Chapter 154 - Troubled Times (1) : The Mad Mammoths

"... These mammoths weren't mad to begin with."

"..."

Grandpa's words were right on point. The mammoths that went mad seek death to rest from a certain pain as far as we know but there was nothing heard before about the mammoths being cured of that state.

This only meant that the mammoth returned back from the madness for the first time in history (as far as we know) or there madness wasn't natural.

"They were triggered by something!"

We all looked at the one who spoke and that was Nurina.

"Arch-Wizard Nurina, do you have an explanation?"

"I am not sure myself. It was fascinating to witness a mammoth in its rage but that wasn't normal. By the signs I read, this mammoth over here is too young to go on madness. Something or someone must have caused it to go mad. Don't you think so too, Jon?"

Why is he asking me?

I am not sure why she said that but I managed to take a hint.

Right as I got the idea, I turned around and walked to the mammoth that was lying on a mound over there. I didn't even get triggered at me at all.

"Hey, Furball! I need you to keep calm, no one will hurt you anymore."

The mammoth opened its eye and looked at me for a second then closed it calmly again. It somehow meant that it is fine with me getting close.

Uncle Balder followed me closely as he was to act with me, he is the most knowledgeable one in the clan about the animals and he even developed some medicines regarding there cases.

After a fast examination, he already guessed up what was going on.

"It seems what Arch-Wizard Nurina said was true. The last mammoth has traces of a strange substance around its snot. It seemed that these two hotheads have caused a high amount of heat to purge that substance out of the mammoth's body. Truly, idiots can be marvelous sometimes."

"Hey, Balder. You can call Jonrad whatever you like but Jon is a genius."

"I apologize, father."

I don't understand why but Uncle Balder usually treats the other people coldly. And regarding what Grandpa said about me being a genius, it is not only my case. Every Firemane is a genius.

Still, for a pacifist like Uncle Balder, he doesn't like warmongers like Jonrad the most. He may be the weakest uncle but he is a poet and a medicine master, his knowledge of alchemy is over what I have seen in even the College.

Anyway, he could determine that the mammoth was indeed acting under the effect of some drug that it inhaled.

"From the engravings on the tusks of the mammoth, this one was raised by giants. The giants value mammoths the most and will never hurt them."

"Which means this was done by a man."

"But for what reason?"

The conversation started going around in circles and most of the people around were trying to deny the fact that it may be what they think of.

"If what I am thinking about is correct, then this matter won't end by just this mammoth here. More will appear very soon." I said what was in my mind.

Once I said that, the people around me looked at me with displeasure. Of course no one would want my words to be true. Oblivion! Even I don't want them to be true.

But reality has proven to be a bitch as usual when we heard another loud cry of a mammoth.

Those who looked at me in disdain before glared at me this time. I could only shrug my shoulders saying 'I told you so!'

"You jinxed it, Jon!" Even Jull and Alina who were carrying Nurina's tools as if her maidservants were glaring at me.

"It seems like what we didn't want to think of is true. I think we have to fend off the mammoths that will come and send a team to investigate…" Grandpa started putting a plan, "... Any volunteers that will go with Jon?"

"Hey, Old Man! Why should I go?"

"You jinxed it, boy! Rules are rules."

"... What rules? And since when do the clan's rules get applied on me?"

"The punishment does."

"Tsk!"

These people!

"Fine! I am the only one that can fly anyway. Who wants to come with me? Good news... we will fly, bad news... we will fly!"

The family members in front of me looked at each other and sighed.

"I am coming!" Jonrad said.

"No! They will need you to use the strong Flame Magic to finish the mammoth faster." I said.

"I will come then." Hilda said.

"Okay!"

Hilda is easier to deal with that Jonrad anyway.

"You guys need to call reinforcements. This matter should be handled as someone trying to draw some of us out to deal a blow to us. I don't know what strategies you use in that situation but the number we have here is not promising to fend off two more mammoths."

