Healing mishap -6-
ByLanzaq
Verris stood back up a scowl on his face. "Well, this is a fine mess I am in. My wonderful teacher is actually a MAN, I have one of the worst clerics in history dealing with our wounded and afflicted. Our sleeping swordswoman over there is staying true to her name and STILL SLEEPING, and probably the most light hearted, and laugh-happy archer I have ever seen. Aren't archers supposed to be super disciplined and all Steal from the rich and give to the poor types? To me you look like the person that would be willing to beat up an old lady if you learned she had more than ten gold on her." Verris screamed.

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Kate looked stunned as the magic rebounded off Ash's Armour and the shards of mirror strewn around her. "Duck!" She screamed dropping to her knees. Cael and Verris both followed suit and got down with her. The Blue bolt of magic whistled over head as it sped by.

"Arric! Duck!" Cael cried out.

Arric was too busy watching the over grown salamander lick its lips to be ready to turn around or even break his gaze with it. Suddenly Drea let out a small roar and moved away from Arric. "Ha! I knew it! I am so awesome, I intimidated a Dragon!" He said just as the blue bolt nailed him in the back of the head.

"Arric!" Cael screamed getting up off the ground and running over to the grounded Arric. When he got there he stopped and looked at the old man and asked the same question he had heard not that long ago." Uh...Arric, are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, Fine. Why?" Arric asked rubbing the back of his head. "That really hurt Kate."

Cael ran over to the still sleeping Ash and brought back one of the mirror shards. He handed it to Arric. He used the mirror to make a quick inspection stopping at this hair. Before it would have been described as pepper and salt now it was just pepper, actually more of a raven colour.

At seeing this Arric just laughed. "You get feminized, I get a new hair colour. Kate. Have I ever said I love your skills?" He said running a hand through his now coloured and generally healthier hair. "I actually think that made me a few years younger. Hey Kate care to launch maybe two more of those my way?"

Kate just smiled, kicked at a clump of dirt sending a little cloud of black dust up and nodded. "Sure."

"I was joking, but good to know that you would be willing to do so." Arric said looking over at the still cowering Verris. "Boy, are you getting up any time soon?"

Verris stood back up a scowl on his face. "Well, this is a fine mess I am in. My wonderful teacher is actually a MAN, I have one of the worst clerics in history dealing with our wounded and afflicted. Our sleeping swordswoman over there is staying true to her name and STILL SLEEPING, and probably the most light hearted, and laugh-happy archer I have ever seen. Aren't archers supposed to be super disciplined and all Steal from the rich and give to the poor types? To me you look like the person that would be willing to beat up an old lady if you learned she had more than ten gold on her." Verris screamed.

Taf suddenly poked his head up and looked between Arric, Kate, Cael, Verris and Drea who was peering at the group from a dark opening nearby. "Y'All are crazies. Plum crazies. " He grumbled continuing on to mention the most danger-seeking and least intelligent set of crawlers he had ever seen.
"Y'all heard of caution? Or didya run into a nice thick wind to throw it into?"

"I will have you know, I didn't not throw my caution into the wind. It was blown away." Arric said picking up his bow and slinging it back over his shoulder. "Well anyway. Lets find a way out of here."

Suddenly a rope dropped down from the opening and a man shouted down. "Are you all 'Okay'?" The man said. "We heard the dragon roaring and magic being used. "Is Drea okay? Are you all okay?"

At hearing the voice Ash woke up and yawned she looked down at the shattered mirror and looks sad. "My grandmother's."

Kate suddenly smiled. "I was using tele sight when I saw Cael drop it. So..." She held out an almost perfect copy of the mirror, except the minor details were mirrored.

"You all can climb right?" The voice yelled down again. "If anyone can't I will come down and help you get them up."

"No we all can get up." Cael yelled in reply. "Come on guys. We can get out of here." He told the rest of the group. The smell of food wafted down the hole and the group realized, none of them have eaten in over fifteen hours. Hunger drove them quickly up the rope.

Taf Yelled up to them. "Becareful Y'all, not everyone up there is as trustworthy as you would like to think.
They all acknowledged this bit of information and still continued undaunted. However they werent' expecting what was at the top of the well opening. Four men stood poised to attack. The leader was a tousled blond haired man, he was wearing a pure white silk shirt, and white dyed cotton pants. A devilish grin stretched across his bottom half of his face, a white mask hid the other. "I am the White-Highway man. Your money, potions, or clothes. NOW." He demanded. He looked over at Cael, Ash, and Kate. "Except the ladies, I am a noble robber, not a heathen theif."

Arric just sat stunned. "I am broke. My potions were dropped long ago, and sir. You don't want these rags for clothes." He said before his face turned hostile. "Now get away from me scum."

Verris just paled. "We are nothing but broke dungeon crawlers, we have used our potions surviving an onslaught of Mutant goblins please. Let us live, we umm could maybe work for you for awhile.

