My father's spirit looked up and seemed to recognize me. He paused and began to speak, "All I wanted was to return to Urik and search for my wife and daughter.... you?..... but everything seemed to be against me...."
He paused and stared at me so I prompted him again, "Yes father you were going to search Urik for my mother, Frigga and me, your daughter, Volmina. But you could not know that we would have been sold around that time, probably long before you could have arrived even if you had not been detained. I do not blame you, father please continue with the story."
".......I did not know this...... and I blamed myself for the delays and for the tragedies that were yet to occur. My new friends and I did not know where we were and we did not even know each other very well yet. I was uncomfortable with telling the merchants the truth that we barely knew each other and had no memory of recent events so I came up with a lie that was close to the truth. I told them that we were a mercenary company known as the "Unforgiven" and that we hired ourselves out as caravan guards. They accepted this lie since it fit the facts and they asked us to join them as I'd hoped. Their leader introduced us to all of them but I can't recollect all their names. The leader was a human a former gladiator by the name of Gaul, I think, yes that's it. Let's see, there was a thrikeen, a pair half-elf twins trained in the Way, and one or two more. I did not figure we would be with them long so I didn't bother to remember their names. The leader, Gaul, asked us to come with them to Raam. It was not much out of my way and it was better than dying alone in the desert so I agreed to come with them. Also we were short of supplies so any city with markets would get me a step closer to my family in Urik. He also asked us to help rescue two others of their team that had been captured by the tareks but he insisted on traveling to Raam first. That did not make sense to me, unless he figured the tareks would ransom them, maybe that was it."
The shade paused again and I gave my father some wait time and then prompted him once again, "What happened after that father? Did anything occur on the road to Raam?"
The spirit continued, "Yes we can across a pair of baazrags and we killed them for food, they are good eating they are, the baazrags. Gaul sent us to see if we could find some more of them perhaps even a clutch of eggs. So the four of us went off together hunting baazrags, Rhogar and I in back, with Rolen and Bo scouting ahead........"
My father's eyes went wide, clearly something had upset him. I asked him, "Did something go wrong during the hunt? What are you remembering father?"
"I remember it all now. The hunt went well at first. We found a number of the pups and I lured them to attack and Rhogar struck them down with his acid vomit. But then we located the brood mother and everything went to crodlu dung. I did not know it then but the big baazrag sows have psionic powers that can render a person helpless. The sow used this power on Bo and then tore into him. I tried hard to save him. I tried to distract it from Bo but once he passed out from the sow's poison she ignored me and fed on him. There was nothing I could do. By the time the three of us killed the sow Bo was gone."
The face of my father's shade showed obvious regret and grief. I thought it best to give him time to collect himself. In a short time he continued.
"I had only known Bo a short time, well, not counting whatever went on during my memory gaps. He was a tough kid and I already thought of him as a friend....... He was half a dwarf and of an age to be one of my own kids if I had ever been forced to breed muls. It just didn't seem fair that a young one like that was taken before he had really lived. But I guess that is the desert for you. Wyrd bi ful araed."
I was struggling not to weep myself and I felt my eyes start to tear up. "Father I think that the mul Bo was taking the place of your missing family, maybe all of the members of your company were filling a void."
My father's ghost considered that and started again, "Yes...... that may be so. I would not have given up on my family, and changed my focus, but my new friends became very important to me."
That was something of a revelation to me as the "official" records of the city-states named my father a bellicose pariah.
My father continued, "We buried Bo near a large rock in hopes that his body would not be found by the hungry desert beasts."
The ghost seemed to be far away so I prompted him again. "Father did anything else happen during the journey to Raam? How did the other members of your company fair?"
"The rest of the journey was as uneventful as it is possible to be the deep desert. When we arrived Raam my companions and I explored the city while we tried to resupply. Strange, I had always thought Raam to be near the shore of the Silt Sea but the sea was a number of miles away, far enough to avoid any serious danger of dust-lung disease. It was my first time in Raam and I have to say I did not like it there. Urik is not any sort of a paradise but being in Raam made me appreciate what I once had at home. There were many starving beggars and most of them were just children and many others were oldsters. I could not help but think of my own family........ While we were shopping Rolen and I decided to give some money to the poor wretches, though Rolen would have given away more than we could afford, had I let him. He is strange for an elf. Proves the old saying my Da' used to say is true, 'You can't tell what someone is like until you travel wearing their sandals.' Who would have thought an elf cares more for poor homeless human pups than a dwarf? Anyway it did not go well, even though I had already guessed that throwing ceramic golds would start a riot. As it turned out they were so poor that even the ceramic coppers spread all over were enough to fight over. 'No good turn goes unpunished' as we dwarves say and so it was. Wyrd bi ful araed."
