Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age or any of its related characters. This is just for my own enjoyment and the potential enjoyment of other fans like me, and no monetary gain was expected or received.
Rating: T
Spoilers: Takes place immediately after the events of Dragon Age: Origins.
A/N: I'm writing slowly but steadily. I don't have time to get online much these days, though I'm hoping that will change soon. I promise I'll get the chapters of this story up and out as quickly as possible, but I'm only writing at a speed of about a page and a half a day, on average, way down from my normal.
Chapter Three: Kobolds
Fruit bark and elven bread were tasty, but as a staple diet they left something to be desired. Loghain was a man who ate barley and beans three meals a day so it wasn't the monotony that got to him. It was too light, it did next to nothing to satisfy him. Doubtless it was nutritious enough to live off of, but he wouldn't stay in the same physical condition for long on a strict diet of bread and berries. He couldn't expect a mess hall with a carefully portioned ration of good old Ferelden army slop, which likely meant he'd have to hunt for his meals for awhile at least. That was no hardship.
Not so long as he could find game other than giant spiders.
As he ate his morning breakfast of fruit bark he tried not to look at the decomposing bodies of the spiders they'd killed the night before. Just knowing they were there gave him the creeps. It didn't much help that Elilia found his revulsion hilarious. It was good, he supposed, that she was in a good humor for once - she seemed an entirely different person, a sparkling and vivacious individual with many jokes and hijinks, all of them at his expense. She imitated the chittering sounds the spiders made, and made many comments about big, ugly, hairy creatures that are scared of spiders. Oddly enough, the teasing seemed good-natured. Friendly, even. It was a switch from her previous demeanor. He didn't know yet if it was better or worse, but he was leaning toward worse.
They set out in dawn light that was almost indistinguishable from the night's darkness, and Loghain relied on the darkvision of his companions. As the sun rose, the lighting increased slightly, but the forest remained dark and gloomy for several miles until the canopy overhead began to show breaks where the branches didn't quite touch. Elilia said they were nearly to the forest's edge.
"It's only another mile or so," she said. "We're almost out."
Chick stopped, with one foreleg raised. He appeared to be listening to something. "We need to turn away," he said. "We should head north."
"What? Why?" Elilia asked.
He shook his head. "I don't know. The wood spoke to me, and told me to turn."
"I'm going to need a better reason than that to walk out of our way," Elilia said.
Chick looked at her incredulously. "The wood. Told me. To turn. The wood usually has very good reasons for the things it tells you to do."
Loghain raised his hand. "I have a question, if I may. I've heard others speak of hearing the wood speak to them. What do you mean exactly? The trees talk?"
"Well, no, not exactly. It's hard to explain to someone who is unfamiliar with the concept. The forest has a spirit, sometimes benevolent, sometimes dangerous, but always extremely wise and knowledgeable about what goes on beneath its branches. It tends to look out for those who make their home in the sylvan, but it seems to have taken a particular interest in you. Only natural if you are, indeed, god-touched. Right now, it tells me our way will be better served if we turn north. I personally believe it," Chick said.
Loghain looked to Elilia. "Your call," he said.
She seemed disgruntled. "I suppose we'd better turn. After all, could be something terrible up ahead. Like spiders."
She directed their path toward the north and they stepped around the trees in that direction until Chick said he felt it was safe to turn west again.
"Keep your eyes peeled for sign of game," Loghain said. "I don't know about the two of you, but I'm ready for something a little meatier than dry bread and rubbery leaves."
"Loghain is a meat eater," Elilia said to Chick. "Is that going to bother you, goatling?"
Chick grimaced. "Everyone has to live in the way that they live. Humans are omnivores, they eat meat."
Loghain looked at Elilia. "Don't tell me you're a vegetarian, too?" he said. "You told me you were a hunter."
"I am a hunter. I eat meat. But I'm just fine living off of bread, particularly in the presence of a moral herbivore like Chick."
"I'm not a moral herbivore," Chick said.
