Chapter 29 Chapter 24 Winter Vacation

"This is our chance," Wulfgar explained to Morik.The two men hide behind a stone wall that protects many villages south of the Spine of the World. Morik looked at his friend and shook his head, giving him a lackluster look.Not only because Wulfgar had given up drinking within three weeks of their return from Orkney, but more importantly, he had refused to commit any acts of robbery.Autumn is coming to an end soon, and the arrival of winter means that many caravans will return from Icewind Dale.Adventures in the North will also be away for a while, and the men and women who went from Luskan to Ten-Towns for the summer will go back before the season ends.

Wulfgar made it clear to Morik that their careers as thieves were over.So here they were, looking down on a small village that was likely to be attacked by orcs and goblins. "They won't attack from below," Wulfgar said, pointing to the hillside to the east of the village that was as high as the tallest building in the village. "From there," Wulfgar explained. "They've built defenses in the best places," Morik replied, as if that would solve all problems.They believed there wouldn't be many monsters, and Morik couldn't see any problems when more than half the town was there.

"More may come from above," Wulfgar went on to explain. "If you attack from both sides at the same time, the village will be under too much pressure." "You're making excuses for yourself," Morik said.Wulfgar stared at him curiously. "An excuse to fight," the rogue said firmly, which brought a smile to Wulfgar's face. "Unless they attack merchants," Murray said, more despondently. Wulfgar kept an expression composed and content. "I hope to be rewarded by fighting." "I think the merchants are more willing to pay than the farmers," Morik replied.

Wulfgar shook his head, not in the mood or the time to sit and ponder this apparently true point.He saw something moving above the village, and Wulfgar knew the monsters were coming, and being human, the barbarian would have no qualms about beheading those monsters.A group of passionate orcs spared the hillside and quickly passed through the area covered by the villagers' bows and arrows. "Go!" said Morik, and began to climb. Wulfgar, being a seasoned fighter, pulled him down and pointed to the slope where a boulder slammed into the defenses, smashing the side of the building to pieces.

"There's a giant up there," Wulfgar whispered, beginning to circle the mountain. "Maybe more than one." "Where are we going, then," Morik resignedly resigned, though he clearly doubted the wisdom of doing so. Another stone was thrown down, and then a third.When Wulfgar and Morik circled from among the rocks to between the two large boulders behind the giant, the giant was about to smash a fourth boulder. Wulfgar's hatchet caught the giant in the arm, sending the stone from its hand on its own head.The giant snarled and turned to face Morik, who shrugged and drew the rapier from his belt.Roaring, the giant took a giant step forward, facing Morik directly, and the rogue defiantly turned and fled back into the rock.The giant gave chase quickly, but as it passed through the space under Wulfgar's rock, Wulfgar jumped onto the giant's shoulders and smashed the side of the giant's head with his ordinary hammer, knocking it out of the way. balance.When the giant regained its balance, Wulfgar was nowhere to be found.Behind it, the savage rushed to the giant's side, shattered the giant's kneecap, and ducked again into the rock.

The giant began to flee quickly, examining its bruised head, then its knee, and its forearm, badly wounded by the axe.The giant, who had come to hate this kind of battle, suddenly changed direction and ran up the hill instead, back into the wilds of the Spine of the World. Morik emerged from the rocks and held out his hand to Wulfgar. "Great job," he congratulated. Wulfgar ignored the rogue's hand. "Just the beginning," he corrected, racing down the hill toward the battlefield east of the village. "You do love fighting," Morik said calmly after his friend. Sighing, the rogue followed. Below the hill, the battle hadn't really begun between the two sides near the defenses, and the orcs both No defenses were breached and no real blows were taken. The situation was broken when Wulfgar rushed down the hill roaring onto the battlefield. The barbarian jumped between the four orcs, arms outstretched, and his weapon swung in a circle, knocking the four The monsters were all knocked to the ground. There was a frenzied hammering, thrusting, punching and kicking. More orcs joined in but finally, amidst the sound of blood and bones being smashed, Wulfgar could see the only living creature.

