Here be Dragons
Chapter 7
Kate blinked her eyes open and saw a sleeping Rick right next to her. A naked sleeping Rick, no less. As much as she was dying to have a little more fun, she needed to pee so she was up and hurried outside to find a spot to squat. Once outside without Endure Elements told her that it got cold last night.
Rick snapped into a sitting position. He'd had been in the middle of a magnificent dream. There was a naked and heavily tattooed Kate sitting on his erection with it deep inside her and she was riding him while he looked up and saw her breasts bouncing up and down.
"Trouble!" Kate told him.
Rick was still in his dream and seeing a semi-naked Kate wasn't helping him to wake up any. "Trouble?"
"I saw a Hill Giant, a couple of humans, and a bunch of little guys. They were carrying these big beasts on poles and are headed this way. From the direction we came from." Kate moved to put on all her combat gear.
Rick looked at her blearily and tried to think. "Food hunting party. That might be useful." They could certainly use the meat amongst other things.
"Get dressed!" Kate was hungry and didn't want trail rations again.
They left Dog behind to guard the horses which stayed in the tent.
Rick and Kate were doing their best to stay hidden in the rocks at the base of the mountain. They needed to plan this since they couldn't let anyone get away. Because if they did they would bring backup and that might be too much for them.
"I'll shoot the Hill Giant, while invisible you race in to take out the humans, then we finish off the Goblinoids and bring one back what they've got to our tent. Once we get what we want we'll leave on galloping horses to get some distance."
Kate was sure she could take on a couple of humans and a few little guys so she nodded and pulled out a potion.
Rick had his bow ready along with two arrows. "Go." Rick watched her drink then didn't see much until a human went flying and Kate suddenly showed up. Rick fired his two arrows and watched the Hill Giant go down.
Nocking and aiming broadpoint arrows, he was releasing one after the other to take out Goblinoids.
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Kate had the strength to lift up one of the poles on her own and walk over to Rick who came out to help her, then back to their tent they went.
They both sliced as fast as they could as Rick carved off a piece and dropped it for Dog to rip apart and eat. He had his gone in a heartbeat so Rick gave him another. Kate meanwhile was filling their fresh bags, sealing them, and putting them in her backpack.
"Get the horses ready. I can handle this," Kate assured him.
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Minutes later they were riding at a fast trot to get some distance between them and this place.
Hours after skipping lunch they saw smoke in the distance. "What do you think?" Kate questioned him.
"Could be Darkhold, could be a campsite, could be a small town or village. If we camp now we can go through in the morning," Rick said and Kate agreed. It was going to be dark in an hour anyway.
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Come morning they found it was a tiny village that they avoided with ease. However, just as they went around a rock they both stopped dead in their tracks.
"Is that…" Kate asked, fearing the answer.
"Darkhold. Filled with evil and far more than we can possibly manage. Probably a good thing we didn't stop in the little village." Rick looked around. The forest which they could barely see was at least a day away.
It did look like he was wrong about the mountain range length. There was a very wide passageway filled with rolling hills of various sizes. It would allow them to get on the other side of the mountain range if they wanted to.
"Get off your horse. We walk them from here. Straight out, try to keep the biggest hill we can between them and us and we don't stop tonight. We use our dark vision, our limited ability to see in the dark and keep walking," Rick said since he didn't have another idea.
"Dog, no." Rick put his finger to his mouth and shushed him. They didn't need him barking. They needed to get through this area unseen.
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It was dark and they hadn't yet seen a thing or been seen as far as they could tell. They didn't even dare reach for a piece of jerky. They were both worried that exposed jerky might give themselves away if they had dogs in Darkhold Castle.
The best indication they had of knowing nothing was in their way was that Dog wasn't growling at anything.
"We need to stop for a few minutes," Rick suddenly announced and reached into his backpack for Dog's fold away water bowl.
Kate watched him give water to Dog then each of the horses before they continued walking.
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When the sun came up the next day they couldn't even see the Castle called Darkhold. Kate breathed a sigh of relief. However, they were also past the next section of this mountain range.
"Now what?" They could go back but if they did they got closer to Darkhold again. Supposedly the far side was all swamp.
"We stick close to the mountain and down the east side. Hopefully the swamp isn't as big as I remember and butts up against the mountain itself." It was all Rick had.
Kate handed her reins to Rick. "I need to go." Kate found a hill to hide behind and did her business before coming back. Once again she realized just how cool it was getting outside. Rick then gave Kate his reins and went out to do the same before coming back.
