Into the Flames

3: Babs

The next morning, we all met up in front of the Shade master's home before we departed on our mission. The cool morning dew dampened my boots on the way as I found shelter in Ditia's backyard once more, even though my home was not far away. Sleeping outside just made sense of the world sometimes.

When we grouped up, I noticed that Ra had loosened up a little bit from yesterday. It looked like she had bathed and cleaned herself up from our battle. She looked very nice when she wasn't covered in worg blood. I found myself staring, and when she looked over at me, I winked at her playfully. She quickly looked away. I tended to have this affect on people, but I didn't mind.

The Shade guard that we had met yesterday, Antonio, came out to greet us and give us our mission details, along with the map to the furnace. I wanted to hug him again, but I got the feeling that without his boss here to make him do it, he'd be a little reluctant to acquiesce. Though saddened, I let the hug drop...this time.

With our map and mission at hand, we were off on our journey. I traveled along-side of our group while Ditia and Ra drove the cart carrying the men we were to take care of. I wasn't sure where Gireahm was, but there was a random horse following us on our path. I tried to shoo it once or twice, but when it showed no signs of leaving, I gave up and started playing my kazoo to help liven the trip.

"What have you got there, Babs?" Ra asked me, staring at the kazoo.

"This, my dear, is my special instrument that lets me channel my feminine wiles into the arcane." She turned her head slightly when I mentioned my feminine wiles, which made me chuckle. "I'm only yanking your chain girly. It's a kazoo, just an instrument I'm rather good at." I gave her a smile.

"Ah, I see." She turned back to the road, considering the kazoo. I could see her mouth the word a couple times to ingrain it into her head. I smiled and continued to play.

"Whatcha guys talking about?" Gireahm said next to me, which made me jump higher than a toad.

"Where in sweet sassafras did you come from!?" I screamed at him, completely baffled by his sudden appearance. He smiled slightly, but I got the feeling he was rather pleased with himself at almost making me wet my pants.

"I've been here the whole time, Babs." He said, "I just haven't been an elf the whole time." With that, he neighed at me, and my jaw dropped just a little.

"You were the horse! I thought it was weird that some random beast of burden was following us around." I gave him a gentle smack on his arm and we kept traveling.

Halfway through our journey, we decided to take a rest to let our horses rest and eat while we ate some food and talked. It was nice getting to know everyone in the group. I had known Ditia for some time now, especially since I had been sleeping in her backyard and hearing some of the conversations she had with herself. Ra told us that she used to be a soldier, which I almost couldn't believe since she looked so young and pretty. Certainly not what one thinks of when they think soldier. Gireahm revealed to us his druidic past, which cleared up the whole horse situation.

We smiled and laughed and ate and drank. After thirty minutes or so, it almost felt like we had known each other for so much longer than we had. They felt like true friends I could count on. Snap! All our heads jerked in the direction of the sound. No more sounds came after it, but we were all on guard.

Ditia got up and slowly started pulling out her trident. Its golden shimmer in the sunlight bounced off something hidden behind the rocks to our right, but I could only get a quick glimpse before I heard the arrows.

Two black fletched arrows came flying out towards Ditia. With lightning reflexes, she managed to knock one to the side, but the other found purchase in her arm. She screamed out in pain and then anger and went charging into the brush after whatever had just launched an assault against us. I saw off to our left what looked like another attacker.

They were short and were wearing a hood that covered most of their body. All I could really see was what looked like a black plague mask sticking out from its hood, until it looked at me and pulled back an arrow. I noticed then that it wasn't a mask at all. It was an actual beak.

I rolled out of the way just in time to feel the arrow buzz past my head, and came up with my own crossbow, launching a bolt at the creature and clipping its right arm. It cawed out in pain and grabbed its wound.

Ra grabbed her Warhammer and began running towards another assailant across the clearing. From what I saw, there were four of these creatures that had attacked us. One was off to my left, two were engaged with Ditia and one was being hunted down by our resident warrior Ra.

I switched my focus to the one I clipped with my cross bow to see if there was anything I could do to help my allies, when I saw Gireahm launch his spear into the gut of the bird like creature. All it could do was stare at the five-foot pole now sticking out of its abdomen as Gireahm closed the gap between them to finish the job.

I looked back at the one closest to me that was about to attack Ditia from behind, when I knew what I had to do.

"Hey!" I screamed at it to grab its attention. When it turned and looked me in the eye, I knew that I had it in my grasp. I laced my word with the arcane and yelled, "Your beak is tiny!". Its cloak fell back, and I watched as the color faded from its dark feathers. It dropped the short bow that it had been wielding and began to stroke its beak, looking rather upset at the comment I made against its beak. I felt kind of bad for hurting the creature, but I knew it was for the good of my friends.

I heard a clash come from in front of me and saw Ra and the fourth attacker go slamming into the ground. She landed on top of the creature and they began to struggle with each other. The fighting had mostly ended with Gireahm and Ditia making quick work of the attackers that opposed them, and then we rushed to see if Ra needed our help. By the time we approached, the bird person was already dead. Ra got up, seemingly satisfied with her efforts. Ditia patted her on the back and we all went back to the cart.

On the walk back to the cart, Gireahm stopped by the corpse of the one he had killed and picked up its bow and quiver. "We might need this later." He announced and donned the weapon. I knew he was right, but it just seemed wrong to take from the dead.

The rest of the group didn't find anything particularly interesting on the creatures. Ditia told us they were called Kenkus. She had met a few of them while she was in the city of Emon. They seemed to be bandits, so we all agreed that what we'd done was the right thing.

We got back in the cart with Ra and Ditia walking this time and rode off. Not long on road we came across three freshly dug graves, the remnants of the Kenkus recent work. I was beginning to feel less guilty about making that one feel inferior about his beak. Ra spoke a soft prayer for the deceased and then we went on our way.

It took about another half day to reach our destination. As night was beginning to set, we reached the side of one of the Umbra Hills. The black grass on the edge of the hill made it look like the home of the dead, and the mouth of a cave marked only the beginning of our troubles.

"I don't know about y'all, but I think we should get some shut eye before we delve into the unknown. All in favor?" I asked with the hope that I could sleep at least a little under the beautiful stars before we went underground. It had absolutely nothing to do with not wanting to be underground. Everyone raised their hands, and we made camp for the night.

As I drifted off into sleep, I thought about my new friends, and how wonderful it was to have them. I knew then that this would only be the beginning to the great many things we would get ourselves into. Good golly was I excited!