Encouraged by his stunning attack and the fact that Morik had just slain an orc who stood in his way and appeared on the battlefield, the villagers also rushed out from behind the defenses to join the fray.Those who could still run among the defeated monsters fled in disorder. When Morik found Wulfgar, the barbarian, surrounded by villagers, congratulated him with a pat on the shoulder and promised that he would always be welcome here, and of course they could live here this winter up. "Look," Wulfgar said to Morik, smiling happily. "It's much easier than working on mountain roads."

The rogue looked suspiciously at his friend as he sheathed his sword.The fight was easy indeed, easier even than Wulfgar had predicted, and his predictions were often overly optimistic.Morik, too, is soon surrounded by optimistic villagers, including several young and attractive women.Then a cozy winter's day in front of the fire isn't such a bad thing.Perhaps, he would delay Luskan's plans. The first three months of Meralda's marriage were wonderful and pleasant.Not full of joy, but at least not bad, and for the first time in years he was seen her mother starting to grow strong and healthy.Even life in the castle wasn't as bad as she thought.Except, of course, Priscilla, who was never expected to show a moment's friendship, and who often glared at her, but she did nothing against Meralda.How was she going to deal with a sister-in-law who was clearly smitten with her own brother?

She also begins to fall in love with her husband.Coupled with the recovery of her mother's health, this is indeed a wonderful, pleasant, comfortable and hopeful autumn. But as Orkney's winter gradually approached, clouds once again covered the castle. Jacques' baby started to move around from time to time to remind Meralda that her terrible lie could be exposed at any time.She found herself thinking about Jake Scully a lot lately, thinking about a lot of the stupid things she did with him, thinking about the last moments of his life when he gave his whole life for her calling her name Time.Some Meralda was convinced at the time that he was more jealous of Lord Feringal than he loved himself.Now, as Meralda's doubts grew while Jacques' baby kept kicking in her stomach, she was beginning to feel less sure.Maybe Jac loved her all the way to the end.Perhaps it will take a long time to discover that their passion that night has been not only in her body, but also in her psychology to perpetuate this reality of the farmer.

Like hers, the gloom of winter affected her new husband's mood.As Meralda's belly grew, so did their flirting.On a snowy morning.As he was kissing her, he stopped suddenly and asked her a question she had never thought of. What about her time with the Savage? As you can imagine, it hurt more than a direct kick to her head, but Meralda was not angry with her husband, and she could understand that it was his suspicion and Fear made him feel alienated from her, not to mention that she had really had other men. Once the baby is born and taken away, her relationship with Feringo will normalize.After that, when those pressures of his are gone, they fall deeply in love with each other.Now, she can only hope their relationship doesn't fall apart in the months before the baby is born and taken away.

