"Do not cast all hope away. Tomorrow is unknown. Rede oft is found at the rising of the Sun."

- Legolas

"The wise speak only of what they know."

- Gandalf



4. (This Chapter Brought To You By The Letter) 'E'



Onyx and Jade awoke, each from a fog of unpleasant dreams, which largely replayed the horrible events of the previous night. The armored man growing only larger and scarier, themselves smaller and more cowardly, and Gorion's death more and more inevitable.

They ached from their uncomfortable sleeping positions, and were drenched from night rain and soggy pine needles, although the torrents had now stopped and the sun shone. They stood up, and each took turns guarding with outward eyes and drawn longbow while the other took off his or her mail to wipe out dirt and change tunics, a poor excuse for a bath, but what would have to do for now.

As he looked into the rising sun, Onyx whispered a few words of prayer and praise to Lathander, and though to himself, Look on the bright side. You and Jade are unharmed, and together. And though we cannot return to Candlekeep, I would not anyway - whatever evil seeks us would find us there, and in so doing might harm those dear to us, around whom we lingered. Though thankful, he hoped this day would bring better tidings than the last.

And perhaps the Morninglord heard his prayers and answered, for they had scarcely appeared their hiding place in the brush when a purple-leather-clad teenage came bounding up across the wet grass.

"Heya, yep, it's me Imoen!" Her face was a sight brighter and more welcome than the rising of the sun. "Sorry to follow you, but I never get out of Candlekeep and those monks are such a bore. Never any could coin in their pockets, neither!"

Jade was unmoved, and stared coldly at her friend. "Gorion is dead."

Imoen's face fell a league. "Oh...oh no....." her bright eyes shined even more, with the glaze of tears. "I'm SO sorry. I kinda figured something bad might happen to you out here."

Jade looked at her suspiciously. "How could you have 'figured', Im? Gorion didn't even tell us."

"I...accidentally...read a letter on his desk the other day. Can't remember exactly what it said, but he might still have...it might be on his...body."

"We...retrieved it, Immy," Onyx held the letter up. "And his body is...no more. It vanished as he was cut down."

"Oh..." Imoen bit her lip, her face darkening as they had never seen it. "Oh god, I am so sorry." Imoen looked deathly serious, and that alone was saddening.

"Well," she perked up again at length, "I'm not gonna let you two wander all alone out here. Never let my friends down, no sir! I'm gonna stay with you, I will!"

Jade sighed, but smiled in spite of herself.

"Thanks, Immy," Onyx smiled, "We'd love to have your company...but you know the road, and our very company, will not draw danger."

Imoen bounded up to him and took his hand, giving him a hearty smile as she looked into his eyes and spoke. "I will always be willing to travel with ya, Ony, no matter what path ya take."

Imoen and Onyx walked hand in hand along the sea cliffs outside Candlekeep.

"We're both gonna leave here someday, ya know," she told him.

"Yeah," he nodded, "This is home, but I kinda look forward to it."

"You're gonna leave to go on mighty heroic adventures or somethin', I bet. I wonder what I'll do? Maybe I could do acting or something? Or be a sneak and play jokes on old meanies like Ulraunt in other towns?"

"We could always go together," he smiled at her. "In the stories, adventurers always travel with friends. And there's no better friend that you, Immy."

"Okie dokie!" she giggled. "I'll always be willing to travel with ya Ony! No matter where we go!"

He hugged her and took her hand, and she reached with her other hand out for Jade's, and the three turned east, Imoen skipping and Onyx and Jade striding, facing the rising sun and the road ahead.

-----------------------

"Where'd you get that?" Onyx asked Imoen after an hour or so of walking along the road, as the girl showed off the wand of magic missiles she now had.

"I...um...found it!" the girl bubbled. Onyx rolled his eyes, and let it drop at that. He tried not to inquire too deeply into these things. When paladins and thieves travel together, he was beginning to see, sometimes it is simply best one does not inquire too much of the other.

"Magic is neat-o!" Imoen smiled. "I even figured out how to use this!" She stared at the end of the wand, which had a large pink gem set in it. "It's even pink! My favorite color! I wonder if there's lots of pink magic?"

Jade sighed quietly. Then her eyes noticed a figure on the road ahead. Or at least, a bright-red walking robe. All that could be seen of any person that might reside within, was an egregiously long white beard, and a gaunt hand that held a walking stick.