"Excellent." He said removing his mask revealing a burn-scarred left eye and a missing ear both covered by some of the longer bits of his long hair. Caels stomach growled and gave the man an idea. He grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at the five. "When the townspeople ask, you are starving travelers that I saved."

The five walked slowly as the three still masked bandits followed closely behind them, their daggers still out eyeing their backpacks. "I get the Elf girl's pack, I think she is about the size of my daughter." The middle man of the three said looking at Cael's heavy backpack.

"If thats the case I get to go through the Archer's Backpack. I don't think he is as broke as he lets on. You know how Archers are. They are tighter fisted than your aunt, and she made sure to give the inheritance you would have gotten when she died to herself." the smallest of the robbers said. Looking up at Arrics drooping, almost empty pack.

The tallest of the three stood behind Verris. "that leaves me with either the Healer, which would probably have nothing but herbs and bandages, the swords woman who would have maybe blade sharpening equipment meant for travel meaning junk, or the dress wearing man. Ah the true cream of the crop right there. I love getting last pick."

"Gentlemen. We don't discuss such uncouth things in front of my now cordially invited guests." The leader said brushing more hair over his damaged eye and ear.

The robbers stayed quiet after that. Before they reached the village however the robbers hid their daggers and masks in a heavy clump of bushes. Underneath they looked just like any average and ordinary villager.

As they walked into the village a hobbled and almost blind old lady walked out to greet the leader of the bandits. "Ah Raleigh, Its good to see you getting out and still helping, I was sad when I heard about your house fire earlier this year."

"I know Mrs.Morrew. I was devastated, the fire even spread to the garden." He said nervously smoothing the longer hair over his eye as if he were trying to hide it. "If those lovely gentlemen from the church hadn't had the guts to drag me out I would have perished like my mother and father."

"Such fine people, unfortunate enough to get caught in an arson attempt to murder the entire family and steal their fortune." The old woman said whispereing into Cael's ear. "You be extra careful little lady, he has a nice face besides the burns but I hear he likes the young ones the most." She also added before hobbling back into her house cackling.

Arric, glaring at the back of the man's head spat into the dusty street. "I bet the blond brat set the fire himself and accidentally burned himself. I can't stand the idea of someone stealing or murdering for personal gain."

"Coming from the man willing to trek into a mountain pass for a man's head in exchange for gold sounds a tad hypocritcal. " Verris said with a shrug.

"Thats different, You don't understand what sort of a psychopath that cleric was. If given the chance Cael would be dead and most of the goblins you met back in that pass that at least looked like normal goblins would have been gone." Arric said. "Lanzer is a threat, and if is still out looking for the other High-Church Artifacts, supposedly if he can get the other seven then he is 'assured victory over the lesser races.'"

"Lanzer. Sounds familiar." Raleigh said to the group, still leading the way through the Village waving at people as he went. "He was a cleric you said?"

"Shut up robber." Arric said. "I don't think you should be eavesdropping on our conversation."

Raleigh just smiled. "You fool, when we get out of the public eye I could easily kill you, you know that right?"

"Yes, go for it, be as cold hearted and mean as the damn bandits that killed my wife and son so long ago." Arric said spitting at Raleigh's feet. "Make this old man glad to finally be moving on."

Raleigh spun around fast on his heels landing a heavy backslap across Arrics face, his calm and cool demeanor gone and replaced with a red face of pure rage. "Never...Say...you...are...willing...to...die." Raleigh said between heavy breaths. "Cowards get killed. True men are murdered on the battlefield."

"I wouldn't be killed, I would be murdered by a man no better than those that murdered my wife." Arric said rubbing his cheek with one hand and grabbing Raleigh by the collar. He drew the hand away from his cheek into a fist and draw back, suddenly the men 'guarding' them had daggers pointed at Arric.

"Raleigh is a kind and gentle man. Don't hate him for what a group of uncultured heathens did ten or twenty years ago." One of the robbers said "Besides it sounds to me like those men are long gone."

At this Arric laughed, not his usual light and warm laugh, this was a cold, cruel laugh. "You are right. They weren't alive as soon as I got a hold of names." Arric said, the memory coming into focus in his mind.

A Twenty some odd year old Arric, just home from work out in the forest with his best friend. His wife laying on the floor of the kitchen tears still on her face. Their son, laying face down in her arms. Both dead not more than twenty minutes. A trek to the bar proved to be useful as he got the names of two men, Horrer, and Maleyce. The two were held up out in the forest nearby, A shack was what their hide-out actually was. The two men were sitting on moldy old apple crates. They were talking about how they got a grand total of crap from their last robbery. Arric spotted one of their bows sitting against the wall outside. He quickly picked it up and snagged the only arrows left by the bow. Three. The vivid red feathers still fresh in his mind.

