Curse and Fortune Ch. 02

Turmoil and Respite

4 years ago, in one of Valindar's tiny corners, a small group of individuals had met by chance in a bar and ended up banding together in a bar fight, evaded arrest and defeated an ancient tree monster in the nearby forest. All in the span of 5 and a half hours.

Since, the group had gone on several adventures together; looting lost ruins, killing zombies and undead, stealing coin and magical artifacts from nobles and thieves alike. They had found friends, found love, found family.

That had been the beginning of The Rubicons. Never regret, never look back had become their unofficial motto due to their unique habit of wrecking havoc just about everywhere.

While Priscilla Lidgard would never trade this life for anything else, they had stayed true to their motto just the night before as well. Havoc had been wrecked, but not in the usual sense.

--

"Ooooooow!! Gaaaaabe! Heal meeeee..."

The early afternoon air outside of Howler's Tavern By-the-road was cold and damp from a whole night's rain. The streets of Bugsburry was covered with puddles and mud and not a small amount of filth.

Pris sat on a bench, bundled up in (thankfully) dry clothes and a thick woolen cloak against the cold as Gabriel and Rickhart was fitting two horses to a large cart.

Clutching her head, Pris cursed her past self for indulging in so much drink the previous night. Though surely she would come to remember the night with fondness, her current sullen disposition was that it was all stupid and she wished she had gone straight to bed.

"A god's grace is for the ailing, not the ale-ing." Gabriel replied heartily as he petted one of the horses and fed it an apple. As a man of the cloth, Gabriel never drank alcohol, but happily endorsed it for the rest of the crew.

"I am both!" Pris groaned. She hated that phrase. Not because it was pretentious or anything, but because she knew Gabriel could heal her, he just wouldn't. It wasn't out of malicious intent or anything, but Gabe was a firm believer in dealing with the consequences of one's actions.

"It's futile and you know it."

Pris looked up and met Millie's gaze. The elven girl was holding a large steaming bowl for her.

"Thanks..." Pris said, accepting the bowl filled with a thick stew of sorts with floating bits of pale meat and brown vegetables. "What is it?"

"Good." Millie replied shortly as she sat down next to Pris, letting her lean on her. "Chicken and mushrooms, I believe."

Pris cocked an eyebrow and immediately regretted it. The mere movement of any head muscle made her headache even worse. She smelled the soup and thanked the heavens above she wasn't nauseous, though her body ached like the hells themselves had been relocated to her muscles.

Trying a spoonful, the taste of herbs danced over her tongue. A rich taste of autumn and farm, if she were to describe it. Was there a little bit of pumpkin in there too? She couldn't tell, but the warmth that spread from her stomach and out was stimulating.

"Thank you." She repeated and again leaned against Milliana, who in turn rested her head on Pris's. "By the way, has anyone seen Norrin?"

The goliath's presence is usually very difficult to ignore, far more-so to not notice. Yet, looking around the area, he was no where to be seen.

"Two farmers swear they found a hulking man in a wheat field about an hour east of here along the road." Rickhart said with his usual air of matter-of-factliy-ness as he tightened a strap on the reins of a horse. "I figured we'll just pick him up on the way.

"I'm sorry, come again?" Pris blinked, wondering if she had heard him wrong.

"I overheard them earlier talking about it." Rickhart said and looked east towards the town gate which could be barely spotted down the road. "Huge man, tattooed and bald and cradling a barrel."

"I know I shouldn't be surprised, but..." Pris attempted to imagine the scene, but her head started aching more. "Oooooow!!" She groaned again, louder.

"Fine." Gabriel sighed as he finished setting up the cart. "Go find Kaiser and I will do it."

Pris looked up, trying not to seem sheepish. "Promise?"

Gabriel had an exasperated smile on his face as he nodded, his long gray goatee wobbling along.

Smiling broadly, Pris quickly finished her soup and stood up.

"Tell him we're leaving within the hour. If he wants to bathe, now's the time." Rickhart said.

"Okay. Come on, Nuggy." Pris went back inside, Nugget bounding behind her before jumping up and finding his spot on her shoulder.

The interior of the inn was still save for a few patrons. The three halflings from the day before and the scarred woman was eating over conversations while an elf and a half-orc were lazily playing at cards.

Behind the counter, Howler and a half-elven man with a thin pencil mustache were discussing something over a ledger, Pris surmised from their intense expressions. The two only waved in acknowledgment as she passed and headed up the stairs.

