he drew his sword. “It’s movin!”
    Manfried looked up, tried to say something, and vomited again. The sticky fluid had not finished coming up before he stumbled
     toward the thing, fumbling with his mace. True enough, its flank rose and fell, and one paw began digging