ENTERING THE GAME

Chapter Seven

"A Gathering Storm"

The blacksmith wasn't pleased with the mess Linda had made. The dwarves weren't pleased either, since he blamed them for it.

"It's her fault!" the dwarf girl said, pointing at Linda. "Why don't you blame her?"

"It's because they're both humans," one of the male dwarves said. "They always side with each other!"

"I've had trouble with you humanoids before," the smith said. "Like those pig things that left manure all over the place when they left and never did pay me!"

The male dwarves growled. "Did he just call us orcs?!" one asked the other.

"He did!" the other said, sounding shocked. "He called us dangblasted orcs!"

Linda tried to sneak out. The girl dwarf tripped her. Linda fell against the wall, knocking over a hammer. She pulled her foot back just in time to keep it from falling on her toes.

"You see?" the dwarf girl demanded. "She's a living accident looking for a place to happen!"

"Get out of here before you ruin my business!" the smith yelled at Linda. She didn't say anything. She just ran.

"Oh!" she sobbed as she hurried back to the temple. "Dwarves are just terrible!"

It wasn't until she got there that she realized she'd dropped her new shoes somewhere. "Oh…darn it!" she cried. As upset as she was, she'd never cussed in her life and didn't want to start now. She'd heard once you did it a few times you could get in the habit of doing it without even realizing you were talking filth. Not only was it wrong, but she knew she wouldn't be sitting down for awhile if her mom and dad heard her cuss. That is, if she ever got back to them again.

That was one bad thing to think of too many for Linda. She sank down to her knees, put her head in her hands, and starting crying like a baby. "I wanna go home!" she sobbed. "I want my mother!"

…

The acolyte that had taken them to see the priest held his nose as he led the four boys to a large room. It had a well and a couple of old wooden buckets that looked kind of green in spots. He pointed out an old wooden tub, with even more green on it, at the opposite side of the room.

"Wash some of that horrible odor away before you see our leader again," Brother Haro said, his voice sounding kind of nasally since he was still holding his nose. "What were you doing down there, rolling in their nests?"

"I need a cure disease spell or something!" Greg yelled for about the tenth time. "Look at my foot! It's turning purple!"

"The father will see you when you are decent," the acolyte insisted, walking away still holding his nose.

"Well, I guess we do stink," David admitted. "So who's first?"

"I'll go last," Andy said. "I just want to sleep right now." Andy had always been lazy, and now hurt in muscles he didn't know he had. Maybe suddenly getting all those muscles was a strain on his body or something.

"What is this place?" Penny asked, sticking her head in the door. The other guys, who had started undressing, yelled at her to get out.

"Beat it, Penny!" her brother said, stepping out of the room and pushing the door shut. He sat down and leaned his head against the wall. He'd started to sit in front of the door, but realized if somebody opened it they'd bonk him in the head.

"I didn't know you guys were gonna shower," Penny said. "Hey, do you really have to do that in junior high? I don't wanna shower in front of a bunch of girls!"

"I hate it too," Andy said. "I don't shower most of the time. Only if the coach is in the locker room and would catch me if I tried to sneak out without doing it. Why are you still carrying that old toad around?"

"You won't believe it," Penny said, holding out her "toad," but this is my familiar, and he talks and everything! Say something!"

"Ribbit!" went the toad.

Penny stared at it in surprise. "Come on!" she said. "I know you talked! I heard you!"

"Ribbit!" it said again.

Andy shut his eyes. "You're too weird even for this crazy world," he said. "Go way and let me sleep. I'm pooped."

"Yeah, you smell like you pooped yourself!" Penny said, sticking her tongue out at her brother.

"If I have to get up you're gonna get it!" Andy warned.

"You can't hit me," Penny said. "I'm crippled!"

"I'll do worse than that," Andy said, reaching out for her. "I'll put my arms around you so you'll smell like me!"

Penny squealed and backed away from him. "You keep away from me!" she cried. "I'm already crippled, I don't want to be stinky too!"

"You were born stinky," Andy insisted.

"I must've inherited it from you!" Penny said, walking away. Hmph. Well, she didn't really want to show him her familiar anyway. She really wanted to see what Linda thought about it. Problem was, she had no idea where she was. Linda, the only other girl, had gone off and left her alone, and hadn't said a thing when she did!

