TONIGHT
by Vicki Vance
Closer to the game than the movie. It's a lot better than the movie, trust me. A halfling has a problem and the only way she can see to fix it is to resort to thieving and she runs into more than she expected. Doesn't sound original, eh? At least it has a plot... This is the intricate background for a character I may never use. :'(
Rated PG-13 for themes and languages.
Disclaimer: I do not own Dungeons and Dragons. Therefore, I am making no money off of this.
Notes from me: This story is user-friendly. For instance, if you're the kind of person who doesn't know the difference between a halfling and a hobbit, it doesn't matter here. Everything is pretty self-explanatory.
Tonight.
She was going to do it tonight.
She was going to ensure her financial future tonight.
She was going to risk it all for the chance to have it all.
She was going to do the best she could.
Tonight. It was the night of all nights.
Renika Topplewood cradled a small cup of goat's milk in her small hand. She was staying away from the wine tonight. She needed every sense on high alert, her hearing clear, her eyesight sharp, her awareness uninhibited.
Across the tavern, the drunken mage accidentally let loose a spell and sparkling lights like glowing lanterns twinkled in the air. He caused a small ruckus with an elderly bard, but Renika was too focused to get distracted. The bartender, a burly human, leaned close to her.
"You all right, ma'am?" he asked with a scratchy but polite voice.
"I'm fine," she said, sitting back a bit from him. "I'll think I'll leave for the night.
Tonight.
"My mother needs me to help her with some birthday cooking. A friend of ours is having his two-hundredth birthday."
"Ahh, I understand," the bartender said. "I reckon it'd be easier to handle than this lot."
She smiled weakly and hopped off the stool, landing lightly on the dusty floor. She took a moment to tug her cloak around her and then scuttled off, literally ducking between the legs of a monstrous half-orc.
Night had fallen,
Tonight.
blanketing the suburban town with indigo darkness. Renika strode quickly through the alleyways, dodging a dangerous-looking man swathed in flowing black robes. She huddled beside an empty barrel outside a restaurant, clinging to the shadows like they were long-lost friends.
"Hist! Rock?" Renika whispered, shifting slightly into the light.
Her husband, Telaroc Quindal, emerged from the door, wiping his hands on his chef's apron. His large gnome eyes studied hers intently, as if searching for an answer to a question he asked himself every moment.
"You're still going to do it," he said at last. Renika didn't meet his keen gaze.
"We couldn't possibly afford it now," she said. "And they don't need the money and you know it."
"You don't like them because they're humans and that's it," Rock said, sighing. "You could have chosen another way of getting money."
"I don't know when this baby will be born," Renika said, her voice raising slightly. "I don't know what kind of... thing it'll be. We have to get the money before-"
"Nika, Nika," Rock said gently, holding her. "It'll be all right."
"No, it won't," she said hotly. "There's no way to tell what'll happen."
"You know..." he said delicately, shifting his foot in the dirt. "We could... ask for help."
"And go public with this?" she cried. "My family would be shamed! The Quindal's would be associated with the Topplewood's. You know our families didn't approve of our relationship. You know we married in secret for a reason. Halflings and gnomes simply don't mix."
"That's according to their standards," Rock said smoothly.
"Yes, well, according to their standards, dragons and halflings don't mix either," she said, her voice quieting as she rubbed her belly.
Rock was quiet for a long time. Renika wanted to say more, but she didn't want to break the silence. She wasn't that strong.
"There's nothing I can say that'll make you change your mind," Rock said, studying her carefully.
"Nothing," Renika repeated.
"And you will do this tonight?"
Tonight.
"When else?"
"I know I can't stop you," he said softly. "And I can't forgive myself if I help you. But I don't want to leave you alone."
"I can take care of myself," she said. "Don't worry. By tomorrow morning, it'll all be over."
"No, by tomorrow morning, it'll be only the beginning," he said, but she didn't hear him because she'd left.
The Ravenskye's were the richest family in the surrounding hundred mile area. Half the family was made of merchants who prospered heavily from the ports and the rest were women who cooked the finest, most coveted dishes for miles. They owned a castle with a sweeping mansion within and harbored the most money on this side of the ground.
They owned everything in the town. The taverns, the shops, the inns, even the very restaurant Rock worked at. Renika, working as a seamstress, had politely asked for more money when she learned she was pregnant with a dragon's child. She had been, quiet rudely, refused.
Renika had always had bad luck with humans. She hated the way they looked down on her, even though she was half their height. And the way they said her name, like it was a name suitable for a child. Elves weren't much better, living so bloody long and frolicking in their natural magical abilities. Dwarves were too round and hairy to care for. Besides, they were much to gruff and mountainous to live a comfortable life with. Renika found the bumbling, stupid demeanor of most half-orcs rather cute, just as long as they didn't step on you or want to smash you.
And halflings were just, well, halflings. Nothing out of the ordinary.
But gnomes were handsome. The women looked a little strange but the men were just plain exotic. That had led her to Rock and their marriage. So far, they had been unable to conceive a child and Renika had feared it would never be. After all, she was a woman and she ached to have a little baby she could hold and raise and teach.
