“I guess that would explain the blood on them.”
I rolled my eyes, but he just laughed.
“I don’t know how you managed to get silver in your teeth but it does sound weird that it just came right off.”
I slowly opened my mouth as wide as my aching jaw would allow me. Jerak looked down and his eyes grew wide.
“Oh man! What the chogul’s bum happened to your mouth!?” Jerak expclaimed.
I just stared back. I took a few deep breaths and spoke quietly, “I don’t… really… know…”
Jerak shrugged, “Maybe you will feel well enough in a day or two to figure it out.” He walked over toward the door, “Hate to just leave you here, but I’ll be back later with some soup or something. Get some sleep.” I just closed my eyes and tried to do just that.
I didn’t have any dream that I could recall but still felt about the same when I woke up. The room grew dark but my eyes were fairly adjusted to it. Teltar came walking in. He looked down at me, “Oh? You’re awake?” He leaned over and looked at me, “I see Jerak left some soup for you, but I thought he would have returned by now.” I just stared back. Teltar shrugged, “I came by to drop off the money that the lumber company paid you.” He took out a cloth sack filled with coins and placed it next to me. He let out a yawn, “If you can speak, tell your friend that his share is in there with yours.” Teltar then walked out and closed the door behind him. Where was Jerak?
It took me far too long to muster enough strength to turn my head and see the bowl of soup next to me. I dreaded to think how long it would take for me to even eat out of it. I just sighed and gave up on the attempt and closed my eyes. It didn’t take long to get back to sleep. Jerak came storming through the door before long. I opened an eye. “I’m back!” he said cheerfully. I just blinked at him. He smiled, “I ran into Teltar; he said he brought our payment.” He took a few steps and looked at the bowl of soup, “Huh? Not hungry?” I rolled my eyes.
Jerak offered to help me eat, but I refused. I wasn’t all that hungry and might be able to move the next day to feed myself anyway. “It is weird-I spent a good deal of time talking with the dwarves about the attack…” Jerak muttered as he climbed to his bed. I moved my eyes in his direction. He scratched the back of his head, “I really don’t know the details, but they think the elves were behind it.” The elves? Why would they do such a thing? Jerak let out a big yawn, “I am sleepy. We can talk more about it tomorrow.”
I woke up with the sun beaming down at me from the tiny window of the room. Jerak was nowhere around. My body still felt sore all over and my head started to hurt as soon as my brain woke up. At least I was able to move… very slowly and painfully. From the brightness, I figured I must have slept in for a good while. Aside from the pain, I had a strong urge to pee.
The bathroom was at the far end of the hallway. It might as well have been miles away since there was no way I could even stand up. I glanced around the room. There was a cold bowl of soup still next to me. I cringed from the pain as I tried to pull my upper body up. Istruggled, still dealing with wounds. On the small table sat a metal pitcher and two simple metal cups. I would have thought they would have bed pans in the room. Man this sucks.
Jerak walked into the room as I made a pathetic reach for the metal pitcher. “Hey, Blake! Good to see you moving…” he said cheerfully.
I stared back at him, “Can you get me a bedpan?”
Jerak raised a brow, “A what?”
I sighed, “I need to pee!”
Jerak got the hint and lifted a finger, “Oh! I’ll get something!” I closed my eyes and dealt with the pain and strain. Jerak ran back with a wide clay pot. He sat it down next to me. I smiled and slowly turned towards it.
I stopped and looked at Jerak, “Um… can you please leave me be for a moment?” Jerak nodded and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
I would say I felt better after relieving myself but when your body is covered with wounds, you don’t really ever feel better. “Are you done yet?” Jerak asked from the other side of the door.
I lifted my head, “Yes, come in.”
Jerak walked back in and chuckled, “Man you weren’t kidding.”
I took a deep breath, “So what is the drama with the dwarves and the elves?”
Jerak cleared his throat, “From what I know, they found an elven-made arrow, and they think that a group of elves were fighting to stop the cutting of trees.”
