Rune Guard 05

This work of fiction is part of a series; if you did not already read the preceding chapters, please do that before starting this one.

~~~

I was just getting dressed when the stable boy came to check on us and saw the body.

"You have a visitor last night?" he asked.

"Yeah, anybody gonna miss him?" I inquired.

"He usually keeps to himself," the boy said. "One of the older street girls might notice him being gone but I can't say that I think she'll miss him."

"Where should I move the body?" I asked.

"You folks heading out?"

"Yeah. Might be back tonight. I'm not sure."

"I'll call for the guard. Anything on him?"

I dug under the seat of the wagon, found a shitty blade we hadn't sold yet, and handed it to the boy.

"Show it to the guard and then you can sell it," I told him.

He nodded and hurried off.

Mirra climbed out from under the wagon, gave me a lusty hug and kiss, and then hurried to get dressed. The imp was already getting his little hammock bed rolled up.

"Good job, Fireball," I told him.

He looked at me, pressed his lips together, and then opened them a little as he exhaled.

The sound that came out kind of sounded like "fish".

"You want fish?" I asked.

He nodded his head up and down.

"We'll have to see," I told him. "Emmit said we'll be busy today so we may have to wait a day or two. He said we'd be going home soon. He lives by two streams so you should be able to fish all you want."

The little imp clapped his hands excitedly and jumped up and down. As I heard the stable boy returning, I grabbed him up and shoved him inside of my shirt. Fireball didn't like it much - but I'd warned him that we wouldn't get to sleep under a roof or have good food if the townspeople saw him. He was becoming more and more aware of others being around and he was doing better at helping us make sure that he wasn't spotted.

He was squirming a little and I leaned my face forward and licked his head. He looked up at me and pressed himself to my bare chest and held still. I threw a jacket over my shirt - to help hide the fact that there was something hidden inside - and went to check on the proceedings. By the time I got there, the guard and the stable boy had the body dragged outside and were chatting with the stable master. Emmit returned from the inn with our breakfast and stopped to join the conversation for a moment - before heading towards us.

"Everything okay?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"There would be less questions if we just hid the body in the wagon and dumped him outside of town - but the gate guards might inspect us and we'd raise even more questions. It's best to just get the guard happy and move on."

Emmit held up an egg and smiled at me. I patted my shirt. He tucked the egg away for later. I wasn't about to hand the thing to Fireball while he was hiding inside of my clothes. First off, I'd have eggshells in my underwear and second of all - a flamethrower firing way too close to my skin.

We headed west - out of town. Once there were no other travelers near, Fireball emerged. Emmit tossed me the egg and I gave it to the imp. I warned him to sit on the back of the wagon to peel it - throwing the shells onto the path. When it came time for him to swallow it down, I ordered him to aim his fiery discharge away from people, animals, and Emmit's trade-goods.

We traveled about a half-hour and then the road forked. We went left, crossed the river over a fine stone bridge, and followed a stream that fed back to the river we'd just passed over.

A few minutes more and we came to a path to the left that led to a low-water crossing. We forded the stream - which was no trouble for our mounts or our wagon - and followed the path. The path was visible but obviously not followed often. It curved back towards the east again - passing through the foothills of the mountain range that lay before us. Two hours later, we came to a huge cavern.

"We'll leave the wagon and the mounts here," Emmit advised.

The trader instructed us to gather a few items from the wagon and then we began heading into the darkness. When he saw Fireball hovering along he turned to the imp.

"We're going to be trapping a drake, Fireball," he said. "I'm not sure how your presence might affect things. Could I convince you to stay with the wagon?"

Fireball looked at me and then Emmit.

"Feeesshh," he hissed.

"He's wanting to go fishing again," I explained.

"Perfect!" Emmit gasped. "Get his pole and set him up by that stream."

Emmit pointed to a small waterway that was just to the south. The water coursed in, tumbled over some rocks, and then disappeared into a small cave.

"Stay away from the cave," Emmit cautioned the imp.

