Burrows & Behemoths

by Lee Duckett

  “Because of the way ya be talkin’ to the bartender, lassie,” Rurik observed.

  “I was just confused by the name. George seems like such a human name,” she shrugged.

  “Da changed it after he married mum,” a voice spoke up behind them, a young half-orc girl spoke from behind them, with a plate full of drinks. “He used to be called Ghorloz, but it made adventurin’ types nervous.”

  Aria smiled at her, “That explains it! Pity he had to change it because of bigots.”

  The waitress looked at her for minute, not sure if the cleric was being sincere, before nodding, “It is what it is. Your food’ll be out in a few. Can you turn down your. . . glow?” she asked, motioning to the aureole around Aria’s head. “Some of the customers are coming in from the mine, and their eyes haven’t adjusted, so it’s a bit bright.”

  The saintly radiance cut off abruptly and their server smiled before turning back to a door in the rear of the room, leading to the kitchens.

  ◆◆◆

  The next morning the party assembled, having had a good night’s sleep. Over a breakfast of sausage, eggs, biscuits, and gravy they slowly woke fully, still mentally tired from the previous day’s events even if, physically, they were well rested and ready to do it all again. Everyone was pleasantly surprised by the fact that instead of beer, they were served coffee. More specifically, everyone but Rurik was.

  “We get it from a trade caravan that runs from here to Firebreach,” the same waitress from last night, named Suzy (short for Suzenar), told them. “When you’re done, Da wants to talk to ya.”

  They nodded, and she was off, serving the others. When she came back to collect their dishes, the owner walked over, looking at them appraisingly. “I heard you were moving on, but if you could spare the time this town could use your help.”

  The party looked at each other. ~We should hear him out, at least,~ Fayne suggested, the others nodding. She looked at George, who was watching the byplay with interest, and nodded.

  “You see, this town is well defended against the creatures in the forest, and the bandits that like to hide in the woods, but there has been a new threat in the area. We knew it had laired up north, but it had left us alone, so we left it alone. However, it has hit several caravans that were passing through, and if something is not done about it, the town will suffer more than it already has,” he revealed, pausing to take a deep breath. “You see, it is a black dragon. It-”

  “-Already be dead,” the dwarf interrupted, smirking.

  The orc blinked, frowning. “Not to be insulting, but to believe you I will need-” but Fayne was already reaching into Shino’s Bag of Holding. Pulling out the oilskin bag she opened it, unfolding it to reveal the black dragon’s head.

  Staring at it for a long moment, the barkeep tried again, “The chances of you having a black dragon head, and a fresh one at that, are small, but the reports said it was bigg-” Badger tossed him the ring, which he caught reflexively.

  The orc’s eyes glowed purple as he examined the magics with a Detect Magic cantrip of his own, letting out a long sigh. “And that would explain that. If you will stay here for an hour, I will have your reward delivered. As mayor of this town I must thank you for helping us, even if it was entirely by accident. Suzy,” he called, “Give these people one from my reserve, I shall be right back.”

  He left through the front door and his daughter came over, a bottle wrapped in black fabric cradled in her arms. She started to say something when she spotted the head on the table, her eyes going wide. “Is that the dragon’s head? That’s so cool! You guys work fast!” She bound over, negligently passing the bottle of alcohol to the dwarf as she ooh’d and awe’d over it.

  As she fangirled over the dragon’s skull, Fayne smiled, answering questions about the fight and pointing out things about the head. The elf gave the half-orc one of the dragon’s talons, causing the younger girl to squeal with delight, racing to the back to put it in her room.

  The mayor returned a few minutes later, putting a box on the table. Opening it, he showed them twelve gold bars, saying loudly as a few of the other patrons looked over in interest, “Here is your reward for helping the town by slaying the dragon which destroyed three caravans.” A few of the patrons paled, turning back to their drinks, others giving the party thankful smiles.

  The orc continued at a lower volume. “One-thousand two-hundred gold, in trade bars. Sorry about that, most of the people here are good, but a few of them have more greed than sense.” He looked around, “Where is my daughter?”

  “I gave her one of the dragon’s claws,” Fayne said.

  He sighed, smiling. “She is not going to pay attention to anything else for the rest of the day. That girl is the reason you get half-dragons, not that half-dragon grandchildren would be a bad thing,” he added. “Magic and strength are always good to add to a bloodline. Either way, thank you. Is there anything else you need?”

  “Where can we buy a horse,” Badger asked. “We had to leave ours behind, and it’s probably gone from where we left it.”

  Epilogue

  Two Down, One To Go

  When Fayne and Badger rode their cart into Copperbell seven hours later, Rurik and Aria were waiting for them just inside the wall, the aasimar had gathered a crowd while the dwarf was off to the side, reading a book. “And know that Solus’ light will shine upon you, as long as your soul shines back with kindness, and burns with the fire to fight that evil which hides in the darkness, for though you brave the lands his grace does not touch each day, you bring the light with you every time you go down, claiming the wealth far below for those who bask in his radiance!” She smiled around at those gathered, channeling her god's power as if she were turning undead, golden luminesce spilling out and seeming to cling to those around her. “Go in his warmth and light, for while I may leave, he will always be with you.”