She cursed her short legs again as she ascended, her headache nearing peak levels of dull, annoying pain.

Just as she reached the top, she rounded the corner of the landing and nearly collided with a very unkempt and fully geared Kaiser who almost jumped as he spotted her.

"Oh, you're up. I was about t-"

"Sssshhh." Kaiser hissed with a finger to his lips. "Let's go."

"You don't wanna bathe first? I can w-"

"Not now, later. I'll find a river." He whispered and Pris nearly tripped down the stairs as he ushered her back from where she came.

Though he was a scoundrel and a bit of a dick at times, there was never a moment where Kaiser's hushed voice didn't beckon caution, so she kept her mouth shut and descended. Only when they were outside did Kaiser say anything.

"Phew, that was a close call." He said, looking up at the building and muttered something to himself. It almost seemed like he was counting windows for some reasons.

"What's going on?" Rickhart was, as usual, the first to voice everyone's concern.

"Hm? Nothing." Kaiser lied, fooling no one. "When are we leaving? Now? Great!" He said and jumped into the wagon, disappearing into the canvass.

Pris would have followed him, but instead looked to Gabriel and tugged on his robe, clenching her eyes shut and putting on her most pitiful look.

"Very well." The cleric said and his mouth curled his usual crooked smile, pulling a small silver trinket he wore around his neck in the shape of a curve-tipped staff surrounded by a flower wreathe.

Clutching it in his hand, he drew a circle over Pris's head with two fingers of his other hand and for a moment, there was a glimmer between the fingers of his closed hands and Pris immediately felt her hangover fading into nothing.

"Oh lords above and below, that's amazing~" She sighed in relief and sat back down, exhaling as if a burden had been lifted off her shoulders.

"Better?" Millie asked and stroked her back affectionately.

"A lot." Pris stretched, finally able to enjoy the morning. "Now!" She shot up to her feet again, clapping her hands.

"KAISER!" She started towards the wagon and pushed passed Rickhart who was leaning into it.

"Get your ass out here! What did you do?!"

Kaiser was rummaging through his pack, pretending to check his equipment, but Pris knew him better than that. This was undoubtedly a situation he had fucked himself into and was unable to un-fuck it.

"Nothing." He lied again, brushing his tussled hair back with a comb. "What?" He said as he noticed Pris and Rickhart shot each other a glance of "As if".

"Kai, please tell me you didn't mur-"

"Kaaaaiseeeer?!"

Everyone turned sharply to the second floor building as a vaguely familiar woman's voice carried loud and clear through the morning air from one of the windows above them. One of the horses whinnied loudly and Gabriel had to calm it down.

Looking into the canvas, Pris could see Kaiser looking positively green as he silently tried to desperately mimic the words "I'm not here!".

Rickhart only rolled his eyes. "Let's roll." as he went for the stables "Milliana, Gabriel! We're hauling out!" He waved a hand in the air and Gabriel climbed onto the front of the wagon to take his place as coachman while Millie and Pris jumped into the back with a relieved Kaiser.

"You shouldn't leave a girl without a parting word, Kai." Millie patted him sharply on the shoulder as she passed by him, pushing him towards the exit. Anyone who didn't know Millie would consider her angry, but to Pris, the look in her cold eyes was one of mischievous glee.

"Kaaaaiiii?! Are you there?!" The voice came from the front door and Pris had to suppress a laugh as she recognized it.

Ah, so that's how it is.

"Praise to the Moonweaver..." Kaiser muttered and drew his hand like a crescent moon over his chest before putting on his most suave expression and brushed his hair back again as the front door opened and the blonde-haired girl from the night before stepped out, her halter-dress so poorly affixed to her slender frame she had to keep it up with her hands.

Kaiser took a deep breath as he sighed to himself and muttered "Ooookay, here we go..." and leaned out of the canvass.

"Delaina, sweet." He said and Pris could, from over Kaiser's shoulder, see relief on the girl's face and she couldn't help feeling sorry for the soon-to-be heartbroken thing.

"Kai!" she ran over and threw her arms around Kaiser's neck and kissed him. The rogue didn't exactly fight back.

"Please, Delaina, listen." Kaiser broke free eventually and Pris wished so dearly she could see his face. "It could never be us two. I'm so sorry."

"I - I don't understand..." The girl, Delaina, looked bewilderment on Kaiser, then to Pris and Milliana and then back again. "I - I thought you said we should marry. Were you not gonna ask my father for his blessings?"

