Missteps V.2

Chapter Three - Continuing On

A gloomy gaze hung over the group as they headed off on their journey again. Before they’d left, Jun had unearthed the wagon so that Carric and Iados could stash the bodies of the fallen bandits beneath it. Jun used one of the bandit’s scimitars to pin a quick note to the wagon’s side, just to let any passersby know what was under it.

"Do you think they’ll be found quickly?” Kerri asked as Jun passed by on their way out of the clearing.

Jun paused and looked back over at the wagon. “One could hope. However, we don’t want to be here when they are.”

Kerri looked up at the Barbarian. “You’ve done this before? Just left bodies behind and ran away?”

Jun gave a heavy sigh. “Piece of advice, don’t dwell on this. If you want to look for absolution, or confess about this, do it after the job. Was this the first time you’ve killed?”

Kerri’s eyes narrowed. “So what if it was?”

Jun took a moment before he answered. Finally he sighed. “You sure you want to be out here? Carric mentioned that their might be more bandits out here, and there’s a chance we’ll have to defend ourselves again. We’re not that far out, I’m sure the others wouldn’t mind if we circled back to Rocklyn.”

At her side, Kerri’s hand clenched into a fist. “No, I can handle it.” She stormed past the Berserker.

Ander walked over to Jun. “What did you say to her?”

Jun sighed and scratched the back of his. “I just tried to give her some advice. How are you holding up?” Jun nodded his head towards the wagon.

“It was self-defense, they attacked us.” Ander shrugged. “Besides, those aren’t the first dead bodies I’ve seen. Believe it or not, I’ve seen weirder corpses.” Ander walked away. Jun just shook his head and followed after.

A few feet away, Lia was kneeled next to her pack as she stuffed some nearby foliage into a side pocket. Iados was crouched next to her.

“What’s that?” Iados nodded at the greenery.

“Just some herbs that’ll make our hard tack taste a bit better.” Lia closed the pouch and looked up. “You’re pretty handy in a fight. Glad to see my money didn’t go to waste.”

“I don’t carry a sword just for show. You were pretty good as well. I saw that trick you did with the vine.”

Lia stood up. “What can I say, I was trained by one of the best, no matter how much I wish I wasn’t.”

“Wait, what?” Iados popped up. “Who were you trained by? Someone I know?”

Lia laughed. “I highly doubt you and my Uncle ran in the same circles.”

“You’d be surprised by who I’ve met.” Iados followed Lia as she rolled her eyes and walked away. “My last job was a great connections maker.”

Lia paused and faced Iados. “My Uncle isn’t someone you want to make connections with. Trust me.” She didn’t wait for Iados to answer. She turned on her heel and met up with Kerri and Carric.

Iados was silent as he digested that nugget. A heavy hand clamped down on Iados’s shoulder. He jumped and twisted around.

Jun grinned broadly. “Still amped up from the fight, aren’t you?”

“Maybe.” Iados reached up and adjusted his shirt. “Pretty good with that warhammer.”

Jun shrugged. The two of them started to walk after the others into the forest. “I did way too many years with the army not to know a thing or two. Have to say, that was my first battle with a bard. Magic-users, of course, but they were more like Ander, and they definitely didn’t sing.”

“I don’t know, add a nice beat to some of their chanting and I’m sure they’ll measure up.” Iados grinned. “I heard her sing, but I didn’t see much else. My memory’s a bit hazy from the whole going-down thing.”

“There’s no shame in it. You fought hard, and you got back up. That’s what’s important.” Jun shifted his gaze over to the young girl who chatted with Lia. The two of them were sharing a bag of dried berries. “She did pretty well actually. She got the final blow on a bandit, and you shouldn’t be so quick to discount that singing. She sang me a song and I felt…inspired, like a wave of self-confidence come over me.” Jun gave a small laugh. “You know who we should be worried about; Carric. He didn’t seem to hit much with that longbow of his.” Ahead of them, Lia and Kerri split as the bard struck up a conversation with Ander.