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By lunch they'd learned that the east side of the Mountain range was more rolling hills than marsh with a river flowing down the middle of it.
Unfortunately that meant that there were a lot of bugs, several of which loved them, the horses, and Dog. "Rick!" Kate slapped another bug and killed it but there were three right behind it.
"We ride." Rick had had enough as well so he mounted his horse and trotted between hills as best he could.
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Night came and they kept walking. Not just to get farther away from Darkhold but to get away from the bugs that were eating them alive, or so it seemed.
Come morning they went back to riding and trotting. So far they hadn't seen anyone or anything and since they weren't being attacked no one had seen them.
It was lunch. "I'm starving!" Kate announced since they'd gone almost 2 days with nearly nothing to eat.
"We'll stop for dinner. That should put us about 250 miles from Darkhold." Rick was hungry too and it was likely the horses were as well. They'd been expending energy and not eating, either.
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Rick saw a perfect spot. It looked like a massive boulder had come down the mountain years ago and rolled out into what were now very low rolling hills with grasses. The gap looked like a good spot to him.
Kate was already cooking in the middle and not changing clothes while Rick fed and watered the horses inside their tent.
"We're almost out of hay, too," Rick announced as he stripped down to his braes and a tunic. "Be nice to clean some of these clothes soon too."
"I'd kill for a hot bath." Kate was sure she reeked by now.
They were so hungry that Rick and Kate ate all the meat Kate had squirreled away so now their fresh bags were empty again. Rick had given some of his to Dog as had Kate a moment later. Rick had even gotten out the last of the hay for the horses.
Rick pulled out a number of scrolls he'd purchased earlier. Cure Disease He read one for Kate, for himself, one for each horse, and one for Dog.
"That leaves me with one. I'm not taking any chances with all those damn bugs," Rick muttered. That had Kate walking around and using up a fraction of her healing ability for each of them, including herself.
Kate felt grimy and dirty but she still held Rick close that night. In the end they stayed for three nights just to make sure no one got sick.
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Come morning they were walking the horses at first before mounting them and riding. Then they both saw smoke rising about the mountain and low hills.
"Think good thoughts," Rick said since he didn't know much about this area. Mostly just how to reach the large city they wanted.
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"Well I'll be…" Coming around they both saw a walled city right at the edge of the river that flowed through the Marsh area to the north.
"Know anything about it?" Kate queried.
"Not a clue. I didn't even know it was here but it's bigger than a village. This far south should make it a nice place. One way to find out." Rick took off at a canter toward it.
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It turned out Rick was right. It was a nice enough city. It was called Proskur and held close to fourteen thousand people. It was a merchant town set up for caravans.
Kate wanted an inn, a hot bath, and a store that sold food for them and their horses.
Rick left it to Kate to select what made her happy. "No…no…this will do." Kate was happy. First, though, they needed a lot of food. Meat, fruit, and vegetables. Right after they found a stable to hold the horses.
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Kate was stuffing her face at a restaurant they had found. "Happy now?" Rick asked her and smiled since she was eating fast. All he got back was a muffled hum.
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The inn had a hot bath and Rick stood guard until it was his turn. Then Kate stood guard. She knew cities and this was a good place for a pickpocket to be.
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Rick was amused that in their room with Dog, Kate stripped down, helped him strip, and gave him kisses from time to time. She had done without since she had felt yucky and stinky until now.
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In the end they stayed there an entire week. It gave all of them, including the horses some much needed time off. While they stayed here they also noticed it got really cool at night. Not freezing just yet but really cool.
Rick had paid for the horses to be examined to make sure their hooves were in good shape.
With his portable hole now filled up with hay again and the fresh bags all filled with mostly fruits and vegetable this time, they were back on their horses, this time on a real road.
It was two days to a city called Elversult that had maybe nine thousand with almost all humans where they stayed for two nights. Three days to a small city called Teziir that held about eleven thousand people and again mostly humans, where they stayed three nights.
In each place they filled up with all the food they could carry and ate in a restaurant that Kate approved of.
Two and a half days later and they were in Westgate. This city was a city that made Kate comfortable in. It had just under one hundred thousand people and was a capital city that was a big trading city that had a huge dock area filled with ships of all sizes.
Rick took Kate to a temple dedicated to Tyr and bought all those scrolls he had used to possibly counter anything the bugs had given them.
