10

The bandit watched in horror as his comrades were slaughtered mercilessly. Spikes shot out of the ground impaling one unfortunate man. Large golems moved around the area grabbing up men and crushing them in their large hands. He saw another man sink into a mud pit in the ground only to have it turn solid and crush him. He felt so powerless and he wanted to cover his ears to block out their screaming. Behind him their newest recruit, who was only a fifteen year old boy, was laying on the ground crying. Landslides, rock spikes, golems, these were all created by Earth Magic and the culprit was a powerful earth mage.

This should have been a piece of cake. Many travelers took this path through the woods, and typically they were easy pickings. He and his men would ambush them and once the travelers saw their numbers they’d usually surrender their money and that would be that. That’s how it usually goes anyway but this mage when they ambushed him didn’t surrender and just began killing them with powerful Earth Magic. The bandit looked over at the man who was calmly murdering his men, an old dwarven male wearing a red mage’s robe and singing a song as he waved his hands around casting various spells.

The old dwarf was singing an upbeat song extremely off key. “The king, the king, the mighty dwarven king; with a wave of his hand he brought a fortune to the land. The king, the king, the mighty dwarven king; never could he read the mood so he showed up to his daughter’s wedding in the nude. The king, the king, the mighty dwarven king: if you stop him from feasting you were in for a beating.” The dwarf stopped and looked around. “Oh, is everyone already dead. That’s disappointing. What a waste of time.”

“You monster!” Screamed the bandit at the old dwarf.

The dwarf looked towards the young bandit. “I missed one. Oh, wait, there’s a crying balled up human behind him too, that makes two. I’m getting sloppy.” The dwarf started making his way towards the last two survivors. “By the way, the name’s Hacksar. Just because you’re a young little bastard doesn’t mean you get to be rude.”

“You killed everyone? Why?!”

“First, if I killed everyone we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Second, what do you think happens when you try to rob someone stronger then you? Lastly, if you’re so upset, why didn’t you try to stop me? I’ll answer that one for you. You and you’re dead friends rely on your numbers, without them you’re all a bunch of pants wetting weaklings.”

The bandit didn’t bother denying it. “But if you were this strong why didn’t you just display your power or just injure a few of us. This amount of violence wasn’t necessary! You’re right, we are cowards! We would have run away if we knew you were this strong. So why?!”

The dwarf stopped several feet away from the bandit. “You, ever hear of alchemy, boy? It’s when you create something new by giving up something of equal value. I like that. Eye for an eye. So consider this dwarven alchemy. You and all your companions wasted my time, which is very valuable so now you have to pay with your lives. It’s a debt that hasn’t been paid in full yet, and two more lives will just barely cover it.”

The bandit knew that there was no way he could beat the dwarf so he made the only play he could think of. “Coward! If you couldn’t use magic I would beat you easily.”

“Oh ho!” Laughed the dwarf. Hacksar knew what the bandit was doing but decided to play along. “You know, I only learned Earth Magic to help my brothers in the mines. To my surprise I was very adept at it. Though, like most dwarves, I prefer a bit of hand to hand combat. Come at me however you like boy, I promise I won’t use any magic.”

The bandit looked at the dwarf then down at the rookie bandit who was still on the ground sobbing. He took a deep breath and pulled out a sharp dagger. The bandit let out a war cry and charged at the old dwarf. He raised the dagger above his head and leaped at the dwarf aiming for his head. The dwarf effortlessly caught the bandit’s hands and wrenched the dagger from it and tossed it behind him.

The dwarf chuckled. “What the hell was that? Well, you had your shot kid.” Fear filled the bandit’s eyes as he felt the dwarf let go of his grip. I won’t go into detail but the bandit wanted hand to hand combat and he got it, over and over again until he stopped breathing.

The dwarf looked towards the last remaining bandit sobbing on the ground. The bandit looked up at him and began pleading. “Please I just joined them today. I needed the money. I didn’t have any other options. I promise if you let me go I’ll never try to rob anyone again. I’ll join the kingdom’s army and I’ll fight for peace the rest of my life.”

Hacksar looked at the young bandit with a curious expression. “Really? So, you’re just a kid who made a bad choice of company then?”

“Yes!” The bandit begged with all his might. “I promise just honest work for now on!”