Iados shrugged. “Maybe he had cold feet or performance issues? We’ve all been there.”

“Are you talking about yourself?” Lia asked as the boys caught up with her. She held out the berry pouch as they kept moving.

Iados grimaced and clutched his chest. “How can you say that after last night?”

The elf Shrugged. “For all I know, last night was a lucky fluke.”

“Give me a second chance and I’ll prove to you that I bring the gold standard, every time.” Iados wriggled his eyebrows.

Lia chuckled as she handed the small pouch over to Jun. “You and I must have different scoring methods, last night was barely bronze.” She grinned at the look of despair that came over Iados’s face. She pointedly turned her attention to Jun. “So, tell me more about your time in the military.”

A few hours later the group stopped next to a small stream with and stopped to rest under the trees. Carric announced he was going to see what he could hunt quickly, and headed into the woods. In the meantime, the rest of the group dropped their packs and settled down for lunch. Jun lounged out in a sunny patch that filtered through the yellowing canopy above. Kerri settled down at the base of a tree and pulled out her lute. She hummed along with the soft melody, occasionally back-tracking and trying out different notes. At the edge of the stream, Iados peeled off his boots and soaked his feet in the current.

Carric arrived back about fifteen minutes later, two squirrels in hand. He handed the squirrels over to Lia.

Lia smiled and started to skin the creatures. Nearby, Ander had already started a small pot of water to boil over a small fire. It’d taken no effort for the small man to get the fire going.

“We should’ve grabbed some herbs before we left the Inn.” Ander grumbled as he crushed up some rations and stirred them into the pot. “I used up my store on the way here.”

“You cook a lot?” Lia caught Carric’s eye and directed him to the herbs in the side pocket. Carric reached over, pulled out a fistful, and threw it into the pot.

Ander gave a heavy sigh. “Obviously more than the lot of you.”

Iados wandered over the stream and sat silently down next to Kerri. His eyes were focused on the wet spots on his shirt and pants. He’d tried to scrub out the blood stains, unsuccessfully. Kerri paused in her strumming, and reached over and laid her hand on one of the damp spots. She hummed another note, and when she removed her hand the stain was gone. She passed her hand over all the blood stains on his person, and they all disappeared.

Iados raised an eyebrow. “Why didn’t you do that earlier?”

Kerri shrugged. “I forgot I could. I only learned it a few months ago.”

Ander flicked his eyes over to Kerri as he poured out his sparse soup into everyone’s mess kit bowls. “So you haven’t been doing magic long?” Lia took the empty pot from Ander and started searing off the meager rabbit meat inside.

“My dad had only started teaching me seriously a few months before I left.” Kerri answered with a small smile. “I only know about four or so spells.”

“I remember when I use to know only four.” Lia said wistfully as she walked over with three bowls. She handed a bowl of rabbit meat soup to Iados and Kerri before she settled down herself. “Why’d you leave home if you’d just started your training?”

Kerri just shrugged, “Reasons,”.

Ander swallowed his bite. “Did you kill someone?”

Kerri laughed and held up her hands. “No, nothing like that. I got caught making out with the Crown Prince in a broom closet.”

Silence followed for about a minute before howls of laughter rang out, mainly from Jun.

Lia tried to hide her smirk. “They exiled you just for making out? Seems pretty extreme? Was it one of those ‘he’s engaged to someone else but fell in love with you’ deals?”

Kerri shook her head. “No, we weren’t serious or anything, just messing around. The main reason what that he was the Crown Prince, and I was just the daughter of an entertainer.” Kerri averted her gaze back down to her bowl. “Officially it’s not even an exile, I was just asked to leave the Kingdom and strongly encouraged not to return.”

“So, what are you doing here then?” Carric asked around a bite of squirrel.

“I figured I’d take advantage of my sudden homelessness and see what Marblebrooke had to offer. When I heard about a lost Dwarven settlement, I thought I’d be a cool story for when I start to make a name for myself.” Kerri answered. “If this place is gonna be my new home, I might as well make the best of it.”

