Amborlaine

2. The World as it is-1

Chapter 2 The World as it isThere was nowhere to hide. Amborlaine heard the clash of steel, the screams of the dying and she was frozen by it. The sound of the battle was all around her. It made her eyes tear and her heart race. She desperately wanted the noises to stop.

She burrowed like a mouse in winter into a crevice between a box of goods and her belongings.

Amborlaine felt the stock of a crossbow jab her in her back. No, it wasn’t a crossbow, but her lightning gadget. Laine yanked it out of her bag, wrestling with everything that caught on its many edges.

She desperately tried to remember how to work the device. She overheard the battle outside calm down. There were unfamiliar voices, men, or monsters just outside the covered cart. Amborlaine would be discovered.

"Think girl, what would Pada do?"

On cue, she heard her father's voice. "Pull down the lever," Amborlaine did just that. "Flip the switch.” Laine's hands moved as if her father used them. The machine’s outer and inner circles began to whir, the charge building. "Point it, girl," again her father's voice, "Steady, not yet.” A black gauntlet reached into the cart, "Wait, girl, wait."

She met the creature's face, the face of a lizard. "Fire!" Amborlaine pulled the trigger. The bolts of electricity shot forth catching the creature in the head. One of the bolts passed through the monster's skull and caught another creature walking up from behind. Both of them were locked in the brace of the lighting, unable to move. The bolts stopped, and both creatures fell to the ground.

Amborlaine heard horses running away. In the rear of the wagon she froze, afraid to move, until the face of Grengrum peeked into the darkness.

"Are you all right?"

Laine had never been so happy to see the Dwarf’s face, "Yes, I think so."

"It's ok, they're gone. You can come out," Grengrum said.

Amborlaine was in shock. The attack devastated the caravan. Two of the carts were fully engulfed in flames. Another, so severely damaged it would not be serviceable. Three drovers and five guards lay dead. Two of the attackers, the two she had killed, lay beside the wagon. Amborlaine looked around at the c*****e and threw up.

Laine's face was numb. Grengrum sat her in the shade of a nearby tree, away from the bodies of the slain.

"Take this water, Laine. Sit here and rest."

Amborlaine took the water offered without knowing it. Her mind shut down. All she did is stare at the horizon. She still desperately clutched her device.

• • • •

Dak-Vara folded the paper, "My sources say it's going out on the next caravan."

Hijhin Blackscale did not look impressed, "We've heard these reports before and yet I still do not have one in my possession."

"Yes, your Lordship. It was in the town during Wonder Fest.” Dak-Vara pulled his robes tighter around him. The cave where Hijhin Blackscale lived, is always deathly cold. "If it's not on the caravan, it would stand to reason it is still in the town somewhere."

"We can't search thirty some leagues of buildings and we simply can't rip the Tinkers apart. Doing so would bring the entire Gnomish nations down on us." Hijhin began pacing the room, "There must be some way to track these things. Some way to sense where they are."

"If so… No one has spoken of it in a century or more." Dak-Vara had an idea who would know, "Perhaps Nazerryn would—"

Hijhin spun on his heel, his tail bashed over a small table, "Insanity! You can't walk up to Nazerryn and ask about the orbs."

"If there is a way, your Lordship, she would be most likely to know."

"No!" Hijhin smashed a scaly hand down on the stone table, "She cannot become aware we are searching for the orbs. None of them can know."

"Go back to your tower. Study the orb they have. Perhaps it can lead us to the others."

Dak-Vara worried the Highlord would come to such a decision. The mage knew to study the orb in the Tower would be risky.

The reigning Dewan of the Red Robes locked, warded, and guarded the orb. Rumors swirled it is guarded by a golem. How Dak-Vara would get in to study the orb was a problem for which he had no current solution.

Dak-Vara made his way out of the Highlord's cave and into the light of day. He never understood why the Dragonchild lived under the earth. The Red Robe wizard soaked in the light and the heat of the sun, shaking off the chill of the caves and of Highlord Hijhin Blackscale.

• • • •

The remaining drover, Grengrum, and Amborlaine sat in the shade of a Sockberry tree. Laine became quickly annoyed that the tree continued to shed the purple-black nuts on her.

"Now what?" Laine said as another nut smacked her in the back.

As leader of the caravan, it became Grengrum’s responsibility to make the decision. Turn back to Tinker Town or continue ahead? The city of Sunbarrow, still three days away.

"I suppose it would be best to turn back," Grengrum mused.

"The Halflings in Sunbarrow are expecting these supplies." Amborlaine sounded confident in her words, yet she was anything but that. She wanted nothing more right this moment than to head back to Tinker Town screaming all the way. However, her Pada always said, "If you take the job, you finish the job."

Grengrum was not sure what to do. This was his first time in charge of a caravan, and, so far, it amounted to death and destruction.

"We have two drivers and three carts. What do we do with that cart?" Grengrum pointed to the cart in which Amborlaine rode.

"I'll drive it," Laine said the words before her brain registered them. Her heart began pounding a resounding 'No!" through her veins. It sent a chill down her spine, or was that another Sockberry nut.

Grengrum looked up into the sky, "Have you ever driven in a caravan?"

"I can drive my Pada's wagon. It is no difference."

Grengrum made a sound like clearing his throat, "Yes, girl, it is a big difference. You have steered an empty wagon a mile on cobblestone streets. This is thirty leagues on wet, rutted roads."

