The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.

- Haldir


6. She Fought the Law

When traveling in the woods on summer kobold-hunting missions, from which anyone living in or trying to visit or leave Candlekeep benefited greatly, Onyx, like Jade, had learned from Jondalar that keeping one's bow in hand, perhaps with an arrow in the other, is a wise move.

Though holding hands, Onyx and Imoen now had long and short bows in their free hands as they respectively strode and skipped north along the Coast Way, and when a large, roaring shape became visible in a clearing ahead, they were glad for it.

"Ogre," Onyx said, recognizing the brutes that had flanked Gorion's golden-eyed murderer the night before. For one horrible moment, the young paladin thought he might now be glimpsing a reconstituted war party of the same man's, but then realized this ogre was alone. Nevertheless, it was charging them with a mad roar, holding high a massive morning star that was probably larger than Imoen.

Hit and run, Onyx thought. First thing Jondalar taught us about large creatures. Like rabid bears. Unfortunatley, as he was now seeing, bipedal ogres are about as fast as humans. They look much slower at a glance, for the eye will see the rate of their stride is quite slow, but may miss that each stride is much more than a man's.

Onyx and Imoen unleashed arrows at the charging creature. They were both naturally adept if less than experienced marksmen, and planted several in the creature's hideous blue-green-grayish hide, but still it came.

"Split up!" Onyx yelled, "You run left, I right. I'll try to get him to follow me. But whoever he follows, runs, other shoots! Go!"

As Imoen bolted away, she looked over her shoulder, frightened, not at the ogre but at the fact that her friend was holding his ground for a moment more. Though her mind knew he did it for her, her heart felt only fear for her friend.

Onyx fired another arrow from where he stood, shouting at the top of his lungs and letting Imoen get further away, both for the hope the ogre would go after him rather than her. The paladin hooped and hollered at the oncoming ogre after another arrow, still doing his best to draw its attention though he seemed to have it. When Imoen had made herself scarce and the monster was nearly upon him, he turned and dashed as fast he could, which despite his splint mail and the large shield on his back was still quite fast. He had long legs, a wide stride, and a strong heart and lungs, and running had been one of the many routines that his indeed routine Candlekeep life had consisted of, and there were paths in its environs his fleet feet had galloped over nearly every morning of his adolescense.

It had been done for the ideals of athleticism which were intrinsic to his ethos, but all ideals emerge over the ages because of more practical needs such as the present one.

Over the roar of the ogre, he could hear the whistling of what must be Imoen's arrows. The ogre grunted as some of them made dull piercing sounds, but the thunder of its feet did not slow.

After outdistancing the ogre by probably fifteen seconds and reaching the edge of a thin copse of trees, Onyx turned on a gold piece and began firing arrows, most making their mark, but still it came. Uh..oh.. he realized, as the ogre drew closer, Can I keep running? Imoen's arrows have stopped...I can't go too far...We'd get separated. Which is better than dead, but...

Then inspiration hit him. He backed up, so that the bark of a large tree was almost at his back. The massive, drooling monster bore down upon him, and prepared a mighty swing that would surely leave him a bloody pulp against the trunk.

If he hadn't leapt aside into the bushes at just the right moment, that is. Which he did at the height of the ogre's wind-up. Its morning star smashed into the tree, splintering halfway through, so that as the beast drew its weapon out again, the structurally weakened tree cracked, and began to fall, sure enough, upon the ogre, as it had gutted out its own side of the trunk. The creature gave an awful scream just before the several tons of oakwood crashed against and cracked even its thick skull, and slumped to the ground under the felled timber, twitching, and then still.

Imoen reappared a few moments later, dashing up with a look of fright. She melted into a relieved smile when she saw her friend, apparently intact. She dashed into his arms, and they shared a silent but intimate moment as their adrenaline subsided, each thankful the other was unscathed.

"Wow!" Imoen gasped at length. "That was scary, but kinda neat! Hey...this ogre's wearin' two belts..."



---



Jade and her two new companions were making headway south along the Coast Way, which was now only a little further off, and were faring as well as could be expected on the dangerous roads of the Sword Coast.

Physically, that is. Xzar's incessant and incomprehensible rambling, and Montaron's haughty little comments and snickerings were beginning to rub Jade's nerves quite raw. She questioned their sanity - though in Xzar's case it wasn't much of a question - and her decision to travel with them thus made her doubt his own. Her attempts at getting information out of them had yielded little. Montaron tended to respond to inquiries with idle threats involving waking up with a dagger in one's back, or not at all. As for Xzar, Jade had learned quite a lot about dragons with rabbit's feet, screaming clowns from the Abyss, tap-dancing demons, and eating grapes from the bosoms of succubi, but if this was useful information, it was far beyond her. She didn't yet know - and wasn't sure she wanted to - what sinister organization would hire these two. Either it must be dark indeed, or its hiring procedures were thoroughly screwed up. Or both.

Worst of all, Jade held her face tight, X doesn't even recognize me, or remember Candlekeep...what happened to you? She looked at the necromancer, who at the moment was juggling three cat-skulls. Where are you under there, X?

