Fetch felt uneasy the entire morning. The dream or nightmare he had last night still hung with him. He didn't remember much about it, all he remembered was a guy with a fish on his head told him he and Tyris weren't able to have children. The more he thought about it, the sillier it seemed. Eventually the memory was forgotten and he only focused on the march.
Hakon took his corporal and squad leaders aside , Cpl Samuel will travel with 1 squad ahead, Sgt Hakon would travel with the other 2 around a quarter mile behind. If there was any danger a horn would be sounded. Every 5 miles a different horn would be sounded to indicate everything was safe. Fetch was surprised at the level of planning and communication the Grommers took. Hakon told them in different environments different signals would be used. Smoke, Arrows, flags, magic were all common. Also depending on the the danger of the surroundings the distance between the 2 groups would vary. Fetch recalled his lessons from Cook , she mentioned knowing the battlefield was integral to winning a battle. The cleric always took that to heart, but these Grommers took it to the next level. Hakon appreciated Fetch's willingness to learn. He was the youngest of all the "veteran" recruits. Most young men his age went through regular training. Hakon could see the potential that General must have saw in him.
Fetch's squad went with Hakon on the first day. The cleric kind of expected to be scouting first, but it was just as well, his group didn't seem to have their wits about them. Branndr and Trip seemed like their regular selves. . But the twins seem edgy and unnerved. Frank was acting stranger then normal. He kept staring at a canary or something that he said was following him. He tried shooting it , but Surry spoiled his aim. Apparently shooting innocent animals wasn't tolerated in her presence.
Fetch learned a long time ago to forget about the age difference when it came to commanding people under his command. He was the youngest in Logan's caravan but he still took over after Big Jim left. He was slightly younger then Frank when they formed his first adventuring group, and he was most likely the youngest high priest and warmaster ever in the host. Most youths would have trouble assuming an authoritative tone to their elders, but it came naturally to Fetch. The twins were the pair he knew the least about his group. They kept mostly to themselves , but seemed to enjoy Franks company. He knew they were from a poor family and only joined the army to continue their training. He wondered if they would take up the adventurer's path , become mercenaries or become career soldiers. Surry and Agni were poor but noble looking half elf's. They both had pale almost white skin and an unusually slender build for half elves , a sure sign of their family's poverty. They both looked lean and dangerous though, Fetch always had a soft spot in his heart for all things elven, and thought they both a had mysterious attractive androgynous look to them.
From what Fetch could observe, Surry's magic was mostly enchantment magic with some direct attack spells. She favored creating a simple blade of force, as well as creating daggers of ice, and sheathing weapons in fire. Her use of magic was skillful but unremarkable. Fetch had seen much deadlier blades summoned by Brita and other mages. Her archery skills were very good though. Almost as accurate and rapid as Tyris...which was saying a lot. Agni was a fine swordsman. He used a bastard sword mainly with two hands ,and he typically cast a few enchantments on himself before proceeded right away in melee. They were around 40-50 years old, but appeared to be Franks age in human years. Their gear was unremarkable but of fine craftsmanship . They were probably his 2 most reliable people in the squad, but today they seemed different.
"Something wrong you two? Frank giving you his twin speeches again?", asked Fetch with a smile as they marched.
Surry shook her head, but her expression betrayed her. Agni knew their discomfort was obvious so he spoke " We are nearing our home. We left on less then perfect circumstances." Surry nodded in agreement with her brother.
"Care to talk about it? I find it helps if you share these things.", said Fetch emphatically.
Agni wasn't sure why, but he trusted the young human." As you know Surry and I came from a poor family. All the elves in the Eagle Claw barony were refugees from one place or another. " , Fetch remembered the name , thats where Brita went after she left the northern wastes. "Our family was no exception. Our grandmother was a noble woman...", he paused,"but her family and ancestral home were destroyed by a small band of ruthless raiders in the northern lands. She barely survived, and her servants led her to the barony,. There she died while bearing a child from one of the marauders of her village which forced himself on her. Our mother left the tribe at an early age and engaged in various forms of trouble making and mercenary work. Eventually she journeyed back to the north supposedly in search of her heritage. She was gone for 100 years or so, but eventually crawled back to the village, broke and with child."
