Hello Everyone!
I hope you’re ready for another part of Mary Windfiddle’s adventure!
Last time our hero had a dream sent by her Patron. It showed the way to her next task and it wasn’t as exciting and magical as the one she had last time. More like, it was terrifying and scary. She’s supposed to go to a dragon’s lair and plant an orange seed there.
But she doesn’t have to do it right away. She has time. Her Patron said that she can help her friends first. So that’s what she’s going to do.
(Also, please read the ourto for some news concerning the release schedule of the story from this point on!)
After Mary’s meltdown and her subsequent calming down, her little party prepared to meet the morning in the cavern. Although it wasn’t exactly morning. They had no way of knowing what time it was in the outside world, and their circadian rhythm had become totally wrong.
Her companions started getting ready for their journey to the duergar city. They had their rations refilled with some mushrooms and dried fish, sharpened all their weapons and had Messy and Bessy fed and saddled.
Mary didn’t have as much to do as the others and so she went towards the rim of the outcropping to have a look at the valley below.
“Mary!” Bruno yelled from behind her. “Step off the edge! You don’t have darkvision, you’ll fall!”
“No, I…” Mary blinked a couple of times. “I can see!”
That was so strange! It was like everything ahead of her was lit in dim light, same as after the sun had long hidden behind the horizon but it wasn't night yet. She looked around, confused. Where the campfires threw their light around, all the objects were bathed in color, but everything else was in different shades of grey.
Aurum inspected her and said her pupils reflected light like a cat's, but when she looked in his compact mirror, she couldn’t see anything unusual.
Then she remembered her dream. She was able to see in the darkness in there! All the excitement from the new ability evaporated. So, that’s why she was given this gift – only to be able to better find the dragon and plant her Patron's tree.
She spent the rest of the preparations in silence, wondering how to let her companions know about the dragon's cave. She feared that Bruno was going to cut her off immediately. How dare she propose a detour when they had a much more important thing to do? To be fair, Paulina probably wouldn’t be happy about it as well. After all, Saami was her brother, too.
Finally, Mary gathered her courage and pulled Aurum aside. He was the one who’d been with her the last time she was doing her Patron’s bidding. He would understand.
“Hey,” she said hesitantly.
“Heeey,” he said with a silly grin. He’d finished smoking his pipe just a minute ago.
“I, um…” Mary said, “I had a dream.”
“Oooh!" he said and wiggled his eyebrows. "Anything interesting?”
Mary held up the orange seed.
“Oh,” the bard said. “That kind of dream.”
“Yes. This time it seems kinda… um... bad.” Mary swallowed and glanced at their other companions. “Could you help me tell Bruno and Paulina? I’m worried that they won’t believe me or, you know, just refuse to… um… come.”
She described the vision. A few times around the end Aurum’s eyebrows shot up, but he didn’t say anything. After she was done, Mary fell silent, staring at the ground. She was sure that he’d refuse to help her. A dragon was a much bigger deal than a living tree and some mushroom people.
“Yeah, no problem,” he shrugged and she raised her head in surprise, “I’m in.”
Mary's eyes filled with tears of gratitude. The bard kept on impressing her with his constant support.
They went to Bruno and Paulina and, with his help, Mary explained what she’d seen.
“A dragon?!” Paulina exclaimed. “Are you freaking kidding me? I’m not going near that thing! You three go ahead, I’ll be watching from a distance. And if it eats you, I’ll go tell mom that you were morrons.”
“What did the dwarf look like?” Bruno asked. "The one that the dragon tortured.”
“I… I don’t know,” Mary said. “His face was so… mishapen!”
“What color were his hair and beard?" Bruno said.
She described what she remembered and saw the relief in their cleric’s eyes. It wasn’t his brother.
"That sounds like Fennec," Belt Ormus said. He and Victor Goras were having breakfast around the campfire. "He's one of us, loggers. Please, help him if you're able."
Mary nodded.
“Saami is still our priority,” Bruno said. “But if everything turns out right, we can try doing the dragon thing afterwards.”
“So, we’ll be off, too,” Victor Goras said after a while. “The goblins will let us climb to the surface and we’ll go back to Belfast to tell the Council what’s been happening in the Underdark. Hope to see you up there, if you get out of here in one piece.”
Suddenly, fear grabbed Mary’s heart. What if they never returned? Her thoughts flashed to lord Dwendel and his missing daughter. She remembered his slumped back and sad eyes and thought of her own parents. What would happen to them if she ended up dying in the Underdark? Would they hope for her return? Would they look at the door, expecting her to show up? Would they check the mailbox every day for news of her and never, ever get any?
“Wait!” she said. “Can I… um… give you a letter if we… um, if something happens to us?”
She avoided her companions’ eyes. She knew this train of thought wasn't very cheerful or optimistic, but… There was a dragon’s lair she needed to sneak into, and even if that went well, a city filled with dark dwarves and monsters wasn’t like a walk in the park. She didn’t want her parents to wait for her to return if...
She wrote the letter, sealed it with some wax she had in her bag and gave it to the loggers, along with some gold for the sending fee. The arrangement was that they’d keep the letter and if she or her party didn’t return until a day before the duergar’s deadline, they’d find a Bearer and have them deliver it.
So, hey, I hope you like this part. It’s kind of a downer but one can’t be super positive when faced with the prospect of a dragon.
But the letter, though! What do you think she wrote in there? I hope we’ll get to see it some day (spoiler alert – we will!)
Anyway. I'm excited to announce that from the next chapter on, I'm going to post the story three times a week instead of two! I have a lot of buffer already written and I feel like it's time to quicken things a little :) The new schedule is Monday-Wednesday-Friday. The next 20-or-so chapters are the best I've written so far and I'm eager to read your comments! <3
But first, I hope to see you next time when we finally get to Gracklstugh and find out who’s going to do the reconnaissance. I hope it’s not Mary or Bruno. They’re the least stealthy of the bunch!
Until then,
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the chapter guide. You're welcome!)