Well! Posting while trying to beat cheesecake batter (by hand, no mixer) is hard.

This chapter… huhhhhh… I hated writing the demon battle. Battles are hard for me. Everyone’s doing interesting things at once, except that the English language doesn’t have THAT many words to describe the sorts of repetitive actions I want to put down.

Also Illinia is a whiny emo brat. There, I said it. But yes, she does get a little OOC this chapter… I think I found a reason for it, but she’s… a bit odd in this one.

Back to slow character-driven psychological emotional descriptive stuff next chapter.

Hope the cheesecakes turn out. It was still a little lumpy when I put it in.

Chapter 8

Kellan barked a laugh. “You have to be joking. Us, surrender to you?”
“Well, we do have you outnumbered three to four,” the guard quipped back. “You have three seconds.”
“I don’t think it’ll take that long,” Torrigan said. “Charge!”
The charge did not take their enemies by surprise, but with their momentum, they had the advantage for a few moments.
“Hey, Torrigan!” Mira called. “Are we planning to capture these ones?”
“Might as well,” Torrigan said. “They can tell us things.”
“I don’t want to kill them,” Illinia said softly, even as she had to draw her sword to defend herself from the tallest. “Please, let’s not.”
“We can totally hear you, you know,” the one she was facing said. “And you won’t take us alive. But we’re not worried for ourselves.” He feinted and stabbed, and Illinia, unused to fighting against halberds, flinched as she took a slice on her shin.
Kellan, working behind the shield of Torrigan and Mira, had improvised a bola, and was now attempting to catch one of the others with it.
Torrigan’s opponent turned to take advantage of a bollard in the street for cover, but as he did so, Torrigan bulled into him with his shield. The bollard splintered, and the guard fell and cracked his head on the ground.
“One down!” Mira cried, redoubling her efforts on the other. This one did not try to hide behind bollards, but looking around and not liking the odds, turned to run. Mira, faster than Torrigan, sprinted after him and tackled him to the ground. He thrashed, but she slammed the pommel of her sword into his skull and he fell unconscious.
Kellan turned to Illinia’s opponent with his bola. Their enemy gritted his teeth.
“You’re better than I thought. But you think you can take me with that toy?” He pounced on Illinia, avoiding her sword, and pinning her to the ground with his blade at her throat. “Let me go, and-“
Illinia’s hawk divebombed his head, and he reeled back in pain, shielding his eyes. Kellan’s work was made much easier.
They dragged their three prisoners back to the guardhouse.
The leader was still conscious. He was glaring around at them all.
“What are you doing here?” Torrigan demanded. “Who are you people?”
“Why should I tell you that?”
“Because we’ll let him loose on you if you don’t say,” Mira said, gesturing to Kellan, who decided to trim his nails with his knife at that moment.
The leader rolled his eyes. “That’s not much of a threat. You guys fight like goody-two-shoes. Even him.”
“You’ll tell us, or I’ll kill you right now,” Mira said. “I’m only a cleric. I can kill prisoners if I want to.”
Illinia knelt in front of him to be on his own level. “Please, won’t you even tell us your name?”
“You attack me and my companions, and now you’re playing all polite and saccharine? Or is this your good-cop, bad-cop routine?” He paused, and she looked ever more earnestly into his eyes. He looked away from their intensity. “…My name is… Michael.”
“Careful, Illinia,” Mira said. “Shapeshifters never give their real name.”
“Really?” Illinia said, turning to her. “But at least we can call him by a name, now. That will help a lot.” She looked back to the man. “What were you doing here?”
“Patrolled… pretended to be guards… fool all the stupid people living on the other side of the wall.”
“Did you hurt anyone doing so?”
His eyes shifted. “What kind of stupid question is that?”
“What happened to the nobles, the humans who lived here? Please tell us.”
“Heh, well, you can’t save them now.” He shuddered. “They’ll be fed to the demon sooner or later.”
“Demon?” Torrigan cried.
Illinia gave the prisoner her best anxious look. “Is it a strong demon?”
“Very strong.” He grimaced, and she could see genuine fear behind his eyes. “You’ll never defeat it.”
“Are you working for it?”
“Yes.”
“Well, if you tell us how to defeat it, then you’ll be free of it too, won’t you?”
He frowned. “What? What kind of silly argument is that?”
She pressed her hands together. “You’re afraid of it. Your life under its command is not safe; you’re expendable. If Torrigan and Mira changed their minds and killed you – which they wouldn’t do! – but you wouldn’t be missed.” Her eyes became mournful. “That’s sad. No one should live like that.”
“In case you didn’t notice, miss elf, we are rather on opposite sides here. I’m not just going to ship along with a bunch of prissy humans and you.”
“Michael,” she said anxiously, “if you help us, we can help you. I know it.”
“Hey, Illinia, he’s right,” Mira said. “You come here for a minute.”
“You’re so naive,” the shapeshifter said. “It’s sickening.”
“Okay, so look,” Mira whispered to Illinia, draping an arm over her shoulders. “Shapeshifters are evil. They’re totally self-centred. No one trusts them. They’re usually assassins and stuff. These ones must be particularly young or pathetic, because they’re just acting as guards to keep the rest of the city from being suspicious. But you know, you can’t just make deals with them! Their words are about as secure as the wind. What are you trying to do here?”
“Well, maybe they’re just misunderstood!” Illinia argued back. “I can see he’s afraid. Maybe he would be an ally if only we mistrusted them less!”
“Yeah, and maybe there would be a lot more knives in people’s backs,” Mira snorted. “And isn’t he just afraid of us?”
“I don’t think so,” Illinia said. “Please, just trust me. I think I can get him to help us.”
“Well, I don’t trust him,” Mira said. “And there’s your problem.”
Illinia turned away, back to the shapeshifter. “Michael, please tell us how to kill the demon.”
“You’ll need a cleric. A light-wielding cleric.”
“Dang,” Mira said. “I’m an elf-oriented cleric.”
Michael grinned tightly, mirthlessly. “And the demon ate all the clerics in the town. That was his first target.”
Illinia shuddered, her stomach turning. Michael noted her discomfort and made sloppy chewing noises. She covered her mouth with her hand. “Please don’t. That’s so horrifying.”
“Silly little girl. How old are you, anyway? Fifty?”
“Er… a lot older than that.” She wasn’t going to tell him she was not far from her second millennium. Elves here didn’t seem to live indefinitely.
“You act like an infant. Grow up.”
“Hey, leave her alone,” Torrigan said.
“All right, I told you how to defeat the demon. Will you let me go at some point?”
“I will try my best to arrange that,” Illinia said, ignoring the others’ disapproving frown. “After we defeat the demon, perhaps?”
Michael licked his lips nervously. “I don’t know what else to tell you. I really do want to be let go. I hate you, but if that’s your bargain, I can’t tell you lies. The demon’s in the castle. It’s not very magic strong. Like I said, light magic would work best, but any magic would help.”
Mira brightened again. “That’s super! If it’s true.”
“I’m not lying to you,” Michael said earnestly.
“Right now,” Kellan said, eyeing him suspiciously.
“Right now,” Michael agreed, with a bit of an inhuman leer. “But your elf made an offer, and I’m doing my best to help you out. You have the upper hand, after all.”
“That we do,” Torrigan said. “All right. When we return, we will decide. For now, we must stop that demon from eating any more townspeople. Come!”
Illinia sighed anxiously, but got up and followed the others.
They met no more guards in the streets, and the castle was not far. It was protected by a wall and gate, but no moat.
“I’ll just do the same thing as last time,” Kellan said, rubbing his hands together. He began to scale the wall nimbly.
“Man, I get so wierded out by Kellan,” Mira said to Illinia. “He’s not exactly on the straight and narrow, if you know what I mean.”
Illinia nodded. “He says he’s a circus performer, but he’d be a good burglar if he set his mind to it.” When Mira looked at her with alarm and confirmation, Illinia hastily amended her answer. “One of our heroes is a burglar. He’s a halfling from a far-away land, and he helped kill a dragon. They aren’t evil! Necessarily. Perhaps some are. But not all.”
“Oh,” Mira said, appeased.
There was a crash from behind the wall, and a yelp from Kellan. “Ah!” A pause. “I’m all right! The gate wheel was rigged to explode!”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Torrigan muttered. But the gate swung open, and there was Kellan, more or less unscathed.
“Shall we?” he said breezily. “Now, before we go into the main castle, I think I should check for other traps. You never know how front doors are going to respond.”
“We don’t really have time to check very much, do we?” Illinia began.
“Oh, if you say so,” Kellan said, throwing open the front door of the castle.
“Wait! I didn’t mean-“ poor Illinia tried to stop him, but she was too late. Kellan froze in place, a living statue in the doorway.
“Oh, a holding spell,” Mira said in disgust. “Triggered by those who step on the threshold. Jump over it!”
They did so, and found the front hall empty. But statues glittered around them.
Then the statues moved, and they found themselves surrounded by kobolds, big vicious ones. One of them, however, stepped on the threshold and was caught as fast as Kellan was.
The fight was short and tense. Illinia resorted to her sword in the close quarters. Halfway through, Kellan began to move again, slowly at first. They tried to protect him as much as they could.
The room cleared, Kellan began to look around. “So, I’ll just check for more traps now.”
“I really didn’t mean not to check at all!” Illinia said, blushing from ear to ear. “I just meant not to take too much time about it?”
“Whatever. I’m not dead!” He found no more traps of any kind in the hall, though, and they moved onward.
The corridor to the throne room was long, straight, and fairly narrow. It stank.
“All right, we need some kind of strategy,” Torrigan said. “Do we believe that villain that magic will harm the creature, particularly light magic?”
“Light magic is known to deal damage to demons,” Mira said. “It’s totally true. Aren’t you a paladin?”
Torrigan nodded. “That’s true. I can request Pelor’s assistance in this fight. That will make it easier.”
“I have some caltrops,” Kellan offered. “And some acid bombs.”
“What good would caltrops be?” Mira asked. “They’re little spiky things. A demon won’t even feel that.”
“Well, look who’s a demon-fighting expert,” Kellan snorted. “Fine. But I’m still using the acid bombs.”
“Where did you get those?” Mira asked.
“Circus,” Kellan said, but Illinia thought she could detect a slight hesitation before he said it.
“Why would a circus need acid bombs?” she asked.
Kellan rolled his eyes at her. “The same reason we might now. Fend off super-tough monsters.”
“And you didn’t mention this before now because?” Mira demanded.
“We can discuss that later,” Torrigan said. “Focus. We can use them now, and there is no need to pry into Kellan’s privacy, not even his tools, even if they are useful. I suggest that Illinia, you shoot from the door. I believe your silver arrows may help slightly. Mira and I shall charge; I shall call upon Pelor, and you can use your lightening sword. Kellan, try to flank it, depending on how large it is, and use your acid – but cautiously, because we don’t want to be hit.”
“I’m not stupid,” Kellan answered. “I’ll do it right.”
“Let’s do this!” Mira said, pumping the air with her fist.
“Go!” Torrigan shouted, and slammed his shoulder into the door of the throne room.
The creature there was unrecognizable as a living thing; it was a pulsing sack of flesh-coloured membranes, with long flailing arms and a large mouth with sharp teeth. It writhed in anticipation as Torrigan charged it, his sword glowing with white fire. A long arm darted out towards him and jerked back, stung by Illinia’s arrow.
Kellan tumbled acrobatically around the outside of the room, small vials in his hands. He flung one down towards the other end of the creature, and it smashed on the stone floor, creating a small fuming puddle of clear acid that began to nibble at the creature.
Mira planted her feet firmly on the floor and chopped at an arm that came swinging her way with her sword. There was a crack and a hiss, and the arm came away shorter.
Torrigan charged up to the hideous mouth fearlessly, his whole body seeming to glow in white light now. He slashed with his sword at it, always guarding his off side with his great shield. It seemed to cringe away from him, but then gathered itself and seemed to grow larger, looming over them all. More arms sprouted out of it, darting every way, seeking them out. There were too many to dodge, too many to attack. Kellan flung another vial, and it caught it and hurled it back; he dodged out of the way just in time. A rusting suit of armour against the wall turned into slag from the direct hit.
Mira was caught by an arm; her blazing sword was too slow to counter them all. She screamed as she was slowly dragged towards it, and swung her sword, jetting a yellow bolt of lightening at its body. It quivered from the blow, and smoked from the wound. But she screamed again; the power from her attack was channelled back down to the arms grabbing at her, and she was as injured as it was.
Illinia, too, gasped as she was attacked. She had to put her bow away and draw her sword, all too slowly, she felt, and it sensed she was easier prey. She gritted her teeth and called on the magic of nature – but very little responded. This room had been under the sway of the evil thing for too long. She was weak and light and helpless; her sword arm pinned to her side.
Her hawk saved her for a while; its talons were sharp, and it tore at the arms holding her. She managed to free her arm just as her hawk was batted casually across the room. It struck a rotting tapestry and fell to the floor with a tiny thump. She swung her sword desperately, without coordination or force, and it was torn from her hand and cast to the ground by the monster.
Kellan was not doing any better; forced to flee from point to point, he could not attack, and his silver rapier did not do much damage. His last vial of acid was well placed, however, and the monster’s skin began to hiss as it burnt away.
Torrigan ducked flailing arms, too solid to drag. The needle-like teeth snapped at him, but he was too far away to be eaten. He stood his ground, fending off attacks from all directions.
Kellan was tiring; he couldn’t dodge forever. Even as he cartwheeled across the floor, a limb reached out to trip him, and the seized him by the ankle, hauling him bodily across the room and closer to the chomping teeth.
Mira was reeling where she stood, the heaviness of her armour the only thing protecting her from getting pulled in as easily as Kellan and Illinia. Illinia called to her with her knife in hand, and Mira started a bit, as if waking up, and then gathered light energy around her and released it in a healing spell that lit up the room.
That helped the humans and the elf, but the monster seemed to quiver.
Torrigan lunged forward and stabbed it up to the hilt of his burning white blade, almost in the teeth of the thing, and it screeched – the first real sound it had made – and melted into nothingness, as if it was being pulled backwards through an invisible hose.
They looked at each other, gooky and dazed and victorious, and relaxed.
“Let’s free the prisoners!” Mira cried, seemingly not short on energy at all anymore after the power she had just spent. “To the dungeons! And anywhere else you might find prisoners!”
All the citizens of the north end of the city were there, less the clerics and some unfortunate few. They were grateful to be released, and promised the travellers great riches. Only Kellan accepted outright, however.
They were escorted in a great procession out of the castle. Outside, they made the slip from the crowd and gathered in a back alley.
“Well,” Torrigan said. “That went better than we could have expected!”
“You mean how no one’s dead, despite all that?” Mira asked.
“Exactly. Now, what are we going to do about those three shapeshifters? I think we should turn them over to the city guard and let them deal with them.”
Illinia looked up, worried. “Will they get a fair trial?”
“I don’t know,” Torrigan said honestly. “Shapeshifters are evil. It’s quite likely that they will simply be given a quick death.”
She frowned unhappily. “But…”
“It’s normal, Illinia,” Mira said comfortingly. “I don’t see why you care so much.”
“But he helped us…”
“Not that much,” Kellan said.
“Still! I feel… so bad about them.”
“Don’t even think about them,” Torrigan said.
“Can’t we just let them go and tell them not to hurt people, or else we’ll really kill them next time?”
Torrigan frowned. “As a paladin, I cannot let the forces of evil simply walk away.”
Illinia sighed. “I guess not. I’m sorry.”
He patted her head. “I’m trying to understand. But you don’t know these creatures.”
She didn’t answer. What if they didn’t know these people either? What if they really could be redeemed? If someone was distrusted and hated all their life for an ability they couldn’t get rid of, of course they would do wicked things! It would still be their responsibility, their choices, but if they never got any help from anyone else, she wondered if she wouldn’t end up the same way.
“So, let’s go get David,” Torrigan was saying. Illinia got up and walked the wrong way.
“Where’re you going?” Mira asked in concern. “City centre is this way.”
“I know… I have to go do something…”
“She’s probably going to meditate,” Torrigan said. “It can’t be easy to disagree with your friends.”
That struck her heart, although they were walking away and didn’t see it. They were friends. And she did disagree.
And for once in her life, she was going to walk her talk. Lives hung on it. Perhaps they weren’t lives she should be worrying about. But they were lives, and having lost her own once already, she was coming to see that it was even more precious than she had thought before. She couldn’t let these people be executed without what she felt to be just cause. And even then…
But she was going to… she couldn’t say the word, not even to herself.
As she walked softly towards the guardhouse, she didn’t notice Kellan following her.
As she came into the guardhouse, the three shapeshifters were all awake.
“You came back,” Michael said, surprised. “Are the others dead or something?”
“No,” Illinia said. “We killed the demon. The others want to turn you over to the city guard.” Her voice came out in a pathetic cry. “But that isn’t right! So I’m going to let you go.”
He looked at her with grudging respect. “You’re going to betray your friends for us, who would as soon kill you?”
She flinched miserably at the word, kneeling to untie the bonds of the other two. “You helped us.”
“Not that much. …I’m not trying to stop you! Just to understand.”
“I know. No, you helped us, and you shouldn’t die for that. I don’t think they understand you.”
“And you do?”
She sat back on her heels and looked at him. The two untied shapeshifters rubbed their sore wrists, but made no move to attack her yet, though they looked at her with hungry eyes. She looked back, too emotionally drained to be afraid.
“Yeah, Illinia, what are you doing?” Kellan said from behind her. “You stop this foolishness.” With a swift move, he knocked Michael out where he sat.
“Kellan!” she cried. “Stay out of this. I have to do this.”
“What binds you to these worthless people?” Kellan pressed, looming over her. “I don’t care for the paladin’s prissiness myself, but he’s a thousand times better than this scum.”
“Kellan!”
“Maybe you’ve just been working with them all along, waiting until we trusted you good and proper-!” He tried to grab her wrist and she almost slapped him, but they both missed each other.
“Kellan! No! I just don’t think it’s right-“
“What do these things know of right?” Kellan growled. “They know less than you, I know that.”
Taking advantage of the distraction, the two free shapeshifters bolted from the chamber.
Kellan gave a shout and chased after them. “You stay there, Illinia! You and your pet shapeshifter! We’ll be back!”
Illinia sat stunned for a brief second, her plan crashing down around her ears.
Then she picked herself up. She still had to go through with what she could, or she would always reproach herself. She dragged the unconscious Michael away. She was stronger than her build suggested, and it did not take her long to get him outside the outer wall of the city; the gate was completely abandoned.
She untied him, and left a note: “Dear Michael – please take this chance I have given you and use it wisely. I hope you will not harm innocents, or else I will be forced to hunt you down myself. Live in peace, and good fortune be with you as long as you honour my request. Illinia.”
Then she went back to town to await judgement.
Kellan had captured the two shapeshifters in the nearest church. Mira had been furious at first when she thought she caught him mistreating an old man and a young boy, but then when he pointed out that they were the shapeshifters, she became confused. David took the two into custody anyway.
Then Illinia came back, looking resigned and sorrowful.
Even Torrigan couldn’t be as stern as he wanted to be. But to her, that was stern enough. “Illinia, how could you do this? We trusted you. You kept saying “trust me, trust me”. Now you’ve let dangerous criminals loose!”
“I-I…”
“I’m sorry if you felt your views were not being reflected, but it’s not right to just let people go.”
“I couldn’t let them be killed…”
“Well, you only saved one of three, so that’s something,” Kellan said.
Her mouth twitched. But she had saved the one who had helped the most.
Torrigan sighed. “Illinia, I hate to do this, but we can’t trust you anymore, not even as much as we trust Kellan.”
“Hey!”
“Kellan, you’re practically a professional thief,” Mira said, and he glowered and rolled his eyes.
“So, I am going to have to say you can’t be on your own anymore. You won’t be on watch, and one of us will always be with you, until you prove that you can be trusted again.”
“Hey, if I’m bad, will I get out of keeping watch?” Kellan asked. Mira shushed him.
“I understand,” Illinia said, desperately calm. “I take responsibility for my actions. I will do as you say.”
“I’m sorry, Illinia,” Mira said. “I don’t get it, but I’m glad you’re not going to fight us on this.”
Illinia looked at the ground. “I knew you would be angry…”
After an awkward silence, Torrigan cleared his throat. “Well, the town wants to celebrate again, but I think we just need to go to bed.”
Mira nodded. “Yep, too much excitement for one day. Hey, where did you leave that other guy?”
“Probably took him out of town,” Kellan said. “I already told David. He’ll check it out.”
“He won’t find anything,” Torrigan said. “Even if you knocked him out. He’ll be long gone by now.”

