by P D Dennison
“Good morning!” came Turynn’s coy greeting. “Or should I say good evening?” He strode over to Ravak with his hand extended again. Ravak, still groggy and dumbfounded, was not quick witted enough to raise his own hand this time. Turynn reached out and grabbed it up for him. He shook his hand heartily showing Ravak how the gesture worked. Ravak smiled and began to shake hands back. “How did you sleep?”
“Like a babe, thank you. I’m very hungry,” was the ravenous Barbarian’s reply, as he looked around for his packs of dried venison. When Barbarians used their enhanced powers of endurance, it sapped the body of much needed rest and nourishment in a way a southern man could never understand.
“I’ve prepared a nice meal for us over here.” Turynn gestured over to some furs he’d laid out with various foods on them. “I hope you don’t mind, but I opened some of the cheese from your pack and took a drink of some of the very fine ales you returned with. I was also pleasantly surprised to find the nice array of spices you brought back with you. I know they’re plentiful here, but back home, such spices would cost a man a moon’s wages. I used them sparingly, but thought you would appreciate a well seasoned meal after our ordeal.”
The spread looked outstanding. This man knew his food and Ravak felt ravenous. He’d cooked up a couple of rabbits. Some sort of leafy green salad mixed with herbs filled a large barken bowl. A pot of hot bubbling liquid on the fire smelled amazing. The scent wafted over to him, sweet, lemony and it made his mouth water. He could also smell the familiar and enticing aroma of Wild Basil and Arctic Peppercorns coming off the warm steaming meat. He turned around smiling as he surveyed the campsite. Turynn had cleaned things up and really made the place seem homey. He’d placed some fresh cut logs around the fire to sit on and built a nice rock pile around the fire pit to keep the coals hot for cooking. He had even gathered a large pile of firewood, just as Ravak requested, that had all been chopped and placed into nice neat piles of tinder kindling and fuel at one edge of the camp under the bows of a large pine to protect them from the possibility of rain. In front of the woodpiles, a little closer to the fire, were the nicely formed pine bow beds with several thick hides laid on top of them to soften the experience of sleeping on the hard rocky ground of the High Pass.
“Before we eat, I wonder if you could help me move Manya onto those fresh hides there? I think she will be more comfortable.”
Ravak looked over at Turynn slightly dumbfounded and nodded. He had not expected this. Quite frankly he didn’t know what to expect. They’d met under such terrible circumstances and things happened so quickly. Ravak realized he really didn’t know anything about this man or his sister. It turned out Turynn could be quite resourceful. Ravak was very happy and appreciative for it. When he’d first come upon them, he assumed the man to be a soft Southerner of the sort his father had told him of. The kind of person used to the luxury of city life and soft to the ways of the wild country.
They carefully grabbed the edges of the hide Manya lay on and moved her over to the new bed. Her bleeding had completely stopped and it appeared that since Ravak gave her a draught of the Healing Elixir, most of her minor cuts and scrapes had healed up almost completely and were now taking on the appearance of scabs and scars. The potion was powerful and Ravak knew that if it worked, it would not take long to get the young lady back up onto her feet. They unrolled her from the slightly blood stained hide she’d spent the last couple of days in and once again wiped down her wounds before they rolled her in a fresh hide. They placed her into the new bed gingerly, made sure she was comfortable, and headed over to the fireside to sit down to dinner. Sleipner lay outside the firelight under a small pine sleeping happily and deeply.
Ravak ate heartily and enjoyed every last bite of the succulently prepared rabbit. The salad which tasted delicious, Turynn had mixed from tender Wild Rhubarb and some Northern Chard that grew in the hills. He’d made a dressing of some Wild Honey and the juice of some Ginger Root he’d found in the pack.
This man knew how to cook and had a great understanding of fine herbs and spices. Ravak liked him already, or least of ways, had great respect for any man who could cook with such artistry. For the Winter Wolf Clan, cooking was considered a woman’s work. It was more a necessity than a pleasure, but Ravak always had a fondness for herbs and spices growing up and really enjoyed it when his mother would give him a quick lesson in how to season food.