"Then what's with all the grimacing whenever anyone talks about eating meat?" Elilia said.
"I just find it distasteful, that's all. All that…blood."
"Have you ever killed anything with that bow of yours?" Elilia asked.
"Of course I have," Chick said. "I killed several of those spiders last night."
"And that's it, I take it? I didn't know we were traveling with a virgin," Elilia said.
"What does that have to do with killing things?" Chick said.
"This is more information than we needed to know," Loghain said. "Let the kid alone, Elilia. He's killed, so clearly he can when he has to."
"Of course I can," Chick said. "I knew when I started on this adventure that I wouldn't be able to avoid putting my bow to use forever."
"He killed a couple of big, ugly spiders. I wonder if he'll be able to kill a cute, cuddly rabbit so we can eat it," Elilia said.
"There's no particular reason for him to kill food for us. We have bows, and know how to use them," Loghain said. "Just as long as he doesn't falter in a battle situation."
"If he can't kill a rabbit, what makes you think he'd be able to kill a bandit?"
"Bandits aren't as cute as rabbits," Loghain said. "Could we just proceed? Standing here yammering all day gains us nothing."
"All right, let's find something to eat before we find ourselves in the human lands," Elilia said. "They'll have most of the game scared off, and we don't have coin to buy food."
They cast about for sign, and finally happened upon fresh droppings indicating what Loghain took to be a wild turkey, if that was really what he'd eaten back at Sayela's and not something completely foreign to him, like a feathered lizard or something. He stopped, gave his companions a stern look, and imitated the sound of a turkey call. There was silence for a moment, and then from the forest came a reply. Loghain drew an arrow and nocked it, ridiculously grateful that there were, indeed, turkeys in this world so he didn't look like a complete idiot making turkey sounds. He repeated the call, and the call came back to him from a nearer distance. The brush moved, and a good-sized gobbler stepped out of them, not far ahead. Before it could see them and flee Loghain loosed his arrow and it fell dead with an arrow sticking out of its head.
"I'd say that looks like dinner," he said.
"Yes. Delicious," Chick said, with his teeth bared in a grin of distaste. "All those…bodily fluids. Yummy."
"Don't knock it 'til you've tried it," Loghain said. "White meat of turkey is one of the finest meals you can have."
"I think I'll pass, thank you," Chick said.
"Oh, now what kind of attitude is that?" Elilia said. "I thought you were out for adventure, goatling. New experiences. Maybe you won't like it, but how do you know 'til you try?"
"You said some of your people eat meat on occasion. Don't you think they might know something you don't?" Loghain said.
Chick held up his hands. "Woah, peer pressure."
"You don't have to eat anything you don't want to eat," Loghain said. "It's just an open option."
They stopped to build a fire and dress out the turkey. Elilia built a makeshift spit and they roasted portions of the meat. Chick watched them eat with a certain reluctant interest.
"Do you want to try it?" Loghain said, and offered a small piece of meat to him. Chick reached out his hand and took it, and with some hesitation raised it to his mouth. He took a tiny nibble, chewed, swallowed hard, and blanched.
"Oh come now, you didn't even taste it with a tiny bite like that," Elilia said.
Chick sighed, looked at the meat in his fingers, and took a real bite of it. He chewed, chewed, chewed, and chewed some more. Loghain could tell that the meat was getting bigger in his mind.
"Spit or swallow, lad, don't let it overpower you," he said.
With some difficulty, Chick swallowed. He grimaced and then he smiled, weakly. "I don't care for it, but I'm glad I tried it. It was definitely a new experience."
"New experiences are good for you," Loghain said. "There might come a time when knowing that you can eat meat if you have to will save your life, although if you can get sufficient nutriment from tree bark you probably don't have much to worry about."
Elilia checked the position of the sun in the sky. "With this break and having to go out of our way, we probably won't make the human lands 'til evening, early evening if we're lucky. I wouldn't think we'd be likely to find a human settlement tonight. Tomorrow, hopefully."
