Caden

  As Milo and I walked into the bar, we were surprised to find it bustling with people. Despite the night before having been long, the morning seemed to stretch on even longer.

  “They let you loose at last?” the barkeep hollered over the hubbub.

  “Indeed. Been at it since dawn, and we’re peckish,” I hollered back.

  “I’ll cut ya a deal. Spin us the tale of last night, and your grub’s on the house,” he coaxed, and all went quiet. Lookin’ at their faces, they knew somethin’ of the night’s doings. Everyone sported some soot, at least those of our sort. High and mighty captains didn’t darken our taverns, nor would they have a hand in dousing fires.

  “Well, began when Milo and I were standin’ guard at the docks. Playin’ cards, since we couldn’t be on deck, when we heard this odd noise. Up we go to the deck to see what’s up.” I sank into a seat, takin’ a long pull from the pint the barkeep slid my way. All eyes were on me, so I slowed it down. “That’s when I spotted somethin’ in the shadows.”

  “Right, Caden spots it, points it out, and I loose an arrow straight at its face,” Milo chimed in, tryin’ to claim a piece of the glory.

  “True, Milo shot not one, not two, but four shadows smack-dab where the face ought to be before they closed in on us.” I got the story back on track. “When they reached us, they attacked all at once. Hundreds of them, and the closer they got, the more my blades found their mark. We might’ve held ’em off, but they started gettin’ up again and again after we cut ’em down.”

  “Zombies or skeletons?” someone in the crowd called out.

  I spoke, barely above a whisper, “Nah, it was somethin’ far worse, see. Took a goodly number of ’em to get us down ’cause we weren’t ’bout to go down easy. When they had us bound, they took our weapons, dragged us to the docks, all tied up. Didn’t see I had m’ lucky blade stashed up m’ sleeve, they didn’t. When they took us down, it was to meet their leader. Tall as a tree, he was. Biggest thing I’d ever laid me eyes on. Thought he was an Ogre at first, but then he opened his gob. Lifts his hood, and there he was, announcin’ he was an Immortal Grey Elf, and so were all his cronies.”

  “That’s why we couldn’t finish ’em off,” Milo jumped in, ruining my flow.

  “Right, we couldn’t kill ’em.” I picked up where Milo left off, but with a different tone. “This towering Elf’s cronies were rummagin’ through the other vessels, when some brave soul lets loose an arrow at him. Someone else had the stones to fight back, see. The Elf didn’t even flinch or turn his gaze, just pointed toward the shooter, muttered a word of power, and the ship blew up.” I paused to let this sink in. The blast would have woken everyone up, and that was where their own stories started. “Took that commotion as my chance, I did. Freed meself and Milo with me trusty blade. With the rest of the rats scramblin’ off their ship, no one even noticed us two.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “But then we were tied up ’cause we fought back and even killed some of them before they revived,” Milo jumped in yet again.

  “Anyway,” I spoke, ignoring him, “that giant Elf then looks me directly in the face, and then pulls out his arrow and licks it. As he licks the blood off, his wound begins to heal right in front of me.”

  “Why did he lick the blood?” a woman in the bar asked.

  “I think he did it to heal his wound,” Milo answered.

  “He did it because he was unhinged as an unmoored ship. You see, the next thing he did was speak a word of power, and he burst into flames. He then pointed at me and said, ‘You.’” I pointed out to the crowd for dramatic effect. “I want you to deliver a message.”

  I paused and took a drink, waiting for someone to ask the question before I continued.

  As if on cue, someone asked, “What was the message?”

  “Well, you see…” Milo started, but I cut in before he could mess things up more than he already had.

  “He said, as long as we have slaves, he would continue to destroy this empire one island at a time. At this point, the others had gotten behind me, and I had my knife out. I then realized that he was walking closer to us, and there was tar on the docks beneath our feet. As he got closer, the tar ignited, so I hollered, ‘To the cages!’ and the quick ones followed my orders.”

  “I led them,” Milo said.

  “Yeah, Milo was in front,” I said with some derision, but Milo didn’t realize I was sneering at him. “I stayed behind while the others ran, and the fire started moving toward me slowly. As I back up with my knife out, making sure they didn’t follow the others, the Grey Elf said to me, ‘Why don’t you stay and burn with me? I don’t need everyone to deliver a message.’ Seeing as he was crazier than a seagull in a storm and I couldn’t kill him, I decided it was high time to retreat. And you guys know the rest. The fire burned the whole dock while we waited to be rescued, and you all put out the flames.” I raised my glass to the crowd. “Thank you for that, by the way. We spent the whole morning being questioned by one group or house, then another. The minute we were free, we came here for some grub.”

  As if willing it into existence, a barmaid came out with my breakfast.

  “I don’t understand. Why’d he burn himself with the dock?” someone yelled, interrupting my first bite.

  “That, I can’t say. He might have been making an escape, being immortal and all. One thing I know, we’ll be seeing him and those Grey Elves again.”

  “I don’t know,” Milo cut in again like the buffoon he was. “The houses seemed pretty set on killing him.”

  “Nonsense,” I retorted, shaking my head. “They were riled, sure, but they know he’s immortal. They said something about ‘purpling him up.’ I wager they’ll try to capture him and beat him into submission.”

  ****

  Across the sea, Alf blinked and received the prompt:

  Reputation:

  Black Rock Islands ‘Immortal Grey Elf’ — Infamy “Kill me if you can”

  “What the hell?”