Ranger of Path

26. One Good Eye

Intentions matter only so long as they are known

But results do not care if they are understood

By pen, mouth, or sword stroke, actions echo forever

—Goldstone Tenthorduke

Morning dew wets Ishkur's shoes as he cuts across fields to Elder Ibbit's estate. He clears his throat, approaching a bustle outside the large home.

Young women are hitching a train of empty wagons under Ibbit's and Hoyne's supervision. Must be every horse this place has.

Ishkur nods to the raven-haired Cevee. She fumbles with a strap, and her peers giggle. Most were at his house last night, but of them, only she stayed until dawn.

"Greetings, gentlemen." Ishkur stands before the old men and salutes.

Ibbit leans on his cane to allow a deep bow. Hoyne grunts acknowledgment and moves to berate loitering young ladies talking behind their hands.

Better cash in this goodwill while it's fresh.

"Going to pack up more from Hognut Hamlet?" Ishkur motions down the road. "Any more families?"

"All that's left." Ibbit rubs his milky eye. "And all from Dulhatchet next." He coughs and grins. "A village at last. I can die content."

"No hard feelings about renaming Bunnifarm to Waygreen?" Ishkur calms a restless horse with a scratch under its chin.

The elder wipes his mouth with a pink handkerchief and nods. "Of course, it was always pretentious for my hamlet to be my family's name. So, thank you, Mr Ishtaran. You've saved us from monsters and... attrition."

"I've drawn up plans for a watch tower and palisade." Ishkur hands him paper.

Ibbit holds it up to his good eye, nodding as he turns the parchment around.

Ishkur says, "We should make sure everyone knows where to run, when overwhelming danger comes."

"Hill or tavern?" Ibbit pockets the plans.

"No. You don't want to be trapped." He points northwest. "Retreat on the old path to the druid's sanctuary." Former sanctuary. "If needed, that path was a trade route. Follow it straight to a town called Lotus Hollow, and ask for Apple Morehunt at the aviary. Tell him, I sanctioned settling your people there."

Ibbit dips his head. "Thank you." He shakes the paper. "What about something signed and sealed as proof of your word?"

"This is only if you must run, but there's a letter to my father I can include... once I finish it." Ishkur pats the shorter man's shoulder. "Don't worry. They'll be happy to have folk who are used to building on the ruins of titans." He pokes and pinches with a flourish. "Have Whisana show you the way, and trust the brownie tribe to dissuade pursuit."

"As you say, Protector."

Ishkur steps closer. "Also, I need advice about something. May we whisper in a quiet place?"

Ibbit waves to Hoyne and then leads to a backyard where a table and chairs are sprinkled with white fruit tree petals. "What troubles you?"

Ishkur rubs his ear. Context. "The brownie queen cast to make me fertile for her." Not my fault. "Enhanced my elven half so our auras could mingle and have saplings as vessels to relieve the reincarnation que of her tribe." Best intentions.

Ibbit sits and leans his cane against the table. "The fae life is mystery to me, but I sympathize with being used by a woman."

Ishkur paces. "What I didn't fully... grasp, was how it affected my human half." Especially after a valkyrie bath. He motions around his groin. "I'm not used to much activity down here. Not, as I understand, by the standards of full human men."