The Traveler: Name of the Wolf

Chapter 6

                The priest was in his house/temple, on his knees in front of the altar bearing the figure of a hammer. It was a small little shack of a house, given to him by the chief, on the demands of the Imperial governor of the region. His house was barely more than a hearth, a table, a few chairs, a cabinet and a bed all centered on the altar.

Suddenly there was a knock on his door. He got up and answered it. The two guards who were always with Zen, where there.

"Shouldn't you two be guarding that heathen...?"

"Not tonight..." said the second guard "tonight the chief demands your presence."

"I have no interest in some heathen party, you know this..."

"Also know..." said the first guard "that we have been ordered to drag you there if needed. All are to attend tonight."

From the top of the chief's house, Zen looked out the window and watched as the guards brought the priest out of his house. He turned and there was Grishka.

"Hello...?"

"Hello..." she said with a mischievous smile. "Found something interesting...?" Zen looked at her, somewhat annoyed, and wholly onto the innuendo in her behavior.

"...Pray tell, if your father thought we were up here...doing unmentionable things, what would he do...?"

"Old, grey beard...? He would have us both boiled alive in oil..."

"Really...I rather like my skin the way it is thank you..." he said in dry humor "still, this is hardly the time for tomfoolery..."

"Huh..." she said annoyed "spoken like a virgin..." Now it was Zen who was annoyed. As his eyes squinted, he did not notice the room darkening as his shadow expanded.

"Girl, I come from a land of sun, sand, savannah and death. I come from a place where passion burns high, and blood flows cheaply. I like you, out of all your clan, you alone do not treat me like a stranger, or a monster, and for that I thank you, but I long since learned when I was young, the first to be burned are those that play with fire..." His shadow calmed down, and Grishka, no longer felt like pushing his buttons. Zen made his way for the ladder.

The priest found himself brought in and placed at the table, while everyone else was gathered in groups, drinking wine, eating from the banquet, talking, or sneaking of to some forgotten corner of the room, to start cuddling. Bards were there, singing folk songs together which the villagers clapped and sang to. The priest found himself sitting with the chief and his family on the top half of the table.

"Why am I here...?" he asked.

"You were called here..." said the chief "our 'guest' has asked for you to be... a guest..."

"And you listened to that heathen...!" he stood up and the guards forced him back down.

"Sit, eat, and do not make a scene." The merrymaking continued, and the family chatted about hunts, hunts for beasts and for spouses, the latter to Grishka's annoyance. The priest sat there, picking at his food annoyed. Then in time, the villagers left, leaving only the guards, and those at the table. The priest noted this, and noted that the two guards had left him.

"What is this...what of the beast...?"

"Do not worry about them..." said Zen. The priest looked around shocked to see Zen who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. In his staff's head were the three stones he forged in the jar. "They are safe..."