10
He could barely pull himself away from that intense gaze. He saw no fear there, only pity; so out of place to his mind. The crashing of some chicken crates down the street was the only thing that could snap his attention away. He saw a squad of slave-guards tearing down the street in his direction. As he looked down at the slave woman he saw the first hints of fear on her face, a sad shadow that crept into her eyes. Understanding dawned on him. Though everything in his life told him otherwise, he put his whip away and turned his back on the human woman. He heard her slowly get up and after a brief pause, her footsteps running away into a nearby alley. He walked up to the squad and they halted in their tracks. "Captain what is the meaning of this ruckus?" he asked the squad's leader. The entire squad kneeled before the Master of Slaves. The hobgoblin captain grunted under his iron helmet, "Sir, we are in pursuit of an escaped slave. We saw her come down this street." Karlo felt panic rip through him, a pulsing of energy and fear that was foreign to him and began to sweat from his forehead. Any other day he would have lashed the girl, any other day he would have ran her down along with his men. What is this? He thought to himself. Why am I doing this? He looked to the slavers eagerly awaiting his command. "Ahh. Well, yes. Of course." He pointed far behind the squad and barked "There she is! She's doubled back on you! After her Captain; and do not disappoint me" he said with a sinister sneer. The squad rose and bolted back down the street whence they came. The Slave-Master looked around him. People were staring at him, and he realized he was shaking. "What are you looking at!" he thundered at them. "Back to your business!" he barked with a quick crack of his whip. What the fuck just happened? he thought. He wiped his brow and began the march back to his chambers, where many spirits were waiting to be drunk.
Karlo awoke to the dripping of water from the thicket ceiling onto his wet face. Morning light poured in through the dew covered branches above him. Karlo sat up and turned to see Drazheen warming himself by a meager fire just outside the thicket entrance. Barabas was still asleep, snoring deeply at his left. He wiped his face, noting the mixture of sweat and dew. He stood up and cracked his back, twisting from side to side. He walked out to the fire and saw Drazheen roasting several fat caterpillars on angled sticks in the ground. The plump little insects looked like sausages to his eyes. He sat down on a small boulder across from the kobold. "Morning. Nice little breakfast you have going here, druid. I thought after that bug spirit the other day you wouldn't be eating their kind." Drazheen shook his head, "To deny myself their nutritious bodies would be more insult than anything. The huntsman who slays a deer for food is just as natural as the pack of wolves that devours him after. Besides, look at the size of these things!" he said excitedly as he shook a skewered grub at Karlo. He closed his eyes and spoke to the insect, "I thank you for this gift, and readily receive your offering." He then popped the grub in his mouth and chewed eagerly. Karlo looked in disgust as he heard a popping, crunching noise coming from the grub and watched green juices run down the edges of Drazheen's mouth. Drazheen noticed his look. "You wan' one?" he asked, offering a skewer to Karlo. The hobgoblin smiled wanly, "Uhhhh thanks, but I've suddenly lost my appetite. Enjoy yourself." Drazheen shrugged, "More for me."
Barabas rolled over in his sleep and half of the mossy thicket collapsed on him. "Heyyyy!" he groaned. He stood up and destroyed the small thicket in the process, casting bits of branch and moss off into the forest. He looked around confused and then saw his two friends. "Ooo sausage!" he exclaimed and snatched up a handful of the skewers and popped them into his mouth. He swallowed them without hardly chewing and said, "These good! Juicy and crunchy! Good job Drazheen!" he sat down cross legged at the fire and outstretched his hands for more. Drazheen rolled his eyes and passed the last one to the half-ogre with a resigned sigh, "Suit yourself, fatty."