Fireball nodded and jumped around excitedly while I got his fishing pole out.

We dug up a few grubs and I scooped out a little depression in the dirt to put them in to keep them at hand (or claw) for my little fishing-buddy. By the time I headed back to join the others, Fireball was ignoring me and staring intensely at his line - waiting for a bite.

Emmit led the way towards the back of the caverns - where we could see the entrances to several caves. He chose one - seemingly at random. I knew from experience, however, that Emmit did almost nothing without a great deal of planning.

Though the cave was big, the darkness quickly swallowed us - and Lolla had to make her little mage-light once more so that we could see where we were walking.

We traveled for several minutes before we came to a place where an oval shape had been carved into the floor of the cave. It was about the size of a person.

Quietly, Emmit began to explain what was going to happen.

He told us that we needed drake's blood for our runes. His preference was to obtain the blood without actually killing a drake. The plan was to bait a drake into coming here - where I would be hiding in the hole - with a covering over me. When the drake was close enough, I was to grab its leg - or whatever - and stun the thing. Emmit warned me that it would probably take two or three pulses to actually get the beast stunned. It would try to escape as soon as I revealed myself. I would need to hang on - or give chase - to deliver the stun-pulses and get the animal to freeze.

Once the drake was stunned, Emmit would pierce its hide with a needle and bleed off a few jars of blood. Depending on the size of the drake, we might need to trap more than one. He didn't want to take too much blood from any of the creatures and risk causing their deaths.

Emmit ordered me to backtrack a few paces and to roll myself around on the ground - to cover myself with dust and soil (and probably bat droppings) to try to eliminate any smells that would warn the drake that I was hiding in wait.

The girls helped Emmit get one of the bats out of the runed jar. We'd had the bats with us since a day or two after we'd met Herra and Mirra had been healed. It seemed like ages ago.

While the bat was still drowsy, they used a length of cord to tie its legs to a fist-sized stone that lay nearby (probably from the last time Emmit was here).

Once my scent was masked, I crawled into the hole. Lolla pulled the energy pendant from my shirt and made sure it was full. After I tucked it away, she and Mirra laid a blanket over me that the two of them had rubbed around in the dirt. The dirty dark blanket masked my body from view.

The three of them retreated back towards the wagon - so as not to interfere with the trap.

As the bat finally woke up, it realized it was hungry and not near its original home. It began to try to fly off but then found itself encumbered by the rock. It scrambled and thrashed and screeched and complained. Soon, I heard a large creature coming to investigate and I tensed.

When the drake arrived, I discovered that it was twice the size of a wolf - half again bigger than me. It was actually standing over my hiding place. I was super glad that it hadn't stepped on me! I thrusted my hands out. One grabbed the beast's right-front leg. The other, I pressed against his chest. I sent a stun pulse into him and he jumped. He'd just bitten down on the bat when the stun hit him and his mind was trying to figure out why consuming the creature had caused his body distress. I sent a second pulse into his chest. He swallowed down part of the bat and stumbled. I sent a third stun into his body and he sank to his knees. He groaned and struggled to rise. I sent a fourth stun at him, and he collapsed on top of me.

I'm not too claustrophobic - but it's a bit alarming to be trapped in a hole under a creature that's nearly twice your size. I tried to shove the thing off of me, but my arms weren't strong enough. There wasn't enough room in the shallow depression for me to use my legs - so I stopped moving, calmed my breathing, and waited.

It felt like forever, but I finally heard the others scrambling to move the drake's body. As soon as they got it to roll a little, I could help - and then I was finally free.

Emmit got to work quickly. He was happy about the size of the drake. He assured us that we'd be able to get all of the blood we needed from this one. He even sent Lolla back to the wagon to retrieve two more little jars.

It was so dark after she left that I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Lolla came hurrying back and arrived just in time for Emmit to switch the flow of blood to the next jar.