The other drover stated flatly, "She can't do it. We should turn back."

Amborlaine wanted to give in, to tuck her tail between her legs like a poor beaten dog and go home. She would tell her Pada he was right. She could not handle the outside world.

Grengrum broke her thoughts, "What is that you used? Lightning comes out of the damn thing."

Laine forgot she still clutched her invention. She gripped it so tight her knuckles turned white.

"This? Oh, this… This is my…" Laine realized she never thought to give the device a name. She rummaged through her brain for something appropriate, something clever. Then it hit her like a Sockberry nut, "Valiinore is what I call it!" In the Gnomish language, it means 'Good Fortune.'

Grengrum nodded, "I have to agree."

Laine asked, "Those lizard-beast-things that attacked us. What are they?"

Grengrum was gauging how much daylight the day had left, "Dragonchildren."

"Dragons?"

"No, Laine, not exactly." Grengrum sat back against the tree, "They are called Dragonchildren, but they aren't dragons. At least not, like what you are thinking. I don't know much about them. I do remember that wizard that came to Tinker Town last summer. Oh, what was his name? Anyway, he talked about them. Said they were from another world, or planet, or something like that."

The caravan master stood and walked towards what was remaining of his convoy. "I think we’ll go back. Yes, that is my decision. We will go back to Tinker Town."

Amborlaine stood and stomped her foot, "No." She wasn't sure from where such bravery stemmed. It had bubbled up from somewhere, "The Halflings are counting on us. If we turn back, they will be without these supplies for at least… What… Two more moons." Her knees became weak, she wanted to shout "Never mind, I agree let’s go back." Yet when she opened her mouth, out came "I'm going on, with, or without you."

Grengrum did not know what to do. If he let Amborlaine go on east without him, her father, a man who had never harmed a sprite, would kill him on the spot. However, if he went with her, there could be more attacks. But going east he might live longer than if, he went back to Tinker Town without Amborlaine.

"Ok," Grengrum said, "We will keep going east."

The three of them unloaded all non-essentials from the wagons and left them on the side of the road. It would make steering the wagons easier and they could travel faster with less fatigue on the mules.

• • • •

"We… a… The caravan…" The Dragonchild was afraid to give his report.

Dak-Vara took a step closer; reaching out the mage gripped the servant tightly. The wizard stared deep into the Dragonchild's eyes. "I will ask you again. Was the orb on the caravan?" Dak-Vara tightened his iron grip, the magic giving him a strength beyond his size. Blood began to seep from the Dragonchild’s arm.

"I… Err… No… NO!"

The mage released his grip. "Then the caravan is destroyed. Everyone dead, no trace you were ever there."

The Dragonchild’s arm was bleeding and broken. His only course of action was to lie to save his life. "Yes, everyone is dead."

• • • •

The next three days, for Amborlaine, became a dizzying, exhausting, bombardment of mud, smelly mules, back-breaking rutted roads and the constant fear of being attacked.

The day before their scheduled arrival in Sunbarrow, Laine and the caravan had another encounter. This time it was not an attack, but the aftermath of one. A small village, possibly too small to even be on any map, had been destroyed. From a distance, all she saw was what she believed to be a church, burned out and leaning impossibly to one side. Structurally the bell in the steeple would fall with any given breeze.

Then Laine's wagon traveled close enough to the village to smell the devastation. The wretched smell of death, blood and burned bodies. Her eyes watered at the smell, she pulled her cloak over her nose in a futile attempt to block the odor. She thought she would either vomit or faint. Her tear-stained eyes, then glimpsed the remains of the inhabitants of the village. That was something her stomach could not tolerate. Laine spewed vomit all over the front of the wagon, the reins and on the back of the mules.

Grengrum set a whip to his mules to get out of the burned-out village faster. Laine wanted to do the same, but could not find the small whip amidst the breakfast she had just expelled.

The rest of the trip Laine did not eat and drank little. In only four days, she had seen more death and violence than she had ever imagined was possible. Back when she begged and pleaded to her Pada to go on this journey, "These are the Eastern Realms, nothing bad ever happens here." She wished now that she had been right.

It took a whole extra day for Grengrum's convoy to reach Sunbarrow. The Halflings were overjoyed to see the caravans. Amborlaine was relieved to be in the Halfling village—in a 'civilized' place.

Amborlaine thought civilized might not be the right term for a Halfling village. The little people were very civilized in manners and spirit to her and her friends. However, the overall 'look' of the Halfling village was not.

As a matter of fact, the village wasn't visible when they arrived. Grengrum yelled, "We're here!" Laine looked around and saw a hay-barn type structure, probably for horses and such. A crude small log cabin, some vegetable gardens, and several fields of crops.

"We are where?" Laine asked.

Grengrum shot Laine a confused look. "Sunbarrow."

"There's nothing here."

You could see the realization hit Grengrum like a board to his face, "Right. You've never seen a Halfling village."

Laine chuckled, "I still haven't."

Grengrum went on to explain. Halflings do not build a village like any other race. Their community is under our feet, in burrows. Dwarves are believed to be the underground race, and it is true, they live under the mountains. But Dwarves do not dig their communities. They create cities in caverns. Halflings are the true tunnel makers. They dig their communities under the ground, much like gophers.