Filled with ginger and honey tea, the pot steamed and bubbled away over the fire. They mixed that with a healthy dose of whisky and sat by the fire quietly drinking and talking, enjoying their meal while Manya and Sleipner slept peacefully. Ravak relayed the tale of the goblins to Turynn and told him how the Winter Wolf war party had slain them and taken a prisoner to plan their attack on the mischievous little creature’s camp.
“I don’t know how I can ever repay you, Ravak. You’ve saved us both from a very unpleasant end. Those goblins had captured my sister and I. We managed to make our escape, but then ran into that terrible ghoul in the lake and it nearly finished us. Had it not been for your little camp, we’d have surely been the Swamp Troll Ghoul’s next meal.” He paused and smiled long at the young Barbarian appreciatively. “You’ve made a lifelong friend in me today and proven you are man of immeasurable honor and trustworthiness, not to mention one of the bravest and finest warriors I’ve ever met. If your people are only half the man you are, I can’t imagine how or why the tales of your kind as being wicked savages ever came into being. You’re a kind and gentle soul with honor beyond reproach. I intend to reward you handsomely when we return home to Hilltop.”
“What is Hilltop?” Ravak asked as he took a big swig directly from the whisky skin.
“Hilltop? You don’t even know the city that lies directly south of the pass we’re now in?” Turynn looked at Ravak wide-eyed in amazement.
Ravak shook his head, feeling the familiar reddening of his cheeks flush him.
“I’ve never been south of the Mystpeaks before. I was headed that way when we crossed paths, but this is truly the farthest from home I’ve ever been.”
“Hilltop, dear boy, is only the largest and finest city in the northern regions of the lands south of the Mystpeaks. Hilltop is our home. Back in Hilltop we own a sizable and reputable business called the Black Dragon Inn & Trading Post. I plan to pay you double..... no, no..... triple for all these hides you have here and then give you a fine room to live in while you get yourself settled. You and I meeting was fate, my good man. Make no mistake about that.” Turynn took a large bite of rabbit and washed it down with a huge swig of tea and whiskey as he spoke.
Ravak smiled at the Southerner and raised his whisky skin up in an appreciative toast to Turynn Silverleaf’s fine offer. A gesture they both understood. Turynn toasted him back and they laughed heartily. After the fine meal and an hour of conversation, Turynn comically declared he felt quite sleepy from having done all the work in the camp that day while Ravak ‘was off traipsing through the woods.’ He decided to turn in for the night on the soft pine bow bed he’d made next to his sister.
Ravak stayed awake for some time as he’d slept all day. He noticed among his many other skills that Turynn was also something of a bowyer and a fletcher. He’d fashioned himself an excellent long bow out of a well selected long pine branch, had whittled, and oiled it with rabbit fat already and had used one of the bow strings Ravak had in his packs. He’d also made up what appeared to be around four dozen arrows from the arrowheads in the packs as well. This would save Ravak a great deal of work down the road. He examined the handiwork of the Southerner closely. The bow was very long, but not a recurve like his people of the Winter Wolf Clan used. It was drawn very taut and seemed as though it could carry an arrow a great distance. He evaluated the arrows the man had made and selected a fine-looking specimen. He took aim at a nearby tree to test the worthiness of the weapon. To his astonishment, the bow was very well made and the arrow quite true. It struck the tree hard. The binding on the arr
owhead was a different method than he’d been taught. These Southerners lived a completely different lifestyle and he imagined arrowhead bindings were just the beginning of the differences he’d come to see as the days went on.
Turynn made quite an impression on Ravak. He wondered what secrets Manya would reveal when she awoke. His decision to ask the boon of them for help in the South was a wise one. Only now it appeared he need not even ask. It seemed Turynn planned to indenture himself to the Northerner out of gratitude. Ravak was quite pleased with himself and his new friends.