We got all five jars filled before the creature began to stir. We got our things cleaned up. Emmit had me tie another bat to the stone - as a "thank you" gift to our blood donor.

We picked up our things and hurried back through the cave.

As we got back to where we could see again, I heard the bat begin to complain. Then I heard the drake stir, and then the bat noises suddenly stopped. I looked over at Emmit - who shrugged and smiled.

While the others loaded our things back into the wagon, I went to check on the fire-imp. I heard footsteps behind me and then Mirra's fingers twined through mine. Her giggle was like music in my ears.

As we drew closer to the stream, I slowed to a stop.

"Does he look ...?"

"Bigger?" she finished. "Yeah."

Fireball pulled another fish from the stream and spun in a circle, celebrating. When he spotted us, he held it up.

"Duh-wik... Feesh!" he exclaimed.

"Shit!" I gasped.

The imp's little belly was bulging. I had no idea how many fish he'd eaten - because he ate tails and all - so there were no traces to count - but I was sure he was bigger than he'd been when we'd left. His pronunciation of his favorite food was better - and this was the first time he'd said my name. I was sure that's what he had said.

The crimson little demon-thing raced over and wrapped his arms around my knees. I reached down and picked him up. He was easily as big as the adults that I had helped him send off into the afterlife.

"Good job, buddy," I told him. "How many fish have you caught while we've been gone?"

He held up his hand, looked at his fingers (as if counting) and then shrugged. His smile was toothy and joyful.

The fish in his hand balked at being held. He looked at it a moment and then offered it to me.

"Let's go show Emmit, okay?" I asked him. "I think we're getting ready to leave."

He pointed back at his pole - lying by the stream. I handed the imp over to Mirra who took him with a giggle - but then she gasped as he hugged her neck and the slimy fish touched her skin. Fireball gave a little snort and a puff of smoke escaped his lips. Mirra snarled at him, but he licked her forehead and she couldn't help but hug him to her chest and ignore the cold wet fish against the back of her neck.

I grabbed up the little scamp's fishing pole and we headed back to join the others.

"Is he ... bigger?" Lolla asked.

"Pretty sure," Mirra told her, nodding.

Fireball showed off his trophy to the other two. Since we had no easy way to store it, we told him to go ahead and eat it. Mirra barely got him out of her arms and onto the grass before he began to tear into the thing.

It was nearly dark by the time we got back to the inn (and the stable). That was fortuitous because Fireball was big enough now that he was harder to hide. I tried to convince him to lie in the storage compartment under the wagon seat, but he felt trapped. His eyes were fearful, and he shuddered. I emptied one of my saddlebags and convinced him to hide in there instead. He could peek out from under the flap and still see what was going on.

Once the wagon and the mounts were settled into their places, I convinced Fireball to curl up in his little hammock - with a shirt from both Mirra and me - with the promise that I would bring him some food back from the inn.

It was the first time in what seemed like forever where the four of us gathered around a table and enjoyed a meal and a drink together. The ale was nothing special, but it was nice to have something other than water. We still had the casks of mead - from our time at Herra's brothel - but we were saving those for when we got back home.

I ordered an extra serving of stew. I fished the meat and larger vegetables out, into a scrap of leather, to take to Fireball. I ate the rest. When we left, I folded the edges of the leather piece to keep the contents contained within - and hurried out to feed our little demon friend.

The salty gravy took him a minute to adjust to - but he purred as he shoveled the pieces into his maw - barely chewing them before he swallowed them down. I couldn't help but laugh as he searched around for more and - when he found that it was gone - took the leather piece and licked it until it was clean (except for the oils).

Fireball returned to his nest, Emmit and Lolla climbed the ladder to the loft, and Mirra and I began to undress. We climbed into our hammock-bed head-to-toe and eagerly devoured the other's sex. She swallowed down the load that she'd sucked from my ball-sack and I had to hurry to catch up - to give her some body-freezing relief of her own.

Once we'd managed to sate our lusts, I turned around and we kissed and cuddled until we fell asleep.