Of course, while the relationship between Feringal and Meralda became tense, Priscilla's glares also made Meralda uncomfortable at times.It was Lord Feringal's fascination with her that gave her the power to secretly fight Priscilla, but as she grew up with another man's child in her belly, she found her power severely weakened. Though Priscilla's initial reaction to knowing she had been raped was mulled over, she didn't understand it.Priscilla even mentioned raising the child as her own, rather than taking the child away from the castle, as is the usual practice. "It's unusual, I mean your belly has grown so big in such a short period of time," Priscilla snapped at her the same day Feringal asked her about Wulfgar.It made Meralda think that the pungent woman had clearly sensed the growing tension between the couple.Priscilla told Meralda in an unusually venomous and hateful voice that as time passed, her sister-in-law was getting closer to the truth.There would be trouble, indeed Priscilla would have doubts when Meralda's belly had grown so large after only seven months. Meralda diverted the subject by her fear that the size of the barbarian's child might cause pain in labor.This made Priscilla quiet for a short time, but Meralda knew that this silence would not last long, and she would still attack. Indeed, as winter wore on and Meralda's belly grew, speculation began to circulate around Orkney as to the date of her child's confinement.There was also talk about the tragic death of Jacques Scully. Meralda was not stupid. Although no one asked her directly, she saw people pointing at her and the nervous look on her mother's face. expression. The expected reproach from Priscilla finally came. "You will give birth in March," Prasiri said sharply, as she dined with Meralda and Butler Temigast.The spring equinox was coming soon, but the cold weather did not end soon, and a snowstorm deposited a lot of snow near the castle. Meralda looked at Prasiri suspiciously. "In mid-March," Priscilla continued. "Or late in the month, and maybe a little later, early in the month of storms." "Are you feeling pregnant?" Steward Temigast added to the conversation. Again, Meralda sensed that this man was her ally.He also knew she had lied, or at least he was as suspicious of her lies as Priscilla was, but he showed no hostility towards Meralda.She began to think of Temigast as her father, but the relationship seemed closer when she thought of Doni Gundry's suspicions of lying to her the morning after her night with Jaka . "I feel like there's going to be a problem," Prasiri replied, implying that the physical fertility problems Meralda had mentioned earlier were not a problem.Prasiri glared at Meralda, threw off her napkin and got up hastily to go upstairs. "What does she mean?" Meralda asked Temigest, with fear in her eyes.Before he could answer, she knew the answer—there was a loud noise from upstairs.Although inaudible, it was clear that Prasiri, who had just left, had said something to her brother. "What to do?" Meralda asked again, and Temigast motioned her to be quiet. "Keep eating, my lady," he said quietly. "You must stay healthy, in order to meet the upcoming delivery." Meralda found the answer in these words. "I'm sure, as long as you stay witty, all of this will pass." The old housekeeper winked at her reassuringly at the same time. "When it's all over, you'll find the life you want." Meralda wanted so much to lean on the old man's shoulder, or to leave the castle and return to the warm and spacious house Feringal had given her family, and lean on her father's shoulder.She took a deep breath to keep herself, as Temigast said, from eating. The snow fell earlier and soon became very deep.Morik might have favored Luskan, but he also understood Wulfgar's choice to spend the winter here.There is a lot of work to be done here, especially after a blizzard, when the ground and defenses have to be cleared of snow.But Morik avoided most of the work by pretending to have been wounded in the fight when they had come. Even then Wulfgar was working non-stop, keeping his body occupied so that he had no time to think or dream.Errtu still followed him, as he did everywhere he had been or would be.But now, the Savage was not imprisoned by these memories, he was able to face them, to relive those events, terrible as they were, but he was able to force himself to admit that they had happened, all of them, including his own weaknesses and fears.Many times, Wulfgar sat alone in the dark corner of his room, shivering, cold sweat mixed with tears, and he could no longer hold back his emotions.Many times, he wanted to run and ask Morik for a drink, but he didn't have any in the end. He growled trying to hold on to his resolve to overcome and surpass the past.Wulfgar didn't know where all this courage and determination came from, but he sensed that it was something hidden deep within him, an inner character that had been called up when he saw the courage Meralda displayed when he set him free. .She lost more than he did. Thinking of these, he regained his confidence in this world.He knew now that his fight with Errtu would continue until he was completely victorious, and before that, he would be bound by the memory for a long time, but not forever. They had another skirmish with a squad of orcs before the year was over.The villagers foresaw the attack and prepared the battlefield in advance. They