Chapter 2
To say it was a long carriage ride is an understatement. Hell, we all fell asleep (save for the Eldarin, who just went into a trance like state, little bastard). Anyway, I awoke in a room, all alone. I don't know if they drugged us or it was just so damn boring that we fell asleep, I'm willing to think the latter.
When I awoke, I found myself in a strange room. Looking around to get my bearings, I found out it was only me in the room. Thinking nothing of it, I head downstairs to get something to eat.
I noticed that where I woke was an inn with an attached pub. "Better than nothing." I mumbled to myself. As it was early in the morning, there wasn't much activity in the pub. The only ones in there were the shifty looking barkeep and I.
"Pleasure to meet'cha prisoner, yeah." The barkeep spoke up. "Name's Ai Wan Li yup. Anything I can get ya?" My god he's annoying.
"I'll just get a mead please." I ordered, not wanting to have to talk to him for prolonged periods.
"Mmhm, yup. Comin' right up." The barkeep procured a bottle of the alcoholic beverage from under the counter and poured some into a mug.
"How much do I owe you?"
"Free for ya lass, orders from the King, yup!" So we really were prisoners for the tiny King. I thought it was all a dream.
"But wait, if you're human, why are you under a Dwarf King's rule?" I asked him.
"Some things are just better left not explained." Li said with a sinister smile. He pointed to the entrance. "It seems as if your friends have arrived. Please wait here." He waved the other two over to the bar.
"What's going on?" Entity asked the lanky barkeep.
"Well, seein' as everybody's here yeah, I'm to tell ya that set few rules from the king. Yeah?" He starts off.
"Is he always like this?" Ray whispered to me.
"You get used to it." I lied.
"Barring further interruption from them two, the rules are as is. Firstly, I'll be givin' you rations and practices and stuff. Secondly, before firstly, you are to meet the King outside the cells fer debriefin'."
"You lied to me." Ray whispered again.
He glared at us. "While yer here, you'll be gettin free food and drink, don't believe me? Just ask yer friend Alice. She got some free food earlier yup. Anyways, there's a general store just down the right there, shouldn't be so hard ta find, so go get equipped before ya meet the king, yeah? By the way, the cells are behind the general store, so it's best to go get yer shit first."
"Sorry, I needed someone else to suffer with me." I whispered to Ray.
"Alright, now, git outta here." Ai Wan shooed us away.
One by one, we left the pub, or tavern, whatever you wanna call it. To our left were shops and stalls, as well as an old wooden castle, to our right was a house district thing that was dotted every now and then with stores. The weirdest part about the town was that it seemed to be a tree town. The roads were dyed an odd shade of green. It was unsettling really. Li told us that we could find the general store to the right and cells right behind that.
We head into the general store and are greeted by a Dwarven shopkeep. I could see his face darken at our presence. "Whaddya want?" He spoke gruffly.
"We were told to get our supplies here." I spoke up. "I mainly use twin daggers and a hand crossbow." He procured my items from behind the counter.
"I'll take a longsword." Ray ordered his weapon. Again, the dwarf got supplies from under the counter, although this time he looked even more menacing while getting a longsword along with accompanying journey kit out.
Finally, Entity ordered her stuff. "A one handed sword and shield please." Again, a very menacing look as he gave Entity her weapon.
"Will that be all?" His voice had a darker edge to it now. I nodded my head before thanking him and taking my leave. It was time to get to the cells and get to the debriefing. By the Raven Queen I'm not looking forward to this.
"You're late!" Angry outburst number one. "Get your asses lined up!" We hurried to get in a line in front of him before he continued. I noticed that the cell bars were laced with fire and blast resistance magic, so that even a mage couldn't escape easily. "Now. You will be my prisoners," I almost blurted out that we already knew that, "and you will be my guards." Actually a surprising turn of events.
"I will call on you in two days for a specific task I need done. Until then, Ai Wan Li will give you easy, petty tasks to complete. Leave. And just know, I will be watching." He backed away to talk to his Royal Guard, and we left to head back to the Tavern.
"Ah, good, good. Yes, good good good." Raven Queen, if you're hearing me, please mute him? "You talked to the big boss man yeah? Good, now, you will be heading southbound, towards the centre of the forest right? So, you will need to slaughter some wolves, they's been annoying our soldiers, and we need them gone yup. Now, if the forest sorta…talks, I guess…to ya, then ya've gone too far." He explained our mission. "Now, I have the exact right number of provisions for ya, ta keep ya sustained and stuff. Have fun!" He waved us off after we collected the provisions.
We headed south, following one of the branch roads out of the town. After a short while, the branch led right to the ground and into the woods. "So what did you think when Li told us that the forest will talk?" Entity asked Ray.
"It was weird, I've been in forests that had talking trees before, but not the forest itself talking…" Ray trailed off. "Alice?"
I wasn't really listening, just trying to get our job done as fast as I could. "Hmm?"
"What do you think Li meant about the talking forest?"
"Well, we were told that if we reached that point, we went too far. So I say we don't go that far." I offered my simple plan. The other two grumbled and we continued on. About a half hour later, we come across a clearing, of which is filled with training dwarves. Either they don't notice us, or they just don't care, they continue training for whatever. Could be a small army of them in the clearing. "Let's go, we don't wanna hang around, especially if they catch wind that two elves are watching."
"I'm not an elf, I'm an eldarin, get it right ya cunt." Ray fumed. I just smiled and walked on.
After we passed the clearing, we came across a group of trees, I say trees, but they were more like, shrubs…almost trees, yeah. Deciding to go through it rather than around (for whatever bloody reason), we come across a large grey wolf. Easy to say it noticed us, it howled into the woods.
"Ha, hoping that your pack was close enough?" Ray yelled. I put my hand to my face. After Ray's brilliant taunt, more howling could be heard from all around us.
"Way to go you fucking idiot, you just had to make it worse." Entity cursed Ray.
Three pups came out of the shrubs and surrounded us, all growling. I took out my hand crossbow and loaded a bolt, while the other two readied themselves. Before the wolves could take a charge, I fired off at the Alpha.
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CLIFFHANGAR. I'm sorry guys, but I feel like this would be a good place to end the chapter. I'm having fun writing this, remembering the shit that happened. There's even more crazier stuff that will happen in later chapters, like a hallucination becoming real. Anyway, hopefully you guys like this chapter, and leave a favourite and follow? Until next time you guys.
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Alice: Well, this chapter ended in the beginning of our first battle…fucking cliffhangars.
Ray: It could be worse, we could all be dead by dwarf.
U.E.: True, though I have a feeling that we're going to run into something annoying in the coming chapters.
Ray: What could be worse than a bloody Dwarf King?
Alice: There's some scary shit out there man, even worse than a Dwarf King.
U.E.: Anyway, Mr. Author, will you include my meat sculpture in the story?
Most likely, no. That's just a bit too weird for everyone. Anyway, it's more like an inside joke between me and my friends, so they'd probably not get it.
Alice: Well, that concludes Q&A
Isn't that my job?
Alice: Yeah, but I'm pretty much an extension of you, so…
Well, anyway, that's it everyone, until nex-
Alice: Bye everyone.
Oh, so that's what it feels like…