~~~

We awoke the next morning from a long night's rest - not having had to deal with any night-time visitors.

Emmit headed into the inn and urged us to get ourselves ready for a long day of traveling. He was not planning to stop again until we were home. We climbed into our places and got on the road.

He pulled the wagon to a stop in front of one of the places of worship where the Believers gathered. He looked at me and Mirra.

"I don't know what faiths you follow but the priest can do a quick ceremony - if you two want to make your bond public."

I glanced over at Mirra.

"I ... you ...," she stammered.

"It doesn't matter to me," I told her. "You know how I feel about you."

She straightened in her saddle. She was already statuesque, but I thought she looked even more gorgeous - even in her traveling leathers.

"I would like the priest's blessing ...," she said.

I nodded.

"... and a ring - but just a simple one."

"I'll make you both rings," Emmit promised, "or rather, I'll get rings that I can inscribe with runes. I'll be back shortly."

He set the brake on the wagon and bounded off of it, heading down the street. Mirra and I tethered the horses to the wagon. Fireball peeked out but I told him to stay hidden.

Mirra stepped to the door of the little chapel or whatever it was and turned to Lolla.

"Will you be my witness?" she asked the blonde.

"Fuck, yes!" the mage gasped, leaping at me.

I caught her but her assault set me stumbling backwards. Mirra stepped forward to steady me and I got my feet back under me.

"Tempest ...," I growled.

"Quiet, you," she snapped, "or I'll see if your wife needs any help keeping you under control on your wedding night."

Mirra gaped at her - and then laughed.

The two held hands and skipped together to the door of the place, heading inside of the open doorway.

By the time I arrived, the girls had the priest mostly caught up on what we wanted.

"We ask for a simple donation," the man said - somewhat shyly.

I pulled out my coin purse, grabbed out a gold, and held it out for him to take.

"Ah! You don't need to be quite so generous ..." he gasped.

"She's worth it," I said. "She wants your blessing. I just want her to be happy."

"A blessing ... yes ...," he said. "We can certainly manage a blessing."

Emmit came puffing through the door.

"I have rings," he said.

The priest looked up and then his eyes widened. His mouth dropped open, and he pointed. I turned to look - and saw Fireball flying in behind Emmit.

"Demon!" the priest exclaimed.

"Sorry!" I gasped. "He doesn't like to be left alone."

The imp crashed into my chest and wrapped his arms around my neck.

"Duh-wik ...," he hissed, his voice sad.

"I know ... I know ...," I said. "You're fine."

The priest looked back and forth between us.

"Goblins killed his family and were torturing him when we found him," I explained. "He's feisty but he listens better than most people do."

"Never ... in all my days ...," the man said quietly.

Fireball studied the man. I followed the imp's eyes. One of the chains around the man's neck had a pendant with a symbol of the Believers on it.

Fireball pointed at it and said, "Feesh!"

His fingertip brushed against it, almost tenderly.

The priest gasped.

"He's demon-kind," the man said. "How is he able to touch the holy symbol?"

"Feesh ...," Fireball repeated.

The priest pulled the pendant off and held it up. Fireball took it and cradled it in his palms.

"Feesh ..." he purred.

"Amazing ...," the priest murmured.

He studied the imp as it continued to rub the emblem with its fingertip.

"Do you have any more of those pendants?" I asked.

I fished another gold coin out of my purse and held it out to the man.

"I ... I couldn't," he said.

"A donation ...," I offered.

He looked from me to the imp and back to me again.

"If ... if you're going to let him wear it, could you have him put on some pants?" he asked.

I looked at the little monster in my arms and imagined him with a pair of shorts on. I started laughing.

"Sure," I said. "I doubt he'll care. Are you sure it's okay?"

"It's the most amazing thing," he said solemnly. "I'm seeing it with my own eyes, and I can still barely believe it."

Lolla cleared her throat. When the priest looked at her, she nodded her head at Mirra.

"Oh! The ceremony ... Yes! ... and a blessing!" the man gasped.

I looped the chain around Fireball's neck. He held the pendant in his tiny hands and continued to rub his finger over the Believer's symbol engraved into the silver metal. It felt heavier than tin, but I didn't think the priest would let me buy a real silver pendant from him for just a single gold coin. I glanced at Emmit. He shrugged his shoulders at me.

"If you two will join hands," the man said.

I tried to hand Fireball to Emmit, but he climbed onto my shoulder. He was almost too big to sit there now, but he settled down and stayed quiet.

I took Mirra's hands in mine. Emmit stood beside me as Fireball sat on my shoulder. Lolla stood beside my bride.

"Derik," the priest intoned. "Do you promise to listen to Mirra and love her above all others? Do you promise to be her strong fortress and her place of refuge?"

He looked at me.

"I do," I said.

He turned to the redhead who was staring into my eyes.

"Mirra," he said. "Do you promise to listen to Derik and love him above all others? Do you promise to support him as he works to provide for your family - and to make your home a place of refuge?"

The priest looked at Mirra.

"I do," she said.

He cleared his throat.

"May the one, who created all things, bless your bond - this public profession of your love. May he combine his strength together with yours and - united - may you offer a brilliant beacon that guides weary souls to a safe harbor. May his hope, love, and grace abound in your home always.