Aradina

Aradina paused, panting. Her long red hair was tied in a loose pony-tail -- her braid had fallen apart, hours before. Her hair was the same color as her red-hued chain mail. The leathers beneath the chain were the same red, as were her riding boots and breeches. The clasp for her red, oiled leather balandrana was a white, onyx horse's head.

Even her horse, panting behind her, was red in color. A strong stallion named Mimaxar, he had been brown as a colt, but his coat had turned redder and redder, with the passing years. His red leather saddle and bags were empty.

The mountain trail they were on was too steep for Aradina to ride her horse, and so she led him. She was instinctively afraid of heights, and held on to the reins far more tightly than she needed to. Her stallion had been a faithful, complacent beast -- except in battle.

Aradina, cleric for the Red Knight, paused, pressing her back against the stone of the mountain trail. Below her, a small saddle-back in the High Peaks outlined the lush forests of Erlkazar.

She shuddered, and took deep breaths, calming herself. "Damn you, Vax."

Her superior within the church of the Red Knight, Viradovax, had sent her. He knew her fear of heights. Yet he had sent her, anyway.

Aradina closed her eyes, and Vax's image flashed into her eyes.

His bass, steady voice said, "I have a mission for you, in the High Peaks."

He handed her a scroll, and said, "Take this to Druth Stonebender, Clan Chief of the Shieldbreakers."

She had asked, "Dwarves?"

Vax had blinked, and said, "No. Although it does sound dwarven." The High Priest to the Red Knight, at Five Spears Hold had frowned, thinking for a moment. "I wonder if Druth has been borrowing ideas, from the dwarves."

Abranis had then asked, "If not dwarves, then...?"

Her leader had said, "During the Goblin Wars, here in Erlkazar -- before you arrived -- Dhulnarim was under seige. Our other armies were engaged, and could not come to aid Dhulnarim. The city looked likely to fall. From nowhere, an ogre-magi came into the city -- and rather than attack, offered aid. He claimed to speak on behalf of Druth Stonebender, Clan Chief of the Shieldbreakers. King Korrax and I, otherwise occupied, had no choice but to accept the aid."

She had said, "What? What was your reasoning?"

"The ogre-magi said that the Shieldbreakers would come up on the goblin army's rear. We would not have to offer them anything, save after the battle, access to the markets of Erlkazar."

Abranis had nodded. "Ah. I understand. How much contact have we had, with the ogres?"

Vax had frowned. "Not much. They come into the markets, mainly the one in Dhulnarim, and exchange gold for luxury goods, and raw leathers and stone artwork, for metals and some weapons."

"Weapons?"

The high priest had nodded. "Korrox and I have kept careful track. The ogre-magi that carried the message, Blekth Sky... Splitter, I believe, was very cordial. Korrox says he is trustworthy -- and you know the King. He has a gift, in such things."

"I see. Then what am I to do?"

Viradovax had said, "This scroll is a more formal treaty, of sorts. King Korrox has already signed it, and now I've affixed my seal to it. There is another scroll, wrapped inside that one. Have Druth -- or Blekth on his behalf -- sign both. Witness the signing. And bring one of them back here."

She had frowned. "What do we promise, in the treaty?"

Vax had responded, "To come to their aid, as they came to ours, should they need it. Guaranteed access to any market in Erlkazar. And the right to petition for acceptance as a barony of Erlkazar."

Aradina cursed her memory, for a brief moment. She remembered everything she heard, with perfect clarity. The time it took to recall the talk with General Vax had allowed her heart to resume its usual state. She opened her eyes, fixed them on the trail up the mountain, and continued on.

Vax had cast a spell often reserved for travellers, upon her, allowing her to find the nearest civilized regions. The high priest had felt it would work, in finding the Shieldbreaker Clan, but Aradina had her doubts.

She had come all the way from Waterdeep, to study under Vax. His strategies were common teachings, among the Northern followers of the Red Knight. The Viradovax maneuver, in particular, had already proven useful in a number of skirmishes with followers of Cyric.

And Aradina had used the Viradovax maneuver on two ogres that had attacked her, and her horse, on the long journey to Five Spears Hold. She found the thought of any ogres acting good, a bad sign.

A sublte feeling pulled Aradina's attention to the Northeast. Trusting the spell, as she came to a branch in the mountain trail, she took the Northeasterly one.

