Friend or Foe pt. 1

Friend or Foe

There was something strangely different when I woke up this morning. Despite the horrible nightmare I had earlier that night, I felt at peace. I looked up at the ceiling before admiring the warm glow the room had. My body didn’t hurt either and I felt rested despite the lateness of the morning.

A soft snore broke my thoughts and I peered over the edge of the bed I was in and saw Cloudbreaker still asleep on the floor. He slept on his belly, his blanket somewhat tossed around his waist. I observed his bluish gray skin and the dark blue markings all over it. I thought about last night and how Cloudbreaker had helped me. He seemed genuinely concerned. As I thought about it, the shadowy figure I saw when I had nearly died back in the bowl resembled Cloudbreaker. He had saved me then, and saved me last night.

A warmth spread through my chest as I nuzzled my head into my arm while watching the Goliath sleep. I then went rigged once I recognized what I was doing. I knew what I was beginning to feel and I swore to never get attached again. I turned over onto my back to avoid looking at the half naked form of Cloudbreaker. Part of me felt embarrassed for having watched him sleep for a few minutes...

It was hard not to like Cloudbreaker. It was hard not to like the people who were kind to me; who’ve saved my life. At the same time, it scared me, for everything I’ve loved have been killed or taken from me.

Yet, I’m in a new land, a stranger, and far from  anyone I could call a friend. Of my companions, I revered Cloudbreaker the most. His strength... his honesty... Cloudbreaker was the one I looked to, the one I would follow and protect- though he was strong enough to take care of himself. So how was I not to care?

Pain is an unfortunate side effect to joy. The only way to fully appreciate joy is to know pain, I could almost hear Gemmel say. I let out an exasperated sigh of defeat, for it was true.

I got up and went to the washroom to clean up the best I could. When I returned to the room, Cloudbreaker sat up as I shut the door.

“How are you?” he asked, taking careful note of me. I felt something in me, like a lightness, as his blue, pupilless eyes made contact with mine. Stop it! I scolded myself.

“I’m fine,” I said quickly, “In fact, I don’t recall feeling this well in such a long time,” I said with a smile. I didn’t expect Cloudbreaker to understand that statement. The burden of my supposed obligations, being marked, and the guilt I’ve acquired through mistakes and misfortune seemed like an afterthought.

“That’s good,” the Goliath said, a small smile creeping at the corner of his lips. “By the way, nice bed head.”

I rolled my eyes and ran a hand through my hair. Once more I was reminded how much I needed to tame it.

“Well, I think I need to fix that as one of the things we do today. By the way,” I said, remembering Cloudbreaker wanting to know about the nightmare I had last night. At the time I wasn’t able to give clear details. “I wrote down the nightmare if you’d like to read it.” Cloudbreaker tilted his head slightly and gave a nod. So I pulled my journal out of it’s dimension, flipped to the page that I had written the dream on, pointed out where it started and ended, before sitting back and watching him read it.

He read in silence for a couple minutes before handing my journal back. I quickly put it away and looked at Cloudbreaker expectantly. I don’t know what I was expecting, but the Goliath pondered a moment before simply saying, “That was... quite the dream I suppose.” I gave a nod of my head. I felt kind of stupid, like was it really that important I had him read it?

“Anyways,” I said, changing the subject, “I know we need to obtain silver for our weapons, but I am also wanting to swing by a tailor to get a different outfit.” Cloudbreaker eyed me up and down, a thrill running through me, and nodded in agreement.

“I’d say you and me both. But first, let us go get some breakfast,” Cloudbreaker said, slapping his stomach. A small laugh escaped me as I beamed in agreement.

Breakfast was bland compared to last night’s meal, but one can’t complain too much when they’re able to have a full stomach. Dale was pleased to see that I was faring far better than last night. I apologized once more for the mess I made of his vest, to which Dale brushed it off. Cloudbreaker and I then gathered our gear, locked our room, and took off on the town.

Finding a tailor wasn’t too terribly hard. I drew a simple design out for the seamstress to work with and picked out the fabrics. She said it would take a few days. She then took a look at Cloudbreaker and asked if he cared for something. Cloudbreaker, to say the least, would only be content if he had a pelt of a bear with it’s skull intact still. He was quickly informed he’d have better luck hunting a bear himself or buying such a pelt from a hunter.

Our ‘hunt’ for silver was deterred by Cloudbreaker’s need to find a bear pelt. I almost went out into the woods with him when I reminded him that we had to worry about those Elves. I did not trust them and I was right to not trust them either. We went to the Ranger’s Retreat Inn, where I noticed a lot of hunters, trackers, and rangers gathered.

The Innkeeper, who had strikingly red hair like that girl, Myranda, pointed us to some young adult sitting at a table. He, too had very red hair (and found out they were related to Myranda) as well as a collection of bear pelts, but none with the skull intact. Cloudbreaker asked where he could find a bear to hunt, but neither the boy or the Innkeeper had a clue where a bear specifically was, nor did they want to advise Cloudbreaker to go through the Elven territory since that, according to them, would end in his death.

With that, Cloudbreaker began to tease the two hunters about their lack of skill for they couldn’t tell him a specific location for a bear. He even began to belittle the Elves, saying he was too big for them to be of an issue. Watching the hunters sputter in defense and seeing how uncomfortable Cloudbreaker was making them, I tried to encourage the Goliath to be kind and that we’d get him a full bear pelt once we’ve figured out how to get out of Lake Town. Of course Cloudbreaker continued his banter with the hunters and it wasn’t until I began to push him out the door, reminding him we still needed to find silver.

