A Determined Mortal

- "I'm really glad that we don't have a mirror. I must look awful. I hate being a bag of slushing flesh," Peri grumbled.

Imoen sniggered.

- "Still I don't see that unearthly gentleness in your wake," she grinned.

- "I do not think that you look any more awful than any of us," Sarevok said. "Just travel-weary, and kind of... swollen."

- "Gee, thanks. Now I feel so much better," Peri said darkly. The feeling of helplessness, not being able to control her body precisely as a warrior should, was really getting to her. The long rides exhausted her only worse now, and the belly had really ballooned lately.

- "Soon we can not travel anymore," Jelena said.

- "I do hope we reach Shou Lung before that," Winski said. "I wouldn't want the baby born in a tent village."

The party stopped for the night at a trading post, paying to sleep in a jurt. Water for washing themselves was not on sale. It was too scarce.

- "When this trip is over I am going to sit in a hot tub for months breastfeeding the baby, slaves carrying me food..." Peri sighed dreamily.

- "And those slaves would be us, would they?" Sarevok grinned. "Seeing as you don't approve of slavery on general principle."

- "I could make an exception in this case," Peri said.

Jelena unfastened the leather flap serving as the door of the jurt, and entered carrying a basket, two strangers in tow.

- "Meet Aaron and Sara Fielding. Merchants from Cormyr," she said.

The merchant couple seemed upset about something.

- "You are traveling to Shou Lung? Have you heard what is going on here?" the man asked.

- "No, but we have noticed that there are less and less caravans heading west," Peri replied.

- "Too right, and... oh, poor child! Pregnant in this situation..." the woman said, looking at Peri's stomach and not her eyes, which annoyed her. Still, Peri said nothing for now.

- "We have traveled the Golden Way for ten years," Aaron Fielding explained. "Of course there are the bandits demanding toll or bribes now and then, but that is something you can take into account in beforehand... we have exported armor and cloth to Shou Lung and brought silk and spices back. Nice, steady income. But now, there is something stirring in the north."

- "According to my source materials the lands there are barely suitable for living, and there only live barbaric nomads skirmishing with crude weapons and with no clear aims. Of course, such accounts are always written from a biased point of view..." Winski said, frowning.

- "That is the thing," Sara Fielding said. "They raid the caravans now, and with much more vigor than before. The guards fall like reaped grass, and there is talk of a real war."

- "Seems that there is a new warlord, seeking to unite the tribes, and she has already had some success. The merchants are terrified to leave Shou Lung - some of the caravans have been completely annihilated, others have lost all their goods. People stay in Min Low, that is along the Spice Road, or Yen Ching, which is closer to the border and the Dragon wall," her husband continued.

- "What does this new warlord intend?" Sarevok asked. His eyes darkened - once an evil overlord himself he knew that what they generally wanted was seldom anything good for other people involved.

- "No-one knows," the merchant man sighed. "To unite the tribes the least, perhaps form an empire on the Plain of Horses. Some people even say that she might plan on invading Shou Lung, but that seems highly dubious. How could a bunch of two-bit desert bandits fare against the might of the Shou? They are outnumbered to boot, vastly so."

- "Never underestimate a determined mortal," Peri said. "Strength of spirit is much more than people generally realize."

- "What do you know of life, girl," the man laughed paternally. "When you have lived as long as..."

At this point, seeing Peri's expression, Winski steered the couple out, promising to buy them drinks.

- "Smug bastard!" Peri spat. "I will plaster a sign on my forehead saying that I am immortal and played dice with the very forces of the cosmos."

Jelena smiled and peeked into her basket.

- "Look what I found for you! An egg, and some dried fruit, and some fresh cheese. Now eat."

- "I'm too angry to eat," Peri said stubbornly.

- "Your baby is hungry," Jelena said, still offering her food.

Peri started to munch, but the frown of irritation never left her forehead.