The fire didn't help the heat that washed into the cave later in the day. Grell groaned in agony as he was sitting in just his underpants cooking a rabbit he caught in the underbrush. His hope was that the night would dissappate the heat enough so he could greet his visitor in clothes that were not soaked with sweat.
After his meal he burned the remains of the creature and doused the fire.... sitting in the darkness and thinking. His mind wandering to Roe and the village. He did not know of villages that speciallized in magics... especially human villages. And Especially not Necromancers...
He shivered and noticed the sun was gone from the sky and the chill of the night air was entering the cave. Quickly he dressed and left the cave to stretch his body. It had been to hot during the day to work out and he looked over the horizon for the moon. Seeing that the moon had not risen he pulled Mugen, his medium sword, from his hip sheath and began to practice fighting... visualizing zombies... hacking at them... until he started replacing the zombies... with the creatures that Jal Fellis had made back in Dalla... the Valdemar....
His eye opened wide and he, for a moment, forgot he was fighting specters created in his mind. It wasn't until Mugen sliced a tree trunk down the middle that he stopped... his heart beating hard, not with fatigue and exhertion, but with fear...
He again looked up into the sky... he still could not see the moon. Taking this as a much needed chance to bathe he went to the river and doused himself quickly then made his way back to the cave. As he neared it he could see the flickering of firelight comming from the mouth of the cave. His ears perked up as he cautiously made his way around the cave entrance, he could hear a woman humming a song slowly to herself. He peered inside and found Roe sitting by the fire... humming and tending the flame as he sat with two tankards of ale sitting beside her.
" Thought you were comming at Moonrise?" He asked her his shirt was off but he had made sure to keep his cowel on his face.
Roe turned to see him enter and blushed slightly seeing him without a shirt. " I left before Moonrise... I am sorry the undead walk slower so I judge how long it will take me to walk somewhere by their pace."
Grell nodded and placed Mugen in his travel bag and sat across from Roe, sitting close and letting the cool water still on his body dry from the heat of the fire. Roe reached out to him and handed him a tankard of ale, which he took and drank slowly. He didn't say anything until he had drained his ale down to half of it's orginal contents.
" I usually don't drink." he finally spoke, " but this is good ale"
Roe smiled, " My father's undead make it for him." At this Grell could feel the bile rise in his throat... Roe must of noticed and sighed, " What?"
" I don't like undead." he groaned staring at the rest of the ale in his mug, " Really started to hate them after Dalla."
Roe didn't respond. She just stared at the fire.
" Why don't you people call them zombies?" he asked as the wood popped in the fire.
" Zombies are seen as a negative thing... we." she stopped and coughed, " We call them undead to make the children understand that the undead that we have are fine... those zombies out in the wilds are not and should be feared."
Grell still felt queasy at the thought of growing up with a zombie pet... " So are they your own dead or do you take from other's graves?"
She smiled, " I go to the families I want to use their dead as my servants and pay them well before raising them." She finished her ale, " I also make sure not to do anything to them that I would not want to see my own family have done to them." She then added, " Why do you think that we do nothing but make the undead do what we wish... be our slaves? If they make enough money I buy them life potions and if the family wants them back I bring them back with the money they help me raise."
Grell just nodded, " Okay... but tell me the undead that made this ale wore gloves... "
She let out a soft giggle at this and nodded, " No one wants a piece of the brewer in the beer."
Grell still took a while to finish his ale. They talked a bit more... he told her the complete story of his time at Dalla and of his journeys afterwards, and then of the man and his undead concubine. She had explained the ways of the village, how they rose the dead many decades before to help with the fields when many died due to a sickness, how that spread so that many people became Necromancers to create undead of their own.
She also told him of the wars that were fought between the more powerful undead. Then the final battle where a raiding party of humans and trolls that tried to attack the village, were fended off by the undead. How necromancy was now regulated through their village and how they tried to spread their way of necromancy.
Grell had listened to half of this before falling asleep sitting up against the side of the cave. Roe had long since finished her tale when she noticed his soft snoring and left the sleeping darkblood alone.
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Grell got up the next day and walked to the village, entering slowly with a sentry, and finally meeting the mayor again. The undead woman was still at his side and she was sporting a less than totally sheer dress.
" So did you rethink your choice?" the mayor sneered, " Will you help us." His concubine lay at his feel and nuzzeled the mayor like a kitten.
" Double the price.... I will need help." he growled, obviously not happy with how things were looking at this moment. " I want Roe, the necromancer girl to help me."
The mayor nodded, " Take her... but if she comes back harmed we will kill you and make your corpse a love doll for some of our more" He grinned wide and bared his teeth, " more delicate men."
Grell nodded and turned. His mind was racing over things about what supplies he needed for the job then realized he had not asked for the supplies to be used. " By the four Gods!" he growled to himself before entering the sunlight.
Roe was standing waiting for him, " So?" she asked.
" You come with me and you get half the money." he continued to walk past her, " We leave now." She nodded and followed him towards the village gates.
