Returning "home"

We are in Hommlet. We have forwarded our report via courier (placed in a magical pouch that only Prince Thrommel himself can open--magic: doing what technology won't). We have reports of snows in Furyondy and north of Verbobonc. Traveling in snow on horse is bad, worse on foot. Our best bet right now is to wait. It's fall and these are pretty early snows. With luck, it will clear before winter approaches.

We are staying at the Inn of the Welcome Wench. It brings back memories. It was a little over two years ago or so that I first found myself outside of Hommlet. That's when I came across Saul and later Marc. I met the girls here in this Inn. Everything kinda snowballed since then.

I can see the weary in my friends' faces. I had been through what they went through, during my capture at the elemental temple. I would not have wished it upon anyone, and yet it happened anyway. The weary in their faces saddens me, but I also see hope. They have hope that they will succeed.

Hope was hard to come by back home. We saw the world as gray. Right and wrong depended on the point of view. No one really believed in good and evil anymore. They were antiquated. I don't know, maybe it's just where I lived. Maybe it was just me.

Coming here changed me. People believe in good and evil. Good and evil are absolute. Some are good and some are evil, and the good must do their part to stop the evil. We did this a year ago, at the elemental temple.

We went by there on our way to Hommlet. I insisted.

At first we thought we were lost. The forest looked well grown and healthy, not like the gnarled trees and dead shrubbery we encountered before. We had to push our way through the overgrowth. The sun shone through the foliage, showing unearthly yet lovely shadows. It was all so beautiful I had to believe we were too far north.

Up ahead I saw a clearing filled with flowers. I stepped into it, and there it was. The surrounding wall had collapsed in places. Vines, living vines, grew all along its length. The temple itself was deep underground, of course, having collapsed when the Golden Orb of Death was destroyed. Where it once stood was a large mound of earth. Wild grass and flowers covered every inch of that hill.

A year ago nothing natural lived here. Now everything lived.

"Oh my," Audry said softly.

All I could do was smile. Good and evil are real here. Evil held sway over this land, and it's warped magic kept anything natural from growing. Now it was gone and the land was restored. You can see that the evil is gone.

I sometimes miss mp3s, the internet, TV, and a host of other things. But I never want to return.

We entered Hommlet the next day (a few days ago). The people remembered us well. They cheered at our presence. I must have shook hands with everyone in town. Ostler the Innkeeper insisted we stay in the Inn for free and we insisted we pay. We settled on half for the rooms. The mayor wanted to throw a celebration for the heroes of the temple.

I didn't have the heart to tell them about Byrne and Rufus.

Yeah, I have to finish that tale, don't I?

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We stood on the walkway. One end led to some pits, the other back to the room where we fought the ferrets and what I think was a slave lord. Unfortunately, we couldn't go either way now. Those bug men were crowding either end of the bridge.

"Great," Saul said. "You know, tactically, this is probably the worst situation you can be in."

I thought of Indiana Jones and how he would just slice the rope bridge (after uttering one of my favorite four lettered words). But there was no rope holding up the walkway. All we had were a couple of bug men coming at us. That left us no options but to fight.

Then let's get to it, Kantos said in my mind. Yeah, as a famous fictional sword said in a video game, swords are pretty one dimensional in what they want.

The creature lunged at me, trying to knock me off the walkway. I never was much good with a shield, so I didn't have one. That was okay. I didn't need one.

The thing was a good foot taller than me. I waited for it to get close before dropping low. By the time it saw what I planned it couldn't possibly stop. The shield sailed over me. I rose quickly, driving my sword into its belly. Kantos pierced the things hard exoskeleton like an egg shell. It made no noise as rocked the creature to one side. It slid off my blade and fell off the edge of the walkway.

I turned behind me, just in time to see Saul push the creature toward the edge of one of the slave pits. It fell with a loud crunch. That's the problem with having your skeleton on the outside.

Only then did I notice the crossbow bolts. One bounced off the walkway inches from my feet. Audry had two embedded in her shield. Saul scrambled over to the walk way and hung off the edge. Audrey tried to protect Marc with her shield as he spoke arcane words. Anna crouched behind Marc. She took a shot at one and managed to staple its leg to the ceiling. It made no sound regardless of the wound.

Finally, Marc's spell finished. The ball of fire materialized and flew toward the ceiling. The creatures had no time to react. The fireball burst. Fire spread across the ceiling, engulfing the three creatures that hung there. The wave of heat rushed over us, and then the fire was gone. Two of them fell to the ground while the third hung from the ceiling, its leg still impaled by Anna's arrow. After a few seconds, the arrow worked itself loose. The creature fell into one of the pits.

Saul pulled himself up. "We better hurry in case more of those bugs show up."

"Aspis, I believe," Marc said.

"Whatever they are," Audrey said, "I'm sure more will be coming."

Anna had already crossed the walkway. I joined her, staring at the floor. The floor on the other side wasn't really a floor. It was a series of trap doors leading to smaller pits. Every trap door was open. The pit closest to us held the squirming body of an aspis. It tried to stand, but its legs were broken. Nonetheless, it kept trying. It was as if pain didn't register to it at all.

"Any non-bug occupants?" I asked.

Anna nocked an arrow and proceeded along the wooden beams that divided the cages. She looked in them one by one. Audry, Saul and Marc had climbed down a set of stairs near the walk way. Anna finished her trip around the pits in minutes and returned.

"Empty," she said. "The slaves have to be elsewhere."

"Hey guys, get down here."

Anna and I went down the stairs, following Saul's voice. At the bottom of the stairs was another set of stairs leading further down, but Saul's voice came from the corridor underneath the walkway and behind the stairs we descended. The corridor itself was just a platform. A series of pistons and springs lined the walls. If I had to guess, I would say they operated the the trap doors of the level above, but at that moment that's not what drew my attention.

Audrey knelt over a human. His skin hung from his body. It was as if he had no muscles to speak of. Audrey rested her hand over what looked like a sword wound. The wound closed as she prayed. Cowering against the wall were four other humans. All of the looked equally emaciated.

"They killed this." Saul stepped aside and pointed to the body of an Aspis. The creature had a knife in what would be the back of its skull.

"Brave," I said.

"We want to be free," one of them said. His voice croaked as he spoke, as if he didn't have the energy to speak clearly.

"And you shall be," Audrey said. "Now quickly, where are the others?"