A Chance Encounter
I got a sudden inspiration to write more about Cheshka's New Era, the same time period when LeBrant lives. I won't lie, heavy influences from D&D, Dragonlance, Forgotten... You know, the real old timer adventure fantasy stories. All similarities between Reine and a certain other short bard are 'purely coincidental' though ;) Well, no, if you check up the Bard entry from D&D 3.5 Player's handbook, you can get quite a clear picture of what he looks like. Only that Reine has dark brown hair and prefers dark blue colours. Anyway, enjoy! But that's more of a request than an order.
Edit. Now it's a finished story :)
***
A dark and stormy night was something Reine Bluskye1 could only hope for at this point. For one, it would make the story sound so much better once he would tell it at the inn. Second, it might make the inn a more probable future. So far, he was not so certain that this would end up with him still breathing.
So what was such a handsome fellow like him doing here, stalking a caravan with a couple of thugs? It certainly was not because of the delightful company, he though as he scrutinised the other men from head to toe. He would have wagered a lot that these twin simpletons had not seen a bath in months, maybe years. If only he had had the coin to make any wagers, he would not have been here. But as it was, he owed a pretty sum to Rolf and as long as the debt was unpaid, Reine was in no position to make any demands regarding the hygiene of the other hirelings.
Just this one gig and he'd be free again. First thing to do was buy everyone a round at the inn. He had become increasingly unpopular because of his poverty and being unpopular was not good for a bard, not good at all. Singing songs and telling tales was what kept the beer mugs filled and the patrons happy, but he was stretching the patience of the innkeeper too thin with his overdue rent. The innkeeper, Rolf... He owed money to too many people to count. But he would work it out, like he always did. If only he survived this. Then again, if he didn't, his troubles would be over in case. May he have a comfy afterlife at the Maiden's2 bosom.
"Hey, gnome, what do you see?" thug number one asked him in a hushed voice. In the twilight of the dusk, Reine rolled his eyes. They always called him 'the gnome', like it was his sole defining feature. They could have called him 'the handsome', 'the bard', 'the scoundrel', 'the stylish one', 'the chocolate eyed', or you know, maybe 'Reine' or even 'Bluskye'. But no, they always went with the race-card. What if he started to just call them all 'humans'? Oh yes, he had decided against it because they were all nearly a half taller than he was, with arms as thick as his thighs and not really known for their smooth temper.
'Gnome' always left such a bitter taste in his mouth though. It was a common word for a goblin-elf3, a rare cross-breed very rarely born out of a loving relationship. Reine's parents had been no exception. He had been frowned upon by the dryads4 upon all his childhood. They had all just waited for the short, unrefined little bastard to manifest the darkness of the rapist father's bloodline. After he had fled from the elves and come across some real goblins, he had found out that they too frowned upon him, because his fair skin was so smooth, his figure so slim and they just waited him to dance around in the moonlight and hug trees. Screw them all, he had then thought and decided to make a destiny for himself on his own.
But the troll blood from his goblin father did give him a very good dark vision, an excellent trait for a scoundrel like himself. So while the human thugs were squinting at the darkness, Reine could easily scan the parked caravan, the tents, the guards by the fire and the small figure that was approaching the camp from the shadows.
Reine frowned. This was unexpected.
"Were you informed of a backup? Or competition?" he asked from thug number one.
"What? No."
"What is it?" asked thug number two.
"It's just that there seems to be someone else there. There on the right, trying to sneak up to the dovos5. So you're saying that Rolf couldn't have hired another one just to make sure you don't screw this up, hm?"
"There's only us. He would have told me if there was a change of plans", thug number two grunted. Reine grinned, taking small pleasures in insults gone unnoticed.
"Then what do we do?" he asked before the thug could think more on his previous words.
"No one's taking our loot!" thug number one declared.
"I agree, the loot is fundamental here", Reine said. He couldn't afford to not pay his debt.
"Then we gotta go now, strike before he does", thug number two planned.
"Or... Oh, never mind."
"What is it, gnome?"
Grimacing, Reine replied:
"We could wait if this other entrepreneur is successful. It should be easier to get the merchandise from just one individual than from a camp full of soldiers."
