Sath sighed loudly, to try to stop her from talking for a moment but failing. He was having trouble focusing on her story, finding himself instead remembering their meeting in the tunnel and how he had immediately been sucked into reading her diary from the first words on the page. What was happening to him? She wasn’t Qatu. She was an elf, a wood elf at that.
Strange warmth spread throughout his chest as he looked at her, and it crackled and popped like a firework in his heart when she met his gaze. He shook his head to clear it and found her to be staring at him. He realized with a start that he had not heard a word she had said and hoped she had not ended with a question. “Am I boring you?” she asked. He could not tell if she was annoyed or amused.
“Well, you do tend to rattle on,” he said, beaming a toothy grin at her, then remembering that he was angry at her and turning it into a scowl. “I should have known that wasn’t you before, Lairky is…”
“Lairceach. Don’t use her nickname,” Gin snapped, glaring up at him. “You nearly killed her.”
With that, Sath snapped out of his lovesick kitten demeanor and was instantly the Bane of the Forest again. There was no way this tiny druid before him was going to charm him, as she seemed to have been doing. He leaned in close to Gin, making sure that his fangs glistened just inches from her nose. “No, Gin, I almost killed YOU. That is who she was supposed to be, right? THAT was my intention, and still might be.” He inhaled sharply, growling a bit in his throat. She was still not afraid of him.
Gin closed her eyes a moment and took a deep breath. “That remains to be seen,” she said. “Before we get to that, though, may I continue?” Sath leaned back, scowling and waving her on, so she resumed her tale. “Thank you. I need for you and the others to know that I have found myself in the Fabled Ones. You…they are my home and my family. I have no need of my kin in the trees of the forest.” She placed a hand on Sath’s arm; he could feel a tremble in it when he rumbled deep down in his chest, but she did not remove it. “Will you help me convince the others that I am worthy to come back? They will listen to you, Sath.”
“Why should I help you? Why shouldn’t I just kill you?” he said, baring his teeth. There was no fear at all from her as her hand remained, tiny fingers winding into his fur.
“If I thought that my death would keep you from killing any more of my kin, I might consider it. Seems you’re not going to help me anyway,” she said. Her voice was tight with barely controlled anger. “I tried going to Tee, Sath. I don’t know what you said to him, but when I found him in the tavern here, he sent me away and I got the feeling I should consider myself lucky that is all he did.” She frowned, clearly distressed by her interaction with the dwarf. “I can’t find Elys and Hack. Ailreden says that they are off on another mission but he won’t tell me where, and he says Tee has returned home to the mountains.”
Finally, she removed her hand from his arm and stood up. Sath mused a moment at the fact that while he sat and she stood she was still only a bit taller than he was. “You were my last hope.” Sath looked up at her and his chest tightened at the deadness in her gaze. “If you will promise that you will leave my kind alone, especially my sister whom you have terrified beyond reason, then I will do whatever you ask of me. I will become your personal healer. I will fall on my tiny little sword, whatever… I will leave and not trouble you again.” She took a step back from him. “In fact, if you want to take revenge, I will not fight you. I am tired of fighting.”
“Wait.” Sath snarled under his breath. “The truth is I have no wish to kill you. Ailreden has sent word to me that he is planning to leave the Fabled Ones and…he has asked me to take his place.” Gin looked up at him, surprised. “I know that he had thought of you for his successor, but when you stayed behind…” She smiled at him and he looked at her quizzically. “Why are you smiling?”
“Because you will make a good guild leader, Sath,” she said. All of the feelings for Sath that had been floating around in her head since leaving the ruined Keep solidified into a soothing warmth in the middle of her chest that spread out to her arms and made her feel like she was swaddled in a warm blanket. “You are a good male, a trustworthy friend, and I believe that you will never return to your days as the Bane of the Forest, regardless of your posturing before. You can huff and puff and stomp around and grab me up by my chin as many times as you like, but when it counted you did not hurt me. You will not hurt me, and I know you will not hurt any of my kind again.” Sath looked away from her and she scrambled around until her ice blue eyes again searched his. “Sathlir Clawsharp, head of the Fabled Ones…just as it should be. You were born to be a leader, Sath,” Gin said, her voice soft.