The day's light began to wane, but still they pressed on. As they passed out of a copse of trees into a more thinly forested area, Montaron suddenly chuckled and smiled even though the others could see nothing. "Guess what I spy," he grinned to his human companions, his eyes gleaming red as his infravision pierced the dying light.

"Others?" Jade sneered and drew her sword.

"You there!" the reply came from a figure ahead, accompanied by metallic clankings. Jade, Xzar, and Montaron looked up to see a Flaming Fist soldier approaching.

Jade blanched.

"No," one of the Fist grinned, "I think this boy matches Xzar's descrption. Come with us, son." He reached out a hand and attempted to smile, in a very sincere imitation of friendliness, as if these two kids were much less intellectually developed than the were. In fact, they were probably further developed now than this man would ever be.

Jade jumped in front of Xzar and shouted in his face, "RUN!!"

Xzar spun on a dime and bolted away from them.

"Why you little..." the Fist growled, and backhanded Jade with his mailed fist, sending her to the ground. "Ah am tha law!"

Xzar tittered.

"HEEEELP!" Xzar screamed, his arms twisted behind his back in a straight jacket as two Fist threw him into the back of the wagon, like they might a sack of potatoes, his head cracking sharply against the wooden floor. sending colored sparks across his vision and thoughts. "HEEEELP!" He looked back out at the two guards, their heads covered by helmets with wings that flared up high on the left and right sides of their heads, like the big ears of rabbits.

Montaron snarled.

Montaron looked dejectedly up at a flat wooden likeness of Fist Commander Scar, which held out a flat finger four feet off the ground. Wording across the likeness's chest read 'You must be this tall to apply.'

Montaron choked bitterly, remembering that wooden flat of Elminster, holding a harp, with a gnarled finger four feet off the ground.

He turned away to seek employment elsewhere.

"Us?" Jade called back with dripping sarcasm, looking around at a lightly wooden landscape utterly devoid of other people.

"Yes," the tin can with the Fist insignia called as it drew up to them. "You're under arrest for banditry, and highway robbery! We know you're part of that bandit group who's been terrorizing the Coast Way! Give yourselves up or there will be...trouble."

"Do you always begin conversations this way?" Jade cooed faux-innocently, smiling.

"Er," the soldier reached a mailed glove up to scratch his head, which failed miserably seeing as he wore a helmet. "No, but...well....No games, bandit! Come along or..."

"...or you'll attack three heavily armed people by yourself," Jade sighed.

"Ah represent the Flaming Fist!" the man shouted. "Ah am the law."

Jade looked around. Crickets chirped in the wooded land, but otherwise it was quite silent. In the middle of the woods, there is only one law, doofus. She glanced at her sword.

"Sooo..." she drawled ditzily instead, "What you're trying to say, mister Fist sir, is times being what they are, it wouldn't do to let someone who might be a bandit roam about and terrorize innocent travelers?"

"Yes, yes," the man nodded, more calmly, "Precisely!"

"So your job," Jade began, "Is to roam these woods and arrest or captures kill anyone who might be a bandit..."

"Yes..."

"And a bandit is someone who roams the woods and captures or kills just anyone..."

"Yes! Thank you! That's the crucial difference, you see..."

"...but anyone might be a bandit, so..."

"So then I'd apprehend them." The soldier nodded. This all really did make quite good sense, he decided. This pretty lady certainly was helping put things into words. To bad he'd still have to arrest her...

Jade sighed, and noticed with great irritation that the mercenary's gaze had left her eyes and moved lower. "I'm bored. Montaron?"

"No actually," the soldier began, and reached out his open right gauntlet to shake, "My name's...AIEEEE!!!"

"Aiee?" Jade snickered over the sounds of snapping tendons. "Is that Calimshani?"

The halfling who did possess this name had, during the conversation, managed to creep half-circle around behind the oblivious mercenary, who had never taken his eyes off Jade - probably more because of her figure than her words - and at Jade's intonation, Montaron had slashed his short sword across the back of the man's knees, where the armor was weak. Fleshy tearing sounds could be heard as the man's tendons and ligaments were snapped like rubber bands, and he fell to his knees with a shriek that echoed inside his big, plumed helmet, his legs quite useless. Before he could react, his entire body became quite useless, for the muscles of Jade's right arm bulged under her chainmail as a single waist-height swing of her longsword decapitated said body.

"Pretty strong blow," Jade nodded down at Montaron with approval as the Fist's head flew off, "For a halfling."

"Thank ye!" Montaron laughed happily as he cleaned his shortsword. "I once knew a pretty hobbitess, Truesword of Arvoreen she was, who'd always threaten yer' kneecaps. Pity she didn't know a good hobbit-gent when she saw one...anyway, with ol' Monty, it's the backs of yer knees ye best look out for! "

"Platemail's mine," Jade breathed deeply, taking in the invigorating smell of the blood. "Won't fit you anyway, Monty. Unless you're expecting a major growth spurt soon."

"Hey!" Montaron growled. "Short jokes be old!"

"But if you still want a helmet," Jade smiled and nodded in the direction of the Fist's head, "It's rolling away."

"Oooh," Xzar clapped his hands eagerly, "And can I have what's inside?"