"Hey, that's smart!" thug number one beamed.
"Yeah, it is. Why did you think we wouldn't want to hear it?" the other one asked.
"Oh I just thought it would be too undignifying for two big brutes like yourselves to gang up one one thief in stead of fighting honourably against the guards", Reine replied nonchalantly.
"We have no dignity!"
"Or honour!"
Reine smirked again. These two really were just too simple. While the two others unsheathed their weapons and were already congratulating themselves on the job well done, Reine focused his gaze on the unsuspecting thief. She, and he had reprimanded himself for being so surprised that the thief was a female, had already untied the bridles of the steeds and was now edging around the camp towards one of the wagons. Unlike the rest, this one was basically a gage on wheels, with sheets covering the walls. Rolf's trio had suspected that it held some sort of animals and had lost interest since it was much easier to loot and sell things than beings. But the girl had already released the guards' own animals and could have easily taken one or two of those if she was a dovo-thief.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." he mumbled out loud. The thugs turned their heads sharply to look at him.
"Don't you curse this now, gnome!" the first hissed.
"We have heard what happens when you say that before a gig", gritted the second.
Reine couldn't blame them. He wasn't superstitious himself, but even he had to admit that whenever he had a bad feeling about something, things were about to go bad. But because he wasn't superstitious, he ignored it, because one of these times his instincts were bound be wrong. And he wasn't going to miss out on fortune, glory and wild stories to be told just because of a bad feeling.
"Did I say bad? I meant glad", he quickly said.
"What you so glad about?" number two asked suspiciously.
"Things are going so smoothly", he replied absent-mindedly, trying to see what was in that covered cage-wagon. Because he was so concentrated on this, he almost missed noticing the last guard, walking towards the camp, perhaps from taking a piss. The thief didn't notice the guard, but the guard didn't miss the thief.
"Hey, what are you doing there?" all three of them could heard the guard bellow. Reine had never understood why guardsmen had the need to shout something to that nature every time they saw someone doing something they were not supposed to be doing, especially when in some place they were not supposed to be. Perhaps some guard-honour-code demanded that they give a fair warning so that a proper clash of swords would follow.
The thief was a proper scoundrel though, stabbing at the guard with her off-hand dagger without giving him any time to react. Good girl, Reine thought to himself.
Still, now the other guards were alarmed to the intruder. Swords were unsheathed and half a dozen big, muscular men were approaching the slender girl with just a dagger in her hand.
"Well, great. Just great. This will make our job harder now that they are on alert", Reine shook his head so that the small rings in his ears chimed against each other.
"I think that the newcomer will take out at least a couple of those before they kill him", thug number one said.
"Care to wager how many?" grinned the second maliciously.
Reine sighed. There wouldn't be any bloodshed. The thief was outnumbered so the best thing to do was to run away before the guards could reach for their bows. And that would leave the guards on alert, keeping heavy guard the rest of the night in case the thief was stupid enough to try this again. She wouldn't, but neither could they.
Except that the girl didn't run. She thrust her dagger towards the first approaching guard, who then collapsed with a handle sticking out his throat. While the others were momentarily shocked by this, she pulled off the covers of the cage with one swift move of her hand and then used the metal bars as a ladder to quickly climb on top of the wagon. Two more daggers were in her hands and she was already aiming them at two more guards, but this time they were ready for them. One clanged harmlessly off a bracer and the other just gave the man a nasty wound on his shoulder.
"Maiden's tits", Reine cursed as he now saw what had been in that wagon. There were people in there. Mostly humans, but a couple of cross-breeds as well. These were slavers, headed for the shore where their cargo would have been boarded on a ship bound for Centára6.
"I say he can take out three, at tops."
"No no, I think at least four."
"Don't be stupid, he can't have many more of those blades hidden."
"We got to help her", Reine interrupted the thugs, "She's trying to free those slaves there."
"So? It was your plan to wait this out, wasn't it? If the guards are thinned out, we have a better chance, no matter who wins", thug number two snorted.
"That's a girl? Figures, only women are stupid enough to try something like that", said thug number one.