Her words jarred him visibly, and for a moment, she was not sure what to do in response. She reached out and touched the side of his face and before he realized what he was doing, he wrapped a hand around her hand, pulling it to his nose and inhaling deeply. His eyes opened, expecting to see her horrified expression, but instead she was smiling at him. Another tiny hand came to rest on his hand, and she pulled it over to her face, resting against her scarred cheek. He winced a bit and she shook her head at him.
“You asked me once if I could know you for who you have become and not the monster you were. I would contend now that you were never really a monster. I think you were just alone and a bit lost, and I want to help you find your way,” she said. Sath’s eyes widened but he didn’t break eye contact with her. Raedea had spoken almost the identical words to him. “You came for me when Dor had me in that wretched place. Why?”
Sath swallowed hard. “I will always come looking for you when you are lost, Gin,” he said softly, his words almost a purr. “I…mean it. Just as I would for any of the Fabled Ones.” Inwardly he cursed himself for not admitting his feelings to her, but something in his gut told him she did not feel the same way. She smiled at him.
“And I will always need you for that, I’m afraid,” she said, her muted smile spreading into a grin across her freckled face. “Now then, I need to make some amends, it seems. Shall we see what trouble we can get into?”
“Aye, there’s only one way to find out I suppose. First, we need for you to make amends with Tee and then we can look for Elys and Hack. I’ll not go into battle willingly without them at my back,” Sath said, his face darkening. “Perhaps our first adventure will be traveling to the dwarves stronghold in the mountains and winning back the heart of a very surly dwarf?” Gin nodded, still grinning. “Good. Tell me, can you use your transport magic to send us anywhere?”
“Yes, where would you like to go?”
“Calder’s Port. We can take a boat up the coast and then cross the Outlands into the mountains. That will give us some time for me to teach you some Dwarvish,” Sath said. Gin cocked her head to one side, looking puzzled. “He’s much easier to understand when you can swear back at him in his own tongue, Gin,” Sath said, chuckling. “And maybe I can teach you some Qatunari as well, if you’ll teach me some of that strange language of yours?”
“Deal,” she said, scowling a little, “though I’m not sure how you can call MY language strange when yours sounds like growly grumblies.” She tried to keep a straight face but both of them burst out laughing.
“First, though, I need to make good on a debt I owe to an old friend,” Sath said, his eyes narrowing a bit.
“Tee?”
“No, I wish it was that easy. When you and I first met, way back on that day in the tunnels, I was traveling with someone, a very good friend. It was a human woman that I met in a tavern right outside of Calder’s Port.” Gin’s face flushed and she looked away.
“Was she…were you…I mean, it doesn’t matter, but…”
“No,” Sath said, chuckling sadly. “No, nothing like that. But she was my friend, my first real friend that wasn’t getting close to me because of my…well, she didn’t want anything from me.”
“What was her name, Sath?” Gin asked, intrigued.
Sath frowned. “
Well, this is the tough part, Gin. Her name was Raedea.” Gin stared at him, slack-jawed and saucer-eyed. “Before you say anything, I know that she was Dorlagar’s sister. I know that she was the person that he was looking for, because I read it in your journal.” He reached into his pack and retrieved the precious book, and after a moment’s hesitation handed it over to her. Gin took it, running her fingers over the cover in disbelief.
“You’ve had this the whole time?”
“Aye.” He hung his head for a moment. “Rae died when her past caught up to her, Gin, and I wasn’t there to protect her. She made me promise to find you and to tell you…” He paused a moment as he clenched his fist. Gin placed a tiny hand on his arm and when he made eye contact with her, she nodded at him, encouraging him to continue. “She made me bring your things back to you that day in the tunnels, but I kept the journal in my bag. She found it while I was returning what I had stolen and found out what Dorlagar had done to your family…and to you.”
“Oh…” Gin placed her hands over her mouth.
