11

“Ha!” Titan laughed as he downed his forth mug of beer. “So I threw the dagger and then he said why did you cut my face? So I said it’s because I missed! I was aiming at your throat!” Titan and a group of his men laugh and it echoes all around the tavern. The office of The Red Piper’s Guild had closed for the day and the tavern adjacent to it was in full swing and much merry making was being had. Titan was still chuckling as one of his men entered the tavern and approached him with a guilty look on his face. Titan looked at the man knowing he was bringing bad news and with a grumble he asked, “What?”

“Oh sir,” the man said with a shaky voice. “I really screwed up this time. I mean I didn’t just drop the ball; I kicked it and scored a point for the opposing team.”

“What?” Titan asked with a confused expression.

“Sir, I went and picked a whole bouquet’s worth of oopsie daisies.”

“Huh?”

“I didn’t just let you down sir; I dropped you into a six foot hole and buried you.”

“Out with it Titus!”

“Oh, well, your wife is back early and she may have overheard me talking about how you let your teenage daughter go on a quest with Hacksar.”

“Oh…” Titan said quietly as the blood drained from his face. “She wasn’t supposed to be back for a while. Well…It’s fine, as long as she doesn’t know how dangerous the quest is.”

“Oh geez…,” Said the whiny man with the shaky voice. “I didn’t just screw the pooch, I asked for its paw in marriage and the ceremony is next week.”

“What did you-“Titan stopped midsentence when he realized he couldn’t move his hand. “Oh, shit.” You see Titan’s wife was one of the most powerful Psy Magic users in the world and not many could equal her strength. Titan was very familiar with how it feels to be bound by Psy Magic so he knew his wife had entered the room. The music and chatter of the tavern had stopped and all eyes were on Titan and the woman who stood behind him. “Honey, is that you?”

“Dear.” He heard a sweet voice behind him say. “Is it true you let our novice daughter go on a dangerous quest with a violent old dwarf and some new recruit we don’t even know?”

“Well, when you say it like that it sounds like a bad idea. Dawn is also with her and you know she thinks of her as a granddaughter. I’m sure Hacksar does too.”

“Sure, honey, but why don’t we talk in the training room… alone…”

“Oh ho!” Said Titan with a smile and as he began to float off the ground he remembered that his wife was in fact angry and it wasn’t a good thing to be alone with her. “Oh no!” Titan began to fly towards the exit of the tavern and as he and his wife left he screamed. “Don’t touch my beer! I’m not done with it!”

Once they were out of sight the merry making continued. The men at the table Titan was at turned to glare at the shaky man named Titus. “Way to go Titus.” Says one of them.

“Yeah, nice going.” Says another.

“Yeah, Titus, you are such a minor character.” Said a third.

“Aw…” Said Titus as he hung his head.

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

Ash sat at the table and looked at the people who were sitting with him. Garret, the swordsman, was chatting cheerfully with Olanna. Olanna, the barbarian was simply smiling and nodding, enjoying the conversation. The two elves, Saline and Karse, were arguing about something or another. Then when he looked at Aza he noticed she was already looking at him and she immediately turned her head. Ash was about to let out a sigh when Garret spoke up to him. “So, Ash, right; why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?”

“Why don’t you?” Said Ash quickly, not realizing what he was asking.

“That’s fair.” Garret said nodding. “How about we all take a turn and say a little something about ourselves?” Everyone seemed to agree except for Aza who seemed indifferent and Ash who immediately regretted his previous statement. “I’ll go first.”

“Wait.” Said Ash as he held up a hand. “Let me order some food first. I’m hungry and I have trouble pretending to care about things when I’m hungry.”

“Fair enough.” Nodded Garret.

“Hey, Mr. Bull Person.” Ash calls out to Braxton as he appears from the kitchen.

“Please, call me Braxton. Mr. Bull Person is my father.” Says Braxton pointing a finger at Ash and winking.

“Not sure what you’re doing but can I have a bowl of whatever you’re serving tonight?”

“I wasn’t going to serve anything. The rain is far too heavy and I doubt it’ll let up anytime soon, so you lot will probably be my only patrons tonight. But, what the hay, I’ll whip you up a bowl of gruel. You have money right?”

“Oh, crap, I keep forgetting I’m broke.” Ash said with a frown.