They went back to the inn and waited long enough for David, his face full of concern, to come and tell them they had found no trace of anyone outside the north side of the city. He looked confused when he looked at Illinia. Probably wondering how someone could be so naive, or stupid, or deceitful.
Illinia was glad to escape into memories that night.
Memories within memories; there were the long months of waiting during the War, the long year of separation, waiting in her house in the tree, listening to the rain patter down outside. When her husband had gone to fight, she had clung to him desperately on the road, his horse waiting patiently nearby. The parting wrenched her heart; even more so as, while he rode out of sight, he blew a final kiss to her. The very sky felt heavy to her that day, though the sun shone; his golden hair and her crimson dress shone.
And then, all the time spent in her house – their house – did nothing but remind her of him. The double bed, the table set for two, the portrait on the wall; she did not want to let go of a single thing that would bring him back to her, no matter how nebulously, no matter how much she ached with worry for him.
But the rain did not fall all the time. And she would climb up to the top of her tree and sing, looking at the stars and wondering if he looked at them too and thought of her.
Then there were the desperate, painful memories of her journey south along Anduin… the rather inadvertent journey, as it turned out. And when she reached Minas Tirith, a few days after the lands had breathed a collective sigh of relief, they took her in and kept her there, until her husband came.
But that was the best moment of that year. She had been living in suspense, wondering if he still lived, but the joy and wonder in the city newly free from fear tugged at her, lifting her up almost in spite of herself, and she would sit in the window and sing, out of sight of the curious humans.
And then, one day, singing to the blue blue sky, the door was flung open behind her, and with a rush and a whirl she was swept into strong arms and held so tightly she could hardly breathe, tender blue eyes looking down into her startled brown ones.
He spoke no word of reproach, gave no hint that he had been worried, only praised her for being brave enough to venture out to find him. But the way he held her told her – he had been sick with worry. And he knew she knew it. That was why he didn’t say anything.
But he kissed her, and crushed her against him as if he would never let her go, and her arms were flung around his neck, never wanting to let go either.

The party set off the next day, with accolades and praise and as much as they wanted or could carry in the way of reward. They smiled, though Torrigan’s smile was a little graver than usual, and Illinia’s was tremulous. Mira smiled widely enough for two, though, and as for Kellan, the money that was his reward was more than enough to cheer him up.
They travelled west that day, having no plan more certain than that perhaps they should find some elves and ask about Illinia’s vision.
When night fell, Mira was on watch second. It had been fairly uneventful. Kellan had joked that perhaps they’d killed all the trolls in the area and had no need to set a watch. But that would have been foolish.
But partway through her watch, Mira began to hear something odd.
“Illinia… Illinia, are you crying?”
“What? No…” But she knew it as she said it – it was impossible for her to lie. She gave herself away every time. And her hawk was pacing in distress, instead of sleeping. It didn’t help.
“Awww, don’t cry. It’ll only be for a short while. You’ll be a full member of our group again real soon.” Mira smiled at her. “You still have to teach me more about being an elf, you know! Did you know, even though I was raised by elves, they didn’t act like you. They didn’t teach me a whole lot… probably thought I was too dumb, as a human, to really learn. But you’re trying, you know? Even though it looks now like I’m a dumb human and can’t actually learn. I guess they knew what they were doing. But you don’t give up! You’re so patient. I still think I could be like an elf… thanks to you!”
“Mira…” Illinia interrupted her friend’s cheerful chatter miserably. “Thank you for your kind words, but it isn’t really helping. I-I’m so sorry for the whole mess…”
“Well, you said you needed to back up your convictions. I don’t get why you did it in this case, but it’s good that you’re strong enough to do that! Just… you should really do it on a more convenient topic, one that we’ll agree on.”
“I was thinking,” the elf-maiden ploughed recklessly onward, “that maybe I should go. I know it will look like I’m running away, that I can’t take responsibility for my own actions like I said I would… Maybe that’s true. I can’t bear it how everything’s different now… And it’s all my fault – I can’t possibly blame you for anything you’ve done! So I should go… I’ll just look for my husband on my own… that’s all I wanted to do…”
“Whaaaaat!?” Mira cried, waking the others. “You never told me that!”
“I-I didn’t want to bother you until I didn’t feel like a burden…”
“Illinia,” Torrigan said, sitting up and shuffling closer to her. “Illinia, you were never a burden. You should have told us! We’re happy to help.”
“I know,” she said miserably, tears coming up again. “I’m so sorry. I’m so stupid…”
“You sure are,” Kellan muttered, rolling over to go back to sleep again.
“Never mind him, he’s just grouchy,” Mira said, kicking the tall prone man. “You’re not stupid, Illinia, just naive and not used to people. Right?”
“That’s no excuse.”
“It’s plenty of excuse! I used to be the same way.”
“Really?” Illinia looked curiously at her outgoing friend.
“Yep! And now look at me – flirting with handsome half-elf captains in random cities! I still think he likes me. I hope I can visit again soon, maybe get him to court me or something. I wonder how he fights?”
The lump that was Kellan groaned.
“Go to sleep,” Torrigan told the lump firmly.
“I would if you didn’t make so much racket. Can’t you have your soul-searching discussions tomorrow?”
“No, this needs to be taken care of now,” Torrigan said. “We can’t let poor Illinia weep at all hours.”
“I’m not poor,” she said, getting up and gathering her things. “Just… out of place. I shouldn’t have joined you at all… But I thought I could help, and you’re all so kind…”
“Wait!” Mira said. “Where are you going? You can’t just leave now?”
“I really should… You will get along better without me.”
“But who will be around to keep Kellan entertained? It’ll just be him and us two straight-laced types!”
Illinia paused for a second. “He doesn’t really like me anyway…”
“That’s not true,” Torrigan said, clasping her hand. His hand dwarfed hers.
Kellan made no answer; whether he was asleep or just pretending, Illinia couldn’t tell and didn’t care.
“At least tell us what your husband looks like!” Mira cried. “Then we can tell him we saw you!”
“Oh…” Illinia paused and stood up straight, looking up at the stars. “He is tall… almost as tall as Torrigan… with long, golden hair, and a sculpted, handsome face… his brows are dark, but his eyes are light blue… very keen and beautiful. He is an archer, but much better than me. He goes- His name is Mith’las.”
“What’s he doing out here?”
“I don’t even know if he’s here. I met one person on this continent who had seen him, so I know he’s in this world, and I’ve always known he’s alive. The last thing I heard… he was fleeing from some people. That’s why he didn’t come back for me… So I must follow him, so I can protect him.”
“But we can protect you, until you meet him,” Torrigan said, still holding her hand. “Please stay. I can’t go back on my word as a paladin, meaning I have to wait until you prove yourself trustworthy…”
“Well, she did just confide her reason for being here,” Mira said. “She’s putting her trust in us by telling us that. Wait, did you say in this world? How would he be in another world? Do you mean, like, the spiritual world? Another plane of existance?”
Illinia hesitated, and then blurted out. “No, he and I are from another world, the world of Middle Earth.”
And while they started back, dumbstruck, she snatched up the rest of her things and fled into the dark night. Mira called her name, but she didn’t stop.

Here you are! The very ultimate cheesiest part of my story! All the cheese is in this chapter. ALL OF IT.

Hope you like it.

Why won’t my towels rinse or dry? What a pain. Oh well. Time to clean the kitchen.

