Questlander

Chapter 14: Silent Cabin

Yarlin leaned against a tree with his spear propped up against his shoulder. With his left eye he scanned the open horizon for any sight of movement. Beside for a flock of greenish birds with long and thin curved beaks that swooped down into the grass to feed, there was very little else to see. 

And so he closed his eye to see what others could not see. On the right side of his vision he focused through the darkness. He concentrated his heat and his spirit to the place that was once his eye. From pure black, color arose painting the landscape in an unnatural color. Whatever the summer light and movement of living organisms erupted myriads yellows, oranges, and reds. In other areas shaded from the sun purple, violet and blacks arose. After a few minutes  he released this sense 

"Yarlin, my good draco!" chuckled the dwarf Goldol. "You are gonna love this."

 Goldol leaned against an adjacent prattling on as he had done since they both began their observation. At the very moment he was spinning a tale about his attempt to seduce two sisters without the other one knowing. Yarlin, could not but help to grin at the quirky and humorous tale. However, on a deeper level the talk reminded him of his time back at his home in the Sirocco Clan. The nostalgic feeling of looking off into the horizon with his friends babbling about this and that dulled the pain of his banishment. A pain Yarlin realized, before listening closer to Goldol's story, had eased since his decision to join Kael's quest. 

 " And so my draco friend, I am so sad to say but this is where my great and genius plan begins to unfurl. Hilthala goes up to the tavern owner, to complain about some serving girl who is taking too long to return with the wine. Now I take the time to stretch and view the room and you won't believe that at this moment I see Wissu at another table with some of her friends. And worse of all, her friends at pointing right at me. Now I can tell you, I used to ran fires as a lad, but never did I sweat as much as I did right then. I try to act as if I did not see her, but from the corner of my eye she begins to make her way over to my table all jolly like. The dwarf comes up, headlocks me and plants the biggest and sweetest kiss you ever see. At that moment her twin sister Hithala turns around and..."

"Goldol," one of the mercenaries shouted, "Captain Mion has just arrived. He demands to see all of us now." With the message complete the mercenary turned around and disappeared from view.

"Well, it seems the cavalry has arrived." the dwarf smirked. "I will have to finish my story later."

"I will hold you to that." Yarlin chuckled. "It was getting as hot as a juevana pepper. And those things are hot. If you are even in Dune," Yarlin warned, "stay away from those especially after a heavy feast."

"I will hold you to that." the dwarf chuckled in return. "I have never met a meal that my iron stomach could not handle." And so the two, who already were on the way to becoming good friends, began to trek their way back to the umber road.

Within a few minutes the pair exited the thicket to reach the clearing where the wounded and missionaries rested. Mounted upon eight horses awaited armored mercenaries. Some were glancing around for danger, a few others were glaring at the tied up bandits, while the mercenary at the head of the group sat tall and watched Goldol and Yarlin approach. To Yarlin's surprise, although he did not show it,  he realized that this very mercenary was a levi. And he guessed that the Levi must come from the north-east coastlands as his base coloring was a greyish-blue, a mix of the coloration of the sand and water. 

"A pleasant surprise to see you as always, Mion. How did your card game go?" inquired Goldol.

The levi dismounted his horse and approached the dwarf. Mion's lanky and near smooth figure was quite the contrast to the gruff and stout figure of Goldol. But each smile back and grabbed each other's hand in a firm gesture.