The dying embers of day feebly punched their way through the eastern boughs of the forest and gently came to rest upon the ground and the prone form of Azken. He was now lying on a hastily constructed bed of linens and leaves next to the upturned cart. To his right stood Gilius who was working on feeding a fire. Azken found his armor removed and his bruised torso bandaged. He quickly looked around, eyes darting from place to place trying to find Yuria. After a moment Gilius noticed his concern and chimed in,
“I managed to clean and bandage the wound lad, she will live. It might leave a bad scar but so few of us are without them, especially in this line of work.”
“It was my fault; I should have protected her.”
“You did your best lad, its only thanks to you that any of us are alive to worry about it. I’m more worried about that weapon you’ve had in a death grip the entire time you were asleep.” Azken laxed his grip and felt the heavy metal weapon slip from his hand. It kicked up a bit of dust before settling on the ground. The runes on each head still shined with the blue light it had before, but some of its intensity had gone.
“I am sorry for using what we were supposed to protect, will this affect our delivery?”
“I doubt it lad. Honestly, they may want to question you on what it was like to use it. It looks like a halberd which the humans use, but it also looks to be dwarf made. Why don’t you keep it until we make it to Marazek. We can't have our guard working without a weapon can we Yuria?” She called out from behind the cart in response,
“Right father. You have saved my life again Azken, thank you.”
“Yuria.” Gilius said in a stern voice, “Tell him that face to face.” he turned his attention back to Azken, “One of the riders escaped, but if I understand the sequence of events, you managed to wound him severely. He may call for aid and bring more riders down on top of us. As much as I hate to say this, we are going to try and make for the next outpost overnight.” The idea pained Gilius, it showed on his face, “Lad, now that you’re awake, help me right the cart and get it packed back up. Yuria, make ready to leave.” Azken leveraged himself up to his feet using the butt of the halberd and stretched a little to test for wounds. His entire torso ached, and his left arm burned with pain around his shoulder, but he had suffered nothing major. He set down the weapon in its box and set to work shoving and heaving against the cart to set it right. It was hard work, the wheels had sunk into the soft forest floor and resisted leaving their new home. After a few minutes of leveraging the cart was turned right side up, the boxes were loaded, and they were off into the darkening woods. Yuria would audibly wince in pain whenever something made contact with her back. The going was slow as the ram struggled to see the path in front of the cart. Azken, who was used to the darkened tunnels he had grown up in, was able to see fully well through the gloom. Gilus relinquished the reins and slipped into the back of the cart to sit with his daughter. He muttered something about his age and worked on preparing a cushion for Yuria to sit against. Azken piloted the cart to the best of his abilities, directing the ram down the path he could clearly see. The darkness here was different from the dark in the mountain, it seemed somehow lazy. Where in the mountain city the dark had moved aggressively into anywhere without light, out here it needed provocation to appear when the sun was gone. Azken decided that the moon was at fault for the dark’s hesitance and directed the ram around a curve.
An hour had passed with Azken at the reins, he had enough practice at controlling the cart to split his attention. Yuria had fallen asleep nestled in her father’s arms, while he gently stroked her hair.
“Is her mother waiting at home somewhere while you two are on the road?” Azken asked, breaking the tranquility,
“If my wife were still alive lad, she would never let me take Yuria on these trips. I only bring her with me because there is no one left to watch her back home.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to her, and where is home?”
“I would rather not tell the whole story lad; it hasn’t been half a decade since she passed. I can tell you the short of it seeing as we have the time.” Gilius looked up at the little bits of sky poking through the leafy boughs and took a deep breath, “We come from Berden, far to the east. I was a mercenary, and she was an engineer. Her family disapproved of her choice of occupation, so we ran away together. We lived as free as we could and did what we were capable of to scrounge out a living. The only time we stayed in one place for long was when Yuria was born. Those were the happiest days of my life lad; I only hope you have the opportunity to experience them for yourself. Anyway, once Yuria was old enough to walk and learn we took to the road again. For a decade things went well, until that night.” Gilius went silent, Azken saw his muscles tense through his armor. He took a moment, then resumed his story. “We had run far afield of the normal dwarf routes and found our way to some human city. Yuria had gone to sleep at the inn, but we still had some business to conclude. It could have waited until the morning lad, there was nothing so pressing that it had to be done that night, but I was stubborn. Two men came out of the fog, a big one and a smaller one. Well, I say big and small, but they were still much taller than us, and I am confident in my strength but the big one had me out muscled. They attacked, I fought back,” he paused again, then resumed stroking Yuria’s hair, “While I fought off the smaller one’s sword, the big one threw a spear which hit her. I didn’t know what else to do so I cut and ran, I grabbed her body and ran.”
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“I am sorry for your loss, to lose your wife in such a way must have been devastating. What was her name? I would like to know so I can remember her with you.”
“It was lad, it was. Her name was Dora, she abandoned her family name. She was the finest engineer I had ever met, perhaps in time Yuria will overtake that however. I have seen the things she makes, this daughter of mine has skill.”
“May you and your daughter prosper in peace, in honor of Dora.”
“Thank you for the old prayer lad, it's rare that the youths of today remember them.”
“I was well taught, my father believed in being well educated and my mother stressed the importance of tradition.”
