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[Morrow]

Dexter sat in the Knowlern family garden. He'd just finished dinner with his mother, a servant of the well to do elven family. He was on his way back to the Sultry Siren when he ran into Dmitriy Ivanov, a cousin of the Knowlerns he'd befriended of late. Ivan insisted Dexter wait for him in the garden, telling him he had a friend Dexter must meet. But it was growing late, and Dexter was growing bored. He'd rather be tossing back a few rounds with his friends at the Hungry Gorilla. He hadn't been there for a while and Bern was probably worried about him. He stretched out on the grass and looked up at the stars. It was a good night for waiting anyway. Just as he was beginning to doze off he heard someone approaching and sat up. Ivanov was walking through the garden with a diminutive elven woman. Dexter stood as Ivan spoke, “Dexter my friend, allow me to introduce Lady Silvermane, of the Church of Whirling Fury.”

“Uh, pleased to make your uh... quaintance, your ladyship.”

The lady smiled and sat on the grass, indicating Dexter should follow. “Dmitriy had told me of your exploits Dexter. But I've heard whispers in the jungle, things you've done of which I've not yet been told.”

“Well, did he tell you about the nasty monkeys with the bony bits and the poisoned jungle and the fire?”

“Yes. I wish to hear, Dexter, of your exploits since you returned, and of your meeting with the bullywugs.” She removed a backpack and reached inside, pulling out a wooden tray three cups. She gestured to Ivanov who handed her a ceramic pitcher.

“Well, we got back to Sasserine right when the festival was starting, and this lady we worked for, we thought she might be in trouble. So my brother, he had some note or something, I wasn't really paying attention to that part, but he decided to run on ahead to her house.”

The lady poured something from the pitcher and picked up a cup with both hands and held it out to Dexter. The small cup was tiny in Dexter's hands and he threw it back like a shot of fire brandy at the Hungry Gorilla. It was bitter and metallic, and smelled of the Knowlern's root cellar. Ivan and the lady sipped theirs slowly.

“Well Empire's Fall was in full swing. It looked pretty good this year, but we had to go help Lady Vanderboren so we didn't have time get dru... ah... join in the festivities. So... whoa, that stuff's pretty good, can I have some more?”

The lady smiled and held out the pitcher. Dex grinned back and took a pull straight from the pitcher, smacking his lips. He looked up at the stars which were burning brighter than he remembered... ever.

“We were almost at the house when these acrobats and stilt-walkers attacked us. Well me and Maggie and Elyosha, you know her Ivan, she comes here some times but I don't know why, are you related? Anyway we killed them all except one who spilled his guts about why he was attacking us. I would have listened more but I didn't really care, and anyway at this point I was getting kind of antsy about Garnham, thought maybe he was in trouble, and you know, he was. So... are there more stars then there were before? I feel kinda... so... where was I? I... right, so, right, so we got to the Vanderboren house and Garnham had killed a bunch of bullywugs, frog men, you know. So we were worried about our Vanderboren, about our lady. Our... charge. So we charged! Around! Did you see that monkey? Bat? Monkeybats!”

“Dexter?” the lady prodded.

“Right, sorry. So, we went around and did our thing, you know, killed bad guys and took their stuff. That's where I got this great armor by the way. It's made out of the skin of... something. Right, so we saved this druid. His pet died, felt kinda bad about that. He helped us out some. Helped us find this big frog lady, she was a fun sort, beat her silly we did. Worked our way upstairs next,” Dex gritted his teeth, remembering how angry the incident had made him, “And our lady was tied to a chair, and Kora, she was dead.” Dexter's hands curled into fists, and his caloused knuckles cracked. “So Garnham snuck around and shot this ugly frog, and we killed a pirate because he deserved it. He deserved it twice but he could only get it once. The ugly frog brought evil friends, fiends, fearsome foul but finally feeble.” Dexter looked to the sky, distracted, as the stars crawled about like beetles, making odd shapes.”Well, we, the... lady got out and helped us kill them all real good. And we went downstairs and killed some more frogs, and there was this girl who was wearing a dress made out of knives and forks which seemed strange to me but no one else seemed to think so. What was even weirder was this crocodile thing with feelers that ate my armor. That was bad. Ruined my axe too and it was a good one. But we defeated their chief who gave up and I took his club and this armor, it smells funny and its made out of some kind of skin, I can't really tell, maybe an owlbear or an ostrich. So ah... the... you know I'm really having trouble concentrating, the stars...”

The lady and Ivanov stood. The stars danced, like sand, silver sand that moved in the wind like a tornado, he thought he saw a dancing elf but that didn't make any sense. The lady told Dexter about the Court of Stars, and Gwynharwyf, and divine fury. He listened as close as he was able. He must have fallen asleep because he had a dream, vivid dreams he could never put into words later.


Somehow Dex must have made his way into his mother's room, but he didn't remember how. His mother wasn't there, probably already doing the washing. Dexter stumbled out into the street, rubbing his head and cringing at how incredibly loud the morning sun had gotten. The world looked different this morning, and he got turned around several times on his way back to the Sultry Siren. When he finally made it there he fumbled with the handle on the door to his room until Garnham got up and opened the door for him. “Where've you been Dexter?”

“Sorry, late, uh... they moved the inn.”

“I see. Here brother, take my old armor,” he looked Dexter up and down, “you may need to have it let out. But I'm not using it anymore and it smells better than...” he turned his nose up at the grubby hide armor his brother had appropriated from the bullywugs, “...that.” Dexter collapsed on the floor, and began snoring, and talking in his sleep, “Stars like sand, dancing like beetles, like silver... beetles.”