Chapter 54: The Hills

“So... are these the Trollbone Hills?” asked Alcar.

With the gulley now behind them, he could see the Imperial highway snaking off to the southeast, in the direction of Dathmir City. Ahead and to the north, hills rose up, the nearest of which were small, but with much larger ones visible in the distance.

“Technically yes,” said Ubund cryptically. The man spoke with a deep, growling voice.

“The main range of hills is some distance off, but these are the foothills,” added Leppie. “Now... I wonder where our friends have got to?”

“I know, right,” murmured Alcar, gazing ahead.

In leaving the gulley, they hadn’t seen any further kobolds, save for the occasional movement in the distance or along the top of the cliffs of the gulley that had suggested that enemies were still at large.

So far, though, they hadn’t seen Etienne or Olynka either.

But then Ubund clarified the matter, and Alcar remembered that as a guide to the area, he was probably a way better tracker than any of them:

“A human and a halfling went that way,” he said, pointing to the ground nearby. “They stopped by those trees yonder, and then moved along near the edge of the plain.”

“That’s amazing, Ubund!” said Leppie, putting one arm across the guide’s back. “Can you lead us that way?”

“I will go by myself,” said the man firmly. “You take the path between those two hills ahead. A small pass leads to a great valley. An elven village, very safe. The kobolds won’t risk going close to it.”

Alcar stepped forward towards the mysterious guide. “You will find our friends and bring them to the village? I would be very grateful, dude, I must say.”

Ubund frowned. “Dude? Is this compliment?”

“It’s neutral, man. But please, consider me very complementary about your help and your brilliant archery skills.”

“I am no man,” said Ubund, “but rather, one of the Vep-Te people from the island of Veptans.”

“Ah...” said Alcar. “I remember reading about a Vep-Te called Roka the Shrike...”

”Hmm,” grunted Ubund, stepping away, apparently unwilling to engage in any further conversation with the apprentice sorcerer. He shouldered his bow, and began to move away along the trail. “Farewell beautiful Dagmir van Lepp, fine dog, and strange green-robed man.”

And with that, he was away, running along the trail.

Alcar turned and glanced at Leppie, one eyebrow raised. “Beautiful, huh?”

She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t agree?”

Alcar spluttered for a moment. “Um, I mean, yes, of course – why would I say otherwise? I was just noticing that you made quite an impression on our friend from Veptans.”

“I don’t think he’s your friend,” Leppie replied, gesturing and beginning to lead the way towards the hills. “But yes. As we spent time in that cave near the Imperial road, we became... very close.”

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“Uh huh,” replied Alcar with a smirk. He was secretly glad that the barbarous Khranulian farm hands were, apparently, out of the picture in terms of Leppie’s love life.

“Wuff,” said Brutus.

And they hurried on, leaving both the gulley and the Imperial highway behind them.

***

The path that Ubund had set them upon was clear and easy to follow – a winding but dry stony route that rose up one flank of the green hillside, cut between small clusters of trees, and circled around some of the larger sporadic boulders.

It wasn’t long before the two companions were high above the beginning of a long, flat-bottomed valley. It looked very different from the gulley they had recently gone through – benign and peaceful, with herds of deer grazing, and no sign of civilization.

“Nobody around so far,” commented Leppie, as the pair paused to take a drink from their waterskins. “But all the same. These would be good hunting grounds.”

“Think your new friend hunts here?”

She shrugged. “Perhaps. Ubund roams far and wide. He is an exile from his people.”

“Ah, I see...” Alcar gazed at Leppie, trying to get a sense of what was running through her mind. “When you saw Kora...”

“Yes?” she snapped.

Alcar paused. “Well... I’d just got the impression that you didn’t like her particularly well.”

Leppie shrugged, gazing off into space. “Hmm. Perhaps I was a little unfair to her. It’s all history, now.”

Alcar eyed the healer once more, wondering if the beef between the pair concerned the Khranulian men. But if so, it was – as the healer had said – history. “Right, right. That’s good. But are you sure you told her of our plans?”

Leppie looked around at the apprentice sorcerer, narrowing her eyes. “You think, perhaps, that I told her to get lost – that she wasn’t welcome any more?”

He shrugged. “It’s possible, I suppose.”

Leppie sighed. “Well, sorcerer, I suppose it is. But no. I told you the truth – Kora and the others that escaped from the goblins had their own plan to help the revolution. They had found out some crucial information, they told me. Something big, that’s gonna help the von Dathmir family overthrow the duke.”

“Huh! Well, perhaps the codex isn’t necessary after all.”

Leppie narrowed her eyes. “I think we should proceed, man. The dwarves are very powerful. Without them onside, there is no unseating Duke Frage. We still need this book.”

“Okay, okay,” Alcar replied. “Then let’s just hope we manage to get there and back without serious injury. It’s not exactly been simple so far, and we’ve not even go to the main destination yet.”

“Such is the life of an adventurer.”

Alcar smiled at this – Leppie was right. And an adventurer’s life was exactly what he had been wanting all these years.

He leaned over to scratch his leg, and then winced, realizing that it was still hurting pretty bad where he had been shot by a kobold, despite the benefits of the healing potion. He pulled his robes up and raised the leg of his breeches, revealing an angry red scar that was weeping slightly.

“That’s not entirely healed, my friend,” said Leppie, as if reading his thoughts. “You should have spoken out sooner. Allow me.”

The moved over to a nearby rock, and Leppie pulled some supplies out of the inside of her robes, and then she crouched down.

“Bandages,” commented Alcar.

“Of course. What else?”

“I thought that Hernvall provides.”

“So he does. For am I not here, with you, with bandages at the ready?”

“Sure,” said Alcar with a half-smile, “and I’m grateful for your help. But isn’t your healing magical?”

“Many people suppose so,” she replied as she worked on the wound. “But is it really magic if a god intervenes to give a healer their powers, any more than it is magic if a griffon breathes fire on a tree?”

“Hmm...” Alcar fell silent, and then winced as Leppie pulled the bandage tight around his lower leg. “What about healing potions. Do your guild use them?“

“Those are the product of witches, not healers. There are some covens in Katresburg, as you may be aware.”

“So you don’t approve?”

Leppie finished tying the bandage, and then rocked back on her heels. “It’s not necessary for our work, and nor can our order very easily spend gold on such things. But for adventurers and armies, sure. They can be helpful. After all, there can’t always be a healer from the Elemental Hand Guild standing beside you.”

“True enough.”

Brutus had been sitting quiet and still during their conversation, eyeing the deer on the valley below, and it occurred to Alcar that while he had fed the dog from the chest of supplies on their entry to the gulley, he no longer had any food with him. They would need to get something for both Brutus and for themselves fairly soon.

“This elven village – you know anything about it, Lepp?”

Leppie shook her head. “I may be a half-elf, but I’m a city girl. I’ve never been in a village that’s populated just by elves.”

“Then it should be an experience for us both, then,” he replied. “I wonder if we’ll even recognize it when we see it.”