Peregrin Old-Fur: Captured

After a few minutes, I was finally able to catch my breath. Never before had I felt my lungs collapse like that.
I noticed a small house touching the horizon. It had an open field. The house looked familiar and I started walking towards it. I felt so lost without Hortamus. The only thing I could picture was the cleric’s twinkle in his eyes and how death had ripped that twinkle out of them. I looked to my right and saw a body on the ground. The body had blue scales and had a stick stuck in its chest. I shook my head. The body transformed into a tree with clumps of leaves scattered around it. Then I saw the same body to my left, in front of me and then again to my right.
When I reached the house, I realized it was my own. It had been an entire year since I had seen this house. “I wonder what father will say when he sees me,” I thought. There was something strange about the front yard. It seemed to be orange and brown, as if the grass had died when I laid my eyes on it. As I walked to the front to investigate, grass-covered creatures raised their clubs and knives as they charged towards the house. I ran alongside a halfling holding a knife and a human holding a bow and arrow.
“How did you get here?” I asked the halfling.
“Ran through the portal, no time to explain.”
“Where’s Baris?”
“Father’s slave? I don’t know, perhaps inside. Look now’s not the time for-“ I cast a prayer in front of Jam so when an enemy approached, they would be injured. The spell shone as bright as the sun and it created a giant circle in front of Jam. “How did you-“ I didn’t hear the rest of it because I ran inside the house. As I ran through the house, I ran by items that made me think of my childhood: father’s chair, dishes by the sink, a glass of milk on a table. I passed the downstairs door and imagined a black fog covering it. I walked upstairs to father’s room.
I was greeted with an embrace that almost knocked me over. It had been twelve months since I had embraced mother. I clung to her tightly and felt warm and secure. She exited the embrace.
“Hello, mother,” I greeted her. She raised her eyebrows, lines appearing on her forehead.
“You were dead,” her frantic concern sunk into my heart. “You were dead.”
‘I’m here now, mother,” I comforted her.
“Where are your brothers?”
“Jam is outside.”
“-and Berhin?” I remembered the sight of Berhin on the ground, lifeless. I turned my head to avoid eye contact.
“Where were you, Peregrin?” My father demanded. “You ran away for a year and made me suffer with all this work. You are selfish,” it wasn’t the greeting I hoped to hear. A part of me had wanted father to be a changed man. I had hoped he would have been sympathetic when he saw me. Then again, I knew father would never change. He kept digging himself a hole so deep of anger, I could never reach him. “Why won’t you just admit that you killed my son?” My younger self would have imagined a noose around his neck, but I started to have compassion for him.
“Ignore your father,” mother urged.
“Mother, I am going to be a cleric.”
“That is such good news!” mother rejoiced.
“I follow Bahamut now.”
“The dragon god? Oh… that’s odd, but I am still happy for you. You should visit the cleric temple in the elf city.”
“That’s where I’m headed, but first, I need to know where I can find Baris,” mother took a step back.
“He…stole the gauntlets from your father. I don’t know why he needed-“I ran down the stairs and exited the house. I grabbed one of the horses; it had been so long since I had last seen them. I jumped into the carriage and ordered the horses to trot as fast as they could to Kemadri.
The ride was bumpy and I almost fell out of the carriage a few times, but I eventually reached the walls of Kemadri. The walls were blood-stained and corpses were scattered around it. It seemed that the goblins had already reached the city. I walked into the city and noticed flames that spread from one building to another. I ran towards Reen’s statue. On my way there, I saw a young boy who had broken his arm. The thought occurred to me that if I stopped to heal this boy, I would have no time to catch up with Baris. I quickly healed the boy and kept running.
I reached the giant stone man in the middle of the city. He stood with fists by his side, justified and proud. He had a few arrows sticking from him and a crack or two on his leg. Below him stood a halfling, staring at him. In the halfling’s hand were the bronze gauntlets.
