The rest of the voyage passed without incident. As we got closer and closer to Shroud Hallow, I started getting a little bit melancholy. The orcs that were left had become my friends. When I set out on this journey, I had decided that I wouldn’t get too close to anyone on the trip but somehow, against my better judgment, several of them had wormed their way into my heart. As I have mentioned before, I am not very good at saying goodbye to the people I care about. As we drew closer and closer to the continent, I realized that our last few days together would likely be the last few days that we ever shared. That made me sad. Several of them had shown me loyalty that I probably didn’t deserve, which said a whole lot more about their characters than it did me.

We spent a lot of time dicing. I had decided that I was going to split my dice up and give each of them one or two as a memento of our trip. We spent even more time just sitting around and talking, trying to make sense of our experiences on the island. Have you ever sat around with friends and dreamed about what you would do if you won the lottery or inherited a large sum of money from a distant relative? We did a lot of that. I asked them what they expected they would earn when they set out on the expedition and, almost universally, the answer was a couple of thousand gold. As we talked, I found out that they had invested only a few hundred gold each into funding the company for the trip. What they were coming back with was many times their wildest dreams. Dregu and Pregu talked about moving somewhere and opening a tavern, or maybe a gambling house. In the near future, I could see our version of Yahtzee being introduced to the masses. Rogan offered to tag along and run their kitchen for them. Yam and Dumbuk had plans that were similar to one another. They wanted to remain in Shroud Hallow and each live modest lives of leisure. I thought they would be wealthy enough to turn that dream into a reality. Brokil wanted to go into business. He talked about investing in several smithies and trying to get contracts to supply the military with weapons, armor, and more mundane tools. Rilug had no idea what he was going to do with his money. He said he would keep his eyes open for opportunities and seize the best one.

I could tell that several of them were hurting, too. Physically, they were fine but emotionally they had taken a battering. They had each lost several good friends. Many of those friends had families who would need to be informed. That’s excruciating labor. And unlike Gento’s family, they wouldn’t have a sack of gold to help take the sting out of the loss. I guess that’s the way of the world, though. People you expect will always be around are there one day and then gone forever the next.

Another common topic was what pieces of shit Caider, Tikter and Yahg turned out to be. In an attempt to assuage my curiosity, I asked them all whether any of them knew what had happened to Yahg to make him the way he was. Nobody had a clue. They said as long as they had known him, he had always been like that. None of them were planning on informing Yahg’s wife or Caider or Tikter’s loved ones that they had perished on the island. I guess they would have to figure things out on their own.

Although Captain Clemenzio and his crew were good sailors, we didn’t end up sighting the continent directly at Shroud Hallow. Our course must have drifted a few degrees and we ended up farther south than planned. In fact, we were probably closer to Sleetfield or the canyonlands than we were to port. That meant we spent a couple of days and nights slowly sailing north, always keeping the coast in sight. We passed fishing villages and saw other vessels but nobody got close enough to us to have a conversation. Finally, in the middle of the morning of the third day I spied a familiar port. We had packed up our things early in the morning. I spent the rest of the journey, short as it was, walking around and saying goodbye to the orcs, handing out my dice. I told them that we would be heading back to Westfield and although I didn’t expect to see any of them again, I would miss them and they would always have a fond place in my memories. As I had noted before, orcs are a pretty stoic people by and large. They tried to play things off with insults and rough jokes, but I thought they would remember me, too. I hoped so, anyway. Then, I verified the plan with Captain Clemenio one more time.

Before long, we were docked.

“Take care, all” I called out to the orcs with a smile. “I hope you have long and comfortable lives.” Aleyda, Bowen and I were the first ones off the ship.

We kept our heads down and marched towards the road up out of Shroud Hallow. As I looked around the port, I realized that the boom times had come to an end here as well. There were significantly fewer ships than when we had departed. As we marched through town, many of the businesses that supported the companies and their expeditions were shuttered, probably never to reopen. The streets themselves were relatively desolate, at least compared to what they once were. When we reached the area with the food stands, there were far fewer of them than we had observed previously. The one selling the flatbread sandwiches was still open, however, even if it did have a much shorter line. I traded a small chunk of gold for a bunch of sandwiches and we feasted. I could have cried when the tasty juices of hot, palatable food ran down my chin. Then, it was time to go home. As we left the town, there were no companies on the road recruiting anymore. I imagined that Shroud Hallow had shrunk to half its former population in a matter of weeks.

Laden as we were, and having spent several weeks on the ship lazing around, we didn’t make good time. Carrying heavy sacks of gold up the long hill leading up to the main highway was taxing. Oh, and for me at least the ground felt like it was moving again. I had to watch my steps carefully. It wouldn’t do to fall and spill a sack of refined gold out on the roadway. If I did that, I doubt we would ever make it home alive. Less people on the road did not mean there were no people on the roadway.

We hiked for the rest of the day. I cursed myself for not working on my conditioning on the voyage. By the time we stepped off the roadway into a copse of trees to camp for the night, I was gassed. Not having dice anymore to roll for watch order, I had to introduce another new innovation to this world -- rock, paper, scissors. It really didn’t surprise me when I lost again and got assigned middle watch. I threw myself down on the loamy soil, which was more comfortable than the ground on the island, wrapped myself in my cloak and fell fast asleep.

The night passed without incident. So did the next one, and the one after that. A journey that had taken us three days on the way to Shroud Hallow stretched into a fourth. I cursed myself for our slow pace. We were burning days we needed to get packed up and away before the interest came due for some of my extracurricular activities. Finally, in the middle of the fourth morning, we stumbled down through the hills and I spotted our home again.

