The Chronicles of Outsider: Humble Beginnings

by Justin Wayne

  ***

  The group closed in around the kettle and each took a bowl in turn. Bryn filled each with piping hot stew and a wooden spoon. “Take care not to spill, its’ very hot.” she warned as Cuke stumbled over a bedroll and nearly did just that. She noticed Thom over by the window and winced at the worry upon his young face; a perfect match to that on Natalia’s.

  She came over to the little hobbit then and wrapped her arm about him easily. “Aren’t you hungry Thom? There’s plenty of stew waiting you know.” She offered and shook him lightly. His round eyes looked up to hers softly and he shook his head. She could see the fear in those round orbs and nodded solemnly. “Well if you change your mind it’s there for you.”

  Bryn took her place near the pot and poured herself a bowl. She breathed in the steam that coiled from it and did so for several minutes; letting the hot soup warm her hands. One of the men, the eldest with graying hair, tapped her on the shoulder.

  “Yes, Graham?” she asked politely and he merely pointed across the room. She followed his indication and found Natalia sitting very still with her eyes focused on the untouched bowl of stew before her. Bryn nodded to the man and made her way to her sister.

  “Hey Nat, how’s the supper we made?”

  Natalia shrugged without looking away from the bowl. Her face seemed deflated; lax and uncaring yet without emotion; posture slumped and back bowed with the weight of her worries. Her older sister watched her quietly and likewise lost appetite.

  She stood suddenly and pulled Natalia to her feet. She placed a finger over her mouth and tugged her along to the other room with a reassuring glance at Cuke and the men who asked where they were going. She led her sister up the stairs at the corner of the room and to the first open bedroom.

  “What did you see?” Bryn asked bluntly.

  Natalia’s eyed widened and she felt very exposed. She leaned away from her sister and looked at her hard in the low light. Bags hung under her eyes and the lines across her mouth and forehead seemed deeper and more pronounced. Their eye contact spoke volumes without words.

  “You saw him too.” Natalia accused and gripped Bryn’s hands. “I knew it couldn’t have been only me; he was right there at the window.” she rushed breathlessly and closed her eyes.

  Bryn shook her head slowly and leaned in close. “Who did you see?”

  “The dark elf who took me before; the one with the red eyes.” Natalia answered reluctantly and gauged her sister’s reactions which seemed to tighten. “You had to have seen him too?”

  Bryn shook her head again. Her eyes were cast low and her mouth pressed into a thin line. “I saw someone I know to be far, far away,” she exhaled shakily and smiled faintly as Natalia gripped her hands again comfortingly. “I saw my ex husband.”

  “Peter? You saw Peter out there?”

  “Aye, at the window; just as you saw the elf.” They sat together for a moment and a knock came to the door. “Come in.”

  Cuke entered the room hesitantly and cleared his throat; obviously embarrassed and uncomfortable. His face blushed and he stared at the floor as he spoke. “Err, umm…its…its real quiet here…” He turned his head to the side awkwardly and his arms hung limply at his sides. “And well…I uh…I couldn’t help but…but overhear you..”

  The woman looked to each other then back to the cleric. Natalia frowned and scoffed. “You just couldn’t help it huh? Nosey little dwarf, I oughta—“

  “Nat!” Bryn reprimanded and pulled her face to the side to look her in the eye. “I’m sure mister Barleybeard here didn’t eavesdrop on purpose. Isn’t that right?”

  Cuke nodded earnestly. “Of course. I was actually quite annoyed by it as I was in the middle of reading a scroll detailing an ale so powerfully enchanted that it’s been used as dwarven fuel for generations. I was hoping to—“

  “Get to the point dwarf!” Natalia shouted and cut him off.

  Cuke nodded again and laughed nervously. “Of course, so sorry. As I came here to tell you, I believe it’s the demon’s doing. Your visions I mean.”

  “How exactly is that?” Bryn asked curiously and squeezed her sister’s hand to quiet her.

  “Well, to be frank about it and not bore you,” he looked pointedly at Natalia. “I believe it has the ability to cause emotional pain by manifesting your worst fears and inner turmoil. That way it can feed itself off your suffering without having to directly interfere by causing physical pain. As such, I am confident the things you have seen are only illusions and nothing more.”

  The two woman breathed a sigh of relief and hugged each other tightly and then Cuke. The cleric blushed a deeper shade of scarlet all the way up to his bald spot as his face was buried between their bosoms and giggled. Natalia and Bryn laughed and literally pulled him along downstairs.

  Immensely relieved and set free from their deeply buried concerns, they returned to their bowls and hurriedly ate the stew before it grew cold. Satisfied on both a physical and emotional level, the two women gratefully took the opportunity to sit back and relax as they waited for Merlon and Outsider to return.

  Natalia turned to Cuke a few minutes later. “Hey, Cuke, what did you see?”

  The cleric shrugged and continued reading. “Eh, just saw me grotesquely fat and without a woman.”

  Thom guffawed across the room. “Where’d you see that, the mirror?”