Guarded and Unwelcome (Session 10)

Apparently, you can't sit innocently on the side of the road without people complaining. The guards claimed that they had "several complaints" about our suspicious activity on the roadside. We hadn't questioned or detained anyone. We just looked at them as they went on their way. I don't see the harm in that, in fact I rather enjoy people watching.

Maybe I should have complained to the guards about the looks some of the travelers gave me. Well, it didn't matter now. We were being forced to leave. I didn't think the guards bought my totally-true story about waiting for Gar. I mean, Gar could have tried to come meet us once he found himself on the boat out at sea instead of with his friends. The fact that he hadn't yet and most definitely wouldn't by this point was just a detail that I decided to leave out.

Anyhow, we were to pack up "immediately" and make our way to town or to an inn up the road. It was the morning of Keely's arranged meeting, so we would be packing to leave regardless. There was no need to rush. The boys would start packing while Keely and I watched the road.

Low and behold, a caravan with two wagons and several armed guards appeared in the distance. This could be our slavers! When Keely spotted them, she let everyone know and they took their positions. Why on Vanya Varis and Praxis decided to hide, I'll never know, but they did. Then again, they do a lot of things I don't understand.

The lead guard approached me with his hand already resting on his sword pommel. He didn't look too happy as his eyes surveyed the remains of our camp with my poorly hidden friends.

"What's your business?" The guard asked me.

"Business? We were just packing up camp getting ready to head back in town. What's your business?"

"None of yours. Now tell your friends to back off and let us pass."

"Back off? What do you mean?"

"I'm talking about your friend hiding over there behind the bush and the other one behind the rock." He gestured sharply in Praxis and Dorn's direction.

"Oh them? They're just peeing." Dorn walked out from behind the rock, naked chest puffed up and glistening in oil. The guard eyed Dorn and curled his fingers around his sword hilt.

"And the one in the tree?" He motioned toward Varis with the jut of his chin.

I leaned in a little closer and whispered, "He's always up in that tree. He's a little coo coo if you know what I mean."

"Why are you hiding if you're just travelers? Seems awfully suspicious to me. So get out of my way and let us pass."

"No, it sounds like you're the one with something to hide. Two covered wagons with several armed guards. What are you smuggling in those wagons?" So, yes, I snapped. I'm sorry. I guess there had been too many unfair judgements handed out and I was sick of the white lies and playing nice.

At this point, Praxis stepped out from behind his bush, his blunderbuss—which is half his height—carried across his body in a readied position. The guard didn't like that, and immediately drew his sword, prompting all the other guards to draw their own weapons and pull in tight to protect their wagons.

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. This is all getting out of hand."

"Tell him to put away his gun." The head guard yelled while brandishing his own blade.

"I'm sure he'll put the gun away when you put your swords away. We're just travelers. We just talked to the town guard a few minutes ago. If you look ahead in the distance, I'm sure you can see them." None of the guards looked up the road. Instead, their full focus remained on us.

"What's in your wagons? What are you trying to hide?" Varis piped up from his wooded perch.

"Why don't you guys just go on your way? We won't stop you," Dorn quipped to perhaps cool the stoked flame from Varis's comments.

The stare down continued between our group and the guards until the caravan was a good twenty feet ahead of us. That's when we fell in behind them. I strained to hear into the wagons, but couldn't discern anything above the groan of the wheels, the whiney and hoof beats of the horses, and the mail of the guards.

Dorn had to forcibly yank Varis out of the tree. He came down protesting with arrow notched. I have no idea what he had been planning, and frankly, I didn't want to know. I tried to make conversation with the guards stationed at the rear of the caravan, but they wouldn't talk. Once, I almost got one to laugh, but the guard next to him elbowed him in the side and they both went back to their default scowls.

At the entrance to the city was a gate. Guards were posted there, armed and ready. Someone from the caravan produced a paper to a guard, who looked over it and then waved the caravan through without even checking the contents of the wagons.

We approached the guard and were immediately met with hostility.

"The caravan ahead of us said you guys were giving them a hard time. Come to think of it, we've heard reports of a group matching your description that have been causing trouble up the road."

"We haven't been 'causing trouble.' We were waiting on a friend traveling on the road who never showed up. His name is Gar, and we're very concerned about him. If you had cared to ask the caravan and the guard members that came ahead of us, they would have told you the same story."

"And a likely story that is."

I had to fight from rolling my eyes. For Payme's sake, not this again!

"So, we get questioned when we haven't done anything wrong, and the caravan in front of us gets through the gate without an inspection?" Varis didn't seem happy about the obvious prejudice to our little gang.