"What do you plan to do once we reach a human settlement?" Chick asked Loghain. "You must need to seek some type of employment, yes? Are you planning on settling in where we happen to land, or will you travel yet awhile?"
"I don't have any particular plans to settle," Loghain said. "I made a vow to help people wherever I can, and my best talent is to use my strength to defend them. If one settlement has nothing threatening its peace I'll move on 'til I find a place that needs me, if any of them do. If none of them do I'll take what work I can get. I was born a farmer, I expect I could turn my hand to farm work again, even at this late date, and there's always people who need someone with a strong back to haul loads from one place to another. I reckon I won't starve, assuming I stay healthy."
"So what you're saying is you're seeking adventure, not for its own sake but for the sake of others. I would join you in this work if you would have me. I have no great desire to travel alone, and everyone is stronger when they join forces with another."
"I'm amenable," Loghain said.
Chick looked at Elilia, who had rather a sour scowl on her face. "What about you?" he asked. "Will you go your separate way, or will you join us? We are stronger together than apart."
"I don't have any better plan," she said, with a careless toss of the head.
"Well, until you come up with a better plan, you're welcome to tag along," Loghain said. Elilia scowled at him. "Keep practicing that expression, one of these days you'll be as good at it as I am," he said, and for a wonder, she laughed. She took some parchment paper out of her knapsack, wrapped the remaining meat in it, and stowed it away.
"This will make a good supper this evening, but we'd better eat it up tonight. It's too bad we can't make jerky out of it, it would keep us a long time."
"What's jerky?" Chick asked.
"Smoked and dried meat. It keeps longer, on journeys. Tastier than salted meats, in my opinion, at least."
"I've never much cared for salted meat myself," Loghain said.
"We might need it if we journey a long time. In a lot of areas there isn't much for game, especially around the human settlements. Chick probably won't have any trouble feeding himself, but I can't live off grass," Elilia said.
"Neither can I," Loghain said. "We'll find a way to earn some coin and see what we can do about provisioning ourselves, once we find a settlement."
They proceeded on their way, after extinguishing the cooking fire. After a time, Chick raised a hand and brought them to a stop. He swiveled his head around and looked to the south.
"What is it? You see something?" Elilia said.
"Kobolds, a patrol of them, maybe twenty strong. I bet that we circled around a kobold encampment, and if they have this many members on patrol, imagine how many are with the main group. We could have walked right into the midst of them. As it is, I think we'd be well-advised to avoid this patrol," Chick said, in a whisper.
"Which way are they headed?" Elilia said, in a whisper of her own.
"They're coming towards us on the diagonal. If we can continue stealthily in the direction we are headed, we should avoid them," Chick said.
"I've got a question," Loghain said, also in a whisper. "What is a kobold, and why are we so keen to avoid them? Not that I'm questioning the decision, you understand, I'm simply curious."
"We need to move," Chick said. "I'll satisfy your curiosity once we're away."
"Deal," Loghain said, and followed his companions quietly. Barefooted, he made less noise than Elilia but slightly more than Chick, whose relatively small hooves made no audible sound to Loghain's ears. They proceeded onward at the fastest speed they could manage quietly, and in a few minutes they came to the edge of the forest, and a wide open pasturage with a few sheep grazing it. There was a farmhouse on the edge of vision, maybe half a mile away, the only structure in sight. It was probably a farm outlying a small village, for people rarely existed far from each other even if they preferred isolation.
"We could ask there where the village is, if we can't see it by the time we get there," Loghain said. "I wouldn't imagine we're too many miles from something resembling civilization, even if it amounts to nothing more than some sort of temple building and a tavern. Either sort of place usually means work, in my experience. The farm might have something for us to do, too, but three wanderers is probably too much to spring on one farm family."
"Particularly considering the outré composition of our party," Chick said.
"Outré? You have Orlesians in this world?" Loghain said.
"Orlesians? No, I've never heard of anything like that," Chick said. "What are Orlesians?"
