Chapter 8
“Out here on the perimeter there are no stars…”
While Durnae spent a few moments gathering his thoughts and his possessions, Mirny cleaned up his supplies and emptied the Griffon’s pockets. They packed in silence.
Durnae was a bit unnerved by this Dwarf. In just the past hour since he had met Mirny, he had been arrested, had his hands tied, fought a Silver Griffon, been unwittingly poisoned, and then laughed at for his naiveté. The dwarf was jovial at times, gruff and unpredictable at others. Durnae wasn’t sure he could trust him, or that he even liked him.
Mirny, on the other hand, showed no signs that any of the wild events of the past hour had had an effect upon him. He hummed the same tune now as he had during the fight.
He wore rugged, shabby garments that spoke of weeks spent on the tundra. He spent a few moments applying salve to his injured shoulder.
Durnae considered his options. Traveling alone didn’t seem like the best idea. The tundra was frigid and empty, and an outsider could easily starve or become lost. He certainly couldn’t travel back to Valls and into the hands of Speck or the snake-like man or the horse trader that wanted him arrested. He needed to get far away from this shack as possible.
It seemed that following this strange dwarf was his only option. He could only hope that their path together led someplace quiet, lonely, and safe. Plus at the moment, he feared what would happen to him if the poison he had ingested were to kick in.
Mirny came back into the hut after checking on the mounts. “We’ll be headin off the path and across the flats about a half mile up the road.. It’ll be cold fer ya at night, of course, and the ground will be unstable. We’d better let that colt of yers go, it’d just twist a knee in the first badger hole anyway,” grumbled Mirny. “It’s a shame too, cuz from the looks of him, he’d fetch a healthy price in Bloodstone Pass.”
“I am indebted to you, Mirny. You saved me from all sorts of trouble here tonight. I have little to offer you besides the colt. He’s yours if you want him,” replied Durnae “and I’m afraid I’ll make a terrible traveling companion.”
“Naw, don’t you worry friend. By the time we get to the Pass, I’ll have you countin hare sh%t and tastin the wind,” Mirny chuckled. “And that horse of yers is stolen property. Valuable property. I’d be stupid to ride that thing. Sh&t, and Moradina would kick me in the nuggets if I tried to ride another…”
Moradina, it turned out, was Mirny’s brakk, the unsavory mount tied to a pole outside the shack. Even the Griffon’s powerful steed, tied to a pole next to Moradina, found the creature an unfit companion. The horse was spitting and pawing at the ground and trying for all its might to back away from the aromatic beast.
“She has no friends but me, it seems,” said Mirny as he adjusted the saddle. “People. Horses. Plants. Very small rocks. They all seem to take unkindly to her. Don’t know why, really, she’s as loyal and sweet as they come.” He stroked the creatures tangled fur for a moment. He laid his axe across his lap and watched as Durnae gathered the soldier's horse by the reins. This would be the second horse he had stolen since dawn.
“Ye should probably leave everything official lookin’ here with the Griffon. Don’t want to stir up any suspicions where we’re goin’” suggested Mirny. “And keep yer eyes open. All sorts of nasty critters live in these parts.”
“Wonderful. I can’t wait to make their acquaintance,” smirked Durnae. He had slowly regained his composure. It helped to be away from the body of the Griffon, who they had left near the dwindling fire.
They rode slowly across the frozen ground away from the shack. The night was calm and quiet, the sky overcast and forbidding. Only the occasional gust of wind broke their pace.
Durnae paid special attention to his surroundings. He was unfamiliar with almost everything in this country, from the people to the geography. Several times Mirny guided him around a patch of frozen ground.
“Ground’s so frozen here that the stone can splinter when it’s stomped on by a horse.” He picked up a needle thin piece of jagged stone to illustrate his point. “One of these splinters gets deep into a hoof and you can forget about riding that horse for a while, maybe ever again.”
They rode in silence, talking only when necessary. It was a comfort to Durnae that Mirny seemed to know where he was going. He wasn’t sure how the dwarf knew, as there were no stars visible in the sky, but Mirny rode confidently into the night, watching the ground and the surrounding rocks.
Durnae did wish, though, that he could ride upwind of the ill smelling beast that Mirny rode.
“She may be sweet and loyal to you, Mirny, but does she have to smell like a rotting ogre?” asked Durnae with a grimace when they had stopped for a moment.
“Aye, she does. That stench keeps the wolves away. They love brakk meat fer some reason. Track one for miles and miles, they will. I lost half a dozen mounts to the pack before I traded for Mora. All ya gotta do is mix in some stinkroot in her feed, and she reeks enough that a wolf would rather eat its own leg.”
“You’ll get used to it in time,” Mirny smiled. ”By the time we get to the Pass, you’ll be huddling up next to her at night fer warmth.”
“Oh, I’d rather not,” replied Durnae.
“Suit yerself.” Mirny said with a knowing wink.
Hours passed and dawn broke majestically over the mountains, spreading the glow of the suns through the haze above and illuminating the dusty terrain around them in a maroon bath.
Durnae slumbered as he rode, waking only when Mirny said something or if his horse stumbled. He was still dozing heavily when Mirny whistled.
The dwarf was squatting behind a boulder off to Durnae’s right about fifty feet. His brakk was lying on her belly next to him. He gestured quickly toward a column of dust rising from the ground in the distance. The fast moving cloud glittered in the afternoon sunlight as it bore down upon them.
“WHAT IS IT?” Durnae shouted.
“TUNDRA STORM!”
) = DC 20 (or 26 w/ a succubus!)