Her legs were tired, but she ignored the pain. She had stretched, already, and knew that her legs would hold her up, should she have to run. Vax was very hard on his underlings -- hard, but fair. On Aradina, whom had risen to his second in command, he was harder. She had to run ten miles each morning, with the rest of the troops.

But she also had to run ten miles, each evening, with Vax. It wiped out two hours from her day, every day. But during the second run, with Vax, the two discussed philosphies, strategies, and tactics. The first month she had been at Five Spears Hold, she had listend, while he talked, while he ran. Later, she had enough breath to talk, as well.

Aradina's horse snorted, and planted its hooves. The young cleric paused, listening to the mountainside with her ears, her eyes on the horse's ears.

Mimaxar flicked his ears in a search pattern, and then settled on something further up the path. He flicked his ears in the pattern again, and again settled on something further up the path.

Aradina slowly slipped her longbow from her saddle, and pulled her drawstring from a pocket in her breeches.

As she reached for an arrow from the quiver at her hip, a voice from behind a boulder, deep as the rumble of the earth, spoke. "Nakar ekth mo toi." The words were stern.

Aradina paused, sweeping the mountain side with her eyes. There was only stone and patches of snow in the shadows of boulders. It was possible that more were hiding behind other boulders.

The voice spoke again. "Makath ekth duray?"

Aradina said, "I do not understand your language."

There was a moment's silence, and then an ogre slowly stood up, and walked around the boulder.

He was huge, and perhaps ten feet tall. Unlike the other ogres she had seen, this one was dressed well. He wore well-kept studded leather, over clean, well cut leather robes. His sandles were of newer leather, and of high quality. Most amazing of all, to Aradina, was that he was clean.

His hair was cut short, and held up in a tiny pony-tail atop his head. His saffron skin was weathered, and the ogre appeared to have clean skin, without warts, dirt, or sickly fungus.

Mimaxar snorted, but held his place. He appeared to still be deciding whether to engage the ogre in combat, or run away.

The ogre spoke, again, and said, "Speak some."

Aradina continued to slowly, slowly draw an arrow, the motion covered by Mimaxar's flanks. She said, "Who are you?"

The ogre smiled, his huge, straight teeth an off-white color in his yellow skin. "Me Traf Table-eater." He frowned, and asked, "Who you?"

The cleric of the Red Knight said, "Leftenant Aradina Zifothos of Waterdeep, cleric of the Red Knight, assigned to Five Spears Hold under General and High Priest Viradovax Karthamos."

Traf blinked, and said, "Not small name." He jerked his head further up the trail. "You trade, cleric?"

Aradina shook her head, at first, and then stopped. "Yes. Sort of. I'm looking for Druth Stonebender or Blekth Skysplitter."

Traf whistled, his huge lungs making the sound so low that it sounded like a ghost moaning within the mountain. "You want see Chief?"

The cleric nodded. "Yes, I do. I have a treaty for him to sign, from King Korrox of Erlkazar, and General and High Priest Viradovax Karthamos."

Traf Table-eater squinted, and looked further up the pass. He said, "Go path. Take you to clan."

Aradina asked, "And what will you do?"

Traf said, "Stay here." He thumped his chest, causing Mimaxar to snort nervously. "Traf guard. Hobgoblins out."

Aradina nodded. "All right, Traf... But please get back behind your boulder. You make my horse nervous."

The path guard looked at the animal, as though seeing it for the first time. He frowned at it oddly, but nodded. "Traf do, cleric of Red Knight." He slowly backed away, and then turned, getting back down behind the boulder.

The cleric eased Mimaxar forward, her hand still on her bow, an arrow in her fingers. She could tell that Traf was far more intelligent than he sounded; only his slight grasp of the common tongue made him seem stupid.

Her horse kept his ears and attention on the boulder behind which Traf sat, until they were well clear of it.

The distraction of the heights was lost for the moment, as the hair on the back of her neck tried to stand up. The ogre had seemed genuinely peaceful. He had had no weapon -- at least, not visible.

She turned the conversation over and over in her head, as she went further up the path. She wondered if any traders from Dhulnarim had tried to deal with the ogres. Vax had said they used gold -- but not what type.

As she came around a boulder, the path overlooked the clan of the Shieldbreakers, taking her completely by surprise.

There were perhaps forty ogres in sight, and she guessed at stone buildings for four times as many. Most of the ogres outside were tending to huge gardens of beans and vegetables. Some were hauling enormous buckets of water, and others were easily tilling fields of stones.

A group of ogre females sat together near the large well of the clan, sewing leathers and talking with one another.