"A nasty, poncy culture back home. Their language has words like 'outré' in it, but I suppose if the King's tongue is understood in this world then somewhere perhaps some non-Orlesian people speaking something that sounds just like Orlesian. Hope it isn't prevalent, though."
"I have wondered at that," Chick said. "That you are from another world yet speak perfect Common. Your language was limited in your homeland?"
"No, it was known as Common in Thedas, derived from the dwarven trade language. Ferelden and the Free Marches were the only places that used it as a first language, however, and in Ferelden we called it the King's tongue. Proprietary arrogance, I suppose," Loghain said. "Now that we're out of the woods, tell me, what are kobolds?"
"Kobolds are small people, related to gnomes, but not at all well-disposed towards other races, or even their own," Elilia said. "They're not tremendously dangerous except in numbers. A large patrol would have attacked us on sight, and I don't think we had enough arrows to bring them all down."
"They don't make great targets, either," Chick said. "A tall one is two and a half feet, and they're wiry thin."
"Big heads, though, comparatively," Elilia said. "Makes a decent target."
"So what you're saying is, any fight with a kobold necessitates the death of the kobold, simply because you can't hit it in a way to cripple it," Loghain said. "That's always good to know."
"You'll probably come to learn it well. Short of humans, nothing spreads more than kobolds," Elilia said. "You find them in forests, on plains, on mountains, underground…virtually anywhere. They make a tremendous mess."
"Humans living near a large kobold encampment will likely be having confrontations with them," Chick said. "People in this area may be somewhat beleaguered."
"They may need help, but how do you know they aren't starting the trouble? Humans do that," Loghain said.
"They don't need to, where kobolds are concerned," Elilia said. "Kobolds eat meat, any meat. They are particularly fond of human children."
"So you're saying they kidnap children and eat them? That's monstrous," Loghain said.
"It is, and the kobolds are proud of it. They're one of the few things different races; elves, humans, bariaurs, and even giants can agree have to be…'kept in check,'" Chick said.
"Giants," Loghain said.
"Nine to twelve feet, depending on the specific race," Elilia said. "Most of them aren't very friendly, either."
"Nine to twelve feet? Yeah, that qualifies as giant, all right," Loghain said.
They headed toward the farmhouse, with the hope that they might be allowed to bed down in the barn for the night. Loghain was elected to knock at the door, under what he thought was an erroneous assumption that humans would respond more positively toward another human. At his size, with his appearance, and the fact that he was always armed, he'd never learned to expect warm welcomes. Still, he slung his bow across his back and went up to the stoop to knock.
A harassed-looking woman came to the door, a small child in her arms while another tugged at her skirts. Her eyes popped wider at the sight of him, but she didn't slam the door shut.
"May I help you, Sir?" she asked.
"Yes, Ser…my companions and I were hoping you could point us in the direction of the nearest village. We also would like to ask if we could stay in your barn tonight. We have our own food, so that's no concern."
The woman looked at him blankly. "Why did you call me sir?" she asked.
"Should I not have?"
"Well, I'm…I'm a woman," she said.
"My apologies. Where I come from, 'Ser' works for both genders."
"Oh, I see. Well, the village is three miles south and west of here. You can follow the wagon ruts right to it," she said, and pointed out the double track that led from the property. "As to the barn, I…I suppose it will be all right."
"Thank you. We'll stay out of your hair."