He decided to head down to the Deep Fiend Lake for a midnight bath and took Sleipner along for the walk. The water calm and cool, reflected the moonlight from high above the peaks like a mirror. It shed thin fingers of pale blue light on the scene through the trees above. He had only one bar of soap from home and realized now it might have been a good idea to take a couple more for the long road ahead. He washed quickly as the water was very cold and when he got out, wrapped himself in a deer hide he brought with him and proceeded to wash his clothes by hand. They stunk and were stained with Deep Fiend blood. The night was calm and silent and all he heard was the gentle movement of the water and the scrubbing of the soap on his blood stained clothes.
He finished up his washing by draping his wet clothes over Sleipner’s back to carry them back to the campsite. Ravak’s ear perked. He thought he heard the sound of a dry branch snapping and it occurred to him he’d come down to the shore unarmed. He went into a crouch with the deer hide bunched up around his neck, naked and unarmed. If a foe made an attempt to attack them now in the dark, Sleipner would likely bolt straight back to the campsite, leading whatever was in the forest watching them right back to Turynn and Manya. He and Sleipner remained silent in the bushes at the edge of the lake waiting for another sound to give away the position of whatever was out there.
Turynn still slept when he’d left and didn’t even know where Ravak had gone. He heard another sound, this time rustling of feet in some dry leaves, and it was followed by a shushing sound as if someone were scolding another to keep quiet, immediately followed by the low whispering tones of voices arguing with one another. The sounds came from some twenty yards to the southeast of his position, but he couldn’t make out anything. He could now pick out the shadow of two small figures gesticulating with their arms in the woods. He used the opportunity to quietly and quickly change position, leading Sleipner back into the brush a little deeper and closer to the mouth of the pass, and very loosely lashed him to a sapling so the ram could escape if he had to. Ravak carefully slid out of the hide he had enrobed himself in and slid it noiselessly over Sleipner’s back. He stood completely naked, but mobile. He searched the ground for a large dead branch he could wield as a club. After finding one and holding it menacingly in front of himself to evaluate its worthiness as a weapon, he heard another rustling of leaves. This time it was much closer than before. He ducked down behind a stump and looked into the bush along the shore to see the two small forms moving closer to his position.
They appeared to be goblins from what he could see, but goblins were known to travel in large groups for safety as they were quite small creatures so this seemed a rather unusual encounter. It must only be a scouting party, he thought to himself. He wasn’t sure if they’d seen him reposition himself and the ram, but they did seem to be coming this way so he held his position, watched and waited. They whispered to each other; they were terrible at keeping quiet to stalk their prey.
The goblins seemed to fumble around the lake some and then walked right past his hiding spot and appeared to be headed for the pass back toward the campsite. Ravak had to stop them or they’d come upon his two sleeping defenceless companions. He carefully and quietly unlashed Sleipner from the sapling after they had passed about ten yards ahead and began to follow.
Ravak moved silently with no clothes on, but the rough ground covered in small jagged rocks and pine needles was very painful to walk on in the dark with no boots. Nonetheless, he moved on taking up an offensive position behind the two unsuspecting goblins. He had to take them by surprise and planned to use Sleipner to accomplish this. At one point the pass narrowed up ahead and this is where he would make his surprise attack. He followed close as they approached the narrows and just as they walked into the thinning corridor he released Sleipner’s bridle and slapped him on the ass so hard, it sounded like a whip cracking.
He yelled, “Hyah!”
Sleipner reared up and ran straight at the two startled goblins as they began to turn around and draw their short swords. Sleipner was so afraid that he overtook them and bowled one of them completely over.
Ravak charged at the two confused goblins and the one still standing managed to get off a swing with his short sword, which Ravak deftly parried off with the heavy wooden club. He brought the club around from the blocking maneuver in one smooth motion to land directly into the side of the goblin’s face. It collapsed the tiny creature’s skull and he went down hard, landing face down with his legs and arms bent at odd angles in an unnatural way that lets a hunter know the prey will not be getting back up. The other goblin rose to his feet now and swung widely at Ravak as he tried to run past him to escape. Ravak knew he could not let that happen and if he did, the little rotter was going to be back within the hour swarming their camp with more of his kind ready to kill them or take them captive for food. He jumped to one side to dodge a wild swing of the little goblin’s short sword and stuck out his foot to trip the awkward little creature. The goblin went sprawling face-first in the dirt. Ravak reacted swiftly bringing the heavy club down into the back of the goblin’s skull, crushing the life out of him with one well placed blow.
