Just as when he had first stumbled in, the room grew silent.  It seemed as if all eyes were on him.  He slowly drew the forkful of meat through the gravy as he tried to slyly peer around, seeing if his suspicions were correct. “Well now,” Boots said, tapping his cards on the table in...Read More

“You slow playing son of…. oh, just sit boy,” one of the other two men called out, much more gruffly than the first man had been.  “You’re making everyone in here nervous just hoverin’ next to the tables.  Sit and eat.” The second man must have kicked the chair from under the table because it...Read More

He gave the wall one last lingering look, certain that the secret would reveal itself the moment before he turned his gaze away.  Muttering to himself, he turned and stalked across the room to Kitalia’s table. She was seated with one other individual, an older woman who wore a smile on her face in an...Read More

The first thing that Kre noticed was the silence.  It wasn’t that he had stumbled into an empty, deathly quiet room with only his footsteps to echo from the walls around him, but rather that there had been an excess of cacophony just a split second before he stumbled into the room and now the...Read More

Thankful that the darkness hid the redness rising in his cheeks, he planted his hand firmly on the edge of the wood and gave it a solid shove.  It opened slowly, despite how hard he was pushing, and a dark, narrow passage was revealed behind it. “Go ahead,” she told him, gesturing towards the passage. ...Read More

She brought her hand up quickly in front of his face and made a horizontal wriggling motion with her forefinger.  “It kind of squiggles across the ground like this.” Despite the anger he had been feeling and as tired as he was, both mentally and physically, he still let out a huge laugh.  “Feel better?”...Read More

“It’s lucky I did,” she added, waving her hand to the trees ahead of Kre’s intended path.  “There are some spidersnakes that lurk in the tree branches off that way.  Pretty nasty, those.” Kre reflexively took a step closer to his horse as a shudder ran down his spine.  He didn’t know what spidersnakes were,...Read More

Kre let his horse pick his way through, trusting that the animal could see the path better than he could.  He cursed himself softly for not keeping an eye on where she was, and he cursed her name for not waiting for him.  He did the latter mentally, just in case she was in hearing...Read More

Rodi stepped out from behind a tree halfway between Kre and Kitalia.  He was a small little man, with darker skin and black, oily hair.  “Na chief… if ya choosin’ ta be beddin’er or beddin’ere… best ya stay.” “What?” Kre asked, not able to help himself.  He didn’t mean to mock the man’s accent, but...Read More

Kre reined in his horse and tried to find the sources of the menacing voices with no luck.  It was simply too dark here in the woods for his eyes to do much more than play tricks on him.  “Who’s there?” he called tentatively. “Keep riding,” Kitalia stated simply, following her own advice.  “Ignore those...Read More