I know three Dutch words! : D

Chapter 7

The skirmish was fierce. It was going to be very difficult to escape without being followed or without hurting any of the people.
Illinia, nowhere near the solid support of Torrigan or the slightly less solid support of Mira, frantically got her back to the wall and was surrounded. Kellan vaulted over some, although he tripped and landed on his face. Their enemies were swarming.
Illinia cried out as one of them bit her in the left arm. That was a different tactic… She lashed out with her knife and tore the creature in the shoulder; it bled ordinary red blood, despite the grey skin.
Sudden horror seized her, and, thrashing, burst free of the ones that surrounded her. She ran to Torrigan’s side and turned to defend herself, trembling.
Torrigan peered over his shoulder at her. “You all right?”
“I-I don’t know. I think so? Please, can we go?”
He saw her shaking and nodded. “Lina! Which way do we go?”
“This way,” Lina said, gesturing. She saw Illinia’s bite-mark. “Oh no, did you get bitten?”
“Is that bad?” Illinia asked timidly.
“I don’t know,” Lina said. “I haven’t been bitten.” She looked at it in such fascination that Illinia felt uncomfortable and began to shuffle in place.
Suddenly, the plaguewalkers scrambled away from them, disappearing into the side-streets.
“That… was odd,” Torrigan muttered. “Are you sure you’re all right, Illinia?”
She passed a hand over her brow. “Y-yes. I will be better as soon as we are out of town. Just… the shock…”
“I understand,” he said. “Shall I carry you?”
“N-no! No, that’s all right.”
“I’ll carry you,” Mira offered.
“No, really, I’m all right. Let’s just go quickly.”
They followed Lina to the city wall, where at a certain point, she touched a stone in the wall and a portion of it swung open, showing them the wide plains to the west.
“Good luck,” she said, as they filed through, and closed it after them.
“Oh, drat, how do we get back?” Kellan muttered. “We forgot to ask.”
“We’ll figure that out when we get to it,” Mira said. “For now, let’s look at that wound, Illinia.”
“It’s not bad,” Illinia said, inspecting it herself. “If we could just wash it and bandage it, it won’t slow me down at all.”
They did so, and set out.
“This would be perfect for horses,” Kellan said. “Wish we’d bought some. Do we have enough money to buy horses?”
“I think we might?” Mira said, peeking in the Bag of Holding. “But let’s worry about that later. Besides, I’m gonna ride a gryphon.”
“And until it’s old enough to be ridden?”
“I’ll… ride with Illinia! Unless she takes one of those pretty little elven horses that only carries one person. Yeah.”
Kellan didn’t continue the conversation, and they journeyed rather quietly until Torrigan pointed out that there were trolls in the area.
There were two of them, big lumbering beasts with tree-trunk clubs, and they had seen the adventurers and were hurrying towards them.
“Stand back!” Torrigan said. “I will take the first one.”
“By yourself?” Illinia squeaked. “I’m helping at least!”
“Me too!” Mira said, getting out her crossbow. “This dang thing never works for me, but… we’ll see.”
True to form, her first arrow missed. The second one hit, but they were too close, and once again she had to fling her weapon to the ground to draw her sword. “Daaangit.”
Torrigan planted his feet firmly on the ground, timed carefully, and let loose a mighty magic-powered slice that tore the first troll almost in half. Illinia’s arrow in its eye was extraneous.
She gasped. “That was amazing!”
“Little help here?” Kellan called, stabbing the other troll in the back and not doing much damage. Mira ducked a swing from the club, but got kicked in the stomach.
Illinia’s arrows helped more this time, and together they all brought down the other troll.
“Well, where’d you learn to do that, Torrigan?” Mira asked. “And how come you haven’t been using it more?”
“Oh, er, well…” Torrigan began. “It never really fit the occasion. Too cramped. Never want to hit one of you. It just worked out this time.”
They continued marching, discussing strategy and tactics, and camped in the plain, close to a low range of rocky hills. Nothing attacked them that night, and the next day, they got to the dwarven fortress after only a couple hours more travel.
It was beautiful, Illinia mused, from a certain point of view. It was well formed, well proportioned, and decorated with strong symbols. They were weathered, but they were still there.
The door was wide open and inviting, although all was dark inside.
They entered cautiously, and smelled something bad.
“Smells like goblins,” Mira said. “Watch out, everyone.”
A roar echoed through the antechamber they stood in, and another troll strode towards them, club swinging purposefully.
“Why do they always have clubs?” Torrigan quipped. “All right, not sure I can do that attack in here…” An arrow pinged off his pauldron. “Arrows!?”
“Look out!” Mira pointed. “Goblins, just like I thought!” Above them was a ledge from which guards could shoot intruders, which was exactly what the goblins were doing.
Illinia’s bow snapped up, and she pegged off several arrows, most of which hit their targets. The goblins were a little more cautious after that.
“I’ll help you with the troll, Torrigan!” Mira called, hefting her crossbow again. A bolt punched into the troll’s leg, and it bellowed.
Kellan snorted. “You do what you want. Watch this!”
He tumbled acrobatically around the troll, sprang up behind it… and got thumped firmly in the head with its club. He fell to the ground, knocked out cold.
“Uh oh,” Torrigan said. “Mira, I’ll take the troll. Can you get Kellan to cover?”
She groaned. “Of course I can.” Dodging arrows, she holstered her bow and sprinted across the room, avoiding the troll, and dragged Kellan to cover in the next doorway by his armpits. “Aah! More goblins!”
“Hold on!” Illinia cried, sidestepping an arrow and firing one in return. The goblin screeched as she hit it in the stomach, and she winced in semi-sympathy.
Torrigan danced around the troll, hefting his heavy broadsword with practiced grace. He wasn’t taking it by surprise at all, but it had yet to land a hit on him.
Illinia took out the last visible goblin on the ledge and followed Mira, skittering around the troll as it took a step backwards away from Torrigan, who followed it, stabbing forwards at its vulnerable soft belly. Her hawk attacked the less visible goblins, with success judging from the cries.
In the next room, there were only a few goblins; Mira was attacking them all ferociously with her sword, though an arrow stood out from her off arm.
Illinia turned back to Torrigan’s fight, wondering where she would be most useful, since Mira seemed to be doing quite all right, but suddenly that fight was also over. The troll bellowed again and fell on its face with a thud that made the ground shake.
Then they waited for Kellan to wake up, while Illinia healed Mira’s arm. He did so after not very long, with a mumbled “Where am I? What was I doing?” They fed him lunch and a healing potion, and continued.
The main path of the fortress led deep underground, down into dark narrow mazes. Mira and Torrigan carried torches, and Kellan marked their path on a scrap of paper. Illinia was their guide; she thought she could feel something coming from ahead of them, something magical. She was grateful to Tharash for showing her magic.
They rounded a corner and came face-to-face with a statue of dwarf; a female dwarf, beardless and curvaceous – and hefting a large heavy hammer. The statue moved.
Illinia cried out in fear, and Torrigan shouldered swiftly past her, his heavy armour blocking her from its blows. She set an arrow on the string, but what could arrows do against stone?
Apparently Mira was thinking the same thing, because she was rummaging around in the Bag of Holding. “Hey, is anyone particularly attached to any of these swords?”
“Not at all,” Kellan said. “What are we fighting?”
“Golem,” Torrigan barked briefly. “Stay back. Only my armour can hope to withstand these attacks.”
“Right!” Mira said. “Duck, Illinia! …Good thing you’re so short…”
A cheap broadsword flew over her head and struck the statue, chipping it slightly.
“Yeah, that did a lot,” Kellan said sarcastically.
“Shut up,” Mira snarked back, flinging another one.
Illinia kept shooting, although her arrows made only little chips. But hopefully they were damaging the spell that animated the statue. And even as she thought that, one of Mira’s wildly-flung swords struck the statue and shattered it.
“Yes!” Mira cheered. “That was awesome!”
“Was it?” Torrigan asked doubtfully, helping to pick up the swords. Some of them were damaged beyond repair.
Mira fixed him with a look, then chuckled. “You and your wry humour. I think it was!”
“Then that’s all that’s important, yes?”
They continued, a bit more carefully now, but they did not find any more statues.
Instead, at the end of a particularly twisty bit, they found a large hall, carved to look like it was pillared with smooth trees. There were pews in it, and at one end, an altar and some bookcases.
“Hey, what’s the shining thing?” Kellan asked.
“Looks like the goblins never made it down here,” Torrigan commented.
“It’s lovely!” Illinia said, reaching out to stroke one of the pillars.
Kellan bounded up to the altar and reached out to touch the little phial sitting on top. He ducked just as a ten-foot long flame belched out of the altar and singed the air he had been standing in. “Whoa! Now that’s nifty.”
“What’s the phial?” Mira asked. “Is it what we came for?”
“I think so,” Illinia said, sitting in one of the benches.
“Are you all right?” Torrigan asked.
She nodded. “Just a little tired, that’s all. I’m all right.”
He patted her shoulder and went to deal with Kellan
After a little convincing, Kellan managed to pluck the phial off the altar and handed it to Torrigan. Then the rogue went right back to touching the altar and dodging the gout of flame. “I’m practicing my dodging,” he explained.
“Is it practicing when it does it the exact same way each time?” Mira commented.
“Perhaps? What’s it to you?”
“Heh, nothing. Just wondering if we’ll have to sweep up your ashes afterwards. That would be embarrassing, wouldn’t it!”
After a while, Kellan was tired of this, and they began the trek back out of the fortress and to the city. Torrigan had found an orange-glowing sword with a magically keen edge, and Mira had found one that crackled with yellow lightening when she swung it. Kellan had picked up a magic staff labelled “For Finding Secret Doors”, which, he remarked, was suspiciously convenient. Illinia had at first refused treasure, for she liked her weapons and honoured those who gave them to her, but was persuaded to take a ring that may or may not have had the power to freeze a creature in ice with a simple command.
Illinia didn’t want to admit it, but she was more than tired. The bite in her shoulder was troubling her. It wasn’t bleeding, but it was painful and did not seem to be healing as it should. When no one was looking, she gave it a little pulse of magic. It helped a little, but not much. What’s more, she felt slightly feverish and cold. Even when they stopped for the night she didn’t feel any better.
She tried to hide it, though, and hoped that Aleic would be able to help her when they got back. No sense in worrying her friends until then.
They tramped across the plains in the morning. After a while, Kellan said to them: “Hey, how about I go on ahead? I can take the phial, find the secret door, and get back to Aleic so he can get to work quicker on fixing the problem.”
“Oh, you bored with us slowpokes?” Mira asked suspiciously. “Or you just trying to ditch us and get more treasure?”
“The former,” Kellan replied, annoyed. “I’m much faster than the rest of you.”
“Let him go,” Torrigan said. “It’s not like we could keep him behind. Go on, Kellan.”
The tall man took off running, and went out of their sight rather quickly.
Illinia sighed. She wished she had that energy. But right now, she simply didn’t. It was all she could do to keep walking normally.
By the time they had reached town, Kellan was still looking for the doorway.
“Having trouble?” Illinia asked, smiling.
“Hush,” he said, bent over the wall. “I’m certain it’s here. I was just waiting for you.” And he opened the door in front of their eyes.
“Are you all right?” Torrigan said again to Illinia. “You don’t look all right.”
“Yeah, you look really pale!” Mira chimed in. “Have we been going too fast for you? Oh, no, I know, it’s that dratted wound you took yesterday! You should have said something!”
“I was waiting to tell Aleic about it,” Illinia objected. “I didn’t want to distract you until then.”
“Come on,” Kellan said. “We can argue about it closer!”
He led them through the secret door – closing it after them – and to the chapel.
When they knocked, there was no answer. “Aleic? Lina? Are you in there?”
Torrigan broke down the door anxiously, and they piled inside.
In the centre of the chapel, Aleic lay unconscious.
“Aleic!” Torrigan cried. “What happened?”
They sat him up and gave him water. He blinked and looked around. “You are back so soon? That was very fast.” Then his hands clenched. “Lina! She is the one behind everything!”
“Everything?” Kellan asked. “Pretty elaborate for just a cleric…”
“No, she’s a cleric of Gordram, the God of Shadows. She knocked me out… only a short while ago… We must stop her!”
“We have an artefact,” Torrigan said. “Is it what you seek? Also Illinia is ill. Can you cure her?”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Aleic said. “That will do fine. Miss Illinia? Ah, you have been bitten. I’m really not sure what to do. Perhaps…” He touched the phial to the wound, and it vanished. “Ah! How do you feel?”
Illinia blinked. “Like waking up from deep sleep. Much better. Thank you, sir!” She bowed, her long black hair falling around her face and shoulders.
“Well, let’s go!” Mira cried. “Thanks for healing Illinia. Now to heal all the others!”
They hurried through the streets, trying to avoid plaguewalkers. There seemed to be a lack of them, although they caught sight of a large group outside of an inn. When they were spotted, Kellan threw down a smoke bomb and they made an escape.
“Where did you get that?” Mira whispered.
“Circus,” Kellan whispered back. “Past job. Very handy.”
“I’ll say…”
They arrived at a graveyard. When it was tended, it looked pleasant. But it had not been tended in months, and the source of the darkness, Aleic said, was nearby. It was overgrown with weeds and thorns, brown and grey.
A strange light flickered from within one of the more house-like tombs, and they hurried closer.
When they set foot inside the door, they saw they were too late.
“She has been summoning a devil!” Aleic cried.
Lina turned to face them, now dressed in black armour with the emblem of her god splashed across it. Her pleasant face was contorted in a fierce smile. “You are only too correct, old Aleic. Have a pleasant death!”
From the summoning circle beside her, red and green smoke and flames burst up, and a human-like creature with a long tail, leathery wings, and spikes from every joint materialized, brandishing a spear in their direction.
Lina smiled again, smugly, and dropped a small twig she had been holding so that it broke the summoning circle. The devil was released, and Lina vanished under some invisibility spell.
Kellan ran blindly towards where she had been, his arms outstretched to his sides. “I’ll find her- Oof!” He was knocked down by the invisible cleric, who ran lightly past him towards the door.
Torrigan and Mira charged at the devil. Illinia looked back and forth, trying to decide which fight to join. Aleic was blocking the door. “She shall not pass easily,” he said, and conjured a wall of flame in front of him. So Illinia shot at the devil, piercing one of his wings.
Lina appeared in front of the wall of flames, and walked through quite calmly. She knocked Aleic aside casually and continued out of the tomb.
“Kellan, Illinia, stop her!” Torrigan cried, ducking the devil’s spear with startling adeptness. “We’ll handle the devil!”
“Right!” Illinia cried, and darted up the stairs, Kellan behind her. Aleic had already gone, summoning a hovering sphere of fire against their opponent.
She turned with a look of fury, reached out, and touched Aleic’s shoulder.
The old man collapsed, clutching his chest, wheezing.
“Stop!” Illinia cried, firing a hasty arrow at the cleric.
Lina turned, saw small Illinia trying to threaten her, and smiled wickedly. She darted forwards and seized the elf by the throat. Illinia only had a chance to look pleadingly up at her with her big brown eyes…
Torrigan and Mira were startled by a sudden piercing shriek and a soft thud from outside.
Mira turned and decapitated the devil in a rage, and both rushed outside.
They froze in horror at what they saw.
Aleic was out cold again. But Illinia was on her feet, her skin white as paper, her eyes closed – and reaching out to attack Kellan with her sword.
Kellan, of course, dodged her easily and attempted to attack Lina, who was controlling Illinia like a puppet. But his rapier did not even pierce her armour.
“You!” Mira raged. “How dare you turn our friend into a zombie? Aren’t you the weakest, most despicable of all evil people! We defeated that devil sooo easily even though he was so strong! Now you think we’re going to let you go because you killed our friend? Nooo, we’re going to kill with you extreme prejudice! And not even turning her into a zombie – which is the sickest thing you could do – is going to stop us!”
“All right, Mira,” Torrigan said. “Let’s just do it.”
They dodged the animated corpse of their friend quite easily and attacked Lina, who drew her own weapon to defend herself against them. But it made no difference – Mira’s lightening sword pierced her armour, and she blazed with electricity and magic for a few seconds before falling lifeless. As lifeless as Illinia, who also collapsed to the ground and did not move.
Mira knelt at her friend’s side. “Illinia! Illinia, she’s dead now, you can wake up!”
They paused. Illinia was not breathing.
“You’re not… dead-dead, are you?” Mira asked, tears starting to come to her eyes.
“I’m afraid she is,” Aleic said, coming up behind them. “But do not fear.” He bent and lifted the light body of the elf and carried it back into the tomb.
There, he laid her down and held out his hand. Torrigan fumbled for a moment, and handed him the elven phial.
“The Tears of Illora,” Aleic said. “They are a powerful cure. They will cure this town and your friend.” And he unstopped the phial.
With the single drop, Illinia’s colour returned to her face, and her anxiously watching friends thought they saw her chest move.
She blinked, opening her large brown eyes and looking dazedly at them all.
“Illinia?” Mira asked. “Can you hear us?”
“I-I can h-hear you…” She blinked some more, and reached up to touch her face. “What happened?”
“You… you died,” Torrigan said in a low voice. “Lina killed you. Then she used your body to attack us. But we killed her, and Aleic brought you back with the… the artefact.”
“The Tears of Illora,” Aleic said. “They are a powerful potion wrought of the tears of the very goddess of life. If anything would bring you back, this would be it.”
Illinia reached out, and Torrigan helped her sit up. “I feel so strange… I had a vision that I was in clouds and I met a beautiful woman, who asked me to help her children… I don’t know who she was, though.”
“Could it be Illora herself?” Aleic muttered. “It’s said that the elves are the first-born, and so they call themselves the Children of Illora on occasion. Whatever it was, it must be important, and you should hold onto that memory.”
Illinia nodded. “I feel very weak. Are the townspeople all right?”
“They will be in a moment,” Aleic said, and as they supported Illinia, he strode out of the graveyard and to the well in the square nearby. He dripped in a few drops of the water in the phial, and immediately there was a change.
There was a boiling sound from in the well, and a bright flash of light that shot up into the sky. A wave of power swept over them. When they could see again, they saw people drawing closer, uncertainly – but healthy looking normal people.
“Sir!” one of them called to Aleic. “Who are you, and what has happened to us?”
Aleic told them the story, and Torrigan led the group to the gate, where they hailed the guards. “We were successful! Please go and get David.”
David arrived quickly, and peered over the barrier. “You look exhausted. But you are done so quickly!”
“Well, no sense in wasting time,” Mira said, giggling a little.
David raised an eyebrow at her choice of words, and continued. “Are you sure the plague is gone? How did you do it? Is Aleic in there?”
“I am right here,” Aleic said, coming up at the head of a crowd of ordinary people. “The plague is gone, and the people healed. The darkness that had taken root under the city has been cleansed. You may open the gates now.”
“Understood,” David answered. “Guards! Get this gate open immediately! John, go tell the mayor at once.”
“This will be cause for celebration,” Kellan said, rubbing his hands together. “This once, I’m feeling generous. How much money do we have?”
Mira told him.
Kellan clutched his chest in amazement. “So much? David, how much would it be to buy the whole town a round of drinks?” Torrigan snorted, but smiled. Mira gaped, and Illinia put her head on one side curiously.
David blinked in surprise. “The whole town?” He began to calculate, and eventually named a figure.
“Yes, we can afford that,” Kellan said. “Bring out the wine!”
David chuckled. “You speak my language, sir.”
The rest of the day was plunged in celebration. The free round of drinks further endeared them to the town, and they couldn’t take so much as a step without being hailed and toasted by everyone in sight. Illinia found it all very novel and embarrassing. Food and drink vendors brought out their good and set up tables in the square, and the town really made a party of it, and merchants, inspired by the travellers’ generosity, put their wares on sale. There was a lot of happy activity that day in Thaxted.
After a while, Illinia retreated to the inn, her senses overwhelmed in every way. Not even in Gondor had she seen such merrymaking, at least not in such a rustic way. Gondor was too proud and noble to serve alcohol in the streets like that, she supposed. Perhaps in the fabled Shire they would be like this. But so much noise, and the sights, sounds, smells, they were too much for her all at once. Especially since she had been dead in the morning. Dead. It was so strange to think about.
She went to check on Mira’s egg, and found it warm and safe. Coming back downstairs, she saw Torrigan sitting by himself, watching something with a smile playing on his face.
“What are you looking at?” she asked innocently, coming to sit beside him.
He gestured. “Don’t disturb them. It’s cute.”
She looked, and saw David obviously flirting with Mira. She giggled. “You’re absolutely right.” She thought a little more seriously. “I hope he’s not too flighty… I think he was flirting with me too at one point? Perhaps he’s decided to like the girl who’s not already married.”
Torrigan nodded serenely. “That would make perfect sense to me.”
Kellan staggered in, a half-glass of beer still in his hand. “This is the best day everrrrr.”
Illinia giggled again, immediately looking away from Mira and David. There was no need to let Kellan know about that, especially not when he was drunk.
“What? It issss.” He leaned closer to her; she leaned away from his scary beard and mustache. “Did you drink anything?”
“A little…”
“Here, you can have the rest of mine.” With an unsteady flourish, he proffered his glass to her. She shook her head, smiling.
“No, sir, I couldn’t possibly.”
“Oh, I insist, fair maiden.”
“And I absolutely refuse, though with thanks.”
“Oh, well, in that case, I’ll have to make Torrigan drink it.”
The knight took the glass and looked into it suspiciously. “It’s not bad beer, is it?”
“No, no. Jus’ don’t want any more of it.” He patted his head and shook it. “Had plenty!”
Torrigan sniffed it. Illinia got the feeling he didn’t drink a lot of beer. But he tossed it back with a quick motion. “I hope I don’t regret this.”
“Half a cup won’t do things you regret,” Kellan said cheerfully. “Try half a barrel.”
Illinia’s eyes grew wide. “Did you really-?”
“No, but my buddy did…”
Illinia shook her head. “I don’t think I want to know, actually.”
“But it’s awesome!” Kellan thought for a moment. “Actually, it was incredibly stupid. You’re right.”
Mira came flouncing over, her cheeks red and her eyes shining. “Hey, guys, what’s up? Are we going to have dinner yet?”
“Are you going to eat with us?” Torrigan asked slyly.
Mira punched him in the arm. “Of course I am, silly paladin. What kind of question is that?”
“I checked your egg,” Illinia said, forestalling any kind of awkward conversation. “It’s perfectly safe.”
“I checked it too, but thanks, Illinia! That’s very thoughtful of you.”
Illinia smiled. “You’re welcome!”
There was a croak from beside her, and she looked down to see a tiny, bent, wizened old woman, leaning on a cane. “You are the heroes who saved the town?”
“Yes, Grandmother,” Torrigan answered.
“And you…” she touched Illinia’s sleeve with dirty fingers. Illinia sat very still, unsure of what to do. “You are the elf?”
“Y-yes?”
The old woman’s eyes suddenly glowed with literal inner light; Illinia stifled a squeak and clenched her hands on the table.
“You are the Twice-Born! The one long-foretold! You will be the one to lead the Children of Illora to victory over their dark adversary! Heed my words, elf-maiden, for I am a seer of truth!”
She turned and hobbled away. She was out of the door before Mira could stop her, and the cleric returned to the table alone. “She disappeared into the crowd. Who was she?”
“That was the most cliche’d fortune telling I ever heard,” Kellan grunted, with great disdain. “I bet she says that to all the people.”
“But the vision-“ Torrigan began.
“Still. So cliche’d. I bet she just says it to all the people. It’s probably a local phenomenon or something.”
Illinia nodded. “I’m no hero. I’m just looking for someone. I wish I could have told her.”
“Chosen One,” Kellan snorted at the table.
Illinia sat quietly for the rest of dinner; she was very unsettled. The prophecy – if that was what it was – was unnerving. She wasn’t a leader; she was barely a fighter. She was a simple maiden from the forest looking for her tall strong husband. The less fighting she had to do on the way, the better.
But if there was a people looking for her help… who was she to deny it?
No, no, no. If there was a people looking for her help, let them find her, first. And then they would be disappointed when they found her, so they could go looking for their real Twice-Born or whatever.
Mira cast her a concerned eye, but Illinia smiled disarmingly at her, and Mira retreated, satisfied.