I sighed, “Really? I don’t know much about elves but why would they care about something the dwarves grow and harvest on their own land?”
Jerak shrugged, “I don’t know but there seems to be some upset over it.”
Jerak brought me something more solid to eat for lunch. It was meat and bread which looked much more appetizing than cold soup. I still drank the soup. My body still felt weak but hunger was strong enough to overcome the pain.
“So does it hurt?” Jerak asked.
I stared at him, “I am covered in bandages and wounds… of course I hurt.”
Jerak chuckled, “No I mean your teeth!” I ran my tongue along my teeth, it still felt so weird that they were like that now.
“I can only remember feeling pain after my visit…” I replied.
Jerak leaned over and showed that I had his full attention. “What happened?”
I sighed, “I was floating in a dark abyss then heard a heartbeat.” Jerak nodded and waited for me to continue. I took a moment to recall what I could of the event. It felt like it had happened a long time ago. I let out a sigh, “I saw two large glowing eyes and something spoke to me.”
Jerak smiled, “Neat! What did it say?”
I licked my teeth again then tried to remember what it had told me, “Um… he told me there is potential and uh… he will give me all the power he can then wishes I find the rest of the armor.” Jerak stared at me and jumped to his feet.
He grins, “That must be the dragon spirit that Bolam told me about!”
“What?” I asked.
Jerak nodded, “Yes! He must have contacted you when you were wounded and chose you to do an epic quest for him!” I opened my mouth but Jerak spoke again before I could even utter a sound, “This is great! The creator of dragons has given you a quest that will make us legends!”
I lifted a brow, “Us?”
Jerak smiles, “Oh come now, you don’t think you will be doing this alone! Besides, someone has to teach you how to fight!”
I closed my eyes and chuckled, “I guess so.”
Jerak carefully grabbed the bed pan. He was too excited to even be grossed out about it. “When you get healed up, we will search for the rest of the armor!” He walked out of the door and poked his head back in, “Um do you know where the other pieces are?”
I slowly shook my head, “I have no clue…”
Jerak shrugged, “Oh well, maybe we can find someone that does know.”
I pondered for a moment. “We can go see Bolam; he seems to know a lot about it,” I suggested.
Jerak raised his hand, “Sounds good to me! We should go seek out Bolam… wait where is he again?”
I sighed, “I think he is someplace called Vunash.”
Jerak nodded, “Oh the big city, eh?” I made an attempt to shrug, but felt a rush of pain.
“You’ve been beaten pretty badly,” Jerak spoke in a serious tone.
I was still cringing, “Let’s hope I get better before the money runs dry.”
Jerak laughed, “I wouldn’t worry about it. Besides, I’ll go search for another job to help fund our epic quest.”
Shortly after our conversation, I decided to hibernate some more. I figured Iwould heal better when my body was resting, and since I couldn’t really do anything useful, sleeping was the best use of my time. I was out of sorts for the next two days, mostly sleeping and waking up just to get some food and exchange some small talk with Jerak. Every stretch of sleep gave me a little more strength and dulled the pain a bit more.
The day I could finally walk was an exciting day for me. Any scrapes and cuts on my body had been healed over. Some of the more serious injuries still lingered but were bearable. My clothes were dyed red from all the blood, both from my own wounds and those I’d inflicted on others. I was relieved there was some weight in my coin pouch despite my uselessness for the past couple of days.I was pretty sure Jerak had spent the silver fillings I had lost, but all things considered, I didn’t mind.
“How long do you think it will take to reach Vunash?” I asked.
Jerak stared out into the sky and appeared to do the math in his head. “I’d say about seven days. More if we spend time in Felmun,” he explained.
I glanced back, “Felmun?”
Jerak nodded, “Yeah, it is a good-sized town north of Vunash. Seven days does seem a little much, but if there is a town to break up the journey, it won’t be so bad.” My body still felt weak, but walking on a road didn’t seem too bad.
