The rest of dinner devolved after the burping started, with Gregory, Timothy, and Burtrum getting into a belching match. The two boys had a lot to learn from their old man. Fezzic soon realized that Olivander was still just an ass, and excused himself for some fresh air shortly after the contest began.
After dinner, Olivander sat on the back porch of the Gregory’s home, smoking a pipe and admiring the view of the foothills and mountains beyond as the sun began to set behind them. A few crickets sang, and the sound of the wind gently stirred the desert shrubbery. Burtrum joined him a few minutes later, sitting down in the next chair.
“Pipe?” Olivander offered.
“I wouldn’t say no to some good leaf.”
“It is good, but it’s not exactly leaf,” Olivander said, conjuring another pipe into his free hand.
Burtrum tried it out and gave an approving nod.
“I appreciate what you did for my boy back there at the mines. He told me a bit about it. If there's any way I can repay you—”
“Consider your hospitality payment enough," Olivander said, waving away the idea. "Besides, we both benefited from the outing.”
Burtrum considered Olivander carefully.
“You don’t really seem like you needed any help dealing with a few goblins. Based on the spells Gregory described you using to melt his armor and portal around, I’m guessing you’re at least a silver, probably gold rank guild member. So, for me, it brings up a question. Why bother? Why bother with the goblins, and why bother with Gregory?”
Olivander puffed on his pipe for a long moment. He pulled it from his mouth and let out a sigh.
“I really don’t know, Burtrum. I just recently lost everything I had pursued in life. All of my worldly possessions and my position of influence and power stripped away like they were nothing. I was angry, am still, a little, but I'm trying to put that behind me. I honestly just needed something to take my mind off of it. I tried taking a higher rank contract, but the guild hall clerk wouldn’t let me without my token.”
“Jeremy? That man is a menace. I don’t know why anyone likes him. Rules the guild hall with an iron fist, I say.”
“Thank you! I got the same impression.”
“So what, you just decided to kill some goblins? Thought it would be funny to follow around my son?” Burtrum wasn’t angry. He just genuinely wanted to know why this clearly powerful man was helping his son.
“Do you know much about mindrot, Burtrum?”
The big man shook his head, pipe smoke tracing a line in the air.
“It’s an awful disease. The name is quite literal. It rots away the parts of the brain that do anything except allow the victim to stay alive and remain aggressive. I’ve studied it extensively. One thing that I’ve always feared is that there’s a part of the person still alive in there. Unable to stop their murderous rage and unnatural hunger. Unable to ask for help or do anything at all. Putting them down is a worthwhile thing to do on it’s own.”
Both men were silent for a moment.
“Fezzic…those were his people? What an awful thing to happen.”
“They were. It is awful what he went through, and what your son and I did to him, by extension, was nearly as bad. I tried to keep them both from spinning into despair with my signature flippancy, but I expect they’ll both have a rough night.”
“You still haven’t answered my question. Why help my son?”
“Your first guess was right for my initial reason. Your boy is earnest and a bit naive. I did want to earn a little cash to get some food and new clothes, but I thought watching him would be entertaining. I was not wrong.”
Burtrum chuckled, shaking his head. “That boy does tend to get bogged down in what others think. I tried to tell him to forget about that damn class he awakened. I told him, my first class wasn’t even a combat class. So you followed him for a bit of fun. I can understand that. What are you going to do now? If you don’t mind me saying so, Mr. Olivander, you seem a bit lost.”
Olivander tossed his pipe off the deck, allowing it to dissolve into blue mist. All he could do was shrug.
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“Please, just call me Olivander. I’ll be moving on in the morning. Eventually I want to get down to Mardareth, but I’m not in a hurry.”
“The city of bones?” Burtrum shuddered. “I went there once as a lad. Not a place I’d visit again.”
“Sure, it looks bad on the outside, but deep down, Mardareth is much worse than all the rumors imply. I don’t exactly want to go back, but I used to live there. I left some things behind that I’d like to recover.”
“You’re a braver man than I, Olivander. It sounds like you’re in for a time of travel and adventure, if today is any indication.”
“It would seem so.”
“I have a favor to ask. Gregory is a good, dependable boy, but his confidence has taken a beating since he awakened that class a few months ago. I’d like to ask you to take him with on your journey. Show him the world, and let him grow into whatever he wants to be.”