The humans in the party slept rather late the next morning, and they went to see David at noon.
“How can we ever thank you enough for what you’ve done for us?” he told them. “The south quarter is already almost back to normal. Friends and families are reunited. It’s wonderful.”
“Well, one way would be to tell us about your problem in the north quarter,” Torrigan said, smiling. “You had more than one problem, yes?”
“Well, yes. But this one’s a little more tricky. It seems that the nobles all barricaded themselves inside their section of the city, and they won’t come out. Even when we went to tell them yesterday that the plague was over, there was no answer.” The half-elf grimaced. “It’s almost spooky, to tell you the truth.”
“I see,” Torrigan said. “May we investigate?”
David spread his hands. “By all means. Please find some way to tell the nobles that everything is all right.”
Torrigan saluted the paladin way, and led them out of the office. “How shall we go about doing this?”
There were some whistles from new fans in the street; Mira waved at some people as they passed to the north side of the city.
“Well,” Kellan said. “I could climb the wall and unlock the gate for you. Then we could walk right in.”
“That sounds simple enough,” Torrigan said. “Mind you, that’s all you are to do. Even that seems a little underhanded…”
“It’s public property,” Mira reminded him. “It’s not like we’re breaking into someone’s house. Besides, what choice do we have?”
The paladin nodded. “Absolutely. Kellan, if you would, please.”
The former clown nodded and darted off. They came to a large heavy gate, and waited, trying to look casual. It helped that there were not many people around, either.
After about ten minutes, the gate creaked, and the portcullis began to go up. Illinia slipped underneath first, followed by Mira, and lastly by Torrigan. They ran to the gatehouse door and looked inside to see Kellan winding up the gate. The chamber was quite bare, and surprisingly large.
Kellan was bleeding from the head. “What happened to you?” Mira asked, letting her hands glow with healing magic.
“I fell down, all right?” he snapped, securing the gate.
“You fell off the wall? On your head?”
Kellan glared at her, shuffling. She repressed a grin. “Oh, dear, Kellan, sometimes you are the most worst.”
“All right,” Torrigan said. “Good work.” He turned to look at the street. “How shall we go about it? Shall we go to the castle?”
“Castles are a good place to start,” Mira said. “Let’s do that. Hey, look, there’s even a noble guard.” She snickered a little. “Nice uniform.”
“Don’t laugh, Mira,” Torrigan chastised. “It’s not their fault purple and yellow and red don’t go in that combination.”
Mira shrugged. “Let’s go talk to him. Hey, you!”
The guard turned, startled, and brought his halberd to bear on them.
“Uh oh,” Kellan said, and Illinia had to agree. The guard did not look friendly at all.
The halberd made their opponent a difficult match, although Illinia felt three to one was vastly unfair.
“I’m not sure we should kill him,” Torrigan said. “Why are you attacking us, sir? We only wish to see what has become of the people here.”
“You swine!” exclaimed the guard, and Kellan stabbed him in the gut.
“Kellan!” Mira scolded. “Bad!”
Kellan glared. “Well, what was I going to do? He was too difficult to knock out.”
The body twitched, and the face and build changed. They were looking at a lightly-built human-like creature with dark blue skin, black eyes, and pale hair.
“A shapeshifter!” Mira cried in horror. “What does that mean?”
“It means that things are very wrong,” Torrigan said.
“It certainly does,” said a voice from behind them, and they turned to see three more ‘guards’, in red and brown, pointing their weapons at them. “Lay down your arms and we won’t kill you on the spot.”

Okay! Going to post, then going to watch violinist play his Friday-night pub-rock gig. Going to bring my lappy so’s I can write more story. I think this bit is going much better. Should I try writing with alcohol? I don’t think I should risk it.

This chapter is rather long, but it has the famous part where my brother was looking for a false name and grabbed the first one he could think of – which is the name of a pianist who WE knew… but he didn’t know. So it was pretty hilarious to imagine this pianist friend in this setting.

SPOILERS: I took some rather large liberties with parts of this; like the fact that David seems to be a bit of a skirt-chaser. There’s no way David in our game would hit on Mira, because her player and the DM are siblings. So I added that. Now that will ruin that part of the story for you to know that. : P Also Mira and Torrigan are not involved in any way. If anything, I myself had a crush on Torrigan (though Illinia doesn’t). The mechanics of the plague and Aleic and all that other stuff kind of elude me at the moment, so I’m really making stuff up in there.

It got cold again today. A few flakes around lunchtime (and by a few, I mean a very few). Need to wear my scarf. The crimson cashmere one.

My Dreigiau Book 2 came today! : D

Chapter 6

The weather was good, and the mountains to the north were full of easy passes. They walked steadily, making good time, yet not hurrying.
Three days after they had left Derek’s town, Mira pointed to the sky. “Look! Gryphons!”
Far overhead, two long winged shapes were circling, prowling the sky on the hunt for food.
Mira sighed happily. “You know, I always wanted a pet gryphon. Perhaps one I could train to ride…”
“Well, why not get one now?” Torrigan said. “We’re a match for the parents; if we can find you an egg, you can get that trained when it grows up.”
“How fast do they grow?” Illinia asked sweetly.
“Pretty darn fast,” Mira said. “They’ll be full-sized in a year, although it takes four years for them to become adults. Anyway, do you think…”
“Yes, I think we can get you a gryphon egg,” Torrigan said. “Come on. It’s your dream, is it not? Why should we not deal with it now?”
“Because I have no place to put it? I’m not putting it in the Bag of Holding. That’s where all our collective shared junk goes. And the treasure we find. I’m not putting an egg, no matter how undelicate it may be, in there!”
“Yeah, I might just grab it by accident and turn it into an omelette…” Kellan said.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Mira said. “I’d thump you six ways from Sunday.”
“Oh, stop fighting,” Illinia said. “Let’s go! I’d like to see these gryphons up close.”
“Oh, you will that,” Kellan said.
“Besides, we weren’t fighting,” Mira protested. “You want to see fighting, just let us get going.”
“I don’t like it when you fight,” Illinia said. “Kellan does make me uncomfortable with the things he does; the things that seem dangerous or pointless or maybe kind of unkind, but I’d really rather you didn’t fight.”
“You think I’m sometimes unkind?” Kellan asked indignantly. “Gee, lady, you haven’t seen anything. I’m not unkind at all.”
“Well…” Illinia blushed heavily. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to be critical. It’s just… sometimes, the things you do seem like things that would get you in trouble with… with the authorities…”
“Ah, but only if they found out.”
“But… well, besides the fact that we’re travelling with a Paladin and a cleric, what if they do find out? I always assume that it will be found out.”
“That’s because you’re really bad at keeping secrets,” Kellan said snidely, and went on ahead of the group.
There was a whoosh, a shadow, and a piercing shriek – not from Kellan, but from the gryphon that aimed its body at him. He flung himself to the side just in time, and Mira came up behind, swinging a little club she had bought in the village.
“Let’s see how you like a beating, you poor feather-dusters!” she exclaimed, throwing it at one. It missed. “Dang!”
Torrigan stepped in front of her as the second gryphon landed beside the first in a cloud of dust and feathers and flashing eyes. Mira’s sap-club was flung back in her direction irately, and she ducked it, red braid whipping behind her head.
Illinia’s arrows flashed by them all, striking the gryphons in what she hoped were sensitive spots. It seemed like it, from the way they screeched. One of them lunged forward and snapped at Torrigan’s newly-mended armour (mended by Derek, of course) and he took a step backwards to save himself and nearly fell down the mountainside.
Kellan bounded to a higher ledge to use his flanking move, and nearly got taken out by a lashing tail. But he dodged it, and charged in, striking hits on the gryphon’s hip.
Torrigan recovered and swung his mighty broadsword. His swing was a little slow, and the gryphon dodged it with relative ease, but it did not dodge Illinia’s arrow that followed it, nor his back-swing. That gryphon fell, slain.
The other gryphon gave a shriek of grief and ploughed headlong at them, snapping and clawing. Torrigan fell back under the onslaught, even his heavy armour taking damage. Kellan was hit by a wing and was sent flying down a small cliff. Mira sprang up, her little club back in her hand, and she bopped the gryphon directly on the head. It fell unconscious.
Torrigan leaned on one knee. “Whew. Now what do we do?”
Mira looked at the unconscious adult. “It’s a pity. This one’s out cold, but it’s probably not going to be trainable. It’ll hate us for killing its mate, and it’s too old to be impressionable.”
“We can’t just kill it, though, now that it’s unconscious…” Illinia began.
“Of course we can,” Kellan said.
“Otherwise, it will follow us, looking for revenge,” Mira explained. “I hate to kill it, too, but…”
“I’ll do it,” Kellan said, and before anyone could react, he stepped forward and stabbed the gryphon to the heart.
Illinia gasped. “That was mean!”
“So?” he asked, genuinely confused.
Illinia pouted, equally genuine. “That’s sad… to be knocked unconscious and then killed… just after your mate’s been killed…”
“Ah, Illinia…” Torrigan said gently. “You might have wanted to think about that before we started fighting them. Don’t worry. It’s all right. Mira, do you see a nest anywhere?”
“I think so?” Mira said, shading her eyes with a hand and peering up the mountain. “Let’s go check that out.”
They came across a nest fairly quickly, with one single head-sized beautiful blue-green egg in it. Mira gasped in girlish delight as she touched it. “Oh, I’m so happy! I’m so excited!”
“Good,” Kellan said. “That means this whole thing wasn’t for nothing.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Of course it wasn’t, silly. I just had an idea. How about we make gryphon-feather cloaks? That would be so snazzy!”
“Oh!” said Illinia. “I do like that idea.”
“Aha,” Kellan said, smirking. “I think we’ve found Illinia’s weakness – pretty clothes!”
She gave him a coyly disapproving look over her shoulder. “It is not.”
“Oh? Then how about this red dress you’re always wearing? You do have other clothes, don’t you?”
“Well… I do now! But… this one’s my favourite. And if I meet the one I’m looking for, I want him to see me in this. I’ll be the most recognizable that way.”
“Why, would he forget what you looked like otherwise?” Kellan asked, teasing.
A troubled look crossed Illinia’s face. “No. Certainly not. But… I want him to know that I haven’t changed.”
“Oh, that makes sense,” Torrigan said. “I do hope that you find this person.”
“Is he your sweetheart?” Mira asked. “No, don’t tell me now. Tell me later! When we’re snug around the campfire, just you and me.”
Illinia smiled, though not in complete comprehension. Mira was so insistent on being her ‘best friend’, and while she enjoyed talking with her very much, she didn’t understand the secrecy and the girlish topics. She had talked that way with her elder sister back home, but she told all the same things to her friends, whether they were girlish or not.
But she could indulge her on this.
They stripped the long feathers from the dead gryphons’ wings; they couldn’t take much else. Illinia began making plans for how she could turn them into two cloaks, one for her and one for Mira. The colours were slightly different. One was more reddish, and one more tawny. She would ask Mira which one she wanted. She didn’t think they would look so good mixed.
They camped early that night, and while the others settled down to sleep and Illinia put away the feathers, which she had been examining more closely, they felt a chill wind from the north.
“I wonder what that was,” Torrigan said. “That was not exactly natural…”
“Sure it was,” Kellan said, already half-asleep. “It’s getting late in the year. Soon the trees will lose their leaves.”
“Well…” Torrigan said, unconvinced.
“Just go to sleep, already!” Mira said, curled up in her bedroll, nice and warm beside the gently glowing fire.
“Yeah, so you can have your girl-talk,” Kellan teased, and rolled over.
“Of course!”
Illinia waited patiently. But it seemed that Mira had fallen asleep along with the other three.
When it was time for Torrigan’s watch, she woke him and went to her place by the fire; before she settled down, she took out her locket and looked at it for a long time, tracing her husband’s face with her eyes. He was entirely beautiful; strong and handsome, and when he was with her she felt keenly his wit and joy, and his wisdom. She was so incredibly blessed to have married him, she, a little dancing girl who barely had the courage to speak to people without fear, a little girl without wisdom or wit or strength; a girl who could dance and sing, hiding away from everyone else.
She wasn’t sure why she was so afraid of talking to people, particularly strangers, but she had always been that way.
At least she had her joy. There were few, even among the child-like elves, who could sustain her innocent, full-hearted delight in the world. Everything was beautiful to her, or at least most things that she cared to acknowledge. Perhaps that was what drew her husband to her; her happiness and contentment that at least rivalled his.
But he was gone, and her contentment was disturbed. She longed to have him beside her, to put his arms around her shoulders and let her lean against him; she longed to dance with him, to sing with him, to play harp while he played flute… even, if she dared, to kiss him – although he would probably be the one to kiss her, and many times.
She slipped into memory after memory. There was the time when she was singing at night, and he passed by, some time after they had become betrothed, and he had climbed up to her little balcony, and she had climbed down to her little balcony from the branch she had been singing from, and he had embraced her and looked into her eyes while she sang, while she sang to him…
When she was done – but not before – he kissed her for a long time.
She thought of her family, and wondered how they were doing. Her older sister, placid and wise, was surely biding her time in the forest, assisting the kingdom in administration when they had need of her. Her parents were the same; dearly devoted to each other and tranquil in all things.
Her brother was almost as wonderful as her husband… they were both archers, and served in the military together. Her brother’s hair was dark, like her own, but he was tall and masterful, not like her. She wondered what he had been doing in Gondor when she left; if it was to see her. She wondered how he was doing now, and whether he had accepted her running away yet. Well, there was no way he could follow her, with her being in a different world and Tharash’s rift closed.
She remembered the time that her flighty, wild, almost rebellious younger sister had become caught up with a band of wicked men, willingly, and they had tried to take Esgalwen with them. Her brother and husband had come to her rescue that time. Her sister had become disowned after that stunt, and Esgalwen wondered sorrowfully if she was still alive.
But she could only focus on finding her husband. Her sister had made her own choices; had proclaimed herself in love with one of the wild men, and she must take the consequences as Esgalwen was taking the consequences of her own. Of course, at first Esgalwen’s choice had not been nearly so dangerous, and her sister was far better at taking care of herself than Esgalwen was.
Her new companions were sweet. They were good, and funny, and supportive. But she had not yet told them why she was travelling. She supposed she should do that soon, so that they could help her. But they were so strong; she would be ashamed to travel with them and not seem like she could do as well for herself as they could for themselves. It wasn’t like the people in the villages, where she would leave them soon. They would feel pity for her, and while fragile, Esgalwen wanted no pity.
She would tell them soon. When she was more comfortable with them.
One way or another, she would find her husband. She put the locket away and looked around; it was almost morning.

