It's chugging along. Somewhere soon will be a complete derailment as the part where I've finished editing will meet the part where I haven't. You will know it by its great plot chasm.
Two months passed. The weather was growing steadily colder, and the leaves about Goldshire were turning brilliant colors. The Retribution had begun to make pushes into old Arathor, and Shia was there with them, serving as muscle when they needed muscle, artillery when they needed artillery, and first aid when things got hairy. At night the group sat around the camp fire, practiced their skills against each other, and told stories about their adventures and their lives before joining the Retribution.
Revrun had joined the organization at around the same time Shiawase had. He was an older dwarf, a priest, but one who’s specialty was in inflicting pain more than healing it. During skirmishes he and Shia fought until their bodies were numb of power and their breath was haggard, and when the fighting had died down and there was time for rest the Druid and the Dwarf had become fast drinking partners.
The first small flurries of winter snow had begun to fall in the area, and Shia and Revrun were huddled inside a tent, downing mugs of ale and wrapped in furs. Rev was on his thirteenth mug, while Shia was slowly working on his fifth.
"Ah like you Shia."
"I like you too Revrun."
"Yer a good elf."
"And you're a good dwarf."
"Now, I donnae know about tha'." Rev downed his mug and leaned over to refill it from the keg.
"You hold your own out in the field, I'd say. I've seen what you can do to a group of warriors who aren't ready for you. They run screaming like children that have seen their first murloc."
Rev chuckled. "You ain' so bad yerself Shia. When yer a b'ar you take axes in the side like you were made o' granite."
"I would rather a scratch behind the ears, to tell the truth."
"Har! Yer all mush on the inside!" Revrun said, and downed his fifteenth mug. Shia took a chug of his own. "You have a missus Shia?"
"A Missus?"
"A woman, Shia, a woman!"
Shia broke out laughing. Well, there was that one Elf he met only days after he had woken from the dream and emerged from his barrow den in Darkshore. For the first week or so, back when he knew nothing of the world that seemed so familiar and yet was so different, he had spent all of his time with a young rogue. The two had probably explored every inch of Darkshore, and made the trip to the Eastern Kingdoms together. But that Elf disappeared shortly after Shia had joined with the Retribution, and after a month lingering at their old haunts, waiting, Shia had accepted that he would probably never see his friend again. It was the way of things, for paths to meet and then part. That's what he had told himself at the time. And now… yes, things come and go. There was no point in feeling sorry for anything. Now the only person close to what he could call a missus was Whitemoon back at Astranaar, and he could imagine how well his friend would take to being called that. Yes, when it came to a domestic life, that seemed to be as close as Shia would ever get.
"Well Shia? Tha' grin o' yers tells meh you do."
"What grin are you talking about?" Shia realized he had been smiling to himself as he daydreamed about his barren love life.
"That one righ' thar!" Rev leaned over and shoved his finger inches in front of Shia's nose. The fire under the Dwarf's arm nearly caught on his sleeve, and, sensing the danger even through his drunken stupor, Rev withdrew back into his furs.
"No, I haven't any missus.”
"Ah, tha's good. Ah used ter have a missus."
"Used to? What happened?"
"She died. Scourge took er." Shia let out a hmm of sympathy and refilled Rev's mug for him. The Dwarf took a swig, wiped the ale from his beard, and nodded slowly. "She was the love o' me life. The scourge ‘ad just appeared you see. It was indiscriminate, jus’ cuttin’ down folks left an’ righ’. And it came through me village. Ah was the lone priest thar, ah couldn't save a whole village. Ah did more burnin' of bodies than ah did saving of souls. Ah was tryin’ to get the survivors out o' the town when me wife fell sick. She was on ‘er deathbed, an' ah held ‘er hand till she was gone."
The Dwarf rubbed at his eyes. Shia remained silent and listened.
"An then, when ah was holdin’ ‘er ah felt ‘er hand move. Ah cannae tell you how ah felt that moment. Ah thought she 'ad come back to me, that the Light ‘ad heard my praying and given ‘er back. Bu' she sat up from the bed, an she weren't my wife no more. She was Scourge.
"Ah had to kill her Shia. Ah took my mace and killed that monster till it was a bloody stain on the bed. Hardest thing ah ever done. Ah couldn't be a priest no more after tha'. Ah kept the vestments, yeah, but ah can't look up and worship no more. Ah can't pray ta somethin’ that let such a beautiful, wonderful, kind woman die like tha'."
"We can only trust that it was her time to die, and that her spirit is in a place of peace."
"Yeah." Revrun inspected his empty mug. "Ah plan to send all those undead scum t' their place of peace personally. They don't belong in this world, Shia."