She looked down at the toad. "Why didn't you say something to him?" she demanded. "Now he thinks I'm coo-coo!"

"I told you," Greptog said, "It is best, at least for now, that no one other than you knows of my powers. I am your familiar, no one else's. No one needs to know I am anything other than what I appear to be."

"Oh yeah," Penny said. "But what good is it having a magic talking animal if nobody can know about it?"

"Fear not," the creature said, face twisting into a grin, which looked disturbing since it still appeared to be a toad, or at least would have if Penny had been looking at it. "When the time comes, your friends will all see my true power!"

…

Linda had finally stopped crying and gone back into the abbey. She was not exactly in the right mood to be happy when Penny suddenly shoved a toad in her face. "Look! Isn't he cool?!"

"Eek!" Linda cried, jumping backwards. While she loved animals, she wasn't all that fond of anything that wasn't a mammal. "Oh, Penny, put that frog back wherever you found it."

"He's not a frog," Penny said, annoyed. "He's a toad, and he's my familiar."

"You cast a find familiar spell?" Linda asked. "You shouldn't have done that, Penny. We don't know anything about magic. I've never tried to cast a spell, and I don't think I want to try."

"You worry too much," Penny said. "Magic is fun! Remember that skeleton I zapped?"

"I'll never forget the skeletons," Linda said. "I hope those are the only monsters we have to fight!"

Penny sniffed the air. "You smell all sweaty," she told her friend. "What were you doing, jumping jacks?"

"No…" Linda said, not wanting to admit what had happened with the dwarves. "I was looking around town and I…stopped at the blacksmith shop for a few minutes," she said. "To…see what horseshoes would cost. They were…expensive."

"Everything's expensive," Penny said. "Hey, the guys have a tub and they're washing up cause they all smell like poo. Maybe you can use it when they're done with it. Only you should've gotten to it first, cause now they've probably stunk it up too."

"A tub?" Linda said, sniffing under her arms. It would be nice to wash up, especially if they left the village to look for a way back home. "Where is this tub? Does it look at least halfway clean?" One thing she didn't look forward to was cleaning. She was a fairly good cook, even if she did say so herself, but she hated cleaning.

"Over that way," Penny said, trying to point with her crippled arm. "Ow!" She pointed with her toad. "But don't go over there yet. The guys are washing up now. I don't think they'd like you walking in on their bathing. Well, maybe Andy would," she added, grinning. "He likes you."

"Your brother likes me?" Linda gasped.

"Don't tell him I told you," Penny said.

"I won't," Linda promised. Andy liked her? Great. As the only girl, except for Penny, they'd probably all like her before they got out of there. Maybe even start fighting over her. The thought of guys fighting over her sounded kind of flattering, but she was sure they'd never be able to go home unless they worked together. She sighed and headed back to the room she'd shared with Penny, hoping to sit down for awhile. Her feet hurt from all that walking, and now she needed shoes again, and couldn't afford to get any more.

…

The guys finally showed up, one by one. They all still smelled pretty bad, but the redness of their faces and arms told the girls that they'd scrubbed as much as they could without scrubbing their skin right off. Well, maybe the stink would go away after awhile.

Linda and Penny checked out the tub, but as they'd feared, the guys hadn't cleaned when they were through, and using it would require cleaning it first. Since Penny still had a broken arm, that would have left Linda scrubbing it by herself, and she didn't look forward to that at all.

"Did you find a lot of rats?" Penny asked her brother when they returned to the others.

"So many rats…" Andy said with a shiver.

"And giant centipedes," Tom added. "And a huge, giant spider…"

"Don't mention the spider," David said, looking pale.

"I hope that guy fixes my arm so I smash some big gross bugs," Penny said, looking at her arm.

"You didn't want to be in that place," her brother insisted. "I'm going to see rats and giant bugs in my sleep now."

Finally the acolyte came to tell them that the priest would see them. They walked through the corridors of the old building, eager to finish their business there and get out. For a temple of good, being there was something about the place that was starting to make all of them uncomfortable.

Greg insisted the priest take care of his foot first. "It's swelling up!" he yelled. "My foot's gonna fall off!"

"I wish your big mouth would fall off!" Penny said. "I can't even sleep, my arm hurts so much!"

