Marin, Book 1 (The Xortha Chronicles)

Chapter 3: Gone Fishin'

Marin

Chapter 3: Gone Fishing

    It had been a week since clearing the sewers of cobalds and Marin had spent most of her coin on things she needed. A new backpack, bed roll, 2 new dresses, a stout pair of walking shoes, plus room and board for the past week. She was left with 6 gold 4 silver and needed more work so she headed over to town hall to see if the sheriff had anything new posted.

    "Good morning," said Marin to the sheriff, "anything new on the bulletin board?"

    "Oh, you again." said the sheriff, somewhat disinterested, "Look for yourself. No more cobalds, thanks be to you, but there is a problem with a giant fish swimming around the dock this morning." Marin found the notice on the board about the fish. At the bottom, it said "Reward 50 gold." That's just what she needed. Marin took the notice and left.

    Once outside, she stumbled into a large person with dark green skin, yellow eyes, a sloped brow, and tusks the size of her thumb, sticking out of its mouth. "Oh, um, sorry, um, sir." Marin stammered.

    "No be sorry," it said in broken common with a gravely voice, "be glad. You find greatest trader from Dagger Peaks. Me Rugdarg of stonespear orcs." he said with a toothy grin. "Come, show you what me gots." He beckoned her toward his wagon. Once they were beside the wagon, he lowered the side panel to reveal sacks and bags of various things. Rugdarg opened a small sack and held it up to Marin, "Smell. This tea from far west near Salty Shore. You like?"

    Marin sniffed the tea leaves not knowing what to expect. "Mmm, that smells good. How much?"

    "Two silver per coin," he said and took out a scale, "How much you want?"

    Marin bought three coins of the tea leaves and asked him, "What else do you have?"

    Rugdarg led Marin around to the other side of the wagon and lowered the side panel. "Finecloth from south, many bolts, me has cooking things and shoes and books and..."

    "Books? What kind? May I see them?" Marin said in a rush.

    Rugdarg opened a box and eagerly showed her what books he had. "Me no read you words. No know what in them." He picked up a book that shown signs of wear. It had mold on the front cover. "This book special. It stay warm on cold days. Must have juju in it."

    Marin took the book from him and examined it. The book was warm to the touch as he said. Other than the mold, the cover and binding were slightly worn but in fair shape. She opened it. The first few pages were blank but the pages seemed heavy. It wasn't paper. She continued flipping the pages and found some writing. It was in Dregorian. She translated the firstword at the top of the page: Fireblast. Marin kept thumbing through the book then looked at the orc and asked, "How much?"

    "Five gold, no a copper less." he crossed his arms. Marin seen he couldn't be swayed in price but the book might be worth far more than that, so she gave him the coin and left.

    Marin took her new book back to her room at The Copper Kettle, the inn where she had been staying, and set to learning her new spells. She practiced for an hour then remembered the fish problem. "I better go look into the problem at the river before someone else claims that gold." and off she went.

Marin arrived at the dock to find several of the towns guards lying dead after being dragged out of the river. It seemed the town tried sending someone else to deal with the fish. Marin went to the dock master and asked if he would take her out to meet the beast head on.

    "You're mad!" said the dock master, "Didn't you see what that thing did to those guards? They were grown men!"

    A whirlpool started to form near the ferry and in the blink of an eye, a tentacle reached up out of the water and tried to wrap itself around the ferry. There were shouts and screams coming from everywhere at once. Marin ran over to the vessel and began casting. Lightning shot from her hand and struck the tentacle, leaving a burn on it. The creature let go of the ferry and the snake like arm withdrew back into the river. A moment later, the monstrosity surfaced and three tentacles flailed out toward Marin. Two tentacles wrapped around Marin and lifted her up into the air, the third went towards the dock master and wrapped around his leg. Thinking quickly, Marin cast one of her new spells at what she thought was the head of the beast and a great ball of fire launched forth, striking the creature and exploded, sending burning pieces of the creature flying up onto the dock. The tentacles went limp, instantly dropping Marin into the river.

As soon as Marin pulled herself out of the river, people swarmed around her. "Are you alright?" "Did you get hurt?" "How did you makefire shoot from your hand?" The questions came at her in a flood. A constable made his way through the crowd, reaching Marin and said, "I don't know where you learned to fight but that was incredible!"

    Soaked through, Marin said, "Look, I'm fine. Could you take me to the town hall, please?" and the constable escorted her straight to the sheriff where she told him about the battle and her escort confirmed everything she said as true.

"You're just full of surprises, Miss Marin!" said the sheriff as he counted out fifty gold coins and passed them to her.

    Marin took up her pay and thanked the sheriff, then went back to her room and changed into dry clothes. Then went to the inn's common room for her evening meal.