Hacksar nodded. “Good. Try to remember that promise in your next life.”

“Huh?” The young bandit didn’t have time to think as a large hole opened from underneath him and as he fell deep into the hole it closed shut with a sickening crunch.

Hacksar shook his head. “Like the kingdom needs a crybaby who gives up when he’s a little scared.” He had his golems toss the various remains into a large hole he opened in the ground and with a twist of his wrist he closed the hole. “A better grave than you lot deserve.” With that his golems turned into rubble and Hacksar went on his way.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Ash, Saline, Kory, and Kory’s men had all stopped in their tracks when Ash cast his spell. A large golem had appeared from the earth and, oddly enough, began belly dancing. Ash was curious about the spell Earth Dance but was expecting an attack not whatever this is.

Saline looked at the Golem as is began to shake its rock booty. “Ash, what am I looking at.”

Ash nods. “A golem twerking. I don’t know what the benefit from this spell is.”

Earth Dance causes a golem to appear and dance using dance moves from your memory. It’s mostly a spell created for entertainment but can also be used to distract opponents.

“Oh, crap, my hip-hop faze. Wait. There’s spells made for just entertainment?”

Yes, and most of them are useless. I’m not human or a mage so I can’t tell you why mages felt the need to create them.

Saline looks around and notices that Kory and his men have their eyes glued to the golem. “It’s a distraction spell. A very weird distraction spell. Ash, come on!” Saline grabs Ash’s hand and they start running.

Ash pulls away his hand but keeps following. “I kind of need the practice though.”

“Knowing you, you’ll probably put all our lives in danger.”

“That does sound like me.”

Kory looks away from the Golem who was doing the worm on the ground to see Ash and Saline making a run for it. “Hey! Not so fast!” He yells at them but they just keep running. “Oh, come on, I said not so fast! Men! After them!” Secretly, he always wanted to say that line. The men turned away from the Golem and started chasing after Saline and Ash.

Saline tried to pick up her pace while cursing her short legs. Unfortunately for her she trips on a small stick and falls on the ground hard. She looks back at the tiny stick that tripped her. “Ugh. Well played tiny stick. Well played.”

Ash begins to run past her and sees the tiny stick she slipped on. “I really can’t believe you tripped on that.” Unfortunately for him he trips on a tiny rock sticking out from the ground and also falls hard. He turns and sees the tiny rock that caused his fall. “Oh, come on, I thought you were on my side. You rock traitor!”

Kory and his men surround them again as they stand up. Kory sneers at Ash. “See? We’re enemies. Where did you think you could go? Cause everyone already knows. It’s twenty to one, so yeah, you better not run.”

“That’s not how the song goes!” Yells Ash. “Also why are you guys listening to him?” The men look at each other curiously.

“He’s paying us.” Speaks up one of the men. “Money is a huge motivator for people in our line of work.”

Ash shakes his head. “Then why don’t you rob him? Or better yet hold him for ransom or something? His Dad is…uh…what does his dad do Saline?”

“Be rich.” Saline says as she dusts herself off.

“Yeah, that’s it.” Ash says and points at Kory. “His father is sure to pay a fortune for the safe return of his son.”

Kory laughs. “Ha! You’ll have to do better than that Ash! These men have been working with me for almost an hour and the bond we share can’t be broken that easily.” It was only a matter of minutes before the men tied up Kory and began to make their exit with the intent of holding Kory for ransom.

One of the henchmen turned and nodded at Ash. “Sorry for wasting your time. I hope you and your girlfriend have a pleasant rest of the day.” The man made his exit with the rest of Kory’s former henchmen. Ash sighed and looked over at Saline who was giggling.

Saline tried to stifle her laughter. “He called you my girlfriend.”

Ash shook his head. “I don’t think…You know what, whatever.”

“I kind of feel bad for Kory though.” Saline said sadly.

“I don’t. Guy tried to kill me twice. Serves him right.”

Saline was a little surprised by Ash’s response. “Wow, that’s not something a good guy would say.”

“I never said I was good guy. I’m neutral at best.”

They heard some flapping of wings and they looked up to see Aza flying towards them. She lands and starts belting her wings to her back. Then in the same bored voice as always she asks, “I saw Kory being carried away. What’s up with that? Also there’s a golem pelvic thrusting at a tree back there.”

