Chap 1 continued - An Evenings Entertainment

They didn’t have long to wait. An ample man in bright blue pants, a tunic the color of buttercups and a floppy hat sprouting a variety of feathers from its’ top began to tune his lute. He lured the crowd back to cheerfulness with some of the old favorites about “sailors and serving wenches” and soon several joined in the songs. They were clinking glasses and calling for more. And it was no time before the minstrel’s cup was full of coins and it was growing late. Then someone asked for an elf song. The bard’s face grew sad and he re-tuned his strings to a minor key. He began to sing.

“Tis west they went to setting sun.”

It was the “Lay of Pyrus and Madeling,” and it told of the first time the elves left for the Western shore and the Isle of the Silver Woods/Leaves. Some were saying they were going away again. It was true that fewer and fewer had been seen in the eastern cities. Others were saying the elves were just in their homeland forests to the north avoiding the exceptional heat of this summer. Rhu didn’t know what to think. But Jaynor had left in the fall and had promised to return by spring. It had been the beginning of summer when he and Fur had set out and Jaynor had not returned.

Rhu’s birthplace was in the North and bordered on elf lands and the two had been fast friends since boyhood. So unalike physically, but such kindred spirits in their hearts. They spent summer after summer walking the deep woods, cooling their tired feet in crystal springs. The spent winters curled up before hearth fires planning adventures and getting under foot. It was spring when Rhu found Furtom and Jaynor found Tufts, named for the long hairs sprouting from the ends of his elegant ears. From the same litter, they were and each race blamed the other for the unnatural pairing.

“No one pairs with felines. Too difficult, too independent, bound to get you into trouble.”

And they did get into trouble. Everyone said so, and everyone smiled.

The curiosity of kittens and the fearlessness of young boys, “what else could happen?” they asked. And they threw up their hands. “You know how they are,” they nodded to each other. Children were indulged by both of their peoples and these two more than most.

Fur leaned into his friend, rubbing his head on Rhu’s shoulder. “You miss them, too, huh Fur? I wonder if they are back at our summer place by now. Wish we were there with them, instead of going through hundreds of ancient books looking for Heaven only knows what!” Anguish pinched his face, “Oh Fur! What are we doing here?”

“I wish I had the answers. I only know we have to try. You have the stone?”

Rhu put his hand in his pocket. Fur knew it was there, just as Rhu did before he touched it. It was the reason they had come.



“Sit back Master Apprentice and do not call attention to yourself.”

Rhu never saw the man sit down near him. He just appeared out of the shadows. The light from the fire barely reached them and it was difficult to see his face. “And who are you, sir, to tell me what to do?”

“Just a friend who is trying to help you.”

The man had startled him and Rhu somehow felt he must defend himself. “I can take care of myself.”

“Perhaps you can but this is not the time to prove it.” He spoke in a low but authoritative voice. “I was looking through your books today. It seems we have a common interest but that discussion will have to wait.” With that he sat back in his chair and melted into the anonymous shadows.

Rhu was ready to rise and move away from the mysterious figure but Fur moved next to him and put a paw his companion’s leg. “I think he is right and that we should wait,” he mindspoke without looking up. “Folks will be leaving soon, let’s see what happens. I don’t fancy walking past those two,” his whiskers twitching in the direction of the cloaked men.

The bard was ending his lament and the crowd was getting ready to head for their beds. One of the strangers stood up and began flipping a gold coin in the air and asking questions of those patrons who were leaving the inn. He did not seem to get the response that was needed to release the gold piece into anyone’s hand. The second man positioned himself by the front door while the revolving coin moved toward the companions.

“It’s time to move,” the long legged man behind Rhu spoke in a low voice. “If you and you long tailed friend will quietly leave by the back door, I will delay our coin twirling mercenary. There is a saddled pony in the stable, I suggest you take him and ride for the Mage School. I will catch up with you there.” And with that the man raised to his considerable height and approached the coin.

Rhu and Fur had intended to leave by the back door just as they had been told to do but there was a commotion on the staircase leading up to the guest rooms. As he looked past the cluster of people trying to ascend the stairs, a third cloaked figure appeared in the back hall blocking their way out.

Rhu glanced at the two figures in the center of the room. A glint of steel flashed and blades whooshed through the air. A clang rang out! Rhu dove for the near end of the bar. As he ducked behind it, he could see the bartender’s feet leave the ground as he vaulted the bar top to stop the fray. Rhu stayed low and ran for the far end.

“Hey, stop that! No fighting in here!” the barkeep yelled to no avail.

A flash of bright light erupted from the fireplace. Rhu ran for the end of the bar. A massive hand gripped his shoulder and pulled him along through the archway that lead to the innkeepers private quarters. He began to twist in the powerful grip.

“Easy now.” It was the innkeeper who had grabbed him. Rhu’s feet again touched the floor.