That day they travelled until night, and stopped in the evening for food, though not for rest. Mira had managed to improvise a little wooden box lined with fur for her egg, and carried it tenderly in her arms most of the day.
“We’ll be there in an hour or two,” Mira said. “But I really can’t go on without food right now! I’m so hungry! Man, I wish I was an elf.”
Illinia nodded, sympathizing. It was not nice to be hungry for too long. The elf comment took her by surprise; she often forgot that technically she was capable of going without food for longer than her companions.
They were half-done cooking when they heard a low growl in the forest around them, a menacing growl that was taken up in all directions. They froze and looked around.
“What was that?” Mira breathed.
Torrigan began strapping his greaves back on. “Not good, whatever it was.” He had only just started taking off his armour, so that was all he had to put back on.
Kellan twitched where he sat tending the fire and the cooking food. “Why do we have to get attacked now? What a pain! I’m not going anywhere. You guys take care of it, all right?”
“I don’t think we’ll be able to do it without you,” Illinia said, her voice trembling. “There are so many! What are they?”
They were animals the likes of which she had never seen before; they oozed with slime and mud so that she could hardly make out which end was the head. They seemed to be vaguely bipedal, but with large hulking shoulders.
Mira spat out a word Illinia had never heard before, presumably the name of the creatures. “What are they doing on the main road? They’re supposed to live in the deepest darkest swamps and the backs of slimy caves.”
“I think we found out why trade from Thaxted stopped,” Torrigan said, slamming his shield into one of them and following it up with a short, sharp thrust of his sword. “I wonder if this is what Aleic the Wise went to look into.”
“I am sooo hungry, but these things are making me lose my appetite,” Mira complained. “Let’s just retreat to Thaxted.”
“Good plan,” Kellan said. “Hey!” He turned and stabbed one in the chest with his instantly-drawn rapier. “Don’t spill the food, buddy!”
The creature grinned at him, seemingly unfazed by the sword in its chest.
Illinia screamed – quietly – and shot an arrow into its skull. Now it fell, thumping into the fire and splattering mud everywhere. Kellan barked in annoyance – his pants were muddy now. He had saved the half-cooked food, and was wrapping it up as quickly as he could.
“There’s not that many,” Torrigan said, bashing another in the head with both sword and shield until it lay still, its head pretty much unrecognizable as a head. “There’s only… five more.”
“But I’m not hungry anymore,” Mira wailed.
“That’s all right,” Illinia said softly. “It’ll let us catch our breath.”
Kellan hacked at one with one of his many extra daggers until it collapsed; he sprang away nimbly and avoided the mud this time.
Mira growled back at the creature she was facing. “By all the stars and suns! You’ll wish you’d never bothered me!” And she sliced its head off with one stroke. “Is that all? Because I’m still hungry and we’re still an hour away from town. Let’s go!”
They marched until they could see the walls in the distance. It was a medium-sized city, very square, with wide open bare plains on the west and a rocky forest on the east. Behind it, to the north, there was another mountain range.
“Well, there’s Thaxted,” Kellan said. “Would you wait a moment, please? I have an idea.”
They stopped and watched him as he rummaged around in his pack, drawing out cloth and odd accoutrements, and putting some of them on.
When he was done, he was dressed in a white and yellow robe, with a very strange pointy hat on his head and a golden medallion hanging off his neck down to the centre of his chest.
They stared. “What are you supposed to be?” Illinia asked curiously.
“I think we’d gain access to the city much better if we were travelling with a Bishop of Pelor, wouldn’t we?” Kellan said cheerfully.
Torrigan’s face darkened. Illinia shivered. He looked angry, although one corner of his mouth was twitching as if he was desperately holding back a laugh. But he looked angry.
“Um.” Mira’s face was almost as irritated. “In case I need to iterate it AGAIN, you’re travelling with a Paladin of Pelor AND a Cleric. How by all the gods did you think you were getting away with that one?”
Kellan shrugged, an uneasy grin on his face. “I… thought the ends might justify the means?”
“No! Absolutely not!” she lectured, shaking her finger in his face. “Now you take that off right now before I-“
Kellan made a move to take the things off, and then turned and bolted, his tall figure helping him greatly to escape down the road before Torrigan or Mira could react.
“Hey! Come back!” Mira cried, chasing him down the road.
Illinia could hold back her giggles no longer, and as the three humans raced down the road towards the castle, she followed with her hawk and the egg-box, peals of laughter ringing out behind them.
They came to the gate of the city and found it heavily barricaded. Kellan pounded on it rather desperately. “Help! Help!”
“What’s the matter, sir?” asked the guards, immediately popping up from behind the wooden barricade.
“I’m being attacked by my companions! Please let me in before we all get eaten by the creatures in the swamp!”
“Er.” One of them looked ready to laugh as well.
“Who are you, sir?” asked the first one, courteously.
“I… I’m…” Kellan stammered, before drawing himself up proudly. “I am Derek Stanyer!”
Torrigan and Mira halted in their pursuit, identical expressions of dumbfounded shock, horror, disbelief, and suppressed laughter on their faces.
Illinia could not help herself, and paused behind a tree to finish laughing. It didn’t take her too long, and came hurrying up just in time to be let in with the others.
“Really?” Torrigan hissed to Kellan. “Derek Stanyer? Who’s Derek Stanyer? Not the blacksmith?”
“I don’t know,” Kellan whispered back. “I didn’t want to give my real name! I just grabbed that one out of the air! I think I heard that name mentioned somewhere. It’s not the blacksmith.”
Torrigan rolled his eyes heavenward, asking his god for patience.
“Why don’t you want to give your real name?” Mira asked suspiciously. “Have you been here before? Afraid you might be traced?”
“Well,” Kellan murmured. “I don’t like going into cities with my real name. Once inside I can use my real name. But I’m just cautious, that’s all! You don’t know what border guards might do with your name!”
“Oh, really?” She did not appear convinced.
“So what are you here for?” asked the guard, coming back from the barricade to open the inner gate for them. “Besides escaping from the swamp-monsters.”
“We’re here to investigate the lack of trade going south, and also to see Aleic the Wise. We were told we might find him here.”
The guard grimaced. “You might. Look, go see David. He’s the captain of the guard. You’ll find him in the chief guardhouse; it’s in the main street, you can’t miss it.”
“Thank you for your assistance,” Torrigan said. “We shall certainly do that.”
The guardhouse was indeed difficult to miss, with a sign comprising a halberd and a shield outside. They walked in, and the captain rose to greet them.
“Good evening! What can I do for you?” he asked, and then caught sight of Illinia, who was looking around curiously. She turned to look at him and found him staring, and she could only stare herself, for this man was half-elven in a way she’d never seen before. The elves of this land, she decided, must be considerably more exotic looking than in Middle-Earth, for he had a human build but delicate, slanted, pointed features and hair that shimmered beyond that of normal humans in this land.
“You are David?” Mira asked. “Look, we’re travellers from the south, and we’re… well, we’re looking for Aleic the Wise. Is he here?”
David tore his eyes away from Illinia and back to Mira. “Yes, he is. But things aren’t so easy. Shall we go sit down somewhere? It’s a bit of a story.”
“That sounds like a fantastic idea,” Mira said, prodding her empty stomach.
He took them to the closest tavern and ordered ‘the usual’ as they sat down. Mira asked for a whole chicken and beer; Torrigan asked for steak and potatoes and water; Kellan asked for a blue-cheese salad with apples and ale; and Illinia asked for bread and wine. The very friendly waitress brought it all with alacrity. Kellan squirmed until Mira threatened to chain him to the chair. He snarked back at her that it wouldn’t be any trouble to slip out of a chain, but sat more quietly.
“So,” David began, speaking mostly to Mira – apparently he thought she was the leader of their group. “We’ve been having a series of problems. First… we had a plague in the southern quarter a couple months ago. A month ago, the nobles barricaded themselves in the northern quarter and refused to let anyone in or out. It’s a mystery as to what they’re doing in there, but we’ve just left them to their own devices. We’re far more concerned about the poor in the southern quarter, anyway.”
“What kind of plague was it?” Mira asked, feeding bits of her chicken to Illinia’s hawk.
“That’s just it – we don’t know. People started getting sick, and we don’t think any of them have died… but they are certainly lifeless and diseased looking. We’ve barricaded them in; we don’t want that coming out into the rest of the city. Aleic the Wise went in there to help before we put up the barricades, and we haven’t seen him since.”
“Oh dear,” Torrigan said. “Well, that explains our problems!”
“That doesn’t explain the swamp monsters,” Kellan said.
David nodded. “They started getting more vicious about the same time. We thought it might be something in the water, so we’ve been boiling all the water we use. But if you have anything that can help us, we’d be most grateful.”
Illinia kept her eyes on her food, and missed how he tried to smile at her. Unable to smile at her, he gave his smile to Mira instead.
“Yes,” Torrigan mused. “We’d love to help. But we have no idea how. We’d have to talk to Aleic to find out, I think.”
David’s face fell. “Then you’d have to go into the plague quarter, and we can’t let you back out again. And we haven’t heard anything from him since he went in.”
“We’ll handle it,” Torrigan said. “We work well together. If we can at least find him, perhaps we can shout to you what is needed over the barricade.”
David nodded. “We could make that work. But you won’t go in until tomorrow, of course? You’ll stay and rest the night?”
Mira nodded. “Yes, I’d like that. Guys?”
Kellan nodded, his mouth full of ale. Torrigan nodded more calmly, and Illinia nodded almost imperceptibly.
“Also, if we could arrange a room at the inn for some of our stuff while we’re gone,” Mira said, “I’d appreciate it, because I have this gryphon egg that I want to hatch, and I don’t think it would be a good idea to take it with me into a plague area.”
David nodded. “Most certainly that can be arranged. I’ll even pay for it myself.”
“No need,” Torrigan said. “We have plenty for rooms. Don’t trouble yourself.”
David shrugged. “If that is the way you want it. I can at least arrange you a discount, though. Now, tell me, what is the news from the south?”
They told him of the werewolf, and how they saved the blacksmith at the cost of the councillor. He listened carefully. “The council here will be most interested in that. Thank you for telling me.”
As Mira and Torrigan arranged the rooms, and Kellan slipped off somewhere, Illinia went out to the street for some more fresh air (the air in the tavern was a little close for her) and found David beside her.
“Good evening, miss. You were very quiet. I hope I didn’t offend you.”
“Oh, n-no, not at all,” Illinia managed to stammer out, blushing.
He smiled, a very charismatic smile. “I’m glad of that, then. What’s your name again? I don’t think your group introduced you.
“I-Illinia…”
“Illinia. What a pretty name. We get elves here, but not too often, and not recently. What is it that brings you here with the others?”
“Well… Th-they seem to know where they’re going, and so I follow them…”
“But what about yourself? How are the elven nations?”
“I-I really couldn’t say… I haven’t been there ye- er, recently.”
He nodded understandingly. “I know what you mean. My father is an elf, and he spends a great deal of his time wandering the world. He visits now and again, and tells me what he’s been doing… But what are you doing? I really would like to know.” He flashed her that smile again.
She twisted her hands together, flustered. “I- well, it’s a long story… but- I- that is… I’m looking for my husband. He disappeared some years ago… But I know he’s still alive. So I need to find him.”
David nodded, though she thought she could sense some disappointment in his movement. “You’re a very dedicated woman, ma’am. I hope I am lucky enough to marry a woman with your devotion.”
She shrugged awkwardly. “I-it’s all I can do… I hope you are lucky in marriage, too!”
He put one hand on her shoulder. “I was wondering, though, if you were lonely… if you wanted company… even just to talk to…”
The hand made her flinch, but she didn’t dare move. “I-I’m all right… Mira is good company. She wants to be an elf… it’s very flattering how sh-she looks up to me. But if y-you are saying y-you a-are lonely…”
“Well, yes… I am, a bit. I really would like to get to know you better, Miss Illinia.”
She looked at the ground, dirty cobblestones scattered with hay and horse dung, and hoped desperately that she didn’t break this boy’s heart.
“Illinia!” Mira came out as David took his hand from her shoulder again. “There you are! Come see our room, it’s really big.”
David nodded. “I hope it will suit. Miss Mira, if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask me.”
“Yes,” Mira said cheerfully, and dragged Illinia inside by the hand.
When they got to the room, Illinia found herself cornered. “What was that all about?”
Illinia gaped blankly. “What was… what…?”
“You talking to him. He was standing awfully close to you! Was he hitting on you?” Mira began taking off her heavy armour.
“Hitting…?”
“Flirting. Asking you out. Asking you over. Asking if you’d share his b-“
“Oh!” Illinia blushed as red as her dress. “N-n- well, yes, just if I was lonely and wanted someone to talk to. I said I had you, but I asked if he was lonely and he said yes…”
“Humph,” Mira huffed, crossing her arms. “I’m sure he is.” Then she sighed and smiled. “He’s pretty dreamy, isn’t he?”
“Wh-wh-wha…!” Illinia was flatfooted. “I… I guess? You do know I’m married, right?”
“Yes, but- wait, you’re married?”
“Y-yes…”
“I so did not know that!” She thought for a bit. “Did I? Well, if I did, I forgot. I know now, right? Anyway, but that doesn’t mean you can’t think David’s dreamy, right?”
“Actually…”
“Oh, come on. Well, I think he’s dreamy. I wonder if he’ll hit on me? What do elves do when flirting?”
“I-I-I really don’t know! Certainly not in these parts! But you should just go talk to him. Although…”
“Although?”
“I… ah… thought you liked… er… Torrigan.”
Mira laughed. “Yes, Torrigan’s handsome, and his goals fit into mine, and he’s surprisingly a paladin without a stick up his butt, but… just… David! Dreamy!”
“Okay, okay! Well, go talk to him! Ask if he knows any gryphon trainers, or something.”
“Oh! Perfect! I’ll be back, or not, as the case may be. Have a good night!” And Mira was gone, red braid flipping behind her.
She was back in a couple hours, slightly tipsy. “Well, that was fun.”
“What happened?” Illinia asked in some concern.
“We went out for drinks! Clerics are allowed to drink if we want. Not too much. I don’t think I had too much. It was fun. He’s sooo cuuuute.”
Illinia giggled. “That sounds nice.”
“He flirted with me. He even gave me a hug. Now my stomach is full of fuzzies.” The girl shook her head to clear it. “Or maybe that’s just the wine.”
“Oh dear, I hope it’s the flirting…”
“You’re so adorable, Illinia,” Mira slurred, and fell into bed and began to snore.
Illinia chuckled in bemusement for a while, then covered Mira with a blanket and got into her own bed.

The next day, they got up early. Mira didn’t seem to have a hangover, and in fact was perfectly chipper, as far as Illinia could tell. She whispered “I’ll tell you more, now that my head’s clear, but later,” in the elf’s ear as they went down for breakfast.
After breakfast, David himself led them to the southern quarter barricade, not without some regret. “I’m sorry you four are going in… I hope you come out again alive.”
“So do we,” Kellan grunted.
“Do not worry,” Torrigan said. “We will succeed one way or another. Farewell!”
“It’s I should be bidding you farewell,” David said ruefully. “Good fortune!” He bowed to the women. Illinia blushed, but tried not to look away – it would be rude.
The guards opened the gate, and they walked through. They heard it shut behind them, and the fastening of the barricade. They were trapped in this place.
They walked forward. It looked pretty deserted so far.
Then there was a shriek to their left. “Who are you?”
They turned to see a dishevelled old woman leaning out the window. “We are here to help,” Torrigan said. “How may we help?”
The old woman calmed down a bit. “Have you seen the old sage yet?”
“No. Can you tell us where he is?”
She thought. “He’ll be at the chapel. Just avoid the plaguewalkers. Go by the back streets, where they’re less likely to gather.”
“What are plaguewalkers?” Kellan asked.
Instead of answering, the woman screamed again and slammed the shutters of her window.
They looked at each other, confused, and then looked behind them and stiffened. Shuffling towards them were people, people with grey skin and black eyes. They were dressed in ordinary clothing, some of it brightly coloured as anyone’s might be, although it was dirty and dusty as if they had just rolled in the road.
“Do you think they mean to attack?” Torrigan asked, hefting his shield. “I don’t think we should hurt them…”
“They look like zombies to me,” Kellan said. “Zombies are fair game.”
“No they’re not,” Torrigan argued. “Not if they might still be alive.”
“You don’t know that,” Kellan said.
“Actually, I’m getting a funny feeling from them too,” Mira said. “I don’t think they’re dead. So don’t kill them!”
Then the people ran towards them, their arms outstretched and clawing.
“Huh,” Kellan said. “You think that’s easy?”
“Easier said than done, but do it anyway,” Torrigan ordered. “Come on. Let’s go by the back way.”
“How do you know where you’re going?” Kellan asked, awkwardly parrying grey-skinned hands.
“I looked at a map,” the paladin answered, beating them off with his shield.
Illinia had no shield; she used her knife, since she was less likely to kill anyone that way. And she kept her back close to the silver-armoured paladin. But she was getting extremely nervous – these people might have been civilians in normal life, but they seemed to have the knowledge to kill her if she let them.
Torrigan, mindful of her small form at his back, moved cautiously to the nearby buildings. When they reached it, they turned and ran, following the loudly clanking knight. The people behind them weren’t too slow, either.
Illinia gritted her teeth. She had no idea where they were going, but she hoped they’d get there in time… One of them tried to trip Kellan, and he leapt nimbly over their arms and kicked them in the face.
“There!” Torrigan cried, pointing at a marble structure with boarded up windows. “I don’t know how to get in, but that’s our destination.”
“All right!” Mira said. “Hey, anyone home?”
The groans of the plaguewalkers was her only answer.
“Hey!” she shouted, even louder. “We could use some assistance out here, Aleic, if you’re even still alive!”
“All right!” someone hissed from nearby. “Stop shouting! It’ll just attract more!”
“Oh!” Mira said, startled, and stopped. “Where are you?”
“Come quickly!” A board in the nearby building shifted, and an old man in brown robes, with a long white beard, beckoned them inside.
They tumbled inside, panting, and the old man shut the door behind them. He picked up a lantern and led them along a narrow passage. “Quietly, now. They don’t know where the door is yet.”
Torrigan nodded and moved as quietly as his armour would let him.
They passed through a marble archway and found themselves inside the chapel. The windows were carefully covered with nailed-on boards, and light came from only the dome in the roof.
A woman with chin-length black hair and a plain white robe sat in the centre of the chapel, apparently praying. When the old man entered, she got up and came towards them.
“Lina, these are the heroes who have come to help us,” the old man said. “Heroes, I am Aleic, whom some call The Wise, and this is Lina, the cleric of this chapel.” The woman bowed to them with a pleasant smile.
“I am Torrigan, and this is Mira and Kellan and Illinia,” Torrigan introduced them. “We are indeed here to help you. How did you know?”
“I bet that’s why they call you the Wise,” Kellan said.
Aleic nodded with a half-smile. “Perhaps. I can see some things normal people cannot.”
“How can we be of service?” Torrigan asked. “We really do not know how to help, and no one will be let out into the rest of town – though if you could tell us what you need, we could go and tell the captain of the guard and he will help in any way he can.”
“Well, let me start at the beginning,” Aleic said. “You see, this plague began a couple of months ago, but no one thought much of it until they began to turn grey. That was when we were barricaded in. By my research, this plague is caused by some corrupt artefact contained within this section of the city, possibly near the fountain, and the best way to purify it would be to sprinkle it with holy Elven water.”
“Ooh!” Mira cried. “How do we get that?”
Aleic turned to her. “Not by being an elf, my dear young lady. I have been trying to remember where the closest place is one can find a thing like that, and I think I know where you should look. Outside the city, about a day’s journey west, there is an ancient Dwarven fortress. Once upon a time, those Dwarves were friendly with Elves, and they will almost certainly retain some artefact within their fortress. The fortress has been in ruins for centuries, but I still think you will find something.”
Torrigan nodded. “There is only one problem. How will we get out of the city?”
“Ah, that is no problem. There is a secret gate in the west wall. Did you think I would try to send you back out into the city? No, they would be too afraid.”
“If you know about the secret gate and everything,” Kellan said suspiciously, “how come you haven’t gone yourself?”
Aleic sighed. “I am old, and my power is needed here to stall the plague as long as possible. The evil power is growing, and soon it will spread to the rest of the town, whether it is barricaded or not. I cannot go, and not alone. Nor can Lina go. I need her. She will show you where the gate is, though.”
The woman nodded. “If you are rested, I can take you immediately.”
“Yes, immediately is good,” Torrigan said. “The sooner we can break the curse, the better.”
“And the sooner to getting good treasure,” Kellan said to himself. “Ancient Dwarven fortress, eh?”
Mira swatted him. “Respect the old places!”
“I will! But you can’t just leave that stuff lying around unused! That would be bad!”
Illinia giggled. “Kellan, I’m sure there will be something for you without disturbing anyone.”
“Thanks, Illi.” Kellan glared at the other two. “At least someone understands me.”
“I don’t understand you at all!” she protested. “I just… I hope there is something! Because I don’t want you to get in trouble!”
“To get in trouble?” Kellan snorted. “What are you, twelve?”
She hesitated, and then put on her best child-like smile. “Yes!”
Kellan rolled his eyes and went to stand on the other side of the circle of conversation.
“It’s all right, Illinia!” Mira chirped. “I’m your friend even if that nasty clown doesn’t want to be!”
Illinia shrugged, quite embarrassed. “I’m ready to go…”
“Then good luck,” Aleic said. “Return as swiftly as you may. The darkness is growing strong.”
“We will,” Torrigan assured him.
“Follow me,” Lina said to them, her eyes travelling over them, and lingering on Illinia with curiousity.
They left out a different secret door in the chapel, and found the same plaguewalkers waiting for them. With a howl, the creatures dove at them.