The clan appeared to have stone buildings for everything. There were many homes, but spread out, in the small valley, so that they were not as close together as was the case with human villages and cities. There was a large millhouse, with an attached granary. An obvious, open-air smithy that was warm, but not being used at the time. Several buildings she could not guess the purpose of.

But near the well, one stone building was larger than all the rest -- it was even two-storied, with a three-story tall tower, and all were ogre stories.

The ogres themselves were clean and well dressed. As she watched, two ogre children, each perhaps five feet tall and close to two hundred pounds of muscle and fat, played and bathed in the mountain stream that flowed through the village, into a pond near the massive building near the well. The pond was artificial, and continued on down the mountain to flow away.

The adults were dressed in clean wool, though undyed, and of large cut. Glancing out past the clan, she saw the source of the leather. There were hundreds of sheep, easily tended by the tall ogres, and their dozens of well-trained dogs.

Aradina watched, transfixed, as one large ogre sheep-herder petted a small collie. The animal was no larger than the ogre's arm, and probably not much more massive. But the dog happily accepted the petting, even the scratching behind the ears.

Mimaxar snorted, and bunched up behind Aradina, pushing her forward.

The cleric turned around, her tall frame looking over the saddle of her mount.

Standing in the pathway was another ogre, though dressed in leathers, rather than the wools of the village. The ogre wore leather robes and sandals, like Traf had, but no studded leather armor. In one massive fist was a long bo staff, though to ogre size.

The ogre asked in a mild baritone, "May I help you?"

Aradina stared, hand still on her longbow.

The ogre said, "My name is Blekth Skysplitter, head mage to Chief Druth Stonebender."

The cleric found her manners, and said, "Leftenant Aradina Zifothos of Waterdeep, cleric of the Red Knight, assigned to Five Spears Hold under General and High Priest Viradovax Karthamos."

Skysplitter nodded, placing both hands on his bo staff, and leaning on it slightly. The staff was large, some ten feet long, and eight inches thick -- it remained unbent under the ogre's four-hundred pound, nine foot six inch frame.

Aradina continued, "I'm here to ask you, or Chief Druth Stonebender, to sign a treaty."

Blekth frowned, peering at Aradina intently. "What are the terms of the treaty?"

Aradina parphrased Vax, saying, "To come to your aid, as you came to ours, should you need it. Guaranteed access to any market in Erlkazar. And the right to petition for acceptance as a barony of Erlkazar."

Skysplitter was silent for a moment, merely peering at the cleric of the Red Knight. He finally said, "Those are generous terms."

Aradina returned Skysplitter's gaze unflinchingly. She had faced ogres before. And won.

Blekth finally chuckled. "I think that Druth will approve of the treaty. We've had some trouble in the other markets of Erlkazar, though Dhulnarim is closest."

The cleric nodded. "May I see the chief?"

Skysplitter was silent, regarding her, before he said, "As soon as he returns, later tonight. He and several of his warriors are exploring the ruins."

Aradina asked, genuinely curious, and her fear forgotten, "Ruins?"

The ogre-magi nodded. "There." He pointed across the valley of the clan, past the sheep herds, to the side of a mountain that was a sheer cliff.

Looking at the clif-face more carefully, the cleric could see that the cliff was artificial, as though a side of the mountain had been sheered away by some great hand. She said, "Dwarven?"

Blekth said, "No one knows." He smiled, showing that his teeth were filed to points. "At least, we do not know. The hallways come up to here, on us." He held his hand at about the seven foot mark on his staff, around the top of the ogre-magi's chest.

As blunt as the dwarves that had raised her, Aradina asked, "Is that where your gold comes from?"

Skysplitter regarded her for a moment, and then began walking along the path, past Mimaxar. The horse shied from the ogre, but did not balk or bite.

Blekth said, "Come with me, and you will see for yourself -- we do not rob tombs."

Blekth walked to the edge of the cliff, and stepped off. He stood, in midair, his feet far off the ground. Some of the ogresses near the well waved at him, and Blekth returned the wave, before turning back to the cleric of the Red Knight.

He held out his hand to Aradina, and said, "Your.. horse, will be fine. Come."

Aradina sighed. Seeing no diplomatic way out, she took the ogre-magi's hand, leaving Mimaxar behind.

She stepped off the cliff, half-expecting to find footing, but instead, fell. Blekth's grip was strong, though, and he held her up, lifting her onto his large sandaled feet.

He said, "Hold onto me."

