by Hans Bezdek
“Hold on,” said another human, this one with a series of tattoos on his face. Probably wasn’t the best decision for gainful employment. “We’ll let you pass, but after you hand over all the money you’ve got.”
“I-I don’t have any!” said Delvin, quickly emptying his pockets.
The humans looked down in disgust at the gnome. The tattooed one shook his head. “Who travels without any money?”
“One of the others must be holding onto all of it,” suggested a human behind them.
“I’d see why you’d think that,” laughed Zeke nervously. “Gruvek isn’t the safest place to be walking around with pockets full of coin, am I right?”
The men stared at him.
“Right,” said Zeke, reaching for his pocket. Before he could get there, however, Sloane place a hand on his arm.
“We aren’t giving you anything,” said Sloane firmly. “You should leave now.”
The man with a scar pulled out a serpentine shaped blade. The silver was spotted with dark red, old memories of past uses. He really should clean it after using it. “Oh? Are we going to have a problem?”
Zeke’s eyes widened as he noticed a group of large orcs suddenly appear around the five humans. Were they their friends? Zeke didn’t think that they had much of a chance against the five humans, but with the addition of these orcs? They’d surely not make it out of this alive.
“It looks like you might if you don’t leave,” said Sloane, nodding behind him.
The man humored her and glanced behind him. His friends stood a bit taller and looked around them at the others orcs as well.
“I see,” said the scarred man, placing his dagger back into his robes. “We’ll let you lot get on with your business.”
It suddenly clicked for Zeke. These orcs weren’t on the humans’ side. They weren’t even real! They were illusions!
“Have a good one,” muttered the tattooed man as the five men took an opening between two of the orcs to sneak out of.
“Let’s keep going?” recommended Zeke. “Before they come back?”
“Works for me,” said Sloane, continuing on her way. “I hate it when people try to rob me of my hard earned money.”
“Good job, by the way,” Zeke smiled at Delvin. He knew the gnome would come in handy.
“T-Thanks,” gulped the gnome. “Those aren’t my favorite things to create, but it got the job done. I forgot I had cast the spell for a second and thought for sure those orcs were going to pummel us!”
Chapter 11
“Nothing bad actually happened to us,” Sloane pointed out as they kept to the trees on their way to Nurem. Taking the road that led there was a little too risky, so instead, they kept a couple hundred yards distance. She figured that was close enough to the road without giving them away if any of Lord Kutarm’s men were about.
“Only because of Delvin!” insisted Zeke.
There was some truth in that. Sloane was a bit surprised when the orcs appeared behind the men trying to rob them. She thought they were working together but decided to risk it since she didn’t see where the orcs came from. While it was possible for trained thieves to sneak up on her, orcs weren’t exactly known for their subtlety.
Delvin had done well, and Sloane had mentioned as much to him earlier. She was wrong about him being completely useless and was glad to see it. Perhaps she would do well to not underestimate others in the future.
That didn’t mean they needed to have this same conversation twelve times in the past three hours, though.
“Can we drop it already?” she asked. “Look, I promise to never take you two through Gruvek again.”
“I’m good with that,” laughed Delvin.
“I guess I can let it go,” sighed Zeke. “I just don’t see why you thought it was a good idea to not listen to us…”
“Dropping it includes dropping the little snide remarks,” added Sloane.
“Okay, okay,” said Zeke, putting his hands up. “How far away do you reckon we are from Nurem now?”
“Maybe a few more hours,” she shrugged. There was no need to break out the map anymore. The road off to their left would ultimately lead them to Nurem, regardless of how fast or slow they went.
“Why is the Fourth Staff hidden in Nurem?” asked Delvin.
“I’m not the one that decided these things,” shrugged Zeke. “If it were up to me, we would’ve put it in Re’Lus, or at least somewhere closer. It’s also not actually in...”
Zeke stopped walking and looked around.
Sloane put a hand on Delvin’s shoulder to stop him and turned to watch Zeke. The elf had turned suddenly serious. That wasn’t like him at all.