Saline stood up and said with a smile. “I almost forgot. Ash, here you go.” She reaches into a small bag at her side and pulls out a few small rocks. Some silver, some copper, and a few golden ones. She lays them in front of Ash. “I had to use some for your guild fees but there’s still a decent amount left. It’s your cut from the basilisk quest.”

Ash looks at the various rocks with wonder as Karse speaks up angrily. “What are you doing Saline? That way too big of a cut. He wasn’t even a part of our party.”

“We didn’t actually do anything Karse.” Said Saline with equal anger. “He’s the one who actually killed them. Besides you gave up helping with the search and went back to the inn with Olanna, so really you shouldn’t even get a cut.”

“Now, now.” Said Ash as he grabbed up the rocks. “The point is I have some money now. Braxton, one bowl of your most edible gruel please.”

“Coming up, you can cownt on it.” Said Braxton and he made his way back into the kitchen.

Aza let out a sigh. “Great, now he’s just sticking the word cow into other words.”

“All right. Now that Ash has food coming I’ll begin with my introduction.” Said Garret and Ash grumbled a little but decided he would rather have the attention be on someone else anyway. Garret cleared his throat. “Well, my name is Garret Whitaker, and I come from the kingdom of Five Walls. I was sent by King Andrew along with a few other men to try and reach a peaceful resolution with a barbarian clan that was trying to take land from the kingdom.”

Olanna nods knowingly. “We didn’t know the land was a part of Five Walls at the time.”

Garret chuckles. “Yep. We were expecting a fight but Olanna’s clan was actually very peaceful about the whole situation. After a month of talking the King gave them land in exchange for taxes and aid in times of war. The barbarians had one stipulation.”

“Yes.” Olanna nodded. “A union of two clans requires a marriage of two individuals, one from each clan. So I, the clan’s next chief, married a soldier from Five Walls.”

“This was me.” Garret says happily.

“Wait.” Says Ash. “You two were forced to marry?”

Olanna shakes her head. “I chose Garret. We had gotten to know each other quite well during that month.” Olanna said with a smile. “Quite well…Besides if you see what our men look like you’d understand my attraction to Garret. He is so… clean. Never before had a met a man so clean and well mannered.”

“I am pretty clean.” Said Garret with a chuckle. “I was intimidated by Olanna and felt kind of insecure in my masculinity compared to her but now I don’t think I can live without her.”

“The punishment for divorce is death after all.” Olanna said bluntly.

“Wait.” Said Aza curiously. “Then why are you two so far away from home?”

“As the next chief,” Olanna explains, “It is my duty to go out into the world and experience many things so that I may return wiser. Garret is here because he’s on vacation.”

Garret nods. “I had a whole year’s worth of vacation saved up so I figured I’d accompany her.”

“So we joined a guild and that’s when we met these two elves.” Olanna said pointing at Karse and Saline. “So we combined our two teams into one party.”

“Us next.” Said Saline happily.

Karse interrupted her. “Long story short we left our home town in search of meaning and joined a guild.”

“Not exactly.” Said Saline feeling a little miffed. “I left and Karse followed me. There’s more to it than that though, and I wanted to go into an uncomfortable amount of detail about it. But whatever; next is Aza.” Saline turned to Aza with a huge grin and so did everyone else at the table, except for Ash who just had a bowl of gruel passed to him from Braxton. Ash takes a spoon and tries to scoop some of the gruel up but the gruel evades his attempts.

Ash, I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t eat that. Typically gruel isn’t able to avoid your spoon.

Ash scoffs. “I accept the challenge. It underestimates my hunger.”

You’re not picky when it comes to food are you?

Aza sighs. “All right, but don’t expect much detail. After my mother passed my Father left our home town and built a house or I guess it’s more of a mansion out here in the middle of nowhere. My sister decided, for some reason, that she wanted to run a guild. So when she got that going people started setting up shops and building homes near the guild. Where there’re adventurers there’s money after all.”

“Soon this place became a town and my father was appointed the mayor. He named the town Barrel, probably because it was the first thing he saw when they asked him for a town name. Braxton set up an Inn and tavern and I decided to work here to make a little money and have something to do. End of story.”

“That was beautiful.” Saline says with tears in her eyes.

Garret agrees. “You have truly had a rough life.” Olanna and Karse clap.

“You know.” Aza says lazily. “If it wasn’t for the whole charm thing I’d think you’re all being sarcastic.”

Garret turns to Ash. “All right Ash, how about you?”

