[Wyvern]

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR:

As the tall oaks in the Gael Serran cast long shadows in the late afternoon sun, Missy Hissy stepped out of the bony jaw that marked the entrance to Skull Castle, former home to skeletons, zombies, vampires, and one pitiful lich. She tried to draw in a deep breath of fresh air, but the fetid stink of decomposing corpses flavored the breeze, nearly causing her to vomit.

“Pfauugh!” she swore, rinsing her mouth with wine and spitting it out. “If I never see another undead creature, it’ll be too soon.” Gathering her loot, she magically returned to Brimloch Roon, emptied her pack, and filled her purse. With what she’d been acquiring along the way, money was not an issue, but she liked to play it safer than otherwise.

She stopped at the guilds to report her progress.

“Here’s your shield, Strumbold,” she said. “He won’t be needin’ it any more…”

“Ye’ve done good,” said Strumbold. “Here’s a little something to express me thanks.”

Missy pocketed the gold. “Any other work that needs doing?”

“Aye, there is,” said Strumbold. “Them wizards have had one o’ their own go bad, and they can’t quite take care of the problem. They’ve come to us to put it to bed. ” He snickered. “Guess there’s not so much good in all that high-falutin’ magic anyways... If’n ye can take out this wizard, this Ram-a-Camel or whatever his name is, ye’ll help the clan out quite a bit. Not to mention putting those pointy-caps in a spot where they owe us...”

“I’ll see if I come up with anything,” said Missy. “D’ye think the wizard guildmaster would know any more details?”

Strumbold winced. “Old Say-Basta? He might, but ye’d have to ask ‘im. And that, I don’t wish on anyone.”

Missy nodded. “I’ve spoken with him once already. That was enough for three lifetimes for me. Still, I have to head back to talk to him again. Took care of a little something for him, and I need to get paid.

Strumbold sorted through a small chest of drawers behind the counter. Turning, he offered one piece of equipment that Missy hadn’t seen before. It was a small tube, hollow, and containing two pieces of honeycomb, long dried and cleaned but still glistening slightly. “’Ere,” he said. “These may come in handy later, to save your senses.” He explained their use briefly. “Whenever ye have to talk to Ears there, these little babies are worth their weight in gold. For the work ye’ve done, consider them a gift.”

Missy thanked him and went on to the Wizards’ Guild. As she walked in, Sebastio rose to greet her. “You’ve done it! The menace is no more...”

Missy reached into her pocket, one eye on the vociferous guildmaster, and slipped out the pieces of honeycomb. Rolling them between her fingers to warm them up, she formed one, and then the other, into a small rod. Raising her hand to her head as subtly as she could, she slipped the waxen rod into her ear canal, where it began to expand slightly from the greater warmth and slowly blocked out Sebastio’s words. Well, they weren’t blocked out completely, but the noise was definitely muffled.

Missy reached out a hand, several hours later. “Thanks for the gold,” she said. “Anything else that needs doing?”

She should have known better. Sebastio launched into another diatribe, this one about walking trees and his desire to catch a seedpod from one of them. Once he finally finished, she asked about the renegade wizard; curiously, Sebastio tried to avoid the subject, even when she asked him in the back room, the spot where only guild members were allowed. Apparently, they Guild didn’t want news going on about their difficult member. Wouldn’t do well to have a member flaunting guild authority so publicly...

When Missy finally left Brimloch Roon, she returned to the gates of Skull Castle and began her journey to find the leprechaun and the other items asked of her. After sloshing through acres of watery bliss, slaughtering nosy shark after nosy shark, she came across a clearing in the brush. As she stepped forward, she was beset by a pack of forest raptors, distant cousins to the one whose egg she had returned so long ago. As her blade danced a scarlet tango among the fierce forest mavens, she heard a new sound, one that made her stop for a moment.

“Tra-la, troo-loo,” cried the voice of a little man in green pants, shirt, and hat. Slicing open the last of the raptors, she set on in fast pursuit.

Chasing him around the island, she tried to get him to stop, but he was having little of it. Reaching into her magical bag of tricks, she prepared an incinerate spell and soon launched fire his way.

It stopped him, and as she prepared another, the leprechaun suddenly disappeared. Cursing, Missy searched around, beating the bushes and knocking down trees in her search for him. Nothing. Nothing, that is, except a couple more of the giant walking salads that populated the Gael Serran! Well, at least those incinerate spells could still prove useful...

...and as she was attacking the jungle lilies, she heard a voice ring out.

“Ye’ll never catch me,” taunted the leprechaun, and in frustration, Missy threw an incinerate blast out at him.

Unfortunately, she was in the middle of battle with the walking salads. And just as she’d practiced at the warrior guilds so many times, she sheathed her sword, took out and equipped a bow and an arrow, and let fly at the obnoxious gnome. As the scarlet red feathers began their flight, she realized that she was shooting with one of her enchanted dragon arrows. In fact, with her last dragon arrow – the quiver was empty!

As the leprechaun ran away again, Missy re-focused on the angry lilies, slicing off frond after frond. Her jaw set with determination, she slew the last of the lilies and stalked off to find the leprechaun with renewed vigor. She needed that last arrow... no questions asked.

She saw the leprechaun periodically, with her last dragon arrow still hanging out from his flanks, flapping in the breeze, but he always disappeared after she ran his way. Occasionally, she could get a shot in, but usually, he just vanished into thin air.

In her chase, she found the renegade wizard not far from where she’d left Talrik. It took two strokes to send him on to the next world. “Not exactly challenging,” she said as she stood over the decomposing wizard. “You’d have thought the wizards’ guild could have handled him.” Still, a job was a job, and she’d spend the gold just as easily.

Her anger heightened, and her resolve strengthened, she returned to the clearing where she’d first seen the leprechaun and hunted around. Soon enough, the little green critter came back, and this time she was ready. Scant moments later, he was a tiny green stain in the sand that was slowly fading, and she picked up her last dragon arrow along with the leprechaun’s staff. “That ought to be enough proof for Miruth,” she thought, and she set her course back to Brimloch Roon.

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Enjoy.

*B*
Minister, etc. (ret.)