“What was that?” asked Zeke, still looking around.
“What was what?” asked Delvin, but Sloane stayed quiet and tried to listen. If the elf heard something, she wanted to make sure they knew what it was before continuing on.
“You guys don’t hear that?” he repeated after a second.
“Which direction?” whispered Sloane.
Zeke pointed off to their right, away from the direction of the road. That meant it probably wasn’t one of Kutarm’s groups. That also meant it might be something worse.
Sloane was finally able to hear it when the noise happened again. It sounded like something was stalking up towards them, but kept passing by some bushes.
“S-Should we hide?” whispered Delvin, hearing it too.
“If it’s something hunting us, it already knows we’re here,” whispered Sloane, taking out her bow and reaching for an arrow.
The three of them stood completely still for a few minutes longer, listening as the rustling sound grew louder and closer. Sloane raised her bow and aimed at the location of where the rustling was headed. They were going to see their opponent in just a few more seconds…
There was loud rustling again, and then a tanned animal appeared.
“Oh, it’s just a deer,” said Zeke, placing a hand on his chest and taking a deep breath.
It was just a coincidence that the deer was headed this way in search of food. There was nothing to worry about after all.
“We can just let it be,” said Sloane, lowering her bow. “We’ve got more than enough meat for a few days.”
The three of them watched the deer peacefully graze for a moment. The stress of walking through Gruvek was still with them, and it was nice to have a reminder of the peace the world could have in it. Sloane tried to soak it in.
Right when she was feeling relaxed, a black figure pounced on the deer. The animal let out a panicked cry but then fell silent as the dark creature tore into it.
“There goes that moment,” muttered Zeke.
“W-What the?” stammered Delvin.
“Don’t fret,” suggested Sloane. While she would’ve preferred the deer lived out its days happily ever after, she knew that was unrealistic. “This is just nature taking its course. That creature won’t mean us any harm while it's preoccupied with the deer.”
“N-No… it won’t,” said the gnome, backpedaling until he was hiding behind a tree.
Sloane and Zeke smirked at one another. How had the poor gnome managed by himself for so long?
“Calm down, Delvin,” smiled Sloane. “It’s just a wolf.”
“Look at it again!” hissed Delvin, pointing at the beast.
Humoring him, Sloane looked again at the black figure. It was most certainly a wolf. It stood on all fours, with a black and gray coat of fur. Its muzzle bore into dead deer, quickly picking away at the fresh meat. Sloane supposed the wolf was pretty big compared to ones she had seen before, but that didn’t mean much. Unless…
Its eyes were bright green.
“Shoot,” she whispered, bringing up her bow again and taking aim.
“What’s the matter?” asked Zeke, confused. “It’s just a wolf.”
“No it’s not,” she said, letting her arrow fly.
The straight shot was aimed right at the creature’s midsection.
In the second it took the arrow to reach its target, the creature hopped high into the air and avoided it completely.
“That’s… not normal,” admitted Zeke as the wolf-like creature came back down. It was no longer interested in the deer carcass and instead glared at them.
“It’s a lycanthrope!” cried Delvin.
“A what?”
“They’re sometimes called werewolves,” mumbled Sloane, nocking another arrow. They had missed their open opportunity to take it out. This was going to get tricky.
“Ah,” nodded Zeke, before pausing to reconsider. “But it’s not night?”
“That’s an old myth,” said Delvin. “The creatures turn at random, and some never revert back to their human forms.”
“So waiting it out isn’t an option?” asked Zeke.
“Not anymore,” said Sloane, dashing off to the right as the lycanthrope dove at her.
She let her arrow loose as she was in the air, just a few feet from where the creature was. Somehow, the lycanthrope spun in midair and avoided the second arrow as well.
“Oh no!” shouted Zeke, running away as the lycanthrope landed next to him.
The creature didn’t seem bothered by the elf, instead keeping its eyes on Sloane. It probably didn’t appreciate her trying to kill it.
Sloane left her bow on the ground and unsheathed her sword. She would’ve preferred to not resort to the blade, but her earlier tactic clearly wasn’t working.
