Korbak sat in the mouth of his cave and thought. Thinking was not something totally foreign to him, but neither was it the easiest thing for him to do. Ideas formed slowly and if he didn’t concentrate on them they were just as likely to fade away as was the morning dew before the Sun. That’s why he sat in his cave’s mouth. There wasn’t much here to distract him. He liked watching the shadows on the rock walls, liked watching the lichen or the bugs, and most of all he liked the smells inside his cave and…

He lost what it was he’d been trying to think about. Even with nothing but ugly trees and the glaring sky to look at he’d still become distracted. He missed sitting in his cave. Korbak began to shift around to go back inside but he stopped himself. He’d come out here for a reason and he should make sure he’d done or figured out whatever it was that he came out here to do.

Looking around he spied the wide piece of dry bark he used to keep track of the things he was suppose to remember but had a hard time focusing on. It was a magic piece of bark. Korbak had learned the magic symbols that held memories and he could record those memories on the bark so that he wouldn’t forget important things. Making the magic symbols was not terribly hard, though his hands were ill suited to the work and he sometimes couldn’t tell which symbol he’d made. Still, he stared at the bark and began to work out the symbols.

“K-ka…no, um,” Korbak muttered to himself. “Kee…yeah, keel nah-eet. Git soord.”

He smiled to himself for being so clever and for the power of his magic bark and magic symbols. Without them he would have completely forgotten that there was a knight he wanted to kill. Or rather, there was a sword he wanted and the knight happened to have it. And so he sat in his cave mouth waiting as patiently as he could, occasionally reminding himself again why he was sitting out there and not in his cave.

The trouble with the bark was that there was only enough room for a few memories. He knew that the knight would be coming by that day but he couldn’t remember why, or how he had learned it in the first place. But no matter. His magic bark was good at remembering and those memories were always right.

Sunlight made his skin itch. Sometimes he thought he’d scratch himself so much that his skin would crumble away. His face was certainly getting rough from all the scratching but he’d dealt with itchy sunlight before. It couldn’t actually hurt him. Just like if he sleeps for too many months without rolling over and the folds in his skin get crusty and cracked. That itched worse and lasted longer than the itch he got from sunlight.

Korbak didn’t like being itchy. He’d be more comfortable in his cave but he had to wait for the human with the big sword to come. He wished the human would hurry up. While he waited there was pitifully little to do and patience was not one of his stronger talents.

“HUMAN!” Korbak shouted when the midday had passed and still there had been no sign of the knight. “HUMAN ARE YOU LOST?”

His ears were keen and he sat still as stone to listen for any reply. His shouts had thankfully quieted all of the scurrying feet and feathers of the animals nearby and he just barely picked out the unnaturally rhythmic clink of metal that knights made when the rode on their big four legged beasts. Korbak thought he’d heard the name of those beasts before but he didn’t waste energy trying to remember. All that he really cared about was that the knight was coming and the big beast would make for a good meal. Humans were sweet but had so little meat that they were hardly worth the effort.

Korbak climbed to his feet and pressed himself against the side of the rock. He’d blend in pretty nicely and maybe surprise the human. He waited. The Sun continued its climb across the sky and Korbak fought the urge to scratch the many itches he felt as the sunlight trickled down through the leaves rested on his exposed skin.

“HUMAN?” Korbak called out again. It really shouldn’t take this long for the human to find him. He wasn’t trying to hide his cave. He’d even made some extra paths leading to his cave in the hopes of making it easier for the knight. He listened again, and again he could hear the clinking of metal. It was definitely closer than before but not by much. “HUMAN! I AM PATIENT BUT YOU ARE SLOW AND RUDE TO BE SLOW AND MAKING ME WAIT IN ITCHY SUNLIGHT!”

He listened and the clinking continued at its regular pace. The human was not hurrying up.

Korbak looked up through the leaves of the trees that surrounded his cave. The Sun was bright and bit his eyes when he tried to look at it. If he waited all day the Sun would be below the ground and the human would be asleep. He didn’t want to wait that long. He wanted to eat the big beast before the Sun was below the ground. It had been weeks since his last meal and he was beginning to feel hungry. Besides, sleeping humans were no fun. Just walk over, step on them, and it was done. No chasing, no fighting, no funny noises.

With a heavy sigh, Korbak pulled himself away from the rock and began trudging through the woods. He was careful to bring the magic bark with him in case he forgot where he was going so far from his cave. He walked quietly, his large broad feet muffling each step. When he got really hungry he would hunt the small beasts in the forest. He could walk right up behind them and they’d never hear him. It wasn’t fun. He wasn’t fast enough to catch them if he let them run, and most of them had little caves that he was too big to fit into.

From time to time he would stop and listen to make sure he was going in the right direction. The human was frustrating. Korbak hated hunting and this felt too much like hunting. If it weren’t for the sword Korbak wouldn’t bother.

