Chapter 5

Chapter V

Jerrod finished his meal without speaking. Both twins noticed his contemplative mien. Urki shrugged and made conversation with his sister and Sadie who blushed furiously whenever she came within range of the young warrior.

While Enki also noticed the young mage's thoughtful state, she had a somewhat different reaction than did her brother. Instead of dismissing Jerrod and his somber attitude to turn to other, perhaps more stimulating, pursuits, Enki nodded slightly to herself with silent approval. Jerrod had been given much to consider and it was good to see that his response fitted the gravity of the situation. Now wasn't the time to intrude on the young mage and his thoughts, so she left Jerrod to those thoughts and conversed with her brother. Enki tried to keep Urki from making Fran's daughter any more mortified than she already was, but, as usual, had little success in diverting her brother from his sport.

As her companions finished their meals and filed off to bed either singly or in pairs, Enki took stock of her situation. She was used to traveling and adventuring with her brother and her brother alone. Even when they had served in armies or in a noble's private guards, they had worked only with each other. They had grown up together and understood each others needs and abilities in just about any situation without needing to even speak to one another. Now she would be traveling with six others and she and Urki must blend with them as a unit. Fortunately, most of them seemed more than competent -- if a bit “unique.”. Her lips quirked as she caught herself fretting about the individualism of others considering the irony that she and Urki had rarely been willing to suborn their own discretion to that of a larger unit. Even when they had served in a larger company, they’d been detached to serve as rangers and scouted on their own.

Jerrod worried her a bit though. He was young and, while perhaps talented, he was callow and headstrong. His rash behavior with she and Urki when they had first met him suggested that his naivete about the ways of the world and the dangers which it held was something which might get them all in trouble. And yet..... there was something about him. Not only did Astall vouch for his apprentice and believe he was indispensable to their quest to neutralize Iskandar once more, but when he had accepted the wand a strange charisma and power had seemed to leap forth from him. It was if he had momentarily assumed what had almost appeared to be a natural leadership role. And even more amazingly, he had assumed it over a collection of individuals who were as unique and skilled as any she had ever seen or heard of outside of legends. It did not fit with the spoiled brat that he appeared to be the rest of the time.

There must be more to the lad than there had at first seemed. There had better be. If there was not, they would all most certainly end up dead. Not only was the world in the grips of this frigid blast of unseasonable and unreasonable cold, but the trollkin were becoming a serious threat in lands which had not seen them in millennia and other even darker powers were rumored to be stirring. They would need all of the guile and all of the resources which they could muster in order to accomplish their task -- if it could be accomplished at all. How in the world were they supposed collect six more items of power which had been lost for millennia, especially when they had but a single vague clue as to the whereabouts of only one of them? They couldn't afford many mistakes. Jerrod would need to grow up in a hurry.

"Well," she thought to herself, "he does seem to be a bit more thoughtful now. Perhaps I should look on the bright side. Maybe he will mature as quickly as we need him to. And what if he didn't? They would die and the world would be crushed under the dominion of an evil demigod who would turn it into an icebox in which trollkin and the like fed on the bodies and souls of humanity. At least they wouldn't be around to see it."

Enki sighed and looked at her brother who was still trifling good-naturedly with Sadie. Everyone else had left while she had been lost in her reverie. Even Jerrod had wandered off to his room for the night. "I wonder if he said goodnight to anyone, " she murmured to herself.

"Urki, if you can leave off teasing the girl, we should probably imitate the others and head to bed," Enki said to her brother.

"In a minute, sis, I just have one more thing I have to do before i go to bed," her brother replied. She smiled as her brother suddenly turned and swept Sadie from her feet into his lap and gave her a enormous smooch on the lips and then sent her on her way with a pinch and a pat to the behind.

"Alright I'm ready," her brother laughed. "But you're always such a spoilsport. You should try having a little fun yourself sometime, maybe with young Jerrod, eh."

Enki shook her head in amusement at her brother's transparent attempt to get her out of their room for the night. "Jerrod, indeed, she laughed to herself as she and her brother headed upstairs to their beds. "A more unlikely pairing I can't envision, unless it is perhaps Jerrod and that Derazha. And she would undoubtedly swallow him whole."

The night passed untroubled. When the false dawn of morn came, Enki slipped out of bed and slid quietly in to her leathers. Leaving her dreaming brother asleep with a self-satisfied smirk on his face, she glided down the stairs to the common room. To her surprise, she wasn't the first one besides the innkeeper and his staff to arrive. The toy giant shape of the ranger was outlined by the glow of the early morning fire in the hearth.

"Greetings, girl," Wolf rumbled. "So I am not the only one up with crows, eh? Where's that lout of a brother of yours?"

Enki took no offence at the apparent roughness of the forester's words. In fact, the opposite was true, if anything they relaxed some of the fears which had troubled her the night before. Their bite was offset by the grin on his face and the twinkle in his eyes. He seemed to be one of those people who knew just what to say to put people at their ease. That would go along way toward knitting the disparate crew which Astall had assembled together.

"Still abed," Enki chuckled. "No doubt he is dreaming of one or another of his conquests -- female belike, but perhaps he is only savoring a victory in battle. The latter is, however, rather unlikely. Urki is usually not one to dream about blood when he can conjure up a pretty face."

"Sit down and join me, girl," Wolf said gently. "I just spoke with Fran and he said he would have breakfast ready soon. Since we are to be companions for the foreseeable future we should get better acquainted. Tell me about yourself."

Enki smiled and said, "I suppose we should begin get to know one another. I would start my tale like most tales about oneself and say that there isn't much to tell, but that isn't really true. As with most people there is far too much to tell and much of it wouldn't interest most others. And my tale is really the tale of two people, not one. Urki and I were born within minutes of each other and have only rarely been apart since.

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