Feral Flame Tavern - A Collaborative Fantasy Adventure

[TarnishedPrincess]

After dying her hair with the dark substance, her now-coffee tresses still glittered, but only slightly more than any beautiful woman’s hair.

Once her hair was dried and braided, she took the clothes (and the leather boots secured in her size?) and slipped them on, grateful to have full, comfortable coverage again for the road.

She’d eventually need to find underwear, but for now she used an extra piece of the fabric left over to wrap her breasts and minimize her figure.

Then she used the homemade makeup to cover what was still exposed of her pearlescent skin, and used some of the leftover dye to shade some makeup and paint dark circles under her eyes, adding to the story that she was ill.

Finally, she emerged from the room and turned about before Asvard. “How do I look? Sickly enough?”

 

[Nico231]

Asvard went outside while she dressed, and attached a horse wagon to Pearl, it was big enough to fit a single person, next he grabbed a blanket for when Elle got inside. He went back in and said, “You look like death is knocking at your door. Anyways, I set up the wagon. Now we just need to wait for dusk.”

Now that everything had been taken care of, they waited until dusk. Lerinal was a different place at night, the once lively town was now dead silent, save for a few thieves mugging people. The night patrol stood guard by the walls and gate, unrelenting in their scrutiny of people.

Asvard turned to Elle and asked, “It’s around 8 PM, are you ready to get going?” He began to stretch his body in the event of a fight with the guards. He didn’t have much to fear in terms of a fight, he was a solidly built giant of a man, with the strength of 4 men.

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

She nodded, laying back in the tented wagon and covering herself with the blanket to hide even more. She used some oil to drop on her face and neck, to make it look like she was heavily perspiring.

The sun was just setting as they arrived at the gate, the last of the travelers seeking passage out before they closed the city for the night.

"Ho there, hold up," came a gruff voice when their turn in line came around. "What's in the cart?" Another guard started walking to the back to peer inside the open flap of the wagon cover.

 

[Nico231]

Asvard got off the horse and towered over the man, “I’m transporting a girl befallen by illness to her hometown of Rosepond to get some medicine. Surely there’s no issue with that?” The other guards at the station were intimidated by him for they knew who he was. “Hey! Careful with how you speak to him! He’s the legendary Berserker of Avalhorn!” Shouted one of the guards inside the station.

Asvard interrupted “Unless you want to be turned into hog meat, correct?” He knew these guards were afraid of him, he’d often hear them boast about how they could control him and keep him in line. He revealed Elle to them, and replied, “She’s ill with Orange Blight, bad. The medicine here has done nothing, and our only hope is to get her to Rosepond, where their floral medicines do wonders.”

After they were granted passage, he hopped on Pearl, and got Elle outside the city walls.

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

When Asvard opened the wagon flap to show her huddled and hidden in the blankets, she hacked and coughed, drawing forth all the air left in her lungs to make it sound wheezy and desperate. Whatever Orange Blight was, she'd make sure no one wanted to catch it. The guard blanched and shut the flap quickly, then waved them on.

Once successfully out of the city and out of earshot, she started laughing from inside the tented wagon. "That was great! Did you see how pale his face got when I started hacking?"

 

[Nico231]

Asvard chuckled, “Yeah that was convincing, I almost thought I was transporting a sick person.” He detached the wagon from Pearl and held out his hand for Elle, “Come on Elle, the wagon will only slow us down.”

When she climbed onto the horse he made the horse start galloping, He rode Pearl through the plains, Asvard and Elle felt the wind in their hair, he started laughing, and roared up to the sky, “I’m free as a bird!!!” After an hour or so of riding he had Pearl slow to walking.

“It’s getting late, let’s find a place to camp Elle.” He dismounted off of Pearl, and then helped her off. He lead her through the woods, searching for a clearing. After a few minutes of searching, they found an open spot and he decided to set up camp here.

“I’ll get some firewood. I’ll be back.” He left to find a tree to chop down. After a little bit he found one and got to work. With several grand swings of his axe, the tree fell, and once it did, he turned it into logs and twigs. Once he grabbed some of the logs, he returned to her and began making a fireplace, which he then lit by bashing some rocks together. The flame rose up from the logs and created warmth on that cold night.

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

Her stomach started rumbling as he went to chop wood, so she pulled the bow and quiver from the horse and went off into the woods to hunt.

Upon returning to the campsite, Asvard noticed letters carved into the dirt where she once sat. “B back.” Then a crude icon of a bow drawn next to it.

