Chapter 2 - Waiting out the Rain
Sparrow woke early, as the dawn's (albeit darkened by the many clouds)
light crept through the window. The party had only booked a single room,
although it was one with two beds. Annette was peacefully asleep on the
second (Sparrow had collapsed onto the first), while Graeme slept on
his bedroll upon the floor. Sparrow yawned, and rubbed her head.Flee, last vestiges of my hangover, she thought to herself. Flee before thoughts of breakfast! Sparrow hopped out of bed, and groaned as she stretched. Why did I forget to remove my armour, argh.
Sparrow entered the main area of the inn. Quite a few patrons (maybe fifteen; enough to half fill the bar) were awake already, several tucking into breakfast. One group even seemed to be making ready to head out! Sparrow approached the innkeeper, and said, "I'm starving. Have you got bacon, bread and eggs?"
"Of course, ma'am," he said, glancing at her wings. "You'll be the one who came in with that knight and his squire, yes? We don't see many of your kind around here. How much do you want?"
"One of those plates full," said Sparrow, pointing at another patrons plate. "How much for it?"
"fuck, I don't remember the money scales, and it's something I should really have written up"!!!!!!!!!
Sparrow handed over the coins, and took a seat in a corner, where her wings would be out of the way. A few people - locals, it seemed - were staring at them. Probably haven't seen a single winged one before, thought Sparrow. At least not one with wings. She shuffled her wings to get comfortable, and listened to the rain.
After her meal - quite delicious, and eaten quickly - Sparrow returned to the room. "How late were you two up?" she muttered. Dawn had been over an hour ago, yet still they slept. Sparrow sat down on her bed, and started thinking.
I'm grounded in this weather, so we're short that advantage for the moment. Which means lots of walking around, in the rain, and crawling through caves. Which I can't really do, what with the wings and all. Sparrow smiled. Time for a short break while the rains pouring down, then! Or... Or I get stuck hanging around outside keeping a watch on the animals, or something else boring. I'm not really armoured like Annette or Graeme, though, so best bet is outside. At least the storm's not strong enough to keep me from flying up a little, for all that it's very strong higher up.
For now, though... I think a nap, thought Sparrow, curling up on the bed.
About an hour later, her doze was interrupted when Graeme loudly said, "Shit!". Sparrow sat up immediately, alert and worried. Graeme looked around for a moment, and then said, "Ah. Sorry. Dream."
A chuckle came from the other bed. "Nice wake up call, Graeme," said Annette, sitting up in bed. She yawned, and glanced over at Sparrow. "Have you been up already, or did you sleep in your armour all night?"
"Both, actually," replied Sparrow. "I could do with a bath, but I think the rain will suffice. Are we going to set out to explore one of the caves today? The weather's still too bad for me to be able to scout, although I think I could get up in the air."
"We'll probably join a hunting party, and help keep the area free from the creatures for a couple of days. There's a small bounty for each of them, so we can at least avoid a useless drain on our funds. Does your bow shoot well in this weather?" said Graeme.
"I have a special couple of strings for the rain. They are not as good as my normal strings, but I'll be able to shoot well enough to hit them from the trees," replied Sparrow.
"Good." Graeme glanced at the window, before saying, "I'm sure we can catch one of the groups as they leave, after we eat breakfast."
"It's two hours past dawn, Graeme," said Sparrow. "The clouds are keeping it dark."
"Damn," said Graeme.
Annette chuckled, and said, "We should still have breakfast!"
After breakfast, the party managed to catch - barely - a mixed group of knights and local trappers heading out to hunt down the creatures. They joined with the group, and headed up one of the three roads to the mountains, to ensure the route was clear of the creatures. Their trip out was uneventful, although on the way back a pair of the beasts were spotted and quickly dispatched with a hail of arrows.
