Adult-FanFiction.org : Games

The Rest of the Story	By : Anesor Category: +M through R > Neverwinter Nights Views: 2558 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Neverwinter Nights nor the characters from the game, and I make no money from this.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
--- x x ---

Parts Unknown ---

--- Khelgar Ironfist

Once the pretender had been ended, I took a moment to catch my breath and look around the cavern. We had to be several levels below the marshy and unsteady clay of this swamp. It was almost strange that any kingdom the elves had a part of creating went this far under their trees. With an almost silent shifting of the shaped rock around us, I knew they hadn't had the smarts to ask my folk to help go further down into some solid limestone. Always thinking they understood rock and soil better than we.

The next rumbling wasn't as silent, and I knew the elves had used too much magic in their building.

Zhjaeve told everyone the obvious from her place resting on the floor. It didn't matter, there wasn't time for us to escape the way we came in. As fond of underground construction as we were, I felt no desire to die in this one. I'd probably be laughed at by my kin who had gone before me.

I was a bit closer to the damn gate and grabbed the priestess. There was no time to be gentle about hauling her out of the death trap, and I thought she lost consciousness again as I ran with her. Little Grobnar was almost cheerful as he went through just before the tree hugger. The mage and demon girl would look out for themselves, and I was sure the lad would watch out for our lass. Even if she was yelling at him to move faster.

Young Casavir was smitten enough to make him amusing, even if our Commander seemed slow to notice.

Rushing through the gate I did not trust at all, I landed in snow, deeper snow than I liked. The priestess made a noise as I regained my footing, but didn't say anything else. I wasn't sure if she'd been further injured, or only briefly conscious when we came through. We needed some shelter and I was worried that we did not have enough gear, especially clothing and blankets. I thought Zhjaeve wasn't used to extreme weather.

Looking around for shelter, I saw we were somewhere that winter's hold was still not broken. The terrain was hilly, and I thought we might be on the western side of a hill, but I wasn't completely sure. No dwellings or visible trails in the snow nearby. I could handle the cold for a time, but the priestess always dressed too lightly, and I could feel her shiver already.

Some low hanging pines offered the only shelter in sight. There was snow on the branches, but that would even cut on drafts. I carried Zhjaeve through the downwind side, and the breeze was cut down. The ground looked dry enough under the branches and the needle layer looked thick over the ground, so I put her down long enough to clear enough ground to make a fire in my steel shield. Out of the snow and breeze was enough to make me feel warmer, so I put my cloak on the priestess while I cleared a slightly larger area for a larger fire.

Ripping out some of my helm's liner gave me enough fabric to provide some fuel along with a few needles to quickly ignite it. Soon a small fire was throwing off a cheery glow in the dimness under the tree.

Between our body heat and the fire, it was already getting warmer. The shield was radiating heat well. But the priestess was in a daze. Digging in my pack, I had only a single healing potion left, and I carefully fed it to her and rested for a few minutes.

Saying something in her own language she sounded better, but fell asleep again. Pruning bits of the old wood from the tree to keep the small fire going, I slept very little.

In the morning I woke from a doze to the planewalker's chanting. “Early greetings, Master Khelgar,” she said carefully after she'd cast her healings.

I felt fine now, aside from being hungry. “Thank ye fer the healing. How are you?” I started to rekindle the fire with the little fuel that remained.

She seemed to shiver and admitted, “I am well enough, even if cold. Do you know where the others are?”

“I don't know. Only we appeared here, an' it's too cold for you without more winter gear,” I told her, even if it was too obvious to me.

“I know that to be very true. I can traverse the curtain to return to my people. I would prefer to know what happened to the Sword and the Ka... Commander before I return, but I know that the Sword has left this plane. Its echo no longer ripples through the Prime. Though the destruction of the King of Shadows will be welcome news alone,” she said with the smallest of nervousness.

Wondering who or what she was reporting to, made me uneasy. Perhaps her people were as different from the gith as humans like young Casavir was from that sorcerer Jerro. I'd learned my lesson about pre-judging others for Oleff, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to be any less careful.

Hesitantly or maybe she was still tired, but Zhjaeve asked carefully, “I am returning to my people now, to resume the search for the Blade. This land is harsh, do you wish to come with me? Know that there are dangers there too, just not as much from the cold.”

It only took me seconds to decide, and so I told her, “Nay. I want to make sure the lass is well, and then return to my kinfolk. Spring is coming, even here.”

She nodded solemnly, and said, “Then fare well, Khelgar of the Ironfists. May you find satisfactory meaning and purpose in your days.”

Swiftly after that, she cast a spell and opened a gate to a silvery place before she stepped through, without another word.

She'd left the cloaks and her blanket behind, and I packed them up. She was odd enough for a healer, even if she was still good. Too bad she didn't have a real god.

Cooling down my shield in the snow took only a matter of moments. I would need repairs for it.

Outside the tree's shelter, it was a sunny day with light that was too bright shining off the snow. I could hear water trickling from the warm day. The first thing I did was to find a long limb I could use as a pole to test my footing and avoid crevices, and then I decided that continuing westward would be better than climbing over the hills.

