Of Heroes and Magic Mishaps

Chapter 25

Llar'Ma let himself drift to the back of the group as villagers came flooding up the path. He wanted to observe. Wanted to see how Renwend reacted to being thrust into a savior role again after so many years.

A woman--far from young, but younger than all of then--reached them first. She shoved her hand in Anwendar's face, offering help where none was needed. Or wanted, judging by the way Anwendar ignored the proffered limb in favor of stating the obvious.

The woman let her hand drop, and, instead, fixed Anwendar with a calculating stare. Well, the back of his head anyway. "Four?" she asked, equal amounts of wonder and doubt coloring her voice.

Out of the corner of his life, Llar'Ma noticed Renwend stiffen at the word. Not good.

"Don't be silly, Nees. He's far too young." A second, younger, woman had caught up with them.

Llar'Ma coughed. He cast a furtive glance at Renwend. Too young? Renwend could probably pass for late twenties if he tried. The man hadn't physically aged in so long, Llar'Ma would accuse him of being far older than the two centuries, he admitted to, were Heroes not so well documented.

"Sorry to disappoint, " Anwendar said, sounding anything but. Then, apparently having languished long enough, he pressed his palms to the ground and pushed himself into a wavering stand. "I'm just a fool, who doesn't know when to quit." He wiped his hand down his side in a woefully inadequate attempt to get rid of the dirt, clinging to it, before offering the limb to the woman. "Anwendar."

At his declaration, Nees face fell, but only for a moment before concern took over. "I'm Nees." She shook Anwendar's hand. "You should come into town with us and let the healers check you out."

xXx

Anwendar rubbed his thumb across a particularly stubborn spot of dirt just above his knee that insisted on smudging rather than coming off. Irritating. He tried scraping for a change, which did no good either.

"Are you sure, you wouldn't rather see our healer first?" Nees asked.

After Renwend had declined her first offer of that nature, she'd reluctantly agreed to take them on a short of Rim, as the village was called, before introducing them to what passed for a mayor here. Though why they had one at all was beyond Anwendar. Most villages this small had a leader at best.

"It really isn't necessary. None of us were injured." Renwend answered her with patience only obtainable by age when Anwendar himself felt a growing urge to take those words and stuff them down her throat. They'd barely passed the first few buildings and she'd asked them at least half a dozen times. Maybe in Rim "no" meant "keep pestering me"...

The streets--compacted dirt with the occasional gravel border--were wide enough to allow three to five carriages abreast. Good in a major trade junction and a waste of space anywhere else. Then again, with no other signs of civilization nearby, Rim had plenty of space to spare, and, should it ever grow to town or even city status, additional buildings could easily fit into the gaps between the existing ones.

"...only link to the rest of the world."

Anwendar flinched. He'd been so focused on criticising Rim's layout he'd completely blocked out everything else, and... A furtive glance over his shoulder told him that, while he'd somehow managed to keep up with the group, he'd drifted to the back.

"There's not much else to see. Just the Left." Nees gestured to the right where the villagers had erected a barrier of thick logs tied together. "Assuming, of course, you like to look at the husks of peoples' homes."

"The Left?" Renwend asked before Anwendar could process her words.

Nees gave them a loose shrug--more a sign of weariness than of a lack of care. Her mouthcover billowed out, temporarily failing to serve its purpose, as she let out a breath. "No one likes to think of it much," she said. "A couple days ago, a candle got out of hand. Burnt out--out mind you, not down--almost a dozen buildings." She hesitated, looked around, then continued barely above a whisper. "Bit of a stroke of luck, if you ask me. Otherwise that weird fie might have hurt someone before the weird water drove it off."