“Perhaps,” mused Ras loudly so his companions could hear, “we simply talk to our new friend. I mean, I get that Kersath likes his creepy jump-scares and broody mysteriousness… and Dain likes to try out his new herbal concoctions on any unsuspecting guinea pig he can find… and Talimar likes to be in control of, uh…”
The hauflin paused with a slight crack in his voice as he noted Talimar’s raised eyebrow. “Well, you know what I mean,” he finished, his volume half what it once was. “I just figured we should try… you know… politeness. Maybe.”
Beleg clapped the smaller man on the back, sending Ras half stumbling off his perch and knocking the wind out of him. “The smallest of us shows the most sense.” He turned to Kre and nodded solemnly, “Young man, we would be honored if you would share your tale, or at least as much of it as you are comfortable with. You have already broken bread with us, so the lapse in decorum is on us for treating you ill. We ask your forgiveness.”
Kre shook his head and immediately regretted the decision. With one hand massaging his temple, he tried to downplay the bigger man’s concerns. “Please, there’s no need to apologize for all of this.” He paused as some bile churned in his gut, “Never mind… apologizing for the mushrooms is entirely appropriate… but not for anything else.
“I understand why you treated me like you did,” Kre continued. “I would be just as suspicious of someone that just showed up in the middle of the forest path that you happened to be on, like I did.”
“Speaking of which,” Ras said softly during the lull.
Kre nodded and cleared his throat, “Speaking of which, I don’t really have a good explanation of how I got there. Honestly, I don’t even know where there is, or here for that matter, but I’ll try to explain it as best I can.” He sighed and balled up his fists on his lap. As he did so, his one hand brushed up against the pebble bulge in his pocket.
‘You can’t say where you were,’ a voice whispered in Kre’s mind. It felt like his own voice with a snide twist to it but regardless of whose voice it was, it was right. Mentioning the ruins and the specter of Ancients past would only incite this band of adventurers and probably result in their exploiting his knowledge, limited as it was, of how to find the ruins and what treasures they might find there. None of that appealed to him and so he thought quickly about how to spin the truth into something viable and believable.
“I’m on the run,” he finally said with a heavy exhale. “I’m a criminal charged with murder… two murders, actually… and I’m supposed to have been going to report for trial but got sidetracked.