As It Could Have Been

Author's Note: So I decided to write a fan fic for an old game-Neverwinter Nights 2. I bought NWN2 the second it originally came out and I'm embarrassed to say how many hours I sunk into the game. Lots! Although I'm not the realm's most romantic soul, I was really looking forward to the romances in the game because a) I adored the romances in Baldur's Gate 2 (yes, I'm weird, not a newsflash to those who've read any of my fics), and b) Neverwinter Nights 1 had its moments (mmmm... Valen ...Valen...mmmm). So I figured the romances in NWN2 would be AWESOME.

And they could have been.

Well. Was I surprised. And not the "I got a cool car for my birthday" surprise, more like the "I put on my boot and there's a huge roach in the toe" surprise. The worst of it is that I really like Casavir and I really like Elanee. They're great characters. But where's the romance? Jealous snark and loss of influence points for civil comments to others do not a romance make, even in my strange little world. And waiting until we're all about to die to confess one's love-really? Sorry, my character is way too worried and scared and calculating and depressed to deal with love's first kiss on the brink of death. Sigh. Really big sigh.

But, you know, that's where fan fiction steps in to ease life's little disappointments. If at this late date, no one wants to read or review a NWN2 story, I totally get it. Sad but resigned, kind of like Casavir. Still, a gal's got to do what a gal's got to do...

p-p

The orcs ran, seeking cover until darkness, when they would be stronger and we humans would be at a disadvantage. So I kept the pressure on my group to keep up the chase. We were tired, hungry and thirsty but no one complained. This was not a large group that we hunted and they were far too close to our camp for me to take any chances on their escape. We had a good sheltered camp and if we had to move, we'd be unlikely to find a better spot. I know Katriona agreed, for I could trust her to give me a quiet word if she thought the men were pushed past their limits.

"Casavir," Katriona said, panting slightly but with satisfied eyes. "We have them."

We did indeed.

We trapped them in a canyon. This was our hunting grounds and this gave us the advantage we sorely needed. Logram Eyegouger, the orcs' first true leader in decades, had gathered all the tribes, including his war leader, Yaisog Bonegnasher. Here, they massed for a definitive assault on the Greycloaks, an assault that would sweep away the half-trained recruits and their precarious hold on Old Owl Well. Many of the orc bands here were not familiar with this part of the Sword Mountains and that also helped us. We were grievously outnumbered but we knew this land and that allowed us to pick off the smaller hunting bands and patrols. My men fought for their homes and families, overrun for some seasons now by the tribes, and I fought...well, I fought for other reasons.

Good reasons.

We fell upon them.

My hammer rose and fell. My silent prayers to Tyr thundered through my head in a symphony of brass and drums. The shrieks of the wounded and dying wove themselves into my prayers like eerie woodwinds. My muscles burned. My heart burned

Yes, the fight was a bit of a blur. That's how it's been since I came to Old Owl Well. This was how I earned the orc title, Katalmach. A warrior who loses himself in battle.

It wasn't true, though. The orcs might believe me a berserker but they were a primitive people. It wasn't true. I didn't lose myself. Not really. Not for long. If one must fight, a certain amount of rage was useful, even necessary, but I was in control. I had to be. The lives of these people were in my hands.

It was over. I hung my hammer on my belt so I could check for the wounded. None of the orcs had surrendered or survived. My men, thanks to Tyr, fared quite well.

"Hey!" yelled an indignant voice from across the canyon. "Those were our orcs!" A couple of the men laughed.

"Plenty more where they came from," one hollered.

"Has the circus come to the Well?" asked another, and I turned and gave him a frown. I had to admit, it was a strange group that approached us. A human woman, a dwarf, an elf and a gnome. The gnome appeared to be singing. He carried a lute on his back.

Maybe it was the circus.

"My word," Katriona whispered. "That woman must be a giant."