“Baris!” I yelled. The halfling turned his head to the right.
“I guess Tylovine told you everything then,” he started. “We’ve been told a lie. Kemadri isn’t a city full of praised men and noble people. Kemadri is a city full of hypocrites and evildoers.
“You’re taking this whole thing too seriously! They couldn’t trust Tylovine, you have to understand that!”
“No, no, you’ve got it all wrong. Tylovine told me he was the one who asked for hospitality and they shut him out. Pippin, you must understand that they are your enemies! Do you know why I was condemned to die before your father took me?” I shook my head. “Tylovine found out I kept his gauntlets to myself, so he sentenced me to death. Your father had to run an errand for the dark magician. He decided that I could be used on his farm, so I helped out.”
“Look, I don’t care that my father worked for Tylovine,” That was a false statement. I cared, but I could care later. “what’s an earthquake in the city going to do for you? Revenge? You haven’t done anything to make the city mad. Vengeance? I killed Tylovine. If you want vengeance, then kill me.” He looked up to me.
“You killed him?” He lifted up his gauntlets. My heart skipped a beat as I equipped my mace.
I felt wind rush by my ear when I saw an arrow. Flying swiftly, it reached its target as it sunk through Baris’ skin. The impact forced Baris’ gauntlets to collide. The gauntlets exploded and the fiery blast knocked him over as well as me and the archer. Houses and buildings around us were either imploded or exploded. A mass number of concrete and wooden pieces fell to the floor. Plants were caught on fire and women and children ran away, screaming for someone to save them. My body ached from the impact and I assumed the archer’s body ached as well. When I looked over, Baris had hit Reen’s statue, and the statue lost balance. Once again, Reen had fallen towards his enemy, as the statue landed on Baris. I turned around to see who the archer was. He was my worker. I stretched out my hand to help him up.
“Thank you,” he said.
“I’m the one who should be thanking you,” I smiled. He grinned at me. “Where’s Cal?” The human looked at the halfling and narrowed his eyes.
“Baris murdered him. His body is just beyond the wall. I think he tried to stop Baris. I never liked him anyway.”
“I need you to prepare a memorial service tonight for these people.” He nodded and I ran to find Ericepaius.
I eventually found him on the outskirts of the wall. He seemed happy and sad at the same time.
“Peregrin, glad you could make it,” by the tone of his voice, I could tell sadness had overtaken him. Ericepaius stared at the goblins that were attacking the Goblin Hunters outside of the city.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“My son… he’s dead.”
“My condolences,” I replied, not knowing what else to say. He looked down for a while, and then back up.
“This is the last wave of goblins, according to the elves. Once they are dead, victory is ours.”
“I’m preparing a memorial service tonight. I’ll make sure Zaneak is remembered.”
“He was so young. He had so much going for him. He would have turned into a brave warrior, unlike myself.”
“You just ordered a group of soldiers to go to war. That takes bravery.”
“He wanted you to have his.” He reached inside his jacket and pulled out Meeka. I was very relieved to see her alive. She snuggled up to my arm.
“Once this is over, I’m making a statue of you.”
“Wow, I am honoured,” I said humbly.
“Go into the city and I’ll catch up with you later.”
“I think I have other plans,” I ran towards the chaos and blended in with the war. A goblin stood ten feet in front of me. I equipped my mace, swinging it around with the rope, and smacked the goblin’s head. I pulled the mace back and hit the goblin on my left, followed by the one on my right. The one on the left attacked again; I ducked and hit its arm. Another goblin ran towards me as fast as it could. Lowering my body, I waited. When it was close enough, I threw the mace to the sky, and the goblin’s chin came along for the ride. A whole hoard of goblins ran towards me and I opened the implement and casted a barrier spell. They backed up from the blinding light and stared at each other. The mace landed in my hand and I smacked the goblin behind me.