Then they went shopping for invisibility and fly potions that they'd used up.
They found a stable close to an inn that Kate approved off called the Blue Banner. It also happened to have its own tavern. Dog ended up with the horses since the Blue Banner didn't accept dogs. Rick didn't mind much. They would feed and water him, too. And Dog would protect the horses.
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Kate was happy. They had a room, there was a tavern where she was sitting at a table with Rick and drinking wine. They had food again, she wasn't tired, and the best part was, she had a lover.
"You look amazingly beautiful at the moment," Rick commented since somehow she was glowing.
Kate simply smiled back at him. She, for once, felt beautiful when she was told she was. She also knew they were making love tonight, right after they both took a nice hot bath that this place also had.
"Now what?" Kate asked Rick right after she got her second glass of wine while Rick was still on his first beer.
"Tomorrow we go down to the docks and ask where ships are going and if we can buy our way onboard. The trick is just how far do they plan on going. Where we want to go is a long ways. So get ready for multiple stops.
"What worries me is that we're close to winter, if it isn't already winter, so that might diminish the number of ships going anywhere," Rick cautioned her.
"We can start looking for long term rentals if necessary," Kate suggested, thinking this city should be large enough to have something.
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It had taken them a month so far and as if by magic or that someone was trying to tell them something, they woke up the next day to snow falling. Their room had a window to look out if they unlocked it and opened it. Rick was looking outside. "Blast it all! It's snowing."
"What?" Kate, though still naked, joined him at the window. "This isn't good, is it?"
"We knew winter was coming. Maybe this will just blow in and blow back out. It's just that the water's edge will start to freeze. The Sea of Fallen Stars is too big to actually freeze. But then various harbors will start to freeze as well. We may be here until spring," Rick warned her.
"We can start looking for a place to stay today. It'll be less expensive than staying here. If we're going to be trapped this is the place to be." Kate kissed his cheek and went to get dressed for combat since leaving anything behind was out of the question. She also found that their room was freezing once outside of their combined sleeping bag.
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They had been there a week and Kate had learned a number of things as they sat in their now frozen room since it was quiet and away from ears. "This is not a safe or nice city," she grumbled.
Rick held up his hands. "I only know it exists and is a trading port. I've never actually been here. In fact the farther east we go the less I know." He defended himself from whatever she had learned.
"This is a Pirate city. Pirates come here to get alcohol and find women. The city does nothing about it as far as I can tell. There's a person in charge, supposedly. But based on what I've learned this place is run by the Thieves Guild. Some person named Sembian. Then it gets better." Kate was ready to hit him for bringing them to this place. "Apparently there's an Assassin's Guild that has designs on this city. Someone named Alusair." Kate rolled her eyes. Her city would never put up with this shit.
"Sorry. I was just trying to get us to a place that had ships that could get us farther east and it may yet still. Unless you hate this place enough to move again." Rick kept defending himself.
"I haven't even made it to the good part yet." Kate threw eye daggers at him for this one. "Apparently there's layer after layer of catacombs beneath this city. Most are so old they're almost forgotten. Down there is a Vampire Wizard who's in command of Vampires that rise up to bite who they please inside the city."
"Oops!" Rick knew that was bad. "My vote, if I still get one, is that we go backwards to Teziir and wait out winter there. It wasn't as big but it might be better. It'll take us three days. We've bought all we need here. Once spring comes around we can either come back and find something there or maybe go around Westgate."
"I like it. We can leave now. All we have to do is go get our horses and Dog and leave immediately." It was nice and big, but this city was horrible so far as she was concerned.
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Half a day later they stopped way off the road and spent the night. Two days later they were back in Teziir and Kate spent that first night looking for a long term place to stay and survive the coming winter.
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While they walked around the next day Rick saw something that might be helpful. "It's a Temple to Helm and it's a big one. One of their priestesses might be able to help us. Even better if we can talk to the head priestess. Cross your fingers." Rick escorted Kate into the Temple.
Rick knew Helm was worshiped by people who were good, mostly lawful good like they were. Helm was also called the Vigilant One.
A minor priestess bade them wait and gave them a bench to sit on in the main Temple where several other people were located.
Then an elder lady sat down in front of them and looked over the back of the bench at them. "My name is Anomen Delryn. This is my Temple. I'm told you're looking for something," she said without telling them too much.
"My name is Richard Rodgers and I'm a Vassal to Bahamut."