“Follow me!” The big man turned and pounded down the hallway toward the cellar stairs. Rhu could hear the clash of swords coming closer and ran after him. Instead of going down the stairs to the wine cellar, the innkeeper made a left and took the stairs upward two at a time. The halflings short legs struggled to keep up and when he reached the landing the ale man had pulled a wooden box away from the wall. He quickly pushed up a square door cut in the ceiling. With one motion he swung the surprised Rhu up and through the opening and slammed the door back into place. He then kicked the crate aside and pounded back down the stairs.

Rhu’s mind flooded with panic. “Fur!” his mind called out.

He could hear the shouts and swordplay coming closer. It sounded as if several dwarves had joined the fight. Tables and chairs were being hurled and were splintering against heads and walls.

“Fur! Where are you?”

“Hallway” was the breathless answer. “Can’t get up.”

“Run, Fur!” The cat turned in midair and landed with his claws digging into the wooden floor. He flung himself back in the direction from which he had come.

Rhu was kneeling on the floor of the attic. Cobwebs were brushing his face and the grim under his hands and knees had to be thicker than a wool blanket. The air was rank and the dim shapes of boxes and discarded items loomed on the edge of sight. He stayed perfectly still. He was afraid to move. What was going on? Why would those cloaked strangers be interested in him? And who was the light-haired man that warned him? Was he really to be trusted? What did he mean by calling him master apprentice?

Suddenly he could feel part of his mind explode in pain and go blank. “Furtom!” he screamed and crawled toward the square in the floor. Bracing himself he grabbed the ring to pull up the door. The door wouldn’t budge. He was trapped.

An oath escaped from his lips.

Fur went back through the archway, into the common room, like a shot! His target had lifted his sword over his head, two handed, preparing to deliver a fatal blow to a man who had his back toward him. Fur hit him solid in the center of the chest and clawed his was upward.

Screaming and flailing his arms to protect his face, the cloaked fighter, backed away swinging his sword wildly. One of the dwarves, who had returned upon hearing the uproar, felled him with a blow from his ax. The jar dislodged the cat and sent him sprawling into a barrel that had been sent rolling on the tavern floor. Momentarily dazed, the feline blinked and focused just in time to avoid being crushed by another falling Graycloak.

The room seemed filled with flashing swords and swirling axes. Barrels were picked up and smashed down, chairs were thrown and tables leapt upon, as two new Graycloaks seemed to appear for each one fallen.

The tall stranger and the bartender were barely holding them off, preventing them from entering the passageway to the staircase while the dwarves slowly closed in from behind. When suddenly, as if one person, the Greycloaks seem to shimmer and then become transparent, before flowing through the open doors and out into the night. The ones who had fallen seemed to whither before the onlookers and then fade into nothingness. They were gone.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” the innkeeper blinked and scratched his head.

Chapt. 1

Rhu’s head was bent low over the pile of ancient books scattered on top of the library table. The arched windows high above him were beginning to filter in a grayish light making him aware of the lateness of the hour. He shifted in his chair rolling his head on his stiff shoulders. Out from behind a row of bookshelves appeared a massive multicolored feline nearly half the height of the halfling. The large cat leaped to the top of yet unopened books landing lightly next to Rhu and settled down to a face wash.

“Oh, Fur, there you are. I’d thought you’d left me long ago. We’ll never get through all these books today, and even if we did it may not even be here!” said Rhu, drawing ever-increasing circles in the dust with his finger. His companion stared at him, amber and gold-flecked irises disappearing and reappearing as he blinked.

“If I were going to leave you, my friend, it would have been after that raft trip that left us stranded on Hawk Island for days. My fur was matted down with salt and stinking of brackish water and dead fish!” he mindspoke. Furtom began to vigorously lick his luxurious tortoise colored coat, shuttering at the old memory. That had been many years ago, before Rhu had reached his adulthood and before… “It took me weeks to get clean. That was a damned foolish….”

Rhu cut him off, “Come on, old friend, you’re tired of this place as I am. Let’s get something to eat. The light is almost gone and my stomach is growling louder than a
Timber wolf. The docks should sport a good inn and hearty provender for fair fellows such as ourselves.”

Rhu reached up to gave the absent cat a stroke. Fur took food seriously and was winding his way through the table legs heading for the library door. Rhu traced a pattern in the air with his hand and turned his back on the mountain of words. A slight shimmer, barely visible hung in the shaft of fading summer sunlight above the books.

The library was housed in the oldest building belonging to the Mage School. They had only been allowed in the public half of the library and had been given strict warnings not to wander into the mage’s private sections. The warnings were unnecessary. Rhu could feel the magic wards protecting the secrets of the ancient tomes. He had left a small “keep off” spell on the books and the place he had been working to insure his own privacy. Not a large spell or a complicated one, but sufficient. His mother had had some magic. That was why they sent him here. At least that’s what he thought most of the time. At night, looking up at the stars he wasn’t so sure.