  The crowds parted, and she walked towards the cart, being pulled by a single horse. “So, the first horse. . .?”

  Fayne shook her head, “Chewed through the rope. No idea where it is now, the tracks led off into the forest. Everything else was intact though.”

  “Good,” Rurik said, climbing up into the cart. “Let’s get out of here ‘fore she starts preachin’ again.”

  Aria frowned at him, getting into the cart as well. “It is my duty to spread the light of my god to those who would hear it.”

  “Aye, an’ the fact that ya were givin’ ‘em free healin’ ‘ad nothin’ ta do with they’re hearin’ ya,” he shot back, going back to his book.

  “I didn’t even use more than half of my spells in healing, and because of it others will live better lives,” she argued, but he didn’t respond. She turned to the other two, “Tell him I’m right!”

  Badger nodded, looking over at the dwarf who raised an eyebrow. “I’m right,” the gnome stated with authority, turning and giving his wife a firm nod. “Anything for you, honey.”

  The cleric rolled her eyes as they left the gates, the guard waving to them. She waved back, before taking a seat and pulling out her own book. “So, how long is it going to take us to get to Firebreach?” she asked, not looking up.

  “About a week,” Fayne said, “Assuming we take no shortcuts. Shortcuts means we might find monsters,” she pointed out as Aria started to open her mouth.

  The aasimar frowned, going back to her book. “I’ve had enough monsters for a lifetime, thank you very much!”

  Badger looked back at her while Fayne drove the cart. “You do know we’re going to have to do more fighting before we get out,” he warned.

  Rurik put his book down, frowning at the wizard. “What’d ya mean ‘get out’?”

  The gnome frowned, climbing into the cart’s carriage. “Well, as far as I see, this is like that movie with Robin Williams, the one where there’s the jungle game that you get trapped in, but as soon as you finish it, everything goes back to normal!”

  “Wee man,” the dwarf said cautiously, his v
oice dropping in volume, “Dad, we’ve finished. Ya said that same thing when we be finishin’ the first adventure. Me brother got nabbed by those metal jerks, and ya said we were goin’ home, and we didn’t. We’ve finished the second one, killed the dragon and got out alive an’ everythin’, but we still be here.”

  “Ah! You see that’s because I didn’t understand what Max was telling us!” The wizard said, grinning with near manic energy. “He’d planned out three adventures. That means we’re here until we finish all three!”

  ~Not to intrude on this discussion, but what are you all talking about?~ Fafnir asked, causing all present to freeze. He’d been quiet since they’d left the dragon’s lair, and they’d forgotten he was still there, watching.

  “Um. . .” Badger mumbled, not sure what to say.

  “We’re not from around here, Fafnir,” Fayne said, getting sharp looks from the others. Looking forward she either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “We’re from another plane, and woke up here, with these bodies, and memories that weren’t our own. Max, my cousin, was the one who might know how it happened, but he was. . .” she trailed off, taking a deep breath, voice firming. “He was taken by three incredibly strong battleborn who rode steeds that seemed to be made the same way. I’m Grace, Rurik’s real name is Isaac, Badger’s is Jack, and Aria’s is Maggie.”

  “Fayne!” Maggie hissed, “Why are you telling him this?”

  The elf, still not looking at them, shrugged, “He’s bound to me. I went to sleep with him on the other side of the room and woke up with him on. We talked, and bound items always come back to those they’re bound to, so it’s not like I can just leave him somewhere anytime we need to talk. Anyway, Fafnir, Badger thinks that if we finish the adventures Max planned, we’ll go home.”

  ~And you don’t?~

  She shrugged again, “I don’t know. I’d like for that to happen, for us all to wake up as if this was all a dream, with Max in their house, but I don’t know that’s going to happen.” She smiled, “But I’d like to be wrong, for once.”

  Badger’s expression soured, but he shook his head, “No. It fits! Think of what he told us was going to happen on this adventure. He said to get our foot in the door-”

  “Which we didn’t,” Rurik pointed out.

  “But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t good advice, just that we didn’t listen hard enough,” the wizard argued. “After that he told us to look out for stalactites and stalagmites. The stalagmite was the Roper, while the stalactites-”

  “Was the giant snake thing,” Aria interrupted, nodding. “Though why there’d be something like that in the adventure we were supposed to survive-”

  “Ah!” Badger interrupted right back, holding up a finger, “But his next advice was that stealth is important! Stealth might’ve let us bypass it, and it was that, along with misdirection that let us survive!”

