Okay, I really really, really, truly believe that we make our own worlds. Whatever you think, fear, imagine, or hope for, those are the things that will eventually happen to you. It’s true. You create your own reality, just by imagining it. I know it’s hard to accept, but once you grasp this very important fact, everything is just so much more clear.
That’s how I know that someone in our party must have been afraid of an ambush. That’s right. Someone hadn't been keeping it positive in the noggative, if you know what I mean. When the guy we met on the street told us to come to the abandoned warehouse off pier 3, we thought maybe we’d gotten a big break, but, well you know what happens when you let fear rule your thoughts. I mean I suppose it might seem gullible just walking in there like that, but hey, I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt, you know. Sometimes you just have to give people a chance and hope for the best.
I’m not angry about this; I’m just disappointed.
First they let the Gnome inside the warehouse. So, Patty slides through the door and then they opened the door just wide enough for all of us to slide on in. You could only see just enough because of a couple torches ensconced in the wall. What the light revealed was a dusty dingy building. It had a dank fishy smell, which was all the worse because the windows had been recently boarded up for some reason. Hoestly, you could almost see the stink it was so bad, just hanging in the air like that. The only other way in or out of the building was a door at the opposite end. And there are these two guys just standing there, asking us if we’re the ones who want to know about the Slolem. One of them had a sword and the other just had this big cudgel.
The place stank so badly. It was aweful!
After the door closed, the two guys started getting kinda rude, and I could hear someone rustling just outside the door behind us. There was this soft kinda sound like a ‘clunk’ near the door you know, and my heart just decided to visit the bottom of my feet. It was a really bad feeling, you know. I tried to force the thoughts from my mind, but I’m afraid I already knew in my heart it was too late. Oh, I hope that moment of fear didn’t bring it about! Honestly, I think it was already happening. A bunch more people started to come though the door on the other end of the warehouse. One of them was an archer and the rest were thugs with various edges, points, and heavy things. One was a gnome, but not like ours. This one was mean, and he had a spear. I mean, why would they need all those guys just to talk to us about a merchant vessel? This was not a happy moment. It was a fishy-dust-and-a-mean-guy-kinda-feeling- claustrophobic moment.
I really don’t like moments like that.
We talked a bit more, but everything was so negative from that point foreword. The main guy wanted to know why we were asking questions about the Slolem, and I tried to envision a happy peaceful ending, but I just couldn’t make it happen. In the end, the main thug-leader said a bad word and told his people to kill us all. So, everyone drew weapons real quick.
I was so scared. I’m just standing there wondering if I really heard what I think I heard and everyone else is pulling out all these weapons and things. I wanted to cry. And I wanted to wake up sooooo badly.
The leader of thugs was a little slow getting his own weapon out and our stuttering stringy creature got to him before anything else could happen. Man that little muppet-guy can move. We have to work on visioning his words a bit, but he was really, really, REALLY fast, and got the drop on the mean man with the potty mouth right quick. The little furball scratched him up a little, and then Carla knicked the same guy with her own blade. Then one of the knights, Sir Hockinslots, hit him real hard with a sword. The bad guy was weaving and holding his side. There was blood everywhere. I knew big boss thug wouldn’t be much danger at that point, but all his other guys were like getting big in their boots and coming for us.
And then the bad guys closed in. One of them got to me before I could react. I tried to prepare some healing magic, but the man was swinging an axe at me and all I could do was try to keep my staff in the way of that thing. He hit me several times. The first strike was really nasty. He opened up a wound in my hand completely splitting it from between the middle and index finders half way back to my wrist. I have never felt anything like it in my life. Honstly, it hurt all the way to my little toes. Really. I am getting tears in my eyes just thinking about it. I would have screamed if I could, but I had no breath. All I could do was to try and block his next attack with my staff, but now I was doing that one handed. I thought about casting healing magic, but that would have given him a chance to hurt me again. Besides, I couldn’t concentrate at all just then. So, I just tried to fight him through my tears. By ‘fight’ I mean ‘block’ of course. That’s about all I could do at that point.
I remember seeing the gnome casting tricky spells out of the corner of my eye and I’m told they worked. She convinced some of the enemy to attack each other, if only for a moment. And I remember the little stuttering fur-ball chasing the enemy archer around. That was actually kind of funny. I was in so much pain and danger, and I still couldn’t help but laugh watching our angry bundle of lint chase that poor guy around the battlefield. It’s ironic that anything could be funny in a situation like that, but I guess you just had to be there. Not that I would wish that on you, but, well you know what I mean. The Archer shot at me once when he had a chance, but it got stuck in my spell pouch and only cut me a little. Next to my hand, the arrow wound made little impression. Carla fought hard, as did the two knights.