"Ladies first," the old priest said, having Penny sit down in a rough old chair. He placed his hands on her broken arm and began to mutter strange words. Penny, who'd cast two spells already, listened, trying to see if she could understand what he was saying, but it just sounded like gibberish to her. Then she realized her arm was starting to feel hot. Then hotter.

"Hey!" she said. "What are you doing?! It hurts! Hey, I said it HURTS! AHHHHHHHH!"

He ignored her and kept muttering. Finally her arm started getting cooler. It felt like it was asleep. Then she felt something like needles all through it. The priest released her arm, and Penny grabbed it with her other arm. She rubbed it a little. It didn't hurt.

"Hey, it feels better!" she said. She raised and lowered it a few times. "It worked!" she cried. "My arm's all fixed!"

"Now me!" Greg insisted.

"That will cost you extra," the old priest said.

"I can't go adventuring! I'm dying!" Greg yelled.

"Fear not," the priest said. "Pelor does not expect one to fight while injured."

"Isn't there anything else you need besides fighting?" Linda asked.

"Well…there may be one other thing you could do for us…" the priest said, placing his hands on Greg's foot.

To everyone else's amusement, Greg yelled longer and louder than Penny had when she'd been healed.

…

"Prudence!" came an angry voice. A black haired girl about Linda's age jumped, dropping a plate that shattered into a thousand pieces. "You clumsy fool! Look what you've done!"

"Forgive me!" Prudence begged, backing away from the now furious woman. "You started me!"

"I'll do far more than that!" the woman said, picking up a broom and chasing the frightened girl with it. "Come back here! You'll only get a worst beating if you run away!"

But Prudence didn't respond except to keep running. She was sick of working for this woman that treated her worse than a dog. She didn't know where she could go. She could barely remember her mother, and if she'd ever had a father she didn't recall him at all.

Prudence ran three blocks before, gasping for breath, she stopped to rest. She was short and skinny, and, despite her dark hair and eyes, her skin was pale, almost ghostly.

She sat down on the dirty street, wondering what she should do now. The woman had treated her awful, but she'd at least fed her. Someone past her, but she paid them no attention, once she noticed they were three dwarves, not the mean woman that had been chasing her.

Prudence stood up, rubbing at her eyes. There was only one thing to do now. She turned and looked towards the wilderness. Towards Midnight Mountain. She'd go there and ask old Hepzibah if she could join her coven.

Hepzibah was a strange old woman that most people avoided, and some sicced their dogs on. Some said that she was a witch. Not a wizard, a class that did wondrous things. No, witches were feared and hated. Whenever a chicken stopped laying or a cow stopped giving milk, Hepzibah got the blame. Yet she had been kind to Prudence when she'd hurt herself a few years ago, and healed her with strange herbs. Prudence hadn't spoken to her since then. The woman she'd lived with had been one of the ones that feared and hated her, mumbling and praying when Hepzibah was seen coming to the village for supplies that she couldn't grow on Midnight Mountain.

Prudence looked up at Midnight Mountain, and felt a flicker of fear. They said demons came down from the moon to dance on Midnight Mountain, especially on the nights of the full moon, and those that saw their dance were spirited away by them, never to be seen again. Or, if they were seen again, they were never "right" again. She clenched her fists and kept walking, ignoring the pebbles and stickers she stepped on in her bare feet. Then she stopped and stared. What were these? Shoes? She looked around. No one seemed to be searching for them. She slipped them on. They were a bit large for her, but it felt nice wearing shoes. She'd never had any before. She decided to take this as an omen that she should keep on her chosen path and not turn back. As she walked it began to rain, but she had walked in the rain before, and it didn't bother her. She did wonder, however, if this might be an omen. She hoped it would be a good one.

And so Prudence started on a journey that would lead her to wonder and terror. And we'll see more of her soon. For it is only three days to the full moon, and a day once called Samhain, but now called Halloween…

…

"I told you humans are no blasted good!" one of the male dwarves said to the female. The two men had stood up to the blacksmith when he'd ordered them out of his shop, insisting they'd paid him good money to repair their weapons, and didn't intend to leave until they'd finished, or gotten their gold back. The smith had grabbed up a sword and yelled for assistance. Hearing other humans coming, the two had grabbed hammers the smith used in his work and brandished then about. Then, seeing several men show up, all armed, they head fled, one grabbing the girl's arm. They'd been chased out of town, taking the hammers with them, as they refused to leave empty handed. No doubt the smith would finish repairs on their weapons and sell them, so he had no call to yell thieves after them. But not they would not be able to return to the village for any supplies they might need.