The beast lunged at her as she approached, diving out with its claws at the ready. Sloane blocked the strike with her sword, bringing it back around to slice at the wolf’s back. Once again, the lycanthrope proved to be too quick and ducked underneath the attack.
Sloane lashed out several more times, but the beast was always able to dodge at the last second. She was starting to worry that she’d slow before the creature did.
Before she could think too much on it, the lycanthrope ran straight at her. She brought the blade down and connected with it, but the beast continued through and brought her to the ground. She landed on her back hard, losing her grip on her sword as momentum flung it away.
The lycanthrope pushed down on her, trying to get at her throat with its mouth. She brought her hands up and held the animal’s muzzle back with all her might. Blood from the deer sprinkled down on her, but she couldn’t break her concentration. If she gave in at all, she’d be dead.
“Got ya!” shouted Zeke, appearing behind the creature’s head with his dagger.
As he drove Lucky down towards the back of its head, the elf suddenly lost his balance. What should’ve been a finishing blow instead turned into a tackle, as he put his full weight into the lycanthrope and pushed it off Sloane.
The creature barked in annoyance, now turning its attention to the elf.
Sloane took the opportunity to roll back to her bow, picking it up and nocking another arrow. The beast was completely focused on Zeke now, so maybe it wouldn’t dodge her attack this time.
“C-Calm down little doggy,” said Zeke, keeping his hands up to placate the monster. “I, uh, I could’ve killed you, but chose not to. Isn’t that worth something?”
The lycanthrope jumped at Zeke’s face, mouth open and claws extended. The elf shrank back slightly, but even The Elf Thief wasn’t fast enough to escape an attack that began so close to him.
Sloane shot her arrow, aiming a few inches in front of Zeke’s face. The lycanthrope was so focused on the elf that he never saw it coming.
With a satisfying thump, the arrow connected with the side of the beast’s head, knocking the lycanthrope off course and ending its sick life.
“You did it!’ cheered Delvin, jumping up and down as he joined them.
“W-We did?” said Zeke, opening his eyes slowly and patting himself down. It looked like the elf couldn’t believe he was all in one piece.
“Thanks for distracting it,” said Sloane, dusting herself off. That was a bit closer than she would’ve preferred, but they came out alright.
“I… I think I might be sick again,” said Zeke, putting a hand over his mouth.
Not wanting to witness it, Sloane turned towards the gnome. “Could’ve used something like that earlier.”
Delvin hung his head. “I’m sorry. There wasn’t anything for me to do, though! Lycanthropes can see through magic!”
“That’s the reason for the creepy glowing green eyes?” asked Zeke, having managed to control himself this time.
“Correct,” came a voice to their left.
Sloane brought her bow up as fast as she could. A strange group comprised of a dwarf, gnome, and orc, all dressed for combat, approached them. They kept their hands up in a sign that they meant no harm, but Sloane wasn’t taking any chances.
“Easy there, lass,” said the dwarf. “We mean ya no harm.”
“Was that werewolf with you?!” demanded Zeke, holding his dagger up threateningly.
“No,” said the orc. “We no with werewolf.”
“Likely story,” said Zeke, narrowing his eyes.
“No one can control lycanthropes, actually,” mumbled Delvin. “Not even Kutarm with the help of an Arcane Staff could to that.”
“I noticed ya didn’t start Kutarm’s name with a ‘Lord’,” commented the dwarf.
“Oh, s-sorry!” said Delvin, looking worried.
“What’s it to you if he calls him Lord Kutarm or not?” asked Sloane, still not lowering her bow. Only people in league with Kutarm would care about the man’s titles. It was odd for his followers to not be human, but it wasn’t unheard of.
“We ain’t friends of the man,” smiled the dwarf. “Sounds like ye might not be, either.”
“Why are you out here?” asked Zeke, waving Lucky around wildly. “Come to rob us? Well, it’s not happening!”
“We aren’t like those men that tried to mug ya back in Gruvek,” said the dwarf with a shake of his head.
