You can find Chapter 1 Here
Chapter 2
‘What
are we going to do now Bob?’
‘I don’t know Hun, I don’t know.’
He had finally stopped at the edge
of the forest; they’d been traveling for several hours since the skirmish at
the campsite. Bobmadik stood scanning the field in front of him, still in
shadow although the pre-dawn sky above was starting to lighten.
As he had thought when they set out,
there really was nothing to return to at the farm. He could still see the ashen
remnants of what had been their home, tendrils of smoke rising from the ruin.
‘Taesha, I think we need to return to Dalgroth.’
‘Why? They were very clear. Aelen is
not welcome there.’
‘I know, we have to find out why?’
He looked at Taesha, Aelen asleep on her back. She was beautiful to him. They’d
been on the run for hours and she had done her fair share of carrying Aelen on
her back.
Over several hours they had fallen
into an unspoken rhythm, knowing each other so well that they were able to stop
and pass the sleeping child between them without a word or sound uttered.
It was the stoic nature of the mountain dwarves that propelled them
forward; stamina shared equally between the two, male and female; the
difference negligible.
‘Look Tash; my father’
‘Your FATHER! He did nothing Bob,
NOTHING!’
‘No Tash, you’re wrong, he let us
leave. He did not have to, he could have bowed to the council's wishes and
taken Aelen from us to discard him in the forest somewhere; to fend for
himself. He let us go, he did the best he could under the circumstances.’
‘I know, I know. Sorry. Still, we
can’t go back there, they will take Aelen. They will punish you for disobeying
the council; your father won’t have any choice but to banish you for disobeying
the will of the council’
‘Tash, you might be right, we have
to do something though. Right now I think we need to get going again.’ Lifting
Aelen from his mother's back Bob turned and started walking through the forest,
keeping the field to his right.
‘Where are we going?’
‘We need to get to the other side,
out to the road. We can head east to Durog’s farm, he will help us.’
‘Why are you going that way?’
Bob stopped, turning to look back at
Taesha who had not moved from where they had been talking. ‘Tash, we can’t go
across the field, we have to go around. Anything; anyone could be watching for
our return’
‘But they’re behind us, you killed
three of them, there’s only four left, they will be scared to follow you.
Surely we can run down to the cabin and see if there is anything we can salvage
anything. We have nothing; we need something. My jewelry box, we can sell the
jewels for coin, we need coin.’
‘Tash, Hun’ Bob walked back towards
his wife, he realised this was the first time they had stopped since he had
pulled the two of them from creature’s camp. ‘Tash. We can’t. Those creatures.
I’ve seen them before.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘They are Kobolds, that was a Warband
and they were here for a reason. Their kind never wanders far from their lairs
unless they have a good reason. Also, they tend to eat or sell their captives.
That lot did not look like they were getting ready to eat you two.’
‘Kobolds! What? Where have you seen
them before’
‘Tash please, we
don’t have time, we need to keep moving, they will be reluctant to follow-us
beyond the woods, if they follow us at all. Please we need to go and we can’t
risk being caught out there, in the open.’ Taking Taesha’s hand he pulled her
forward, he held her hand as long as he could before the absence of a trail
mean he needed to use it to stabilize himself; he hated letting her hand go. He
knew she was hurting, sad that their idyllic little home and their valley life
was now gone.
They walked in silence, the valley,
and their smoldering home constantly on their right. Aelen woke, hugged
his father and climbed up onto his shoulders. He didn’t speak. This was not unusual; he had rarely spoken in
the time he had been with his adopted parents. Perched on his father’s
shoulders Aelen looked around gesturing to his mother who waved back.
After an hour they reached the
opposite side of the field from where they had stood and talked. Taking Aelen
from his shoulders and putting him on the ground Bob knelt ‘Aelen, I need to go
away for a few minutes, please look after your mother for me.’
Aelen nodded stepped to his mother
and simply slipped his hand inside of hers. ‘I will be back in a few minutes,
please be safe.’ Bob turned, not waiting for either of them to say anything and
he stepped away into the brush, stopping only briefly after a few meters to
turn and look back, they were gone; hidden from site. Safe, he hoped.
After several minutes he found what
he was looking for, not that he was really looking, he knew exactly where to
find the small cairn of boulders. As he approached, it caused him to realise
how much they had lost. It felt like only yesterday that he had built this
cairn, yet looking at it now, the small boulders moss covered, the shrubs and
small trees grown around it as if it had been here for years.
Years. It was a little over three
years since they had arrived in the valley. Aelen was one when they first came
here, now he was a sage four-year-old who always looked wiser than his years.
Three years; such a short period of time.
Bobmadik knelt in front of the cairn
and lifted the first melon-sized rock away, then a second, a third, finally
spotting what he had been looking for. Reaching in his fingers closed around
soft leather, tugging firmly he pulled a package free from the remaining
stones.
Laying the leather wrap on the
ground he pulled on the drawstring and opened the package, rolling it out as he
would a cloth for a picnic. There in front of him as he expected was
everything he needed right now.
A gold chain with his family seal on
it; his two battle axes, a hard leather belt and harness with loops for his
axes, a scabbard containing a dagger, and a pouch with some coin in it.
Standing Bobmadik slung the harness
over his shoulder and fastened the belt around his waist. Taking a moment to
adjust the belt to his waist, he checked that the dagger was placed in the
middle of his back, pulling it free and sliding it back into the scabbard remembering
the ease with which he had done this in the past.
Once he was happy with the fit he
bent and picked up the two axes; one in each hand. It had been a long time
since he had last held the weapons. Yet he could not help but marvel how
indistinguishable they were from each other. It was only the feel, the balance
that told him one from the other.
Each ax had a two-foot long metal
shaft wrapped in leather for the grip. One side of the ax head had a curved and
thin edge for slashing, the flip side a weighted spike for piercing armor.
The pommel of each engraved with the Dwarven ruins BD
His fingers wrapping around the grip
of each ax, becoming an extension of his body, a familiarity washing over him
that he had not felt for a long time. He paused only momentarily to contemplate
what was in front of him. To wonder what had compelled him to reach into his
past to equip himself and protect his small family into the future.
In one fluid motion, he spun both
axes in unison in his hands sliding the handles into the locket and chape made
for them on the harness. Bending again he picked up the leather cloth and
strap. Turning walking back the way he had come, toward his family.
A few minutes later he walked back
into the space that he had left Taesha and Aelen. He stopped and scanned the
forest around him, he could not see them at all, could not hear them. Speaking
firmly, not loudly out of a fear of being heard a fear that someone or
something was following them.
A moment later they stepped from the
forest right in front of him; he was amazed at how well they had hidden. ‘Come
on, we have to go. We should be able to make it to Durog’s farm before
nightfall.’
‘Where did you get those from?’
‘I stowed them here when we first
came’
‘I’ve never seen them. How is it
that I’ve never seen them? How do you know about kobolds? How did you kill
three of them without waking the rest?’
‘Your questions have to wait, we
need to go.’
‘I feel like I don’t know you.’
‘Taesha, I will answer all your
questions; I am still the same dwarf you married’
Bobmadik pulled a patch of red cloth
from his waist belt. Squatting he gestured towards Aelen with the cloth ‘Here
son, I found this yesterday and only just now remembered it.’ Aelen
hugged his father, then slipped his hand into his mothers and pulled her
forward, towards Durog’s farm.
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