Michael Mathias - The Wizard and the Warlord

Mikahl saw that the wound on the elf’s head wasn’t fatal. He had the staff that Hyden Hawk asked him to get, and the fargin priest was nothing but snapper scat now.

He glanced at the monk. The man seemed to be enjoying the damage he was doing to the skeeks. The monk’s tongue was poking out of his mouth in stern concentration as he pounded and jabbed and cracked away at the now leery Zard-men ringed around him.

Satisfied that he’d accomplished what he had to do, Mikahl unleashed a thunder clap from Ironspike’s blade. It was so loud that it sent the Zard, the snappers, and even the Choska demon fleeing into the night like startled curs. Even the monk bolted into the swamp away from terrifying sound.

Even after three days of comfortable, semi-quiet traveling, the elven girl still couldn’t remember her name. Try as she might she just couldn’t remember anything about herself. It just wasn’t there.

Any unease she’d felt traveling with Phen and Oarly was evaporated by the pair’s antics and generosity. She’d learned that Oarly’s bitter attitude was more sarcastic jesting than actual ill will. Phen, she could tell, was smart and very humble. Even if she had no personal memory, she still knew how rare it was to have ridden and spoken with a dragon. The fact that he had snuck onboard a Zard ship using an ancient elven ring to help save a princess amazed her. She had to needle the details out of Phen and endure Oarly’s constant jibes, but she managed to hear most of the story. As they rode upstream in the crowded riverboat cabin Oarly told her about Phen’s next great journey to find the mysterious Leif Repline fountain.

“Leif Repline,” she said excitedly, not knowing how she knew the translation. “…means life replenish. Maybe if I go with you, the fountain will restore my memory.”

“Aye, it just may,” Phen agreed. Any reason to spend more time with the beautiful elven maiden was fine with him. Besides that, he told himself, she was probably right. The fountain would very likely restore her memory.

Noticing Phen’s attraction to the elf, Oarly had pulled the boy aside one day and gave him a friendly warning.

“Don’t let your thing get hard over her now, lad,” Oarly said, as deadpanned as he could manage. “It might break off. Then you'll be in a real fix.”

Since then, Phen had tried to keep his thoughts about the elf from drifting too far. Oarly’s little warning, though, only made it all the harder to avoid thinking of her in that context. Phen still hadn’t figured out if Oarly had been jesting or not. Either way, there was too much at stake to be taking chances. He found himself trying to associate her sweet scent, and the golden glint of the sunlight on her hair, with something repulsive, like the smell of the serpent, or visions of a half-naked Oarly fighting the iron skeletons in the cave. Spike was no help in the matter. The lyna cat spent more time with the elven girl than he did with Phen. She knew all the right places to scratch his ears, and did so fondly.

“So I can go on this journey with you?” she asked carefully. “I’ll not be a bother.”

“Can you do anything?” Oarly asked. “We won’t be riding in carriages, or traveling in boats. The Giant Mountains are as harsh as it gets, especially since winter is moving in. We won’t be riding much, either. Can you hunt, or wield a sword? Can you handle the rough of the wild?”

“I’m an excellent archer,” she blurted out defensively. Then she giggled happily, realizing that she just remembered something about herself.

Oarly’s winking nod assured her that he had planned the tricky questions all along.

Phen’s smirk showed plainly that he thought Oarly was full of it. “Yes, you can come along,” Phen answered her question. “But we need a name for you. Since our Master Dwarf is so smart, let’s see if he can drag you into blurting out your name.”

“I’ll do it too, lad,” Oarly boasted. “Just you wait and see.”

“I almost had it,” she said with an exasperated huff. “I can’t stand this not knowing.”

“Just make up a name for now,” Oarly suggested. “What do you want your name to be?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said with a contemplative frown. Her feral yellow eyes made her look angry as she thought about it.

“How about Karee?” Phen asked. “That was my mother’s name. At least that was the name the ladies at the orphanage told me.”

“Karee,” she sounded it out, tasting the way it felt on her lips. A smile spread across her face. “Karee it is.”

“Bah!” Oarly exclaimed. “That’s about as elven as Oarly Shardsworth.”

“Karee is a beautiful name,” she said. “And I like it. From now on, call me Karee.”

“Lady Karee,” Phen corrected. Her mannerisms and intellect spoke of nobility. Phen saw it even if she and Oarly didn’t.

“No, Phen, just Karee for now,” she told him.

“The idea of the exercise was for her to decide what she wanted to be called, lad,” Oarly grumbled. “You challenged me to get her to reveal her name and then you ruined my plan.” He got to his feet and scowled through his hairy face. “I’m going out to get some air.”

“Thank the gods,” Phen joked. “You are a miserable companion when you are sober. I can’t believe there wasn’t a drop of drink to be found anywhere in Oktin when we stopped over.”

“That’s what happens when a few hundred dwarfs start building a palace.” Oarly looked back and grunted as he exited the cabin. He paused at the door and had to fight to suppress his smile. “Remember what I told ya, lad,” he warned. “Don’t let it break off now.”

“Break off?” Karee asked, looking at Phen with a curious expression.

“Nevermind him,” Phen sighed. He took a breath, trying to focus his mind on the feel of Master Sholt’s wand smacking across his knuckles in class.

“What’s wrong, Phen?” Karee asked. “You don’t look like you want me to go on your quest with you.”

“I’d rather you than Oarly, any day,” he laughed. “Of course you can come along, but since Dreen is so close to the Evermore forest, wouldn’t you rather go see your people?” Phen shrugged. “Surely someone is worried about you. Your mother and father, a friend. We might be long months in returning from the Leif Repline fountain.”

At the mention of her father, she felt hollow for a moment. For a fleeting instant she knew, but something swept in and filled that void before the memory could manifest itself into a true reflection of the past.

Phen noticed the sudden blank expression and the vacant, almost fearful look in Karee’s wild yellow eyes. He put his hand over hers and squeezed gently. His touch, as cold and hard as it was, put a bright smile on her face. It must have been a contagious smile because he found himself grinning back at her stupidly. Spike broke the moment by leaping onto the bench where Oarly had been sitting.

Phen was as pleased as he was surprised when she didn’t let go of his hand and purposely used her free hand to scratch behind the prickly lyna’s ears.

“I would rather go back to my people knowing who I am,” she said absently, after a time. “I have a feeling that this is all happening to me for a reason.” She forgot Spike and put her other hand over Phen’s so that he now had both of her hands in his. He wished he could feel her touch more specifically.

“I had a vision of you finding me.” She scrunched up her face, searching for an explanation. “I know that much in my heart, so I will follow the course I am on and see where it leads me.” She sighed and rolled her shoulders. “But, as you said, someone might be worried about me. I don’t even know that my family is from the Evermore Forest, but surely someone there would know of a missing elven woman. Is there a way I could get a written message to the elves when we get to Dreen?”