Rashemen Book 2

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Sepp walked towards the edge of the river, pulling off his armor and clothes, revealing his still blood stained skin underneath. He'd heard everyone elses' warnings and seen Atten's concerned look, but he'd been swimming in the frigid waters of the streams and rivers of the ice barrens since he was just a boy, and after several hours of walking with blood on his skin he couldn't stand it any longer and just wanted to get himself nice and clean.

He walked into the pool and dipped all the way under the water. Suddenly, it grabbed him. "Come with us," the water begged him. "We will show you the world. We will fly up in the sky, then fall back down to the ground. There's so much to do, won't you come with us, please?"

"I know all about the journeys water takes," Sepp told the water. "Drell was particularly interested in them, and made sure I listened to Ma's lessons as well. But I have another task to complete first, maybe later I will journey with you for a season."

"NO!" The water screamed at him. "We want you now! We don't want you to complete your task! It is so much fun having this power over the earth! Come NOW!"

Sepp tried to surface and breathe, but the water held him under. For a second, he thought he was going to drown, but then he remembered the trick Drell had showed him about how water held air within itself, and could be separated from the air with just the right touch. It was tricky, especially since the water was actively resisting him, but the air also wanted out, and soon Sepp had enough air in his lungs to last a little while longer.

Then the water got really angry with him and pulled him deeper into the river and farther down the stream. Sepp started to struggle, but then let the water carry him as it would. He'd brought the crystal back to the Earth's Heart, but Ma didn't come out of it, and now he knew that she never would. He might as well let the water take him whereever it wanted to. What did he have to live for, or do? He let the last air in his lungs slowly go out of him and watched the bubbles as they floated up to the surface.

"Let him go!" an eerily familar voice called. Sepp turned and saw a faint spirit in the water. It was Drell! What was she doing here?

"Yes, Sepp, it is I," the spirit said. "I chose to spend my afterlife here in the water, which I loved so much in life." She took control of his body from the water that had been carrying him away. "You have one of our family with you," she told the water. "That should be enough. Let Sepp go." Sepp floated up to the surface. "Goodbye, little brother," she said. "Be more careful next time."

Sepp broke the surface of the water and gasped for air. He quickly swam to the bank and scrambled out. He walked naked back up the bank and soon found the rest of his group anxiously looking for him.

"Don't go too deep in the water," he told them. "It's not too friendly today." At least he was nice and clean.

 

Atten eyed Sepp suspiciously and took a few more steps backward away from the river.

"How long are you all planning to stop here? This isn't a bathhouse party, you know. "

 

"Well, I'm planning to stop and sleep at least long enough so that I feel like I can take another step without falling down. After all I've been through in the past however long it's been, I'm pretty tired." Sepp said. "Yes, let's move away from the river, but at least let's stop and rest for a few hours before we move on again."

 

Atten sighed. What more did these people need to see in order to be convinced of the urgency of this mission? Resigned to the fact that they were going nowhere soon, he walked even further back up the hill and sat down with his back to a tall, old looking tree.

 

Maron stepped back from Sepp, raising a hand to her face, and cocking her head curiously.

"You were under there an awfully long time. Do you have gills?"

As she watched him, intrigued, she remembered something he'd said earlier.

"You can borrow my mace, if you need a weapon. Don't worry about breaking it, even though it's glass, it's stronger than steel. I can cast a spell if I need another weapon. Just return it sometime, and clean it first."

Stepping past him, she swept a hand through the water, squealing as she realised how cold it was.
Still, she cupped enough to wash her face, and swept her drenched digits through her blonde hair.

"Is anyone cooking, I'm starving" she announced loudly.

 

Sepp took Maron's mace and hefted it. It was clearly too long and unweildy for his short arms. Nakia pulled out a scruffy looking bag and handed it to Sepp. "Look in here," she said. "I've forgotten most of the stuff that I've put in there. You never know what you'll find."

Sepp handed the mace back to Maron. "Thanks, but I think it's a little too long for me. Thanks, Nakia." He opened up the bag and stuck his whole arm down into it, feeling around junk that was in it. He drew out a pair of very long daggers in green metal sheaths. He took them out of the sheaths and made a few practice swings with them. They had a great feel and a nice hum to them. "I'll use these, if you don't mind, Nakia."

