This story is split between episodes being posted on the second Monday of every month. You can find the first episode here.
Of Dice and Glen Episode 2: Why is a Raven like a Writing Desk?
Shaddar, wishing he could understand the conversation between the raven and the tiefling, was suddenly more interested.
“Where?” he asked.
Flinging the raven off her arm with a graceful motion, Luna gestured for the dragonborn to follow and plunged off into the forest.
“Hold up!” Shaddar said, charging after her. “Do you actually know where you’re going?”
“What do you think?” came the cheerful calling answer. Then, suddenly, the mud-smeared, grinning face of the tiefling popped back out from the underbrush. “Oh, and my name is Luna, friend dragonborn. What are you called? Golden Lightning? You’re pretty fast with that bow of yours.”
Pulling back an arm in imitation of his attack, she made the characteristic whooshing sound of an arrow in flight.
Shaddar pulled up short, nearly crashing into her.
“My name is Shaddar,” he said with a slight, but formal, bow. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Luna.”
“Is it?” she blinked. “So, no more mouth incineration?” Bouncing on the spot she grinned up at him. “Wow, you’re tall! Can I climb you?”
Shaddar’s golden eyes narrowed. “No. Where did that bird say the goblin went?”
Pouting in disappointment, the tiefling nodded her disheveled head in the direction she had been travelling.
“That way,” she said, moving to pick up the trail again, much slower this time.
Lead by Luna, they wound their way through the forest for several hours. As they walked, the rain slowly receded until it petered out, leaving the sky a gloomy grey. At last, they reached a tall oak tree that the raven had said the evil goblin had been heading for. But there was no goblin in sight.
Though much smaller than the powerfully built dragonborn, the tiefling was able to keep pace with him well. She didn't know he was small for his kind; to her he appeared a giant. As they walked, she continued to keep tabs on his movements and on all the escape routes around her, all the while laughing and joking.
“We’ll be on even footing from here,” she said, her customary childish grin slipping slightly to reveal the nerves she felt at reaching the end of her comfortable home territory.
Climbing the small rise to the base of tree, Luna sniffed around it with interest. Then she disappeared around the wide trunk and the unmistakable sound of a thin stream of water hitting bark could be heard.
“Nothing interesting about this tree,” she said, matter-of-factly. “Maybe Writing Desk was confused.”
“What do you mean, even footing?” Shaddar asked, running his practiced eye around the area.
He noticed the now familiar slash-marks on a number of surrounding trees, made for no purpose other than venting rage. The goblins had been leaving this sort of mess all over the place, although he hadn't seen them during the latest leg of their trip. Apparently this goblin had been covering his tracks and finally decided he was safe enough to stop. A little ways away, there was also a footprint in the mud.
Shaddar was suddenly grateful for the odd tiefling and her avian friend - they’d probably saved hours by coming straight here rather than trying to track a covered trail.
Luna reappeared around the other side of the trunk, looking relieved and happy. She hopped to a point just beyond a protruding root of the tree she had so ill-used a moment before.
“This is my forest,” she pronounced with quiet confidence. “This,” she hopped backwards, “isn't. Mine. Not mine. Mine. Not mine.”
Growing bored of her latest game, the small, horned head fell to the forest floor, nose going frantically, as though she would suck information from the air through sheer force of will.
“Stinking goblins,” she muttered, sitting back on her haunches, like a dog. Her bright face fell as she glanced over the footprint without seeing it and settled on the slashed trees. “They’ll pay for what they did to my friends. Yes, they will pay.”
There was a dark promise in the words, spoken by such a comparatively innocent voice.
“They will,” Shaddar agreed. “Come along, small friend, it seems it is my turn to lead the way. He went south-east.”
At the word “friend” the seated tiefling cocked her head curiously to one side, but remained silent, for once.
“How fast can you run?”
There was devilish glint in her black eyes.
“I can’t track while running,” Shaddar said, shaking his scaly head.
“Ferret farts,” she said, dejectedly. “Oh well. Slow then. Slow is boring but it’ll get us there in the end.”
Rising, she lashed her tail once to rid it of stray leaves and nodded mutely to indicate he should lead on.
Shaddar led the way, following clear markers of the goblin’s passage. There were many more slashed trees, occasional footprints and, once, an unfortunate pile of toxic droppings the goblin had left behind. The green-brown pile reeked and had the odd half-digested bone poking out.
Stumbling upon the horrible pile unawares, Luna leapt back with a screech of disgust and began wiping her feet on the damp grass forcefully, her tail pointing directly out from her body, rigid and shivering.
“...I'm going to be sick.”
“Decent creatures bury their mess,” Shaddar said, by way of agreement. He moved as close as he dared, holding his breath. When he returned to Luna’s side he had a report to share.
“Still green. He headed east two hours ago.”
“It’s also stupid not to bury it,” she added, watching him investigate with no small measure of pity on her dirty face. “A deaf and blind kobold could track the walking pustule who made that.”
Nodding briskly, she turned in the direction he indicated.
“Malar’s claws, I wish there was a way to speed this up. I want to kill them!” She glanced back at him with wide, pleading eyes and a petulantly pouting expression.
“All in due time,” Shaddar said, continuing their journey.
They had not gone very far when Luna’s voice from a tree up ahead said, “I want to kill them.”
Another nearby tree replied in Shaddar’s voice. “All in due time.”
“I know you think me a foolish and helpless monkey,” the tiefling said, sounding hurt as she turned to her companion. “There’s no need to mock my words.”
“That wasn't me,” Shaddar said slowly, coming to a stop and drawing his two short swords.
Discover what happens next in Episode 3: Mimicked Messages
If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.
Too long between installments!!!
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