I wouldn't win any races with the pace I was setting through the snow, but for a few days I didn't see anything aside from wildlife. I wasn't very good at hunting and I thought I could survive perhaps a tenday without it. I had a small amount of iron rations. I had plenty of water from clean snow I'd melted in a skin between my back and pack as I made my way through the day.

When I got back to my clansmen at the Keep, we had some things we needed to discuss. Khulmar had been doing passably well as a caretaker, but he acted more like a miser than a guardian. Both he and the others who'd come to fight had an energy and purpose that we'd been missing for far too long. The younger ones had been so interested in even the limited skill and defenses at the keep. We could do much better, but they acted more like they'd all been asleep for a century. My kin needed to wake up and give up their isolationism, or we will only fade into the rock itself and our lives will have no meaning.

Khulmar resented my travels, but we needed that energy from meeting and working with the younger races. Perhaps we also needed to reestablish contacts with other clans for their skills and fresh viewpoints. We could not let ourselves dwindle into a senility like that Aldanon suffered.

Thinking back, there had even been very few marriages and youngsters in the last few decades. Our shame should not have been that important to will ourselves into this decline.

After navigating around a hollow place in the snow, I shook my head. It would take decades to effect these changes, even with the crown. Coming to fight at the Keep had given them a taste of life again, and I had to push on that, even if they got stubborn. Even as stubborn as I've been accused of being.

That made me smile and think about Mistress Elondra. She was young for her duties, and I always made sure I used her proper rank despite her annoyance. But I knew how much those humans put their respect into the titles, and she deserved that respect. Even if she'd asked otherwise as a Greycloak officer many times, so my stubbornness was her frequent complaint even if she finally only made a face sometimes. The others in our crew usually did as well, after some occasional prodding from me. But it did no harm for her to be treated with proper respect by those in Neverwinter and her rank gave strangers some comfort in her judgment, even if she never quite believed that.

The lad helped as well, not that that should be a surprise with his training. Was a good lad, even if a little brash for one of His paladins. Perhaps he was a little too caught up in butting heads with the ranger, but he should have a little more faith in the lass. She was good and fair, for as sneaky as she could be at times, and I was sure she was fond of him too.

It was just too bad I couldn't have a word with the elders of their clans, to kick both of them along.

The terrain was leveling out, and looked more like farmland, even if I didn't see any buildings nearby. Sooner or later, I would find a road or some people. If worst came to worst, I would reach the coast travel south. If I weren't so worried about my comrades, this would be an enjoyable journey.

It was even nice to travel in the quiet, not that I ever really had anything I wanted to speak with that elven wizard about. He was just a bit too fond of his lectures to the younger ones of our group. The lad was either interested or more polite than some of the others. They were one of the few ways to shut up the bard and Sand was easier to ignore. I wondered how many of his cantrips were used just to clean and repair his robes during our travels. Even quality work could only stand up to so much time on the road without magical help to stay that pretty.

Unlike the poor lass Shandra. She looked sweet and feisty all the time that I knew her, as brief as that turned out to be. Elondra had been upset that magic couldn't counter the dark magics that had killed her. I could pray she reached a safe haven after she died, as I was sure she'd followed Chauntea.

The fiendling usually made me smile now, but seeing her so stiff and wooden in that cavern was just offensive to me and all the gods. She'd never sounded that puppet-like even when scared out of her wits near Fort Locke. Why that Garius thought we'd believe she'd turned on us when the mischief in her eyes was totally absent, was beyond me. I'd restrained her long enough for her to be freed, and her eyes after that would haunt me for a long time. I hoped she reached a more hospitable place than this snow field, she might not feel as much of the cold, but I didn't think she would be able to find food.

That was a concern for me as well, but my body was more compact. I still had a little food left after three days, but not that much longer before I'd have water only.

I supposed that having the nature lover along would be an improvement, as I was sure she'd be able to identify the weed I was tromping on as making a great broth. But for all I knew it was a great poison. She was a harder one for me to understand, as she seemed to complain at odd times when I first knew her. Once she got more used to how people lived outside her swamp, she settled.

Grobnar had never settled, despite threats from both myself and the ranger. Something I supposed I should be more embarrassed about. But he might be having trouble seeing over some of the drifts and the songs he'd play to cheer me up on this march...

Him, I was glad wasn't here.

I was also glad the spoiled sorceress had finally gotten the beating she'd long been asking for. She only wanted power, and to use that one others who'd annoyed her, often only by their existence. While Ammon Jerro had made some very bad decisions, and may not have resisted if the Commander had turned him over for execution, he knew his decisions had been questionable. Qara didn't grasp that anything was wrong with what she did.

I wasn't sure if that ranger was any better. He seemed to understand that some things he did were wrong, but he was lost in his anger, something my trainers would have corrected if he'd not been human. Good riddance.

After another day, I spotted some movement in the distance and turned in that direction with an occasional shout. I had to hope they were friendly. When I caught up with them, they were wearing the kinds of seemingly random collection of materials in their gear. They had to be some kind of barbarian tribe, and looked at me with suspicion.

