Chapter Seven: Masquerading as a Man with a Reason
Grenn barely noticed the child at first. It was as though he had appeared out of thin air. He had already swept the area earlier in the day and was heading back to the city when he saw the boy struggling to fight off a family of Vorpal Rabbits. Grenn was ashamed to see anyone inside his area of detection. No one ever managed to get so close to him while he was hunting without him noticing, and yet somehow this small child had managed to evade his detection skill? Maybe he had a stealth skill, but he was far too young to have awakened already.
From the looks of him, he couldn’t have been older than twelve. Was it a boy? It could be a girl with that thin wiry build. His movement and frame looked more male, but his features could have been that of an older girl. The child was also dressed oddly, just thin coverings, no armor, no real protection. Perhaps an escaped slave. Clean but very shabby dress, no gear, no muscles, no luggage. Also, obviously an idiot. Even a twelve-year-old should have known better than to take on a family of rabbits with no weapon and no tactics. This fool was walking right up to the decoy practically begging to get walloped.
Sure enough, a second later the demon bunny’s two buddies popped out and smashed the kid from behind. Grenn checked to make sure his stealth was still active and crept towards the fight. The child was down, face in the dirt. Was it over already? It had to be a slave, malnourished or injured during his escape. He seemed oddly weak and unequipped to be outside the wall at this age. Even his youngest daughter could have taken on just three rabbits and she was barely 10 years old. If it was a slave in these parts, he would need to report this back to The Guild and start an investigation.
Silently Grenn readied his bow and fingered a couple of arrows. One of the rabbits was moving slowly closer to the boy, checking out the prey to make sure it was safe. He notched his bow and as he was lining up a shot at the leader, he was shocked to see the boy’s arm swing out directly at the incoming rabbit. He barely made a glancing blow, but it was still impressive that he could trick the small beasts by playing possum. Even more impressive was that he managed to connect his attack while his face was still planted in the dirt. He was so impressed and surprised that he didn’t react when the second rabbit slammed into the boy with another attack. As impressive as the boy’s actions had been, his counter did little more than momentarily stun the first rabbit. Now all three were preparing to end the party. Grenn sighted the lead rabbit again and let the arrow fly. As soon as he released the arrow, he sighted the next one and let loose another attack before the first arrow had even landed. He reached for another arrow, but before he could raise it, the last rabbit was gone, spooked by the sudden attack on its companions.
There was no need to track it down. Without its friends the rabbit was long gone, the lure of easy prey gone. Instead, Grenn turned his attention to the child lying in the dirt. Slowly he approached the child and the more he looked, the more mysterious the story got. As he thought, the baggy, ill-fitting clothing he was wearing masked a ridiculously thin and emaciated frame. He carefully rolled the small frame on its back. There was a large wound on the lower side where one of the rabbits had managed to get a good angle with its horn. The wound on the back had not penetrated deeply, but there was a steady stream of blood coming from the wound on the side. The leg was also pretty badly hit and the knee was dislocated. That was easy to fix, but Grenn worried at the pitiful state of the child’s general health.
In a flash, Grenn pulled out some bandages and quickly and expertly dressed the wounds on the child’s side and back. Then he carefully positioned the body and pulled and twisted the leg back into position. Grenn was worried when there was no reaction at all. He checked and luckily the child continued breathing, albeit unevenly and very shallow. First aid having been taken care of, Grenn took another look to assess the situation. The child’s clothing greatly concerned him. As expected, it looked to be some type of slave garb. Too thin to be practical outside a building, it more closely resembled bedclothing, though it was immaculately clean and soft, like a baby blanket. The child’s complexion was light, extremely light, and his hair color was a rare, golden-like honey. It was as though he had come from the ice plains of Sobric. His hands were soft and clean. This child had never labored a day in his life. He was surprised the boy had managed to get as far from the city as he had. Grenn would have suspected that he had fallen out of a passing carriage if he wasn’t so sure that no such vehicle had passed nearby in a while.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Grenn’s face darkened as he started putting the pieces together. The strange clothes, the weak body, the total lack of preparation. This was likely some kind of pleasure slave. His teeth gritted as he contemplated the scenario. Even if using a child like this in such a way was illegal, in the worst-case situation the owner would simply cancel the contract and the boy would instantly burn to ash. Grenn gently turned the left hand to see the mark on the back of his wrist but was shocked again when there was nothing there. He quickly checked the right hand and indeed there was no mark at all. The mystery deepened as his theory was quickly disproved. He could do a more thorough check, but it was getting dark and he didn’t want to do anything in the open like this. He also couldn’t go through the city gates like this. Too many mysteries surrounded this child.
