Chapter 1 Rescued

I've decided to start keeping this journal in addition to the medical notes. A record of what I've gotten myself into might be useful sometime in the future. Miara was drawing something tonight, and she graciously gave me a piece of paper and I made a charcoal stick to write with.

I woke up today in the dark, on the hard ground. I remembered we had been battling ogres in front of the Dwarven Shrine in the mountains. Well, Og had been battling. Carmella used that damned rock of hers again and burnt me to a cinder. I think some of the others ran off.

I found Carmella, still unconscious: probably a concussion. Sean was awake, and Prestly too. Carmella awoke soon after. Og was missing and probably dead, and the four of us were captured by the remaining ogres. For dinner, I presumed. I was half-cooked already. Likely charred enough for an ogre, anyway.

We felt around us a little and discovered we were locked in a small room with no belongings and few clothes. Good thing we were inside. Except for the ogres, of course.

Carmella figured she could probably burn through the door, with some time. At least she didn't have the rock, or we'd all be dead now. She set to work as I started to do something about our wounds, but the door opened.

An ogre told us to come out. That seemed like a really poor idea, although it wasn't like they couldn't've just come in and dragged us away. Still, why make their dinner preparations any easier? Then, a human voice urged us to come on out. A fellow human? Could be a traitor, linked with the ogres, but maybe not. Our best chance, really our only chance. We took it and limped out. I grabbed Sean's hand and led him out, although I was as blind as he in the dark.

We came out and saw four people, two humans, a dwarf, and an elf, along with the bodies of Og and the dwarf. One human was really huge, and he asked us if we wanted anything from the bodies. I said we wanted the bodies themselves, of course.

At that point, Carmella refused to leave this place without the zoggin' rock. I started to argue with her, something I've been spending way too much time doing lately, but the big guy had no patience. He simply lifted her up and carried her away. Prestly followed, and the albino dwarf picked up both bodies. I led Sean behind, and the other two followed.

We came out into the gorge again, and saw there were three more people waiting at the mouth. We joined them and discussed the next move. Some foreign woman seemed to be sort of in charge, and I told her I was a physician and could heal us and her, as well. It looked like she'd been hit pretty hard -- by an ogre, I imagined.

So we slowly made our way down to the forest, where they again stopped to decide where to go. Stay here, go to the tower, to Kreuzhoffen, to the druidess. Carmella wanted to go after the zogging rock, of course, but we ignored her for now. I said again that I could heal people, and pretty quickly. It was already evening, so we decided to camp here and then stick around tomorrow while I take care of everybody.

The big guy is named Mongo. The albino dwarf is Goldrim something or other. The elf is Stoiko, and the quiet human is Ash. When he speaks, he stutters something awful. The foreign woman is named Miara. There's another foreigner, a young man, who doesn't speak anything but their language. Haven't caught his name yet, but Mongo calls him Hy, which gets glares from Miara. Then there's a boy, who's local enough but hangs close to Miara, and she seems to kind of watch out over him. They just call him son.

There's so many things to be done. I've got to get my stuff from the ogres: my medical logs, my maps, my clothes, and the book. I know the others want their things back, too. And Carmella and her zoggin' rock. Then, we need to tell the druidess that the dwarves are most likely dead, and we're due in Kreuzhoffen in a few days.

One thing at a time. I'll sleep well tonight, and tomorrow take care of everyone's wounds. Then we'll see.

 

I spent the day healing everyone. I tried to draw it out a little, since we're with strangers, but I really had no choice. I took all day, but in the end, five people who were at death's door are now as hale as if we'd never been hurt at all. My comrades, of course, are used to that. These others didn't say anything, although Miara certainly noticed. I'm beat, and I'll sleep well tonight I'm sure. We decided to go to the tower tomorrow. They were talking about burying Og there, and then I thought of the room that preserved Og's previous body and his mistress. If we placed Og and the dwarf in there, maybe the Druidess could do her thing and restore him to life. The foreigners seemed especially anxious to do anything that might bring Og back. I wonder if orcs are different where they come from?

 

We've been slogging around for days now. We placed Og and the dwarf in the preservation room, then we headed back to the druidess. Tonight we met up with a caravan, and Mongo was kind enough to barter some knives he had for clothes for the four of us in our underwear and some food.

Basic necessities taken care of, we had another discussion about what we should be doing and where we should be going. Upshot is, as sorry as I will be to have Carmella reunited with the rock, it's a piss-poor idea to leave it in the hands of a bunch of ogres. So, we're headed back straight to the dwarven shrine tomorrow. Miara tried to get at least some of us to go back to the druidess instead, but we all want to go back to the mountain and get our stuff back.

She sent Ash back to give the news to the druidess and bring Jason back with him and meet us at the shrine. I'm sure the druidess could have waited for some news, but it will be nice to have Jason back with us again.

A few nights ago, Sean was singing, and Ash gave him a small box. Apparently, the druidess told him to give it to "the songbird in the dark", and Ash decided that's Sean. Prestly looked inside the box, and said it was full of a clear crystal, the size and shape of the box itself. Sean opened it the next night. The crystal burst into flames. When it started to melt, Sean closed the box again. The fire didn't burn him; he didn't even feel it. What is it with us and weird rocks and flames?