Now outside in the fresh air away from the school grounds, he felt the tension loosen in his shoulders. Fur padded silently next to Rhu, past the large houses of the council members and city officials, through the central city square with the stone government buildings facing inward, on past merchants houses and along on to Market Street with it’s shop fronts displaying every imaginable ware. Old Town was a busy port and what they didn’t manufacture in the surrounding areas they traded for. Every day ships laden with exotic treasures unloaded at the docks only to be restocked and head out again.

As they wound downward toward the docks, the storefronts gave way to merchant stalls. The houses became smaller and drabber while the taverns became larger and more colorful.

Rhu and Fur picked the inn set back from the street with the copper pig hanging from a bit of wrought iron fancy. As they passed through an archway from the street into an ancient courtyard the din of street noise was replaced by the clang of a blacksmith’s hammer and the friendly cacophony of inn’s animal residents. A pig with squealing piglets, the tinkle of goat bells and the cackle of hen’s laying for the breakfast eggs. Although he couldn’t see her he knew there would be a cow to provide fresh milk and butter and a hen house in the back for eggs. The rooster was visible, perched on a roof peak crowing his harsh welcome and asserting his dominance over this disorderly domain. Itinerant geese lead the tiny procession across the packed dirt toward the blue shuttered two-story building. The deep green front door had seen better days; nicks and chips marred its surface but the brass on the door handle and knocker were worn shinny with use, a welcoming patina.

Before Rhu could reach for the knob, the door was flung open with a bang its wide space immediately filled with one of the largest men he had ever seen. The innkeeper’s head was turned and his booming voice was directed back into the tavern. He was carrying a large bucket filled with an unidentifiable gruel. Fur wrinkled his nose and flattened his ears against his head. The smell made his eyes water. At twice Rhu’s height, they were effectively hidden from the ale mans view by his bucket and his belly. Had he not stopped his forward motion to shout orders back into the main room he would have surely stepped on the twosome.

“Struth!” the large man started, “Who’s there?” He swiveled his bucket sideways and looked down, a splash of slops escaping the bucket. “Hey there now, watch were you’re a goin’. We don’t want to lose any guests by stepping on them,” he said, the crinkle in his eyes belayed the blast of his voice; a moment later a smile appeared on his lips.

“Step in! Step in!” he beamed down on them, and then realized they could hardly pass with him filling up the doorway.

Fur jumped backwards to avoid the sloshing mixture, as the ale man twirled adroitly despite his size, rearranging himself and the bucket to allow them entry. He then headed off across the court hard to the pigsty. “Make yourselves comfortable,” was flung back over his shoulder and then a burst of song could be heard receding with the smell as he crossed the yard.

The companions waited until their eyes and ears adjusted to the new assault on their senses. The sun had nearly set and the large common room was alive with people jostling and shouting to friends, edging toward tables, clinking glasses celebrating another day. Dock workers and sailors, travelers and scholars stood shoulder to shoulder at the bar, awaiting their wet reward.

Near the door, a table of dwarves, picks and hammers at their side, were washing the dust from their throats and awaiting their hardy provender. Rhu and Fur edged past them and took a space at a low round table. Fur hopped up and wrapped his tail around his body resting the tip across his front paws. “Not many other companions. I see the usual parrots, some fire lizards and a few voles, and if my superior nostrils do not deceive me, a vixen hiding under someone’s chair.” Rhu’s eyes involuntarily looked for the fox, but he couldn’t see her.

Not everyone made the bond with an animal/companion. It usually happened when both were young and had the time to make the bond complete to mindspeak. Some relationships never progressed that far; some animal partners didn’t live long enough to make it possible. All were special and the death of either member of the couple was tragic for the other. Rhu and Fur eyed the room carefully.

Tables and chairs covered every spare inch of floor space so that the innkeeper’s serving staff was wisely chosen from the tall and thin side of his family, although they were as bright and colorfully dressed as the ale man himself. Fur hoped the cooks came from the fatter side of the family. Most of the guests in the dining room were more somberly dressed, common folks looking forward to a good meal and a night’s rest. “ Asher and Shin were right about this place,” Rhu said, gesturing to a woman carrying a tray filled with cold ales. The sight was heavenly after the dusty tomes and long walk. “It looks like a good place to stay and we may hear some news from the West.” He caught her eye.

The girl, her tray now filled with empty glasses for the return trip, promptly appeared at their table. “What can I do for you stranger? Are you lodger or passing through? We’ve stew tonight or chops and taters. You’ll have to pay now if your not staying. Nothing live for your friend,” she nodded at Fur, “We don’t do nothin’ live at the tables. Could get you some rabbit too, but it would cost you extra. The stew’s good. What’ll it be?”

