MY ONE-SHOTS
Summary (by my brother Falcon): Canach is in Grothmar Valley without an invitation. He does not have his bombs (he is inconvenienced). The Commander found him and got him to come to Jora's Keep. He still doesn't have his bombs (but he'll manage). The Commander and Braham left to look for some people, but Canach doesn't have his bombs (he's grumpy about it). They don't come back, so he goes looking for them in the cold. He doesn't have his bombs (he is highly irritated). Instead he finds some Icebrood and kills them with his sword. But he still doesn't have his bombs (he is mad about it). Then he finds more Icebrood and gets lost, and he wants to blow them up. But he doesn't have his bombs (he is getting very angry). A voice leads him to the Commander, and the voice is Jormag. Canach leaves to get his bombs.
Chapter fifteen: Bombs
Author's Note:
I wrote this for my sister, Eden, as a Christmas present. Technically it was supposed to be for her birthday in August… but I forgot… and then I just realized I didn't do it for Christmas either, so I hurried up and wrote it. I hope she doesn't notice!
Eden is seven, so this is written for a much younger audience than what I normally write.
She requested I write something about Canach, because she's adorable and I may have overstated how hilarious Canach can be.
Spoiler level: The Icebrood Saga, episode 1, Whisper in the Dark.
Okay, here's the story now:
Canach was hiding. He wasn't supposed to be with the charr - he wasn't invited - but he wanted to know what was going on. Besides, the Commander was here, and Braham, and Rytlock. The charr in this place were not fighting, but Canach was still being very careful, because he couldn't hide as well if he had his bombs, so he'd left them behind.
He wasn't able to talk to the Commander very much and know what she was doing, but he knew where she was. And the Commander knew where he was.
So one day the Commander came to Canach and said, "Canach, General Almorra called! She needs us to come to Jora's Keep and help with the Icebrood!"
Well, Canach hadn't really expected to fight the Icebrood dragon minions, and he didn't have his bombs, but he had his sword! So he agreed to come, and followed the Commander and Rytlock and Marjory and Braham and maybe some others, and went through the mountains towards Jora's Keep.
Now, Jora's Keep was in the Far Shiverpeaks, which is way north of the normal Shiverpeaks, and it was very, very cold. But Canach was used to cold, because he was a tough sylvari. But also, being used to it did not mean he liked it, so he was already slightly grouchy when they got to Jora's Keep.
He stopped being grouchy immediately, because something was very wrong. There was nobody there. It was very quiet.
The Commander Tiffany opened a door in one of the buildings, and all that was there was dead people. Now, this was starting to creep out Canach, and everyone else as well.
Braham and the Commander had a talk in the corner, and then they both left. Canach decided to stay at Jora's Keep, where everybody else was making a fire, because it was warm there and maybe he could help.
Also, he still didn't have his bombs. He was very good with his sword, and he could fight Icebrood dragon minions very fine with it, but it just wasn't the same as his nice big exploding bombs.
After a while though, he started frowning, because the Commander and Braham were not back yet. So he went outside the gate of Jora's Keep and stared very hard into the snow for a while. It was snowing very hard and it was hard to see. All the snow had come and filled up the footprints of the Commander and Braham, so he didn't know which way they went.
Also, it was very cold. But Canach was a very old sylvari and he had been in snow before, and he had his sword. Even if he didn't have his bombs.
So he walked out into the snow being very careful, and went in the same way as the Commander, because he saw her leave. He very soon found some Icebrood dragon minions, so he took out his sword and had a big fight.
They were very tough Icebrood dragon minions, and hard to kill, but he finally beat them and left their icy bodies knocked flat out on the snow. Very soon all the snow that kept coming would hide them, and hopefully the dragon Jormag wouldn't make more too soon.
He found a path that went between two cliffs, and he followed it until it had a fork. Now, even if the Commander and Braham came this way, he wouldn't know which way they went here, so he didn't know which way to go.