During lunch, Graeme, Annette and Sparrow met up with Rassette, who convinced them to join him, his squire, and a couple of other knights (of which one had two squires) on a trip into a cave system perhaps an hours travel west. The cave was well known as an origin of the creatures - it had been cleared out many times, yet the creatures would reappear after a few days, crawling out of cracks men could not fit through.
A surgeon's examination of the creatures, perhaps a hundred years ago, had shown that their bones were strangely capable of bending and twisting. This allowed the creatures to squeeze from some unknown (but much theorised) depth and return to caves connected up to this place.
A botanist, who studied rare plants, had fifty years ago discovered that the fungal muck the creatures ate (when observed without spotting the observers) would not grow without light from the sun, and as such, it was believed that this depth had to have some kind of hole casting light upon it. There were several candidates, though none were particularly safe to descend into (due to the creatures, sheer depth, or instability in the rock). Near to the cave system the party approached, however, was one such hole; and Rassette was convinced Sparrow could make her way down, and take a look.
Nothing untoward happened on their journey to the cave system - although they came across several slaughtered groups of the creatures, sans lower jaws. The cave system itself had a large pile of corpses outside, indicating that some group had already cleared them out.
"They seem to be a couple of days dead," said Rassette, inspecting the pile. "And I can't see any fresher, so there's probably a few that have crawled up. Still, we want to be heading up there." Rassette pointed up towards the top of the short (perhaps the height of five men) cliff face the cave entered into. "Around the other side it's a hill, so we'll head around. The hole's up there, though as I said, it's fairly unstable so keep your distance from it."
Fifteen minutes later, the party was standing a little back from the hole, which was quite wide (at least ten metres accross - and with obviously unstable edges creating a further two metre ring around it). Rassette pulled a small piece of strange, green wood from his pack, and lit it. It to be completely unaffected by the rain. "This is something I picked up from a merchant who came from the far west. It burns cold and without air, so the rain does not sap its heat nor stop its burn. I find them to be useful in situations like this." Rassette tossed the stick into the hole.
The stick span around a little, before landing a fair way down with a distant splash. "Good luck," said Paul, one of the two other knights who had come along.
Sparrow grinned, and shook the rain from her wings. Rassette handed her a second torch, and with a mighty flap, she launched herself up, before flying in tight circles downwards into the depths.
As she descended slowly down, she looked at the walls. They looked as if putting any weight on them would cause a minor collapse, and piles of dust and missing rocks showed that this had already happened many times. It took Sparrow about a minute to reach the bottom. The first torch had fallen into a pool of water, which it illuminated. Sparrow settled on a small mound of dirt, and took a good look around.
There was a lot of rubble - from past collapses, obviously - and after a litte while Sparrow began spotting corpses. A few were men, but others were the creatures and various animals local to the region (by far the majority, in fact). None of the corpses seemed to have gear in good repair - even the most recent was more or less a skeleton.
Her inspection also failed to spot any ways in or out of the hole. And if there was a path to the caves below, the water would have probably drained, she thought. She took a closer look at the water. And if the creatures did inhabit here at all, the water would be full of their muck. Sparrow inspected the human corpses a little closer, and found a few bits of jewelry and some coins which she pocketed, before she launched herself into the air and began flying straight upwards.
She landed gently in the middle of the group, and related her discoveries. "Damn," said Paul. "As hard as it would be to get down there, it's for precisely that reason that exploring down there could possibly bear fruit."
Rassette sighed, and said, "I guess we'll head back then, unless anyone feels like checking the caves below?"
Graeme shook his head, and Sparrow said, "I more or less can't - my wings make getting around in an enclosed space harder than usual, and with all the squeezing spelunking requires..."
"I'm in," said Nelson, his squires chorusing with, "So are we."
"I'll head back with Graeme's group," said Paul.
"I'd like to head back too, if that's alright Rassette," said Evan. "I'm still cramping from the walking we've been doing the past few days."
Rassette hm'd deeply, and said, "Alright. We have a plan."