"Didn't you hear me? Slaves!" Reine raised his voice in his desperation. They didn't need to be too careful any more, the guards were keeping themselves quite busy with the thief, who had now switched to a rapier. She was pricking at the guards while agilely keeping her distance from their swords.
"We don't care about the slaves."
"Yeah, Rolf just wants loot."
There were no curse words strong enough in either human or elven languages, so Reine had to resort to a few carefully chosen ones from gobline. The thief was in trouble. Someone had managed to draw blood and her injured leg hindered her attempts to keep her balance on top of the bars. A couple of the guards were dragging crates towards the scene, so that they would have a better reach at her.
"Gnome, what are you doing?"
"The right thing", Reine replied to the thug while aiming his crossbow at the guard closest to the girl. A twang and a thud, and the guard was on the ground, with a bolt sticking out of his armpit. Reine blocked out the curses of the thugs and concentrated on just reloading his weapon. While the guards turned to see where the new attack had come from, the thief took the opportunity to take one more of them out of the fight.
"You two, over there by the hill!" On this order the two guards dropped the crate they had been dragging and charged towards the trio.
"I hope you can take on those two", Reine suggested to the thugs while aiming at another guard near the thief. A nice shot to the thigh but the guard still managed slash the thief's side. Holding the wound, the girl couldn't stay upright any longer.
"Tits and asses!" Reine gritted through his teeth, while frantically setting another bolt in place. He had to do something very stupid here.
"Hey you! Pick on someone your own size!" he yelled at the guard while getting up and starting to run towards the camp. It got the guard's attention all right. Thinking that the girl was a threat no more the guard turned towards the goblin-elf. In his mind Reine pictured his dark cape billowing behind him and red moonlight glistening very dramatically from the tip of his loaded bolt. And it all happened in slow-motion, the handsome rescuer charging towards the enemy, all the strands of his hair in perfect shape, dazzling both the simple guard and the damsel in distress.
But the truth hit him in the face, quite literally. He had underestimated how hard it was to shoot a bolt straight while running and overestimated his threat-level, considering his small size compared to the guard. So as the bolt flew off with a large margin, the guard simply smacked the attacker with the back of his sword-hand.
Reine was knocked against the wagon by the force of the blow. It had hit him by his temple and his vision went black for a moment. Blinking, he tried to focus on the guard towering over him, trying to gather strength to do anything before he would inevitably be pierced by a sword.
A shadow moved behind the guard's feet. The thief! She had slipped down from the wagon without the guard noticing.
This was such a stupid thing to do, but it seemed like his only option. He needed to keep the guard's attention on himself. And he just hoped that the girl wouldn't pick this time to start acting smart and run, but that she would help him.
"You're... not scaring me", Reine coughed.
"Dun care", was the reply. Instinctively, Reine closed his eyes so that he wouldn't need to see the blade go through his body. There was a scream of pain. It took Reine a while to figure out that it hadn't been him who had made the noise. Carefully, he dared to open one eye so see what had happened.
The girl was slouching on the ground, fresh blood dripping from the tip of her rapier. The guard had fallen to the ground and judging from the amount of blood spilling from his body, was dying.
"Excellent", Reine noted while trying to get up, using his crossbow for support.
"Well, that went well, didn't it?" he then said, flashing his most endearing smile to the girl. He hoped that his teeth would get just the right amount of moonlight to make them sparkle, but not too much so that his goblin-inherited fangs wouldn't make him look like he was going for her throat.
"Who are you?" the thief asked bluntly, leaning heavily against the wagon.
"I am the bard extraordinaire, Reine Bluskye at your service, miss", he introduced himself with a flamboyant bow that ended up with him biting his lip so that he wouldn't cry out loud from the pain.
"I... think I broke a rib..."
"Probably just bruises, you'll be fine", she replied without sympathy. Reine now had a better chance to really observe her, as she tightened a belt around her own wound to stop it from bleeding.
She looked to be young for a human, barely out of her teens. Most of her bloodline seemed to be Rhondan7, with her high cheekbones and tilted eyes. Very pretty, in fact, if she were to smile in stead of scowl. In daylight, her skin would be pale copper, Reine ventured to guess. But her eyes were very pale blue, a curious colour for a westerner. It reminded Reine of a certain tale of a rogue Rhondan crimelord, but before he could think on it further, the approaching footsteps of his two thug companions dispelled his thoughts.
