Touch of Honor

Touch of Honor: A Red Web - Chapter 11

     The clean, morning air filled their nostrils. The chilling breeze of the night was enough to force the three to make rest at Crest Mirror Cave's entrance.

     Throughout the night, Parthanax would harass the miner's on their way out, back to whatever shabby homesteads they could find sleep at.

     Spruce and Lemli did wait for the dragon to cease his preaching. They received little sleep because of it. What sleep they did receive, felt earned.

     Spruce stretched his palms and neck and took a deep breath. "A lovely day. A Good omen, as my mother would say."

     "Bahamut has truly blessed us with a lovely day indeed." Said the dragon after also stretching his gray, scaly hands and tail.

     "I suppose." Spruce said after a moment.

     The three stood outside the entrance to Crest Mirror Cave. Not one took a stinger step in either direction.

     Spruce thought Lemli would speak first. Something about how this is the end, and thankfully he will never need to see him again. Those words never came. Spruce looked to the left path.

     Lemli thought Spruce would speak first. A sly remark, a backhanded compliment and a declaration of his heroism. Heroism that he will continue alone. No one likes a sidekick. Those words never came. Lemli looked to the right path.

     Parthanax stood between them. He eyed their body language and thought of the first words they spoke to him, and the act of freeing a dead man from heavy chains. "It looks like the quickest path off the mountain is to the right." He said with a deep chuckle.

     Before Parthanax could finish his directions, Spruce and Lemli carelessly thanked him and returned on the path they came.

     "Jenko. Gwenivere's brother?" Lemli asked.

     Spruce nodded.

     Lemli sighed through pursed lips. If that is what a knight is, then perhaps it's best I'm not this county's knight afterall.

     The descent of the mountain was as uneventful as the ascent.

     "Say Lem." Spruce slowed his pace and hesitated to continue.

     "Yes?"

     "It's nothing."

     Lemli somehow knew this was to goad him into initiating conversation. "What? Just say it."

     The monk chuckled with his usual smirk. "Have your naive ambitions changed at all?"

     "You're calling my ambitions naive? What about you? You don't seem to have dropped the hero act."

     Spruce only smiled at the half elf's question.

     Have my ambitions changed? Is my life any different? How pretentious of him to think I'd change over something like this. He looked to the sky, the Kelmavori scent on the wind filling his nose. He took a moment to stretch his arms. He was still unfamiliar with the nakedness he displayed. He reached for his sword hilt to rest his hand, then recalled even that had been stripped from him. Perhaps he was not the same.

     "Whatever." Spruce muttered. "You're more free now then you've ever been, yet this is what becomes you. Grabbing at an invisible sword."

     Parthanax thought it best to chime in, to Lemli's displeasure. "Anything can change a person. You are not the same half elf that rescued me from captivity. Nor you the same human."