3202 words (12 minute read)

Awry

Ningh studied the broken spellbomb handed to him by the cleaning lady from the tavern. She was not an unpleasant looking dwarf, but her stench was so overpowering the wizard thought he might pass out.

"Did ye roll around in trash ’afore comin’ in, lass?" he asked with a tight voice, doing his best not to breathe in directly.

Fern’s face grew red at the insult, and her fist’s clenched at her side. "Nay, milord wizard," she replied courteously. No matter the offense taken, it would be unwise to piss off a magic user, even one as lesser known as Ningh. "I had a rough morning with the leftover rubbish from last night being, um, rather ripe."

"Mmm," grunted the salty old wizard. "Weel, I can tell ye that this particular spellbomb was a portal. I remember the human that bought it just a few days back. He went on and on about wantin’ to get back to his home by the big tree in the east... a town by the name of Valekshire, Why do ye want to know, then?"

Despite the advice she had received to keep her mouth shut on the subject, Fern revealed a little of what everyone believed had happened to the popular prostitute at the Grinding Wheel tavern. "Ceean’s gone missing. This broken spellbomb was in her room, so I assume this human took her, either against or will or not. But I aim ta find out. She was me friend, ye see. Now you just make another portal spell and stick it in one o’ yer bombs. And also one back to the Grinding Wheel. Both free o’ charge, too! Else I’ll tell the good folk around here that yer selling to humans again. They won’t like that, despite what the Queen says, may she be protected by the ancestors and the Gods that keep them."

Ningh’s eyes shot open at the threat. Not that he was unaccustomed to such talk, but he certainly didn’t expect it from a cleaning lady. This must be important to her for the lass to speak to a wizard in such a manner.

"Calm ye down, Fern. I’ll make ye one for free. But ye shouldn’t be goin’ alone. Take a companion, a good fighter, mind ye, just in case things go wild out there," Ningh told her calmly. "Come back in the a few hours and I’ll have all ye need. I’m sorry that yer friend is gone, lass. Truly, I am. That Ceean... she is a right fine looking lady, to be sure. I’ll miss her, too. But never mind that," he added, growing a bit red in the face, himself.

On her way back to the Grinding Wheel tavern to have dinner with Taen, the handsome young cook she had been obsessing over for quite some time, Fern’s thoughts raced about the coming adventure. Should she go? Was it her place to seek Ceean? The lady certainly woulnd’t be sticking her neck out for Fern, after all. But it just felt right, almost as if destiny were calling upon Fern for the first time in her life. She would go, but she would not stay long. If there was nothing immediate that led her in the direction of Ceean, Fern would come right back home. No need in endangering herself. She wasn’t a fighter, and didn’t even know of one... except for Burton and his boys. But she couldn’t ask one of them to come with her or they’d know she talked to someone about the murders in the tavern the night before.

Later, in Taen’s personal quarters attached to the kitchen, they ate a sumptuous meal of mutton pie, crisply fried turnips, an assortment of roasted an spiced nuts, and an entire wheel of the most exquisite moldy cheese, all washed down with chilled ale. Fern hadn’t eaten quite so well in years.

"This is too much to waste on a cleaning lady," she muttered after a unleashing a long belch. "But I do thank ye for it, Taen. I can’t remember the last time food this good passed me lips."

"Would ye stop always puttin’ yerself down, Fern? I happen to think yer worth all the best food in the world. I’ve... I’ve been admiring ye for years, don’t ye know?" the handsome young cook admitted.

"NO!" Fern said, falling back in her chair, just catching herself in time to prevent an embarrassing fall. "If I’d know, well, I’d have told ye ages ago, Taen! To be true, I’ve fancied ye from the moment ye started on the cleaning crew. When I first ate yer amazing food, then I knew ye had to be mine."

"Well, then... what shall we do now?" Taen said suggestively, eyes darting to his bedroom. Fern stood and took the offered hand of the most handsome cook she’d ever met. He led her through the doorway, and she saw he had already left flowers sprinkled all over the bed.

"Now, what did ye think was ta happen in here, then?" She said, growing suspicious of his intentions. "Did ye mean to bed me all along?"

"Yes! Of course, Fern! I’ve known about yer wantin’ me for ages. I finally thought to give ye what ye wanted," Taen said defensively.