Priscilla had to clench her teeth and abs together to not start cackling with laughter. She looked over at Milliana who, while calm enough, was shaking ever so slightly as she picked up her lute and, almost like a theatrical act, started to play a sorrowful tune that would not be out of place in a tragedy opera.

Pris leaned away, feeling her sore muscle ache as she tried not to laugh.

Oh the sheer misfortune that is you, Kaiser.

Looking up, she could see Gabriel leaning over the back of his seat to get a good view, looking ever so happy it was not himself.

"Forgive me, Delaina." Kaiser said, his voice nearly imperceptibly changing to match the setting of Milliana's tune. "It - It pains me so, but it could never be us. You're a noblewoman and I - I'm just a lowly thief. A scoundrel."

"... No. No, Kaiser I-"

Pris dared steal a look at the girl. Her eyes were filled with tears and at a complete loss for words.

"What are you all daddling over?"

Rickhart's voice cut sharply through the tension and Pris cursed silently to herself as the sound of hooves clattered up beside the wagon, though she couldn't see anything because of the canvass.

Don't ruin my fun, man!!

"If everyone's here, let's move out. I want to make good miles today. Gabriel!"

"Aye aye, capt'n." Gabriel noted and chuckled to himself as he sat up right and with a sharp "HYAH!!" he whipped the horses into motion.

"Please, forget me, Delaina!" Kaiser said and blew a kiss out towards the poor grief-stricken girl.

"I could never!" She started after the wagon, but stopped quickly enough as the wagon gained speed.

Pris sat up and, finally, releasing all her pent up laughter, clapped her hands in applause.

Looking out the wagon end, she saw the poor Delaina slump onto the bench outside the tavern just as a second figure came out who she recognized immediately as her brown haired friend, tussled hair all over.

"Look, Kai. Here c-" She started, but froze for a moment as she saw the other girl. As the wagon pulled away, it was difficult to make out her expression, but what caught Pris's eyes was something else entirely.

Squinting, she could swear that...

"Oh gods, no..." Kaiser looked out as well, snapping Pris out of her thought. The wagon passed by a corner and the two girls were out of sight.

Was it just my imagination?

Well, whatever.

"A noblewoman this time? That's quite a jump from your usual tavern wenches." Milliana strummed her lute again and turned a tuning key. "Surprised you didn't ditch us here and now."

"Don't get too excited." Kaiser leaned back and ran his hand through his hair again as he always did when he was nervous. "That lass is Lord Darrow's daughter and I'm not too keen on meddling with that bastard again."

"Wow." Pris had to blink twice or so. "You screwed the Lord's daughter." She glanced over to Millie, then to Gabe who had leaned over again to share his own expression of shock.

"Do any of you two know any spell that can, you know, just teleport us halfway across the world?" Gabriel muttered as he filled and lit his pipe. Today's smoke color was purple, it would seem.

"I hear Nensared is pretty in the autumn. Not too hot either, even if it's in the desert." Milliana mused, testing the sound on a string.

"Would that I did. Would take care of every other problem too." Pris quipped in. She caught herself starring at Millie, her silver eyes concentrating as her fingers deftly moved over the instrument. Pris shook herself out of it.

Later!! She mentally snapped to herself, feeling a rising in her breeches.

"Guess we can chalk it up as another town we can't visit again." Kaiser laughed and the rest joined him in.

--

They found Norrin exactly how the farmers had described; huge, bald and tattooed, the half-giant lay in his fur breeches and cradled a massive ale keg in one hand and a live goat in the other that seemed to have struggled at some point, judging by its matted fur, but now lay cradled up sleeping with Norrin in the middle of the huge wheat field.

It had been surprisingly easy to locate him. After all, the rumbling snoring of a goliath could easily put a bear's roar to shame. The landowner wouldn't even send his dogs to check, thinking it was a huge beast of some sort.

"..."

"..."

"... Should we wake him?"

"I say we leave him."

"I could shrink him and put him in the back of the wagon?"

"... With or without the goat?"

"With, of course. Free goat."

"You're a free goat, you doofus."

"Oh look, he's waking up."

The snoring stopped with a sharp, rasping breath as Norrin woke up, startling his new plushie to consciousness as well.

"Morning, dum-dum." Pris said, squatting down next to his head. "Had a fun night?"

