A Matter Of Love And Misery

I

"It's almost morning, Anoushka. We'll be stopping in town in a few."

Father's voice rang clear from the front of the vardo. We'd been traveling for weeks, trying to get to the other end of the dwarf territories and into more common land. There'd been a rise in kidnapping by the dwarves from the Underdark. The dwarves of the mountains were skeptical of anyone passing through but once they were sure you weren't helping the grey dwarves, they helped anyone pass through.

But Papa said I had to stay inside of the vardo until we made it to the next town. Usually we stayed closer to our home village, but since resources were starting to dwindle, we had to go elsewhere to make sure we had enough supplies for winter. First snow was in the few weeks and we had nothing to keep us warm.

It took a while, but we made it to the small town of Terrace. It was a small village but it was hit hardest by the raiding of the grey dwarves. Stubborn as they were, the resident dwarves refused to leave. They nearly tripled their guards in the last month.

"Good evenin' Mr. Vashchenko! How are ye' this mornin'?"

I peaked out of the side of the vardo to see a small dwarven women peering up at Papa. She was a sweet woman named Matilda and we usually got our furs from her. Her husband was usually away mining, which seemed to be the case this time as she was by herself.

"It's a lovely morning, but I can't chat long. We are going to be getting our winter supplies a bit early this year. They are predicting the snow fall is going to be early and you know the situation with passing through the mountains."

Matilda glances at me through the window and gives me a sorrowful look. She knows why I'm back here instead of up front, helping Father drive. The grey dwarves were kidnapping girls, usually children but still, if they could get their hands on a woman, she'd be taken and never seen again.

Or sometimes she would be seen, either dead or as some rich man's slave.

I notice Matilda reach around in her satchel and hand something up to my Father. He takes it with words of encouragement from Matilda. She bids him goodbye and gives me a leaving glance. Father signals for our horse Fen, to go into motion again, taking us through the rest of town to pick up the remainder of the supplies. Very few of the villagers take notice of my presence in the back of the vardo, but that's how Father wanted it.

I heard some of them ask where I was, assuming the worst had already happened, but Father had a plan for everything. It took months for this village to trust Father. There were even times when some of the villagers would show up to our house when they knew he was gone, just to ask if I needed saving. Even the Order of the Gauntlet had demanded that my Father make a report of my well being every moon to assure his intentions were still good.

No one really trusted the dragonborn, but he was all that I had. He was a bit over six foot tall, so his size compared to a dwarf and pretty much anyone else made him intimidating. Deep bronze scales that were usually covered in a cloak didn't help either, especially when his amber colored eyes would peer around from the shadow of the hood. Despite his looks, he was still my Father and the only family I had.

Father found me when I was a baby. All I came in was a basket, a blanket and the silk dress on my back. He said I wailed so loud that even the forest seemed to cover it's ears. He's kept me ever since and he's all I've ever known.

"Where's ya wee lass? We aven't seen her in ages. Did she run off on ya?"

I peaked to see a dwarf speaking with Father. He was a new face I hadn't seen before and I could name most of the people in this village. It was odd. Though maybe he was one of the new guards who came from the Order of the Gauntlet. It would explain why he was asking Father about me.