"Thanks a lot, gnome", a thug spat at him. Reine could no longer tell which one he was. The twins looked exactly alike and he always just assigned them as one and two based on their position.
"I assumed you faired against the remaining guards, seeing as you're alive and all", Reine shrugged.
"Alive, but not well!"
Reine now noticed that the other one had tied a band around his right eye. Dried blood covered half of his face. Well, it would be easier to tell them apart from now on, Reine though, naming the injured one as number two in his head.
"You knew there were risks when you signed up to this", Reine replied, "I can't see you going to Rolf to complain about a scratch."
"A scratch?!" number two yelled. Reine just levelly stared him at his one good eye.
"Now, let's get the loot and get out of here", the goblin-elf suggested like all had just gone according to plan.
"And what about her?" number one asked, pointing a thumb at the thief.
"I'm sure our friend here won't mind us taking the treasures if we leave her to do what she came here to do", he replied, raising an eyebrow at the girl. She still had her rapier ready, eyeing the thugs to determine whether they'd be a threat to her.
"Come on, let's see what they got here", number one said to number two, starting to walk towards the other wagons. Grudgingly, the other one followed.
The thief lowered her weapon and started to fumble around the ground, looking for the thief's tools she had dropped when she had first been assaulted. After watching her efforts for a while, Reine finally had to open his mouth.
"What kind of a thief would give up on loot this easily? You have a family member in there?" he asked, nodding his head towards the frightened slaves, who couldn't yet grasp what had happened around them.
"No."
"What then?"
She rolled her eyes impatiently.
"I'm not after some wools and cheap silverware."
"Something bigger then?" Reine inquired, piles of gold stacking up in his mind. He couldn't figure out how a bunch of slaves could have anything to do with a treasure though. Unless...
"Or are you just getting these folks to sell them yourself?" he asked stingily.
"What? No!" she denied in a genuinely hurt voice.
"Really? Tell me what you're up to or I won't believe you."
"Why should I care if you believe me or not?"
"If I believe you, I could use my goblin eyes to help you with your search, which is not going very well at the moment", he replied in an amicable tone.
"There's a treasure, and one of these unfortunates can draw me a map to get there", she finally said.
"Enough treasure that you can't carry it all on your own?" he asked hurriedly.
"Look, I don't need your two oafs as muscle", she spat in disgust.
"Good! Getting away from those two is a bonus!"
For a moment she just stared at him, with her head tilted to the side.
"You're a strange man, you know."
"Strange but brilliant, miss! Now go get your informant out of there. Meet me at the Legless Marlin inn at Gutsy the day after tomorrow. I need to go and herd my oafs back to our employer so that I'll be free to join your adventure", he replied, tossing her the tools he had picked up when he had been knocked to the ground. She snatched them from the air, unable to say anything.
"And what's you name, by the way?" he turned back to ask after taking a few steps towards the thugs.
"Norah", she said.
"Nice name. See you later, Norah!"
Behind him, he could hear the tingle of the tools on the metal of the lock. Before him, the thugs were unloading and quickly sorting through the goods of the caravan. There seemed to be enough to please Rolf and even some to fill his own pockets while the twins weren't looking. A round at the inn was to come, followed by a bold tale of the handsome bard rescuing the imprisoned slaves and single-handedly beating the soldiers guarding them. It was going to be a good story. And it would have been dark and stormy night when it had happened.
***
Notes:
1You pronounce Reine like 'reign' or a harder 'rain' and Bluskye like 'bluesky'. He chose the last name's spelling just to spite people.
3Goblins are one of the troll races, much smaller and smarter than their ogre cousins. Trolls and horses are the northern races of Cheshka and are historical enemies of the southern humans and elves. Although truce has been declared, the races still hold grudges against each other.
4There are four kinds of elves: dryads of the land, sylphs of air, nymphs of water and fairies of fire.
5Dovos are large omnivorous doglike animals that are commonly used as steeds. No one attempts to ride a horse, since they would kill and eat you. The centaurs might roast you before it, but the unicorns for example like the fresh blood.