This chapter is somewhat shorter, because I really wasn’t keeping track of chapter lengths at all. Still, hope you enjoy. This has the infamous ‘vines’ sequence, and some poorly written suspense, because I (as a PC in this campaign) really don’t know the villains or their plans. We just saw what directly affected us, of course, although when we stopped playing, we did chat a bit on what had been planned. (note to self – don’t forget to put in the suspense in other upcoming chapters : P )

I’m at 45,000 words, currently, and I’m (for once) not going to have trouble making it to 50,000. Always the last two years, I’ve conked out at 49,000 and struggled to put in the last 2%. But this year… Oh, Illinia only just got captured. She has to be rescued, and then to run a war! A short war, that’s already been happening, but this may take me a few days longer.

And because things seem to be going to well, I find myself unmotivated to work on those paintings I’m supposed to be doing… I’m going to try and do a couple tonight, but I for one will not be surprised if I spend the time writing. I think I’ll try to get to the rescue part. (Cameo time!)

For those I’ve been complaining to: Mr. Emopants is in what appears to be his natural environment right now, and he is far more interesting. Although there is some missing groundwork that I’m just going to pretend is there right now.

Chapter 5

The next day, they woke early by the sun. After a cold breakfast, they set out to the north. Derek was in human form again, and seemed cheerful.
They journeyed quickly all day, aiming for the mountain the sage had told them about. The forest grew rather thin near its base, and the land around was hilly. They came across a dirt path and followed it through the trees.
When they were partway up the mountain, Illinia held up a hand for quiet. “I hear something unusual.”
They stopped and listened, but only Illinia heard it – a slow, semi-regular drumbeat. One beat every ten seconds or so. “It’s coming from ahead,” she told them. “I don’t know what it is… perhaps we should be cautious.”
They moved on, trying to be quiet, but still trying to move quickly. It was a challenge with Torrigan’s full plate armour, which rasped and clanked on itself no matter what he did. He quickly fell behind.
“You go on, and I’ll catch up to you,” he said. “Surprise is more important.”
Kellan nodded, and crept up the path. “There’s a cave,” he reported, returning only a few minutes later. “The sound is coming from inside. It’s orcs, I think. Shall I attack?”
“Yes, let’s attack,” said Mira. Torrigan was not that far behind, and he heard them.
“Shall we charge?” he asked.
“I would love to charge!” Mira said. “Come on!”
“Charge!” shouted Kellan recklessly, and as they came rushing up the path against the side of the mountain, he dove into the cave on the right-hand side of the path. They were not taking anyone by surprise today.
“Wait!” Illinia cried. “I have an idea.”
It was too late to stop Kellan, but she closed her eyes and reached out to the greenery around them, feeling how they grew and moved and lived in the earth.
Then she touched them all with a tendril of magic.
Both Kellan and the half-dozen ram-wielding orcs inside the cave roared in surprise – brilliant green vines burst through the ceiling and floor of the cave, waving wildly as if guided by sentient minds. They coiled around the people inside the cave, holding them firm. Kellan thrashed, and managed to break free temporarily.
“Wow, that will make things easier!” Mira said. “Now we can just shoot them!” But her first shot missed.
Illinia’s was steadier – she had a near-point-blank shot, and her skill was strong today – her arrow pierced an orc’s eye and came out the back of his skull.
Kellan slashed wildly with his rapier, and engaged in an extremely awkward duel with the orc nearest to him. He took a mild hit in the leg, but disembowelled his opponent.
It took them several minutes to deal with the hapless, helpless orcs, but it was so incredibly safe that Illinia almost enjoyed herself while doing it.
Kellan certainly enjoyed himself; when all the orcs were dead (and the plants had hidden them away) and while the others sat outside, sharing jokes and stories, he played with the vines, getting tangled in them and escaping them (he was remarkably good at that). Eventually, he ended up hanging, hogtied, from the roof of the cave – and then Illinia’s spell on the plants wore off unexpectedly, and he fell to the floor with a thump and a shout of “OW”.
“Oh, you all done?” Mira asked, peering in. “Can we come in yet?”
“I wonder why Aleic didn’t come out?” Torrigan said. “Of course, since he’s Aleic the Wise, perhaps he thought it unnecessary.”
“Or perhaps he’s out,” Kellan volunteered, nursing his backside.
“Well, we can just check,” Torrigan said. “Even if he’s out, perhaps he wouldn’t mind us borrowing some wolfsbane. We can leave payment for it.”
“Or we could just take it…” Kellan began.
“Uh,” Mira pointed with both hands at Torrigan. “Paladin, here! Paladin of Pelor!” She pointed at herself. “Not to mention, cleric over here!”
Illinia giggled. “I think they have the right idea, Kellan. It’s all right.”
Derek nodded. “I really don’t want to inconvenience anyone any more than I already am. So I’ll pay for it myself if it comes to that.”
“Well, let’s look at this door,” Mira said. “They were sure bashing at it with that tree! Doesn’t look like it’s made a difference, though.”
The door was made of heavy stone, covered in intricate carvings. Near to it was a double row of little pillars with statues of birds on top. They were beautifully carved, almost life-like looking.
“How lovely,” Illinia said; her hawk snuffed on her shoulder.
“I wonder…” Torrigan said, peering at the pillars. “Yes, I think this is a puzzle.”
“Oh, great,” Mira said. “Puzzles are so annoying.”
“Have you never solved one before?” Kellan asked. “Puzzles are great!”
“But they take so long!” Mira whined. “Whatever. What’s the premise?”
“I think…” Torrigan glanced up and down the pillar. “Yes. We have to read these verses, and then pull these levers in the order indicated by the verses.”
“Oh! How charming,” Illinia said. “It’s just like the enchanted doors in tales we have at home. I’ve never seen one before.”
“It’s not that charming,” Mira said, pulling the first lever. Nothing seemed to happen. Kellan pulled two more, and Illinia pulled one, and Kellan pulled the last one.
The door clicked and swung open silently.
“Oh!” Illinia squeaked. “It is just like I thought it would be. How exciting!”
“You get excited over weird things,” Kellan said.
She smiled. “Why not?”
“Because… it’s… silly?” he answered, frowning with one eyebrow, which rather intimidated Illinia, but also looked funny.
She shrugged. “I don’t understand your point?”
“Oh, whatever. Let’s go in.”
They entered the door, and found themselves in a short bare corridor, with no door or turn. It just ended a little way ahead of them.
“Now that’s odd,” Mira said. “Is this the wrong place?”
“Can’t be,” Torrigan said. “Why would he put so much stuff outside if- well, why would anyone put so much thought into those puzzles if there was nothing here?”
“Perfect red herring,” Kellan said. “Meanwhile, his actual home is in a cave 50 feet up the path.”
Illinia giggled.
“Well, let’s just see,” Torrigan said. “I think I can feel heavy magic around… around the end of the corridor. I’ll go first; I have armour.” So saying, he tromped towards the end of the corridor. They followed him closely.
They got to the end of the corridor. “So now wha-aaaaaaah!” Mira cried, as they all plunged downwards.
They landed in a heap a few feet down, too deep to climb out again. Above them, the trap door closed, sealing them in darkness.
“Well,” Torrigan’s voice sounded in the darkness, “we really walked into that one.”
“Har har,” Mira said, with a whacking noise. She might have slapped Torrigan on the shoulder. “Where’s that lantern… Ah! There it is.” There was a pause, and a tiny golden light blossomed. It revealed they were in a round chamber of stone, and they were being watched by a horde of large rats and scorpions.
“Oh, great,” Kellan hissed, his rapier appearing in his hand. “Here we go again.”
This fight was long, drawn out, and tense. Illinia hid behind her longsword, holding her knife in her off-hand. This was no place for archery. The rats were big, fast, and vicious, and there were far too many of them. The scorpions were black and hard to see except for the gleaming of their shells. It was incredibly difficult to fight in the half-light; her elven eyes gave her some advantage that her friends did not have, but it was not enough. It was difficult to distinguish between living and dead, as well. She could hear Mira using some less-offensive curse words under her breath; Kellan suffered several bites in stony silence. Her hawk had no space to manoeuvre or fly; it clung desperately to her left shoulder, fluttering often to keep its balance. It was distracting.
The creatures stayed away from Derek, though. They could probably smell his wolfishness.
At length, they found they had no enemy left. They took a collective deep breath, and Torrigan wiped the sweat from his brow with his leather glove, leaving a trail of dirt across his face. “That… was different.”
Kellan was peering around. “I don’t see any more traps. Wait… There’s a door here. Let me check it out.”
“Go ahead,” Mira said, sitting on a rock in the corner. “I think the rest of us will take a rest.” Illinia sat beside her.
Kellan poked around the edge of the door, the lantern in one hand. She couldn’t see clearly what he was doing, but she reasoned that he must know what he was doing.
After a few minutes, he gave a shout. “Whoops!”
The top of the doorframe collapsed in a small fall of flaming rocks.
“Kellan!” Mira barked. “What did you do?”
“I made a little mistake. Not to worry, the door is now clear! If slightly damaged.”
He was correct; the door would now open without triggering any traps. Beyond was a spiral staircase. Avoiding the wreckage, they tramped up wearily, and found themselves behind another pair of doors. The one on the left led back to the booby-trapped corridor; the one on the right led into a set of rather comfortable though sparsely-furnished and messily-kept rooms.
“Remember, we’re just looking for wolfsbane!” Torrigan said. “We should leave everything else alone. Aleic is obviously a powerful wizard, or at least a clever one. We shouldn’t do anything that would anger him.”
Illinia kept a bit of an eye on Kellan; he didn’t seem pleased with this advice. But she was not able to watch him all the time; she had to do her own searching.
After a few minutes, Mira called. “I found his herbs! Which one’s wolfsbane? Oh, I wish I was an elf; then I’d know right away.”
Illinia hurried over, and the others clustered around behind her. “I think this one. My, they look different when dried! Yes, that smells right. What do we do now that we have it?” Behind her, unseen by anyone, Kellan snuck a couple of small potions into his pockets.
“Well, the priest gave us detailed instructions,” said Torrigan. “We need to go back to town, because we’ll need his help. But basically we need to make a holy potion with this herb, and then give it to Derek before the sun goes down tomorrow. He’ll turn into a werewolf, but then he’ll turn back – permanently. But he said it would probably be an uncontrollable transformation, so it might be dangerous.”
“I understand,” Derek said. “Thank you so much for everything you’ve done. I can’t possibly thank you enough.”
“That’s all right!” Torrigan said. “We want to help.”
“We can’t just let you die, or live… a life that will make you unhappy,” Illinia put in softly, looking up at the blacksmith with her big brown eyes. People tended to respond favourably when she did that, and he was no exception – he smiled back at her hopefully.
“I will be forever indebted to you,” he said, slightly awkwardly.
“Well, let’s get going,” Kellan said, in a loud bored tone. “There’s nothing else we need here, is there?”
“Well, I just wanted to make a note that according to Aleic’s journal, he’s currently in Thaxted, the city to the north, investigating some sickness. If we need him for anything, we should go there.”
“Duly noted,” Mira said, nodding smartly. “Perhaps we’ll go look him up when we’re done. I mean, I have nothing else to do.”
“Me either,” Kellan said, leading them out of Aleic’s cave. The stone door closed behind them noiselessly. “Hope no one forgot anything in there.”
“Well, if we needed anything, it wouldn’t be as difficult to get back in,” Torrigan said.
“All right. Fine. But anyway, we need to go quickly now.”
They journeyed back to town, but had to camp partway there as night fell. They had spent longer in Aleic’s cave than they had thought.
The next morning they were up bright and early, and eager to be back in town and safe to cure Derek of his affliction. They journeyed swiftly and quietly, and were in town by mid-afternoon, going first to the temple to collect the priest. People stared at Derek, and he stared back, hope and optimism colouring his face.
They went to Derek’s house to deal with the cure, since the priest said it would be better to perform it in a place that he knew well and was comfortable in. It was a low little house, with a workshop on one side and a basement, and they went into the basement and barricaded the door.
“Are you sure about this?” Kellan said. “If things go wrong, we’re going to be locked in an enclosed space with an angry werewolf.”
“Better he be locked in here with us and our silver weapons than loose in the streets,” Mira said.
“Yes,” Derek agreed. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. Better that you kill me than that you let me kill anyone.”
“Well, that’s your call, but I’m not comfortable with this,” Kellan said, sighing.
“It’s all right,” Illinia said. “It will be perfectly safe. You’ll see!”
“Besides, you’re chaining me up first, right?” Derek asked.
“That’s right!” said Mira, somewhat too gleefully, a little teasingly. She twirled the chain in her fingers. “Just sit yourself down and make yourself comfortable, sir, and this will be over in a trice.”
Derek sat, and she chained him to the chair and to the support beam behind. If he tried to get loose, he would bring down the house on their heads first.
The priest got to work brewing the wolfsbane potion. It didn’t take him long, although the fumes made them choke a little.
“Here,” he said, bringing it to Derek’s lips. “It will taste awful. But you will be safe very soon.”
Derek drank, and the house shuddered.
Something had crashed into the hatch-like basement door with the force of a runaway horse. Something was pounding on the door, trying to get in with inhuman force and long scraping sounds.
“Weapons!” cried Torrigan in alarm. “Protect Derek and the priest!”
Derek was transforming for the last time, fur creeping along his shoulders to his face. His face lengthened and his teeth became sharp. But he was chained, helpless, and Mira had no time to unlock him.
The door shattered into splinters and a great grey werewolf burst into the room with a roar of rage.
Torrigan met him first, and swung with his silver sword, which was lighter than his normal broadsword. It barely made a scratch on the taut hide.
Illinia loosed a silver arrow, and Mira waded in with her own silver sword; Kellan hung back, judging his timing, then darted in and stabbed with his rapier, which was silver to begin with. The creature howled and swatted at them, carving deep gouges into Torrigan’s armour, deep gouges which immediately flowed crimson. The knight fell back with a cry, and Kellan took his place, dancing and dodging.
Illinia huffed in frustration. Her arrows weren’t doing enough. At least her hawk wasn’t in her hair; it had gone to perch on a high shelf, and frantically paced, wanting to help but unable to fly in the enclosed space.
She loosed another arrow, and took out the wolf’s eye.
Derek was slowly changing back into a man now. The cure was almost done. But their enemy was barely wounded, and seemed intent on killing the blacksmith.
Torrigan, partly recovered with a healing potion, attacked the creature from the front while Kellan rolled around to the back and attacked from the back. It twisted, trying to see them all, and Mira gave it a whack on the paw. It snarled and casually batted her into the back of the room, leaving the path clear to Derek.
Illinia cried out in terror and flung herself forward, almost colliding with Torrigan who was faster. The knight and the wolf grappled, and Illinia drew back her bow at point-blank range and buried an arrow in the creature’s throat.
It slumped with a gurgle, and transformed back into a human.
Mira picked herself up, looking very sore and bruised under her armour, and unlocked Derek’s chains. “Oh. My goodness. That was too close.”
Derek didn’t even get up; he just sat in the chair, his head in his shaking hands. “That must have been the wolf that bit me. Oh gods… I am so lucky to be alive, and forever indebted to you all.”
“And I am fortunate, too,” the priest said. “If it had only been us, the evil creature would have succeed- What is this?”
Derek raised his head, and he too recoiled from the dead human-form body of the werewolf.
“It’s the Lord Councillor!” he exclaimed.
“Oh, that guy who was so nasty to you?” Kellan said. “Gosh. No wonder he was nasty. …Wait, I’m confused.”
“This will need a thorough investigation,” said the priest. “Nevertheless, I think we must go at once to his house not for the investigation, but so that you, Derek, can see Hannah. She has been waiting for you. We have not seen a sign of her in a week. We fear she has been confined.”
Derek was on his feet at once. “Oh! Hannah! I have been sick at heart thinking of her. Yes, let us go at once!”
“I’ll get the guards,” Mira said. “Torrigan, you’ll have to do the talking.”
“I understand,” Torrigan answered, and they followed Derek as Mira went the other way.
Derek ran through the streets to the upper-class end of town, where they came to the house of the councillor. The doors were closed, but Derek burst through them. The servants stared at him in shock, but he went through the house calling the name of his sweetheart.
At length, he heard an answer, just as the steward of the house came indignantly to demand his business. “How dare a creature as yourself enter here and raise your chaotic cries? Out, into the street with you!”
“Your master was an evil werewolf, and he is now dead,” Torrigan said, distracting the steward, leaving Derek to slip by the steward. “This whole house will be under investigation shortly. Derek is only here to make sure Hannah, your master’s daughter, is safe.”
The steward gaped, and even as he did, they heard guards at the door. Mira had been quick.
Derek came down the hall with a beautiful blonde woman nestled in his arms, and Illinia smiled to see them so tender together. They were both smiling like stars.

The initial investigation took a whole day, but the end of it was Mira had three more suspicious papers to add to the ones she had found in the orc camp, Derek was cleared of being a werewolf and was permitted to marry Hannah, which pleased them both immensely; the councillor’s possessions were sold and a third went to the town, a third went to Derek and Hannah as Hannah’s dowry, and a third went to the adventurers. This made Kellan very cheerful, which amused Illinia.
The councillor must have been a werewolf for quite some time, but no one knew how long or why he had chosen to attack Derek now, unless it was to prevent his marriage to Hannah. Derek did say to them that the councillor had fiercely opposed his daughter marrying a blacksmith.
It was all very confused, but in the midst of everything, they learned that there had been no trade from Thaxted recently, so Torrigan and Mira thought that perhaps they should seek out Aleic the Wise and see what was going on. So they set out two days later, having wished Derek and Hannah joy as newlyweds.

This chapter is stupidly, ridiculously long. My apologies. This will take you from the very, very beginning of Esgalwen’s D+D adventure all the way to the half-way point of the werewolf arc. You may note the quality of the writing start to go downhill very quickly. Very quickly. No, seriously. Anyway, I’ll post Chapter 5 tomorrow at some point.

