Gale

When we all woke up Quarry cooked us breakfast with some more leftover supplies. We all quietly packed up our gear and went into the cart and set out for Ryciden. I would like to say it was a bright and sunny morning as we continued to set off on the last part of the first leg of our journey together… I would like to say that. We knew it was morning, because Kellen had a small clock, she called a pocket watch with her. Originally I thought that we all woke up really early if she didn’t tell us the time with that thing. A dark sheet of clouds had covered the rolling fields that made up most of the southern areas of the kingdom. As an Air Genasi, I could tell that these clouds were the sign of an oncoming storm. I mean most people could probably tell a storm was coming by the shade of these clouds. But I could smell it in the air, the wind, the thunder, the lightning, the storm that was coming was gonna be big and I mean really big. I told this to Quarry and he started to rush our cart towards Ryciden as quickly as he could. When we got to the village the storm was in full swing, waves of rain crashing down from the sky, and blasts of thunder and lightning in the distance.We were able to rent a spot in a stable for our horses and our cart so that they would stay safe. We then tried to find an inn as quickly as possible and went towards a building that still had its. Rushing into the building it was definitely a tavern or an inn of some sort. When we came inside my ears were blasted with screams, looking around it was as if the entire village was inside the building. Everyone was arguing and screaming over each other.

“We need to leave! Those things are too dangerous to deal with and we can’t just wait it out for the soldiers to arrive!”

“This is our home built by the forefathers of the kingdom! Leaving isn’t an option!”

“Those things pick off more of us everyday, if we stay here we’re dead meat!”

“We just have to wait it out in a few days time soldiers from the capital will-”

“How do you even know they got our message? What if our messenger died on the way?!”

“That’s why we also sent a messenger bird and used ‘Sending’!”

This argument seemed to be going on forever in an infinite loop between some people at the center of the building. We tried to find seating and look for someone to talk to and ask for food and maybe shelter for the night. Then someone bumped into Corrin, looked back, and shouted “FUCK ONE OF THEM IS IN HERE!” causing a panic inside.

Among all the shouting and screaming a sharp piercing whistling sound came out of NoName’s ‘mouth’ making everybody calm down for a second. They followed this up by saying “I do not know what kind of problem you folk are dealing with here, but my friend Corrin is but a dragonborn. He is not some sort of dangerous monster.”

Kellen followed them up by saying “Look we’re sorry we disrupted whatever sort of meeting you were having we just wanted to find a place to take a rest from the storm and get a hot meal.”

“I’m actually interested in what you are all talking about.” Quarry said “I used to be a soldier of the kingdom until a few months ago, if you need help fighting off some sort of threat I could be of assistance.”

A human man in his forties with black hair tied into a ponytail, and a visible scar across his forehead replied to Quarry saying “You do look like a soldier, hmm if you really want to know we’ve recently had an outbreak of undead from the nearby mine. We have already called for soldiers to help deal with this situation but… ”

“THE FUCKERS ARE YET TO ARRIVE! What’s worse is that the undead we face don’t seem to be your regular undead. They’re fast and holy magic doesn’t seem to smite them, the way it does zombies and the like.” A young woman in heavy armor beside the person who seemed to be the mayor said.

“Does this sound like a big problem, if you need those undead creeps to be dealt with, do you want us to do it? Obviously not for free but we’d be willing to help, or at least I assume.” Liz said, no one from our group replied, silently agreeing with Liz’s idea.

”We’d appreciate the help but with the monsters terrorizing our village for the past month we have very little to give to you even if we would want to.”The older human man responded again, and getting a closer look at him he seemed to be the mayor, considering like the mayor from the last town we were in he had a similar long cloak, along with the general authority he commanded over the town.

“You wouldn’t have to give much, maybe just let us stay here till we fix the problems? And maybe take care of our horses too? It might be asking for a little too much-” Kellen replied before being interrupted by Liz.

“Nah, that seems appropriate for risking our lives for an unknown threat right? Lodging and horse care.”

The woman in heavy armor who clearly was the captain of the village’s guard agreed with Liz’s thoughts “If that’s all you ask while you deal with the threat it could be provided, though may I ask when you can deal with this threat.”