She found out, why he was called 'Skysplitter'. Blekth flew across the clan, and over the thatched roofs of the clan at a fair pace. Aradina was scared to death, holding onto the ogre-magi with both hands clenched fiercely in his leathers.

So close to them, she realized in the back of her terrified mind that the leather was horse-hide.

The ground sped by beneath them, and the sheep scattered under them. The collies and sheep-dogs scattered, routing the sheep back in a circle.

Blekth waved to the sheep-herders, and they waved in return to the flying ogre-magi.

Skysplitter's powerful bariton cut through the wind of their passage, as they moved closer and closer to the cliff-side across the clan. "You are afraid of heights, cleric of the Red Knight?"

Aradina nodded numbly, her wide eyes transfixed with terror on the grass and ground below.

The earth suddenly plunged closer towards her, and she buried her face in Blekth's leathers, her stomach roiling with the urge to empty itself.

Blekth said, "We are on the ground, now." He pushed her gently away, but she clung on fiercely.

By sheer effort of will, she turned her head, and saw the grass waving at her knees. She quickly stepped off of Blekth's feet, onto the ground, and began panting. Her hands refused to let go of his leathers.

Skysplitter said, "I'm sorry. If I had known, we could have walked."

Aradina was trembling, and said, finally, "You d-d-didn't know."

Blekth tilted his head back, and laughed, of a sudden. "If only the other Shieldbreakers would say that, on occasion." He smiled down at her, and said, "Again, I'm sorry."

Realizing that she was making a scene, Aradina forcer her hands to let go of the ogre-magi's leathers, and she took great, heaving breaths.

One of the sheep dogs bounded through the grass, and paused, looking at Blekth and Aradina from a distance. An ogre sheep-herder whistled, the low sound carrying far over the valley meadow, and the dog turned, bounding back through the grass.

Skysplitter said, "I know you might not believe me, but I was afraid of heights, too, once."

Her fear and terror locked back by incredulity, Aradina looked up the three feet to Skysplitter's eyes.

Blekth said, "Oh, yes. I was terribly afraid." He looked out over the meadows, seeing, perhaps, into the past. "The first time I flew, my teacher had to tie a rope to me, and literally haul me up into the sky. I refused to leave the ground, of my own will."

The cleric of the Red Knight asked him, "How did you overcome it?"

Skysplitter turned his attention back to her, leaning on his bo staff. "I realized, one day, that I would always feel queasy while in the air. So I flew, and flew, and flew, until I was sick of flying, and had no more strength left. I stayed on that very cliff top for days on end, forcing myself to look over the edge."

Aradina asked, "And that let you overcome it?"

Blekth chuckled. "No. I was still just as terrified as that first day my teacher drug me into the air." He winked at her.

"Then how? How did you overcome that powerful fear?"

Skysplitter said, "When my daughter was born, she so very wanted to touch the stars. The other ogre-magi would sometimes fly, bringing in reports from our guards, or bringing a priest to heal a sheppherd in the fields. And she so wanted me to take her up."

Aradina listened.

The ogre-magi looked up to the sky, and smiled. "And then, one day, I simply did it. For her. Holding my daughter in my arms, and looking down at the world with her -- my fear melted away." He turned back down to her. "Do you have any children?"

The cleric shook her head in a negative.

Blekth looked sad for a moment. "A pity. You look healthy enough to have children. Do priests of the Red Knight take oathes against sex?"

Aradina blushed at the direct question, and said, "Ah, no. They don't." At Blekth's confused frown, she said, "I just... Haven't had the time."

Skysplitter said sadly, "Then perhaps you will never get over your fear of great heights."

The cleric looked thoughtful, staring out at the cliff-face. "Again." She turned to Blekth, "Fly me, again. Take me to the cliffs. Even if I'm scared, at least I know it can be overcome."

The ogre-magi nodded. "There is some truth, to this. Sometimes, knowing that a thing can be done, is all that is required for the thing to be done."

Blekth Skysplitter held his arm out, and Aradina stood upon his feet, careful not to mash his toes with her riding boots.

As Skysplitter sped up into the air, the familiar nausea and dread overcame her. But she knew the feeling could be pushed aside. And as she forced that thought to the front of her mind, the terror continued to increase.

Her grip on Blekth's leathers was tight, when they finally set down. Blekth had to help her let go.

But she had taken the first step. She had tried. And she would try again. And again. Sometimes, knowing that a thing can be done, is all that is required for the thing to be done.

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