Chapter four.
Brenda looked out the window in the morning to see an armored paladin tying up her horse out side the farmhouse. She moved away from the window unsure what to do. She could easily guess that she had come to ask questions about the drow in her home.
"Hello," the paladin called, knocking loudly on the door. Shen grew fearful, and dropped her sewing to her lap, and Brenda turned to her quickly.
"Don't worry," Brenda said quickly. "It is not against the law to have a guest in one's home, even if that guest is a drow. I'll go and answer the door."
"I am Aliemina Suresong, of the district order of the paladins," said the woman at the door. She stood straight, and was quite tall, with long dark hair in a long braid, hung over one shoulder. Her light armor shone bright in the sun, and she took her metal helmet off, and held it in one hand. "I am here about a drow that has been sighted by several people in this area."
"Oh?" said Brenda, unsure what to say.
"I have inquired at other farms nearby," the paladin continued. "It seems that most folks I talked to either had no idea about any drow, or they said that she seems to be staying in your house. Can you tell me truthfully if this information is correct?"
"It is not a crime," Brenda said, sounding slightly more defensive than she had intended.
"No, It is not a crime," the paladin answered, "in fact, taking in a person in need is an honorable thing to do indeed. However, this is a drow; a race known for killing large numbers of innocents, and as a paladin, it is my sworn duty to protect the innocent. I can not just have a drow running around in the midst of the local farmers, now can I?"
"Shen is not a killer," Brenda said, become annoyed. "She ran from home to avoid... I can't tell you. I promised her that I would tell no one."
"Well, someone here had better tell me something soon," said Aliemina. "Let me talk with this drow? I will get to the bottom of this, so help me god."
"I don't think that she will talk with you," Brenda said. "Shen is very fearful, and shy. Please, don't make her do that."
"No one has given me much choice," the paladin answered. "Please go and call her out."
"Fine," Brenda replied. "I will do my best. Please come in, and sit down in the living room." She walked away into the hall, muttering to herself under her breath. It took a good while, but Brenda soon returned, leading a very nervous young drow woman by the arm. The paladin eyed Shen with bitterness, and Shen stared her down for several seconds, before looking at the ground in fear.
The paladin interrogated the drow for quite a long time, asking her everything she could about where she had come from, and why she was there on the farm. Shen, for the most part, just looked at the floor and refused to answer. By the end of the interview, the poor young lady was trembling in fear, and crying uncontrollably.
"Enough of this," Brenda said to the paladin. "It is high time I showed you out."
"I have heard enough," said Aliemina.
"Good," Brenda told her, "because, as I said, you are leaving now. This has gone too far. You have pushed her too hard to say things that she can't say."
"Before I leave, I would like to announce my decision," the paladin said. "If I could just speak with you privately for a few moments I will..."
"Not a slim chance of that," Brenda said, pulling Shen into her arms. "Anything you have to say to me, you can say it in her presence." The paladin looked quite annoyed for a moment before speaking again."
"Fine. I will say it to both of you. I came here looking for a reason to chase that drow off your farm. I can't for the life of me find one single reason. You have gotten lucky. I can do nothing about this at the moment... but you drow, had better watch your step around here. One mistake and you are outta here. Good day." She put her helmet back into her head, and let Brenda show her to the door.
"Protecting the innocent I'm sure," Brenda mumbled sarcastically, as she walked back to Shen. "She is just being nothing but a busybody. I ought to report her actions to the paladin order."
"Will I be allowed to stay then?" Shen asked. Brenda nodded.
"She can't do anything about it. You haven't done anything wrong."
"When is your husband coming back home?" Shen asked, suddenly changing the subject.
"In about six days now," Brenda replied.
"What are you going to tell him... about me? I know that he didn't want you to help me. I heard him forbid you one night to help."
"You have better hearing than I thought," Brenda replied. "Yes, he did forbid me. I will tell him about you when he gets back. He will understand everything when he meets you, and be alright with it. He loves to help people as much as I do?"
Brenda had a second encounter with the paladin the fallowing morning as she was out tending to her garden. She was pulling weeds from her tomato plants, when she looked up the see Aliemina ride up on her horse.
"What can I do for you this morning?" she asked with faked friendliness.
"I'm just coming by to see to it that there is no trouble from that drow," the paladin answered sweetly. "I will be by a lot now that she is here. I need to protect the innocents around here. Good day. If you ever have need of help, wait for me to come, and let me know." She rode off, and Brenda began to pull up the weeds a little roughly, in anger, muttering to herself.
Brenda was awoken late that night from a deep sleep. She heard the door to the house shut with a firm bang, fallowed by heavy footsteps across the kitchen, then the sound of something heavy falling to the floor. She heard a woman, presumably Shen, scream with fright in the living room.
"Son of a..." a man yelled, and Shen screeched a high pitched shriek, fallowed by the sound of her little running feet.
"I am going to god darn well kill you!" the man bellowed, and Brenda heard the sound of him grabbing one of her kitchen knives from a cupboard.