Iados held up his mess kit. “To making the best of it.” He toasted. Everyone laughed and did the same.

Once the meal was finished, Kerri used the same minor spell she’d used on Iados to clean the pot, bowls, and utensils. By the time she was done, there was a small sheen of sweat on her brow.

Iados and Carric collected everyone’s waterskins and headed up a short distance on the stream to refill them. It took no time at all to collect the water, but as they headed back, the two of watched as band of four goblins come up towards the stream from the opposite bank. The two of them immediately ducked down into the tall grass and headed quickly back over to the group. Luckily there were bushes blocking the rest of their party from sight on their side of the stream.

Unluckily, this meant that the rest of the party couldn’t see the goblins.

“Welcome ba-” Kerri’s voice was quickly muffled by Carric’s calloused hand.

“We’ve got company; goblins.” The ranger explained in a rough whisper to the group.

Jun gave a silent groan as he shook his head.

“What’s so bad about goblins?” Lia asked.

“They’re bad-tempered little imps who are more of an annoyance than anything else.” Jun answered with a grimace. “They also love to start fights, even though they usually don’t win. They’re not the smartest race in the world, but they make up for it in tenacity.”

“That tenacity is what I’d like to avoid.” Carric removed his hand from Kerri’s mouth and immediately wiped it on his pants as he shot the Bard a quick glare. Kerri only shrugged and picked up her pack. “I say we keep close to the bushes, and keep hidden as much as possible.”

As the group made to leave, they found that it was a harder venture than one might think. The bushes themselves were spaced unevenly, and in the uneven spaces were little divots in the group made by any number of small creatures. Add to that, everyone in the party, save for Ander, were doubled-over to stay below the top of the foliage.

Kerri was the first one to lose her balance. She stumbled forward into the small halfling, who then in turn grabbed onto the back of Iados’s pants in front of him for balance. It might have ended there, but in an effort to help, Lia shot a hand out behind her and grabbed hold of the akudaem’s shoulder. She yanked Iados forward, which caused Ander to be pulled forward as well. Instinctively, Kerri reached out to steady the halfling. Thankfully the cycle didn’t repeat, but all the small gasps, sound of their gear rustling, and the foliage that shook around them was enough to draw attention of the small party across the stream.

One of the goblins yelled out in a high-pitched raspy voice. No one knew what was being said, but the next sounds were of weapons being drawn so they had an idea.

“Well, we tried.” Jun popped up, drew his warhammer, and with a roar started his charge towards the goblins.

Iados hopped over the bushes. He pulled his shortsword and rushed towards the closest goblin. This goblin was shirtless and his green skin was punctuated with small scratches.

The goblin hissed as Iados got close and swung out with his sword. The goblin easily evaded it, but Iados wasn’t done. He continued the momentum of his swing, and used it to pull his leg up and deliver a meaty kick to the goblin’s face. The goblin clutched their now bleeding nose and said something in the high-pitched language. The message didn’t seem to be for Iados, as a second goblin ran over and attacked the akudaem as well.

This new goblin, who wore a tattered shirt, went low towards Iados’s legs as their buddy went high. Iados evaded the high scimitar, but swore as the lower blade sliced into his calf.

Kerri peeked over the top of the bush and saw Iados getting double-teamed. She laced her next words with magic as she tried to mimic the high-pitch from before. “Why bother with fighting when we could work together?” The bard sent the charm towards the shirtless goblin, but the silky words had no effect.

Lia shoved her hand through the bushes as she aimed towards the shirtless, sickly green-skinned goblin. A noxious, green cloud billowed out of the druid’s hand as she chanted a simple phrase. The cloud engulfed the goblin. The goblin started to violently cough and sputter. He stepped back in an attempt to get out of the cloud, and collapsed down onto one knee. The cloud only lasted for a few seconds before it dissipated, but it’d done its job.

