Disclaimer:
The Dungeons & Dragons movie idea, and the characters from the movie (Ridley, Marina, Norda, Elwood & Snails, and Savina/Profion/Damodar - though they are only mentioned in passing here) do not belong to me.
Where the heck are we?
A noisy babble of excited voices filtered slowly into Ridley s ears causing him to screw up his nose and attempt to open his sleep filled eyes. His brain was foggy, too foggy to think. What was that? What was happening? Where was he?
The last question brought him to full awareness and he blinked his eyes open in an attempt to take in the surroundings. Something large and wooden and box-like was staring him back in the face. He focused in on it in perspective to the hard gray surface behind it.
Yes, it was large and wooden and box-like, mainly because it was a large wooden box.
Crate, anyway, and a whole bunch of them were piled up against the previously mentioned gray wall overflowing with a rather colourful display of rubbish and smelling distinctly similar to human waste. Ridley rather quickly screwed up his nose again.
He rolled up from where he d been lying on the cold, hard ground and for the first time noticed he wasn t alone. That was reassuring. To his far left, and down a little, Elwood lay slumped against the opposite alleyway wall. He rocked a little and mumbled something about orcs in his sleep that sounded like a rude joke. Further up was Norda, lying on her back with one armoured knee slightly raised towards the sky. Her head rested slightly on its side and the eyes behind her eyelids flickered agitatedly in dream also.
To his immediate left, was Marina. She was stretched out on her side facing away from him; one arm curled around her head from the front as her brown hair fell disorderedly to the ground.
In that moment, Ridley s flashing recollection of events prior to this strange awakening finally reached his last concrete memory before now He had been in the cemetery with the three comrades around him. They had pledged themselves as a group, and for a moment he d felt something strange pull at him, as though this were right. This was meant to be.
Wherever this feeling was now, it was not with him. It had faded during sleep leaving him lost and confused and no longer in the cemetery.
The noise he heard was now recogniseable as the cry of hawkers, the reply of buyers and the babble of gossip that accompanied most marketplaces. They were in a marketplace somewhere but where.
At that moment, Norda herself awoke with a quiet moan. She looked at him silently for a moment, then reached across and shook Marina s shoulders gently to wake the mage also.
"Where are we?" the mage asked in confusion as she came too, taking in her surroundings. She too, was going through the same mental memory process Ridley had just completed.
"I don t know," he replied, looking around the alleyway hoping it may provide some answers and double checking there were no undesirable onlookers. The conversation ended for that moment, as they came to a silent agreement that it was best to be a fully functioning company before continuing.
It took the three of them a great effort of shaking to wake Elwood. Meanwhile he continued his mumbles, frequently mentioning orcs, axes and ale, though little more of his speech was comprehensible.
When he did, finally, wake up, he leapt to suddenly, sending the three almost sprawling backwards, and raised his battle-axe defensively in the air. As he looked out, it occurred to Elwood that there were, actually, no opponents standing in front of him to do battle with. For a moment he thought proudly that surely this must be because he had already gloriously defeated such an opponent, until he saw mage and thief fallen on top of each other and Norda standing a little way to his left.
"What are you doing on the ground?" he demanded grumpily of Ridley and Marina as he lowered his battle axe, disappointed that, in fact, he had not and was not getting the chance to disembowel an adversary of some description.
Marina threw the dwarf a disgusted look and pushed herself up from where she d fallen into Ridley. Ridley stood himself a moment later. Elwood merely grunted and looked from side to side, up and down the alleyway suspiciously.
"Where are we?" he growled.