"Get out," Shen screamed.
"Get out?" the man yelled loudly. "Oh, you think so? This is MY house."
"Alfred," Brenda muttered in sudden realization. She figured out that he must have got home a few days early, and more than a little drunk.
"He must think Shen got in here just now to hurt me," she muttered jumping out of bed to go and fix the problem. She clumsily fell over a nightstand in the dark, and fell to her knees. Shen screeched again, and then nothing but silence was heard for a moment, before the sound of glass breaking against a wall.
"Darn it all to heck," Alfred was shouting in the middle of the living room, when Brenda finally came out, rubbing her knee that she had banged after tripping over.
"Alfred," she said loudly from the edge of the hallway.
"I... I am..." Shen stammered, backing away slowly.
"Don't move Bren," Alfred called back, stumbling drunkenly. "That awful drow has gotten in here somehow. I'll take care of this very quickly." He picked up the broken handle of an old ax and swung it around wildly, knocking over his wife's iron cooking pots from on top of a shelf. They hit the wooden floor making a great deal of noise. "I will get you now, you rotten little, no good..."
"Alfred, no," Brenda yelled, "don't do..." She took a quick step forward.
"Bren, stay back," Alfred said loudly, quickly turning on two oil lamps, evidently trying to momentarily blind Shen.
"Let's see how well you can move about in the light, eh? You good for nothing..."
He advanced toward the drow, who had flattened herself against the wall shaking, as he held the knife up in the air, evidently ready to attack her. Brenda was momentarily filled with horror, before Shen suddenly cast a globe of darkness on the room. She could not see a thing in the pitch blackness. Apparently neither could Alfred. Brenda heard him crash against a wall, cursing madly. Brenda felt a trembling body flatten itself against her in the darkness, and she put her arms around the small young woman. Shen was shaking, and on the verge of tears.
"Shen," Brenda said. "Can you get rid of the darkness please?" The drow complied, and soon the lighted oil lamps shone again in the room.
"What on God's green earth?" Alfred demanded, turning around to see the drow with his wife. "Brenda, please explain why you are protecting this little..."
"Alfred, this is Shen. I took her in, trying to help her after you left. Shen, this is my husband, Alfred," Brenda explained, looking in disgust at the ruins of the living room.
"Go up to bed," she told her husband. "You are drunk out of your tree. You almost hurt Shen, and look at this mess."
"Of course I nearly hurt her," Alfred yelled. "It isn't every day that I come home from a long trip, and find a drow in my house. I thought she had broken in to kill us."
"You could have let her explain herself," Brenda told him. "She was trying to talk to you before you tried to hit her with an ax."
"I was not about to hear any explanations from one of her kind, Brenda."
"Alfred!"
"Don't you go talking back to me. I forbade you to help that little beast. What are you doing disobeying my request?"
"How dare you... Shen is not a beast. You don't understand, and you never will. You apologize to her this instant."
"I will not!"
"Well, you have to say something. Honestly, what has gotten into you lately. You are acting completely... completely..."
"Completely what, Brenda?"
"Like a complete barbarian," Brenda yelled, as Shen ran from the room, and hurried into the hallway, making for the back door.
"How dare you!" Alfred roared, slamming his fist against the wall.
"How dare I what? Speak the truth? Care for someone the world turned it's back on. Just go to bed, before you pass out."
"This isn't over," Alfred muttered, on his way to bed.
"Yeah yeah," Brenda mumbled, as she stepped outside to find Shen.
She found her huddled under the low hanging branches of a willow tree, near the fence. She was looking up at the nearly rising sun, and crying. Brenda crawled under the tree beside her, and She moved closer, to be hugged.
"I wish I was your daughter," she said suddenly.
"Why," Brenda asked, greatly surprised by the comment.
"Because my own mother never protected me, and you do."
"Your mother didn't protect you?" Brenda asked, trying to understand. Shen shook her head.
"When, many times in my childhood, I was beaten by the clerics, mother never cared much. She said that I should learn the ways of the drow, so they would stop beating me, and that was that. She never knew that I could not do what was asked of me, because I would hate myself if I did."
"You are so different from your people," Brenda said. "You have so much love in your heart."
"I want to be different from them," Shen said. "I don't want to live like they do. Killing for gain, and pleasure, getting rid of all those who stand in my way. I have always wished I was human, or even an elf. I don't like me much."
"Oh Shen," said Brenda. "Always love who you are, and what you are. One day the world will love you for just being you."
"I don't think so at all," Shen replied. "People see me, and fear me, just for what I am. That paladin doesn't trust me at all, and your husband just tried to kill me."
"They don't know you like I do," Brenda answered. "We should be in bed. It is almost time to get up again."
Well, one more down, a few more to go. I was trying in this chapter to write in both some humor, and some seriousness. Please don't think that Shen is too weak, to too timid. I made her that way on purpose, wanting to be much different from most other drow. As always, your reviews are most welcomed, and encouraged. I will try to get the next chapter up soon.