But Rock came to her one night, almost as if in a dream. The next morning however, he was missing. She'd learned Rock had been detained through the night
Tonight.
by a paladin on one of their pro-good con-evil quests of glory and riches. He'd thought Rock had been someone called Igsenki the Illusionist because he could do meager magic tricks. Troubled by the nights events, she told Rock what had happened and they searched their hovel in search of clues.
They found a note tucked under her pillow. A message in lovely penmanship on soft parchment had been written: I hope I have granted something special unto you. May you have the child you crave so dearly. Renika and Rock spent most of their savings to have the message analyzed by a diviner. He identified it as being written by a gold dragon.
Thus began the nightmare
Tonight.
that haunted Renika's moral code and conscience. She would have to give birth to a half-dragon and had no idea what to expect. She'd have to raise a freak of a child. It had been hard enough having a gnome for a husband but now this... This overwhelmed her to the point where she considered desperate plans to save her dignity.
She considered killing herself, but knew Yondalla, goddess of the halflings, would not approve. She tried to imagine having the child and raising it, but the question of finances came into play. Certainly, a child like that would have special needs and special needs were expensive.
But then there was another choice she considered. A choice that was expensive, but it was a quick and permanent fix. She had heard of wizards or clerics or some magical person who would perform such a procedure that the baby would be removed from her womb and would die outside her body. No more baby, no more problem. She had discreetly asked around for someone who would do such a thing and found someone suitable, an ancient gnome cleric of Garl Glittergold, god of the gnomes. The gnomes valued mild trickery as a daily reminder and lesson of how to be humble while at the same time uplifting spirits. They also upheld the good of the community and the cleric agreed that having a dragon in the family would not only cripple her family but also damage the community of halfings and gnomes.
She just needed money. A lot of it.
And the Ravenskye family just happened to be drowning in platinum.
She'd spent plenty of time analyzing the castle's defenses on her many seamstress trips. She knew every crack, every weak link, every broken lock, every guard's post and which ones fell asleep on the job. She was ready for her adventure.
Before she commenced her robbery, she stopped by a metalsmith's shop and bought several picks which she would use against any lock she encountered, a mirror she intended to use to look around corners and a rope with a grabbling hook. At her belt she had her own dagger, praying she wouldn't have to use it against flesh.
She wore her darkest clothes and her softest shoes. She fixed her hair in a tight bun in the back of her head and pulled on light leathery gloves. She was ready.
Tonight.
She arrived at the castle as the moon hung in the air, casting shifting shadows on the ground. She snuck along the outside wall, moving silently as guards chattered about the magical bits and pieces they owned. She slipped through the open entrance, completely unseen to anyone.
She kept to the place where people wouldn't normally be at this time of day. In the outside area, she kept behind the stables. As she progressed inward towards one of the many vaults, she entered through the kitchens. As she got closer to her target, the security intensified. More guards were awake at their post and less chatty. Luckily, they weren't numerous and their large helmets must have obstructed their eyesight because Renkia could have sworn one must have seen her from the corner of his eye.
Knowing she was facing her last hurdle, Renika cautiously held her mirror around the corner and peered into it. There was the vault, a low, wooden chest entwined with locks. Standing in front was a heavily armored and very dark human. He held a sword as big as her in his hand. He was talking to someone she couldn't see. She strained to listen to their conversation and heard this:
"...And does this vault have many pieces of gold and platinum?"
"Of course it does," the guard said, slightly dreamily. "This one is the most loaded with riches."
"Ahh, riches," someone with a raspy voice said. "Thank you. That will be all."
Renika watched with horror as a yellowy-green liquid engulfed the guard. He fell soundlessly to the floor, save for the clank of metal. He was melting.
Renika almost dropped the mirror. She clutched her hand to her mouth, thinking she was going to be sick at the sight she'd just seen and also because she'd become suddenly aware of the acrid stench of chlorine. She heard a ticking and a tapping sound and looked around the corner with her eyes.
Someone crouched over the chest. He looked more like a reptile than a human. His naked body was covered with green scales and they were slowly growing. What began as stubs were becoming a tail and wings.
The chest opened and he grinned at the treasure within. Renika took a step back and his head snapped around to look at her as his neck elongated. He sneered at her.
"Are you spying, little girl?" he said, flicking a thin tongue out at her. "Naughty, naughty. You should be punished."
A line of acid shot out of his mouth and Renika ducked, but not quickly enough. It burned her left shoulder and she cried out, backing away as quickly as she could.
"Come back, pretty girl," he said, beginning to take the appearance of a human again so he could fit through the corridor. Renika screamed for help.
"Be silent!" he hissed. After a moment, something impossibly strong overcame Renika. Her mind was wiped blissfully blank and this man was suddenly no threat at all to her. He grinned, teeth sliding into his mouth from growing gums.
"That's better," he said. "Say good-bye, little girl."
"Good-bye," she said in a soft way. Before he could open his mouth, someone pushed her to the side and she hit the wall hard and fell flat on her back, stunned but still conscious.