Karlo searched in his pack for the old tome from the day before. The cover of the book was made of old wood, ancient but not rotting. To his touch the wood was warm but as hard as iron. A symbol was etched into the spine of the tome, a circle with a curving four-point star through it and a bending tail ending the right arm of the star. His heart started racing as he recognized the symbol, the crest of the Kingwitch. He had seen this symbol before; primitively painted on a cave wall in Zorndyka. That day he had learned of the Kingwitch and set out on his quest to find the spectral figure. He hurriedly pried the tome open and perused through the pages, eyes scanning wildly. He saw written in an old dialect of Common the means to pry knowledge from the dead. He briefly saw the history and origins of the rituals and the potential uses and dangers of such magic. Undoubtedly, the tome's magic and sinister vibe belonged to the Kingwitch. "We have to go back" said the rogue. "We have to see what else that pirate captain knows about this book. It belongs or belonged to the Kingwitch." The two companions stopped their chat and turned to Karlo, surprise and disbelief evident on their faces. "What?!" they said in unison. He showed them the crest on the spine and summarized the book's contents.
"Nope. No way. We barely got out of there the first time!" cried Drazheen. Barabas scratched his head uncomfortably, then said; "Ummm. Maybe Drazheen right…" Karlo glared at them. "You know this is the closest we've come in months. We can't let this opportunity pass us up." The three of them stared distantly into the smoking remains of the fire. Suddenly Drazheen piped up, "Wait! Didn't that guy say something about getting the book from a shipwreck?" Karlo vaguely recalled the captain saying something to that effect. "I think you're right, but we don't know where the ship is. That's a bit of a problem Drazheen." "So what? Let's go check out the beach! It's better than going back to that" he gestured off into the forest. Barabas absently played with his shark jaw neckpiece, "Sounds good." Karlo shrugged, "Fine." The others cheered triumphantly. "But if we don't find any ship there, we're going back" he said with grim purpose. The others nodded equally grim.
A short time later they doused their fire with urine, gathered their belongings, and headed out once more through the forest. They travelled as due East as they could guess, hoping that direction to be the nearest shore. The forest grew denser as they marched, the songs of birds becoming less frequent. The canopy grew together and blocked out the sun with a deep green glow replacing the sharp yellow sunlight. The air became heavy with humidity and a low fog swarmed around their ankles when they felt as if they were being watched. They heard not the sounds of birds nor the repetitive chirps and buzzing of insects. They began to become disoriented and wet, their clothes heavy with moisture. The three kept seeing slight movements in their peripheries, though they decided to chalk it up to hallucinations brought on by the fog and exhaustion. Occasionally they would feel a slight gust of the warm air descend on them, and heard whooshing noises. They were about to collapse and sit for a short rest when they heard shouts far behind them in the forest and heard two resounding gunshots echo out through the dark forest. The three friend's hearts began racing with fear and adrenaline. "Pirates!" whispered Karlo anxiously. Drazheen nodded. He then whispered in agreement, "We gotta get out of here!" With newfound energy they hurriedly sprinted off away from the sound of their pursuers.
Sprinting through the dense forest they burst through a thin wall of vines and all three tripped, falling down an unseen slope. They each rolled and bounced down the steep incline, barely missing smashing into the ancient trees lining the hillside. The Half-Knots slid and rolled end over end into a small clearing in a large pile of tangled and bruised limbs. After a minute of grunts and awkward untangling, the three battered friends stood up to find a sea of spears and torches thrust into their faces. The companions were surrounded on all sides by dozens of halflings clad in furs. The halflings' tattooed faces glared up at the friends accusingly. One halfling, more muscular than the rest with a thick black mohawk, snatched a torch and held it up to the towering Barabas's face. "What are they feeding these pirates these days!" he shouted to the rest. The rest of the halflings chuckled menacingly. The laughter suddenly stopped. "We take them to the Chief!" shouted the mohawked Halfling. They were pushed and lead down an invisible pathway through the forest. The river of torches and spears wound through the dark jungle like a flaming serpent. "Out of the frying pan, and into th-" "Shut UP Drazheen!" hissed Karlo. Barabas looked confused as ever as their diminutive captors ushered them on. He thought to himself, I'm hungry. Wonder if we'll have lunch soon. And so the group marched on.