"What I wanted?" she fumed, insulted at the implication of a pity fuck. "What about yer own wants, Taen? Ye’ve just said that ye’ve been admiring me for years!"

"Yes, I have!" Taen said, trying to recover. "I have and I do, Fern. I only meant before that I felt the connection between us was obvious. I meant no disrespect. The flowers were here to impress ye, show ye I’m thoughtful. I’m sorry they didn’t and that I’m not," he finished, then hung his head.

"It’s no’ yer fault, Taen," Fern whispered. "I’m just, weel, a bit wary when it comes to males and their intentions. It’s not that I don’t want ye, by the ancestors and the Gods that keep them, I do want ye, badly."

Taen looked up into her pretty brown eyes. He didn’t see what the others at the tavern saw. They said Fern was plain. They said her waist was too big and her tits too small. They said that next to Ceean, Fern was a shadow. But Taen had never fancied Ceean all that much. For him, it had always been Fern’s crooked grin, the freckles at her collar, the smell of roses as she passed him, and those deep brown eyes.

"Do ye mean it, then" he whispered.

"Aye, but not for just a night, Taen. I want ye for life, ye see."

"Hmm," he said while stroking his black chest length beard. "I have no problems with that."

They fell together and rolled along his floor, kissing one another with fervour. Taen rolled Fern onto her back and pinned her arms down. "Let us find out, good lady, whether ye be ticklish or no’," he said with an arched eyebrow.

But Fern hadn’t heard him. She was staring at something on his wall, two items she had not noticed before. "Taen, why do ye have an axe and shield on yer wall?"

He followed her gaze to the well oiled and keen edges of his double-bladed axe, and the round buckler rimmed in dwarven steel. Both had been a gift from his father long ago. "They’re just remnants of me old life in Kelgrond Central, reminders of who I used ta be," he said with hint of sadness.

"Who were ye, then?" Fern asked, her heart beating quicker in anticipation.

"As ta that, I can’t tell ye. But just know that yer dear Taen was one hell of a fighter, once upon a time."

This was exactly the news Fern had hoped to hear. "Great!" she said, leaping to her feet and going to retrieve the axe and shield from the wall. "How would ye like ta go on a quick adventure with me this very night?"

"Adventure? Ta do what? Ta go where?" the confused and handsome young dwarf asked.

"Ta find me friend, Ceean. Ta the far side of Asa-thor," the cleaning lady answered.

"How in the name of the ancestors, and the Gods that keep them, are ye plannin’ on doin’ that, then?" he said with a laugh, hands on his hips.

"Weel, we need to make a stop at Ningh’s cottage ’afore we go ta get our means of passage. Come on, I’ll explain on the way. We need to pack a few things, but not much. We’ll be back in time for yer shift tonight, I promise."

And so they stuffed a satchel with the leftover pies, which she assured him they wouldn’t need, some waterskins, and some flint and steel, in case they needed a fire for some reason. Taen put on his hardened leather armour and strapped his axe and shield onto his back. It had been many years since the young dwarf had used the tools of his old trade, but at their touch, he immediately knew that the skills had not gone to rust within him. Taen could still hold his own in a fight. Or a war, should it come that.

They left the by the back door of the Grinding Wheel tavern to avoid the owners, as the two new lovers didn’t want to answer any questions about their odd state of dress. After all, Taen was due to begin work in less than two hours. But he knew that wasn’t going to happen. The handsome young dwarf was well aware of how adventures tended to go.

"Awry," he mumbled. "They always go awry."

They collected the items from Ningh the wizard, who was pleased to see that Fern had found a companion who could fight. "Be safe, ye two. The world out there is rife with danger, and though ye may be acquainted with it," he said to Taen, "ye’re not," he said to Fern.

"We won’t be gone long," Fern said. "I’ve the return portal ye gave me. No more than two hours, I swear it."

Ningh looked to Taen, who had a knowing look in his young but experienced eyes. "Aye," he said while nodding at the young fighter. "Ye know about adventures, then. Ok, hold on one more moment, ye two. I’ve an emergency pack here with a few things that ye hopefully will never need."

Taen took the offered satchel and peered inside to find a fortune in magical supplies; several potions of healing, a wand for those without magic, three additional spellbombs - each with a tag that labeled their power, and lastly... an orb of scrying. Taen looked to the old wizard and arched a brow.