I started bossing the Firemanes around.

We were around 120 but that is still not good. Only 20 of us are from the main house and we are the true fighting force around here. The soldiers of the clan will soon not be able to keep up.

Grandpa nodded to my words even though he didn't want to consider it a direct attack on the clan.

What worried me the most was the power of the clan itself. It is by no means bad and every one of the Elders can defeat me in less than three moves if they went serious. The thing that worried me was how massive and strong these mammoths are.

I tried to compare their size to a dragon like Paarthurnax and really got me bad. Paarthurnax is gigantic and there is no clue that the other dragons won't be as large as him. If that power level of the mammoth can make us troubled like that then the future where dragons will be on every mountain beak is something apocalyptic for the current day Nords.

The Firemanes can make it. They may have a free of charge Dragonborn if they encountered trouble but they can fend off a dragon if they worked like hell together.

Anyway, I think it is time to stop these depressing ideas. I was already done conjuring the Flame Atronach Hawks and rode with Hilda.

The mammoth that was lying around nearby moved up before I could fly and everyone tensed. However, it didn't move at us. It picked the direction where the angry mammoth cry came from just a while ago and started moving south.

"What is it doing?" Hilda was worried about the situation.

"Hey, Furball! Where to?"

The mammoth trumpeted as a response and hasted its pace ahead.

"That mammoth! Has it just told you to follow?"

"Seems so! It doesn't want to meet its drugged kin as it seems and wants to lead us somewhere."

I urged the atronach to fly and follow Furball.

It was Hilda's first time to fly and she seemed to be excited about it. She kept pointing at the places she knew from above and it was rather getting annoying.

Soon enough, we saw a mammoth 200 meters away and it was raging around and destroying stuff. This was the one we heard after I jinxed it. Good news is… it is not out of the marshland and can't be considered a threat anytime soon.

After a while, we say corpse of a mammoth and it seemed that this one got beaten up by another mammoth. Furball convoyed its sadness in a low sound.

"This is more chaotic than we thought."

"I don't want to say 'I told you so'. Seems like the bigger mammoths could rage around all they wanted and the smaller ones started escaping."

"I think the Giants are trying to deal up with the situation too."

"It won't matter to them if it is this human or that human, a human in troubled times like this will always be met with hostility."

I said as I didn't really care about giants too much. Those who played Skyrim must have experienced the 'Giants' Space Program' trauma. [A/N: A bug in the game that can get any high leveled played killed. Just one hit and you will fly so high that you can see the whole damn Skyrim from above.]

"Who said you can't reason with giants?" Hilda replied at me with something that made me taken aback.

"Can you?"

"Naturally."

"Naturally!"

"I have a friend."

"A giant friend?"

"Yes, her name is Shuna."

Shuna? Is that a giantess name?

As far as I know, it is hard to reason with giants. There was that annoying quest in the game where the player will try to trade a goat from a giant called Grok. This is the only possible interaction I know of in the game and the names of the giants are weird and primitive so it was hard to deal with these folk, even their language is unique and no one mastered before. (for the lack of interest)

"So, that friend of yours, can she help us with the investigation?"

"If she didn't find out that the situation is related to us so make sure not to say something weird around her if we met her, she can understand the common language very well."

"Okay."

"Also, don't try to act smart when giants are close by. Just be as peaceful as ever and they won't be a threat. Shuna is a matriarch so she holds more power than any giant you may have heard of."

I nodded.

Giantesses haven't appeared in the game so I am not sure how will they look like. When I asked Hilda more questions about the matters she told me that giantesses are few in number and higher in power so they get to be protected by a lot of males.

So giants are feminists, huh? Didn't see that one coming.

Anyway, we kept following Furball until we reached a cave, it looked rather massive but a bloody sight was beheld in front of the place.

Around three males giants were lying dead. A lot of arrows and wounds all over their bodies.

"I guess you are definitely right, Jonhild. This is Shuna's cave."