Jerak and I left the inn to restockour supplies. “You know, this might sound rude, but you should be careful when opening your mouth…” Jerak mentioned as we stopped at the doorway. I stared at him but instantly realized he was referring to my teeth. It was good that he reminded me; I wasn’t sure what social stigmata there was for people with fangs.
“We should have plenty of money for our quest, but we need to get enough food for seven days… er, unless we get a job at Felmun,” Jerak muttered in a tone as if he was really just thinking out loud.
I sighed and looked at my clothes, “Will there be enough for me to get some gear?”
Jerak smiled, “Oh sure! You do need a new tunic anyway.” I smiled but quickly closed my mouth concerned that someone might see my sharp teeth. That was going to take some getting used to.
Jerak wandered off to get some food supplies and other things while I looked at a discount armory. It was mostly old used weapons and armor that been previously owned and fixed up. I guessed dwarves didn’t like to use shabby equipment. I gave Jerak a great deal of my money for food and what he called the travel fund. I was a bit worried about Jerak foolishly spending too much, but he was a guy who spent a great deal of his life traveling. He was pretty thick-headed, but he did seem to do well enough with money. I purchased a set of leather armor with metal plates that covered the front and torso.
I didn’t know if I had enough left for a shirt since I had spent almost all my remaining money on the armor. It seemed to be well made, just stained from years of use. It looked like it would protect me from chogul attacks in vital areas. My shirt had several tears and large stains of dried blood. The fact that I still wore bandages on my body showed that I had barely survived a battle. At least now I would have my organs protected from chogul claws.
Jerak surprised me by popping out of nowhere “Hey, I have some good news!”
I turned toward him, “Oh?”
Jerak looked at my armor, “Hey that is nice! Good thinking! Did you get a new shirt?”
I chuckled, “No, I spent almost all I had on the armor. So what is the good news?”
Jerak’s head perked up, “Oh yeah, um, Teltar is coming with us.”
I smiled, “Really? That is good news. Why is he traveling with us?”
Jerak shrugged, “He said he needs to go to some place in Vunash to speak about the arrow and the elves.”
It was good that Teltar was coming along with us, one extra person to help in case we faced anything scary in our travels. The only problem was that he was planning to leave the very next morning, and we were not getting paid for anything. It was a pity that Jerak couldn’t find us a job to help raise more funds. I hated to take money out of the travel fund to get a new shirt since I could wear my armor. It was heavy but it looked pretty cool.
I decide to take it easy for the rest of the day. So I spent the time napping, hoping it wouldl help me heal a bit more by the next day. I was able to walk, but I was not sure how well I’d do if combat were necessary. I should be fine to walk on a simple road. That evening, Jerak woke me up and we went to get some dinner. Afterward, I went to sleep while Jerak roamed the town hoping to find some non-dwarven females. I wasn’t awake to see the results.
Morning dawned and I actually felt much better. I wasn’t exactly going to do back flips or anything, but I felt fine for traveling. Teltar greeted us at the inn’s tavern. Well, not so much as greeted us since he was snoring with his head resting on a table. It took a few tries to get him to wake up. “Oh? Hey… are you guys ready?” he mumbled. I laughed and we were off.
The journey started out really boring. It was pretty hot and there wasn’t much to look at. Teltar wasn’t exactly a conversationalist. He sometimes acted like he was asleep as he walked. Oh sure, Teltar would acknowledge you when you spoke to him but would only give single word answers.
“So Blake, how are you feeling today?” Jerak asked out of sheer boredom.
I shrugged, “I feel decent, why?”
Jerak sighed, “You think you’re up to anymore training?”
I cringed at the thought of bumping some of my wounds, “Not really. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be up for it.”
Night fell and was just about as boring. The highlight of the whole day was the realization that I was getting a little better at understanding their written word. “So you’re learning how to read?” Teltar asked in a sleepy tone.
I smiled, “Yeah, I am trying to be literate in your language.”
Teltar nodded, “That is good to know.” He walked back down to the fire and started to roast his dinner on a stick.