She heard a freakish shriek and the sound of feet falling on the floor. A human man dressed in guard's armor collapsed beside her, his face burning with acid. The sight of melting flesh jerked her back to reality and she got clumsily to her feet and stared at the fight that was beginning around her.
The guards must have heard her screams for there were now five fighting what was slowly turning into a green dragon inside the treasure room where it was larger and he had more room to move. Three had already fallen. She heard more coming and stood aside so they could fight the unwelcome intruder.
A lovely elven woman came dashing through the corridor and immediately knelt beside one of the fallen men. Renika couldn't imagine what she could possibly do to save the man, but she immediately began to chant indistinguishable words like a prayer and held her hands over his body. Much to Renika's surprise and relief, his wounds began to heal before her eyes. He woke up and sat up groggily and the healer moved on to the next injured man, healing him also. As she moved on to the third, the first had gotten up and went on to fight the dragon.
Renika had never seen anything like this before. She'd never known just what clerics could do and now that she could see this powerful magic for herself she was in awe and amazement.
Fighters were falling but the elf was putting them back up again without appearing to loose strength. Renika noted she had to use a few more spells on some people as opposed to others and she suspected she was getting tired.
When only two men lay on the ground, she stood up and stood at the very edge of the fray and waved her hands, chanting loudly over the fight. Flames erupted directly underneath the dragon, engulfing it with fiery fury as it burst upward. She didn't even take time to observe her handiwork but returned immediately to healing fallen men.
Slowly, with eight men versus one dragon, they were beginning to win. Less men were falling and the woman was able to cast a cold spell on the dragon. Another elven cleric soon arrived and he stepped forward, waving his arms and chanting. A massive fireball erupted all around the dragon and the air was filled with the stench of burnt meat. As the smoke cleared, Renika could just barely see the huge dragon sprawled on the ground. A few guards ran up and began to hack at its neck.
The elven woman slid down the nearest wall and the other cleric knelt beside her, asking concernedly if she was all right. She nodded, saying she was tired.
"What a night," she said.
Tonight.
Renika bit her lower lip, suddenly remembering why she was there. And, as the men and clerics turned their curious attention on her, she wished she was either twice as small or completely invisible.
Renika learned a long-used thief's saying that night; it is easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.
She sat with the elders of the Ravenskye family and she shakily explained herself. How she was carrying a half-dragon in her womb, how she lacked resources necessary to care for such a child, and her final desperate solution.
She couldn't help crying. She had never felt so guilty, ashamed and frightened of the prospect of going to prison. She wished vainly she could have found some other way to supply funding for her abnormal child's care or disposal thereof. As her mind panicked and tears streamed down her face, she wished fervently she'd never met Rock in the first place.
"Wait a moment, please," an elder woman said soothingly, like the way a grandmother did when her grandchildren were fighting. "When you discovered you were going to have a gold dragon's babe you initially asked for money from our workers?"
"Uh-huh," Renika said, wiping her eyes, detecting sympathy in the woman's voice. Sympathy meant hope.
"You were denied help by our workers?" a gruff, heavy man said disbelievingly. He turned his stony attention to his reletives. "This won't look good to possible investors. Dragon half-breeds are rare and extraordinary, and the metallic ones are always good."
A younger and spindly man leaned close by and finished the first man's thoughts. "If we funded the upbringing of a gold dragon half-breed, it could increase this port's popularity."
"And increased popularity means more business," the woman continued softly, as if to keep Renika from listening.
"And more business means more success," the heavy man concluded.
"And the child would have loyalty to us," the thin man said. "It would protect us from raiders or pirates."
"Is it agreed?" the large man asked.
"Agreed!" the others said. Renika only had half an idea as to what was going.
"Deary," the woman said. "We have decided not to punish you because your intentions were noble and pure."
Bullshit, the back of Renika's mind growled. It isn't pure- I tried to steal from them. Noble yes, but definitely not pure.
"And we will take care of all expenses the child's upbringing may have. We will make certain he or she has the best education and training so our own humble town may have it's very own hero to look up to. We will not, however, allow the child to be intentionally destroyed. Not now, not ever."
Renika felt she couldn't say no, not in the presence of these influential, powerful people. She had no choice, at least none that she saw at the moment. Their gazes urged her to make her decision, pushed her to respond, rushed her to say something.
She felt her mouth close and her head nod.
"Excellent," the old woman said. "We will take good care of you and your family for as long as necessary. May your child be the savior of many lands."
As she left the castle that morning, Renika thought of something she should have said at that moment; "You mean, the savior of your business."
Tonight.
She had insured her financial future. It hadn't turned out at all the way she had planned, but it was better than she had expected. She didn't feel quite as guilty as she would have had she actually robbed the family.
Yet he couldn't help thinking, as she curled up in her nice warm bed with husband's arms around her, that the child she carried was indeed destined for greatness, whether endorsed by a business or not. She knew, deep within her heart, that her child would grow to be good, righteous, and pivotal in the lives of many.
The End