I could hear loud thumping that shook the ground. It reminded me of father’s thumping at my bedroom door. The noise intensified as time passed. I watched a stalwart run through the barrier spell. The stalwart stopped in the barrier spell to cover its eyes, and then advanced towards me, prepared to kill. I raised my mace in defense, but the stalwart violently pushed me off to the side. I bounced on the ground and the distance between us increased, but, with intense concentration, I ran up to it. I slid through the goblin’s feet, and wrapped my mace around its ankle. The stalwart fell to the ground and the rope snapped. I picked up the broken piece of the rope and put it in my pocket. The great beast stood up and raised its club. I cast the strength prayer and hoped that I would survive. The stalwart lowered the club and I raised the mace. The two weapons touched, but I could see my mace was getting closer to my body. I tried to push as hard as I could, but no matter what, the stalwart kept pushing me down.
A cracking noise in the wind got the stalwart’s attention. As it turned around, I noticed there was an arrow in its back. I looked in front of the stalwart to see a young brown-haired elf. The elf grabbed the air from his armpit and clothed himself with it. Quickly, I climbed the back of the stalwart and warpped my legs around its neck. I whacked and slashed and stabbed its neck until the beast fell to its knees. It then splattered to the ground, and I fell off the body. A figure in the wind walked towards me.
“Good to see you here, Pippin,” the figure spoke. I moaned in pain.
“Good to see you too, where’s Wilscar?”
“Over there fighting some goblins. He was very optimistic about this plan.” I rolled my eyes in amusement.
“Oh, trust me, I know.” We walked together towards the city.

“We are gathered here today to remember our loved ones.” I started as I gazed upon the crowd. We stood inside the city, by Reen’s statue. Humans, elves and halflings flooded the area and they were all staring at me. I had to stand on a pedestal so everyone could see me. My back faced Reen, who now had cracks on his body. “Some of these people I knew really well.” I stopped to wipe a tear from my face. I pictured each individual as either Berhin or Hortamus. “Others I never had the pleasure of knowing. Many of these people were tortured by the man in the cave. They knew that the man wasn’t only going to torture us, but Kemadri as well. They knew that if we didn’t attack, we would be remembering more deaths. Our brothers and sisters that have fallen on this day were not cowards. They were not weak or indifferent. They were warriors. They fought back against the dark forces of Tylovine and they were victorious. The people I met in there knew what they were up against, but they still went along with the plan. Why did they do that? Because they loved their families, they loved their friends, and most of all, they loved Kemadri. We will now take a moment of silence to remember our loved ones.” Almost instantaneously, women burst into tears when I finished speaking. One of the women that stood was the wife of Alfred, the prisoner who couldn’t work fast enough and had been murdered as a result. She fell to her knees and placed her hands on her head. I could empathize with the way she felt about Alfred; I felt the same way about Hortamus and Berhin. I missed them both so much and had really wanted them to come back to life when I killed Tylovine, but even I knew that you couldn’t change a death just by killing someone else. I noticed Tonito rubbing an elf’s back as she stared at the ground. Wilscar stayed with Ericepaius near a fountain. The dwarf that had stabbed me stood by his blacksmith shop and sobbed. I noticed my brother Jam and the human watching me speak. I stepped up to the pedestal again when I felt the time was right and made an offer to anyone who would like to come up to the pedestal and say a few words. Several elves came forward, speaking about their sorrow and the humans duplicated the elves expressions of grief.
The sermon ended and I received an offer to rest in the blacksmith’s house. The dwarf that had stabbed me told me his name was Travon. He made a large meal for me and profusely apologized for stabbing me. I smiled and told him that it was alright. Travon told me that he was one of the only dwarves that lived here and liked living with halflings. When I dropped myself onto the bed it felt soft, even though, in reality, it wasn’t. I had survived on a rocky floor for one year. I rolled around on the cushiony softness. It felt like I was going to sink to the floor. I grabbed a soft yellow blanket and covered myself with it. I slept soundly as I had not done in a year.