The goblin wasn’t the only one affected by the noxious cloud. Iados was close enough that the fumes caused his eyes to water, right as he’d swung towards his foe. He missed.

Jun, already in berserker mode, joined up with Iados. He aimed for the easiest target, the shirtless goblin. As the goblin shakily got back up to their feet, Jun swung his warhammer like a bat. With a crack the hammer connected with the goblin’s head. The head twisted half around as the goblin body collapsed like rag doll.

The other goblin, enraged to see one of his own go down, swung out at Iados once again. The blade sliced into Iados’s side, the same one that had healed not too long ago. As the goblin wrenched his blade free, Iados’s knees buckled and he fell forward, unconscious.

Seeing Iados go down, the two females locked gazes and nodded. Kerri darted out, and using Jun as a shield, kneeled down next to Iados and hooked her arms under his. As she got to ready to pull Iados, she sang a little song for Jun.

“Come on Man,

Beat him down!

Come on Man,

Make him drown!”

Jun, feeling the inspiration of the chant, swung at the goblin. He connected with the goblin’s side. The goblin gasped, and it was a moment before he could breathe again. Once he could, the goblin brought his scimitar up and slashed up Jun’s torso. A thin line of red was seen as his clothes were torn. Jun didn’t even wince.

With one fell swoop, Jun brought his hammer down one final time on the Goblin. The small green creature cried out and crumpled like a wet rag.

Kerri, teeth gritted, lugged Iados’s still body back to Lia. The elf immediately laid her hands on his chest and cast a healing spell on her unconscious bodyguard.

The other two goblins had both taken up positions along the bank of the stream and readied their short bows. One of them had a top-knot of brown hair tied to his head, while the other wore a yellow bandana across their face. Top-Knot was the first to take aim and fire an arrow at Carric. Carric didn’t even have to move as it missed and buried itself in the tree next to him. However, the near-miss of the shot was enough to encourage him to crouch down and move. Not a moment too soon either as Bandana’s shot at him missed as well.

Finally, Ander, who had crawled his way through the bush, stood up and pulled a small twig out of his belt pouch. He rubbed the twig in between his palms as he said his spell. Static began to form on the twig and bounce off the wizard’s palms. Ander got to the end of his spell, the energy held in one hand. On the final syllable, a beam of lightning shot out from his outstretched hand and rocketed towards one of the archers. His aim wasn’t quite right as it sped past the goblin’s ear and into the forest beyond. The whole arc dissipated.

The bandana wearing goblin, now fully aware of what kind of threat the small halfling could be, was quick to fire an arrow his way. The arrow hit with a squelch into Ander’s arm.

Ander hissed in pain. He reached out with his blood-covered hand and pointed towards Bandana. He narrowed his eyes and a string of low monotone words dripped from his mouth. The blood on his hand sizzled as it turned into smoke and formed a wispy skeletal version of the hand in front of him. On the final syllable, the ghostly hand shot forward. It grew in size until it was large enough to fully encapsulate the offending goblin. The goblin whimpered as it felt the spectral hand suck out its very life, leaving him in a cold sweat.

Timing was not on Carric’s side during the encounter. Just as he would release an arrow, another of his teammates would do something that either broke Carric’s concentration, or would move his targets out of alignment. He’d have more than a few arrows to scavenge out of the stream and woody area beyond.

With a grunt, Bandana broke out of the spectral hand. The top-knotted goblin yelled something out in Goblinese towards Bandana, and Bandana bellowed back. Suddenly Carric found himself being used for target practice, as Bandana quickly sent an arrow towards the ranger. Obviously his arrows weren’t being as ignored as he’d thought they were.

The goblin’s arrow buried itself into Carric’s thigh. With a growl of pain, Carric reached down and broke the shaft off the arrow. He readied another shot, and told himself that if this next arrow didn’t hit anything, he’d just follow the crowd and attack with his sword.