Surry took over when she saw her brother was unable to continue. "Our mother was a simple woman, she never held a steady job even though plenty of work was available. She was always getting into trouble with monsters and bandits instead of leading a quiet villagers life. She eventually abandoned us when we were a mere 20, and left us to the care of our grandmother's remaining servants. She claimed she went to the north to join the great host, but as you know thats impossible . When the mists still settled on our northern borders travel to the north was impossible save for the strongest heroes and wizards. Its most likely she succumbed to her own irresponsible wanderlusts. Our guardians took care of us for a year but told us straight up they could not afford to house , feed and educate us anymore. So abandoned by our mother, and turned away by our guardians, we made our way into the world. We tried the adventurer's path but we fared poorly in that career. We eventually joined the Free Armsmen in Nazag Narg under Commander Ymir , where we learned much about combat. But our magical training was sniffled, dwarves can make amazing wizards but it is not a profession they encourage , especially in the Nazag Narg clans. After 2 tours with the Armsmen we returned to our village to resume our learning there. We were shocked to find our mother had returned once again , and was seeking us.", explained Surry who seemed to Fetch was getting angrier and angrier while telling their tale.
Agni interrupted as he saw her sister growing livid, "No doubt to borrow funds. We heard from our few friends what had transpired. She brought all sorts of angry accusations against our guardians, and through cheap judicial means, had them imprisoned or exiled. We thought it over, and decided to leave her to her own devices. and thats when we joined the 3rd army."
After her brother's interruption , Surry had calmed down and decided to finish her narrative," So you see why we are concerned. We are traveling close to the Eagleclaw barony. It would not surprise us if she found us, and that would be quite the embarrassing scene. ", she said in an icy tone while gripped her weapon tightly," I would not hesitate to strike her down if we met and her words were miss chosen."
Fetch nodded and backed off...These 2 clearly had anger issues.
Frank walked up to them as they walked in silence. "HEY...I heard you guys mentioned a Ymir...was it a short dwarf chick with light brown curly hair, and a big axe? errr Ironblood clan or something. I tried to listen in but it was impossible. You know with the stereo speaking and all. ", he emphasized by making alternating duck gestures with his hands. " Like if the hive mind approach works for you guys , thats great. But I prefer the one speaker, the other guy shuts the hell up approach."
Agni gave him a light shove, then considered his statement. "Well Ymir is not an uncommon name for a woman dwarf, and she does indeed have light brown hair, and she did use an axe. But that's like 90% of the dwarf women in general. "
Frank thought about that, and asked Fetch for his old waraxe. Fetch hadn't used it for along time, but kept it in his magical bag. To the amazement of the others, he dug out the masterfully crafted war axe. The entire squad stared at the amazing piece of metal work. Frank took the axe, and duplicated one of Ymir's moves against a fallen log. He lept up and bent his back in an arc and swung the axe down full force into the log. It was a dangerous move, if he would have missed the axes path would most likely strike his own leg, but if it connected, it would be certain doom for the enemy.
Agni and Surry both gasped in recognition of their commanders signature move. "That's her move! Ive seen many a giant and beast fall to her masterstroke." Branndr and Trip were both impressed by the workmanship and the quality of the axe he held. Trip inquired about the craftsman, Fetch shrugged and he thought Lord made it. Trip asked if that was a warforge's name.
"Cool! Fetch and I have to visit her sometime, we use to be old adventuring buddies. ", Frank exclaimed proudly.
"Did you 2 use magic augmentation to prolong your life, or are you assimars or something? ", asked Surry puzzled. "Mistress Ymir hasn't been adventuring for over 40 years. Were you even born back then , or are you like 60 or 70 years old.?"
"Nahhh...we come from the north..We're just bad at counting", said Frank with an honest look in his face.
Several more days past, and they passed the EagleClaw Barony with no incident. Nothing except Frank complaining about a canary following him. Fetch looked for this mysterious bird but couldn't find it. Fetch's group took point for the last 2 days. Hakon thought they traveled well and made good overall scouts. Fetch agreed, but it was all Trip and Surry. He told Hakon those 2 were as skilled as rangers in the woods , Trip and Surry replied that's because they were rangers.