As he stoked the fire, he heard her return as she broke through the brush, a wild Turkey being dragged behind her, almost half as big as herself. One clean arrow wound in its heart.

“I hope you’re hungry…”

 

[Nico231]

He saw the dirt writing and sighed, “Oh well...” When she returned with the turkey, he chuckled, “That’s a big bird. How long did it take to hunt?” He took the turkey and began cleaning it up for her, hacking the head off, plucking the feathers, and then he started roasting it over the fire. “So... Where should we go now? Rosepond is close, but so is Hogheim... Ahh, decisions.”

He had a great time talking to Elle as he cooked the bird rotisserie style. After a few minutes, the bird was nice and cooked. He set it on a tree stump and began to pull the legs and wings off the bird. “Let’s dig in shall we?” He bit into a leg and smiled at the flavor, “I’m not half bad at cooking...”

As they ate, chatted, and laughed, he heard a twig snap, and as a reflex immediately drew his axe and shield, anticipating a fight. “Who’s there?! Show yourself!” He shouted into the dark void of the woods. He stood firm in his cloak, looking around in every direction.

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

“Oy though’ Oy smelled somefing good, brothas…” A deep, grisly voice said through the dark shadows of the forest.

“”Righ’ you were, Brotha…” came another deep voice, a gnarled green arm coming into view on the other side of the clearing.

“Trolls,” I hiss, jumping up and knocking an arrow quickly, my greasy fingers making it a bit more difficult than usual.

 

[Nico231]

“Listen trolls, I don’t care how many of you there are, I’ll gladly turn this forest red.” He grabbed a stick from the fire and threw it at the trolls. The impromptu torch landed at the troll’s feet, illuminating him. There were five of them, a band of thieves.

One of them nocked an arrow and fired at Asvard, but his years of fighting proved invaluable as his reflexes enabled him to bring up his shield causing the arrow to deflect off the steel boss of his shield and stab into a tree next to the horse, which spooked it off. “Thanks for getting rid of the horse, I really appreciate that!” Without warning he charged at the archer troll and sliced him in half with a single mighty swing of his axe. As his torso fell into the grass staining it red, two of the other trolls turned tail and fled.

Asvard was getting angry, but he didn’t enter that berserker rage that Sterkers were known for. “I give you both one final chance before I leave you just like your archer friend. He stood firm, and flicked the blood off of his axe as he raised his shield.

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

Seeing that Asvard could handle himself, Elle bolted after Pearl—not because they couldn’t get by without a horse, but because she was worried the escaped trolls would see the mare as their next easy meal.

She may not be as strong as most, but she made up for it in speed. Following the creature’s hoof prints, her fae vision flaring up in the darkness, she tracked it to a clump of brush, its reigns caught in a mass of thorny branches. The poor thing bucked and whinnied wildly as the thorns dug into its flank.

Elle paused and took account of her surroundings to make sure there were no immediate threats, then approached Pearl slowly, waving her hand in the air in a calming gesture. “Shhh, shh, it’s okay…”

 

[Nico231]

After the other two fled, Asvard ran to Elle. “Elle! Elle, are you okay?!” He saw Pearl and cut the branches, getting them out of the way. After his effort Elle was able to get Pearl out of the brush. Once everything was fine, he went back to their campsite.

He sat by the fire and took a deep breath. Once Elle sat down, he said, “So, your first time seeing a Sterker fight, what did you think?” He got up and removed some thorns from Pearl’s flank. “You have good instincts Elle, you immediately readied your bow, I can respect a good archer like you.”

He sat down next to her, “Where should we go? We can’t keep camping in the woods forever with these thieves about.” He already had ideas of where he wanted to go, but wanted to hear her input before making a decision. “Oh, and eat up, you'll need your strength tomorrow.”

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

She reached the horse, who had finally begun to calm, grabbing it's reigns to keep it from harming itself any more on the thorns.

After a few more moments of soothing, Pearl chuffed, and finally relaxed. Now, to get it out of the tangle of thorns...

Elle tensed as she heard crashing in the brush where she had come from, but was relieved to see Asvar--freshly bloodied with troll guts--break through the forest. Quickly assessing the situation, he strode up to the bush trapping the horse and began hacking the brambles with expert precision. Amazingly, Pearl stayed calm throughout the ordeal, which lasted only a moment thanks to the barbarian's skill.

Taking her hand in one of his, the horse's reigns in the other, he led them both back to their campsite. The fire still crackled as though nothing had occurred, roasting what remained of the turkey on the spit.