Nakia nodded her assent, "Be my guest. I can't even remember who I stole them from."

Sepp looked back at Maron. "No, I don't have gills, and I was about to drown. But then I remembered that water has a little bit of air trapped inside it, and you can get the air to come out with just a little coaxing. But even with that trick I still would be dead, or at least stuck in the water for a long time, if my sister hadn't been there to save me."

His stomach growled loudly. "Speaking of food, I'm even more hungry than I am tired. Let's eat!" He started taking food items out of Pa's bag. Soon, a small feast was layed out on a large rock. It wasn't the finest of food fit for a king or queen, but it was home cooking for Sepp. Dried goat meat, goat cheese, smoked mushrooms, lichen cakes, and even some honey cakes that Nakia pulled out of her bag. "Don't be shy, have something," he called to the others through a mouthful of mushrooms.

 

Delphinae takes one look at the dried meat and grimaces. "I'll hunt my own game, thank you very much." And just like that, she disappeared into the forest.

 

"Your sister was in the water? Dear oh dear. Are you sure you didn't lose part of your brain while you were down there?"

Atten wondered again if he was travelling with idiots. He munched on some berries.

 

Kelvados conjured some Goodberries. He put a score of them on the rock and said, "Well, at least they're different," he forced a smile, something he hadn't done in a long time, "and they taste good!"

He went over to Delinos, who had fallen asleep, and shook him awake. "Delinos? Wake up! There's food, and we have to go soon."

Delinos stirred out of his dream. "What? Okay then.."

*****

The assassins almost blended into the trees. The were in tune with the sounds of nature. They waited. They watched. They would pick off the brothers' companions.

They would attack.

 

"Yes, Drell has chosen to spend her afterlife in the water. I'm not sure I would do that, in fact, I haven't thought at all where I'd want to spend my afterlife. Maybe I should, since I could get killed any moment here and I don't know if you get to think about it a long time when the time comes for you to chose." He shook his head a little, then looked at Atten again. "No, I don't think that I left any of my brain in the water, but I do know that some of it died when I was running low on air, before I drew the air out of the water. Just a little bit though, it shouldn't hurt me that much." He picked up one of Kelvados' Goodberries and tried it. "Mmmn, Kelvados, these are good! Thanks!"

 

Jex sat back quietly against a tree slowly eating a honey cake. He was enjoying the conversations around him that his companions were haveing. It had been along time since he travelled with a group. At least 10 years by his count. This was an ecclectic group with three people carrying drow blood and avariel, two humans and two halflings. It made for interesting bonds.

He watched as the others milled about him. He was enjoying himself. He had a new outlook on life since his death.

 

Atten fell asleep against the old gnarled tree. Whilst he slept he dreamed tree-ish dreams of the passing seasons, heavy snow, blazing sun, and roots that sunk deep into the earth. The Earth. The Earth.......

 

Nakia ate and then settled against a tree, relaxed and drowsy. She fell asleep. Suddenly she was Sepp in the water unable to breathe, taking air from the water, meeting the spirit of his sister. The scene changed; she was Jex, quietly observing the strange group. Then she was falling, falling into the underdark, walking the streets of a strange city, knowing what it felt like to be a male drow. As she drifited in these strange dreams her skin begin to prickle becoming acutely painful. She woke suddenly rubbing her arms. Her rogue sense had set in, warning her of danger but from where and what she knew not.

She moved quietly to Jex and whispered very softly, "I sense danger but I know not where it is or what it is." With that she stepped back into the forest as if for a call of nature.

 

Jex had been meditating in the reverie that elves fall into instead of sleep. He snapped to attention when Nakia awoke him. Instantly he let his eyes sleip in darkvision and scanned the area. The outlines of his companions glowed a faint red, but nothing else came to attention. He sat very still and barely moved as he checked the surrounding areas. If there was someone around, it would look like he was still resting.

All of the half-drows senses tingled. He could feel a threat as well, but was unsure of were it was comeing from or in what shape. His hands slowly shifted to the hilts of his scimtars as he waited for the threat to become real.

 

One assassin silently jetted behind Nakia in the woods, putting his arm around her neck, and then bringing her up into the tree. He quickly stabbed a poison into her that put her into a sleep.

The others waited for one of the brothers' companions to move.