  ~Not to disagree with the foresight of this person, but stealth is generally underrated for most adventurers,~ Fafnir stated. ~I was surprised that you seemed to understand that, considering how most of your kind seems to act. Regardless, most of these ‘warnings’ are not indicative of pre-knowledge, just common sense. Though that can be just as rare and arguable more valuable.~

  “Right,” Badger said, “You’ll probably have the same response to most of this then.” He frowned, before shaking his head. “No, while it is good advice, it was advice that was extremely suited to what we fought. He stated that evil doesn’t always lie, and then we met an imp that gave us vital information. He said not to swim in underground lakes if we didn’t know what was in it, which, again, yes, common sense, but if we’d tried to swim into that reservoir without knowing what was there,” he shivered, “At least one of us would’ve died. I would’ve if I hadn’t realized that maybe, with elements like Force and Water, I might have an advantage in it.”

  “He did tell us that the first enemy we were going to face was orcs,” Fayne pointed out, “That’s not just common sense.” At Badger’s hopeful expression she shook her head. “I don’t know that finishing the three adventures is going to send us home, but he did know what was coming next. He was just scared that by telling us it’d change.”

  “Exactly!” the gnome exclaimed, latching onto the first part of her statement only. “See! He had foreknowledge.”

  ~I never said that he didn’t, only that his advice seemed general,~ the sentient armor rebuked. ~Did he say anything else?~

  Badger nodded, “He had to be even vaguer, since he hadn’t planned it out as completely. Um. . . it was going to be underground.”

  Aria groaned, “Couldn’t we have an adventure outside?”

  “Wouldn’t be much of a Lair if it be havin’ an open roof, lassie,” Rurik pointed out.

  She groaned again, and Badger continued, “Okay, now that I think about it, they are general, but here you go: Appearances can be deceiving, which, yes is incredibly general. If something hides in the dark then it can be damaged by being exposed, though I’m not sure if that’s metaphorical. An enemy’s captives can be useful in defeating them, so there should be captives, there weren’t in Dardenhaven. If something has been altered, it’s not always more dangerous, but that doesn’t mean it’s harmless either, which will mean we’ll fight something that has been altered or changed somehow, but we can take it. . . I think that’s it.”

  Rurik grunted, “Ye forgot the last one, wee man. If the thing’s yer fightin’ are tryin’ to summon somethin’, it be best ta make sure they don’t.”

  “Which means someone’s going to summon something in front of us,” Badger said, nodding. “Okay, we can work with this. And being underground, we probably won’t have to worry about it until after we reach Firebreach.”

  “Amen to that!” Aria agreed, leaning back in the cart, basking in the light shining down on the cart, now that they’d reached something close to a road. “Best part of being a cleric of Solus? No sunburns.”

  ◆◆◆

  A week later and the party was getting a bit bored of just travelling. They’d considered selling some of their loot, but they realized after asking around that they’d get better prices in a larger city like Firebreach than the small towns they passed through. The only spot of excitement was when a large black bear had wandered into the road in front of them.

  It had growled at them and Rurik growled back, unsheathing his swords. As Fayne lazily pulled out her bow, Badger manifested his staff, and Aria didn’t bother to do more than glance up from her book, the beast had stopped, looked down, and quickly scurried off into the forest to the samurai’s call of “Come on! I ‘aven’t killed anythin’ in days!”

  It was mid-morning, the sky clear and sunny, and there was a hint of the sea in the air. The terrain had slowly shifted from forest to rolling hills, the traffic on the road getting heavier the longer they’d travelled. ~Guys?~ Fayne called over their shared connection as they crested another ridge. ~You want to see this.~

  The others looked up from their reading, having hit up two more bookstores while they travelled, and moved to see what Fayne was talking about, ready to fight, just in case. What they saw removed all thoughts of combat from their mind.

  The hill they’d come over was the last one before the shore, twelve miles away. The lack of hills made a large bowl, opening up butting up against the ocean, but that wasn’t what caught their attention. Sitting in the bowl, one edge right up against the sea, was an enormous city. Circular in shape, it had enormous stone walls surrounding it from all sides, and seemed to be close to eight miles across. The city appeared flat, though a large fortress could be seen to rise slightly in the center. The architecture in different sections across the city appeared to be built in completely style, though from this distance they couldn’t tell why.

  “It’s bigger than Paris,” Aria breathed, trying to take it all in. “How?”

  “Magic,” her husband answered, “But more than that, this was planned.” At the looks from the rest he explained, “Loo
k, see how each section is sharply divided, and how there’s nothing outside. Not slums as the population increased beyond the original city’s carrying capacity and the poorest were pushed out, not a market as trade outgrew the space available, not anything. This city is planned, and it’s new. Well, new as far as cities go.”

  “More importantly,” Fayne added firmly. “This is where we’re going to meet Shino. He said that he’d meet us here.”

  Rurik nodded in agreement, “Assumin’ he can get free.” That drew pointed looks from the rest of the party, and he continued. “ Knowin’ him, if he can, he will.”

  “Then that’s where we need to be,” the elf said, staring at the metropolis in the distance. “And where we’ll find our next adventure.”

  “Our last one,” Badger agreed. “This makes two down, one to go.”

  Read About The Continued Adventures Of Fayne, Badger, Aria, And Rurik As They Explore The Metropolis of Firebreach

  In L&L Book 3

  Crypts

  &

  Cruelties

  Coming Fall 2019