He quickly surveyed the situation and filled the goblins’ armor with stones to sink them into the lake so as not to draw attention to the scene of the fight. After doing this, he used a pine bow to brush away any tracks that might give away the scene and to erase the tracks they had all left back down to the lake to ensure any other goblin scouts would not find the camp or give chase.
He’d completed his task of dumping the small bodies and was sweeping the ground around the lake with the pine bow as he backed himself toward the pass to his campsite, concealing his tracks as he went. He was so focused on his work he didn’t notice someone approaching and backed right into him while completely naked and brandishing a pine bow.
Ravak stood bolt upright and wheeled around holding the harmless pine bow like a weapon as he assumed he’d been set upon by another goblin scouting party. He found only Turynn standing there with a grin on his face, trying not to laugh at the huge naked Barbarian standing at the ready with his tree branch held menacingly.
“What in the name of the gods are you doing out here, Northerner?” asked Turynn. “Your buck naked and sweeping the earth. Is this some sort of tribal ritual?” He tried not to laugh as he spoke.
Ravak could tell that Turynn found this all quite amusing.
“That damn goat of yours ran back into the camp site and scared the tar out of me! Even woke up Manya! What are you doing out here?” He asked again pointedly with his hands in the air.
“I was covering my tracks. I came to the lake for a bath and was almost ambushed by goblins. I killed them, dumped their bodies in the lake, and was trying to cover my tracks so the rest of their kind wouldn’t find the campsite before we set out on the morrow.” Ravak was quite embarrassed and dropped the pine bow in favor of covering up his nethyr region.
Turynn looked him in the eye for a moment, still grinning.
“Well, come on then. Manya will want to meet her saviour. Now she’ll get to see you naked so the two of you will be fare as a square!” Turynn laughed out loud as he turned back to the mouth of the pass back to camp.
“Try to restrain yourself, Turynn! There may be other goblins out here,” Ravak said as he placed a hand on the Southerner’s shoulder.
“Please remove that hand, sir. It has been places I dare not mention and now it is
touching my shoulder.”
Ravak’s hand recoiled. Once again he was aware of his nakedness and refilled with shame. The two headed back to camp with Ravak begging Turynn to borrow his shirt to cover himself. This went on for several minutes while the Southerner took great joy in tormenting the Northerner while he kept saying that since Ravak had seen his sister Manya naked, this was a just reward to make the two even. They were about twenty-five yards from the mouth of the clearing when Turynn softened and took pity on the poor naked man and stopped to take off his shirt. Ravak quickly wrapped it around his waist in an effort to cover as much of his unmentionables as possible. He trotted on to catch up to Turynn as he entered the clearing and headed across to the campsite.
When they got back, Sleipner was lying next to Manya. She was trying to sit up and drink from a water skin Turynn had left her with. She tried to get up when she saw them approaching, but Turynn broke into a jog toward her with his arm raised.
“Manya, lay down, you don’t need to get up.”
Ravak walked by her tightly gripping Turynn’s shirt around his large pelvis as best he could. His face turned bright red with shame. He headed straight for his packs for some hides to cover with. He smiled at Manya shyly and said hello in a very low tone as he scrambled by her with his bare buttocks exposed and shining like a harvest moon in the firelight. He rummaged through the packs where he found a suitable elk hide and flung it around himself then headed back to the fire.
“Manya, this is our brave and sturdy rescuer, Ravak,” Turynn exclaimed as he motioned toward Ravak proudly. Manya was sitting upright against a log on her bed, grinning sheepishly at the large Northerner.
“I’ll say he’s sturdy all right.” She smiled again as she spoke and extended her hand toward Ravak. He walked over to her and reached out to shake her hand. She smiled up at him. “Ravak, in the South when you greet a man, you shake his hand, but when you greet a lady and she extends her hand to you, it is customary for a gentleman to kiss the hand he is offered.”