"Only one use in that orb, lad. Use it as a last resort, and I’ll come to ye."

Nodding his thanks, Taen closed the satchel and took Fern by the hand. They left Ningh’s cottage and stopped a few hundred meters away.

"Are ye ready, then?" she asked.

"Are you? Things might not go as planned, Fern. I know she was yer friend and all, but are ye ready to go on a real adventure? They sometimes have a life of their own, ye know."

"It will be fine, ye coward," she muttered in his ear, then bit it. "Now, let’s be off." She took the portal to the lake near the big tree out of her pouch. Ningh had said it would take them to the exact same place as the portal the human had purchased. Raising it high in the air, Fern smashed it on the ground.

Immediately a portal appeared, rimmed in blue and pulsing with light. Through it, they could see a tree the size of a city on the far side of a lake. The two dwarves stepped through and the portal closed behind them. Fern reached into her pouch again, and touched the clay ball that held their return portal. Feeling reassured, the cleaning lady knelt down and started looking for clues as to what befell her friend.

Taen noticed some marks in the dirt that indicated something had been dragged away. There was dried blood pooled around the area, too. Following the tracks to a large shrubbery, the young fighter peered inside. A human’s leg and arm lay inside, both severed cleanly, but otherwise gnawed upon heavily by some animal.

"What do ye see, then?" Fern asked stepping up behind him. Before Taen could stop her, she peered over his shoulder and saw the gruesome vision within. Fern’s body tried to rebel; it tried to make her vomit again. But she fought with all of her will against that primal urge. "I am on a quest. I will not be sick at every awful thing I see," she said to herself, but turned away all the same.

"Do ye think that is the same human that took Ceann?" she asked Taen.

"Do we even know that he took her, Fern?" he asked gently. "What’s ta say she didn’t run off with a patron? Or, ye know, somethin’ else less, err, nice?"

"She wouldn’t have left without telling me, Taen, and what could be less nice than being kidnapped by a stinking human?" Fern snapped back.

Taen only shrugged his shoulders and pulled the wand from the pack Ningh had given them. It was never-ending light source, according to the note in the satchel. The handsome young fighter said the word of power that enabled the magic and light erupted from the tip of the wand, bathing an area of about 10 feet around them in artificial daylight. It wasn’t full dark yet, but soon it would be.

The two re-traced their steps back to where they had stepped out of the portal. Taen knelt and saw another set of marks. These indicated that something tumbled down into the lake, probably the human’s head, if the contents of the shrubbery were any indication. But he needed to be thorough, for Fern’s sake.

"Something fell here, and then rolled down into the water. Let’s take a look, then," he told Fern.

She nodded in agreement and took off running to the shoreline, leaving Taen in the dust.

"Hold on, now! Wait for the light," he yelled after her, and ran to catch up. Pushing the wand towards the water in the fading light of the evening, something sparkled underneath the lapping waves.

Upon closer inspection, both dwarves’ eyes grew wide with shock. "Is that a big bag o’ gold, then?" Fern said breathlessly.

"Aye, ’tis," Taen answered.

Fern reached into the lake and gathered the bag and all the coins that had fallen out. She tucked them back into the bag, cinched it shut, and then stowed that bag into her own larger pouch. Looking to Taen with a smile spread across her face, Fern stepped away from the shoreline.

"What do ye want to do now?" Taen asked, but he, of course, already knew the answer. These adventures always seemed to have such sharp turns in them. He’d miss the Grinding Wheel a good bit. Mainly the cooking, really. It had been so much fun getting to be the cook there, but Taen had learned in his earlier days to never have regrets. Be happy for what lay behind you, and keep searching for the next best thing.

"What do I want to do?" Fern asked with a smile. "I dunno, but I’ll tell ye something, Taen. I’m not ever going back to being a cleaning lady again. What say we go spend some of this gold in that human village beyond the big tree. I’ve never lived a luxurious life, and now I aim ta do just that."

"What about Ceean?" he asked.

"She was never here, I guess. Otherwise, we’d have found her body alongside the human."

The young fighter nodded in agreement and then took Fern by the arm and said, ’Come on then. We’ve a long road ahead of us."

Next Chapter: At Long Last