Now that Carric was a target instead of him, Ander quickly scurried over and used the taller man as a shield. Ander cupped his hands and brought them up to his lips. He chanted another quick spell, and a bubble formed in his hands. Inside the bubble, a pool of sickly green liquid filled the space. It took no more than a few seconds for the bubble to fill completely, and at that point Ander hurled it towards the Goblin archers as he moved out from behind Carric for a moment.

The bubble landed squarely on Bandana. Bandana let out a high-pitched shriek as the acidic liquid seared into its flesh. The yellow Bandana fell from the Goblin’s head as it was completely burned through.

Kerri raised her rapier in the air as she looked over his shoulder at Carric and sang.

“You’ve got the eyes,

Say good-bye,

Shoot your arrow,

And say hi to Pharaoh.”

Carric felt the power of her words surge into his muscles. However, the thought of who ‘Pharaoh’ was pulled his attention away. He briefly wondered if this ‘Pharaoh’ was another enemy, and he let his gaze slip as he did a quick check around the battlefield. That hesitation was all the remaining archer needed to send another arrow towards his half-elven counterpart. The arrow hit Carric in the arm. The last thing the ranger saw before he blacked out, was the self-satisfied smirk on the top-knotted goblin’s face.

With his shield now lower than himself, Ander moved and ran towards Kerri and Lia for cover instead. An arrow whizzed by him as he ducked behind the bushes with the girls. Lia sent him a questioning look.

“I’m out of spells.” Ander informed her as he hunkered down.

“Even cantrips?” Lia’s gaze went from the wizard’s pale face to the arrow shaft that was still in his arm.

Ander grimaced. “Not really in a spot to spend a lot of energy on those.” Ander groaned and screwed up his eyes in frustration. He looked down at his wound and shook his head.

Kerri reached over and patted Ander’s uninjured arm. “Don’t worry, we got this.” The bard turned to look over Lia and the now-conscious Iados who knelt a few feet away from. All three of them locked eyes, nodded, and charged out. Iados ran straight through the freshwater stream towards Top Knot.

Top-Knot threw his shortbow to the side and drew his scimitar as he watched the akudaem approach. Just as Iados reached him, Top Knot attacked and clipped him in the side.

Lia and Kerri were a few beats behind the akudaem, as they’d moved more slowly over the stream.

Iados swung out with his attacks again, but Jun roared behind him and his missed. Top-Knot’s face showed a second of fear from the sound. There was nothing like a berserker roar to rattle friends and foe alike to their core.

Now that Ander wasn’t in his line-of-sight, the no-more bandana goblin turned his attention to the bard that sprinted towards him, her rapier raised. He sent an arrow towards her, and it ripped through the soft muscle of her arm.

Kerri gritted her teeth against the pain and continued her charge. Together she and Lia surrounded the goblin, who tossed their shortbow aside and drew their scimitar with a sharp toothy grin.

The goblin reached out towards Lia, who pulled up her quarterstaff in an effort to protect herself. The move managed to tilt the blade, and instead of her facing getting slashed, she was instead smacked with the broad side of the blade. The druid saw stars dance across her vision before she crumpled to the ground.

Kerri quickly danced around to cover the unconscious female. She swung out with her rapier, and the goblin actually laughed as he easily side-stepped out of her reach.

Jun, his eyes dilated with berserker rage, dashed over to Kerri. He felled the laughing goblin with one blow.

Iados and Top Knot traded a few more blows before the goblin managed to get one final hit in that dropped the akudaem for a second time.

Kerri stepped over Iados, and just like she’d done with the bandit before, skewered the last goblin with her rapier. This time she was able to pull out her own sword, though she pointedly didn’t look at the little bits of guts that clung to it.

“Go check on Carric!” Ander barked at Kerri as he slapped her leg on his way by her. She honestly hadn’t realized he’d gotten so close so fast. He had his pack over his shoulder as he came to a skidding stop next to Lia. He began to pull out different herbs and liquids, and quickly mixed them together one-handed into a simple potion. He squeezed Lia’s mouth open and poured half of it into her mouth. Her eyes fluttered open and she groaned. Ander moved on to Iados and poured the other half into his mouth with the same results.