They made a cookfire on a grassless patch of land in the back not far from the chicken coop and Loghain roasted the remainder of the turkey for he and Elilia. Chick made do with long grass from the yard. They ate, put out the fire, cleaned up the mess they'd made, and repaired to the barn to spend the night in the hay, a considerably more comfortable bed than bare ground. They shared their billet with a placid milk cow and her calf and a heavily-muscled horse whose likely purpose was to pull the rusted plow that rested at the back of the barn. With the exception of one sleepless night at the Arl of Redcliffe's castle it was the best accommodation Loghain had experienced in some months, since his defeat at the Landsmeet and his subsequent admission into the ranks of the Grey Wardens. The thick pile of scattered straw in the loft was more comfortable than the straw pallet at Sayela's. The smell of it was warm and familiar, and even the sound of the rats scurrying through - and the cats hurrying after them - was comfortingly familiar. This might have been any barn in the bannorn, and Maker knew he had dossed down in many of them. The thought of home brought a sharp pang to his chest, a bitter taste of homesickness to his mouth. The sense of unreality had been his best friend over the past few days, as it kept him from having to fully accept that he was truly lost in a strange new world. Acceptance of his predicament, which had come in random bursts from the moment he first opened his eyes, slammed into him with the force of a battering ram. The persistent feeling that it was all just a peculiarly lifelike Fade dream kept him from succumbing to shock. Like diving into frigid water, it was too much to take in all at once. He had to keep accepting it a little piece at a time, like easing into the water inch by inch. He might still freeze to death, but he could fool himself into thinking things were going to get better instead of worse.
Elilia snored. Not loud, but definitely. She probably hadn't gotten a real night's sleep since she left home. It didn't bother him very much, years of sleep in army camps had pretty well inured him to irritation from night noises. Eventually he was able to sleep himself.
When he woke in the early morning he found it hard to breathe. The mystery of his suppression was solved when he opened his eyes and saw a large, longhaired barn cat curled up on his chest. He scratched the creature behind its tufted ears and it blinked sleepy or perhaps happy amber eyes at him. "So glad you found yourself a nice, warm mattress, Serrah, but I need to get up now," he said.
The cat let out a trilling little chirp sound at complete odds with its impressive size. It made no move to get up, however, so Loghain pushed it off with little ceremony. He got to his feet and so did the cat. It licked a paw, sauntered to the end of the loft with its long, brushy tail in the air, and gathered itself to leap onto the edge of the horse's stall below. From there it bounded down to the ground and returned to hunting mice and rats. Loghain stretched, pulled the straw from his hair and the neck of his shirt, and climbed down the ladder. Chick stirred below.
"Good morning, soldier," he said, after a jaw-stretching yawn. "Where's Elilia?"
"I left her to sleep. I imagine she'll be up soon."
They listened for the sounds of movement up above, and in a few minutes they heard her yawn and stretch. She came down the ladder and stood before them bleary-eyed.
Loghain reached out and plucked something from her hair. "You've got straw in your hair," he said. She reached up to clean the rest of it out.
They went outside and had their light breakfast. Loghain glanced toward the house and saw the farm woman out on the front stoop, while her hand cast shade for her eyes, she peered down the rutted track toward the distant village. She clearly watched for something or for someone, and she looked worried. Loghain finished up his piece of elven bread and went to talk to her.
"Is everything all right, er…milady?" he asked, with a slight stumble when he would have called her "ser."
She startled. "Oh. Er, I'm…I'm waiting for my husband to come home," she said.
"Has he been gone long?" he asked.
"Three days. He went out with our neighbor and his son. There is a large group of kobolds in the woods nearby, and they kidnapped our neighbor's younger son. My husband is a farmer, not a hunter. I'm afraid he…he…"
"I will go and look for your husband," Loghain said.
"Oh, would you? I mean, I hate to ask it of anyone, it would be so dangerous."
"I will look for him. What does he look like?"
"Well he's tall, but not so tall as you. He has brown hair and green eyes, and a mole on his chin. His name is Robert."
"I will find out what happened to him."
He went to speak to his companions. "I am going back to the woods," he said without preamble. "The lady's husband is missing, possibly killed by the kobolds. I've vowed to find out what happened."
"Are you insane?" Elilia asked. "Just that one patrol we avoided was enough to kill all of us. Now you're going to walk right in to the middle of the horde?"
"They kidnapped a child. If there's even a chance of saving him, I need to take it. I don't ask you to come with me."