They used mainly game and hunters trails. They could have went on the main road, but Hakon wanted to check several campsites for activity. Fetch surmised that their "safe " patrol might have some complications but they reached the tower in under a week, without seeing any combat.
The Lake tower was strategically important because it was the crossroads between Nazag Narg, Khazag Narg , and McDunnalds. Fetch didn't know much about the local politics, but it seemed that the 2 dwarf kingdoms were at odds with each other. There wasn't any open warfare, but border skirmishes occurred frequently. Many merchants conducted their bushiness at the base of the tower or the adjacent field. It was considered a political safe area. The tower was well constructed, and well supplied. Having merchants come up to your doorstep made restocking easy. The tower was apparently maintained by the 3 nations on a rotation basis. They would each hold the area for 2 weeks a piece, to ensure the Lake tower remained neutral ground.
Waiting at the tower was one of the easiest things Fetch and Frank had to do. One squad kept guard, one remained in the tower, the last had time off, to explore the small bazaar next to the tower or examine the local country side. Fetch was surprised Frank and Trip were discussing weapon forging techniques together on their off time while Branndr normally hung out in the tower. With his free time Fetch explored the bazaar mostly by himself. The time he spent at the bazaar was very enlightening , he learned about as much about the dwarven kingdoms and Grom speaking with the merchants then the rest of his journey through the country side. He confirmed that Ymir of the Free Armsman was indeed his old friend, and he longed to pay her a visit.
"Howsssss mucccch?", hissed someone in the crowd.
Fetch stopped, and listened again.
"Tooosss mucccch." , the voice said again.
Fetch slowly scanned his surroundings. He saw a slightly scaled hand , a hissing man, some men with cowls. He saw snake people everywhere. He calmed down and redirected his thoughts. There cant be snake men everywhere, I must be paranoid he thought. He assumed the role of a guard and started a random shop inspection. His inspections were brief but the affected merchants were annoyed , but weren't going to question his authority . He used this as a pretense to examine his suspects more carefully. After reconnoitering the area, he counted over a dozen snake men. They didn't seem to be searching for him so what were they after, he thought to himself.
His first worry was that they had followed him, but he calmed himself down and realized that was ridiculous. He thought they must be after something else, or maybe waiting for someone else. Perhaps a traveler, or maybe they were spies. He ruled that out, if they were spying there wouldn't be so many. They were definitely waiting for someone . He watched and they stayed in the bazaar till nightfall. Then left , not down the path , but into the woods.
Fetch wasted no time and alerted his squad to the danger.
"Snake men ? Yawn Ties? What have you been drinking and where can I get some?", asked Frank.
"Whats a snakeman? ", asked Branndr.
Surry replied "They are a race of degenerate people, also known as the yuan ti, who live on the outskirts of civilization, through infernal breeding some are able to infiltrate human society for their own malicious ends. We found a small nest of them once while with the Armsmen. They are a tough lot, some spit acid, some have evil mind powers."
"We should alert Hakon right away.",said Fetch and the group proceeded up the tower immediately.
"Hakons not here.", said the dwarven veteran on watch. "He left in the morning with a squad to escort special guests or something. Guess you weren't paying too much attention to the briefing." , sniffed the dwarf.
"Theres like a dozen snakemen in the woods. I think their up to no good.", said Fetch.
"Sure,,sure.,,,are they breaking any laws or something, are they sacrificing babies? Stealing eggs? If they are we'll do something about it, otherwise we wait till Hakon returns.", said the dwarf unimpressed with the youth.
Fetch angrily stomped down the stairs, his youthful pride showing. "Can you believe that? We could be drowning in snake men at any moment and they aren't even concerned."
"umm Fetch...who else has seen these snakemen?",asked Frank. "Like your the only one thats seen them."
"They've been following me since I left Mammoth Keep!", blurted Fetch.
"umm yeah. I don't seem to recall any when we were traveling here. ", said Frank.
" They disguise themselves! They can look like regular people...Look...I heard one in Karlston...he hissed." , said Fetch.
"Errr are you sure he didn't have a lisp? I broke many a mans teeth in a bar fight, and some of them lisp if they are missing the correct teeth.", said Frank." Like if you want us to beat up some merchants cuz you think they are snakemen that's cool with me. We'll get tossed from the army or worse, but I'm cool with that. I'm not sure about the others. though."