7Rhonda is the largest of human nations, holding the prairies on the West side of Cheshka. Rhondans hold the largest army of humans. Their nobility dates back to the times of the tribes although their cities and towns have grown to be the largest in the South. They most resemble Native Americans in appearance and old European courts in culture.
Edit. Now it's a finished story :)
***
A dark and stormy night was something Reine Bluskye1 could only hope for at this point. For one, it would make the story sound so much better once he would tell it at the inn. Second, it might make the inn a more probable future. So far, he was not so certain that this would end up with him still breathing.
So what was such a handsome fellow like him doing here, stalking a caravan with a couple of thugs? It certainly was not because of the delightful company, he though as he scrutinised the other men from head to toe. He would have wagered a lot that these twin simpletons had not seen a bath in months, maybe years. If only he had had the coin to make any wagers, he would not have been here. But as it was, he owed a pretty sum to Rolf and as long as the debt was unpaid, Reine was in no position to make any demands regarding the hygiene of the other hirelings.
Just this one gig and he'd be free again. First thing to do was buy everyone a round at the inn. He had become increasingly unpopular because of his poverty and being unpopular was not good for a bard, not good at all. Singing songs and telling tales was what kept the beer mugs filled and the patrons happy, but he was stretching the patience of the innkeeper too thin with his overdue rent. The innkeeper, Rolf... He owed money to too many people to count. But he would work it out, like he always did. If only he survived this. Then again, if he didn't, his troubles would be over in case. May he have a comfy afterlife at the Maiden's2 bosom.
"Hey, gnome, what do you see?" thug number one asked him in a hushed voice. In the twilight of the dusk, Reine rolled his eyes. They always called him 'the gnome', like it was his sole defining feature. They could have called him 'the handsome', 'the bard', 'the scoundrel', 'the stylish one', 'the chocolate eyed', or you know, maybe 'Reine' or even 'Bluskye'. But no, they always went with the race-card. What if he started to just call them all 'humans'? Oh yes, he had decided against it because they were all nearly a half taller than he was, with arms as thick as his thighs and not really known for their smooth temper.
'Gnome' always left such a bitter taste in his mouth though. It was a common word for a goblin-elf3, a rare cross-breed very rarely born out of a loving relationship. Reine's parents had been no exception. He had been frowned upon by the dryads4 upon all his childhood. They had all just waited for the short, unrefined little bastard to manifest the darkness of the rapist father's bloodline. After he had fled from the elves and come across some real goblins, he had found out that they too frowned upon him, because his fair skin was so smooth, his figure so slim and they just waited him to dance around in the moonlight and hug trees. Screw them all, he had then thought and decided to make a destiny for himself on his own.
But the troll blood from his goblin father did give him a very good dark vision, an excellent trait for a scoundrel like himself. So while the human thugs were squinting at the darkness, Reine could easily scan the parked caravan, the tents, the guards by the fire and the small figure that was approaching the camp from the shadows.
Reine frowned. This was unexpected.
"Were you informed of a backup? Or competition?" he asked from thug number one.
"What? No."
"What is it?" asked thug number two.
"It's just that there seems to be someone else there. There on the right, trying to sneak up to the dovos5. So you're saying that Rolf couldn't have hired another one just to make sure you don't screw this up, hm?"
"There's only us. He would have told me if there was a change of plans", thug number two grunted. Reine grinned, taking small pleasures in insults gone unnoticed.
"Then what do we do?" he asked before the thug could think more on his previous words.
"No one's taking our loot!" thug number one declared.
"I agree, the loot is fundamental here", Reine said. He couldn't afford to not pay his debt.
"Then we gotta go now, strike before he does", thug number two planned.
"Or... Oh, never mind."
"What is it, gnome?"
Grimacing, Reine replied:
"We could wait if this other entrepreneur is successful. It should be easier to get the merchandise from just one individual than from a camp full of soldiers."
"Hey, that's smart!" thug number one beamed.
"Yeah, it is. Why did you think we wouldn't want to hear it?" the other one asked.
"Oh I just thought it would be too undignifying for two big brutes like yourselves to gang up one one thief in stead of fighting honourably against the guards", Reine replied nonchalantly.