Saline responds to her eagerly. “They’re going to hold Kory for ransom.”

Aza shrugs. “Their funeral. Kory’s father is a dangerous man.”

Karse comes walking from out of the woods nearby and approaches the trio with an apologetic look on his face. “Yeah, sorry for running. I thought you guys were going to run too.”

Ash just shrugs and begins to walk towards the inn again. Saline however gives him an uncharacteristically look of disappointment and says quietly. “Don’t worry, I’m used to it.” Saline than starts to follow Ash.

Karse just stood there for a moment, regretting that he was such a coward but was snapped out of it when Aza spoke. “Wow, I feel like I need a jacket that was so cold. Must be some history there.”

Karse nods. “I let her down once before and-“

“Whoa.” Aza said stopping Karse midsentence. “I never said I cared enough to know. That’s between you two.” And with that Aza followed Saline and Ash. Karse looked at Saline slowly walking out of view and with a heavy heart he slowly started to follow them too.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Braxton was wiping the counter of his bar when Ash and company walked through the recently repaired front door. Braxton looked over to them and chuckled. “What a cowincidence, I was just wandering when you lot would come back.”

Ash looked around and noticed Garret and Olanna sitting at a table. Garret made eye contact with him and waved him over. “Come on mage. Sit with us.”

Ash shook his head. “Nah. I’m going to take a quick nap and head out this evening. The sooner I complete this quest the better.”

Garret looks at him curiously. “You have your own quest? I thought you were joining us?”

Saline shakes her head. “He wants to work alone, like a jerk, a lonely jerk.”

Ash starts to get a little annoyed. “Hey, I’ve been saying it from the beginning. There’s no point in me joining a team because I only care about one person and one person only.” Saline’s eyes sparkle and a smile spreads across her face. “It’s not you.”

Saline’s smile fades. “Aw.”

Ash notices Olanna is in deep thought, and hasn’t opened her eyes since he came in. “What’s wrong with her?”

Olanna says in a quiet voice without opening her eyes. “A storm is coming.”

“Huh?”

Garret shrugs. “She gets like this sometimes. She’s fine.”

“Okay.” Ash says as he makes his way to the stairs leading up to his room. “I’m going to sleep for a bit then.”

“Why?” Says Braxton with a smile. “Is it pasture bedtime?’”

“I refuse to acknowledge that.” Ash says as he heads up the stairs and loud laughter is heard from the kitchen.

Saline and Karse sit at the table with Olanna and Garret. Garret notices that Karse seems down and makes a mental note to talk with him later. “So Saline, it seems the mage doesn’t want to join our party. I’m neither for or against it myself but you seemed pretty gung-ho about it.”

Saline nods. “Yeah. At first I just wanted someone strong to join us to make quests easier but as I found out more about him it’s become apparent that he was brought here to fulfill some kind of amazing destiny. Adventurers like us are often forgotten in time but if we join him and become a part of his destiny we won’t be forgotten. People sing songs about our victories.”

“Or our deaths.” Karse says glumly. “Envoys usually take on impossible quests. They come out fine but they lose companions like loose change.”

“See that’s the difference Karse, and also shut up. Ash seems like the type to hang on to loose change with clenched fists. Besides the quest I took has us going the same direction he is. Plus I know a shortcut to get there in half the time. We’ll cut through the Screaming Woods.”

Garret raises an eyebrow. “Never heard of that.”

“Well, it used to be called The Corpse Dumping Woods but that was too long. Anyway we can cut through there and be at the town of Kotvoselle in no time. Ash will join us if it means getting to his destination faster.”

“Wait.” Says Karse with his fear rising. “I have to be the voice of reason here. Isn’t the screaming woods filled with feral goblins who attack travelers in the woods?”

“It’ll be fine, also shut up Karse.” Saline says with enthusiasm. “They mostly stay at the west side of the forest and attack at night. So we’ll leave in the morning and when night comes Ash can put walls of rocks, or something like that, around us to protect us while we sleep.”

“This plan of yours hinges on Ash then.” Karse replies. “Ash is leaving after his nap. He also doesn’t want to join us. He’s said it several times. It’s honestly getting annoying.”

“It’s fine.” Olanna says opening her eyes. “I think the amount of time saved is worth the risk. Goblins always send a scout before they attack. I can cast the spell Alert which will let us know if someone approaches us including a scout. As for Ash I don’t think he’ll be leaving tonight. In fact we should move to a bigger table.”