Fetch looked at his other comrades, they all stared at the floor or distant objects. Except Trip." I want to see a snake man. Please show me a snakeman."
"How about we come up with a compromise, we keep an extra close eye on these "snakemen" of yours , if they try something , we'll be ready.", asked Frank.
"That seems to be our only choice, ", Fetch said knowing Frank was right.
The next day , a dozen armed and dangerous looking dwarves marched towards the Lake tower. It was Fetch's squads turn to guard, so the cleric was the one to officially greet them.
Fetch saw their leader, an aged dwarf nobleman in rich grey and golden robes.
"FETCH! FRANK!", a familiar high voice greeted them.
"Ymir?", Fetch asked looking around.
A short dwarf woman, pushed the nobleman unceremoniously out of his way. Her armor was black chain with heavy iron plates. It was quite the contrast from the light dress like armor she wore before. Her hair was in a similar style but shorter. Ymir appeared more mature, but still kept her youthful grace and energy. She leaped up and hugged Fetch , almost knocking him down.
"Ymir? is that you?", asked Frank.
She smiled and leaped like a monkey off Fetch and landed on Frank. She grabbed him in a headlock and playfully messed up his hair" Who else could it be!", the dwarf declared.
"This is important business Commander Ymir..I must protest, " , began the dwarf noble.
"Shut it! You old coot! you can talk later, the other party is not here yet anyways. ", she motioned for the other dwarves to go inside the tower. The heavily armed dwarves escorted the protesting noble into the tower, "Lets get a drink you 2."
They went to the bazaar, and she promptly procured them a table with her commanding voice. Drinks were served rapidly to them. Ymir it seems was well known in this area.
"Look at you 2, you haven't changed. Except Frank he looks like hes starting to loose his hair. ", she said happily.
"No...that's my hair getting caught on your gauntlet as your rubbed it, ", he said mockingly rubbing his head." Look at you! Miss mighty Commander Ymir. I guess things have gone well for you!"
She stood up on her chair , and puffed out her small chest in pride. Despite the years, she still had unremarkable breasts . "When I returned with my hard won treasure, I established my own thaig, I led a hundred armed dwarves into an abandoned dwarven fortress and reclaimed it for my people. Afterwards I established my own clan and was very successful, since I was the first dwarf clan mistress to use Clovis's inventions. He really is a wonder you know. After awhile I found being a merchant didn't suit me, sure I like the gold and all the fine things you do with it". She waved her hand over her fashionable designer armor, and showed off her golden jeweled earrings and necklace. Fetch thought she hadn't change a bit, she still liked to show off .
"So I used most of my profits and I established the Free Armsman. There were a lot of clanless dwarves, and ex soldiers drifting around at the time, so I started to hire them . My personal army you can say. Its the 4th largest military force in the north right now. Just behind the 3rd army, the Hearth guard, and the Lueder Guard. We are the biggest force in Nazag Narg ! "
"So what are you 2 doing here? You 2 got married and decided to come down south for a honey moon right? ", laughed Ymir.
Frank shook his head , then pointed at Fetch and mouthed" Tyris!"
"WHAT! and I wasn't invited! ", she punched Fetch's arm with a solid blow."I thought we were friends. " Frank laughed at Fetch receiving the dwarfs punishment for a change. Ymir saw this and punched him in the arm too, just because.
"Yeah...but we aren't officially married, we've just been living together the last 2 years.", Fetch said somewhat embarrassed.
"My god man! Get her a ring or something, every girl wants a ring and a big wedding. I've been proposed to a half dozen times, but their rings weren't big enough. You need money? I can loan you some.", she cheerfully chimed. before Fetch could answer, the excited dwarf changed the subject again." So what have you been doing for the last 40 years! Tell me tell me! Were you in that big host thing. Hey you weren't related to that warlord Fletcher guy were you? When I first heard about him I thought it might have been you but hes suppose to be a kid, and I thought you'd be a grey beard by now. But looking at you..."
Fetch shook his head careful not to draw attention," No that wasn't me..."
Frank nodded and pointed at Fetch, " Hes a humble Warmaster .", he said in a mock whisper. Fetch gave him an angry look, but relented his anger, when Ymir pushed herself next to him and stared at him with huge eyes. "My god, that's amazing, here sign my journal. Make it out "To Ymir, the dwarf that taught me everything I know"! ", she said will full sincerity.