 

A mosquito bit Sepp in the neck, and he reflexively slapped it with his hand, then looked at his hand to see how much blood it took from him gauging by the size of the red blot on his hand, but there was no red blot on his hand, and this wasn't the season for mosquitos anyway, not this far north.

Goodness, he was tired. A good meal after all that walking needed to be followed by a nice nap, he started to lay down on the grass, but then he felt Jex pour a bucket of ice water over his head.

He bolted up to his feet, totally dry, and looked at Jex, who seemed to be resting against a tree. They locked eyes, then they both were Nakia, in a drug induced sleep with an enemy next to her. They left her and came back to the space between the two of them. **Should we sound the alarm and go on the attack, or play dumb and bait them to make the next move?** He thought to Jex as he moved mostly back into his body, leaving just enough of a connection to hear Jex's silent answer.

 

The buzzing of a wasp could be briefly heard, but after a second it stopped. The assassins, sensing something afoot, looked up into the tree where their friend was sitting next to a drugged Nakia. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, they resumed their watch upon the drow brothers and their friends.

What they did not see was the feathers only slightly protruding from the assassin's throat, on an arrow that pinned him sitting upright to the tree limb behind him. Nakia's assailant was dead.

Delphinae slips back into the quiet of the forest.

 

Jex felt concerned with Sepps mind intrusion. It was strange. Stay still. Del and I can deal with this it seems. He winked at Sepp, just to let him know that Jex had an idea.

In a blur of movement, Jex jumped from his crouched position to the forest beside him, and scrambled up a tree. He had inacted the magic of his amulet. He moved faster than any of the assassins could react. When he reached a spot deemed suitable. He wrapped his piwafi around hisself and watched. He spotted the red outlines of a few of the assissins, but there were only three of them, he knew there were more.

Climbing down the tree he sprinted towards one of the assassins he had seen, the one closest to Sepp, with the silence of the night, he slashed a scimitar across the assassins back and kept moveing.

 

The assassins, all in various places, took out their poison tipped arrows and bows, almost in unison, and shot at the blur that was Jex.

 

Sepp saw Jex wink at him and then disappear. He was sure Jex could handle things, at least he hoped so, especially with Del, Maron, the drow brothers, and Alexi to help. Nakia though, asleep in a tree next to an assassin, was in mortal danger. He had to help her.

He moved over a few feet to where a large boulder protruded from the dirt. He put his arms around it and felt it. It was immense, the part showing above the ground was but a fraction of it. He tuned his body to it, and soon was one with it. He needn't worry about his body being hurt by arrows or swords right now, so he left it and found himself in Nakia's mind.

She was sleeping, not aware that she was in a tree and could fall out and get hurt or killed.

"WAKE UP!" he yelled in her mind. She took a deep breath and let out a snore.

"DANGER! FIRE! BIG BAD BEAR!" he yelled again in her mind. She heard, and struggled to wake from her forced dreaming, but the sleep poison kept her from waking.

He searched the memories that he now shared with her for something more drastic or attractive to Nakia that could bring her back from dream world.

"GOLD!! GOLD!! MOUNTAINS OF GOLD!!!" he screamed.

Instantly she opened her eyes and asked, "Where? Where's the gold?"

"I don't know, maybe the assassins have some. I just had to get you to wake up," Sepp told her. "I'm going to go make sure Atten and the Earth's Heart are fine."

He floated through the space between him and Atten, who was sitting against a tree with his eyes closed. Resting, meditating, sleeping? Sepp didn't know, and he didn't have a spirit connection to Atten like he did with Nakia and Jex. There didn't seem to be assassins threatening him at the moment, but that could change at any time.

Sepp thought about entering the Earth's Heart and making contact with Atten that way, but then he might be trapped inside it forever. Though he'd maybe be with his Ma, he didn't want to do that unless it was absolutely necessary. He searched around for another way.

In the tree Atten was leaning against was a family of snow squirrels. Sepp went close to one and asked if it would help him. It assented and Sepp entered it and took control of its body. He jumped down to the ground next to Atten and started chattering loudly to Atten.

He didn't know if Atten understood squirrel, or even if he did if the sounds he was making with the squirrel's vocal chords made any sense, but Atten did open his eyes and look questionlingly at him. Hopefully he at least understood the message that there was danger close by.