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Karamus Entry 5
Karamus sat up from the table as the children began putting dishes away to be cleaned. He took a deep breath and began to hobble along back to his den. As he opened the door, he saw one of his daughters sitting in his chair with ears perked and tail slashing about with excitement. When she turned to look at the open door, she let out a happy squeal and ran to the door, “Papa!”.
“Ug child, no need to knock me over.” he said as she ran into his legs, “Which one are you again?” he asked.
“Rila silly,” she giggled.
“Right, right,” he muttered, “What do you want?” he said as he walked over to his chair.
“You said uncle Vorkie was from the place with the fire sky. Is that the same place as your story?”
The old cansin gave a nod, “Yes it is. We met after the maze, just before reaching the central skull of the plane. He was flying in our direction when the dwarf snapped off a shot from his bow and the flaming arrow struck true. Enraged, Vorkaire descended and attacked the lot of us. It was a quick battle, with our company quickly gaining the upper hand with multiple fireballs and spells to sap his strength. Before Kort could deal the death blow upon him, Ashton cried out for him to spare the dragon for where there is a dragon, there is a dragon hoard somewhere nearby.”
“Being pretty much the only person besides the fiend that could speak to the dragon, I took it upon myself to negotiate with Vorkaire. His life or his horde. We managed to come to an acceptable agreement and he led us off to his lair.”
“Wow…uncle Vorkie owes you his life doesn’t he? For saving him?” she asked in wonder.
“Well, I think we are pretty even on who owes who now a days.” replied the cansin.
“What happened after that?”
“Well, if I remember correctly, we came upon a fallen angel. A creepy creature named Saureya impaled with spears. He had apparently been attacked by a rakshasa and a fire giant for not giving up information on the test. He was a sour creature, barred from the heavens because he didn’t want to save kittens.”
“But I like kittens!” cried Rila.
“Shut up,” snapped Karamus.
“We parted company from the celestial when he would not tell us anything of the final test. We parted company and finally reached our destination of the skull which began with a long spiral stairway up to the top. Along the way we nearly literally bumped right into the rakshasa and the fire giant. Needless to say I went invisible rather quickly while the rest of the group assaulted the fire giant. The poor thing got a swing off, maybe two before the dwarves cut him down to size. The cat on the other hand, proved somewhat difficult to deal with.”
“Why is that?” asked Rila
“He ran away of course.”
“Oh.”
“So we chased him down like a pack of wolves hunting down a house cat. When he finally stopped to cast a spell, I finally caught up to him and put Daystar between his ribs. He died quietly…” Karamus was interrupted by a high pitched yell of his wife.
“Rila, get in here this instant or by the Lady I will have you sent to the maze.” Rila’s eyes opened wide as she looked to her father. She quickly scrambled off his lap and ran out of the room.
”...like the sun setting into the night,” finished Karamus, knowing the reference would be lost on the child anyway.