K and K 7

They stayed in Twithley only long enough for Rick to cast a spell to identify each of the items that they had gained as payment for defending the town against the Orc attack. "You really have had an adventure," Rick chuckled at his friends. That was followed by him listening to Katherine's tale of what happened to her and her village. "I'm truly sorry for the pain you have gone through." Katherine actually found herself being hugged by him and going soft in his arms as she enjoyed his hug greatly.

"We need to get moving in the morning after we pick up some supplies," Rick told them."I don't have much money left to buy supplies with," Katherine pointed out since she had spent heavily at the auction though she was happy with her purchases. "You let us worry about the travel rations. Just keep catching fresh meat and we'll call it even," Javi told her since his wolf seemed to like having fresh meat each day much like her wolf did.

Combined they had more than enough coin to purchase potions of Cure Light Wounds for everyone, including Katherine, at 50 gold pieces each and enough travel rations and feed for all of the horses for two weeks. They journeyed out of town, their funds somewhat depleted. Ironically Katherine was now probably almost as rich as the rest of them with her 44 silver pieces that she had stolen off of the Orcs along with a number of copper pieces.

Katherine soon found that Javi, being a Ranger, was out in front along with his wolf Storm. Lanie was next. Kevin was just off her side a horse length behind her while she and Rick traveled side by side with Dapper trotting alongside her.

"Is there a reason why we're traveling to this town in the mountains? Relfrin, is that correct?" Katherine asked him. "One reason is because it's one of the few passes through the mountains that typically doesn't have any trouble with monsters attacking it. The other side of the mountain contains many cities and opportunities to make money and names for ourselves. There are lots of job opportunities on the other side and bigger cities with more gold than they know what to do with," Rick responded.

"How did you become a Wizard?" Katherine questioned him, not knowing much about him, except that she loved his eyes. And the rest of him was easy to look at, too. "My mother died in childbirth and I didn't know who my father was. I was a rather obnoxious child and essentially grew up on my own. I trusted no one and stole what I needed to keep me alive. Finally I stole from the wrong person and got caught. Rather than turning me over to the Constable he kept me and started teaching me to be a person. Naturally I didn't take his trying to help me well. The problem was he was always one step out in front of me. I was pretty sure I was being careful and in a few cases I knew I hadn't even talked to myself about one action."

"He had a room that I was ordered to stay out of if I wanted a to keep a roof over my head," Rick told her and reflected back on those days. "I take it you didn't listen?" Katherine asked, not sure it really was a question. "That would be putting in mildly." Rick chuckled lightly. "However getting into that room wasn't that easy. Still I managed to get in. I had to solve a number of puzzles to gain access." Rick started laughing which put Katherine at ease since he was likely laughing at himself.

"I thought my way into my new room where he was going to teach me how to be a Wizard. The bastard had tricked me into stop acting like a child thief and to think like an adult. I spent years in that room learning, soaking up everything he could teach me," Rick explained. "Really?" Katherine glared at him which had him chuckling again. "Fine. I let him teach me then used what I'd learned to get back at him, to find his gold and other treasures."

"The last laugh was on me. While I was fighting back he was teaching me what it meant to be a Wizard. It didn't hurt that I was an avid reader. I read every book he put in front of me; I think he spent a fortune buying me books or scrolls to read," Rick said smiling.

"Where is he now?" Katherine inquired. "Dead. He caught a bug that the local clerics couldn't seem to get rid of no matter how many tried or what spell they cast on him. The bastard taught me to be a man and a Wizard then he up and died on me." Katherine was sure she saw a tear that he wiped away surreptitiously but she still noticed.

"You loved him." Katherine was catching on. Rick turned to look at her which gave her a chance to get lost in his blue eyes. "Yeah, he got under my skin, the little shit. I so tried to rebel at him; instead I ended up loving him like the father that I never had. He got the last laugh though. The little shit didn't leave me a thing except a note," Rick told her. "What did it say?" Katherine asked. Rick reached into his clothes and pulled out a small book that she would later learn was his traveling spell book. He studied it daily so he could memorize his spells for the day after he had cast any.

He pulled out a well-worn piece of paper and reached across to hand it to her as she reached to take it. It looked old; it had been handled a lot and folded so often that the folds were now a permanent part of it. Katherine opened it and saw a well-written and embellished note.

Richard,

I've done my best for you, my son. It's now up to you to show me what you have learned and be the best man you can be. I hate you too, my son. Yet I love you so much, you little bastard.

