How now spirit? Whither wander you?

Posted on Mon Nov 21, 2022 @ 3:01pm by Civilian Jason Haines & Captain Maritza Soran

1,609 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: Over park, over pale
Timeline: What is time, anyway?

[ON]
There was a brief pop and an individual arrived in the sanctum that Cobweb had created. Standing there was a three-foot-tall individual. He had greenish-gray skin, scraggly black hair, dark eyes, and a narrow nose that seem rather long for his face. He wore clothing that an old earth cobbler might wear. It was dingy and torn in places.

The elfin creature had been spinning, twirling a spindle from a finger. When the intruder stepped through a shadow, Cobweb jumped to their feet. "Get thee gone, child of air and darkness! You aren't welcome here."

"I've got to bring the kid here as he is about to get himself killed again", the individual said in a gravelly voice. "And before you say it, I know he is not ready to be here, but if the rest of you weren't playing your games, I wouldn't have to do this."

"You can't!" Cobweb stepped up to the goblin that had entered the place under the barrow, and glared down at him. "I'll have none of your kind here. Not near Her Majesty. And our games are what's letting you move so freely. Think of it. We can keep the Crown ever in flux. The Conqueror on the Throne, and with the Queen within our durance the Crown cannot move. I'll not put that at risk by letting your changeling get within a league of Her Majesty, Nazalgrot!"

"The changeling, as you call him", George said. "is putting himself in danger to get that slimy idiit out of your precious throne room and protect your queen with his life."

The goblin scowled.

"If it hadn't been for Ceslin getting the boy to pledge himself to protecting the so-called Queen's Court right after his mother had died with promises of him being able to rescue her, I wouldn't be here now asking you to help save him. I don't care about this little struggle. All I want is for you to bring him here, so he doesn't die again, and then I will be off to my little cave so you all can play your chess match. We owe him that much."

George looked at her with stern eyes that then soften some.

"I owe him that much", he muttered, barely audible.

He put his hands on his hips and then turned away, "Fine, maybe the hag or the huntsman will help him. She might ask for a body-part or he might make him survive the hunt, but at least he will have a chance. I'm telling you Cobweb, this is a hell of a way to repay those who are fighting this little battle you have going. How many other fools are you going to get to die for her?"

"You're not thinking, Nazelgrot." Cobweb huffed. "If we keep the Conqueror on the Throne, and the Queen beneath the barrows, then the Crown is frozen. The bindings stay loose, and we can move at will, not forced into whatever forms it makes us take. Not bound to silence and not bound to inaction. For the first time we are free! All of us. You think the Hag will shelter you when you tell her you 'd rather pass on ending all the geasa that binds us all? She'll let the rest of your mother's children eat your changeling and use his bones as toothpicks."

"So, you are going to enslave them in this little game to steal your freedom?", George said. "So, you would have us become as selfish as the others who keep us down? Help the boy and he'll eventually be able to free his mother and she will help us. He will help us. As I am sure the Queen will if you trust them. What you are doing is wrong. Either the Conqueror or the Queen will eventually figure out a way to break free and then where will you be? And you say goblins are foul. Perhaps you should trim your wings and join us."

"Steal our freedom, Goblin." Cobweb pointed out. "You're just as limited by the rules as we are. This situation suspends the rules, and in our favour. We don' have to bargain for help from your changeling, or any more of your misbegotten family. I'm not wasting this opportunity, and I'll tell the Hunter not to help you either!"

"Oh, maybe you might be free, for a while", George replied. "but at best, when she figures it out, she will try to get away. Then if she is thwarted, you know she will die, they all do, no matter how many centuries you keep her. Then either a new queen or king will be named. Or perhaps the conqueror figures it out and sends the dark ones after you. At worst, the nobles figure it out. You know what they are capable of and willing to do. As far as the Hunter, like you said, there are rules. If I bring him prey, he must hunt."

George looked at her almost pleadingly and said, "I once thought highly of you Cobweb, it seems I misjudged you. You are acting like the nobles. The difference is they play their game much better. I ask you one last time, don't do this. Don't become like them."

"If I were like the Lords and Ladies, you'd be a greasy stain already." Cobweb sniffed. "All right. You can bring your changeling. But he goes nowhere near the Queen! He doesn't even learn she's here! Do you understand? IF I think either of you have even tried, I'll dump him at the foot of the Conqueror myself"

"I will not tell him", George says. "But what he senses or deduces, I have no control over. I've watched this one for a decade, he is crafty, intelligent, and has a good heart, like his mother. I'm telling you Cobweb, he will help us if you ask. Hell, he would probably volunteer to help if you just told him the story."

"We hold the queen from the Conqueror and we won't need his help." Cobweb sniffed. "Now bring him here, before I change my mind and let the Hunter have him for prey."

George shook his head and then closed his eyes for a few minutes. Then there was a flash, a thud, and Jason appeared on the ground, looking a bit stunned. He brushed the last remaining spider off his leg, which George then squished.

Jason looked a George. Even though Jason had never seen George in his true form before, he knew it was him.

"Thanks George", Jason said, shivering as the little bit of poison in him was taking its toll. He was developing hypothermia and the skin where the fang had slit his skin was frost-bitten.

Jason looked around. This place looked familiar. No, it felt familiar, like he had been here before. His eyes finally came to rest on Cobweb. He smiled at her.

"Hi, I'm Jason", he said and then he passed out and started to shiver. He had been through a lot the past day and the poison was the straw that broke the camel's back.

George looked at Cobweb and asked, "Can you help him?"

Cobweb gave him a sharp and pointy glare. "If the idiot went into her nursery, he's got no-one to blame but himself." but the fae was already tearing bundles of herbs into a small cauldron. "He's all soggy. Get those wet clothes off him and dry him out or he'll never warm up."

"Oh, he definitely has a touch of the idiot on him", George said, following Cobweb's instruction. He pulled a blanket out of his pack that was a little dirty. "Acting before thinking, gets it from his human side. Still a good kid though."

The fae looked Jason up and down. "I don't believe children of his people are that hairy." Something pungent was poured into the little pot and it was set over the fire pit. "I don't know why you bother."

"Meh, most of that's dirt and some blood", George remarked. "It happens when you are living in the wilds and having to fight for people you love. As to why I bother, first it was because I owed him. I got his mom in the sticky situation she's in. Now, it's because there something about him, something different than a lot of humans and a lot of our kind."

"It's onion." Cobweb sniffed, pulling the boiling pot off the fire. "Let that cool enough to drink. Once it is, strain it and get the liquid down him. as long as your warm him up, he should be fine once he's drunk it. And Nazelgrot?"

"Yes, Cobweb", George said, his eyes growing a bit wide as he sniffed the concoction."

"No more interfering. Once he's warm, you both go."

Waving his hand under his nose a little, he replied, "Interfering, I was just helping a friend. That's what's friends do. I helped him, so being a friend, I imagine he'll help me somewhere down the road if I ask. Heck, you helped him, so I imagine he'd help you somewhere down the road if you asked."

He paused briefly and then said, "but, yeah, yeah, he gets warm, opens his eyes and we'll to a different spot."

Cobweb just scowled. Long roots worked their way through the walls around them to form and archway, and the small fae vanished through it with a 'hmph'.

[OFF]

Jason Haines
DS5 Resident Beach Bum

Nazalgrot, a.k.a. George
Goblin scoundrel
NPC'ed by Jason Haines

Cobweb
Faerie Rebel
NPC'ed by Captain Maritza Soran

 

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