"You were a soldier," Chick said. "What do you think our odds would be against a large force of kobolds?"
"Probably not great. I've faced down long odds before and I'm not afraid of death. If I die trying to do good for someone else, I think my debt is paid."
"I won't let you go alone," Chick said. "If you insist on fighting, I will fight beside you."
"It will be dangerous," Loghain said. "I'd sooner not have your life on my hands."
"I'll take my life in my own hands," Chick said. "My life and yours, too, if I have to. I don't know what you think you owe, but I don't intend to let you pay that price if I can help it."
"I'm not suicidal. Don't take it into your head that I am," Loghain said.
"No? You sound suicidal. You're going to pay off your 'debt' by killing yourself," Elilia said. "What is this debt? What is it you think you owe?"
"I made a mistake, and it cost my nation dearly. It cost lives. I can't pay back the people who suffered because of me, but I can do whatever I can to make sure that what little remains of my life goes into easing a bit of suffering. That is my debt. My life is what I owe."
She shouldered her bow. "Then I guess it's up to Chick and me to make certain you don't pay it back too quickly."
He smiled slightly. "That is appreciated, but it is quite unnecessary. You're young, you shouldn't put yourself into danger."
"I'm forty-six," Elilia said. "I'm old enough to make my own decisions."
Loghain stared hard at her. "You're not forty-six," he said.
"I think I know how old I am," she said.
"Sylvan elves are shorter-lived than some elves," Chick said, "but they still live longer than humans."
"How old was your Elder?" Loghain asked.
"A hundred and sixty-something," Elilia said. "Sayela is seventy-seven."
"And here I thought I was a contemporary of your Elder. Turns out that I'm closest in age to you. I suppose you are old enough to make your own decisions, but I would beg you to reconsider. Both of you. You don't know me, you certainly don't need to risk your lives with me."
"There's a child's life at stake," Chick said. "We're wasting time."
Loghain nodded. "Very well, then. Let us be off."
They proceeded back to the woods, and tracked their way to the area they'd avoided on their way through. Loghain saw his first kobold before his first kobold saw him, a short, stringy-looking creature with an overlarge head and greenish-gray skin that looked tough and leathery. The creature's goblin face reminded him of a darkspawn, though it wasn't quite as ugly. He nocked an arrow.
"Aarrgh!" the creature cried as it spotted him. It raised a comparatively heavy sword and charged in his direction. Loghain aimed and loosed, and the kobold fell with an arrow through the forehead. Loghain checked for reinforcements, saw none, and walked over to the fallen creature. He took its sword. To the kobold the blade was nearly comparable to a greatsword, but in Loghain's hand it sat like a shortsword, barely longer than a long dagger. He gave the blade an experimental twirl to test the balance. It wasn't a great example of the weaponsmith's craft, but it would do. If he had to wade through a large number of enemies he needed a sword, though as he imagined fighting creatures that barely reached his knees it was not the blade of choice.
"Is it typical to find a kobold alone?" he asked.
"Fairly. They're not very sociable even amongst their own kind. I don't think we'll be that lucky going forward, however," Chick said.
"Stay alert. We'll take them by surprise if we can."
The main body of the kobold horde was encamped by the bank of a stream not quite a mile further in. There were perhaps half a hundred of the creatures, in various states of repose, some gnawing on bones, others sharpening weapons. They didn't seem particularly alert about woodcraft, and when the arrows of the trio began to rain down among them they started up and rushed about aimlessly for a few moments before they managed to marshal some defenses. Low on arrows, Loghain switched to his looted blade and leaped in among them even while Chick and Elilia continued to shoot.
It was difficult to fight short creatures with a short blade. He ducked and swung, ducked and swung, ducked and swung, over and over again until they stopped advancing on him. Chick ran out of arrows and turned to kick his hard hooves at kobold heads. Elilia dropped her bow and ran forward with her skinning knife in hand. Together they tore through the encampment until the surviving kobolds were forced to flee.