~Father

Katherine could feel tears rolling down her cheeks as she folded it back up like she found it. "He was your father." She looked at the square of folded paper before handing it back to him. "At first I railed against the information and screamed obscenities at him. I came very close to burning this little piece of paper. ...Now I love the bastard and wonder why he never told me. Still I am who I am today because of him...curse him." Rick tucked the piece of paper back in his book and wiped away a tear not trying to hide it this time.

"So why a Druid?" he asked since she now knew why he was a Wizard. That made Katherine smile which didn't happen often now a days after losing her family.

"My parents owned land filled with nut trees. Walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans. Have you ever seen a walnut still on the tree?" Katherine asked him but didn't wait for a reply before she continued. "Inside that hard shell is the walnut that you are after. Outside of the hard shell is the husk, that when ripe, falls off the tree. When it's ripe the husk is mushy and is black inside. It stains your hands black. I can remember my parents coming home during harvest time with black hands. The whole hand and it doesn't wash off, it only wears off with time. When I became old enough I joined them out in the field and I came home with black hands just like my parents did."

"However before then I was left in the care of my grandmother. She used to be a junior member of the Druid Council. There are only ever 12 members of the council," Katherine said which told him just how powerful her grandmother had been.

"She caught me sneaking out to spend time with our neighbor's herd, getting them to stay calm when the wolves would howl. She told me stories and I eventually asked her if I could learn to be a Druid," Katherine paused as she remembered her grandmother before she got sick. "Gran began teaching me everything she could. She gave me tasks to perform and I had to come back with proof that I had accomplished the task. She kept telling me that I had a blessed blood line, that one day I would learn what it was and be able to tap into it. I still don't know what she was talking about though. ...But then Gran became ill and no one, including her, could do anything about it. I watched her get weaker day after day until one day I showed up at her house and she didn't answer the door. A few months later the Orcs came and killed everyone then ransacked the town."

"I was out chasing a stupid goat who decided that he was now a mountain goat. I watched them ride in. It was horrific. I saw them kill everyone and everything, even livestock. After they left, there was next to nothing behind. However when Gran lay ill and suffering, she told me where she had hidden her most precious items: her armor, her scimitar, and her backpack. She told me what they could do when I became strong enough to take advantage of their full power. I took them with me when I left what remained of my home. My Gran meant a lot to me," Katherine said as she wiped away some tears that escaped.

"Now I understand why you hate Orcs so much. And just so you know, Half-Orcs hate Orcs almost as much as you do if not more. In their case they hate half of themselves and blame Orcs for what they are. Actually hate what they are," Rick offered for future information.

"Rick?" Katherine had a question. "Hmm?" was his response. "How do you know so much? Cockatrice, Half-Orcs, Halflings?" She gave him some examples. Rick chuckled. "You can blame my father for that. In between being taught how to cast spells, I spent my time reading and learning. He had thousands of books and scrolls and he made me read each and every one of them in the beginning. And when I finished those he went out and got me more," he explained.

She scrunched up her face trying to figure out how he had time to read that much. He looked to be only a few years older than her. "I'm able to read very quickly. Give me an hour and I'll have read the entire book. I also have an eidetic memory, meaning I remember everything. Open a book, tell me the page number, and I'll tell you every word on that page," Rick told her. Katherine stared at him with her mouth hanging open. She always thought her memory and processing skills were pretty good. Her gran had told her so. But to actually remember everything that easily... "I'll remember that should I come across a book or scroll in case it's one you haven't read."

"Thanks, that's thoughtful of you. I appreciate that." Rick was being sincere since reading was actually something he had learned to love thanks to his father. He didn't have anything with him that he hadn't already read.

They had been traveling for days, and except for some locals, hadn't seen anyone on the road coming or going. Javi fell back to join the others. "Something's going on. This pass is the only one for miles and it should be heavily traveled. At the very least we should have seen a caravan carrying candy," Javi pointed out uneasily.

"A landslide perhaps?" Katherine suggested since the rocks she was looking at up ahead looked like they might be loose. "That's a possibility though someone from town would have found out about it and started work on clearing it," Javi said. "Maybe it's recent," Katherine countered. They agreed it was possible, still when they started back up again Javi was out in front of the group a good distance and Storm was even farther ahead.

Katherine stopped and turned to look back. They were deep inside the pass and so far there had been no collapse blocking the road. The sun was just setting as she turned back and was blinded for a moment.