"We have no dignity!"
"Or honour!"
Reine smirked again. These two really were just too simple. While the two others unsheathed their weapons and were already congratulating themselves on the job well done, Reine focused his gaze on the unsuspecting thief. She, and he had reprimanded himself for being so surprised that the thief was a female, had already untied the bridles of the steeds and was now edging around the camp towards one of the wagons. Unlike the rest, this one was basically a gage on wheels, with sheets covering the walls. Rolf's trio had suspected that it held some sort of animals and had lost interest since it was much easier to loot and sell things than beings. But the girl had already released the guards' own animals and could have easily taken one or two of those if she was a dovo-thief.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." he mumbled out loud. The thugs turned their heads sharply to look at him.
"Don't you curse this now, gnome!" the first hissed.
"We have heard what happens when you say that before a gig", gritted the second.
Reine couldn't blame them. He wasn't superstitious himself, but even he had to admit that whenever he had a bad feeling about something, things were about to go bad. But because he wasn't superstitious, he ignored it, because one of these times his instincts were bound be wrong. And he wasn't going to miss out on fortune, glory and wild stories to be told just because of a bad feeling.
"Did I say bad? I meant glad", he quickly said.
"What you so glad about?" number two asked suspiciously.
"Things are going so smoothly", he replied absent-mindedly, trying to see what was in that covered cage-wagon. Because he was so concentrated on this, he almost missed noticing the last guard, walking towards the camp, perhaps from taking a piss. The thief didn't notice the guard, but the guard didn't miss the thief.
"Hey, what are you doing there?" all three of them could heard the guard bellow. Reine had never understood why guardsmen had the need to shout something to that nature every time they saw someone doing something they were not supposed to be doing, especially when in some place they were not supposed to be. Perhaps some guard-honour-code demanded that they give a fair warning so that a proper clash of swords would follow.
The thief was a proper scoundrel though, stabbing at the guard with her off-hand dagger without giving him any time to react. Good girl, Reine thought to himself.
Still, now the other guards were alarmed to the intruder. Swords were unsheathed and half a dozen big, muscular men were approaching the slender girl with just a dagger in her hand.
"Well, great. Just great. This will make our job harder now that they are on alert", Reine shook his head so that the small rings in his ears chimed against each other.
"I think that the newcomer will take out at least a couple of those before they kill him", thug number one said.
"Care to wager how many?" grinned the second maliciously.
Reine sighed. There wouldn't be any bloodshed. The thief was outnumbered so the best thing to do was to run away before the guards could reach for their bows. And that would leave the guards on alert, keeping heavy guard the rest of the night in case the thief was stupid enough to try this again. She wouldn't, but neither could they.
Except that the girl didn't run. She thrust her dagger towards the first approaching guard, who then collapsed with a handle sticking out his throat. While the others were momentarily shocked by this, she pulled off the covers of the cage with one swift move of her hand and then used the metal bars as a ladder to quickly climb on top of the wagon. Two more daggers were in her hands and she was already aiming them at two more guards, but this time they were ready for them. One clanged harmlessly off a bracer and the other just gave the man a nasty wound on his shoulder.
"Maiden's tits", Reine cursed as he now saw what had been in that wagon. There were people in there. Mostly humans, but a couple of cross-breeds as well. These were slavers, headed for the shore where their cargo would have been boarded on a ship bound for Centára6.
"I say he can take out three, at tops."
"No no, I think at least four."
"Don't be stupid, he can't have many more of those blades hidden."
"We got to help her", Reine interrupted the thugs, "She's trying to free those slaves there."
"So? It was your plan to wait this out, wasn't it? If the guards are thinned out, we have a better chance, no matter who wins", thug number two snorted.
"That's a girl? Figures, only women are stupid enough to try something like that", said thug number one.
"Didn't you hear me? Slaves!" Reine raised his voice in his desperation. They didn't need to be too careful any more, the guards were keeping themselves quite busy with the thief, who had now switched to a rapier. She was pricking at the guards while agilely keeping her distance from their swords.
"We don't care about the slaves."
"Yeah, Rolf just wants loot."