Karse still tried to object. “But-“

The only other person in the bar, a human male, stood up and screamed. “Shut up Karse!” He said as he threw his mug against the wall and it shattered into several pieces.

Braxton slammed his hand on the counter. “Damn it Gary! When did you even get in here?! Where did you get that mug?! The tavern’s not even opened yet!” Gary bolted for the exit.

Saline looks over at Aza who had set at a large table by herself. Aza wasn’t sure what she was doing or why she even followed them back to the tavern. Normally she would be relaxing somewhere but for some reason she just didn’t feel like it. She noticed that Saline was staring at her pretty hard. “What.”

“Sit with us Aza.” Saline said pulling a chair out.

“Nah.” Said Aza bluntly.

“Then we’ll sit with you.” Saline said as she got up and started dragging Karse with her. Olanna and Garret shrugged and followed her over to Aza.

They sat around her and Saline smiled at her with a twinkle in her eyes. “Hello, friend.”

Aza grimaced. “I’m not your….Whatever…”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Hacksar walked into the open clearing in the woods where his party had made camp. Botan was sharping one of her arrows. An old, short, black haired woman dressed similarly to Botan was sitting with her legs crossed and eyes closed but opened them when Hacksar came back from the woods. The last member of this Red Piper party was the new recruit that Titan was throwing knives at not too long ago. He was wearing red armor, though it was cheaply made and he carried a sword on his side and a shield on his back. He had short red hair and a fresh scar on the side of his face.

“You were right hag. They were lying in wait for us.” Hacksar said as he approached the older woman.

“Well of course I was right. I’m not the best tracker in the guild for nothing.”

Botan gets up and walks towards Hacksar. “But why didn’t you let us help? I could use the experience.”

“Ha! You get that fighting spirit from your dad no doubt.” Hacksar said with a laugh. “But there was no need for any of you. All I had to do was show off my power and they fled like the weaklings they were. No need for senseless bloodshed.”

The old woman shook her head. “What I’m smelling says otherwise.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I couldn’t hold it in.” Hacksar said with a laugh.

The young man spoke up. “I’m with Botan on this one. I could have used the experience too.”

Hacksar shakes his head. “No point in you getting experience. You entire presence screams that you’re going to die in this quest.”

“That’s not fair. How do you know that? For all you know Botan and I could become romantically involved during this quest.”

Botan responded without even trying to hide how repulsed she was. “Ew. No. You know I’m still a teenager right?”

The young man shrugged. “I don’t judge. Plus that was just an example. Also my name is Nathaniel. It wouldn’t hurt you all to call me by my name.” The young man didn’t seem too happy.

Hacksar coughs to get everyone’s attention. “In five minutes we move out, so get ready.” Botan and the young man sigh and begin putting on and strapping their packs. Hacksar shakes his head as the old woman walks towards him. “To who should I talk to about getting a new team?”

“Actually it’s whom.” Replies the old woman with a smirk.

“The hell it is!” Yells Hacksar. “You put that word back in your mouth where you found it Dawn.”

Dawn, which is the old woman’s name, just chuckles. She actually doesn’t know if she is right half the time she corrects him but she does know it annoys him and that’s enough for her. “So you plan to have us cut through the Screaming Woods? It’s dangerous, not that you wouldn’t know. What if we encounter Goblins or more bandits?”

A smirk spreads across his face. “I hope we do. I feel sorry for whoever we encounter.”

“Whomever.”

“Eat shit Dawn!”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Ash stood at the front door of the inn watching as rain came down so hard that he couldn’t see 3 feet in front of him.

Ash I know you don’t want to wait but you can’t get much done in weather like this.

Ash lets out a very Ash like sigh. “It was so sunny earlier.” He turns around and looks around the tavern. It was empty except for Saline and her party at one of the large tables and to his surprise Aza was sitting there too. Saline looked at Ash with a twinkle in her eyes and pulled out the chair next to her and patted it. Ash, with a sense of defeat, walked over to the table and sat down.

Saline looks at him with a huge smile on her face. “Welcome back friend.”

Ash rolls his eyes and Olanna chuckled. “See?” Said the large barbarian woman. “Told you a storm was coming.”