Arric remembers the exact curve and roughness of the bow, he could feel the malignant spirit that had grown in the bow itself. He shuddered remembering it. He knotched the first arrow and pointed it through a small slot in the wall of the shack meant for the bandits to be able to shoot out of, Arric was using their offensive against them. He let the first arrow fly it flew and directly hit the bandit later identified as Horrer right between the eyes killing him mid-sentence. Maleyce, the dimmer one of the two had his back turned at the time, upon hearing Horrer stop mid-sentence he turned around to see his 'buddy' sitting dead on the crate and slumped onto the table. Maleyce's world went black at that instant.

The next thing Arric remembers is being pulled off one of the two's body, he had a knife in hand and had brutally rendered one of them post-humorously neuter outside their hideout, He remembers a voice, indistinct. Time had worn away the gender. Telling him to stop, it was no longer honouring his wife if he continued. He also remembered breaking into Laughter, and tears at the same time. The mid-afternoon sun that had graced his trip out there had long seceded into a new moon, both men had chunks of skin carved out of their arms, legs and chests.

He left not a few hours after that, no longer able to stand living in a place that the murder of his dearly beloved could go completely unnoticed, he vowed to never get attached to anyone else.

However that quickly changed. After several years of wandering Arric was setting up for the night in a forest. He heard crying, not loud or terrified crying, just the sound of a lost child crying out for someone. He quickly, although at the time it felt terrifyingly slow, he got up off the log near his fire and pushed his way though a bush to see a young elf boy, not much older than six or seven crouched low, a leahter bound book, laying crumpled, dirty and almost ripped to pieces at his side on the ground, in his hand he held a small child's staff over his head in fear. His clear blue eyes looked up at Arric and he smiled.

That was when Arric decided that a Life away from anyone else wasn't possible anymore.

"Touching." Was Raleigh's only comment. "I liked the part where you stopped talking."

"Well, What do you know, spill the reason you hate all criminals and the criminal hates you for it." Arric said spitting at his feet again. "So, now. Tell your little friends to put away their pocket knives away before I decide to -"

"What?" Raleigh interrupted. "What are you going to do, in the middle of MY village's crowded street." He whispered into his ear and putting his arms out gesturing to the shocked people looking at them through windows and door cracks. "You would kill me? The Raleigh of Ura, the hero of the people. I not only rescue lost adventurers from death, I am still holding on to the highest donation to the local church."

"Bastard." Arric muttered under his breath.

"No my good sir. I knew my father, quite well actually." Raleigh said. "Now before you do anything rash, put me down, and we can discuss things further at my home. I did say you are all guests." He glanced back at Cael. "I do love having guests."

Verris bowed low, still pale from earlier. "W-we would be more than happy to spend the night at your most likely lovely estate." He mumbled out quickly.

"I would hate to think my...guests....weren't properly entertained while staying with me." Raleigh said shooing away his posse. "Gentlemen and ladies. Now we will peacefully resume our walk to my house and you will tell me why you were down in my private chamber of Dagger blade pass, messing with MY dragon."

Kate suddenly spoke up. "He isn't YOUR dragon. Drea is a free spirit to go where ever he pleases, he has seen more sun rises and more sunsets than you will ever hope to even get close to, he has seen his great great great great...."She paused to breath before continuing. "great grandchildren give birth to his..."

"Enough. Boys. I know what I said about proper treatment of the ladies. However if she speaks up again." He laughed. "Gag her."

Kate huffed angrily and stomped her foot on the ground. "I am versed in magics you wouldn't understand." She said "I have lived longer than you, and like Drea, I have taken the time to watch the sunrise and sunset. You are happily blazing through life not willing to stop and notice the real good happening."

"Love the morals. Tell me more." Raleigh joked. "I love getting lectured by women who are older than me. I have been living on my own for ten years after the fire killed my parents and nearly killed me. I know what is going on. Nothing any of you say could change how I am. Deal with it."

Ash drew a single sword and pointed it at the still lifted up Raleigh. "Don't Mess with us." She said poking him with the very tip of her sword causing his exposed neck to bleed a pin-heads worth of blood.

"Great. Some what decently skilled Dungeon-Crawlers. I hadn't anticipated this." Raleigh said. "To tell you the truth, I intended to take you all to my home, and kill off You." He pointed down to Arric. "First, because one, you are a man and two, you are old. Then you." He said pointing at Verris. "Because you seem to lack talent, are a man and have no spine. Then you." He pointed to Ash. "Because you are a woman you get to wait until your male friends are gone, and yet the honors of being the first woman because you are carrying swords, and look somewhat dangerous, it seems that I should have actually put you second. Then her." He pointed at Kate. "She looked about as empty headed as the Church Coffers before I started donating, and finally, I would have kept her alive." He pointed to Cael.

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Well, I started this chapter out with a plan where I wanted it to go. Arric wasn't supposed to have such a depressing bit of back story, and Raleigh was DEFINITELY supposed to be different. I sort of let him go off in what ever direction my fingers typed for him.

Happy Reading
Lanzaq