“You saw that?” asked Sloane. “So you followed us.”
“Followed,” nodded the orc.
Sloane drew her bow back a bit further, prompting the dwarf to clarify. “We followed ya, but only because we think ye could help us out! Ye seemed like good fighters. We don’t mean ya no harm!”
“Ha!” shouted Zeke. “That was a double negative! So you do mean us harm!”
Sloane sighed. That was just the way the dwarf talked. He wasn’t trying to be sneaky.
“Huh?” asked the dwarf, face contorting in confusion.
“All you saw was some orcs appear when we were back in Gruvek,” pointed out Sloane. “That doesn’t mean we would be good fighters, or that’d we’d be willing to join whatever your cause is.”
“I figured yer gnome summoned them orcs,” he said, nodding towards Delvin. “We also just saw the end of yer fight with that werewolf. Looks like yer quite the shot. That’s not even counting the elf, here.”
“What about me?” asked Zeke. “I haven’t really done anything recently.”
“Maybe not,” smirked the dwarf. “But we know yer true identity.”
“The Elf Thief!” cheered the orc.
“What?!” shouted Zeke.
Chapter 12
This was getting ridiculous now! How did these guys hear the lie that Zeke was The Elf Thief?
“Where did you hear that!” demanded Zeke.
“Can you put the bow down now?” the dwarf asked Sloane. The human hesitated, but ultimately lowered it. “When the three of you were talking at Mundeck’s Inn, Mundeck overheard you talking about it.”
“Ugh, I knew we were being listened to!” said Zeke turning on Sloane. The innkeeper hadn’t even pretended to not be listening.
“Sorry,” she said, turning slightly pink.
Zeke groaned. This whole thing was getting wildly out of control. What started out as an innocent little tale with Sloane was turning into something more worrisome.
“Well, now that you know my secret, I guess you are going to blackmail us into helping you?” aske
d Zeke.
“No blackmail!” grunted the orc, shaking his head.
“Munreck is right,” added the dwarf. “We have no intention of blackmailing you.”
“Munreck?” repeated Zeke. He always got a kick out of orcish names. “So he must be brothers with the innkeeper, huh?”
“How you guess?” asked Munreck, tilting his head. “Family resemblance?”
The dwarf shared a look with Zeke.
“Munreck’s more of a fighter than a great thinker,” mumbled the dwarf. “I’m Donovic, by the way, and this gnome here is Winston.”
Zeke introduced the others to be polite. “So, Donovic, what do you want from us?”
“We just want you to consider helping out the Linsuk Resistance,” said the dwarf.
“Huh, I wonder if those were the same ones that got wiped out by the Sinter River,” said Zeke, glancing over at Delvin and Sloane. They both shrugged.
“They very well could have been,” nodded Donovic solemnly. “We do all we can to stay as a united front against Lord Kutarm’s advancement, but we can’t be keeping track of everyone.”
“So why seek us out?” asked Sloane. “Surely you have capable fighters among your ranks, even if you don’t know them all.”
“Having a living legend like The Elf Thief on our side could really boost morale,” explained Winston. His voice was much higher in pitch than Zeke expected. “It could possibly help push Kutarm’s expansion back!”
“Uh huh,” mumbled Zeke. “I don’t see how this benefits us, no offense.”
“The innkeeper heard ye were headed to Nurem,” explained Donovic. “Since yer just an hour or two away now, I assume he heard right.”
“We’re close!” cheered Delvin.
“Great, I can’t wait to be done with this forest,” smiled Sloane. “It’ll be nice to be in a town again that isn’t so hostile like Gruvek was.”
“About that…” said Winston, looking over nervously at Donovic.
“There ain’t no easy way to say this,” sighed the dwarf. “Nurem was invaded just two days ago by Lord Kutarm’s forces.”
“You’re joking,” groaned Sloane.
Zeke tried to continue looking calm, but inside he was freaking out. Lord Kutarm was already in Nurem? Had he learned that the Fourth Staff was there, or was it just a coincidence?