Sir Hockenslots was in trouble, I remember that. He had about 3 guys all over him (a swordsman on either side and an axe-guy in the middle), and they just kept cutting him a little at a time. Finally, one of them opened a great slash wound in his right side. He could barely defend himself. I noticed this as I tried to fend off my own attacker. But Sir Hocklinlsots only had a great big sword; he didn’t have any Armor (I did say that he was a fledgling knight), and now he could barely swing the blade around around. Poor guy, I just loved him so much, fighting bravely like that through all that pain.
The axe man cut me again, you know. This time, he got his axe into my shoulder. It cut really deep and I could feel my bones breaking apart, and it hurt SO bad. Fortunately, it was the same arm as the hand that he already maimed, so I could still use my one hand for defense, but I could hardly move at this point and there was blood everywhere. This time I screamed. I screamed so loud the man hitting me actually winced. I think I hurt his ears. I didn’t mean to, it just hurt so much (…not that he didn’t deserve it. I mean, it really was his fault). Goshes, it just hurt so bad! I couldn’t even see for a moment, just stars, and when my vision was back in its proper place I could see that all my companions were off helping the gnome.
Can you believe it?
I really like Patty, which is why I’m a little ashamed to say that I resented her for a moment there. But honestly! I was about to die, and everyone was over there making sure not one enemy got anywhere near little miss short and curvy. I thought for just a moment that they were going to let that basta... guy with the axe (I’m sorry, I will watch my words better in the future) ...kill me. I mean, he was really really really going to kill me. I could hardly defend myself now, and nobody was helping me. I just, I felt all somehow!
…anyway, the guy with the axe, it seemed like they were just going to let him kill me while everyone took care of Patty. You can understand, I’m still feeling just a little negative about this. It’s not nice, I know, but sometimes you just have to own up to your bad places. I have them too. Yes, I do.
So, anyway, they were all helping Patty.
Everyone except Hockinslots, I mean. He still had 3 enemies, and they kept chipping away at him. I saw it all, because he was just a couple feet in front of me. The swordsman on his left was hurt from the first part of the battle, but the one on his right decided to finish him off with one big shot. I saw him wind up for a big nasty blow, and I just knew that was the end. The swordsman reared back just a little too much, I guess he wanted to hit really hard and Sir Hockinslots managed to get his sword around just in time. Hockinslots didn’t just block the strike though, he jabbed his sword right into the man’s chest. He didn’t penetrate too far, not enough to kill the man, but it completely stopped the attack, and you could tell the swordsman was badly hurt. He wouldn’t be quite so effective in the future. Unfortunately, the Axe wielding thug was perfectly healthy. He managed to take a chunk out of Hockinslots thigh, and that looked really bad. Poor Hockinslots, he cried out for just a moment there. I felt so bad for him. But there he was, actually faint from loss of his own blood, facing three terrible bad guys, one of whom was perfectly healthy. I just knew Sir Hockinslots wouldn’t last long.
And all our friends were busy hacking away at the single opponent who almost got a little near Patty. I just couldn’t believe it. It looked like our companions were going to let Hocky and I just die. I was so mad at them!
So, a couple enemy were already down, and that included the really rude leader-guy, but apparently he wasn’t that important, because the rest of the bad guys didn’t blink an eye when he went down. They just kept coming. I thought maybe we were going to win, but I didn’t think ‘we’ would include Hocky and I by the time it was all over. I was just on the verge of giving up when suddenly a bunch of my friends rushed over and joined me against the guy with the axe. I saw Patty trick one of the fighters into finishing the swordsman on the left side of Hockinslots, so he had a better chance. And within just a moment, the axe guy (the one on me) was in so much trouble he stopped attacking me and just tried to defend himself. It took a moment for me to realize this, but I actually had a chance of seeing the sunset for myself that evening. I felt so ashamed of my earlier thoughts.
They care about me. They really care! Oh things were looking up all of a sudden and I felt like things might actually come out alright.
I looked up and saw the axe wielding thug directly in front of Hockinslots take a big wind up swing. The thug was healthy and Hockinslots was suffering a lot of pain. Still the axe wielder couldn’t quite handle the weight of his weapon all that well, not like a skilled fighter. So, he moved a little too slow, and Sir Hockinslots actually managed to block it. Can you believe that!?! Our beautiful young knight, hanging on by a thread, actually managed to fend off that attack. I thought surely, he was done for, but my beautiful new friend just had too much heart to go down like that. “Hang on Hockinslots,” I thought, “Little Patty will save you if you can just manage another minute.”
So, I saw the last swordsman lunge at Sir Hockinslots. Now Hocky was pretty hurt to be sure, but he had pulled out some real miracles, so I just thought maybe, just maybe, he’ll pick this one up, just one last time and then everyone can help him like they were helping me. The only problem was I could see Hockinslots was still tied up with the axe man, and I wasn’t sure he could block this one in time. But our noble knight was so brave and so strong, I just knew if anyone could pull it off Sir Hockinslots could.
I just closed my eyes a moment and sent him all the good thoughts I could.
Parry that sword, Hockinslots. PARRY!!!