There were no curse words strong enough in either human or elven languages, so Reine had to resort to a few carefully chosen ones from gobline. The thief was in trouble. Someone had managed to draw blood and her injured leg hindered her attempts to keep her balance on top of the bars. A couple of the guards were dragging crates towards the scene, so that they would have a better reach at her.
"Gnome, what are you doing?"
"The right thing", Reine replied to the thug while aiming his crossbow at the guard closest to the girl. A twang and a thud, and the guard was on the ground, with a bolt sticking out of his armpit. Reine blocked out the curses of the thugs and concentrated on just reloading his weapon. While the guards turned to see where the new attack had come from, the thief took the opportunity to take one more of them out of the fight.
"You two, over there by the hill!" On this order the two guards dropped the crate they had been dragging and charged towards the trio.
"I hope you can take on those two", Reine suggested to the thugs while aiming at another guard near the thief. A nice shot to the thigh but the guard still managed slash the thief's side. Holding the wound, the girl couldn't stay upright any longer.
"Tits and asses!" Reine gritted through his teeth, while frantically setting another bolt in place. He had to do something very stupid here.
"Hey you! Pick on someone your own size!" he yelled at the guard while getting up and starting to run towards the camp. It got the guard's attention all right. Thinking that the girl was a threat no more the guard turned towards the goblin-elf. In his mind Reine pictured his dark cape billowing behind him and red moonlight glistening very dramatically from the tip of his loaded bolt. And it all happened in slow-motion, the handsome rescuer charging towards the enemy, all the strands of his hair in perfect shape, dazzling both the simple guard and the damsel in distress.
But the truth hit him in the face, quite literally. He had underestimated how hard it was to shoot a bolt straight while running and overestimated his threat-level, considering his small size compared to the guard. So as the bolt flew off with a large margin, the guard simply smacked the attacker with the back of his sword-hand.
Reine was knocked against the wagon by the force of the blow. It had hit him by his temple and his vision went black for a moment. Blinking, he tried to focus on the guard towering over him, trying to gather strength to do anything before he would inevitably be pierced by a sword.
A shadow moved behind the guard's feet. The thief! She had slipped down from the wagon without the guard noticing.
This was such a stupid thing to do, but it seemed like his only option. He needed to keep the guard's attention on himself. And he just hoped that the girl wouldn't pick this time to start acting smart and run, but that she would help him.
"You're... not scaring me", Reine coughed.
"Dun care", was the reply. Instinctively, Reine closed his eyes so that he wouldn't need to see the blade go through his body. There was a scream of pain. It took Reine a while to figure out that it hadn't been him who had made the noise. Carefully, he dared to open one eye so see what had happened.
The girl was slouching on the ground, fresh blood dripping from the tip of her rapier. The guard had fallen to the ground and judging from the amount of blood spilling from his body, was dying.
"Excellent", Reine noted while trying to get up, using his crossbow for support.
"Well, that went well, didn't it?" he then said, flashing his most endearing smile to the girl. He hoped that his teeth would get just the right amount of moonlight to make them sparkle, but not too much so that his goblin-inherited fangs wouldn't make him look like he was going for her throat.
"Who are you?" the thief asked bluntly, leaning heavily against the wagon.
"I am the bard extraordinaire, Reine Bluskye at your service, miss", he introduced himself with a flamboyant bow that ended up with him biting his lip so that he wouldn't cry out loud from the pain.
"I... think I broke a rib..."
"Probably just bruises, you'll be fine", she replied without sympathy. Reine now had a better chance to really observe her, as she tightened a belt around her own wound to stop it from bleeding.
She looked to be young for a human, barely out of her teens. Most of her bloodline seemed to be Rhondan7, with her high cheekbones and tilted eyes. Very pretty, in fact, if she were to smile in stead of scowl. In daylight, her skin would be pale copper, Reine ventured to guess. But her eyes were very pale blue, a curious colour for a westerner. It reminded Reine of a certain tale of a rogue Rhondan crimelord, but before he could think on it further, the approaching footsteps of his two thug companions dispelled his thoughts.
"Thanks a lot, gnome", a thug spat at him. Reine could no longer tell which one he was. The twins looked exactly alike and he always just assigned them as one and two based on their position.