The young man really did need to forge his own path. Right now it looked like all he wanted was to be his father.
“I see. The old, ‘it takes more than training to become a knight’ idea? He needs tempering in the world, and you’d like someone to watch over him while that happens?”
“It would certainly make his mother feel better about the idea. She’d rather have another cook in the family, but I’ll be honest with you, Olivander. I don’t think my gut could handle another one. I’ve had to take out my pants twice in the last year. It’s getting out of hand.”
“There are worse things than being fed overwell,” Olivander said with a laugh.
Burtrum took one last drag on his pipe before tossing it away as Olivander had done. As the smoke cleared he leaned forward, massive arms resting on his thighs.
“So what do you say?”
“I do like your son, Burtrum, your whole family, really, but I feel like I need to get something else out of this. He could do just as well hunting locally, but with a little more independence. So what do you propose I get for taking my time and showing him a life of adventure? Besides the satisfaction of a job well done.”
“I am a gold ranked guild member. I might have something to interest you. Also, my daughter has the tailoring profession and lives next door with her husband. Those robes are looking a little worse for wear.”
“That does sound nice.”
“My son could also supply you with plenty of jerky rations for your journey.”
“Say no more, Burtrum. Any chance you want Timothy to see the world as well?”
Burtrum laughed. “You’d have to pry him away from Helena.”
Before Olivander could reply, he heard shouting from someone running up the hill just out of sight ahead of them.
“Burtrum! The wyrm! I saw it grab someone!”
Burtrum was about to dash out to meet the runner when Olivander held up a hand. In a moment, a portal opened and the man who had been dashing up the hill in the distance ran into the side of the house.
“Oh! Okay. That was unexpected.”
“What’s wrong Zeke?”
“Did you have guests? I was just checking on the outer stables, and I saw a short man wandering around in the far fields. The wyrm spotted him and grabbed him as it flew by.”
“Was it a goblin?” Olivander asked.
“It might have been, certainly short enough, but I didn’t get a good look at the skin coloring.”
Olivander’s face darkened.
“Burtrum, would you like to assist me?”
“You can’t be serious! That wyrm is too strong.”
“I just put down Fezzic’s entire family today. I’m not losing another one if I can help it.”
“Fine, let me grab my gear.”
“Hurry, I won’t wait long.”
Burtrum ran into the house, and Olivander jumped off the porch, landing just a few feet down on the ground.
Olivander began crafting a pair of vehicles, summoning specific parts and assembling them on the fly. Once the forms of two floating bikes were in place, he cast another spell that seemed to condense them into individual objects.
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Land Speeder
A magical vehicle capable of quick travel overland.
Requires continuous mana channeling to operate.
Conjured Vehicle will dissipate in a few hours without channeling mana.
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Just as Olivander finished, Burtrum emerged from the house. He wore ornate brown plate armor, and every plate had a glowing golden rune carved into it. He had a huge hammer with a glowing red head slung across his back. That Olivander could see it at all on the giant man was testament to its size.
Gregory and Timothy emerged after him, their mother trailing behind.
“What’s wrong?” Gregory asked.
“No time, everyone else stay here!” Olivander said, jumping on a speeder.
Burtrum followed suit, and they sped off.
Neither man spoke as they rode at full speed towards the wild desert wyrm’s nest.
The countryside flew by, in a minute, they had already passed the stable Zeke had been checking on. The far fields were obviously the domain of the wyrm. The ground was scorched and torn up in a wide area. Blood and evidence of eaten animals occasionally marked the landscape.
In another minute, they could see the wyrm's nest, but no sign of the beast itself.
Olivander thought he could see a body in the nest.
Burtrum waved him down.
They stopped, landing the speeders.
“We should be careful. This almost seems like a trap,” Burtrum said.
“I have no doubt it is. Wyrms are far more intelligent than most people give them credit for. Every individual I’ve met has been a hateful thing. Only bent on gaining whatever it wanted, and destroying everything else. A trap is a convenient way for them to accomplish both goals.”
“So you want to just walk into it?”
“The best way to find a trap is to spring it. That’s what I always say.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t send my son with you.”
The pair approached the rise where the nest sat, overlooking a short cliff. The nest sat at an angle on the slope, letting them clearly see Fezzic lying there, unmoving.
A wicked screech burned their ears, and Olivander saw a huge mass of wings and a serpentine body rushing towards him.