Ash continues stabbing at his gruel with his spoon. “It’s putting up a fight but I think I’m wearing it down.”

“No.” Says Garret shaking his head. “What’s your story? It must be interesting with you being an envoy and all.”

“Oh!” Says Saline getting excited. “I want to know about the world you came from! What was it like?”

“I too am interested.” Said Olanna and Aza looked at Ash as well. Even Braxton wasn’t hiding the fact he was eavesdropping at the bar.

“I’m indifferent.” Says Karse bitterly.

I wouldn’t tell them too much, but some things wouldn’t hurt.

“Fine.” Ash sighs. He recaps the moments that lead to his death. He tells them about how he just appeared in this world and how he was cast out by the Goddess and landed in a field. He told them about the battle with the first basilisk and the argument between Titan and Sheeve. Though he felt like he told them some of it before but they didn’t seem to mind the retelling. “And there you have it.” Ash says as he wraps up his story.

“So let me get this straight.” Aza says with a raised eyebrow. “You died in an earthquake in your past life.”

“Yes.”

“Then you chose Earth Magic…Which has earthquake spells.”

“Yes, I guess you could say it made a lasting impression on me. It really shook me up. It rocked my world.” Ash looks at the people at the table but no one even chuckled. “Screw you guys.” Ash returns to eating his food but finds his bowl empty. “Where did my food go?” The group hears the tavern door open and close.

Braxton lets out a sigh. “Again? Darn…” He walks over to Ash and sets down a slice of bread and some cheese. “Here, it’s on the house.”

Ash wolfs down the food and it’s actually pretty tasty. “If you had cheese and bread why didn’t you say anything?” Ash says with a mouth full of food.

“You didn’t ask.” Braxton says with a shrug and walks back to the bar.

Olanna gets Ash’s attention. “You know, that’s the first I heard of an envoy appearing in this world already at an adult age. Almost all the stories I’ve heard they were born in our world.”

“Maybe I’m special.” Ash says with a shrug.

Saline speaks up with enthusiasm. “Did you have any siblings Ash?”

Everyone notices a dark expression go over Ash’s face then disappear. “Yeah, a sister, but she died very young.” There was a long silence before Ash spoke up again. “I’m going back to bed.”

“Didn’t you just get up?”

“I’m feeling sleepy again.”

“Oh. Ok.” Saline responded quietly.

Garret calls out to him. “You sure you don’t want to stick around? You’ll find out what Olanna and I do every night.”

Ash gives Garret a grossed out expression. “I really don’t want to know.” Garret frowns and slides the deck of cards back into his pocket. They all watched as Ash slowly went up the stairs. Once he was out of sight Saline looked at the rest of the group. “I think I just stepped on a land mine.”

Olanna nods. “Best not to bring up that topic again.”

Garret seems to be in deep thought. “What’s a landmine?”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Ash lay down on the bed and started to rub his forehead. He really wished they hadn’t made him remember things he would rather forget about.

Ash? Are you ok?

“Yeah, just a headache. I’m going to sleep it off.” Ash said as he closed his eyes. The rain outside created a soothing lullaby and as the wind blew in from the open window he drifted off to sleep.

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

Ash looked around and instantly knew where he was. He was in room 203 and there a few feet away was a small body on a hospital bed covered with a sheet. “No. Not this again.” Said Ash in a small voice and he realized he was a kid again. It was the same dream he had many times before but something felt different. He noticed his relatives were in the room with him. Most noticeably was his uncle who glared at him and his father who looked at him with sorrowful eyes and said. “I’m so sorry…”

“No. No! NO!” Ash screamed as his anger soared. “You could have done something but you didn’t! She didn’t have to die! She died because she depended on you! She died because she depended on me…”

“Watch your mouth you little brat!” Ash’s uncle said as he went to hit Ash like he always does in this nightmare. Though to his surprise Ash grabs his fist and holds it in place.

“And you!” Ash says, the hatred all too apparent in his voice. “You worthless pile of hot garbage! I called you for help, but you didn’t believe me. You didn’t want to be bothered. Yet you had the nerve to shift blame to me! You’re the reason I hate this family! You’re the reason that the only person I ever cared about had to die!” To everyone’s surprise Ash was no longer a child, he was a grown adult wearing his mage’s robe. He pulled the uncle close to his face and whispered to him. “It should have been you.” With that Ash grabbed the man by his throat and chucked him towards the window. Glass shattered as his Uncle burst through the window and Ash heard him scream as he fell to the ground six floors below.