Her rapid-fire questions, pitched above the din of the dinning room, turned a few eyes in their direction. The words were spit out staccato fashion, keeping time with the rhythmic tapping of her foot. Her entire body was in constant motion. Rhu felt as if he had to answer all her questions in a hurry before she ran off and he lost the chance to order his meal.

“An ale for me, water for my friend here, please, and a room for the night,” Rhu paused for breath. “Ah, and nothing live, we’ll both have the…” but she was gone before his could finish. The guests who thought they might see some bloodshed realized the possibility of a show was over and turned their curious eyes elsewhere.

“Live!” he pronounced it ‘lie-ive’

“I guess they are not up for finer side of having a carnivore companion. As if I would sport with one of their unconscious farm animals,” indignation bristled Fur’s whiskers.

“Maybe they’re afraid you’ll eat one of them.”

“I do not eat sentient being of any kind as you well know!” Fur trashed his tail, “To even suggest it!”

“Well, don’t get huffy. I’m too tired to look for another inn. Asher and Shin wouldn’t have steered us wrong.” Rhu scratched behind Fur’s ear, a favorite spot on the big cat.

Asher and Shin were the oldest pair of companions on the mountain. They sat at the head of the Elders council, well respected by all and beloved by Rhu’s tribe. Asher had seen nearly a hundred summers and he could still run among the trees. The youngsters had an easier time catching him of late but he could still be seen every morning following Shin’s flight with his sharp eyes as she soared into the sun of each new day. Checking up on her children, he would say. Most assumed he meant the many generations of fledgling of whom she was matriarch, but Asher knew that she thought of all the peoples of the mountain as her children.

The ale arrived first, thumped without ceremony, in front of the pair. “Water,” Rhu shot at the retreating back. Fur sniffed at the foamy head on the beer, then delicately touched his tongue droplets clinging to the side of the glass. A rumble came from the soothed throat. “You could learn to like the stuff, Fur.” The halfling’s hand closed around the glass and lifted it to his lips. “It’s good ale.”

“I’ll settle for the dew drops. All I need to do is to get as silly as you after a few of those and they won’t serve me anything dead in here either.”

Rhu grinned at his friend. He had seen him that silly, but only on very rare occasions.

The big cat was cleaning the last flecks of gravy from his face and paws when two dark men in dark cloaks that dusted the floor entered the tavern. The crowd parted for them as they crossed the room toward the bar. The taller of the two men leaned toward the barkeeper and spoke for a few minutes in a low voice. The barkeep shook his head “no” and finally put up a palm as if to ward off any more questions. The intruder pursed his lips and looked silently at the man behind the bar. Finally he pointed to the beer spigot. The man moved reluctantly to pull two glasses and handed them to the strangers.

The intruder threw a few coins on the bar and turned around. His dark glance pierced the silent crowd. People turned back to their meals, not wanting to be the target of his gaze. The noise began to return to the room.

“Gray Cloaks,” some grumbled, carefully under their breath, their heads turned away from the strangers.

“Fighters. Working for the…” The voices were lost as the room’s volume picked up. Fur’s delicate ears picked up the few odd words like “magical” and “uncanny” but no one seemed to know for sure who they were and why they were there.

A fire had been lit in the mammoth jaws of stone, which took up most of the room’s west wall providing light and unwanted heat. But it would get cooler as the night wore on. Pots and kettles were hanging from iron hooks filled with tea and fresh water for the night traveler. They were waiting for the evening’s entertainment.

Day 2 - Chapter 1

test

Day 1 - In the beginning

They ran like the wind. Their feet pounded against the forest floor. Only the shrieks of laughter told you that their speed came from joy and not being chased by the Hounds of Hades.

Together since childhood, these unlikely friends shared all that their disparate lives would allow.

As they careened down hill, the shorter of the two picked the lower path, sturdy legs thundered against the packed earth. His arms pushed aside the branches as he rounded the bend and headed down toward to the lake whooping and calling dares to his friend.

Not to be out done the longer legged elf leapt onto the craggy rocks and headed over the top of the hill. The two large cats that followed them also split along the paths. The tortoise shell colored bobcat took a swipe at the disappearing black tail.

The black cat sent an image to the tortoise shell of already being at their final destination, then leapt to the crest of the ridge and started down the other side.

The Halfling bent low as the branches whipped past him. He could hear the elf coming over the ridge behind him. Running full out he could just about make it if he cut between a stand of birches. Without thinking Rhu cut to the right just as the elf burst through the branches and sailed over his head.

There was a crackle in the air and elf disappeared before his feet hit the ground. Less than a second later the black cat disappeared behind him.

The instant it happened, the Halfling skidded to a halt the tortoise cat barely missing him. Both stared at the spot their friends had been a moment before. They were gone.

“Jaynor,” he yelled. “Jaynor!”