Frank grew cocky, "Yep we battled the great host, the mighty Warmaster, and his faithful guardian, we even beat the demon lord of gnolls himself and a few balor in the process."
"Lies ...", said a familiar elven voice.
"Ok...we met the demon lord and got smacked around, but I'm proud to say I was the first one to charge him and got slapped down . Sir Hilderaxel defeated the demonlord, with the help from the tall, elegant, beautiful , sexy, perfectly proportioned love goddess Galatea here", boasted Frank. Fetch thought the silver shard blushed at that point.
Ymir wasn't sure how to take that last strange statement from Frank but quickly recovered, "No wonder Clovis hired you guys!", exclaimed Ymir.
Fetch and Frank , shook their heads. " Err..we haven't even seen him yet, I went to one of his stores in Karlston they said he was out."
"Wait a minute , if your not with Clovis why are you here?", asked Ymir growing suspicious.
Frank came closer to Ymir, and whispered loudly in her ear,"Apparently this is all because of snake ...men..."
Ymir grasped her axes and quickly looked around. "Are they here?"
Frank chuckled,"Apparently a whole nest of them!"
Ymir grabbed Frank's neck and choked him tightly,"This is serious! "
Fetch nodded, and made a motion for her to calm down. He gave another motion with his finger swirling around in a large oval. Ymir understood and release Frank.
"There aren't any here right now, not like yesterday.", said Galatea.
"Oh..you can tell ? You have a snakemen detector?", asked Frank to a shard of metal around his neck.
"No but I can slowly read surface thoughts, and Yuan Ti are easily discernible from humans and dwarves. I can tell you there parent any here right now."
The 3 sat in silence, unsure of what they had discovered. Fetch tried to piece it together "So you are aware of snakemen in the area? They aren't after me or Tyris or anything like that?"
Ymir shook her head," I've been hired to specifically guard against snakemen. They made an attempt on Clovis life 3 years ago . We've caught a few and even cleared out a nest in the wilderness but they are a sneaky bunch."
"So Hakon left yesterday, to escort a group to the tower, I'm assuming you are waiting for that group as well. and all the snakemen waiting here left last night.", asked Fetch out loud.
"Hey Fetch, where did Cpl Samuel go, you'd think Hakon would have left him in charge instead of us...", asked Frank nervously, unsure where this path of reasoning was leading him.
Fetch pushed off from the table and marched to the tower, Ymir nodding catapulted herself into the air with a strong push with her arm against the table and sprinted after Fetch.
"Hey...can't I finish my drink first!" , yelled Frank behind them.
Fetch and his companions hurried back to the tower, they found Surry and Agni chatting with the dwarven Armsmen. Fetch told them that his squad were going to find Hakon. The other squad was to stay here and be on full alert. The other squad leader began to protest, but Fetch's cold serious stare caused him to back down. Ymir ordered her group to move out as well. She left 2 of her armsmen to guard the nobleman more as a formality then to actually keep him safe.
Surry and Agni gave nervous salutes to their old commander. Ymir blinked and saluted back when she finally remembered them. The 15 of them set off to find Hakon. Fetch ordered Branndr to gave a warning horn to alert Hakon if he was in the area. No horn was blown to confirm his presence so they proceeded forward.
"So you guys knew Clovis was coming right? right? Or was all this a coincidence?", asked Ymir , marching hastily with Fetch.
"Its like all the threads of fate have been suddenly drawn and tightened together. As if some cosmic hand of fate were controlling our actions. ", Frank said in a calm and detached voice.
Everyone stared at him.
"Hey thats what the god said in my dream. ", shrugged Frank. Fetch remembered something similar but his memory was hazy.
"So what do they want with Clovis,", Fetch asked Ymir. His mind was firing off many questions, but could come up with no answers. Was they after one of his inventions, were they after him to get to Tyris? He sounded successful was this just a simple shakedown?
"Who knows, they swallow their own poison when we catch them. Some even mentally burn out their own minds before capture. , we can't even infiltrate them, they speak their own lingo. We haven't managed to put a mage with a translate language spell and a snake men together before they know they realize they were being observed. Their pretty sneaky.", said Ymir annoyed.
