Somewhere I can belong
Chapter 4b
A History lesson
The day had not gone well, again Quinn's planning had prevented her attempt at searching for him. Now Crystal was taking out her frustrations by screaming in her room, that Quinn had paid for. "He had turned her own horse against her. Quinn had convinced the mount of a paladin to disobey the paladin. How did he do it Prancer was bonded to her body and soul and" her voice broke off for am0oment till she realized how he had done it, "Sugar cubes, Prancer would do anything for sugar cubes." She had told Quinn that about her mount weeks ago. "Quinn bribed my horse, Gamgee he actually bribed my horse with sugar cubes."
The room other occupant was another elf who was methodically scanning a thick volume, who commented without looking up, "Yes Crystal I know what happened I was there when it happened."
"Before that Gamgee I was going to be content just going to track him down and talk to him." Her tone dropped several octaves before she resumed her tirade, "Oh now I'm going to drag him kicking and screaming out of whatever tree he as hiding under and back to the inn. Maybe I'll hamstring him, that way he won't be able to run away."
At that moment Gamgee stopped reading and looked at his friend, "Quinn is as he is, and he's a druid so that makes him even weirder." His tone became more sympathetic, "You and I both know that you couldn't have hurt him if you tried, he didn't mean to cause harm to any of us."
"Do you think we should let him go then Gamgee?"
"Of course not, he's my friend and I don't want him going off and getting himself killed anymore than the rest of you do, now if you'll keep your ranting a little quieter I'm trying to read up about this area."
Crystal glared at Gamgee with murder in her eyes, "You're reading a history book. We're you listening to anything at all what I was yelling about for the last few hours. I thought you came to listen to me?"
"Crystal please, you're ranting however loud it maybe is nothing compared to Brangar's snoring. I'm a wizard, I can multitask, and since I know what you're going to ask next I borrowed this book from an eloquent half-orc named Clovis this afternoon."
She stared at him, her mouth aghast before sputtering out, "An eloquent half orc? Gamgee what in the name of Heroninous does that mean?"
"Just what I said it does, we had a wonderful conversation over tea, we both share a passion for late classical elvish poetry and Halfling reggae lyre instrumentals. He told me much about the area and based on what he told I have narrowed down where our errant friend may have ran off too. Quinn has either ran off to a charming place called the Orc's Nest, or a scenic getaway called Black Tower Keep, or most likely I would say the woods to the northeast of here. The other two I counted out because I do not believe our friend has a death wish. Look I even drew a map based on descriptions of what I have read."
"You're good Gamgee very good."
"Well what can I say that hasn't already been said."
"What were those first two places you mentioned, that Black Tower and the Orc's Nest?"
Flipping through pages and glancing over his notes before beginning, "From what I can Black Tower Keep was a fortress built to keep the orcs out of the area, and it worked very well for over a century or two. The account is written in Dwarven and that's not one of my strong language, now if it were classical Elvish, or Aquatic then I could have made short work of it, but you know Dwarven better than I ever could." Gamgee spoke with a grin on his face.
Blushing Crystal fired back, "Gamgee we agreed not to speak about that ever again, an unless you want to try casting magic with broken fingers keep talking about relevant historical information."
"All right, all right settle down little miss paladin you're not being set off on crusade. Anyways the fortress was painted black for some reason, better night camouflage or what not. At the end though it was taken after a lengthy siege." Gamgee stopped and Fumbled through his notes for a moment, "Here we are, it was either a siege of three months or 3 years. Blah blah the defenders fought valiantly, but the hordes of orcs spilled over their ranks and the defenders fought to the last before being massacred save for a few who managed to escape to Aaron's Mill. From there it's the same old story the horde that united to take the fortress shattered and has been consumed by infighting ever since. Every once in a great while the orc clans unite for the odd raid on the town. The orcs can't muster the forces to storm the walls or build siege equipment so they come all the way down here and then run away."
"What about the Orc's Nest, and if it's some sort of Orcish mating ritual don't even waste my time."
"Okay Crystal first off who would even take the time to research orcish mating rights, let alone go through the psychological trauma of writing such a thing. It's a shrine to and I quote 'The dung blasted one-eyed mistake of divinity that the orcs call Grumush.' There's something about some dead druids, but unless a spirit has placed a geas Quinn I don't think he's at either of these places. I mean what are the odds of that happening? As I said before our best chance is the woods to the northeast"
Crystal rose up triumphantly, "We leave at first light and from there we go get Quinn from wherever he's hiding. Good job Gamgee I knew somehow you would find out where he ran off to."
Shrugging his shoulders Gamgee responded, "Ah, it's what I do, now based on that note, I am going to get some dinner and would you care to join me."
"Sure, just do me a favor old friend, make sure that the food isn't drugged, I wouldn't put it past Quinn to have left some sleeping draught for them to place in our food.'
Bowing regally Gamgee responded, "As the lady wishes so I will do."
"Stow the flattery, you're paying for dinner."
"I try to do a good deed and I get yelled at, for your information Crystal I was going to pay for dinner anyways. But I checked already and Quinn has it paid for already."
"Blast that druid, I'm going to kill him, no I'll wound him first. Why does he do this? It can't be a human trait cause Brangar sure as hell never pays for our meals, i've known druids that never did this thing before what is Quinn's problem. Even when he's not here his overly nice presence is still here."
Gamgee could only laugh as his friend resumed her screaming tirade as they made their way to the dining hall below.
Ramblings from Rohan:
Things are building up, I'm trying to keep chapters above 1000 words and if you think they should be longer let me know. Any comments concerns please let me know, reviews can only make me better.