I had a lot of things to say, but I’m not going to get around to saying any of them…

I’m very full! Surprise (for me) party (for a friend). This makes me sleepy and unwilling to do any work, whether it be writing, drawing, or practicing. But I think I should finish a few things before bed…

Mannnn choir is so great. Just gonna say that right now.

Chapter 4

It was about four months later. Tharash had, at some point, simply stopped showing up. Valiensin had chalked it up to absent-mindedness. “Don’t be surprised if he pops in without warning just to see how you’re doing.” He himself had let her go a month previously, wishing her luck, and fortune, and safety, and success.
So it was she found herself in a small town, mostly inhabited by Halflings, looking for work. She had acquired some of the local currency, and some measure of knowledge of the continental peoples and laws and physics, and perhaps, after a month on her own but dealing with strangers every day, a very slight lessening of her shyness.
But she was running out of money, and while her hawk could feed itself, and technically she could survive by hunting, she was not really good enough to make that practical.
So she approached a sign saying “Armed Escortes Reqwired – Pleas Inqwire Heer”, not without trepidation, and saw a Halfling, arguing with a very tall, bald, and bearded human man. Nearby was the Halfling’s cart, filled with barrels and boxes, and also nearby were two other humans. One was a tall man clad all in shining armour, and the other was a red-haired woman also in armour.
“Eh?” The Halfling saw her. “You looking for a job?”
“Y-yes. You are hiring?”
“Certainly. There be nasty creatures between here and my destination… I need a few guards. But I think four will be enough.” He named a price, and Illinia agreed to it immediately. He turned back to the very tall man with a pointed look, and the man also agreed to whatever his price was for him.
They set off almost at once, and Illinia walked with the others, getting to know them.
The armoured man was Torrigan, Paladin of Pelor, a young knight errant seeking to eradicate injustice in the world by going out and finding it. He was tall, dark-haired, and handsome; rather quiet, but very kind to Illinia.
The woman was Mira, a woman who stared enviously at Illinia for a while, before coming over and explaining that she had always wanted to be an elf. “I even worship the Elven god, Culann Nuthalion,” she explained, and Illinia nodded, having been told that in this world, there were several different pantheons of gods who co-existed. She herself continued to hold firm to Eru, although she thought she could detect him in the local god named Heironymous. She wasn’t sure, though.
Anyway, Mira was a cleric, a healer who also knew how to bash people in the head with her broadsword, and journeying for much the same reason as Torrigan, although with the added goal of meeting the elves who had raised her and then disappeared.
The bald bearded man was a former clown and circus performer, who had decided the life of a mercenary paid better. His name was Kellan Dunn, and he spent most of the trip telling jokes to the Halfling merchant, who thought most of them were pretty funny. Illinia didn’t understand a lot of them, but listened carefully, trying to figure out the human sense of humour.
They walked along the road all that day, passing the time by talking.
It was mid-afternoon when Kellan, looking ahead, waved his arm. “What’s that ahead?”
Illinia peered into the distance down the straight road, which was flanked by trees and bushes. “I… think it might be… are those called kobolds?” Her hawk rose from her shoulder into the sky, sending her pictures of the land.
“Kobolds are pretty common,” Torrigan informed her, loosening his sword in its sheath. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Mira demanded, brandishing her own sword. “Let’s get them!”
“Let’s not go too far from the cart,” Illinia said, in her soft voice, and was actually rather surprised when the others looked at her and nodded. It was so unusual to have been heard, let alone listened to.
“Well,” Torrigan said thoughtfully as the enemy came closer, “those do appear to be kobolds, but not too many of them. Miss Illinia, perhaps you should begin to shoot them now. Miss Mira, let’s you and I move forward down the road to block them. Master Kellan, perhaps you could try to flank them?”
“All right!” Kellan called, jumping off the cart and vanishing into the bushes on the left of the road.
Illinia fired, but missed – they were still a little far for her, and the wind was blowing. Her next shot was gruesomely accurate.
There was a pained yell from the bushes on the left. “Kellan’s run into trouble,” Torrigan clipped out. “Mira, would you help him, please?” Illinia noted with a bit of a grin that their leader had forgotten all the careful, polite honorifics he had been handing out all day. She couldn’t say she minded, though. And he was still so polite! Was that from being a knight? she wondered as she fired off another arrow, this one catching a kobold in the leg, leaving it easy prey for the knight.
“Oh, gosh,” Mira cried from in the bushes. “You ran into a sword? That’s dumb!”
“All right, all right, I know!” Kellan called back. “Watch yourself!”
Torrigan looked over his shoulder, distracted, and so did Illinia.
“Sir Torrigan,” she said timidly. “I think I can handle the ones left on the road. Why don’t you go and help the others?”
“Thank you, Miss Illinia,” he said with a half bow, and dispatching one more kobold, plunged down the bank and crashed into the bushes.
She fired two more arrows, one each at the two left, but missed with both of them; they were moving too quickly. They were charging at her.
Her hawk dived and savaged the head of one of them. She braced herself, and thumped one in the head with the sword Valiensin had given her before they parted. The injured other was rushing directly at her, but missed where he was going and ran directly onto the sword, which she was admittedly using a little clumsily, but since she was still alive and her enemy was not, she wasn’t going to complain.
“Look out!” called the merchant from behind her, and Illinia felt a sear of pain flash across her side.
She cried out, spinning around in fear and pain, and the sharp edge of the sword caught the kobold in the face. It hissed and jerked back, hatred gleaming out of its small eyes.
Suddenly bold herself, she took a better grip on her sword and advanced on it.
A silver flash launched past her and cut the kobold in two.
“Are you all right?” Torrigan asked, already cleaning his sword. “Oh dear! Miss Mira, would you come help Miss Illinia?”
“Hey, Torrigan,” Mira said, as she hurried forward, her hands glowing with white light. “So I’ve been thinking. We’ve got at least another day of travelling together. It’s kind of a pain to say ‘miss’ all the time, isn’t it? Why don’t you stop?” Illinia gave a tiny nod of agreement, and winced as Mira touched her side, but it healed instantly, and so did her dress, which was a relief.
Torrigan thought seriously. “As long as you ladies are certain you don’t mind…”
“Oh, I don’t mind. In fact, I’d rather just be called Mira. Seriously. Please go ahead.”
“And you?” he asked, turning to Illinia.
She nodded again, not able to meet his eyes for shyness, shifting her weight. “I’d like that if you were to just call me by my name.” My travelling name, she thought to herself. When I find my husband, they can know my real name.
They journeyed the rest of the day without incident, and camped right on the road. Supper was frugal, but full of new camaraderie, which was new and exciting to Illinia.
Afterwards, they posted watches, and settled down for sleep, or in her case, meditation.
It was well into the night when Mira, who was on watch, woke them with a cry. “There are goblins in the trees!”
They all sprang into wakefulness and grabbed their weapons; Torrigan left his armour alone, because it would have taken far too long to put on.
Illinia had an advantage with her night-vision and her bow. Kellan charged ahead recklessly into the darkness, seeking out the goblins as best he might in the glow from the torches around their camp. Torrigan also had a bow, and he aimed and shot, but without a great deal of success. Mira waited impatiently, her sword and shield in hand, for the goblins to charge.
Her hawk, unwilling to fly in the dark, sat on her bedroll and shivered.
Illinia’s hands were shaking. She wondered why. Was it fear? It didn’t seem like it. She was with three other talented warriors. Then was it stage fright? That might be the answer. She fired, and missed. She took a deep breath and tried again; this shot was better, injuring her target.
Mira gave a cry of frustration. “Why won’t they come?” Too eager to get into the action, she flung down her sword and shield and drew her crossbow in the same motion, firing wildly into the trees. “Dangit!”
“Easy, Mira!” Torrigan said. “Watch them carefully!”
“No, watch me!” Kellan barked, and scrambled up the closest tree. Even Illinia stopped to watch him, as he stabbed the injured goblin, ran lightly along the branch, and leapt to the next tree, killing the first goblin he found there.
“My goodness,” Illinia murmured. “That was skilful.”
“Or lucky,” Mira grumbled. “Show-off.”
“Focus!” cried Torrigan, shooting an advancing goblin in the head.
Kellan fell out of the tree.
“What did I tell you?” Mira sighed, and ran to him to heal him with her magic.
Illinia couldn’t answer, but shot another goblin.
None of the goblins really got close to the cart, and after a short while, vanished into the night, squeaking in defeat.
The Halfling, who had been watching, applauded them. “That was quite the show! Thank you for your assistance! I don’t like to think what would have happened if you hadn’t been here.”
“Say no more,” Torrigan said graciously. “It was our duty.”
“Do we get a little extra for that?” Kellan asked, incorrigibly.
“No, you twit!” Mira scolded.
“Just asking…”
The merchant giggled, and went back to sleep.
The next day was very uneventful until evening drew near. The town that was their destination was also near, and as the sun set, they began to hear the howling of wolves. Illinia shivered, but tried to hide it from the others.
The howls grew louder as they got closer to town, until they suddenly ceased.
Now everyone shivered.
“Just get me to town, and then we’ll be all right,” the merchant said, looking around furtively.
“Of course we will,” Mira said, to reassure the protectors as much as the protected.
“What’s that?” Illinia said softly, pointing ahead.
They journeyed cautiously closer. As they saw what it was, Illinia gasped and the others flinched in shock. It was a werewolf, still clad in torn peasant clothing, chained with silver chains to a tree.
“Who is this, and what has happened to him?” Mira asked.
“I wouldn’t know!” said the merchant, slightly panicked. “Can we just go to town? You adventure types can come back later. But please get me to the town!”
“All right, but we should leave someone here to guard him,” Torrigan said reasonably.
“I’ll stay,” Illinia said.
“I’ll stay,” Mira echoed. “You boys go on ahead. We’ll be right here, making sure no one hurts the nice werewolf.” There was some sarcasm in her voice.
Illinia looked at her as the others left. “Why were you sarcastic? I don’t understand.”
“Well… he could be a bad werewolf, you know. Few werewolves are good. And he’s chained up.”
“Well…” Illinia considered. “Can a werewolf be cured?”
“Only in the first week, and you’d need some wolfsbane.”
“Oh! I know what that is.”
“Wait, it’s too dark to look for – oh, crap, you’re a full-blood elf. Wait! Come back!”
Illinia scurried around in the undergrowth, using her nose to help. “It’s odd… I can smell that it used to be here… but…”
She came across a patch of burnt earth. “It’s been burned, deliberately.”
“Ha!” Mira said. “A plot begins to appear!” She sat back on her heels. “But why do you want to help this guy?”
“Why not? He looks like he’s in pain…”
“What if he’s evil?”
“What if he’s not?”
Mira had nothing to say to that, and they went back to the wolf after having established that there was no wolfsbane in that area at all.
“So, Illinia! We should be best friends.”
“B-best friends?”
“Yeah! Like, we share secrets and stuff. Maybe you can teach me more about being an elf!”
“W-well… I don’t know what to say. What could I possibly teach you that you don’t already know?”
“Well… how to be more graceful, how to hear better, smell better, that kind of thing.”
Illinia laughed with some embarrassment. “I don’t know how to teach that… Anyway, I thought you were pretty graceful already!”
“And then I dump my weapons on the ground to get my other weapons. Yeah, right.”
“Ah… well…”
“But you’ll be my best friend, right?”
“Ah, yes, certainly! I would like that.”
“Have you had any best friends before?” asked Mira curiously.
“Well… my elder sister, and my husband… Not really a lot?”
“That’s too bad. Well, I’ll be your friend now… Oh, there are the guys.”
Torrigan and Kellan walked up to them. “We got paid,” Torrigan said, handing the women each a small purse. “Now, what is it you want to do?”
“I want to help him,” Illinia said after a short pause. “No one should be under such a terrible curse.”
“All right. Well, we should leave someone to guard him while we find a priest or healer of some kind.”
“Who should we leave?” asked Mira. “I was really counting on sleeping in an inn tonight.”
“I’ll stay,” Kellan said. Illinia peered at him suspiciously; he didn’t really seem to mean what he said. But the others appeared to believe him. “Look, I’ll sleep in this tree over here. That way, even if he gets loose, which doesn’t look likely, I’ll be safe. You guys go on ahead.”
“Thank you, Kellan,” Torrigan said, and led them to the town.
Illinia had no need of sleep like the two humans (of which Mira was rather jealous), and after a while in her room in the inn, she went downstairs to the tavern, to see what she could see.
She hadn’t been there thirty seconds when what she saw was Kellan, with his hood drawn well over his head, walk nonchalantly into the tavern and up to the bar.
She walked up to him, her stance indicating disapproval, and he turned tail and hurried out into the street. She followed after, and ran after him down the street. He attempted to hide in a dark alley, but her eyesight was much better than his. “Kellan, I thought you said you were going to watch him! Why are you here?”
Instead of answering, he ran down the street, shouting. “Help! Help! Save me from this elf!”
She followed him in mortified perplexity. “Kellan!”
Guards began to converge on them. “What is it you need, sir?”
“I need a healer! Quickly! It’s an emergency!”
“Oh, right away, sir. Follow me!” And Kellan went off with the guards, with a cheeky wink at Illinia.
She followed at a discreet distance, forgotten temporarily. She thought of going back to get Torrigan and Mira, but they needed their sleep and she might lose Kellan in the meantime. So she followed.
They brought him to the local priest’s house, where he banged on the door in great excitement. The priest hurried down, obviously having been wakened. “What is it? What’s the alarm?”
“Oh, you are so devoted!” Kellan fawned on him. “So good of you to be ready for anything, even at such a late hour of the night!”
“It is my duty to serve, sir,” said the priest, somewhat in a better mood. “What is your errand?”
“I need a healer. It’s about that werewolf…”
The priest gave him a look of scorn. “You think I don’t know about that werewolf? Trust me, we’ve done all we could for him. There’s nothing you can do; nothing I can do.” As the guards turned away, laughing to each other, he added in a lower voice that only Kellan – and Illinia – could hear: “Come see me at the temple in the morning.”
“Of course, sir,” Kellan said. “Thank you so much.”
The priest went back inside and shut his door.
The former entertainer turned back to Illinia with an air of triumph. “There, see? I was far more useful than the rest of you!”
“All right,” she said, uncertain how to respond. “Thank you, Kellan. But you really shouldn’t break your word. I’ll go watch over the werewolf now. Good night.”
She sat beside the werewolf all night, and on occasion tried to make him more comfortable. He was completely unconscious and did not move all night long. She wondered if the silver chains hurt him at all.
The others arrived early the next morning, having visited the priest in the temple. But as they arrived, the wolf changed back into a man. Illinia was not aware of the change happening, as it was so gradual. But she looked away from a wolf-man and looked back to a human, so he was changing.
The group talked in low tones as he stirred.
He blinked, sleepy and surprised, and raised a chained hand to cover a yawn. “Who are you?”
“We are…” Torrigan began, and paused. “Who are we?”
“We’re a group,” Mira said firmly. “We’re some travellers hanging together. Who are you?”
“I-I’m Derek. I… was a blacksmith in this town, and a member of the town patrol, but… a few nights ago, I… well, I don’t remember much. They say they found me unconscious on the edge of town… I don’t know. At some point, they discovered that sheep were going missing, and then that I was… the one… responsible…” Distress filled his simple, handsome face. “I don’t know what’s going on. But if I’m a danger to the town, then it’s only right that I be out here until I die.”
“No, that’s not right,” Illinia said softly. “How is it that all the wolfsbane has gone from here?”
“Yeah, how come no one’s tried to help you?”
“They did!” said Derek. “They did, very much. I don’t know anything about wolfsbane… but… well, this was all we could think to do. I’ll die soon, but since I won’t be curable in three days, that’s not much of a worry to me.”
“Three days!” Torrigan exclaimed. “All right, team, we have a deadline.”
“Wait, what?” asked the blacksmith. “Haven’t you heard what I said?”
“Loud and clear,” Mira told him. “Haven’t you heard what we said?”
“We haven’t actually said it,” Torrigan said.”
“We’re not going to just leave you here,” Illinia said softly, smiling a little, and placing a hand on his shackled arm. “You’ll see. We’ll help. We’re adventurers!”
“What are your names, sorry?”
“I’m Mira!” volunteered the lady in question. “I’m a cleric of Culann Nathalion! I’d like to be an elf… but Fate was unkind.”
“I’m Kellan,” said the former clown. “And that’s about all that’s interesting about me.”
“I’m Torrigan,” said their fearless leader. “Paladin of Pelor, righter of wrongs… the usual.”
“I-I’m Illinia,” said Illinia, shyly. And that was all.
“Oh, before I forget,” Torrigan said. “We all got silver weapons of some sort, and we bought you some silver arrows, Illinia. They might come in handy. Because while this man is probably innocent, there is still the wolf who attacked him, who may not be innocent.”
“Ah. Th-thank you…”
“Kellan?” asked the paladin, turning to their other member. “What’s on your mind?” Indeed, he had been very quiet.
Kellan, in lieu of answering, produced a pair of pants from the loose sleeve of his tunic.
Mira rolled her eyes. “Oh gosh. We’re trying to save a man’s life, and this guy’s worried about his modesty.”
“It’s a valid concern!” Kellan argued. “How about we unchain him?”
“We do have permission to do that,” Torrigan said, producing a key, and stood while Kellan breezed past him to pick the lock with an intricate set of picks.
“Soooo… lockpicks, eh?” Mira said suspiciously. “Any particular reason for those?”
“They’re useful?” Kellan said over his shoulder. “That’s about it.” He undid the chain, and Derek stood and stretched. Then he quickly accepted the pants from Kellan, turned around, shed the rags that had been covering him, and put on the fresh untorn pants.