Loghain had several cuts on his legs, and so did Chick, some of them deep. Elilia put up her knife and dropped to her knees. She laid hands on Loghain's legs and blue light emanated from her fingers as she cast healing magic on him.
"I didn't know you could do that," he said.
"I know a little magic," she said. "Beyond some basic healing and a couple of elemental spells, I'm not much shakes with it."
"Well, you're better at it than I am," he said. "I can't use magic at all."
She seemed surprised. "Not at all? That's…weird."
"Not where I come from. The exception to the rule is the ability to use magic."
She moved on to tend Chick's wounds. "Well, it seems like your home would be a hard one to live in. How do you survive without magical healing?"
"A lot of times, we don't."
He began to pick through the refuse in the camp, looking for signs of the missing men and child. He found boot soles, too tough to eat, and human bones, but nothing to identify who they might have been. Some of the bones, heavily gnawed, were the bones of a child.
"Well, I knew we were going to be too late," he said. "I had hoped we'd find something to return to the mother, though."
"Kobolds picked 'em clean," Elilia said. "We gave them some justice, or vengeance at the least. Check for loot. Kobolds like to steal things."
"Are you suggesting we profit from human grief?" Loghain said.
"Hey, we need coin. These kobolds have been traveling from place to place, stealing wherever they go, and there's no returning the stuff they've stolen because there's no way to tell where it comes from. Should we just leave it sitting?"
"Hmph. You have a point."
"I still find it an unsavory way to turn a profit," Chick said.
"Perhaps it is, but we do need equipment. We'll pack out what we can carry and see if any of it belongs to the families of the slain," Loghain said.
That seemed to mollify Chick, and he helped them dig through the scattered refuse for discarded treasures. The kobolds didn't seem to place any great value on the things they stole, and left jewelry and weapons piled under mounds of garbage. Either that or it was a potent anti-theft device. As he pawed through the garbage Loghain felt little inclination to dig very deep. Elilia, on the other hand, burrowed through the offensive trash to bring up anything made of metal. She found rings and amulets, daggers and knives, and even a handful of roofing nails. It was all worth something, if nobody laid claim to it.
They finished up their inspection of the kobold camp and returned the way they'd come with their packs weighted down with loot. Elilia moved to take the lead as though it were her due, and Loghain was happy enough to let her. Now that he knew her true age, he didn't feel too badly about enjoying the view. Whatever her faults, she had a nice figure. He'd always liked a strong woman.
She didn't seem to sense him ogling her backside, which was just as well. They found their way back to the farmhouse and he sobered up well before they came to the door stoop. Elilia stood aside and left his way clear to the door.
He knocked. The harried farmwoman answered it. She looked up at him with fearful, hopeful eyes.
"Milady, I'm sorry," he said. "We killed the kobolds but did not find your husband. We have some items we found. Perhaps something belongs to you, or to your husband. Would you like to look them over?"
She swiped at her now streaming eyes. "Yes, thank you. Come in."
Chick abstained. Loghain and Elilia went in and laid out their findings on the kitchen table. The woman wasn't interested in picking through them, but her eyes alighted on a plain golden band large enough for a man's finger.
"That was my husband's wedding ring," she said. "He wore it on a chain around his neck. He would never take it off."
Loghain picked something out of the detritus and held it up. "This was probably the chain, yes?" he said. The silver links were broken halfway down the chain from the still-intact and still closed clasp. "I'm sorry, milady. We found some remains, but nothing to identify anyone."
The woman folded the ring up in both of her hands and held it to her lips. Her eyes still streamed silent tears. "Thank you for bringing this to me," she said. "At least now I know what happened."
"What will you do?" Elilia asked.
"I really don't know," the woman said.
"Well, we should not intrude upon your grief," Loghain said. "We wish to bring this courtesy to the household of the others missing. Is that farm up the road, on the way to the village?"