His relatives screamed and the doctor and nurses scrambled out of the room. Ash’s father screamed and pointed at him. “What did you do Ash?! This is not like you.”

“You don’t know anything about me!” Screamed Ash. “You never did!” The building began to shake and the room started to crack and shift.

Ash!

The room tilted and cracked and Ash watched his father fall to the ground and slide towards the wall. With a loud crack the floor gave way and Ash watched in horror as the bed holding the small body fell into the floor. Ash tried to reach out but something grabbed his shoulders holding him in place and began to shake him.

Ash!

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

Ash wakes up in his room at the inn as Saline is shaking him on the bed shouting. “Ash! It’s an earthquake wake up!”

“I’m awake! What about an earthquake?!” Ash shouts back at her. He was awake but he all was quiet and there was no earthquake or earthquake like activity he could notice.

“Uh…” Saline said looking around. “I swear this place was shaking like it was going to come down a moment ago.”

Although I can’t see when your eyes are closed I did hear a lot of shaking so Saline is probably telling the truth.

“Did I do it?” Ash asks his ring but Saline answers.

“Yeah, that was my first thought, but you were asleep so it was probably a real one because no one can cast magic in their sleep.”

“Oh.”

Hmmm….

Saline chuckles. “Hey, I just noticed, it’s just the two of us alone in this room Ash. I wonder what Karse would say.”

Ash takes a closer looked at her and notices that she is wearing a silky blue gown but it has a hood and at the top of the hood are two long ears that stand straight up. “Are you wearing a bunny hood night gown?”

Saline gets away from the bed and walks over to the door. “Well, looks like it’s a false alarm, you might as well get some more sleep. Still a few hours till sunrise.” With that she hastily exits the room.

Are you okay Ash?

“Never better.” Ash looks up at the ceiling and murmurs to himself. “How am I supposed to go back to sleep after a dream like that?” He says as he immediately goes back to sleep.

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

Ash looks downstairs towards the tavern. The tavern was silent as the morning light flooded the building. It didn’t seem like anyone else was up, just what Ash had hoped for. He wanted to leave early in the morning and leave before anyone else got up. He made his way quietly through the tavern and approached the front door. Ever so gently he pushed the door open and stealthily exited the tavern. Ash wasn’t even that surprised when he found literally everyone waiting outside for him. Saline’s party, Braxton and the younger minotaur, even Aza and her sister Johnna was there. “Okay, seriously how did you all know I was going to be out here at this time and as a follow up question why are you all here?”

Braxton chuckles. “I’m just gathering up some wood. Figured I’d send you lot off while I’m at it. Hey how about that earthquake last night. Can you believe there was no damage at all? I thought for sure it would be cowtastrophic. ” The younger minotaur starts laughing his head off as the rest ignore Braxton.

Johnna approaches Ash and hands him a bag filled with various items. “I forgot to give this to you. It’s a care package for all new members. A bed roll, some rations, a water pouch and other various goodies.”

“Oh.” Says Ash taking it. “I completely forgot that I would need things like that. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

Saline speaks up. “You’re not leaving without us Ash.”

“Reality begs to differ.” Says Ash bluntly.

“What if I told you that I know a shortcut that could save you two days’ worth of travel?”

“Hmm. I’m not sure how I’d respond.”

“Ash, I know a shortcut that could save you two days’ worth of travel.”

“What? Tell me!” Ash demands.

“No way.” Says Saline slyly. “But, seeing as we are heading in the same direction, you’re welcome to follow us.”

“Oh, you are ruffling my potato chips. Two days…That’s a lot of time saved… But I’d rather be alone… Not wanting to be bothered is kind of my motto.”

Ash, if you tough out traveling with them you will be that much closer to your goal. Whatever it is. It might be worth it. Plus traveling in a group is much safer. Bandits are more likely to target you if you’re alone.

“Fine. I’ll travel with you for a bit. But this does not mean I am joining your party.” Ash says bitterly.

“All right. I knew you’d come around.” Saline says happily.

“Good to have you.” Garret says with a smile as Olanna nods.

“Darn.” Says Karse quietly.

They all start to get ready to head off as Aza approaches Ash. “Hey.” She says quietly.

“Hey.” Ash responds.

“You know, I don’t find you as annoying as most guys I meet.” Aza says looking at the ground.