As the children's tale went; the giant stirred. Almost three heads above the average human, Norrin stood at easily 8 feet tall and was built like a fortress. He was covered in tribal tattoos from his youth that he proudly shared stories about any time anyone asked. Because of that, he also usually went without any clothes above the waist, instead brandishing a ripped body honed with immense strength.

"Mmmm..." Norrin blinked groggily as he met Pris's eyes. "Oh, good morning, Prissy." The deep rumble of his baritone was a one of a kind. "I had the most wonderful dream last night. I was dining with the king of the goats and I was crowned ale king of hops."

"More than a dream it would seem." Gabriel noted. "You alright there, big man?"

"Hm?" Norrin sat up, keg and goat still in his arms as he looked lazily around the lot.

The goat, which had been jerked awake as the goliath woke up was stiff as a rock as it had its eyes fixed on Norrin, the nervousness in its gaze plain to see.

"I'm sorry, I seem to have misplaced my room..." He noted before, only now, seeing the poor animal trapped in his own iron grip.

The two held the gaze for a moment before Norrin jumped in surprise with a loud scream and keg and goat flew in separate directions.

"Shit!" Pris shouted, snapped a falcon's feather out from her bag and waved it in the direction of the goat. As if momentarily suspended in midair, the poor thing slowed down and started slowly drifting towards the ground.

No sooner did it land before it took off with the speed of a hunted rabbit.

"I must admit I've never seen a flying goat before." Norrin noted as he stood up. "As impressive as always." He slapped Pris heartily on the back with a laugh and nearly toppled her over with the impact.

"Please never make a goat fly again, Norrin." Pris croaked and rubbed her back, reeling back the breath which had been just ejected from her lungs.

"Well, that's everyone." Rickhart rose up on his horse, looking like he wished for eyes in the back of his head for all the turning he did. "Shall we?"

He lead a huge warhorse up beside the road as the big man stretched and yawned walking up to it.

"How did you even end up here?" Millie asked.

"By the way of ale." Norrin stated, as if that sealed the deal, straddling his horse. Even the massive horse, which was the only animal they had found that could carry Norrin's massive frame, looked visibly uncomfortable, seemed to have a sense of pride in its strength in the way it tried its best to carry the goliath's weight.

"Lots of it, I should assume." Pris noted and climbed back into the wagon before opening a side flap in the canvass so she could speak with Norrin and Rickhart.

"You think Lord Darrow is gonna send his men on us?" She absentmindedly fiddled with a piece of straw.

"If we're lucky, the girl isn't half as scornful as her father." Rickhart still kept looking back every minute or so.

"What? Did we do something bad again?" Norrin asked as Rickhart rode up to him and handed him the massive great-axe that was Norrin's favored weapon. The thing was a dual-bladed wonder of destructive force. Norrin deftly swung it onto his back with a one handed twirl.

"If you by us mean the sneaky rat-nosed bosom-chaser that may have literally fucked his own head onto the executioner's block, then yes." Pris jerked her thumb at Kaiser who gave a massive grin and two thumbs up.

When Norrin looked puzzled, Pris recounted the tale, substituting Kaiser's name for various colorful adjectives and nouns. When she was finished, Norrin was already booming with laughter to the point that his horse looked ready to sign its retirement papers.

--

The rest of the day went as every other travel they had had trekking across the vast lands of Valindar; they talked, they laughed, they sang and recounted the past month and new gossip from their travels.

Pris spent most of her time looking over her spellbook and scribbling notes on scratch-paper while seated in Millie's lap who happily braided Pris's hair while she worked. She occasionally looked up, thinking back to the girls they had left behind. Had she just imagined that thing about the brown-haired girl? She almost wished she'd asked her name. Just almost though.

The Highroad climbed north-east from Bugsburry and would skirt the thinner parts of the Elderwood's northern border for three days before splitting north-west and eastwards.

And yet, they saw no one on the way, save the occasional traveler going in the opposite direction.

Come sunset on the first day out of town, Rickhart insisted on camping between the trees.

It took them nearly half an hour to find a suitable side-road for the horses and the cart, but the clearing it ended in was good enough on all accounts.

"We should really hire a Wild-Walker someday." Kaiser noted as he began the tiresome job of concealing their tracks with leaves and brushing over the trodden grass with a branch, trying to make it natural.

"I'm not gonna hire an extra mouth just because you can't keep your cock out of a maid for two days." Rickhart snapped as he started to set up the tents with Pris. He hadn't even taken off his armor yet, which was uncharacteristically paranoid of him.