"Yes, where the road branches, follow it to the west and you'll come to it," the woman said. "Poor Alyssa…her husband and her sons…"
Loghain clasped the woman's shoulder before they left. He offered no empty words. He had no wisdom to bestow. He was not the type of man who knew the right thing to say in such a situation, so silence was best. They left the woman to her grief and her children, and went to the next farmhouse, where the grieving woman took back her husband's skinning knife and her son's bow.
"You killed those bastard kobolds?" she asked, as she wept over the bow.
"Yes," Loghain said.
"Good. Good."
They left her, and traveled on to the village in silence. They found a merchant and sold the better of their spoils, and sold the remainder to the local blacksmith for scrap. Loghain kept one knife that had a good weight in his hand. They split the profits between them, and Loghain debated buying a razor before deciding he'd be better served to save his coin against a proper longsword first. His face would just have to stay itchy awhile longer yet. Maybe he'd even get used to it.
"What do we do now?" Chick asked, after he made an interested examination of the metal coins they were given in exchange for their goods. Neither the bariaur nor the elf had ever seen coinage before, and Loghain was unfamiliar with the local denominations, so there was no telling whether they'd been cheated or not. Probably they would've done better if they'd gone to a larger settlement, but it was too much to hang on to. As Loghain had suspected, the village amounted to not much more than a tavern and what he thought of as a chantry, but also as he had suspected both places had job board postings.
"I think we should put our hands to some of these jobs they've got posted," he said. "We need more coin if we're going to equip ourselves for a long travel."
"Here's a bounty posting on the kobolds we killed," Elilia said. "It says to see the tavern master for the reward."
She and Loghain entered the tavern, and after some discussion the tavern master handed over a small sack of gold coins. Loghain asked him if he'd ever heard of such a thing as a plantir, a magical device for looking across planes, and the man said he hadn't, but that one would likely find such a thing at the college of magic in North Ebbridge, some six hundred miles north.
"Thank you, Ser," Loghain said, and they went back outside again.
They took on several job postings; loaded wood for a lumberman who wanted to send his goods to another village, fixed a leak in the roof of the chantry (Loghain and Elilia did, at any rate; Chick helped them climb up and down), and hunted in the woods for a particular herb that the priest wanted for the village's medicinal supplies. By that time they were quite hungry, and they stopped in at the tavern to eat. Chick didn't want to go inside. He didn't fit through the door with any ease and it was the sort of place where meat was a matter of course in any dish, but they talked him into coming inside with them.
Loghain ordered a dish of beef stew, and Elilia had a chicken sandwich with a baked potato. Chick sat on the floor by their table and ate the vegetables out of his own bowl of beef stew. He gave Loghain his meat. Oddly, he seemed to enjoy the broth, perhaps because he wasn't aware it was made from meat.
"Hey, who let that goat in here?" someone said.
"Oh dear," Chick said, and seemed to shrink slightly. Loghain turned around and cast a cold eye over the men sitting where the words had come from.
"I let him in," he said. "Care to make something of it?"
A couple of the men sized him up. One of them, who had a spark of intelligence in his eyes, shook his head and turned back to his drink. The other, not as smart or perhaps too drunk to think straight, stood up. Loghain put down his spoon, wiped his mouth, and stood up himself.
"Let's take this outside," he said.
"This really isn't necessary," Chick tried to say.
"It's always necessary," Loghain said, "sooner or later."
A line of spectators circled around as Loghain and the drunkard squared off. Loghain let the man have the first strike, a hard right hook that bloodied his nose. Loghain reached up, wiped at the blood, looked at it, and then looked back at the man and grinned in a particularly unpleasant manner. There was blood in his teeth.
The man didn't get a second hit. Loghain socked him in the face with his right, followed it up with his left, then hit him with his right again, and down he went. Loghain looked around at the men in the circle.
"Anybody else have a problem with my friend?" he asked. Nobody seemed to. The crowd dispersed, and he went back inside to finish his meal.
"That was barbaric," Elilia said. Loghain laughed.
"I happen to be a barbarian," he said.