“Wise folk.” They rode on in relative silence, which was broken only by something in the trees or the potential of something there. They took no breaks for meals or rest, preferring instead to eat while moving. The pace at which they traveled increased as the ram came to trust in Azken’s directions and began moving at near full speed. It was half an hour before dawn when they saw the next outpost. In the half light of the unrisen sun the wooden gates seemed to glimmer. As they came a bit closer, Azken noticed something off about the scene but couldn’t pin down exactly what it was. Gilius knew right away, “Something is wrong, the guards aren't at their posts. Lad, stop the cart at the edge of the clearing there, we go in on foot.”
“What should we do with Yuria? Do we wake her?”
“Nay lad, let her sleep. Worst case she lives, best it's nothing.” They drew their weapons and plodded closer, taking care to avoid stepping on anything which would make a conspicuous noise. Upon clsoer inspection they found the gates to the outpost slightly open and peaking inside revealed the reason. In a pile at the center of the square lay the bodies of the guards, as well as the travelers who had stopped for the night. Standing, piling the remaining bodies was a large, muscle-bound man. He wore an outfit made of leathers and furs which left his chest uncovered. On his back rested a basket filled with five javelins. His hair was tied into many chords, and he had a short beard. Another man stood next to him, drinking from a chalice. The second man was shorter, only coming up to the larger man’s chest and much slenderer. He wore cloak with a red interior and black exterior around a suit of black armor. His hair was straight and black, and his skin pale as ash. The smaller man lifted his head and sniffed the air. A grin crept across his face before he hissed out in a commanding yet chilling voice,
“It appears we have some more guests. Luster, go and welcome the fresh blood into our feast.” The larger man, Luster, dropped the body he had been carrying and turned to face the gate which Azken and Gilius were watching from.
“Yes master. shall I bring them alive or dead?” The smaller man thought for a moment before replying,
“If they are human kill them, if not let them live.” Luster nodded and drew one of the javelins from his basket,
“As you command master Syan.” Luster began to advance while Syan sat and watched. Gilius pushed his way past Azken and marched out into the center of the outpost square,
“I recognize that voice,” he said just loud enough for Azken to hear, “I will avenge her, you will never hurt anyone again,” he shouted and charged forth, running straight at Luster. Azken slipped into the area and moved to back him up. Luster and Gilius met halfway between the pile and gate and locked into a melee. Gilius swung his hammer with such ferocity and abandon that Luster was forced onto the back foot. While they fought Azken kept his eyes on Syan. He kept his halberd pointed at his chest piece and sidled ever closer. There was something about him that Azken didn’t like. It tickled the back of his brain, and he could hear a dull buzzing in his ears whenever he looked at Syan. Syan looked at his pained face and cocked his head as if puzzled at how these two dwarfs were opposing him.
“I forgot, it's always a gamble whether a dwarf will resist my charms or not, this is why I hate you mountain dwellers.” Syan tossed aside his chalice and drew his sword. It was a wide two-handed sword with a rounded top and slight point at the tip. He lunged with unnatural speed and brought his sword down in a swift arc aiming for Azken’s head. He narrowly avoided the blow and thrusted the spear tip of his halberd back at the center of Syan’s chest. He blocked the thrust with the base of his sword and hopped backwards out of reach. He grinned, revealing two extended canine teeth, a vampire. “Now that is a dangerous toy dwarf, why don’t you set it down and play nice?” Azken ignored the provocation and stepped forwards three paces. He slashed down with the axe blade and was sidestepped before lashing out with a back hand to try and catch him during the dodge. Syan easily slipped past the second attack and lashed out with a lazy horizontal slice which raked across Azken’s chainmail. The blow sent Azken sliding back until he rooted himself with the butt of the halberd. He winced as his arm and ribs burned with pain before readying himself for the vampire’s next attack. Syan obliged, unleashing a flurry of small attacks which danced past Azken’s guard and cut the air just before meeting his head and chest. Azken suffered a few small cuts to his forearms and managed to properly parry two of the slashes before the barrage became too much. Syan delivered one final thrust to finish his flurry and caught Azken square in the chest. Had the sword been designed for thrusting, or had it had a regular point Azken would have been run through. Due to the strange shape of the blade, it only bashed against his armor. Azken heard some of the chains which made up his armor snap as the force threatened to knock him over. He gripped the halberd near the head and flailed his arm forward as he fell. The runes burned blue as the edge connected with Syan’s face, burning through his flesh from the cheek up to the forehead and sealing the vampire’s left eye shut. Syan reared back in pain, one hand clutching his ruined eye with the other lashing out wildly with his sword. Azken squirmed back on the ground trying to get out of reach before the vampire set his sights on him again.
“Master!” cried Luster from the side. He kicked Gilius, knocking him back and broke from the fight. He ran over to Syan and grabbed his master, carrying him in his arms. “The sun has almost risen; we must be away.” Syan stopped flailing and freed himself from Luster’s grasp but kept running.
“You damn dwarf, when I see you again, I will have my revenge. You will suffer for cutting me.” Syan hissed and retreated into the shadows, avoiding the light of the rising sun. Azken struggled to his feet and went to assist Gilius. They collected their cart and Yuria and did their best to close the gate before taking a well-earned break.