The group descended the hill together, and split up at the base. After reaching town, Evan and Paul wandered off together - Sparrow made a crude comment about their intentions - leaving Sparrow, Annette and Graeme to wander the town.
"I want to visit that seer," said Sparrow. "And ask him if the storm will let up in the next few days."
"That's a damn good idea," said Graeme. "Perhaps we can even get a straight answer out of him, unlike everyone asking where the creatures come from.
Annette chuckled, and put on a mock-mysterious voice. "OOOOOOOH, they come from a place where the sun always burns! From the depths where there is light! Heat! Warmth! But none know the way there! OOOOOOH!"
Sparrow laughed, and Graeme said smiling, "Rassette probably shouldn't have mentioned what the seer had already said when talking to you, should he."
"NOOOOO! He shouldn't HAAAAAVE!" said Annette, almost unable to keep her giggles under control. She waved her arms in the air in front of her, making mock-mystical noises.
Sparrow's laughter, and Annette's nonsense, did attract some stares, but the party made it to the seers tent, and sat down at the back of a short line. The seer had setup their tent in one of the town's small internal park areas (kept to give the children a small, safe bit of woodland to play in), with the approval of the leaders of the town. The seer was well known as no charlatan - they had strong powers of clairvoyance, and could see (though often fuzzily, and regularly in half-riddle) what the individual asking desired.
Questions about the source of the creatures were met with similar information to Annette's rant, whereas questions of how to get there were met with talk of there being many ways - but none accessible to humans.
The area - out in the rain - was empty barring another group who sat before them in line. The rain was not particularly heavy, and trees stretching overhead kept most of the rain away besides. "It's good to be away from the stares," said Annette, as she sat cross-legged against a tree.
"For you an me both," replied Sparrow. "Winged ones like myself really should come down into the duchies more. Plenty of money to be made scouting and hunting, and it'd stop people trying not to stare at the mercenary lady with the wings."
"At least you don't get propositioned with money," said Annette. "When Graeme's not around, I get all sorts of... Propositions. And not just from men!"
"Hey, it's not like I don't get some of that too!" said Sparrow. "Although admittedly it's more for the, uh, wings factor. People are weird sometimes."
"My bloody heritage and my bloody perfect blood mean I'm beautiful, and that means it's hard for people to just go 'Oh look, a female squire,' and get on with it. It's always 'Oh, maybe it's just 'cause she's so pretty' or sodding jealousy because I have it all or fucking 'I want that, hur hur, if you know what I mean, hur'."
Unable to contain himself any longer, Graeme started laughing loudly. "Of all the things to get into a conversation about, you two, you start talking about this!" Sparrow and Annette looked at him, before joining in on the laughter. "And Annette, jealousy and envy is something you'll just have to deal with. Your blood makes you a nigh-perfect warrior by nature, and with training you could easily be one of the best knights ever - a few impressive quests, and you could end up anywhere. Hell, you'll make the knights jealous of your martial prowess, and the courtiers jealous of your beauty, and likely all will sing your praises."
"Just don't be a huge bitch about it," said Annette, finishing the gist of Graeme's speech. It wasn't the first time he had given it (and Annette assumed it wouldn't be the last).
"Precisely!" said Graeme, grinning. As he grinned, a trio of merchants left the seers tent, and hurried off in the rain. The group sitting in front of them stood and wandered in - they seemed to be locals, and fairly young (Graeme had earlier commented that it was probably some young love thing).
The party moved to the vacated spot just outside the seer's tent, and settled in again. Sparrow yawned as they sat down, and said, "It's starting to get dark. Behind the clouds, I mean. It's not just overcast-dark any more."
Annette looked up at the sky , and said, "I guess this is the last thing we'll get done today, then. Not much we can do wandering around the woods in the dark."
"Hopefully we run into Rassette tonight," said Graeme. "I want to see if I can acquire one or two of his special torches, or perhaps learn exactly where, and from who, he acquired them."