It then dawned on me that I hadn’t seen Bal Vyr, Grendel, or Trickfoot since our departure from Lanlard’s Chalice Inn.

“Hey, where’d the others sleep last night?” I asked, “And has anyone seen Trickfoot yet?”

“Oh, Grendel and Bal Vyr got lodging at St. Cuthbert or whatever temple there in the Temple district,” Cloudbreaker grumbled. He then chuckled.

“What’s so funny?”

“Oh, well I don’t know if it’s really funny, but I gave Grendel a hug last night.”

“Wait... you’re talking about heartless, ‘Justice’ everything Grendel?” Cloudbreaker grinned a crooked smile a me. I couldn’t help but grin back.

“Oh, he’s just a teddy bear really,” Cloudbreaker mused merrily.

“To you maybe.”.

“As to Trickfoot, I suppose we’ll keep an eye open for him. He did go off on his own yesterday. It might be easier for him to find us.” I knew what Cloudbreaker meant. A 7’ 10”, blue Goliath and a 6’ 2” Angelic with black wings and skin chalk white. Nah, we didn’t stand out at all.

“Well, let us find some silver. I believe I heard you mention something to Dale this morning about a blacksmith that could help us?”

“Yes,” he said, “but only after we obtain silver.”

“Well, perhaps they can point us in the direction where we can find some,” I stated optimistically. Cloudbreaker then lead us to the blacksmith. Inside was a Dwarf puffing on a pipe and some man in the back. Before I could speak, something on the wall caught my eye. There was a shirt made of mithril. I walked to it and reached out to feel the material, but was met with a glass frame.

“Interested in the mithril missy?” the man in back called out. His voice was dry and raspy, showing the years he had worked in the smoke or had smoked.

“Yes actually, but my friend and I came into inquire about finding the kind of silver you could coat our weapons with.”

“Ah, yes. Well, let me think,” the man said. He scratched underneath his soot covered jaw and pondered for many minutes. “Well, there is one whom you might be able to get the kind of silver we need. Her name’s Bakabba, or as she’s commonly referred to, the troll under the bridge.”

“Why is she called that?” I asked.

“Oh, you’ll see.” The Dwarf gave a chuckle.

I looked at Cloudbreaker and gave a shrug. It was our best option, though I wish it wasn’t.

We arrived under the bridge we first crossed when we came into Lake Town yesterday. There was a crude hut made of driftwood to which I poked my head into. As I entered, I heard the lady inside mutter something that made me feel like she was expecting us.

She was friendly enough, but it was clear right quick that she wasn’t all there, surely a side effect of old age. At first she asked why I brought the Devil with me to which I looked at Cloudbreaker and mentioned he was a Goliath. She looked at him and her eyes widened, as though she hadn’t noticed him with me.

I sat down at the table she had arranged, while Cloudbreaker looked from the doorway, he being a bit too big to fit comfortably. Bakabba had cards arranged in some pattern before her. Cloudbreaker was curious about them and asked what she was playing. The woman explained in her own unique way that they were Tarot cards and they told fates.

I smirked at Bakabba, finding such a notion ridiculous, but as she began to pick up the cards, one of them caught my attention. I slapped my hand down on it before she could pick it up.

“Ah, the devil, the devil,” Bakabba said distinctly at first, then muttered the echo. I looked at it and on the card was a red devil. At his feet were two angels; one with white wings, one with black wings. The black wings looked oddly familiar, as though it were an image of myself.

I handed the card back to her and with my interest peaked, I asked her to tell me my fate. Bakabba then asked for two coppers. I handed her a platinum piece, not really caring if I got my change back since she looked quite destitute. She then promptly shuffled the cards and let me cut the deck. Bakabba then placed the deck on the table and tapped it 3 times saying, “Take, take, take.” I took the top card. “Put, put, put!” she instructed excitedly, tapping the table 3 times.

The card I drew interestingly enough was the very card that caught my attention. The Devil.

“Take take take!” I took another card, “Put put put!” and placed it beneath the Devil. The card showed a man standing in field, holding some golden orb. “The Page of Coins,” Bakabba said, as though she knew something.

Take take take. Put put put.

The Three of Cups

Take take take. Put put put.

The Two of Coins

Bakabba then sat back and looked at me expectantly. I looked back, raising my eyebrows.

“I don’t get it,” I responded.

“Here, let me have a go at it,” Cloudbreaker said, seeing Bakabba hadn’t explained anything to me. I moved out of his way, unsure what he thought he’d get out of it since Bakabba hadn’t told me anything other than take take take and put put put.

Cloudbreaker was equally unsuccessful in his fate reading. I eventually cut right to the point of why we came. I asked Bakabba if she had silver we could buy. She pulled out a bowl that had a small amount of silver in it.

“300 gold,” she said. I looked at the silver again and looked back at the woman.

“I’ll pay half of that,” I stated. 300 was a clear rip off, but Bakabba wouldn’t budge. So Cloudbreaker and I left the clearly mental fortune teller to her devices.

“That woman is broken,” Cloudbreaker said.

“No kidding...”

“I’m hungry, lets go eat.”

Ah, good ol’ Cloudbreaker to remind me to eating.

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