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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 7307608" data-attributes="member: 143">Happy holidays to all of my regular readers! Hope your Christmas was great!* * * Chapter 104Shadows from the campfire danced on the uneven walls of their shelter.  Rodan had been wrong; they only had three walls, the last having collapsed under the weight of the sagging roof.  But the hut had originally been built to house a dozen miners, and there was plenty of room left for the five adventurers to make their camp.Glori felt drowsy after the day’s travails, but she resisted the urge to crawl into her bedroll and let sleep claim her.  When Quellan picked up the dishes from their late supper and headed outside to clean them, she got up and followed him out.The night was cool, the breeze stronger here along the valley’s edge than it was deeper within the forest.  Even with her darkvision she could only just make out Rodan from where he stood guard in the shadows on the far side of the camp.  The ranger had eaten quickly and then gone out to keep watch.  Either he truly did not appreciate company, or he was worried that something would stumble upon their camp in the night.Quellan was over by the small stream that wound through the camp.  Most of the mining camps were situated in places like this, nestled in sheltered niches in the rocks or copses of ancient trees, close to running water.  Glori knew absolutely nothing about silver mining, but Majerion had told her stories about the kind of men who came to places like this.  They tended to be a solitary sort, willing to eschew the benefits of civilization for a chance of finding wealth hidden away in the ground.She went over to the cleric.  Neither of them had any difficulty in the darkness, of course.  She glanced over at Rodan again.  With his human blood he’d be as blind in the night as Bredan, but somehow she doubted that he’d be caught off guard by anything the valley could throw at him.  There was something else about him, something that she couldn’t quite pin down.She shook her head.  Rodan wasn’t why she’d come out here.  Quellan looked up as she knelt beside him, careful not to slip on the muddy bank of the stream.  Not that it mattered, really; they were all filthy.“You should get some rest,” Quellan said.  “It will be a long walk back to town tomorrow.”“I didn’t want to say anything, earlier, in front of everyone,” she told him.  “But I noticed something.”He stopped washing the cookpot and their mess tins and looked at her.  In the darkness his eyes were wide black pools.  “Oh?”She reached out and took hold of his shoulder.  He tensed slightly as her fingers pressed at the spot where his torso met up with his neck.“I probably wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t tried to cover up the burns,” she said.  “Right where I got scorched by that breath attack.”  She held up her other hand to trace the line of skin running from her left ear to her shoulder.  The burns had faded, thanks to Quellan’s healing spell, but the skin was still a bit crimson, like a mild sunburn.“I…” he began.“Just tell me the truth,” she said.  “That ring you gave me, it wasn’t just a protection spell.”“The spell is called warding bond,” he said.  “And it is a protection spell, it just…”“It transfers some of the damage from me to you,” she finished for him.  “That’s dangerous,” she said.  “You could have been killed, especially if that thing had managed to come around for one more blast.”“The spell doesn’t just share damage,” he said.  “It protects both of us… it makes it less likely for you to be hurt at all.  And I can take a lot of punishment.”“Still, you should have told me.  Maybe I didn’t want that responsibility, did you consider that?”“I am sorry.  But I consider it my role to protect… to protect all of you.  We are a team.  I meant what I said earlier, when we were talking to Rodan.”“I know, but for there to be trust, there has to be honesty.  No secrets between us.”For a long moment he just looked at her, then he nodded.  “Agreed.”“Okay.  Now that that’s settled, let’s get these dishes clean and get back inside where it’s warm and we can both get some sleep.  The others will need us to dish out more healing magic in the morning.”“What we need, the gods will provide,” he said.* * *The night air greeted Bredan with its chill when he ducked out through the low entry to the ruined hut.  They’d hung a blanket over the doorway to keep the light and heat inside.  He stood there a moment to let his eyes adjust to the near-darkness, then made his way across their camp.Glori had told him where Rodan was, otherwise he’d never have been able to find the man.  Even with that guidance he didn’t see the ranger until a shadow detached itself from a narrow gap between two boulders and stepped toward him.“I drew the short straw,” Bredan said.  “First watch.”“You can rest,” Rodan said.  “I prefer to stand watch alone.”The man’s tone was dismissive, just short of hostile, but Bredan remained where he was.  “Me, I prefer to watch with a partner,” he said.  “What if I fall asleep?  Or miss something?  Who wants that responsibility.”Rodan didn’t say anything, but after a moment he stepped aside.  Bredan came over to the larger of the two boulders and settled his weight against it.  The moon hadn’t yet risen, and the stars provided little in the way of light.  There were sounds in the darkness, scattered noises against the backdrop of the omnipresent breeze, but Bredan couldn’t make any sense of them.  He wagered that Rodan could, however.“Have you been here for a long time?” Bredan asked.There was a pause, and for a moment Bredan thought that the other man wouldn’t respond.  “Some years,” the ranger finally said.“This place, it feels like the edge of the world to me,” Bredan said.“It’s quiet.  Far away from… from the troubles of the world.”“And yet they’ve found their way here.  The war, I mean.”“There’s always war.  If not this one, then another.  Wherever men gather, there is conflict.”“So you came up here to escape that?”“Something like that.”“It sounds kind of lonely.”The ranger shifted slightly.  “For a time, it was what I thought I wanted.”“And now?”“Your friends.  They fight well.  You have been together long?”“I’ve known Glori most of my life.  Quellan and Kosk, not quite so long.  But we’ve had a few adventures.  Getting here… it was a long journey.  I trust them with my life.”“That’s a precious thing.”“Yeah.”They remained there in silence, but Rodan finally pushed himself up.  “We should keep watch on opposite sides of the camp.  Fewer blind spots.”“Okay, sure,” Bredan said, but the ranger was already moving off.  The way he moved, the night seemed to absorb him into its essence.  Even knowing where he was, Bredan lost track of him before he’d taken five steps.Pulling his cloak closer around him, he prepared himself for a boring stretch of hours ahead.</blockquote>

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