Onyx and Jade tightened their left-hand grips on their longbows. Their right hands rested upon their longsword hilts, but were ready to dart to their quivers. Imoen, looking nervous but following their example, pulled her shortbow off her back.

"Classical wizard look?" Jade mumbled to her companions under his breath. "Bit out of style..."

"Yeppers," Imoen stuck out her tongue adorably. "Looks like a bad ripoff of the wizard guy from The Halfling..."

"Ho there wanderer!" The walking robe called, in an elderly but smug voice that issued from beneath the point hat atop it.

"Stay thy course a moment to indulge an old man," the figure continued in the voice of a weal-meaning but meddlesome grandfather, stopping before them, and resting wearily on his staff. "It's been nigh unto a tenday since I've seen a soul walking this road, and I've been without decent conversation since. Traveling nowadays appears to be the domain of either the desperate or the deranged; If thou woulds't pardon my intrusion, might I inquire which pertains to thee."

Jade snorted, tossing back her scarlet hair. "Pestering stangers about their mental state doesn't seem all that well-adjusted to me. Perhaps you'd do well to measure yourself by your own standards, old man?" The young fighter hung on the last words acerbically, her full lips pursed tight.

"Well, deranged it is then," the old man chuckled smugly, his eyes glimmering beneath bushy white eyebrows, not betraying an iota of surprise at Jade's retort. "I shall..."

"Please, kind sir," Onyx interrupted, voice voice cold, blunt, and firm, "Don't call her deranged." My sister that is. Not that I'm telling you that. "Or leer at her like that. Thanks."

The old man fumbled for a moment, moving his lips silently, like an actor drawing a blank on his next line. At length, repeating his last two words, he answered, "I shall leave thee, if that is what thou dost wish. Heed my words however: treat strangers with more respect, at least until thou've determined if they are a threat, and perhaps more powerful than they seem." The old man lifted his wide hat further to reveal an ancient but sly face, and the youths could swear they saw lightning in his eyes, but then he let his hat fall over them again. "Do not dally about on these roads for all. Someone with they manners will not last an eve."

"Are you threa-" Jade scoffed, but Onyx coughed over her. "Thank you for your advice, sir," he spoke with forced politeness and calm, though the brimming sarcasm likely wasn't lost on the leering codger.

Jade gritted her teeth, even more reluctant to swallow her pride. Coward, she glanced briefly at her brother before accosting the old man again. But she knew what her brother was thinking. If a wizard, it would not do to fight needlessly. If an old man, he didn't want her cutting him down for the mere affrontery of the tongue and lechery of the eye.

But if her brother hand't been there, oh, things might have been different. Jade glared daggers at at the old codger and made a silent promise to herself.

"If perchance you happen to be traveling north," the old man continued in a recitory manner. "The Friendly Arm Inn is but a short distance in that direction, and its doors are open to all. I have no doubt that thy friends shall be there, waiting with open arms. My sympathies for any hardships the road may have inflicted upon thee, though I am certain everything shall turn out for the best."

Onyx and Jade exchanged arched eyebrows. We spoke of no friends, their blue and green eyes said, And he mentioned 'hardships' with almost forced casualness. Jade spoke, "What friends, old man? We spoke of none."

The old man hesitated for the slimmest fraction of a second before non-sequitoring, "My, but I have wasted too much of thy time and said too much already. I shall take my leave and with thee all the best. Farewell, or til we meet again, whichever comes first!"

The three young people each gave goodbyes with varying degrees of politeness, and the man continued west, perhaps towards Candlekeep. Jade and Onyx exchanged glances; naught needed to be said. He knows.

"If he were friend," Onyx spoke, "He should have been helpful, not cryptic."

"But if he were foe," Jade rejoined, "He shouldn't have just passed by."

"We might say then," Onyx suggested, "That he is neutral."

"Much like," Jade answered, "'E'."

Imoen pouted. "The wizard guy in the story was alot nicer. If that stick-in-the-mud was trying for the same image, he's not doin' too good, huh guys?" Her friends nodded.

As they walked east, Imoen kept curiously looking over her shoulder at the figure, who rather than gradually disappear over the horizon, seemed all at once to just vanish. Imoen thought that was funny. She had very keen eyes.