"The best our divinations can tell , it has something to do with a dead god or something.", Ymir said." Maybe they expect him to reanimate him like a flesh golem. With wires and electricity and stuff."
Ymir grew serious, "You know what we're gonna be up against right? Snakemen are tough really tough. I hate to say it, but we might be in trouble if its our 15 vs their 12 in a straight up fight. We will have to rely on surprise or splitting up them , and take out their casters fast."
"I've fought them before , they almost took me down. It was in Mammoth keep. There were 6 of them and only 2 of us. ", Fetch said, then he paused and considered his next statement carefully," a prospector helped me defeat them. The 2 that attacked me, ...they could have killed me if it weren't for the prospector. "
Fetch was a fair combatant, but he knew his limits. He could handle 1 or 2 small dragons by himself, but he had doubts he could fight a snakeman or one of those snakemen abominations solo.
Ymir seemed impressed that he was able to best them with 3 to 1 odds against. "Thats why your the warmaster I guess, " she said with a grin.
Frank didn't really believe Ymir's assessment of their foes , most of the snakes hes met in the north were very sluggish and slow, snake men couldnt be much different, "This is gonna be just like old times. I can't wait to show you some of my new tricks.". He demonstrated by spinning his sword on his palm. And seemingly stopping the spin with a finger. The sword ignited, and Frank withdrew his finger in an exaggerated motion, pretending he was burned. " My sword play is soooo hott..."
Ymir shook her head unimpressed. "Lame... We'll spar later and you can show me some of your new moves."
"When you say spar, you mean sex right? That's the code word for dwarf sex right?", asked Frank earnestly.
*Whackkk*
"Hey you two stop wasting my healing before we even get in battle yet." , Fetch said with resignation. This indeed felt like old times.
As they marched, Ymir voiced Fetch's thoughts. "You know guys, we're meeting up with Clovis...all we need now to complete this reunion is our favorite red headed bard. I wish she was here."
"Umm...Hi guys.", said an unexpected voice from the shadows ahead.
" TYRIS!", shouted Ymir...she jumped up and hugged the young woman emerging from the shadows. In mid hug, she stopped. "Wait!...", she shut her eyes, crossed both of her fingers " I wish for a million gold , I wish for a million gold!"
Frank grabbed a large lock of the dwarfs hair and twirled it painfully around his hand "I wish for a hot princess, I wish for a hot princess...OWwwwww", Ymir responded to the hair yank with an elbow to the gut.
"Errrrr...Tyris...what are you doing here?", asked Fetch.
Tyris's eyes were downcast, "I...I...I missed you... It wasn't fair Frank got to follow you. So I followed you too. I wasn't sure when was a good time to reveal myself. But with Ymir here, ...I just had to say hi.", she said apologetically.
"You've been following us for 3 weeks? What did you do with Goldanna! You didn't just leave her!,"exclaimed Fetch.
Ymir shot him an angry look, "Don't yell at her! She came because she loves you! ...who's Goldanna anyways? Is that one of your kids?"
Tyris shook her head," No, its just a strange mute stowaway we found. umm...she disappeared... I tried following her tracks, but they...vanished...completely gone . I left instructions at the estate to take care of her if she returned. I wasn't sure what to do after that."
Fetch believed her, Tyris was an amazing tracker, he wondered if she was abducted, or if some sort of magic was involved.
Frank scratched his head, "So she just vanished? Poof ! That seems weird. ", the knight said in a disappointed voice. Frank fully trusted Tyris's version of events, but he found himself a bit sad to see the mute disappear. Contrary to his companion's beliefs, he was not actually intimate or close to the strange girl, but he did develop a fondness for her.
Fetch waved Tyris over, and gave her a hug. "I missed you too", he whispered. He wondered if she left before or after she discovered Goldanna vanished , and wondered why she didn't tell them that right away , but recriminations could wait for later.
"C'mon guys lets find Clovis and make this a real reunion.", Fetch said with a smile.
Surry ,Agni, Branndr , and Trip looked at the reunited friends and then looked at themselves . Branndr said, "Wow , kind of makes me feel like a secondary character in a stupid story or something."
Trip shrugged "I don't care...I just want to see a SNAKE MAN!"