Rope's End

My body felt heavier and heavier with every mile that we crossed.

It had been a over week since my mother and I left Elkshire under the cover of night. The only rest that I had since that time had be short, dreamless naps as we continued to push forward.

As Eplash had said, we began to take cover at night. One would sleep for a short while the other kept watch for our pursuers. Occasionally we would hear the dragon circling the area, on those nights, its nightmarish screeches keeping us both awake and alert.

We spent little time on the roads, rather Eplash would guide me through the forest primeval. When time allowed, she would point out how to spot game trails, what plants could be used medicinally. How to construct lean-tos and smokeless fires were also included in the instruction.

After a particularly arduous day of travelling, we stopped to rest in a small glen. I sat down heavily on a fallen log. My head was pounding and my feet were aching. I was near my limit.

"We will go to a town tomorrow." Eplash said as she started to build a fire. "I believe we have lost our pursuers for now."

"What makes you say that?" I said.

"We haven't heard the dragon for two nights now."

"Are we even near a town?"

"I recognize this area. I cross through it every year when I come from the Giantkin lands. There will be an inn there that you can stay at for a night. Get some sleep and recuperate."

"Me? What about you?"

"All the furniture there is.... human sized."

I tried to picture the giant woman attempting to sleep in a normal sized bed, legs sticking out several feet from the end. I giggled at the mental image.

"Ahh, I see."

"Besides, I live outside for most of the year. I will camp nearby. I'm used to it."

I couldn't help but feel that the Giantkin was somehow disappointed in my lack of endurance. Since we became traveling companions, she had told me several more stories about the adventures that she and my mother went on during their younger days. I had memories of my mother being a tough woman, but the way Eplash told it, both of them were superhuman. There had to be embellishment. Right?

"I'm sorry I'm not stronger," I said. "Like my mother was."

Eplash stood, towering over me and pointing at my head with a stick.

"You are strong here." She lightly tapped my temple. She then move the stick to my chest and gave it a light tap as well. "And here."

She then pointed the stick to my legs, "These can be trained. Those other two cannot."

As much as my body ached and cried for rest, I wearily helped Eplash set up the camp for the night. We constructed two lean-tos, a large one for her, and of course a much smaller one for myself. Eplash then said she was going hunting and disappeared into the forest for about an hour. She returned with about a half-dozen pheasants which she had strung from a stick... or in her case a small log.

Cleaning the birds and plucking their feathers took up more time, but it was a nice mindless distraction from the day's travel.

Eplash began to cook the birds and I stared into the fire. I began to look forward to tomorrow when I would get to sit down at the inn and be brought a nice hot meal that I would have no hand in butchering, defeathering, or deboning. Then, I would slip in to nice clean sheets and my body would get the rest it so desperately wanted. Perhaps I would even take a bath.

Save for the nighttime sounds of the forest, we ate in silence. We were beginning to settle in for the night when something occurred to me.

"You mentioned something about Beam and explosions?" I asked.

"What?"

"When we first met, I asked you about how we would find the other companions. You mentioned something about following the explosions to find Beam."

"Ahh.... yes we haven't talked much about the other two so far. I guess I should prepare you before we meet them."

Prepare me? What would I need to prepare for? Exactly what were my mother and father up to before I was born. It seems that they kept a lot from me.

"Beam is an.... engineer of sorts. He's one of the top dwarven explosive experts. Last I heard he was helping with a major emberstone mining operation. That was many years ago though, so he may have moved on by then."

"So we're going to be looking for somewhere where an explosives expert would be necessary?"

"Yes."

"OK, makes sense so far. And Vendrix is some sort of elven exile now? That means he was active royalty when you knew him."

"Yes."

Ahh Eplash, ever the conversationalist.

"Anything else I should know?"

"He and your mother were to be married."

"WHAT!?"

Eplash might as well told me that water ran uphill and goats were actually bloodsucking animals that flew. Whenever my mother had talked about my father, it was with great affection. I couldn't fathom her being with... no being ENGAGED to anyone else.

"It is a very long story and I do not tell it very well." Eplash said. "Vendrix was the one to call it off, much to the delight of your father."

I made a mental note to ask Vendrix more about this when we finally met him. I wondered what other earthshattering revelations the Giantkin was keeping from me.

"Well, I'm glad we got THAT piece of dragon's fire out of the way now rather than later."

"Yes, good talk." Eplash looked like the world had lifted off of her shoulders. "Now sleep."

"Wake me when it's my turn for watch."

"Yes."

I curled up and drifted off to dreams of warm meals and warm beds.

When I opened my eyes it was daylight. The Giantkin was nowhere to be found.