My father looked grieved over this incident and so I thought to move him forward with the narrative in hopes that a pleasant memory might be located. "Father you mentioned that you resupplied, was there anything in particular that you needed?"
He looked up at me, "We needed a lot of things but we did not have the money to pay for them so we sold the baazrag sow's eggs, which did not help as much as I had hoped it would. But we got our basic supplies and there was enough money left over for me to purchase a coat of plates made out leather and kank chitin. Also I remembered that Rolen had told me that he was looking for a kirre cub when we were all captured in Draj and so I asked the merchant if he had any.
As it turned out he had a sickly one that was the runt of a litter and would probably have died before reaching of an age to be of use in the arena. Rolen bought the furry little beastie and it seemed to make him happy."
My father was actually almost smiling so I left him to his thought for a few seconds before I interrupted, "Did anything unusual happen while you were in Raam father?"
"Unusual? Yes I suppose so, though unusual seemed to have a very different meaning in Raam. As my friends and I were finding our way around the city we came upon a burning building. We heard voices inside screaming for help. There were two soldiers in front of the building but they were not definitely NOT helping. Rolen and I moved towards them and they made it clear that our help was not appreciated. I told Rolen to ignore them and save the prisoners and I closed with the guards. Before further angry words could be exchanged Rhogar took matters into his own hands and blasted the soldier on my left. With regret I thought the time for words was over and the time for wet-work had begun. Wyrd bi ful araed. My arena training took over and I beheaded the wounded soldier in a single stroke and immediately turned on the other. Rhogar joined me and in a few seconds the other guard was dead. By the time we struck down the other guard Rolen had sprinted though the burning building while avoiding a flaming defiler and had rescued the two prisoners and then escaped out a second story window! That elf was a wonder........ But a crowd was forming and I had two dead guards at my feet."
"Thinking quickly I threw the bodies into the flaming building just in case Raam had deadhearts like Urik. After that we attempted to flee in order to avoid more guards. Things did not work out as I had hoped and we were attacked. A group of four of the Mansbadar guards cut us off. Two were on the ground and two were on a roof firing crossbows. I rushed the pair on the stairs and Rolen and Rhogar attacked the two on the ground. One of my two Mansbadars dropped his crossbow and charged me with a bone halberd. The guards were skilled combatants and I was badly slashed by the halberd and I took a crossbow bolt in the thigh. I tore into the one in front of me on the stairs like a hungry kirre and soon he fell and I was upon the sniper. By then my allies had defeated their pair and were firing on my opponent. The guard was so shaken by my charged that he jumped off the roof. Bad mistake. His leg shattered and bone cut out through his flesh and he soon bled to death. I felt sort of bad about the whole thing so I bound the halberd guard's wounds. He was the only one likely to live. A few hours later we arrived at a gate that was guarded by a noble skilled in the way and two guards, or was it three? I shouted that Rolen and Rhogar should put down the noble and then I attempted to distract two of the guards in front of me. One ran past me and I was forced to attempt to dispatch the one in front of me. I have to admit I thought we might lose. The noble was just in front of me and a guard was charging the two people I had counted on to put her out. Then out of nowhere this unarmed human made this impossibly high jump and lit into her. By the time I finished the guard, this human had beaten the noble senseless with his fists. It reminded me of poor dead Bo."
My father paused again and he seemed to be waiting for instructions and so I pushed him, "Father, this human, what did he look like? What was his name?"
My father nodded as if he had been waiting for me to press him for details. "Jorvak, his name was Jorvak. Most of him looked right, almost like a dwarf but too skinny. What I didn't like was that he had one of those gross and ridiculous hairy things on his face. Humans call them beards, I think. Ugly dirty thing. I'm glad dwarves can't grow them. Most humans have the sense to cut the things off, but not this guy."
My father fell silent again lost in thought once again so I prompted him, "Father what happened after the battle? Did you escape Raam?"
My father continued, "Yes we escaped the city. We returned to Gaul and he in turn led us to an elven woman by the name of Nialha. Somehow she was some sort of noble.
An elf noble? Makes about as much sense as a dwarf defiler. Well anyway we talked for awhile and Nialha droned on and on with that annoying elven accent but I finally perked up when I thought she going to tell one of my favorite jokes. Nialha thought I was being disrespectful and she asked if I was the brains of the group. Now that was a joke. I just looked at Rhogar and kept my mouth shut. The gist of it was that she wanted us to finally rescue the two that had been captured just before we met Gaul. That was a lot of wasted breath since I already said that I was not going to leave anyone to the mercy of the tareks. The only thing that could be worse than that is to be held prisoner by elves or thrikeen. So Nialha asked what gear we needed and then she gave us the kanks we asked for. Yeah and she managed to find a few fire arrows for Rolen. After that we mounted up and headed back into the desert."
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