"Maybe if you have the right amount of coin, they let you through without any questions," Keely added.

"So, is this how you treat strangers here in Doveport? You aren't exactly welcoming, hmmm?" I was beginning to think that no matter what we did, we just weren't going to be welcome here.

"Especially to the group that dealt with Rolph the Butcher, the bandits who were actually harming travelers." Dorn stepped forward and folded his arms across his chest.

"You took care of Rolph?" The guard scoffed. "Hey, Herold. These guys said they took care of Rolph and his gang," he called over his shoulder. He and Herold had a good laugh at our expense.

"Someone did bring Rolph's head through here to collect a bounty. It's written here in the log book, guys," a rather portly guard said with—what I guessed to be—the logbook in his hands.

"Yes, that was us. Oh rather, them." I pointed to Keely and Dorn, and only now noticed that Varis was nowhere to be seen. We needed to wrap this up quickly before Varis got himself into something he shouldn't. "We don't want any trouble. We are just trying to find our friend, Gar. Once we do, we'll be on our way."

The head guard begrudgingly waved us through and we walked through the city gates, only to see Varis being drug between two of the guards who had been stationed on the caravan. Varis worked quickly, unfortunately for us.

"We found this one trying to sneak in under one of our wagons."

"I thought you didn't want any trouble and were just looking for your friend?"

Well, he had us there. I scrambled to try to come up with an excuse. "He said he thought he heard someone call for help from one of their wagons."

"A call for help? From cargo? Why should I believe some nobody travelers over trusted merchants?" The head gate guard was not swayed, and Praxis wasn't happy about being called a nobody.

Praxis came out swinging, and hit the gate guard in the jaw. That's when all hell broke loose. I felt that it was best if I didn't make any attacks. I might be able to talk our way out of this ... maybe. I talked one guy out of hitting Praxis, who was now taking the brunt of the attacks, but instead of hitting Praxis he just swung at the restrained Varis. That was a low blow. You did't hit a guy who was already restrained. That seemed to upset Keely and Dorn, too, and they quickly joined the fight.

Praxis was now looking quite ragged as all the gate guards had joined in the fight, even the portly one.

"Guys. Guys. This is all one big misunderstanding. My friend Praxis doesn't like it when his friends are insulted, and calling us nobodies hit a nerve. He's obviously learned his lesson. Varis was just trying to make sure no one was being held against their will in the caravan, but it was wrong of him to not go through the proper channels. We understand that. If you let us go, we'll be on our way—out of the city. Let us get our friends cleaned up and then we'll leave."

"If you will agree to leave, we'll drop the issue. Things got out of hand for everyone. Tend to your wounds and we'll let you go on your way."

"Thank you. I think some ale will nurse our friend's wounds and then we'll be off."

Dorn bent to help Praxis up, but stubborn as always he refused the help. We left the gate and entered the city looking for the nearest tavern—nearest to the warehouse that Varis had followed the caravan.

Praxis asked the bartended about the warehouse as he ordered his drinks. The bartended was quick to respond that the warehouse was a clearing house where goods waited to be shipped. Praxis seemed satisfied with that answer, but not all of us were. Still, more snooping would lead to more pain and probably get us all thrown in jail ... or worse. We had finally outworn our welcome in Doveport, assuming that we were ever welcomed in the first place.

Fool's Errant was a welcome sight docked in the harbor. Gar didn't seem too upset that we had left him on the boat for

four days and was rambling on and on about, "swimming with the fishes." Whatever that meant, I had no clue. Without further delay, we set sail for the shipping lanes between Na'Dor and Handa'ksh, where we hoped to find slaving ships and maybe collect a few bounties along the way.

After two days on the open waters, we spotted a ship on the horizon with nondescript sails. We changed our course to see if they would pursue, and they shifted to head right toward us! It would come to a fight.

Fool's Errant was faster than their ship, but they seemed more heavily armed. I wanted to use our speed to get away—more-heavily armed didn't sound like a good thing to go up against—but everyone else decided that we would use our speed to get close enough to board them.

As Varis, Praxis, Keely, and Dorn manned the ballista, Gar retreated below deck to relay commands for cannon fire. I reluctantly took my post by the captain. The Admiral would give the commands, and I would relay them to Gar and the crew.

A few shots were fired, and I was beginning to feel my tummy doing somersaults with all the fancy maneuvers we were

doing. We managed to stay behind them for the most part, using our chain shot and ballista harpoons to slow them down. The Admiral’s quick thinking got us close enough to get on-board and engage our pursuers face to face. That was the part I wasn't looking forward to.

~Zaly

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