Old Faithful

Old Faithful



Dain grimaced at the pain in his leg, the arrow had struck deep and he couldn’t
pull it from his leg. The leather chaps were sticky with pooled blood. His dwarven
companion looked from the safety of his hiding place and across the trail to
Dain. The dwarfs one good eye leered at him and he smiled with a toothy grin.

Dain couldn’t help but laugh. The dwarf always made jokes when times were
tough. The dwarf jutted out of the boulders protection and stopped on the trail
long enough to taunt the bandits below. He jumped barely missing a hail of
arrows as they passed by. He tumbled and came to a crouch by Dain. He looked at
the wound and grabbed Dain’s leg with a meaty fist and gripped it like a vise.
Dain screamed a curse.

"High Reveler damb you Bulvi!" He gasped. The dwarf laughed. And slapped him on
the chest.

"It still hurts! That’s good boy, worry when it doesn’t hurt anymore. I’ll have
to cleave it off."

Dain looked at him. The dwarfs bad eye had a glass orb in it. It was cracked.
The orb’s blue color was tainted with a smoky residue.

"Heya boy! You look about as sick as the day you got the clap from that spade
woman in Pontibella!"

Dain smiled. "What happened to your eye?" he asked flicking a finger at the
dwarf.

Bulvi glanced around the boulder for a quick look and then turned back to his
friend. Bulvi ruffled through the pouch at his side and pulled out a glowing
blue potion in a small vial.

"Hold this." he said, thrusting it out to Dain. The scout grabbed it, frowning
in disgust knowing what was coming. The dwarf put a metal rod covered in strips
of leather into Dain’s mouth.

Bulvi moved to Dain’s leg and straddled it, grabbing his buckler.

"The crack of lightning you heard when we were attacked, it was from a
spellflinger down there. A right nasty one with a spell like that. He took out
Orson and Rolly. The lightning hit me too, but just barely. Me eye jumped right
out of its socket. He’s out there somewhere." The Dwarf slammed his buckler
down hard on the arrow, it pushed through and jutted out from the back of Dain’s leg. The
scout grimaced and let out a muffled scream. His leg was shaking like a tremor.
Bulvi snapped off the arrowhead.

"Here comes the hard part boy, drink the potion once I’m done." Dain nodded,
tears streaming down his tanned face. The dwarf pulled hard on the arrow and
finally with a huge feat of strength pulled it from the scout’s leg. Dain spit
the steel rod from his mouth and chugged then healing potion as the dwarf held
him against the boulders rough surface.

The dwarf patted his friend on the chest. "Your ok."

"Is anyone left alive from the caravan?" Dain asked. The dwarf shrugged his
shoulders. When I woke up I found my eye and made my way up the ledge after I
killed two of the bandits. The only others I saw were dead already."

"We need to find that Wizard and gut him." Bulvi said annoyed, shaking Old
Faithful, his Dire Pickaxe.

"We’ve never lost a caravan yet, this isn’t going to be my first one." Dain
said.

"Aye, I got sumthin for em, eh?" The dwarf produced a horn from his backpack
and lifted it toward Dain. "Ole Shatterbones!" Bulvi said. Dain laughed. He
remembered Bulvi talking about his magical horn that could shatter bones and
destroy buildings. He thought it was a joke until now.

"You were serious about a magic horn, I thought it was a drunken jest."

Bulvi smiled his broken teeth black holes against his good ones.

"Dwarves never lie when we brag boyo!" Dain laughed, knowing that was a lie.

"Now we sneak in and find out where he is at nightfall, which is probably when
their comin for us, then I take him out with shatterbones and we clean off the
rest of the shit."

Dain nodded and the two waited for nightfall.

They crept down the ledge keeping on their bellies. They watched from the cliff
edge as the bandits moved slowly into the rugged hills and began their climb of
the jagged rocks. Then they saw the mage come out from the back of a wagon.
They watched him as he moved to a group of tied up teamsters and began
questioning them.

They made their way down the embankment and slid off into the trees and shrubs.
The mage heard his men in the hills scream, "They aren’t here they must have
run off."

The mage yelled back. "Good come back down. We’ll split up our gains." The
bandits cackled and hooped. After a few minutes they had come back down the
mountain. All of them milled around the main wagon, which was full of Rommish
craftwares.

Dain and Bulvi moved slowly and broke into a run as they reached camp. Dain
caught a guard unawares and slit his throat with a wicked slash to the throat
with his knife. Bulvi moved to the group of men and blew his horn. A deafening
roar and a boom of sonic energy engulfed the bandits and their mage leader. The
skin shredded off the men and their screams were silenced by the deafening
thunderclap that erupted from the horn. The wagon shattered into splinters and
disappeared. Only a brown streak was left at the site, where the magical energy
had destroyed the grass and worn the dirt raw.

Bulvi laughed and slapped his knee. "Heya, did ya see that boyo! Now that’s a
godlike asswhuppin don’t ya think!"

"Dain smiled and moved over to the teamsters, who were gagged. One of them
attempted to stand. And fell. Dain and Bulvi moved over to him and removed his
gag.

"Easy friend, were not going to-"

‘Watch out! There is another one!" The teamster said.

Dain smiled, "Its ok, we killed the mage one more bandit can’t.." Dain
stopped as a streak of lightning came from the treeline and hit Bulvi in the
chest shattering the horn in his hand and hurling the dwarf thirty feet to
smash into a tree. The broken form of his friend lay motionless his chest
smoked. The smell of burning flesh reached his nostrils and Dain saw his
friends Dire Pickaxe lying near him. He picked it up and felt the rage boiling
inside of him. The mage stepped out of the trees and began casting another
spell. Dain charged the wizard, pickaxe held high.

The spell hit Dain, he felt his mind being affected, and he wanted to sleep but
he shrugged it off and charged the mage. Surprised the mage began retreating
but was caught by the scout before he reached the treeline. Dain kicked him and
the mage fell forward screaming. The wizard fumbled in his belt for something
and Dain raised the dwarfs mighty weapon above him, and brought it down hard on
the wizards chest, he felt some type of resistance, some sort of spell no
doubt, but it didn’t stop the power of Dain’s Blow.

He stared at the man’s face, pale and white in the moonlight. He cut a ring off
the mages hand and slipped it on his finger. He was surprised as the ring grew
to fit on his middle finger. He grunted. Searching the mage he found some sort
of wand and a pouch full of silver and gold. He took the dead mans other
jewelry and threw away a pouch full of minor items, probably what wizards
called a spell pouch. Useless junk. Taking Old Faithful out of the wizard’s
chest, he spit on the man's dead body and moved to his dead friend.

He ignored the teamster’s pleas to free them, and lifted his friend’s body and
threw it over his shoulder. He walked to the teamsters and cut one free.

"Free the men I’ll be back in the morning."

"Where are you going?" The teamster asked. Dain turned to the mountains looming
over them.

"I’m going to burn my friends body and spread his ashes in the mountains where
he belongs."

The teamster watched as the scout climbed the ragged trail and disappeared into
the darkness of the cliffs.