They were walking their horses. She was just behind a tall Caucasian male who was also dressed casually. When he turned to look at her all she saw was his blue eyes. She didn't understand why but she was drowning in them and they were making her legs weak. Kate looked down at herself and saw she was dressed casually and not very colorfully, much like the others. She too, was wearing sandals that looked well used. "Hurry up Katherine. It's only another mile or two," the Hispanic male urged her and turned back to walking. It was going to be really dark soon.

'WHAT THE HELL!?' she thought in alarm.

She was leading a horse that had saddle bags and there was a dog walking right next to her. She could also feel that there was a backpack on her back. Checking for her weapon, she found that she had a weapon alright but it wasn't a gun. It was a scimitar! AND WHAT THE HELL WAS SHE WEARING ON HER CHEST!?

Even worse, one of them knew her given name. How was that even possible? She hadn't used her full name in years. And just where the hell was she? She saw she was outside amongst tall pines on a dirt road going up into the mountains. Until she had more information she decided to just keep her mouth shut and let everyone else do the talking. Maybe they would unknowingly tell her something that would help.

They came up over a rise; what they saw was beautiful. The town they were headed for had been built inside the collapsed dome of an extinct volcano. There was even a small waterfall spilling water into a lake that disappeared into an underground river.

The town itself was relatively small while on three sides were farms since the town was built up against a rock wall on one side. "We can stop and rest, get supplies, and some real food," Javi told them and started down into the volcano. As they entered the town they saw a large banner that read: Home of the Realm's Finest Cheese! "I thought you said this place made candy?" Kevin was put out since he had a sweet tooth. "It does or at least it did when I was here last," Javi answered him very perplexed because Relfrin had a history of candy making.

The first building they came to was an inn on their right. "The Lazy Cat Inn," Javi read the sign. "Stop or move on?" he asked the group. "Let's find the stables first and then look around," Rick proposed, so they kept walking. There were a number of houses on their left, all two stories with stairs on the outside to reach the upper level. Walking down the road between them they found the stables on their right, slightly elevated above the ground on a raised plateau. It had a ramp leading up to the main barn. The hostler, a man named Jonk, accepted their money though he sounded disappointed. He charged them 3 sliver pieces per night per horse and flatly refused to shelter their dogs. Since he was all alone that late at night they had to help him remove the saddles.

All of the horses appeared to be on edge and were fidgety. "Easy boy, take it easy," Javi tried to soothe his horse. Kate however had noticed that the dogs were growling. Still they left the horses behind and just took their saddle bags. Javi asked where there was an inn where they might stay the night. "One is that way and one is that way." Jonk simply pointed each direction then picked up a curry comb to start work on the first horse.

It turned out the only other inn was on another raised plateau just to their right. "The Silver Crescent Inn. At least it sounds better though it is smaller," Javi pointed out. It had a wide set of stairs and as they went up Javi noticed that the entire building was sitting on wood pilings and pointed that out to the others. Walking inside they found that there was a tavern on the ground floor with rooms on the second floor. There were only a handful of people inside with several empty tables. "Maybe it isn't the better of the two," Javi admitted, not liking that it was so empty. If the food and drink was actually any good it would be busier. "Perhaps it's not late enough?" Lanie put forward. Still they found out there were only two empty rooms left for the night, one for the men and one for the women. "Your dogs make a mess and I'll charge you double then make you to scrub the floor," the innkeeper warned them. Javi accepted while Kate, when they looked at her, simply nodded. 'So one of the dogs is mine!?' she thought in dismay.

The room Lanie and Kate found themselves in was simple enough and had cots so they were at least off of the floor. "What was he?" Kate asked the woman with her. "You've never seen an Elf before?" Lanie questioned in disbelief. Kate did her best to hide her shock. 'An elf? A real live elf!?'

The door had no lock. The men's room was across the hall and Lanie stepped into their doorway. "No locks," she pointed out. "I have a spell to lock ours but not another spell for yours," Rick said. "We can leave Storm and Dapper inside your room," Javi offered. Even though Kate didn't want anything to do with the dogs she nodded in agreement so they wouldn't think something was wrong.

Back downstairs they looked around the tavern. Kate thought it was a dive and didn't see any lights except for burning torches in holders on the walls and braziers on the floor. The windows were open and there was no glass. "Actually this place isn't that bad. A little rough maybe but I've been in worse," Javi revealed. Kate's eyes widened in surprise at his statement. "Food for the dogs?" Javi inquired of the innkeeper and was told there was a chicken farm on their way out, that way. And he pointed.