"You're scary," she chuckled when he asked her what she thought seeing him fight. "I'm glad you're on my side." She took some horse feed from their packs on Pearl and fed it to the poor creature to help it recover from its earlier fright. "As for my shooting, I'm glad it didn't come to much of a fight. I was careless and left my draw hand greasy from the food. And if my instincts hadn't been so dulled from these weeks in captivity, I would have set up a perimeter alarm before I went hunting. I'll do that before we turn in for the night."

She sat down by the fire to carve the rest of the turkey from the spit, eating a piece, then hanging another over the fire to dry. If they left it cooking slowly through the night, it might be dry enough to last a few more days without spoiling.

When he sat next to her, she shifted to make room for him on the log, which groaned in protest at his weight. At his questions, she paused, dagger still held to a slice of turkey breast. Then she finished cutting and said as she worked, "I promised you my full story when you got me out of the city. You should know the rest before you agree to accompany me further on my journey..."

 

[Nico231]

He nodded, “Yes, all I know is you’re a Fae, and your name is Elle, that’s not much information to go off of.”
He put his arm around her. “I trust you though, so please allow me to know more.” He sheathed his axe and shield as he dropped a log into the fire.

He was beginning to feel drowsy, but shook it off so he wouldn’t upset her by making her think the story was boring. He smacked himself across the face to wake himself up. “Sorry, turkey makes me a bit drowsy, but I’m trying to stay awake for you.”

He sat upright and listened attentively to her tale. “I’m ready Elle.”

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

She raised an eyebrow at him as he smacked himself across the face. “It can wait if you want to turn in for the night…”

At his insistence, she sighed in acceptance and continued. “My full name is Sarelle—yes, that Sarelle. Sole heir and daughter of King Seraphin…ruler of the Realm of the Fae,” she rattled off by rote. “I came here, to the human realm, looking for something that could cure our lands of the diseases spreading through our forests. A rare tree that grows somewhere to the east, according to our sources. It’s root system stretches for miles around, protecting the earth within its radius. The plan was to bring back even one of its fruit, so we could propagate more from its seeds and hopefully eradicate the disease.”

She paused to clean her dagger, now finished cutting and prepping the leftover meat.

“I was chosen to lead the expedition due to my…unique abilities. But we were ambushed soon after we entered the human realm, as if someone knew we were coming, and I was taken captive and brought to the fortress city.”

She was silent for a moment as she relived some memory, before her eyes refocused on him and she finished, “After I escaped, I left a ruse behind to keep them from raising the alarm too soon. It was a short-lived trick. An ability not many know I have, even among the fae. Another day and the entire city would have been on high alert. So thank you again for helping me escape in time.

“Now, I can make my way back to my party’s rendezvous point to the east. And from there, journey home to debrief and regroup, as now our entire intel network is in question.”

She let him digest that for a moment, then said, “I promised you recognition and honor if you helped me. Now you know I’m good for it. My father will reward you and honor your people for helping me in my time of need. Even more if you help me return home.”

She waited for his response with an impassive face, but inside, she hoped he would continue to help her.

 

[Nico231]

Asvard was shocked, to the point he needed some time to process. “I-I’m honored to be assisting royalty such as yourself. I’m just a simple warrior from Avalhorn after all.” He clasped his hands together as he continued thinking. “I won’t treat you any different because you’re royalty. And what is this rare tree you speak of? As a barbarian I’m in tune with nature, so I could help.”

He was stammering a bit, he was anxious around royals. “Princess Sarelle... I’m shocked I even got to meet you, it’s a real honor.” Sarelle was described differently in many Fae scribes, she was depicted as kind, and ladylike, not rough and tumble. “The scribes in this kingdom lie about you, you’re actually a badass.”

He finally came to a decision, “Elle- I mean Sarelle, I’ll aid you on your quest. For the glory of Avalhorn and more time to hang out with you, I’ll risk life and limb.”

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

She laughed at his comment about her being different than her reputation. “I take that as a compliment. But I don’t blame your scholars—they’ve probably only heard what we made them think about us. Honestly, they’ve probably made half of it up themselves just to have something in the history books, as we haven’t been in contact with human leaders for decades.”

She grimaced when he called her by her full name. “Please, just call me Elle. And defintiely not Princess. I want you to treat me as you always have—cold threats and all.” She grinned, remembering what he promised her in the tavern should she deceive him.

“And I’m glad of your company. I wouldn’t have made it this far without you, and I’m sure the danger has only just begun.”

 

[Nico231]

“Alright Elle, I’ll do that.” He put his arm around her and brought her close. “Tomorrow, we head east. Let’s try and stop in Rosepond, they make great elixirs to heal wounds.” He knew about her bruises, and wanted to help her back to normal.