“Well!” said the blacksmith, turning back to face them, looking better already. “Er. Thank you. You should probably hold onto that chain, since if I transform again, it’s your only hope of survival, probably. I don’t really know how much control I would have. I’ve always blacked out in wolf form up until now…”
“We’ll keep that in mind,” Mira said encouragingly. “Don’t worry, now. What would you like to eat?”
Derek’s face lit up, then fell again. “Well… I’ve been having a hankering for raw meat, which is not the best sign…”
“That’s all right,” said Illinia. “I can catch you some.”
“Yes, though we should head out immediately,” Torrigan said, checking the sun. “The day’s only just begun, but we’ve a long journey ahead of us before we reach our destination.”
“What’s that?” asked Derek.
“We’re in search of a sage who lived in the forest about six hours march south-east of here. So we had better get started!”
“Oh! Yes, indeed.”
“I-if you require it, my hawk can help,” Illinia said. “Forestfeather sends everything she sees to me. Perhaps she can help us locate this sage.”
“Excellent, thank you very much, Illinia,” Torrigan said, bowing to her. “As we get closer, we shall definitely call upon your assistance for that.”
She smiled at him.
“Is there any way I could see my friend Brett?” Derek said. “I know we have a long way to go, but I’d like to let him know what I’m up to. That I’m not shirking my punishment.”
“It’s not punishment,” Illinia murmured, but they didn’t seem to hear her this time.
“Certainly. We’ve talked to the priest, and he said that if you’re with us, the villagers will trust that we can keep you under control. Where’s your friend?”
“Well, he’s a guardsman, and he should be patrolling around the eastern edge of town at this time of day.”
“Lead on, sir.”
Derek’s friend was cautiously happy to see them; he spoke with a broad accent (Australian, for us modern-day humans) that Kellan could not understand. It was very amusing, seeing Torrigan try to translate between two different modes of their shared language.
They were just saying goodbye to Derek’s friend (who had even managed to tell them something new – that Derek had been found in an area where the night lamps were not working, his armour and clothing torn) when there was a hail from the other direction. “Halt! What are you doing?”
“Er…” began Torrigan.
“Lord Councillor!” Derek stammered.
“Well? Answer me!”
“This guy, Derek, he’s allowed to be with us,” Mira said. “We’re professional adventurers. We can handle him if he changes. Really.”
The councillor looked at them suspiciously. “You don’t look very competent to me. A goody-two-shoes paladin, a naive cleric, a shifty looking man, and an elf…”
“Hey, Illinia’s all right!” Mira said. “I dunno about Kellan, but…”
“Heyyyy…”
“I’m kidding, Kellan. You’re all right, too.”
“My friends,” Torrigan said soothingly. “Less banter, perhaps? My lord, please be assured we are fully prepared to help this man and to defend the innocent, or die trying.”
“Er…” Kellan said. Illinia nudged him and nodded, her eyes bright with agreement. He sighed and crossed his arms.
“So I suppose you are going to visit the sage. Well, that’s all right. At least you will be out of the town.”
“We most certainly will be, sir,” Derek said; a set in his shoulders told Illinia he was hiding anger.
“Well, be careful. There have been several disappearances the last few nights, and not limited to sheep, either.” The councillor turned and swept away, his attendants around him.
Derek looked at the others and shrugged. “And he’s the father of my sweetheart… He really doesn’t like me.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Illinia murmured.
“It’s all right,” he said to her. “She understands. But sometimes I think he was glad I became a wolf. Although… I am a very good blacksmith. My going would leave a hole in the town… my apprentice isn’t good enough to take over yet.”
Kellan nodded. “Could I be your apprentice?”
Derek laughed. “I think we can talk about that later.”
They set out and journeyed for many hours. Illinia’s hawk managed to catch a squirrel on the way, which she gave to Derek. He went behind a tree to eat, shamefaced, but he seemed to be feeling better when he was done. Mira offered him a piece of bread, which he also ate.
“It’s funny; apparently I’ve been eating sheep,” he said. “I had been wondering why my mouth tasted like wool when I woke up in the mornings.” Illinia, although she felt so sorry for him, couldn’t help but giggle a little at the way he said it.
Her hawk chose that moment to come dive-bombing onto her shoulder; Illinia staggered with the sudden impact. “What’s the matter, Forestfeather?”
The hawk stared wildly into her eyes. “Oh! There is… smoke, rising to the… east.”
“Is it the sage?” asked Kellan.
“I can’t tell,” she said, releasing the connection and shaking her head to clear it of the sudden weariness. “It’s not a camping fire; something big is on fire.”
“We must investigate!” cried Mira, striking a dramatic pose.
“Yes, of course,” Torrigan said. “Is that all right with you, Derek? It might be the sage we’re looking for.”
Derek nodded. “Fire is dangerous. You have every right to deal with that first.”
They walked rather faster in the direction Illinia’s hawk indicated. They hadn’t gone fifty metres when there was a venomous hiss and a massive black spider lunged at them from under a bush.
Illinia screamed as they all dodged in various directions; this spider was even bigger than the ones she had fought in Mirkwood, and looked faster and more vicious, too. Kellan, too, yelped.
Torrigan and Mira were to the fore, weapons at the ready, with the shaken Illinia behind them, and Kellan on the flank. Derek hung back, weaponless, nervous.
The spider attacked with claws and fang; Torrigan grunted as he struggled to block. Mira took advantage of the assault on Torrigan to bash one of its legs; Kellan cartwheeled around to the other side of it and attacked it with his rapier from the back.
Derek seemed to be having trouble; he fingered his throat nervously, blinking, sweating. Illinia cast him a worried glance as she loosed another arrow, striking somewhere near the creature’s head.
Derek let out a howl and dropped to all fours, dark brown fur bursting out all over his body. (Fortunately, this pair of pants did not tear.) He growled fiercely over the others cries and exclamations of “oh crap!” and charged forward, past Torrigan and Mira, and slammed the spider’s head into the dirt, where it scrabbled uselessly.
“Oh! Quick, get it!” Kellan called, redoubling his attack. “Kill it! Kill it!”
Derek barked as one of the spider’s fangs nipped his bare foot. Then Mira’s sword clove its head from its body, and it collapses in a pile of flailing legs. Kellan ducked, but was nicked by one anyway, tearing a deep gash in his shoulder.
“Oh no,” Mira said, investigating Derek’s foot. The wolf-man stood quietly, breathing heavily, but otherwise unmoving.
“Derek?” Illinia said cautiously, moving up into his field of vision. “You’re in control, and not asleep?”
He turned to look at her and gave her a big toothy grin.
“It’s probably because… Derek, did you transform out of choice?” Torrigan asked. The wolf nodded, and stiffened as Mira prodded his wound.
“That explains it,” Kellan said. “Hey, if we can’t cure him, can we take him with us? He’s pretty good in a fight.”
“That would be up to him, but first we are going to do our best to cure him,” Torrigan said sternly.
“Of course,” Kellan said, but sighed afterwards.
“Oh, drat,” Mira said from where she crouched on the ground. “It’s poison time. Where’s that spider antidote?” She sang a little song to herself as she hunted through her pack, mostly consisting of the words “it’s poison time, poison time, poison time…” that made Illinia laugh in anxious bemusement.
“All right,” she said. “Derek, please drink this. It’ll taste awful, but you won’t die.”
He took the vial and gulped it down, licking his lips with his long tongue afterwards. He coughed a bit, but the wound began to heal.
“That should do it!” Mira said. “All right, gang, let’s continue!”
Torrigan nodded. “Which way, Illinia?”
She consulted her hawk.
They took another half hour to reach the fire. When they got there, they halted in shock.
There was a lovely little hut, burning to the ground. It had only just been set on fire in the last hour. Outside, a dead wolf lay sprawled on the ground, covered in multiple blade wounds and arrows.
Kellan, without a backwards look, dove into the hut.
“Hey! That’s not safe!” Mira called; as if to punctuate her point, part of the flaming roof broke off and tumbled to the ground.
Illinia knelt beside the dead wolf. “This was the companion to someone…” She couldn’t say how she knew; she just knew.
“Is this the sage’s hut?” Torrigan asked.
Kellan came stumbling back out of the house, a few things in his hands. “Was the sage’s name George? Because these things belong to George.”
He had a journal, a couple magic books, and two potions.
“Well, yes,” said Derek, now transformed back into a human. “Oh, dear. That was his wolf companion. What happened to him?”
Illinia looked up. “Orcs and goblins. I can smell it.”
“You have a keen nose, then,” Torrigan said. “I smell nothing besides fire.”
“I think it’s an elvish thing,” she said. “Let me see…” Her hawk rose into the air, and she tested the wind in all directions. “We can follow them. The sage isn’t here, right? There’s no body? Perhaps we can still save him.”
“Man, and I bet we have to save someone else in order to save him,” Kellan said. “Wheels within wheels. What a pain.”
“Come on, Kellan, keep up!” Mira called, following the slender disappearing form of Illinia. There was no real possibility of Illinia disappearing into the forest in her red dress, although she had the black velvet cloak in her pack still, and she had discovered a bit of an ability to create an illusion that made it look like she wasn’t there. It wasn’t true invisibility, because she could only make it look like she was another part of the landscape, a tree, for instance. But it might be useful when she was all alone without friends to watch over her.
They followed the orc-trail for a couple hours, not stopping this time for food, although they ate on the move. Derek could only eat a small piece of bread this time, and Mira frowned anxiously at him.
At last, they reached a wide clearing in the forest; beyond it was an encampment made of rickety wooden boards haphazardly hammered together to create a circular barricade.
Illinia’s hawk came down to share with her what it had seen.
“There is… a cage inside the encampment?” she said slowly. “No, more than one cage. And there are towers with archers in them. They are not alert, though.”
“We can take them by surprise!” Kellan said, rather louder than he had to. The others shushed him.
“Well,” Torrigan said. “Let’s start by shooting them. Illinia, would you take point? Mira and I will come behind you.”
“Man, all I have is this stupid crossbow,” Mira grumbled. “It’s inaccurate and completely un-elf-like. Someday I really want a longbow like you, Illinia.”
Illinia blushed and nocked an arrow.
Even she was not so accurate at the distance she was shooting at, but the goblins in the towers didn’t seem to notice her. She shook her head. Her next arrow hit, and they still didn’t react.
Her eyebrows quirked in confusion. They were under attack, and they still didn’t realize it! What was wrong with them?
Torrigan and Mira’s arrows joined the fray, and then they began to notice something was up.
“All right,” Torrigan said. “I think they’ll probably open the gates and charge us. While we keep them occupied, Kellan and Illinia should sneak inside and try to rescue the sage. I bet he’s in one of the cages.”
“Sure,” Kellan said, moving to the side. “Come on, Illi.”
“Illi?” she said to herself. It sounded so strange coming from Kellan, and kind of forced.
The gate swung open jerkily, and six big orcs rushed out and down the hill towards them.
“Uh oh,” Torrigan said, switching his longbow for his sword. Mira took a bit of time to shoot one more arrow, and hit an orc square in the chest, dropping him immediately as the powerful little bolt punched through his armour.
“Ha!” she cried. “Finally, a hit with my ranged weapon!”
Then the orcs were upon them. “Oh, drat,” she said, simply dropping her crossbow and grabbing at her sword.
Illinia and Kellan were already behind the orcs, fighting the goblins who swarmed out of the towers. Illinia gripped Valiensin’s sword tightly, her heart pounding rather uncomfortably in her chest. A roar from behind them told her that Derek had transformed again.
They burst into the camp, the goblins not slowing them down at all. There were two cages; one held a young girl, perhaps fourteen, and the other held a middle-aged man.
Illinia and Kellan had to deal with the goblins before they could do anything, but Kellan, while Illinia was holding their attention, ran over to the sage’s cage and cut it open.
The sage rose and walked swiftly to a staff leaning against the opposite wall. He picked it up, held out his hand, and the goblins convulsed and collapsed. Illinia shuddered and jumped back with a squeak – the ground was also convulsing! The roots of plants coiled around the hapless creatures and dragged them under the ground into large cracks that closed over them.
The young elf stood there, shivering, and then became aware of a greater need than hers. The sage was weeping, softly at first, but then big racking sobs tore through him.
She understood. Somehow, without words, she understood. The wolf had been his life’s companion, and now that it was gone, he was without his dearest friend, one who had been to him like a child. She slowly went to him, supporting him as he crouched sobbing on the ground.
The group that had been fighting the orcs entered the gate. “Oh dear,” Mira said, surveying the damage.
Derek was cleaning blood from his claws when he caught sight of the girl in the cage, and then gave a hoarse bark.
Kellan released the girl, and the werewolf rushed to her side. She cowered away with a shriek. “Aaaah! Who are you? Don’t hurt me, please! Please please please don’t hurt me! Stay away!”
“It’s all right,” Torrigan said. “Don’t be afraid, miss. This is our friend Derek. We are working to free him from his curse.”
“Oh!” she cried out in fear again, though. “That’s Derek? Derek, dear, what happened to you?”
Will a huge effort of will, the blacksmith transformed back into a human. “It’s all right, Fiona. It’s all right. They’re going to cure me. Now, what are you doing here? You disappeared! I was out of my mind with worry! And then I found out that I was the werewolf, and they locked me up, which was of course the right thing to do… for all I knew, I was the one who made you disappear!”
She shook her head, and crept out of the cage. “No, silly brother.” Her forehead wrinkled up. “Well, actually, I don’t know what happened. I promise I didn’t go out at night! I stayed near Auntie all day! It’s like I just fell into a pool of dark water in my head… and when I woke up, I was here! I was terrified!”
“I can imagine,” said her brother, who cautiously went to her and picked her up. “I’m not going to hurt you, Fiona, honestly I’m not. These people are all good fighters, though. They’ll stop me if I lose control.”
She peered around at all of them. “Oh wow. You all look so scary!” She pointed at Illinia, still crouched over the grieving sage. “Except for you.”
Mira gave a rueful laugh. “Even me?”
“Well…”
“Even me?” asked Kellan, leaning with a somewhat deranged grin. Derek swung his sister away from the ex-clown, muttering “not funny”.
She nodded, shrinking away.
“Kellan, please,” Torrigan said. “Miss Fiona, in a moment, we shall escort you back to town. But first we must talk to this man.”
The sage was recovering after his outpouring of grief, and was getting up, more composed. “What can I do for you, sir knight?”
“We were told you might be able to help us with this man. Er, man infected by a werewolf.”
The sage moved over and inspected Derek by sweeping his staff over him. “He’s pretty far gone. You have only two days after today to cure him.”
“We know. But what is the cure?”
“Have you tried wolfsbane?”
“There isn’t any near the town.”
The sage frowned. “What? That is ominous… I wonder who or what could have removed it?”
“Not a werewolf, I suppose,” said Kellan. “The werewolf that bit Derek. Because then wouldn’t he have problems with it?”
“It was burned,” Illinia said. “He or she could have burned it from a distance…”
“True,” the sage said. “Well, that makes your job a little more difficult, for all my wolfsbane was also burned… But fortunately I do know someone who can help you. You must seek out Aleic the Wise, who lives in the mountains north of the village. He will have wolfsbane. He is much more powerful than I, so he will not have been defeated by a paltry bundle of orcs and goblins.”
Mira had been poking around the camp, and came up to Torrigan. “Hey… look at this. Does this look suspicious or what?”
“That certainly does look odd,” Torrigan answered, taking the papers from her. “It’s a letter requesting that these orcs kidnap… well, the two of you. It’s signed with a strange symbol… It looks kind of like an M and a T overlapping inside a circle with a five pointed star.”
“I didn’t know orcs knew how to read,” Kellan said.
“I’m not sure they would have to,” Mira said. “This doesn’t seem like it was for their benefit. Yeah, it’s not addressed to them… It’s a status report to some guy… Lord… Tofu? He’s in Thaxted, the city to the north, anyway.”
“Er…” Torrigan deadpanned, attempting to figure out the scrawl. “I can’t read that either.”
“Well, we’ll figure that out later,” Mira said, stuffing it carefully into her bag of Holding. “For now, let’s get the girl back to town and then go see this Aleic person!”
“Agreed,” Torrigan said. “Kellan? Illinia?” They nodded. Torrigan turned to the sage. “Will you be accompanying us, sir?”
The sage nodded. “I will take stock of my situation in a safer place. Let us go quickly, before more evil things come.”
They left and walked back to town. Night was falling when they drew closer.
“I should stay away,” Derek said as the sun was slipping over the edge. “In fact, you should probably chain me up again right now.”
“Ah! Yes, that would make sense,” Mira said. “If you feel you’re in control, though, just let me know and I’ll let you loose again. No problem.” She fished the silver chain out and shackled Derek’s hands together.
“What’s going on?” Fiona asked worriedly. “Why are you chaining my big brother?”
“It’s all right,” Illinia said. “He’s just worried that as he’s under a curse, he might hurt us by accident. He’s protecting us.”
Fiona pouted. “Well… all right. But don’t you hurt my brother!”
“No fear,” Kellan said.
“Your brother is a wonderful person and a formidable fighter. We won’t hurt him,” Torrigan assured her. “Now, how about Illinia and I take you home? Will you tell us where you live?”
She nodded. “Follow me! I can lead the way from here.”
Illinia stooped and picked up the little girl, who clung to her neck. “I will carry you, sweet child. It’s been a long day, and I’d like to keep you close.”
The four – Illinia, Torrigan, Fiona, and the sage – trooped down the hill and into the town. They heard a distant growl behind them, but it was surprisingly unthreatening.
“That would be Derek, I suppose,” Torrigan said. “He doesn’t sound too alarmed. Or alarming.”
“That’s good,” Illinia said.
They walked down to the town, bid farewell to the sage at the temple, and returned the child to her home. Then they went back into the forest to camp with the other three. Derek was quiet; he did not fall unconscious like he had for whatever reason on the night they had found him, nor did he seem inclined to attack them. After a while, Mira unchained him. He bared his teeth when she first approached him, but it seemed that he was in control of himself. They still posted a watch. After a while, Derek curled up and went to sleep.