“Oh? Well, out of all the people I’ve met in this world you bothered me the least. Actually I don’t think I’m bothered by you at all.” Ash responds. “You feel like a kindred spirit.”

“Yeah, so do you.”

They look each other in the eyes and pause for a moment. “Well, have a nice life.” Ash says with a nod.

“You too.” Aza says with a smile. “I doubt I’ll see you again.”

Ash walks away from Aza and walks towards Saline and her party as Saline yells out to him. “Come on! We’re leaving!”

“Hold your horses!” Ash says and turns back one more time to see Braxton waving at him along with the other minotaur and the two demon women. Ash sighs and runs to catch up with Saline. Aza watches as they disappear down the road and lets out a long Aza like sigh.

Johnna tilts her head curiously. “Anyone want to take bets on how many of them die?”

Braxton claps happily. “Oh, count me in.”

“Johnna!” Aza says a little angrily.

“What? They’re traveling with an envoy. Haven’t you ever heard the old tales of envoys? It usually doesn’t end well for their companions and it almost never has a happy ending for the envoy. Being an envoy is almost like a curse.”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine.” Aza says not too confidently as she looks at the road the party traveled down.

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

Ash and the party had cut through the woods at Saline’s suggestion and had been walking for a couple hours when they came into a clearing and decided to take a break. Ash sits down and starts rummaging through his bag when he got a whiff of something rotten. “Oh, wow.” He said. “Which one of you released some crud vapor?”

“Not me.” Karse said. “Ugh. But I smell it too. Garret did you pass some poo gas?”

Garret shook his head. “No. That smell is way beyond my capabilities.”

Olanna nods. “It wasn’t me either. You are all still standing. Saline?”

Saline giggles. “Oh, come on you guys. It was just a cutie patootie.”

“No.” Says Ash pointing a finger at her. “You should be ashamed of that sentence.”

Olanna shakes her head. “Not very ladylike.”

Saline points at her. “Hey, I’m not going to take that from someone who eats soup from a skull.”

“That is how my tribe honors a worthy foe. We eat soup from their skulls. By the goddess I could go for some skull soup right now.” Olanna says hungrily then sniffs the air again. The smell hasn’t gone away. “This doesn’t smell like rectum fumes at all. This smells like… death…” Olanna gets up and the rest follows.

They travel through the woods for a minute or so and come into an area where a battle obviously took place. Trees were broken; the ground was cracked in various places, and although they didn’t see any bodies there was enough blood to tell them many lives were lost here. Olanna continues to sniff and walk. The smell was getting worse as Olanna approached a bush. There on the ground was the body of a man, he looked mangled and crushed, his organs… Well, you get the picture.

Saline shakes her head. “That’s awful. What happened to him?”

Olanna sniffs again and almost gags. “This is definitely where the smell is coming from. How curious. Perhaps a spell did him in. I’ll cast Magic Sense.” She closes her eyes and a pink wave of energy shoots out from her and sweeps a large radius around her. She opens her eyes and looks at Ash. “Earth Magic.”

Oh my.

“Well it wasn’t me.” Ash says holding up his hands.

“I know.” Olanna says as she walks to another area of the woods. It was a small clearing and the ground seemed like it had been dug up not too long ago. “Ash, might I assume you have Earth Sense?”

You do. It allows you to see in the ground. Simply place your hand on the ground where you want to see and cast it. You can see up to twenty feet down.

“Uh… Yes…” Ash responds and Olanna motions to a point on the ground. “All right.” Ash walks over to the area she pointed at and Ash puts his hand on the ground. He casts Earth Sense and gets a visual of the ground deep inside and lets out a sound of disgust. “Bodies. Lots of them.”

Garret gasps. “Are they dead?”

Olanna gives Garret a weary look and thinks for a moment and says knowingly. “So a person or persons with powerful Earth Magic killed a large group of people and then buried them here. Must have missed that one over there.”

“Oh man. That’s what we need, another Earth Mage.” Karse says worriedly.

Saline looks down at the ground with pity. “Even if they were bandits that’s too brutal.”

I agree with her. I find it hard to believe they needed to kill all of them.

“What’s worse,” Olanna continues. “They left in that direction.” She points towards a man-made path in the woods. “There’s really only one thing significant that way. The town of Kotvoselle, our destination.”

Ash sighs much like he often does. “Well that’s foreboding as fuc-“