He felt a strong gale blowing, chilling the air around them. “A northern wind...” He ended up deep in thought yet again. Asvard brought Elle into his chest, his giant frame was a like a radiator for Elle. “We should try and rest up for tomorrow.”

He let her out of his embrace and gave her his cloak to act as a blanket, “I’ll be fine without it, but I want it back tomorrow morning.” He took a bunch of leaves into a pile and laid his head down on it to serve as a pillow.

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

Blinking at his often sudden and guileless affection, Elle heard his heart beating as he brought her close to shield her from the sudden wind. She felt her cheeks grow hot with a blush, adding to the furnace of his body, and she turned to the campfire awkwardly when he released her. “Thank you,” she murmured as she took the offered cloak and laid it down just beyond the heat of the flickering flames. “I can keep first watch if you are tired.”

 

[Nico231]

He smiled, “I’ll take you up on that, I’ll see you whenever we switch watch.” He fell asleep after a little while, gazing up at the stars. He snored but it was hardly audible. Despite Asvard being a behemoth of a human, he was quite cute when he slept, like a sleeping Walrus.

As he slept, he began to have a dream, it was of his homeland, Avalhorn. A land covered in a blanket of ice and snow. The dream quickly turned into a nightmare where he began reliving his past, pulling a heavy sleigh, getting whipped, beaten during training with weapons, and painful submersions in snow.

Around 20 minutes after he fell asleep, he jolted up and awoke in a cold sweat. He looked around and all he saw was Elle, and the now weakened fire. “What happened? Did anything go wrong Elle?”

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

She turned her head to him as he jolted awake, hand flying to the dagger at her waist. “What? No—everything is fine. What’s wrong? You look pale—pale for you, anyway,” she added with a smirk to try to lighten the mood.

 

[Nico231]

“Sorry, it was just a bad dream, nothing you need to concern yourself with.” He was confused, he didn’t have dreams often. “I guess I’m just not ready to go to sleep yet. I’ll chat with you in the meantime.” He was interested in his new friend.

“What’s your dominant hand? I’m right handed.” After she answered his first question he asked another, “Are all Faes thin and graceful like you? I’ve just never really seen someone move like that before.” He scooted himself closer to her.

“What’s this tree we’re looking for anyway? And how far East do we have to go to find it?” His eyes burned with curiosity, as he eagerly waited for her response.

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

“Right,” she answered as he sat beside her again.

“Not necessarily just like me, as I’m gifted more than most fae in agility and speed, but our kind do have a preternatural grace compared to other races.”

She noticed him scoot closer, and she blinked at the eagerness in his expression. Gone was the cold, bear-like barbarian from the tavern. Before her sat a wide-eyed Golden Retreiver.

She chuckled and shook her head. He was young after all. It was good to see that war or battle had not completely robbed him of his youthfulness. “The tree was only a rumor we had credible intel on. I don’t know exactly where it is, or if it even exists, and have even more doubts about that after we were ambushed. The entire thing could have been a setup.” Her eyes darkened at the thought. “And if so, it means we have a spy very close to the royal family… I must get back to warn my father. Otherwise, our forests won’t be the only thing diseased in my Kingdom.”

 

[Nico231]

Upon hearing there was a spy, he responded with a question, “Is there anyone close to the royal family who isn’t a Fae?” He had a good feeling it was a non Fae spy who had snuck into the royal family’s good graces either with a disguise, or magic.

Despite his ability to be nice, he was still a killer. He had fought in numerous wars and battles, each scar served as a medal of valor. He was still a serious threat if angered, even without berserker rage. “You’re lucky you haven’t seen my berserker rage yet. When that happens I sometimes kill my allies... I’m feared wherever I go.”

He didn’t want to come off as a pushover to Elle, after all she was the first person to really earn his respect as a fighter. “We could stay at an inn tomorrow, that way we don’t have to do night watch.”

 

[TarnishedPrincess]

She frowned at his suggestion, considering. “That could be…or a fae that humans were able to compromise somehow to do their bidding. But it’s too soon to tell. I have plenty of enemies even among the fae, being the sole heir and all.” She smirked.

Then she nodded at his reminder of his brutality. An image of the skull fence surrounding his cabin came to mind. “I’ll make sure to stand far away from you if you go berserk…”

She yawned as they talked. “An inn would be nice. But I’m so tired I could sleep on dirt. Mind taking the next watch? You can wake me when you’re tired.”

At his approval, she curled up on the ground wrapped in his massive cloak, and fell asleep.