“So she said that I was to find you and return the journal, let you know that her death would wipe clean the actions of her brother toward your parents and…and to look after you because, I guess, she thought you would keep me honest and help me atone for being the Bane of the Forest.”
Gin bit her lip. “She sounds amazing,” Gin said. Sath nodded. “Dorlagar could have been just like her, but he got lost when he thought he had lost her.” Sath rumbled low in his chest. “I’m sorry,” Gin said. “I wish I could have met her.”
“You two would have been great friends,” Sath said. “Do you forgive me for keeping your journal?”
Gin frowned. “I don’t understand why you did, Sath, and why you waited so long to tell me that you had it when you knew how hard it was for me to trust you. If you had told me about Raedea sooner then I might not have…” She paused for a moment, chewing on her thumbnail. “I would still have gone after Dorlagar, because it was nothing to do with your sweet friend. She could not take away what her brother did. Perhaps one day I can forgive you for this lack of trust, but not yet,” she said. “I suppose this makes us even, in a way. Now…shall we?” Sath nodded and she began casting a spell that would take them close to Calder’s Port. Sath looked down at her as she spoke ancient Elvish words and frowned a little. Oh, I hope Tee will be as easy for you to win over as I was, Little One, he thought. Only one way to find out…
Twenty-Five – Many seasons later
The moon hung full and bright in the sky, casting shadows over the plains of the Outlands. A small campfire crackled as it glowed, providing heat for the five travelers as they huddled around it. This was not their first journey out into the wilds, and they were taking turns keeping watch.
It was Gin’s turn to sit up and she lazily scrawled drawings and notes in her leather-bound notebook as she scanned the area around their campsite. She could see the mountains off in the distance to the north, and the Highlands just past the edge of the Outlands. Now and then, a rumbling growl would catch her attention, letting her know that one of the lions that roamed the plains was getting close to the campsite. Usually, they would smell Sath or his magical pet, which slept between his master and the wilds, and keep on moving. This one was no exception.
Hackort stirred in his sleep, and then rolled over, snuggling up against Elysiam. Gin giggled. The druid would be so angry if she woke up to the little man even close by her, let alone touching her. Gin leaned back on her elbows to stretch her back a moment and gazed up at the stars and the moon, sighing contentedly. Tiny points of light, probably torches or bonfires, illuminated the outline of Qatu, the island home of Sath’s kind.
“It’s really beautiful, isn’t it?” a rumbling yet purring voice said from behind her. Gin’s face split into a grin.
“Aye, Sath. I can’t imagine what it was like growing up out there,” she said, not taking her eyes off the night sky. “At least you didn’t have to worry about falling out of your home city!” His laughter warmed her. “Now go back to sleep, it’s not your turn yet.”
“Oh, Mama Gin,” he said, smiling a toothy grin as she giggled at his use of the nickname. “You go on to sleep, I’ll make sure your boys and Elysiam keep safe.” Gin playfully punched him in the arm and he honorably pretended to be wounded by the strike, even though he had barely felt her tiny fist make contact with his fur. She wound her fingers into the fur on his forearm for a moment and then stood up, stretching her arms toward the sparkling sea of stars above.
“Fine. I could use some sleep if you and Tee are planning another hilarious round of Let’s Test Gin’s Abilities with Healing Magic like we have seen lately,” she said, her voice more affectionate than snarky. Sath chuckled.
“I think that’s a good bet,” he said. “Now off with you. Take my bedroll if you like, it’s warmed up already.” Gin crawled into the bedroll he had just left and his pet looked up at him questioningly. “No, old friend I’m fine, you keep an eye on her. Don’t let her run off,” Sath said. The tiger positioned himself next to the wood elf and stared down at her.
“SATH!”
Sath laughed, a deep and rumbling sound. “At ease, old friend,” he said and the tiger circled a time or two before lying down next to Gin. She patted its head and then snuggled down into the bedroll to sleep. Sath’s attention was drawn suddenly to the south, where there seemed to be a scuffle underway. His enhanced sight, a birthright of his race, allowed him to make out human guards attacking a dark figure that seemed bent on passing through the checkpoint. He watched, fascinated, as the guards fell to the dark figure one by one.