Carefully he carried the small unconscious body to a flat space by some nearby trees and set up a makeshift camp. After laying the boy on his bedroll and setting up his tent, Grenn gathered some deadwood and tinder and quickly had a small campfire going. He also collected the copses of the two Vorpal Rabbits as well as the odd metal club the boy had used to defend himself. Then he took a closer look at the boy.
Upon closer examination, Grenn was forced to question even more of his assumptions. It was definitely a boy, although a young prepubescent one. He had very little hair on his face, neck, and chest, There were signs of some stubble, so perhaps he was a bit older than Grenn had guessed. Maybe 14? But then how was he so underdeveloped and thin? He had a build closer to a noble daughter, never lifting anything or stepping out in the sun without a servant carrying a parasol. Then he considered that the boy might be a halfling. He had seen a few half-human half-dwarves before and the height was about right. Even a fully grown halfling stood a hand and a half below a human adult. But the dwarves he had met all had beards that put his own to shame, even the women, and the rounded tips of his ears did not match the pointy protrusions commonly sported by all Juujin. However, the lighter complexion was also more common in dwarven lineages. Try as he might, he could not piece together a scenario that worked. At least the child’s condition had stabilized and the lack of a slave crest reduced the urgency to solve this riddle. After checking the boy one more time and scanning the surroundings with his observation skills, Grenn set to cleaning and prepping the rabbits for dinner.
He angled the rabbits so that they leaned into the fire, but the makeshift spit would not burn in the flame and dump the meat into the coals. Proud of his handiwork, he hadn’t hunted small game like this in a while. In quick order the pelts were cleaned, the meat was roasting and the camp was tidy and the offal buried in a pit further in the trees. He judged his work as he would a green hunter, “I’ll make a decent party member of you yet!”.
He was cleaning his hands with some soap leaves when he heard the boy stir. He seemed to be delirious and pursed his lips and stuck out his tongue, obviously begging to drink. Grenn knew not to give him any water until he had confirmed there was no internal injury, but let the boy wet his lips with some drops of water from his hand. Once he detected the water, the boy started babbling, begging for more, but Grenn firmly said “Enough!” and soon the child fell back into a restless sleep.
With an eye on the boy, Grenn went back to the fire and pulled the spit with one of the rabbits out of the ground. Sitting on a log he had dragged closer to the fire, he blew on the sizzling meat and took a large bite. Enjoying the hot fatty meat and nostalgic taste, he contemplated the strange events of the afternoon. He needed to talk to the Guild Head. Something strange was going on and this boy might be a clue to larger movements. He didn’t belong here, that much is certain.
Grenn contemplated his options. He could smuggle him past the gate, not usually a problem, but in his current condition, the boy would certainly be noticed. He had another idea, but not one he liked. That one would lead to trouble. He did not want to deal with that person if he could help it. He stared into the fire and took another bite. It would be a long night. He was too old to solo outside of the wall, if for no other reason than there was no novice to stick with the watch. He finished his dinner, wrapped the second rabbit up in leaves in case the boy could stomach some food in the morning, then dumped the remains in the pit and relieved himself against a tree. He checked the wood and stoked the fire wishing he had something stronger to drink than the water in his canteen.