A Quiet Life on the River

“I hate these soft-hooved, skerrat-spawned Dhogu…”, Ora Chey spat angrily as he ducked back behind the low wall. His old friend Dravu Raya looked down at him with a sardonic look, “Now Chey, you do realise the irony in that statement?” “Drellin’ aye, but you know where you stand with me. If you pay me to do a job or to act as a drelling guide then the job bloody well gets done. I don’t go and stab you in the back just for the pissing hell of it!” “There you go again, making crass generalisations about a rich and varied people…” “But they just drelling stabbed you in the drelling back!” “Well, you do have a point on this occasion,” Dravu winced, casting his head over the wall, before pulling it back sharply as a short dark arrow narrowly missed his thick skin. “I did tell you we shouldn’t drelling trust the drelling Dhogu.” “That you did, but it’s not like we could rely on your innate skills to navigate these gods-forsaken frozen lands. Possibly you shouldn’t have promised the captain we could?” “If you’d just looked after that blasted pet back home we could’ve collected the ransom. But no, you had to give it drelling cora berries, didn’t you?!” “It wasn’t my idea to try and ransom the Count’s beloved PreePree, and how was I to know the result would be quite so explosive? I think it might be a while before we can brave the streets of Gar Loren again. I do miss the cobbles though.” Dravu took that moment to duck around the wall swinging his heavy axe deep into the chest of a Dhogu that had been attempting to sneak up on them. As the stocky would-be attacker sank to the ground Dravu lurched back, slumping against the wall with a pained grunt. “I have to say, it’s a good thing that knife didn’t go a little deeper, but it is a tad uncomfortable.” Chey looked over at his oldest friend, uncharacteristic doubt suddenly crossing his pale brow as he noticed quite how much blood was blooming across his friend’s jerkin. ”Don’t you worry mate, let me look after these ‘nakspawn. You just catch your breath and we’ll be treading those cobbles again in no time.” He glanced over the wall, weighed a small dagger in his hand before ducking out and deftly casting the sharp blade into the chest of another foolhardy Dhogu. “Right then. I think it’s about time to get this over and done with before they work out quite how badly they outnumber us. Just keep a firm grip on that old axe of yours and we’ll give them a good story to tell.” Gripping a blade tightly in each of his strong fists he drew a deep breath, turned and leapt heroically over the wall. “Come on then you snivelling bunch of pissing hatchlings let’s get this…” was all he managed to spit out before a flash of blue, white and shining silver blunted his tirade. “Oh bleeding depths…” “Ah, good friend Ora Chey. I hope you mind not if I help?” Tal Dolani’s elegant blade seemed to sing as it danced through the air, smoothly removing the fur-coated arm of one of the gruff attackers. The Pallirnai carefully sidestepped the dark fountain of blood, his startling blue shield deflecting the poorly timed spear thrust of a second attacker. Pulling back his sword he tripped a third attacker with his scabbard and gave a harassing skerrat a firm kick into the river. While the two uninjured attackers tried to right themselves and the first attacker whimpered at his bloody stump, the Pallirnai paused and spoke gently in his strong Kohebi accent. “I think you will see now that you should withdraw. There is no need for more blood to be shed.” The Dhogu seemed to be considering their options until Chey barrelled into the nearest of the attackers, burying his knife deep into their ribs, then kicking them firmly in the snout as they fell to the ground. The last of the Dhogu turned to flee, but found herself looking up into Dravu’s impassive face before crumpling to the floor with a large axe embedded in her chest. The massive Engu pulled back his axe with a pained grunt. Chey bent down to clean his blades in the long grass. “Nice words there Tal, but not a good idea to let these two drellers out of our sight – damned furry-hooves aren’t known for forgiveness and that’ll just give us trouble down the road”, he explained, trying to keep any sounds of relief out of his voice. “Now I’m really hoping you are ready with some of that fancy foreign medicine – our friend here could seriously do with your help.”

Source: The Twilight Traveller - Rivers of Anyaral