It was only when he realized the figure was headed their way that he leapt to his feet to wake the others. “TEE!” he said, sternly shaking the dwarf who slept just to the right of Gin. “Get up! Incoming!”
The diminutive warrior was on his feet in a flash, though he had a bit of trouble keeping to them. As was the custom of his kind, Teeand had consumed a bit too much ale earlier as they’d all swapped favorite stories in the firelight, and now he was just the worse for wear as he struggled to strap on his armor. “What is it, Sath?” he stammered as he finished buckling his armored boots and came to stand at Sath’s side.
“Dunno. Dark. Moving fast. Just took out all the guards at the southern checkpoint,” Sath said. Tee winced and wrinkled his forehead as he stared in the direction Sath was pointing. “Wake the others, Elys and Hack, but let Gin sleep, she’s just come off watch. I’ll leave my pet with her.” He glanced over at her and smiled as she wiggled in the bedroll and rolled over onto her side, then winced as her hair fell away and the scar on her cheek became visible.
“When ye gonna forgive yourself for that one, eh Sath?” Tee asked, patting his old friend on the arm. “She’s forgiven you ages ago.”
“Aye, she has,” Sath muttered, turning his face back to the south. The figure was inexplicably closer than it had been before. “Ikara’s Teeth, Tee, whoever that his has gained unholy amounts of ground in no time at all!” Tee strode over to Elysiam’s bedroll and lightly touched her arm.
“Stand back! Who is it! What’s wrong?” Elysiam exclaimed as she sprung from lying down to standing in seemingly one motion. Tee stifled a laugh as he jumped out of the way of the blade she waved wildly out in front of her.
“Sssh you’ll wake Gin. She’s just come off watch. We’ve got something incoming from the south at top speed. Dispatched the entire guard at the southern checkpoint,” Tee said in a conspiratorial whisper. Elysiam rubbed her eyes and pulled her wild blonde hair up under her helmet.
“Have you kicked the gnome yet?” she whispered back, grinning.
“No. Be my guest,” Tee said as he clapped her on the back. Elysiam’s face split into a wide grin as she planted one of her boots in the middle of Hackort’s back.
“HEY!” the gnome cried out. “What was that for?” He scrambled to his tiny feet and looked from face to face. “Who kicked me?”
“Gu
ess,” Tee said, chuckling.
“All right, the lot of you, look over here.” Sath waved his arms and then pointed in the direction of the oncoming stranger. “Tee, he’s tripled his speed and will be here in moments!” Sath no longer cared if he woke Gin. “Guard her,” he called out to his tiger as he and the other four set out on a course of interception with the dark stranger.
Gin opened sleepy eyes and sat up. “Guard who?” Sath’s tiger nudged her and placed himself in between her and the others who were now running away from her and toward the stranger. “What’s going on? Sath?”
“Gin! Stay down!” Sath called over his shoulder as he and the others sped to intercept the stranger that was now bearing down on them. “YOU!” he bellowed at the figure. “State your business!”
The stranger made no response, but instead kept up course and pace. Sath motioned to the others to huddle up, and they assumed a familiar formation before advancing on the stranger again. Tee and Hack took the lead, bellowing insults at the stranger. Sath followed close behind them, shouting out magical words in an ancient dialect of Qatunari that slowed the stranger’s pace, but only just. Elysiam was just behind Sath, narrowly avoiding his swinging tail as he ran just in front of her, readying her fingers to release the healing magic her team would require to carry on if the interaction with the stranger went badly.
“Now, Elys?” Teeand called out and Elysiam skidded to a halt, magic flowing from her hands in the form of roots that rose up from the ground and wound around the stranger’s legs, slowing the pace but not stopping the progression. The stranger swore loudly in modern Qatunari and reached down to pull at the growths.
“Hold up,” Sath said. “Who are you?” he called out in Qatunari. The other three waited, watching Sath. “Answer me! I know you’re Qatu!”
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