"I'll get them," Javi offered. "Order me something to eat. I'll be back." And he walked out the door and wandered through town till he located the small farm. He found that he literally had to go through the farm to get to the single building on the property. Javi opened the gate and was immediately confronted by a goat with horns that tried to butt him back out the gate. "Easy boy, take it easy," Javi crooned and after a minute of petting and scratching the goat, it calmed down. When he found the goat's weak spot and scratched it, the goat thanked him with a lick.

The building had just one door so he opened it and found a small room with two doors. "What want?" a rough voice asked. Javi looked around but didn't see anyone. He finally gave up and said, "I need food for two wolves. I'm told you have chickens." It really wasn't what he wanted but it would do. "Chickens, pigs, goats," the rough voice answered. That had Javi thinking. "One goat would be good," he replied knowing that he could gut it and feed it to Storm and Dapper.

Javi stood there and waited for a response. Finally he couldn't take it any longer and opened the door that had a hole cut in it and saw a man tying a small goat into place. He noticed that the man turned his face away quickly, but not quickly enough. Javi saw that his face was badly burned and heavily scared along with the top of his head. "Our party has a Cleric and can probably heal those burns and perhaps your scars for you," Javi said, offering up Lanie's help without a second thought. "No, no help!" the farmer replied. "I'm pretty sure she can, I'll go get her." Javi left ignoring the farmer's protests.

He returned in about 15 minutes with Lanie in tow. But the man was gone, the goat still there and a written bill to purchase it. Lanie, however, didn't take no for an answer and found him outside in the pig pen hiding behind a fence. "NO, Father Thero says no help!" The farmer retreated farther into the pig pen while hiding his face.

Lanie looked at all the mud and cursed internally, but she slogged out into the mud until she was close enough to cast a spell on him, Cure Light Wounds, and she held out a potion. "This will help, I promise. I'm a Cleric of the Sun God Pelor. All I want to do is help you," Lanie tried to convince him. She did get him to take the potion from her but he wouldn't drink. "Please drink, it's good for you. I swear," she coaxed. Lanie wanted to see him do it.

Lanie wouldn't leave until he drank the potion and handed back the empty vial. "I'll be back in the morning to check on you. We'll pay for the goat and leave you in peace." Lanie did her best to slog back out of the mud pit and join Javi. She made a disgusted face at her mud-covered her feet and legs. "You owe me for this." She stopped outside, picked up a broken stick, and tried scraping the mud off while cursing Javi's name. Javi just smiled knowing she didn't mean it and was glad he'd brought her to the farmer.

Javi gutted the goat outside and took the halved carcass up to the room to feed their wolves. Meanwhile Kate picked at her dinner. 'Where the hell was she, who were these people and what was this slop!? And he really did look like an elf with those ears and complexion.' She was forcing her food down just as Javi came back downstairs. He found his dinner waiting for him. "This isn't bad," he remarked and dug in. Lanie came in after scraping off the mud. "The farmer had been badly burned fairly recently. I did what I could and I'll go back to look in on him in the morning. I can't believe there's no healer here who could help him!" Lanie exclaimed.

"Not hungry?" Rick looked at her as Kate willed herself not to look into his eyes. 'Don't look, don't look!' Except she did and lost herself in them. "You okay?" Heaven help her! His eyes were getting closer and she was willing him to kiss her. "Maybe you should go to your room and get some sleep. We've been riding pretty hard lately," Rick said and placed the back of his hand on her forehead checking for fever.

Kate squeezed her eyes closed and willed herself to regain her mind. "Yeah, good idea," she mumbled. She liked it since it got her away from them and into the room she would be sharing with the other woman. It gave her time alone so she could search her backpack for clues as to what the hell was going on. Kate faked struggling up the stairs to her room. The only problem was there were two dogs inside one of which was happy to see her and was begging her to pet him, while the other did the same, just not as enthusiastically.

"I'm in big trouble," Kate said to herself as she searched Lanie's backpack for clues followed by searching the one she had been carrying. "How the hell is there so much junk inside this thing?" she wondered as she had everything laid out on the cot along with a part of the floor. She started doing an inventory as she stuffed it all back inside the bag. She stood up after finishing. "How do I get this...thing off?" Kate started playing with the leaves and belt made of leaves. "Leaves, really!?" She quickly found that they were sewn together with a type of thread she had never seen before.

Kate was only just lying down in her cot after finally getting her armor and weapon off when Lanie stepped inside. Or more accurately wobbled inside. Kate had no trouble smelling alcohol wafting off of her when Lanie bent down to try to take her shoes off which still had dried mud on them.

'Alcohol! Why didn't I think of that? I could really use a good belt about now...'