I whispered to Monsoon asking what time it was, and she replied “Like 6pn?”

I answered the captain’s question with “Maybe like tomorrow morning, or after lunch tomorrow? It’s getting late and we traveled all day to get here so if you want us to get this done quickly tomorrow would be the best.”

“WHAT IF YOU GUYS ARE JUST TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A STRUGGLING VILLAGE HUH?” A random person from the crowd said, with most of the crowd silently agreeing.

Most of us in the group were speechless, I mean how does a normal person respond to a gesture of goodwill being shot down, luckily someone in our group wasn’t normal.

Liz responded in the most passive aggressive tone I have ever heard saying. “Okay then guess we’ll just leave if that’s easier for y’all sorry for bothering you, hope you don’t all die from waiting for the soldiers. Sorry to make you pull double duty for driving Quarry, but it seems like we have to leave right now since even though we so graciously offered to help we are very obviously not welcomed here.”

If that villager’s comment made the room so quiet you could hear crickets, Liz’s comment left everyone so speechless you could hear heartbeats. The person who spoke had this guilty look on their face before Liz committed again.

“Look, while I did mean to be extremely rude with that comment, we are offering to help. I might not be the best person in the world, but in the less than a week I‘ve spent with these dumbasses, they seem to be some very genuine people. The most genuine out of anyone I’ve ever met honestly ;which is a low bar, mind you, but still.”

Kellen decided to add on to this. “While I can’t speak for the others, except for Corrin, he and I are traveling to prove ourselves to the respective gods we serve, so we, or at least I swear upon Ild that we won’t betray any kindness you give us, in return for dealing with your monster problem.”

Corrin chimed in saying. “I too swear upon my god, Ranon, that I won’t betray any kindness.”

Another round of silence went through the room as all of the villagers looked towards their mayor, waiting for him to make the final decision for the rest of the entire village. “We the people of Ryciden, ask for your help, whoever you ‘dumbasses’ are. I am the mayor of this village, Grady Morse. Lucy, I’ll pay for their dinner and stay for the night; James in the morning once the storm clears take care of their horses, will you?” Mayor Grady then looked towards the guard captain, “Luca make sure to prepare a round of guards tomorrow morning to stand guard outside of the mine to make sure they do their job. Now may I ask for introductions from you all so that we the villagers of Ryciden know who we are asking to solve our problem for us.”

“I am Quarry, these are my siblings Seethe,Gale, and Monsoon.” Quarry responded for us, referring to our siblings and I. “The abrasive one is Lizles, the two who are swearing to their gods that they will solve this problem are Corrin and Kellen respectively.” Gesturing towards the people he named before introducing our final member. “Over there is the final member of our group, NoName.”

NoName went to the center following up Quarry’s introduction. “Hello, we like to call ourselves ‘The Chromatic Cardinals’.” They said this before bringing out their instruments and playing a song, the melody that NoName brought out was one that seemed to counter the ferocity of the storm in a challenging manner. They obviously were trying to calm down the village after the tenseness of our confrontation with them. The previously tense faces of the villagers became lax at the beat, the melody, and the harmony created from NoName’s music, and who could blame them. Examining the song they were playing now, I understand why magic bent itself to their whim..The song they brought seemed to match whatever tempo the storm had set, the drum they attached to their back matching the rolls of the rain, the horn in the front of their unhinged mouth and woodwind in the back clashing against the winds created from the storm, and their violin bringing it all together.

With the music the night began to wind down and so did the storm, as people went back to their homes and people started to settle down for the night Grady came up to our group with a stern look on his face and told us “You lot are strangers, new here, the amount of trust I’m putting in you should not be taken for granted.” With the next words he said his face laxed, “Though thank you for bringing so semblance of peace to this village, no one here has known any form of quiet in weeks, I hope you truly can deal with those undead down there.”

“I promise we will, no one should have to deal with something like this ever.” Oddly the usually timid Seethe responded to him. “I know enough about tragedy to never want to see someone struggle through one ever.” He said with a quivering smile on his face and a heavy sag in his eyes.

“...You… thank you, all of you in advance, well it is getting late, you should all get rest, here are your keys for four rooms, two for each of you.” Grady said before walking away and saying “May the gods watch over you tomorrow.”