"I assumed you faired against the remaining guards, seeing as you're alive and all", Reine shrugged.
"Alive, but not well!"
Reine now noticed that the other one had tied a band around his right eye. Dried blood covered half of his face. Well, it would be easier to tell them apart from now on, Reine though, naming the injured one as number two in his head.
"You knew there were risks when you signed up to this", Reine replied, "I can't see you going to Rolf to complain about a scratch."
"A scratch?!" number two yelled. Reine just levelly stared him at his one good eye.
"Now, let's get the loot and get out of here", the goblin-elf suggested like all had just gone according to plan.
"And what about her?" number one asked, pointing a thumb at the thief.
"I'm sure our friend here won't mind us taking the treasures if we leave her to do what she came here to do", he replied, raising an eyebrow at the girl. She still had her rapier ready, eyeing the thugs to determine whether they'd be a threat to her.
"Come on, let's see what they got here", number one said to number two, starting to walk towards the other wagons. Grudgingly, the other one followed.
The thief lowered her weapon and started to fumble around the ground, looking for the thief's tools she had dropped when she had first been assaulted. After watching her efforts for a while, Reine finally had to open his mouth.
"What kind of a thief would give up on loot this easily? You have a family member in there?" he asked, nodding his head towards the frightened slaves, who couldn't yet grasp what had happened around them.
"No."
"What then?"
She rolled her eyes impatiently.
"I'm not after some wools and cheap silverware."
"Something bigger then?" Reine inquired, piles of gold stacking up in his mind. He couldn't figure out how a bunch of slaves could have anything to do with a treasure though. Unless...
"Or are you just getting these folks to sell them yourself?" he asked stingily.
"What? No!" she denied in a genuinely hurt voice.
"Really? Tell me what you're up to or I won't believe you."
"Why should I care if you believe me or not?"
"If I believe you, I could use my goblin eyes to help you with your search, which is not going very well at the moment", he replied in an amicable tone.
"There's a treasure, and one of these unfortunates can draw me a map to get there", she finally said.
"Enough treasure that you can't carry it all on your own?" he asked hurriedly.
"Look, I don't need your two oafs as muscle", she spat in disgust.
"Good! Getting away from those two is a bonus!"
For a moment she just stared at him, with her head tilted to the side.
"You're a strange man, you know."
"Strange but brilliant, miss! Now go get your informant out of there. Meet me at the Legless Marlin inn at Gutsy the day after tomorrow. I need to go and herd my oafs back to our employer so that I'll be free to join your adventure", he replied, tossing her the tools he had picked up when he had been knocked to the ground. She snatched them from the air, unable to say anything.
"And what's you name, by the way?" he turned back to ask after taking a few steps towards the thugs.
"Norah", she said.
"Nice name. See you later, Norah!"
Behind him, he could hear the tingle of the tools on the metal of the lock. Before him, the thugs were unloading and quickly sorting through the goods of the caravan. There seemed to be enough to please Rolf and even some to fill his own pockets while the twins weren't looking. A round at the inn was to come, followed by a bold tale of the handsome bard rescuing the imprisoned slaves and single-handedly beating the soldiers guarding them. It was going to be a good story. And it would have been dark and stormy night when it had happened.
***
Notes:
1You pronounce Reine like 'reign' or a harder 'rain' and Bluskye like 'bluesky'. He chose the last name's spelling just to spite people.
3Goblins are one of the troll races, much smaller and smarter than their ogre cousins. Trolls and horses are the northern races of Cheshka and are historical enemies of the southern humans and elves. Although truce has been declared, the races still hold grudges against each other.
4There are four kinds of elves: dryads of the land, sylphs of air, nymphs of water and fairies of fire.
5Dovos are large omnivorous doglike animals that are commonly used as steeds. No one attempts to ride a horse, since they would kill and eat you. The centaurs might roast you before it, but the unicorns for example like the fresh blood.
7Rhonda is the largest of human nations, holding the prairies on the West side of Cheshka. Rhondans hold the largest army of humans. Their nobility dates back to the times of the tribes although their cities and towns have grown to be the largest in the South. They most resemble Native Americans in appearance and old European courts in culture.
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