She looked tall because of her short companions but as they grew closer I realized she was close to my height, which made her quite unusually tall. Her shoulders were broad and she moved like a warrior. Her leather armor was battered. She wore a sword, also well worn, no shield. The dwarf was outfitted like me in plate armor, hammer and shield. I didn't know what to make of the elf or the gnome. For that matter, I didn't know what to make of the human. There was something strange about her. It was if she had an aura, but not a paladin aura, I would have sensed that for certain. There was certainly something strange and it almost seemed familiar.

She looked dirty and tired. We all looked dirty and tired. That reassured me.

"Well met," I said politely. I sensed no evil in these strangers. "I am Casavir. This is my sergeant, Katriona. If I may ask, what brings you here? The Sword Mountains are dangerous at all times but especially now."

"We're here to kill orcs," the dwarf said. "Like the ones you poached from us." But the elf and gnome looked to the human. Apparently their leader. Her hair, bleached to straw, seemed a mass of tangles. No hat or helmet, I noticed, unfortunately for her. Here, one courts heatstroke in the day with no hat. Especially if one is not used to the heat, and it seemed she was not. She had the pale complexion of a blonde but she was ruddy from the strong sun here in the mountains. Her nose was sun burnt and peeling, her lips dry and cracked. She must have been uncomfortable but her eyes were bright, blue and curious. She scanned us all and I had the impression she missed little. She spoke in a rather pleasant West Harbor burr.

"I'm sure there are plenty of orcs to go around, Khelgar," she said. "Don't be greedy."

"We've already killed more than enough," muttered the elf woman. Her comment made me curious. Had they been fighting in these mountains for some time? This was the first I'd heard of that. I'd thought I was on top of activities here. If I'd missed them, what else had I missed?

"We're looking for the emissary from Waterdeep," the human woman said. When she smiled at me, I wanted to smile back. Which was more than passing strange, smiles not coming easily to me these days. "Commander Callum sent us. Have you seen the emissary? His name is Issani."

Katriona and I exchanged glances. "No," I said. They were working for Callum? Gods. He sent this pitifully small band out against the tribes? Alone? What in the Nine Hells was he thinking? The gnome yanked the bottom of the woman's jerkin and said "Introductions!" in what was meant to be a whisper. A couple of my men chuckled and I didn't have the heart to chastise them, being close to chuckling myself.

"Sorry," the woman said. "I think I've been rude. I'm Lilian Farlong. I'm working for the City Watch in Neverwinter. This is Elanee, a druid from the Circle of the Mere. Khelgar, from the Clan Ironfist. And Grobnar Gnomehands."

"I'm a bard," the gnome piped. That explained the lute. On a combat mission. Tyr, help us all.

"We think the emissary has been taken," the woman said. Lilian. I repeated it in my head. I used to be good with names but lately, with other things, it's a talent I've lost. "Maybe by Logram Eyegouger. You know where he is?"

"He may have been taken by the Bonegnashers," I said.

"We already cleared them out," the dwarf said. "He wasn't there. Just a Luskan imposter. We killed him already." All of us stared.

"You killed Yaisog Bonegnasher? And all of his tribe?" I asked.

"All who would fight," Lilian said. "Some of them ran off. We let them go."

She wasn't lying. She absolutely wasn't lying.

"Casavir," Katriona whispered. "It's getting late. The wounded..." My eyes tracked the sun. She was right. Night fell quickly in the mountains and we had wounded to move. The camp wasn't far but we needed to go now.

"Do you have a safe place for tonight?" I asked the strangers. Maybe they were scouts with a vast army behind them. If they'd killed Yaisog Bonegnasher-it couldn't have been just the four of them. Could it?

"We were just looking for a good spot to camp when we saw you," the elf said. Elanee. She wasn't lying either. It had been awhile since I'd felt completely dumbfounded but now...dumbfounded. Completely.

"Join us," I said. Katriona's eyebrows rose in amazement. I had never let any stranger enter our camp. I had always moved if Callum's scouts came close. But...I had a feeling that everything was about to change.

Tyr, I prayed. Am I making a mistake?

He didn't answer. It had been long since he'd answered. But this was a different silence. This was a listening silence. I felt my heart rise within me for the first time in a long, long time.