At last Korbak reached the edge of a clearing and he saw the human. Or at least, he saw a human. He had on the metal skin but he didn’t have the sword. Instead he had a hammer. Korbak had lots of hammers. Korbak didn’t want more hammers. Korbak wanted the sword. What was more, this human was pounding his hammer against a large stone that sat in the middle of the clearing. He was the one making the metal clinking noise. But why? Korbak wanted to kill the human for leading him out here, whether the human meant to or not. Korbak itched all over and he was now both tired and hungry from his long walk through the woods. The human didn’t even seem to have one of those large beasts that Korbak had been looking forward to eating.

Well, there was nothing to be done about it. Korbak had come all this way and he should at least get something out of it. Walking out into the clearing to kill the human would put him into full sunlight and he wasn’t too keen on that prospect. Fighting could sometimes take a while and that would mean spending more time in the sun. So Korbak grabbed hold of the nearest tree, pulled it up from the ground, and hurled it at the human. Korbak laughed when the human cried out it shock and horror before being crushed by the tree.

Another uprooted tree served as a small shelter against the Sun while Korbak crossed the clearing to gather up the human. He’d be worth a mouthful at least.

“Halt!” a voice cried from the treeline once Korbak had reached the middle of the clearing.

Looking up, Korbak smiled even more broadly. The knight with the sword was stepping out from the trees.

“HA!” Korbak clapped. “THERE YOU ARE HUMAN!”

“Beast!” the knight shouted. “I have heard tell of your foul deeds and have come to rid this land of your evil.”

Korbak cocked his head. What had the knight heard about him? Most years he slept straight through without ever leaving his cave. Beasts and travelers sought refuge in his cave often enough that he rarely needed to go out in search of food. This clearing was probably the furthest from his cave that he’d wandered for near a century.

“…the mightiest warrior in the land,” the knight was saying and Korbak suspected he’d missed some of what the human had said. But talking was boring. It wasn’t the fun noises Korbak had been looking forward to.

“I LIKE THE SWORD!” Korbak interrupted and pointed to the knight’s blade. It was longer than the human was tall and had an extra long handle. “YOU TOO SMALL FOR SWORD. GIVE IT TO KORBAK AND YOU CAN LIVE!”

The knight looked from Korbak to his sword and back again.

“This is the Blessed Sword of—

“I KNOW!” Korbak interrupted him again. “IT CUTS REAL GOOD AND STABS EVEN BETTER.” He was starting to remember why it was he wanted the sword. It was magic too, like his bark. He liked magic things. Magic things were better at doing things. “ALSO, I WANT YOUR FOUR LEGGED BEAST!”

The knight scoffed and set himself for battle.

Korbak didn’t want to fight in the clearing. That’s why he’d killed the first human with the tree. He supposed he could throw his current tree at the knight but humans were sometimes surprising and quick when they knew Korbak was there. If he missed the knight, what then? The knight had the magic sword and Korbak didn’t want to feel its bite.

Resigning himself to being very itchy, Korbak turned the tree in his hands to use as a club, rather than using it for shade, and bared his teeth.

“RRRRAAAAAAGGHHHH!” Korbak shouted and sprang forward to bash down the stubborn human.

The knight leaped out of the way of Korbak’s swing and brought his sword down across the trunk. His sword flashed like the Sun, almost blinding Korbak, and when the light had faded Korbak saw that the sword had cut clean through the tree.

“VERY NICE!” Korbak said, “CAN IT DO THAT WITHOUT THE BRIGHT FLASHING?”

The knight hesitated and in his moment of confusion, Korbak shot out his fist and punched the human in the chest. The metal skin bent and warped around Korbak’s fist and the human grunted from the blow as the air was knocked out of his chest and he tumbled backwards, head over heels.

“NO MAGIC SKIN ON YOU!” Korbak crowed. “AFTER I TAKE YOUR MAGIC SWORD I’M GOING TO GET MAGIC SKIN! I KNOW WHERE TO GET IT! I’M REMEMBERING NOW!”

Such was the magic of the bark. With him being so close to getting the sword, he was beginning to remember that next he wanted the magic skin. That would be tricky to get, but with the magic sword he’d be able to do it.

In his tumbling, the knight had dropped his sword and Korbak picked it up as he walked over to him. The human was struggling to get up but the bent metal skin was making it difficult. The long handle of the sword meant it was a perfect fit for one of Korbak’s larger hands.

“SEE?” Korbak said eagerly to the human. “IT PERFECT FOR ME!”

He cut the knight’s head off and then went in search of the larger beast. He may be itchy, but he had the magic sword now. Soon he’d be back in his cave, eating a fine meal of two humans and one of their large beasts, and he could begin trying to remember how he was suppose to get the magic skin.