Hello, Everyone!
Last time, Bruno, Aurum and Mary finished their fight with the Umberhulk (yeah, that's what that creature was called, I'm sure you recognized it if you know your D&D monsters) and started leading the two children home. They passed through a forest that was equal parts creepy and amusing, and found themselves unable to keep themselves from laughing at the images of a plump man with a long beard carved on the trunks and rocks there.
Once all the candy was securely tucked into the hollow tree (Mary saw Aurum steal a few pieces but didn't say anything), they were ready to go and meet the children's 'papa'.
The mood was cheerful and Mary found that all her worry and mistrust had somehow dissipated. It was just candy, y'all. Nothing mysterious or sinister.
“You shouldn’t tell Papa about the creature that attacked us,” Anton and Ilyana said when they were about to come out of the grove. “He doesn’t usually let us go to town, he says it’s too dangerous.”
“Gee, I wonder why!” Aurum said.
He was smiling, same as Mary and Bruno, but on occasion his eyes flashed to doubt and suspicion.
Leaving the forest, the group stepped out on a small plot of land tucked between two hills. There was a big house in the middle, made from huge logs, way different from every other tree in the area. It was surrounded by a garden and a wheat field. Small figures moved all around, and when the trio came closer, they turned out to be children.
Many children. Too many to be part of a single family. Mary saw a little half-orc boy and two half-elves running among the human kids.
Away in the field, there was ‘Papa’. He was just as bald and round-bellied as the carvings in the grove. But what they hadn’t been able to depict was how strong he was. He was currently pulling a whole plough by himself – something Mary’d seen oxen do with some difficulty. Several boys were sitting on the plough--probably to make it sink properly--and were cheering him on.
He noticed the newcomers, and waved his big hand in a greeting. After a few more lines of plowing, he wiped the sweat off his forehead, stretched his back and approached the adventurers.
“I can see that Anton and Ilyana have brought company,” he said with a gleeful smile. “Welcome! Come join us for supper! There’s enough for everybody!”
He pointed at two older girls hovering around a huge cauldron which gave out the delicious smell of bean soup. Mary was a bit skittish at first. Lilly had taught her that it wasn’t polite to impose on other people’s meals. But the man was so inviting and pleasant that she soon forgot her worries and joined in on the fun.
And fun, it was. There were, all in all, fifteen children in the house, ageing from five to seventeen years old. It wasn’t a family home, but an orphanage. ‘Papa’s Orphanage’. The ‘Papa’ in question introduced himself as Rabajorhax but told them to call him the same way that the kids did.
“It seems that my name is quite difficult to remember,” he said. “‘Papa’ is way easier to roll off the tongue.”
Mary was sure she wasn’t going to forget. She was very good with names. She heard Bruno whisper-repeat the man’s title next to her. Rabajorhax had obviously made him a pretty good impression if he was so eager to remember his name. Aurum, on the other hand, was probably going to start calling him by a completely different nickname before the evening was over.
Rabajorhax thanked the three of them for getting Anton and Ilyana home. They’d said they’d been attacked by dogs. Their Papa looked at Aurum’s half-bloodied, half-acid-burned clothes, and hummed.
“Yes, I see,” he said. “Must have been quite the dog pack.”
None of the five involved said anything and they left it at that.
After dinner, Mary, Bruno and Aurum sat down on the porch of the orphanage and chatted with ‘Papa’ while the younger kids ran around and the older helped prepare them for bed.
Rabajorhax told them he used to travel all around Eastern Erathos but at one point decided that he wanted to dedicate himself to a better cause. So, about twenty years ago, he opened the orphanage.
The children came mostly from Raxstrad and Meraket--they were often found on the streets, lost, forgotten and alone. They were all brought in by older kids who’d left the orphanage to find their fortune in the outside world. The kids stayed in the orphanage until someone looked for them or until they were old enough to take on a craft of their own. Young men and women who’d been brought up by ‘Papa’ could be found in all the nearby settlements. A few of them were even on their way to becoming adventurers themselves when he last saw them.
Listening to their host, Mary felt a weight on her chest. She was an orphan who was left in the same area he was talking about. If Gillean hadn’t found Lilly and Bramble’s troup, or if they hadn’t taken her in, would she be part of Rabajorhax’ family, too? She imagined herself running around, playing with the other children, helping out with dinner or stashing candy in the hollow tree. She felt her eyes well up with tears and blinked furiously to fend them off.
“It’s a really good thing you’re doing here,” she said, her voice a bit shaky.
“Thank you,” Rabajorhax said. “We’re doing our best.”
“Do you like oranges?”
“Oranges?” He smiled. “I haven’t had one in decades, and I think that the kids have never even tasted any.”
“That’s perfect!” Mary chirped.
She led Papa and the few children that were still awake outside of the house and let them watch as she planted her wand into the ground. The magical tree grew out of the piece of wood and formed its dome around her. Oranges, big and juicy, weighed down on the branches. Mary peeked her head through the foliage and smiled at their amazement. It reminded her of the way she felt every time she was faced with new kinds of magic.
“You can have as many as you’d like,” she said. “It’s the least I could do for you. Just be careful, no more than seven people at a time in the dome!”
Rabajorhax raised his eyebrows. The children screamed in delight and rushed to pick the fruit and play with the pixies living in the tree. A few went into the house and brought out some crates to store the fruit in.
All in all, they were able to pick up about a hundred oranges before the tree stopped regrowing them. It was a good thing to know how many fruit it gave, Mary thought. After the last orange had been picked, she removed the wand from the ground and the dome shrank back in it.
“How much is it?” Rabajorhax said, suddenly appearing next to her.
“For the oranges? Nothing, they’re a gift,” Mary said.
“No, for the wand.”
“Oh, it’s not for sale.” She laughed nervously. “And even if I gave it to you, you wouldn’t be able to use it. I’ve been told that its magic responds only to me.”
“Such a shame,” he said and then shrugged. “Well, it is what it is. Thank you for the oranges. The kids are going to love them.”
“You’re welcome.”
Happy orphans. Who would have thought that those existed? Papa is a nice person, it seems, albeit somehow creepy in his joviality. I hope we don't find out that he eats his wards!
See you next time!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide, the Glossary and the Map for the series. You're welcome!)
An important disclaimer: These are my notes from a D&D game turned into a narrative. All the worldbuilding and NPC encounters belong to our DM, and all the actions of the other main characters (Aurum and Bruno) belong to my co-players. My contribution to the story is only everything Mary-related (actions, reactions, inner thoughts), as well as the writing itself.