"They were pretty cool, weren't they," said Annette. "And definitely useful in rain or water. I wouldn't be surprised if they're easy to get along the coast, though. Rassette usually doesn't leave this duchy, right? He'd rarely go so far as the sea. Actually, they'd be really, really useful at sea, so definitely easy to get."
"Your logic is astounding, but there is no guarantee that they will not cost an arm and a leg," said Graeme.
"I'd buy a few," said Sparrow. "They didn't seem particularly affected by the wind, either, as I flew down, which was very nice. I wonder if there's actually a way to put them out after they've started burning?"
"I guess we have more than one question for Rassette, should we find him this evening," said Graeme. He gestured towards the tent, the locals were exiting the tent. "But for now I believe we have a seer to visit."
The inside of the seer's tent was fairly plain. Travelling gear against one wall, a bed roll along the far end, and a table with several chair in the middle. It was quite a large tent, though the table and chairs took up most of the space.
The seer himself was rather ordinary - apart from a bright yellow scarf and purple jacket, he was dressed similarly to the villagers. He also looked ordinary, short brown hair, brown eyes, average height and neither attractive or unattractive. "Please, take a seat each," he said, smiling. He seemed completely unfazed by Sparrow's wings, or Annette's beauty.
The party sat down at the table, and the seer took a seat opposite. "How this works is fairly simple. You pay me, I hold your hand and speak what I see and feel. What I see should relate to your current desires, but it represent deeper ones than what you are actively seeking. I assume, of course, that your desire is to find a way to defeat the creatures, like many others who have come to town?"
Graeme nodded. "Yes, but more immediately when the storm will clear," Graeme said. "How much for each of us?"
!!again with the goddamn coinage. 'Blah blah money blah'
Graeme took some coins from his purse, and pushed them across the table to the seer, as did Sparrow.
"Excellent," said the seer. "Let's begin. You first, good sir knight."
"Graeme," said Graeme. He pointed to the other two, "This is Sparrow, a mercenary, and Annette, my squire." Graeme laid his hand out on the table, toward the seer.
"I am called Dane, when not called seer," said the seer. He took Graeme's hand, and closed his eyes.
"The rain, it pours, and it does not stop, no, never wholely. But it is raging and calm, raging and calm, raging and calm... With dawn's light it flees, soon. Another desire, the way not for a man - but for your companion in arms! The woman with wings! Ah, she can soar, yes, a way, a true way, for her. But not for you, no, nor for others. A high place, inaccessible, a forgotten entrance to the depths." The seer stopped and opened his eyes. "I think you have both of your desired answers. You have far more focus than most who come to me. I spend most of time talking about their love lives, usually."
"Thank you," Graeme said, grinning. He withdrew his hand. "Annette, you go next."
"Um, but," said Annette, "Is there anything else to ask?"
"No, although you could attempt to glean additional details from my answers," replied the seer. "Or perhaps seek out some other knowledge."
Annette thought about it for a moment, then put her hand on the table. "Alright," she said, "I'll give it a try."
The seer took her hand, closed his eyes, and said, "Nothing causes harm but age and nature, nature and age. They have given up on your blood, though they would beg for its return they would not take it. Y - I DO NOT SPEAK OF DEATH!" The seer snatched his hand away from Annette's. "I never tell any of their death. Never. It is... A mess. To speak of it is to change it, and to drive men to madness more often than not. I am sorry for forgetting to mention my rules, though the other two - no random treasure hunting and no secret discovering - are rules because they are a waste of my time."
"Did- did you see something?" asked Annette, drawing her hand back.
"A flash, and I will not speak of it. All will die some day, so the existence of an end means nothing, thankfully," replied Dane.
"What was the first bit, Annette?" asked Sparrow, curious.
"I was thinking about my family, and whether the Greaters will take them," replied Annette.
"Ah," said Sparrow, "That makes sense, then. Is it my turn now, then?"