"It was that stupid girl's fault," the dwarf female complained. "No one could be that clumsy! She must have caused all that ruckus on purpose! You said some humans hate us just for being us, but I never believed anyone could really be that horrible!"

"Well, now you know better," the other male told her. "We don't need human supplies anyhow. We'll find some of our own kind. I am certain they live up in the hills and beneath that great black mountain you can see in the distance."

"But Brother," the girl said, "I've heard that mountain is a cursed and evil place where demons and devils dwell."

He snorted. "Bah!" he said. "Who told you that? Some blasted fool of a human? Don't pay no mind to nothing they say! All mad, every last one of them!"

"Then it's away to the mountain we go?" the other male asked.

The first one, obviously the leader of the group, nodded. "I've heard enough of the stench of these humans anyway! Let us away, brother and sister!"

"Perhaps we'll find some pretty dwarves maidens," the other said as they began to walk towards the outskirts of the village. He grinned. "And perhaps a stout warrior for you, little sister."

The girl blushed. "Hush, there!" she said. "Don't go a'talking foolishness there!"

"Aye," the leader said. "Russet is too young for a man! Why, she's near a babe in arms!"

The girl blushed again. "I'm not that young!" she insisted. Actually, she had dreamed last night of someone that she could not see that motioned for her. She had felt afraid but thrilled, and had coyly taken but a few steps towards him when her eldest brother had awakened her, drat the luck! She wondered who he was, and if she would meet him, for Russet believed in the magic of dreams and flowers, much to the annoyance of her eldest brother and the amusement of her other brother. She sighed. But even if she found him, would he look at her with this dangblasted beard her brothers forced her to wear around the humans? Well, now that they were heading towards wilderness perhaps she'd be allowed to dress like a girl again. She didn't understand the purpose for her disguise. What difference did it make if humans saw she was a maiden just blossoming into womanhood? Surely those great clumsy creatures would have no interest in her? She had seen they preferred taller, skinny girls, like that twit that had caused them so much trouble. Russet clenched her fists. If she saw that human girl again she'd smash her face!

"Oh fiddle-faddle!" the younger male said. "It's begun to rain!"

"Hush there," the elder said. "A little rain never hurt nobody, and what does not kill us makes us stronger!"

And so Russet and her brothers began their journey, none having any idea that they'd soon wish they'd remained in the human village…

…

What the priest said once Greg was healed surprised all of them. "I don't suppose any of you are trained in musical instruments?"

"Huh?" Andy and Penny both said.

"I can play a kazoo," Greg suggested sarcastically.

"I am certain that is fascinating," the priest said, not knowing or caring what a kazoo was. "Any other instruments?"

"Well, I'm not very good at it," Linda admitted, "but I can play the piano and the organ a little. I learned from my grandmother."

"Excellent!" the old priest said, grinning in a way that made her uncomfortable. "Perhaps you would care to try our organ."

"Uh…well, I guess I could try," Linda said, wondering why the old man wanted one of them to play music for him so much as they followed him down a corridor. Maybe he was getting confused in his mind. He looked pretty old. Was he even able to cast the spell he'd promised? Maybe that was why he was putting them off. Like the Wizard of Oz tried to get rid of Dorothy and her friends because he was a phony.

The priest led them down another long corridor, then to a smaller hallway off on one side. He walked up to a very old looking door and fumbled through his robe for the key. Why was that door locked, when none of the others were?

"Here it is," the old priest said, opening the door and pointing out a huge, extremely old-fashioned, and, frankly, kind of creepy looking organ. To everyone's surprise he locked the door behind them, then walked to the organ. "Try it out. See what you can conjure up." He seemed surprised by what he'd just said, and quickly added, "musically, of course! Give us a song!"

Linda sat down on the old bench. It was hard and uncomfortable. "Um…I really need some music to read," she said. "My grandmother plays by ear but I can't do that."

"Try," the priest insisted. "

Linda looked over the old, discolored keys. This organ was probably horribly out of tune, and she wouldn't be at all surprised if some of the keys didn't work at all. Still, she placed her fingers on the keys and began to try to play something.

And somewhere, closer than her next breath yet further than the furthest star, something heard her begin to play…and listened...and watched…

To be continued!