Shia finished his mug and poured for both of them. The keg was beginning to go dry. And the night had just begun, Shia thought miserably. They'd have to crawl out into the cold and grab a new one.
"D'you think ah done the righ' thing?" Shia looked from the keg to see Revrun staring at him with half lidded eyes. "Even now ah wonder, did ah do the righ' thing? Was it a monster ah killed or was it me wife? Could she ha' been saved?"
"You did what you needed to at that time. If you hadn't stopped your wife you probably would have succumbed to the disease too, and I'm sure she wouldn't have wanted that."
"Ah donnae know if she can forgive me fer what ah done." Revrun spoke quietly. His eyes were swimming with tears.
Shiawase smiled in spite of himself. Why was it so hard for people to let go of things, he wondered. But his friend was upset. And Shia suspected that if he were to say that Rev was being silly for crying over someone who had died, that the Dwarf would not appreciate the advice. So instead he sighed and said, "She forgives you, I know it. You'll see each other again in the other world, and you'll see."
"Yeah, ah guess so." Rev sniffled. "Ach, you donnae wanna hear an old Dwarf cryin' his ‘eart out."
"It's no bother to me. Some burdens are lighter when you share them."
"Yer a smart elf Shia, ah like you."
"So you've told me."
"Me wife, ah loved ‘er with all me ‘eart." Rev smiled sadly and took another sip of his ale. Shia looked down at his own mug. It seemed to be swimming in his hand. Perhaps it was time to stop drinking. "Lemme tell you something. When you have someone ye love, ye got’ter cherish every second of yer time with ‘em. You donnae know when they'll be gone forever. You got ah missus Shia?"
Shiawase laughed. "No, I don't have a missus, but you've had too much to drink. You're repeating yourself."
"Alrigh', you got someone special t' yah?"
Shia grinned, despite himself. "Possibly."
"Har!" Revrun slapped at his leg. "I knew it! No one's got no-one they don' get all hot 'n bothered fer!"
"Who's hot an bothered?" Olmag and Dagar were peeking their heads into the tent. A thick cluster of frost clung to their beards and eyebrows, and from outside Shia could hear Dagar's wolf pup bark.
"This 'ere elf is! 'E was jus' abou' ter tell us who he's got the hots fer, weren't you Shia?"
Olmag and Dagar pushed inside, their interest peaked. Shia could feel the tips of his ears burning. "I was about to do no such thing."
"Aw, come on Shia, ah told you somthin dark in me, you gotta at least spill the beans on somthin'!"
Shiawase sighed. "Well, I -had- someone, at some point."
"Yeh see? Ah told ya!" Rev said, triumphant.
"Some willowy Elf lass?" Dagar asked.
"How d' you make love to 'em? Ya hug em an they snap in two!" Olmag shouted. Shia had thought the red on the Dwarf's cheeks had been from the cold, but his speech revealed that he had been drinking in some other tent just before. "So who is it Cat?"
"You don't know the person."
"That ain't an answer you slippery little trogg licker!"
"Alright, alright, her name is..." Shia ran through a list of names in his mind. "Tellsil."
"Thellsil? What sorta name is tha'? She sounds like a real flake, don't she Dagar?" Dagar nodded vigorously. "You gonna introduce us to her any time soon Kitty?"
"I'm afraid she's disappeared." Shia felt a sudden, desperate need for more ale. The tap on the keg was providing only a small trickle.
"Disappeared? Whattid I tell you, a flake! Ah, it's alright Shia. Yer damn ugly but someone's gonna take pity on ya someday."
Shia rubbed the bridge of his nose and pulled his furs tighter.
Dagar considered. "You didn't meet anyone in the, whataya call it? Green Dream oh yers?"
"The Emerald Dream? I came across a few fellow Druids there, but the place is for the most part completely void of the sort of relationships that swarm this realm."
"That's got ter be the most boring place ever then."
"Not at all. It's a paradise of nature. There's none of all these relationships and lost love and pining and hurt feelings. It's a place where you live from day to day, gain, loose, and sit content."
"An it has no ale!" Rev pitched in.
"Aye! It has no ale! What sorta paradise has no ale? Can ya tell me that, tree hugger?"
Shiawase groaned and rolled onto his back. "No ale means no Dwarves. That sounds like a paradise to me."
"What did ye say there, berry muncher?"
"I said a trogg would find your appearance distasteful, you stone stump."
The conversation degraded from there. The Dwarves tried to teach Shia drinking songs, but he had imbibed too much alcohol by that time to do much more than mumble, and soon he was snoozing like a baby beside the fire as his companions partied the night away around him.