He investigated closely on both of the paths, to see if there were footprints here where there was just a little bit less snow (because the cliffs blocked some of it), but he couldn't figure it out. Maybe they never came here at all.
Some more Icebrood dragon minions came, and Canach had a very hard fight since the space between the cliffs was not very big, but at last he had them all piled up in the middle of the little open area by the fork. He wished he could set them on fire with one of his bombs, because fire was nice and warm, and explosions were very fun to watch, but he didn't have his bombs.
He realized that he didn't know which way was back home at Jora's Keep, because he had gotten all turned around in the fight. So he stood by the dead Icebrood dragon minions for a moment, getting very angry at them for getting him confused, and really wishing he had his bombs so he could explode them for it.
And then a voice said, "I can show you how to get home."
Canach frowned and thought that he didn't know who that was. He didn't know that voice, it was strange. So he said, "who are you?"
The voice made a laughing sound, but Canach didn't like it at all, because it was a mean kind of laugh. The voice said, "I am a friend," but Canach didn't believe her. He could tell it was a her because her voice sounded like it. But he had never heard the voice before in his life, so he didn't believe that she was a friend.
So then he asked a different question: "where are you?" because it was too dark with all the snow to see where she was.
The stranger laughed again and said nothing. Canach growled about it for a moment to himself, and then very quietly sneaked around to all three places where the path was to see if he could find her.
"You won't find me," said the stranger, and Canach stopped. He was thinking that she could not have heard him moving, since the wind was going very hard and making noise, and she could not have seen him, because it was too dark and snowy. So how did she know he was trying to find her?
But also he tried to think where her voice was coming from so he could find her, but then he realized that her voice wasn't coming from anywhere. He got ready to listen very hard and said, "why not? Why won't I find you?"
She laughed very hard for a long minute, and Canach listened very hard, but he could not tell. He scrunched his eyebrows up and tried to think. This not knowing where the voice was reminded him of something, but he was not exactly sure what the something was. He really wished he had his bombs. Bombs could solve every problem. Well, Canach decided maybe they didn't help so much with getting home and finding the Commander, but they could help with this stranger person. And with the Icebrood dragon minions that he was still very mad at.
Icebrood dragon minions were ICY. That meant they were very cold. And Canach was still grouchy about the cold. There was warm fire in Jora's Keep, but he couldn't get there. "Fine," he said. "How do I get home?"
The stranger said, "would you rather I show you where the Commander is?"
Canach growled. "Fine," he said again. "Where is the Commander?"
So the voice told him where to go, and he went into a forest and found the Commander and Braham.
Commander was very surprised to see him. "Canach! How did you find us?"
Canach waited for the stranger to say something - he was still thinking very hard about where she was and where her voice was coming from - but she didn't. "Somebody told me," he said.
"Somebody who?" asked the Commander.
"She wouldn't say," Canach said grouchily.
Then the stranger said, "let me in," and that was very strange. Canach gave a big frown.
The Commander said "stop" in a very hard voice.
"I can help you!" said the stranger.
"I said STOP!" the Commander shouted very loud.
And then Canach knew why the voice was coming from nowhere and why he couldn't find her. It was from inside his head. He growled very loud, because it made him think of the dragon Mordremoth.
The stranger said very politely, "you can't do this alone."
"Oh yes we can," said Canach, very angry. He was going to blow up whoever this was with his bombs, and they were going to make a very big explosion and he would enjoy every last second of it. When he had his bombs. "We stopped all the other dragons!"
Commander looked at him with surprise. "You think this is the dragon Jormag?"
Canach hadn't really meant it like that, but now that he thought about, he thought it was the dragon Jormag. "Yes," he said. He was going to need his bombs if this was Jormag. No way was he going to fight a dragon without his bombs.
"I am not surprised," the Commander said very grouchy. "We need to find Jhavi and Almorra very soon."
Canach did not know who Jhavi was, but he did not care very much. "You go find them," he said, mad and angry and cold. "I am going to go get my bombs."