I whispered to Jerak, “Um, does he know that I am not from this world?”
Jerak nodded, “Yeah, I explained it to him while you were recovering.”
I glanced back at Teltar and let out a “Ha…” I found it strange that Teltar didn’t appear fazed at all by that.
I woke up the next day feeling somewhat better.Sleeping on lumpy ground sure does suck. Apparently, in the morning Teltar didn’t even use words to communicate. He would mostly just grunt and casually wave his hand as a greeting. I did’t mind since I wasn’t a morning person and he had the last watch. Jerak spent the whole day trying to find some decent sparing sticks as we journeyed. Most of the trees were small so their branches were too small and would snap right away the way Jerak spars.
“Ah, the northern desert!” Jerak spoke as we reached a stone pillar on the side of the road. The sky was already getting dark and my mind was waking up from its long daydream.
Teltar walked off to the side of the road, “We will camp here for tonight.”
I stared at the stone pillar, “How come we can’t keep going?”
Jerak explained, “It isn’t safe to travel at night with Sandpedes and lizard men.”
I turned toward the guys, “I thought lizard men were peaceful.”
Teltar glanced at me, “Some lizard men tribes are actually violent and hate outsiders.”
I turned back to the stone pillar, “Oh… that’s a good reason.”
That night I read out loud the children’s story about the witch Talestria. I was getting better at reading this language,but it seemed to put Teltar into a coma. After reading it a few more times to myself, Jerak asked me a semi-random question, “Blake? Um, does it hurt when you bite your tongue?”
I chuckled, “What?”
Jerak shrugged, “You know, with the sharp teeth and all.”
I shook my head, “Um, haven’t done that yet, and besides, my front teeth are normal.”
Jerak nodded, “Ah, good. It would suck if you bit your tongue off or something.” I tried to figure out his thought process and decided to spare myself from a major headache.
The next day could have been the most boring and tiring day of my life. We traveled the desert road as the sun came up and we finally crossed it by evening. There wasn’t a whole lot to see. I only saw a bunch of dry hills and dry plants every so often. Occasionally, there were a few large rocks, but that was it. Weari
ng the leather armor was not fun but it wouldn’t fit in my pack. Strangely, the helmet breathed well enough and helped keep some of the sun out of my eyes. Even Jerak was exhausted by the time we left the desert.
At the camp, I laid down and just enjoyed not standing for a little while. “How many more days until we reach the next town?” I asked.
Jerak picked at his ear, “Uh… two more days I think.”
I sighed, but at least we were out of the desert. “And how many days of traveling to reach Vunash?”
Jerak displayed two fingers. The idea of traveling anymore just annoyed me. I wished they had cars or at least trains. During my watch I pondered about the cost of a horse. I had never ridden a horse before but it might have been faster than walking.
The next morning we came to a fork in the road. Eastward the sign spelled out Icreyn Village and southward spelled out Felmun. We headed south while Jerak talked about his home village. “My brother and I used to wander off towards the Icreyn Canyon and play at some old ruins. We would always get in trouble for doing so,” Jerak shared. Teltar didn’t even appear to be listening.
I nodded, “So why did you get in trouble?”
Jerak laughed, “Oh, we would get lectured that we could get lost or get hit by a rock slide or face a dragon…”
I interrupted, “Wait… dragon?”
Jerak laughed, “Ah, there’s a legend that there is a dragon that lives up in the range, but it is mostly just a rumor.”
Jerak went on about how he would sneak off toward the canyon to find the dragon when he was growing up. “My brother, Rejun, would always get scared so I would sneak up and make scary noises just so he would soil himself,” Jerak joked. He laughed for a bit and sighed, “He is such a coward, too. Ever since our parents passed, he has lost any desire to go out and venture. Always playing with his crossbow.”
I faced Jerak, “So you left to travel, huh?”
Jerak nodded, “I can’t stay in the village for too long without the need to seek adventure. I kind of don’t want to return until I have made a name for myself.”
Dragon Hero Page 13