It looked tidy and prosperous. The first growth of our seasonal crops poked above the dirt out in our fields. Any remaining damage from our encounter with the bandits the winter before had been repaired. I stopped for a second, amazed at what we had accomplished together. Did we really have to leave our home? After considering things a moment, I realized we did. We would never be safe here. Although I had made some friends, I had also made quite a few enemies. I just hoped that the next place we settled would put all those concerns behind us.

We walked down the hill towards the house. Out of nowhere, a large hound of some sort bolted from the barn and faced off with us barking, growling and baring its teeth. When had we gotten a dog? I hoped it didn’t attack. I didn’t want to kill the family pet.

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Soon, the commotion had alerted others to our presence. Patrick stepped out of the barn and Helvia made her way to the porch. Patrick started stomping over to us.

“What can I do for you,” he called out to us, clearly not recognizing us.

“I was hoping to go get cleaned up and then sleep in a bed for a change,” I yelled back.

“James, is that you?” he said excitedly.

“Did you expect someone else?” I replied.

He called off the dog. “Sorry, that soldier you got into it with last winter came looking for you a couple of weeks ago. That’s put us all on edge.”

He walked up to us and gave us all hugs. “You all made it back safe and sound, I see,” he said. “Although I don’t see any new members of our community with you.”

“Well, I have some good news and bad news,” I said.

“Let’s start with the good news first.”

“We’re rich again, and we managed to get a large number of people off the island to safety,” I answered. “Oh, and Aleyda and I are in a relationship.”

He grinned when I added that last part. “What’s the bad news?” he asked.

“There are going to be people after us again and we are going to have to pack up and leave,” I replied. “I have chartered a ship to take us somewhere that there is no slavery, where we can actually be safe. We just have to get out of here before all our efforts become meaningless.”

“And we just got things the way we wanted them,” he said in a huff. “Do you really think the risk is that great?”

“I do,” I said. “I would like nothing more than to live out the rest of my days here but I don’t think those days would be very numerous if we don’t move along. Let’s get everyone together so I can explain this once.”

By this time, Helvia had run back into the house and I noticed that she, Jahhaf, Mariam, and Werner were approaching quickly. I turned to greet them. Peaches and Herb were right. Being reunited felt so, so good.

“You three are nothing but skin and bones,” Jahhaf said, uncharacteristically forcefully. “Did you not get enough to eat?”

“We have been dreaming of your cooking since the day we left,” Bowen said.

“Where are Xeng and Mero?” I asked.

“Up in the hills with the herd,” Marriam replied.

“Can someone please go get them while we get cleaned up?” I asked.

“I’ll go,” Patrick said, immediately heading off. “They are not far.”

Aleyda, Bowen and I went into the house and took turns bathing while we waited. I had left several sets of clothing in my room and luxuriated in the feeling of being clean. The clothes were a bit looser than when I had left but they still fit well enough. I plopped down on my bed, feeling that comfort for the first time in months. I didn’t mean to, but I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, someone was pounding on the door to my room.

I got up and joined everyone else back near the fireplace. Then, I spoke.

“I want to get the bad news out of the way first,” I said. “We are going to have to give up all the effort we have invested in this place and move on. Because of some things I had to do on the island, there will be some fairly serious repercussions if we dawdle too long.” I had brought out a sack of gold with me and I upended it on the floor, spilling its contents out for all to see. Even that sight didn’t completely quell the mutters of discontent I heard growing around me.

“We have a lot of good news as well,” I continued. “We are rich again. This is not the only sack of gold. There are several more. I have chartered us a ship to take us somewhere there is no slavery, although we need to talk to determine where that place will be. Due to our efforts on the island, we got more than twenty of our people to safety from slavery. Their lives will be hard, but at least they will be in control of their own destinies.”

“Why do we have to leave?” Marriam asked.

So I told them the story of our expedition. I didn’t hold anything back. I let them know why we did the things we did and the probable consequences if we did not depart soon. As I talked, the fervor of their dissent died little by little. Although nobody seemed overly pleased about hitting the road again, everyone seemed to understand.

“But what about our friends here?” Marriam asked.

“Oh, I was hoping I could convince them to come along with us,” I said. “I’ll try to do that tomorrow while we get packed up.”

“Can we take Kadar?’ Mero asked.

“Who is Kadar?” I replied.

“Kadar is my dog,” he said.

“Yes, we can take Kadar, but you will have to clean up after him on the ship.” That seemed to put him more at ease. “You’ll have to train him to pee on a tarp or something. When you pack up, make certain that you take things that are easy to carry. The ship is not huge so its not like we can take all our furniture, or Werner’s experiments.”

“But I was just making progress,” Werner protested.

“Oh, I have some big plans for you.” I replied.

“That sounds ominous,” he said.

“This gold isn’t going to last forever,” I said. “We will have to find a way to make a living. And I think that way will be marketing your inventions.”

“Oh, well that’s alright then,” he answered.

“What are we going to do with this place?” Patrick asked.

“We’ll give it to someone. Goulug’s family springs to mind if I can’t convince them to join us, but if not them someone else from town. It will be of no use to us.”

“Dinner is almost ready,” Jahhaf said.

“I’ve been looking forward to this meal for so long,” I replied with a smile. “Oh, and one other thing I should mention. Aleyda and I are a couple now.”

The only response to that declaration I received was a round of raucous laughter. Finally, Helvia caught her breath enough to speak.

“James,” she said. “You can be such an idiot. Did she have to beat you over the head to get you to see the light?”

I smiled at her. I didn’t feel like I had any room to disagree.