"I'm Katherine Beckett and I'm an Initiate of Draconic Mysteries. I also worship Bahamut."
"We're looking for help in finding a place to spend the winter before shipping out in the spring. Basically around four solid months. We were hoping you could either help us or direct us to someone that can," Rick explained.
Kate offered their services. "We can pay or work our way through winter."
They sat there and watched her sitting there, looking at them.
"Wait here, please." Anomen got up by pushing herself up and walked away.
"Have you been in many Temples?" Kate asked him.
"Only to buy scrolls or potions. I have yet to see a Temple to Bahamut. I think I've ever only ever seen one Shrine in my life," Rick replied.
"I've been in several but only to look. I've never seen a Temple to Bahamut, either and I've never seen a shrine to him. If you didn't know me you would wonder why I decided to follow him. Though I think my being a Dragon shifter had a lot to do with it," Kate added for herself. "Have you ever actually seen Bahamut?" She was curious.
"Only once. He sent me to, well you, in a way. It was just his head in mist form over the lake I was trying to get my fish dinner from. Not far outside of your city, actually." Rick informs her.
"Lucky you. I've never seen him. It won't stop me from believing in him, though." Kate's faith in Bahamut was resolute.
"You think she can really help?" Kate was thinking a week in another inn was called for.
"Depends on how long she has lived here. It might be her Temple now, but whose Temple was it before it was hers? Just when did this Temple become hers?" Rick answers back.
They both see a really young teenage girl walking toward them since she only had eyes for them. "You are Rick and Kate?" She needed to make sure.
"Yes," Kate answered.
"My mistress instructed me to give you this." She held it out. Kate took it from her and opened it.
Kate glanced up at her. "It's a name and address. Do you know where this is?" They knew nothing about this city.
"That's down on the docks. Waterfront actually," she informed them.
"Thank you. …And thank your Mistress for us." Kate walked out with Rick.
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It took them a little while and the sun was going to be down in about an hour. However they finally found it.
"We're looking for…" Kate looked at her note again, "Thomas L. Gillford."
"That's me, what can I do for you?" They didn't look like fishermen to him. They were far too clean and wealthy-looking based on the armor the man was wearing.
"We're looking for a room we can rent until spring or middle spring. Anomen Delryn from the Temple to Helm sent us to you." Kate smiled at him. She was pretty, maybe he liked pretty ladies.
He stood there looking them over. They were both clearly rich. They were both drop dead gorgeous, even if he had seen very few bald women. Though he thought he saw a hint of tattoos on her.
"I have a room above the warehouse if you don't mind noise and helping out in the warehouse. It would involve moving large and heavy barrels for a start." Then he told them how much a month he would want with one month up front.
"Show us." Kate wasn't afraid of the price. She had gotten a few times that amount off that stupid Troll and his Green Dragon buddy.
"This way." He took them into the warehouse and up a set of stairs that could use a little work and unlocked the door at the top.
It had a living space with an amazing amount of windows that looked out onto the bay. This massive concrete wall came up from below and had a wood fired stove in front of it was in the middle of the room. The kitchen was on the opposite side of the concrete wall. It had its own wood fired stove only it was meant for cooking. It was a little dark since the only light came from the wall of windows on the other side. They also found the bathroom needed a serious cleaning.
Stairs up the far wall led to the open loft bedroom that had one bed. Looking down onto the living room showed that they had a ragged looking sofa, an end table, and a pair of broken down chairs.
Thomas was downstairs looking out the windows onto the bay and saw some of the fishing ships that were in port with more than one coming in.
"We need new furniture," Rick said, looking at Kate.
Kate lifted up the blanket on the bed and sneezed. "And linen and probably bathroom stuff and cleaners." She walked over to a wall of drawers, opened one, and found someone's old dirty sock in it. She used two fingers to pick it up and show him.
"All right, lots of cleaning and new furniture. Probably everything in the kitchen as well," Rick added thinking that they were going to be busy the first week and buying stuff and getting it in here.
Kate dropped the sock back in the drawer and left it to join Rick.
"The two wood stoves will heat up the concrete wall and radiate the heat it stores up all night long," Rick explained.
"I like the view. At least until all that glass breaks," Kate added.
Rick shook his head. "Work in a warehouse. I haven't done that since I was a little boy trying to help my mom and earn some copper pieces."
"We'll take it!" Kate called out to Thomas.