"Yes," said Dane. He motioned towards the table.
Sparrow plonked her arm on the table, and Dane took her hand. "Ahhh," he said, "An ancient hatred. Made, created, deliberate. Man is hated, all of man. Overcoming all natural instinct, overpowering, beyond any control. Yet you - with wings, with magic in your blood - are far enough to be free. They do not hate you, the may fear you. You are lucky. An aged hero, children, grandchildren, a hero still in age. Reknowned, remembered. Your descendants... perhaps? It is too far, too far. Your life is not set in stone, but YOUNG! Too young! Sh-" Dane opened his eyes suddenly, and glared at Sparrow. "You are a sneaky one, mercenary, and that is enough."
"I probably shouldn't have tried to ask," Sparrow said, "Let's go." She stood, and pulled a handful of extra coins from her purse. "An apology," she said, and dropped them on the table.
"What did you ask?" asked Graeme, as Sparrow turned to leave. She went out the door without replying, and Annette and Graeme followed.
"Well?" asked Annette, as they left the tent.
"I asked why the creatures hated me, then how I would be in old age (to sneakily find out if I'll die before then), and then... How my descendants would die," Sparrow said. "Well, one of them, an imaginary girl one. 'Young' was not a very nice answer to hear."
"Aww," said Annette. "I'm sure there's plenty of time to change that!"
Graeme looked at Sparrow, wondering if she was hiding something. In his mind, the explanation didn't quite fit. "Well, it's good to know the creatures really don't react the same to you as they do to the rest of us!" said Graeme, jovially. "Let's head back to the inn. I'm sure some ale will cure all our woes!"
Sparrow smiled a little, and said, "Sure."
The party sat clustered around one of the outside tables, mostly devoured food sitting on plates in front of them, their tankards full of a barely alcoholic local beer. "Assuming the rain stops, tomorrow morning Sparrow will take flight and search for an entrance to the cavern. If she finds one, she'll try to grant us access as well by letting down ropes, and if this is not a possibility she will enter alone." Graeme paused for a moment, before continuing with, "It might be better for you to go alone, anyway, Sparrow, if you can manage not to scare the creatures."
"We'll find out tomorrow," replied Sparrow. "What I really want is a couple of those special torches, the caves are going to be wet."
Annette chewed at the scraps of meat on a bone. "We might have to find Rassette in the morning, at this rate," she said. He probably got lost in that stupid cave, she added to herself.
"We can only wonder," said Graeme. "But I'm sure he'll be back by tomorrow, barring some terrible misfortune."
The party idly chatted for a couple of hours, before Sparrow and Annette turned in. Graeme stayed, waiting for Rassette, and also seeing if he could spot anyone he knew in the thinning dinner crowd. It was about another hour before he spotted Rassette wandering past, looking worn out.
Graeme intercepted him outside the inn. "Good evening, Rassette. How went the hunt?" asked Graeme.
Rassette sighed, and said, "We lost one of Nelson's squires to a caving accident. The poor bastard slipped, slammed into a wall, and knocked free a large rock, that crushed him to death. It took us a while to free the body, and drag it out of the cave. We even had to fight off a couple of the creatures on the way out, we think they heard our yelling and came to take a look. Which might be a good tactic in the future, draw their attention enough for them to see us."
"I'll give Nelson my consolations when I see him next," said Graeme. "I have a request of you, however. Could you sell me one of your strange torches? Or possibly a pair?"
Rassette looked thoughtful. "Of course, my friend," he said. "For merely one gold coin, even!"
Graeme fiddled with his coin purse, and pulled out a gold coin he had borrowed from Sparrow. "Here," he said, handing the coin to Rassette.
"Excellent! I shall order some food, then head to my quarters and return momentarily!" said Rassette.
Graeme followed him to the bar, and then sat there finishing his tankard as he awaited Rassette's return. I wonder how many lives saving this town has cost already?
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