Kerri made her way over to Carric’s still form and was relived to find him lying there with his eyes open. He gave a small smile as she sat down heavily next to him.

“What did you mean by ‘Pharaoh’? He asked weakly as Kerri helped him sit up.

Kerri chuckled. “‘Pharaoh’ was the name of my dog when I was kid. He died.”

“Oh, well I’m glad then I’m not talking to him.” Carric rolled his shoulder and was rewarded with a loud crack.

“Does it get better?” Kerri’s voice sounded small, and it caught Carric off-guard.

Carric looked over at the young girl, but her gaze was pointedly at the ground as she fussed with a patch of grass. “Does what get better? Getting hurt?”

Kerri shook her head. “Killing.”

Carric gave a heavy sigh and moved a hand through his hair. He took a moment to study the suddenly very young girl before him. “For some it does.” He finally answered. “Unfortunately, like anything else, the more you do it, the better you become.” The ranger’s eyes moved over the rest of the party. No one else was directly looking at the two of them, but Jun was close enough that he could most assuredly hear their conversation. Carric climbed to his feet. “Whether we like it or not, we live in a world where death and killing are a part of our everyday lives.”

Kerri finally looked up. “Is it easy for you? To kill?”

Carric pursed his lips. “In the heat of battle, where I’m fighting for my life, it can be. Later on, when the adrenaline wears off and you’re left with your own thoughts, it can become harder to justify why you took that life.”

“How do you get past it?”

Carric reached down and hauled Kerri to her feet. “I find ways to distract myself so my thoughts don’t go there. There are others who turn to religion to make sense of it, or they talk it out with friends or comrades. Others just accept it and don’t think of it at all. The answer you’re looking for isn’t one that I can just give you. It’s a hard truth that everyone learns out here, and it’s up to everyone to find their own way to work through it.” Carric clamped a hand down on her shoulder. “In the meantime, if you want to talk, I’m here.”

Kerri smiled softly. “Thanks, I’ll take you up on that sometime.”

“Alright, break time’s over.” Jun rang out as he moved for everyone to huddle up. Iados sat on the ground with Lia as she filled him in on what he’d missed, and Ander filled them both in on what they’d missed at the end. As he spoke, Ander went through what little pockets and pouches their foes had on them.

Iados held up a finger, and grimaced. “I’m gonna need a longer break.” His whole body hurt. Not as bad as before he got the potion, but enough to make him question if the settlement was worth it.

“Suck it up, you only went down once.” Carric stated as he pulled the arrowhead out of his arm.

Kerri nudged Carric to get his attention. “He went down a second time while you were out.” She explained.

“Seriously?” Carric balked at Iados, who only shrugged. Carric shook his head. “And here I thought I was the only one having an off day.”

Ander stood up straight as he pocketed his meager findings. “For the record, I could do with a rest. I’m all tapped out when it comes to spellcasting, at least the fun stuff anyway.”

Carric turned his head up and looked up at the sky. “We’ve still got a few hours of daylight, I’d hate to waste them.”

“What do we want to do with these guys?” Lia gestured at the dead goblin bodies around them. “We don’t have a wagon to put them under.” She motioned for Ander to sit next to her. The halfling did, and she set about getting the arrow out of his arm.

“I saw we haul them a bit farther into the forest, away from the stream. Last thing we want is to contaminate the water.” As he spoke, Carric knelt down next to the stream. He wetted a rag and gently cleaned his wound. “Jun, can you take care of moving the bodies as I finish up with my arm?”

“Sure, Iados and I can stack them. They’ll make a nice meal for some wolves or bears later on tonight.” Jun walked over and pulled an unhappy Iados to his feet. The two of them moved bodies into the underbrush.

Carric enlisted Kerri’s help to tie a bandage around his arm, while Ander very loudly criticized Lia for not having more healing spells on tap. Lia calmly shot back that at least she had some, unlike a certain wizard