Saying little, I was led a bit to the north to a somewhat hidden village. Inside the hall, I realized that part of it was set into the ground to reduce drafts, and most buildings I'd seen were not permanent.

Near the large fire in the center of the hall was a large elder, and when I got closer, I saw that he was on the older side for a half-orc. He peered at me carefully as if looking for something, and then met my eyes.

“Welcome to our hall, dwarf. What brings you to our lands so early in the year?” He said with more welcome that I'd expected from the other ones.

I gave him a respectful salute, and said, “Well met. I am Khelgar of the Ironfist clan. Who are you to be my hosts while ice and snow still covers these lands?”

With a short laugh, he gestured to a pack or cushion behind me, before taking a seat on an old saddle. “I'm known as Daelan Red Tiger beyond our lands, from my own time as a wanderer. You are far from your own lands, and we are hungry for news after a harsh winter.”

“Aye, I can tell you some tales, all of them true, even if I am not much of a talespinner,” I said with a grin, as I saw some tankards being brought over to us.

They had only heard rumors and little else about our war against the King of Shadows. And after I'd told mine for a while, I heard about the ones about his wanderings, and learned he'd been one of the ones who'd faced the late Aribeth. We talked far into the night, comparing eventually the problems we'd each had with our clans. He'd been glad to hear that Tyr's temple had recovered after the war with Luskan, and that the lad had a stout heart. I was impressed with his experience planewalking and fighting some truly powerful infernal.

Good friends by the time we'd emptied the keg, we weren't that steady on our feet when one of the newly woken people led us to bedrolls further from the fire. I got a late start and met his family before we spoke about my wish to return to the Keep.

Thoughtful, he admitted, “You are perhaps a tenday, maybe two from Neverwinter. We are nearly midway between Mirabar to the north and Longsaddle. You could take the trade road that runs between them, but that would take much longer than perhaps a riskier path.”

“What would be the cost for the safer path?” I wondered.

“Travel would likely take more than a month, as the roads are not quick to travel until after Greengrass. The other cost is that you would have to be handed off from tribe to tribe until you reached the upper reaches of the Neverwinter River. Some of them, especially the Sky Pony, are as clannish and prejudiced as wild elves,” he admitted with a slight smile.

I wondered if Tyr was having a joke with me, to send me among people like I'd been, but it sounded like it might halve my travel time. “Would they be violently so?” I asked.

Shaking his head, “Not likely, as dwarves like you would be no real threat to their territory or honor. They should be willing to trade news for guiding you to the next clan.”

“Then I'll do it,” I told him. “I want to get back as soon as I can.”

He was not surprised, and added, “Be sure to be careful with your possessions, outclan are usually considered ripe for plucking or challenge.”

A feast in my honor that night and I traded for some more equipment before leaving to meet with the Black Raven in a few days of travel. Daelan's advice and hospitality had been helpful and I found the slight differences between their clans, and greater from my own, to be instructional. The Ravens were more interested in trade, and seemed interested in opening trade with my clan. They had completely different goods than we made, so it should be profitable on both sides.

As warned, the War Ponies were less friendly, though by this time I knew better how to be polite. The weather had warmed, and I saw more of these Uthgardt outside their wintering halls. What surprised me was that the War Ponies were much more alike as a group than the Red Tiger and even the Ravens. They were all tall, black haired, and light eyed. They all could be cousins of young Casavir, though he had no family.

They had not warmed to me much, even with the news I'd brought with me. Still they did guide me to the next clan, some Tree Ghosts who would guide me to and along the river. After that my travels along the warmer river did allow faster travel, and I reached Neverwinter only a little longer than the tenday since I'd left Daelan.

Three more days, and I found my impatient kinsmen nearly ready to leave. I wasn't sure if Khulmar was glad or annoyed that I had survived, but he was a bit less obstinate after I told him of some of my ideas and plans after my journey. The new trade contact was welcomed with surprise.

He was a little less so when I spoke about the things I learned from seeing and speaking with the Uthgardt clans, as this was the beginning of change he was not going to be welcoming. Calming him with saying these should take a decade or two helped, but my pledge that I would return by Midwinter.

The rest of my clan left with him to return home the next day after we drank through the night in honor of all who'd fought. I would miss them while I waited here.

Neeshka and Grobnar waited here with me. I helped Katriona a little, even if she felt uncomfortable with asking my advice. I wondered if she'd heard a rumor about my new title.

Still it wasn't very many days before a thinner and travel worn Casavir came into the Armory. It looked like he'd lost too much bulk and needed to feed himself better. Plainly worried about Elondra, I thought it too soon to tell him about the War Ponies. He would never leave here until he had settled things with the lass.

--- x x ---

A/N: Thanks to my beta reader, who's been kind enough to point out nasty icky grammar and spelling errors for me. Any others that remain are not intentional... Reviews or a PM to let me know what you think would be very appreciated.
- 9
- 10
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The Rest of the Story