sprinkled a layer of melted snow on the battlefield, so that when the orcs attacked, they found that they could only slip on the ice and become living targets for the archers.The battle ended quickly, without disturbing Wulfgar and Morik's lives here. But a group of Luskan soldiers who came here after getting lost on patrol made them feel uneasy and broke their peace.Wulfgar was sure that at least a few of the soldiers recognized their pair of prisoners at the Prisoner's Fair, but if the soldiers didn't say anything, the villagers didn't care at all.After the soldiers left, they found nothing unusual. After all, it was the calmest winter Wulfgar and Morik had ever had, a timely vacation.The snow was still thick, but spring was upon us, and the duo had begun planning for the future. "No more robbers," Wulfgar reminded Morik on a quiet night in the middle of the month. "Okay," the rogue agreed. "I don't miss that part of my life either." "So what is Morik going to be now?" "I'm afraid I want Luskan," continued the rogue. "My home, and always will be my home." "Your disguise is enough to keep you safe?" Wulfgar asked concerned. Morik smiled. "People have short memories, my friend," he explained, secretly hoping that the drow had short memories too—luskan meant giving up watching Wulfgar task. "Because we are the only ones out of hundreds of prisoners in the history of Prisoner's Carnival who left without bloodshed. My disguise will protect me from the authorities, and my real identity will earn me more respect in the streets. .” Wulfgar nodded, not being as suspicious of Morik as he had been at first.Outside the city, the thief is not as impressive as he is on the streets, where there is little room for him to work his tricks. "So what does Wulfgar want to be?" Morik asked, surprised at the worry in his voice. "Icewind Dale?" Morik guessed. "With old friends?" The Savage shook his head, for he did not know where the road before him led.It almost didn't take him a second to rule it out, but he gave it serious consideration anyway.Is he really ready to go back to his former team?Back to being himself, with Drizzt, Bruno, Catti-brie, Guenhwyvar, and Regis as "comrades in the hall"?Has he escaped the demon and the prison he has brought upon him? Has he finished his way out of Errtu alone? "No," he told himself with certainty, and said the answer, he was not yet able to function normally. Greet the eyes of old friends. Morik nodded, though a little surprised at his own reasoning.It hadn't occurred to him that Wulfgar would return to Skan with him.Disguising the big man would be difficult, but more than that, he worried that his friend would be caught by the dark elves. "She's playing you like a fool, and all Orkney knows, Flynn!" Prasiri shouted to her brother. "Don't tell me that!" he said through gritted teeth, pushing past her and trying to find something else to distract him. "You know I hate gossip." Prasiri didn't stop there. "Can you deny the timing of her pregnancy?" she continued pressing. "She's going to give birth in two weeks." "The Savage is big," growled Feringal. "The baby is also very large, which makes you misjudge the timing of labor." "The baby will be just like any other baby," Prasili retorted, "and you'll know when it's born this month." Her brother started walking away. "I bet it's going to be a pretty little guy with the same curvy brown hair as his father." That made Feringo pause and look at her "his dead father," and the woman finished her sentence, a little Didn't pull it off either. Lord Feringal walked over suddenly and slapped his sister.Calmed by his actions, he took two steps back, staring blankly at his hands. "My poor brother," Prasili replied, running his hands over his swollen face. "You will know." Dropping this sentence, she walked to her room. Lord Feringal froze there, trying to get his breathing steady for a long time. Just three days after their discussion, Morik and Wulfgar left the village as the weather warmed and the snow melted.Villagers don't want to see them go, because melting snow is often a precursor to monster attacks.But the two of them, especially Morik, who couldn't wait to leave, didn't listen to their entreaties. "Perhaps I'll come back," Wulfgar said, and he did think so, once he and Morik had to live outside Luskan again.After all, where else could the barbarians go? The mountain roads were muddy and winding, and most of the time they could only walk cautiously on their horses.It wasn't until the plains directly north of Luskan that the road started to get easier. "You left the wagon and supplies there when you left the cave," Morik said. Wulfgar thought the rogue might have felt a little guilty for almost abandoning him when he was caught. "I bet the cave won't be so empty after winter," said the Savage. "Not just as much as we left, I guess." "And take the extras too," Morik said, blinking. "Maybe a giant, there's no creature Wulfgar fears." The words brought smiles to their faces, but it didn't last long. "You should stay in the village," Morik commented. "Not Luskan with me, where you are as good a place to sit and think about your future travels as anywhere." They came to a fork in the road.One leads to Luskan to the south and the other to the west.When Morik noticed Wulfgar, he saw that the man was staring at the second road, leading to the part where he had been imprisoned, which Morik had tried to get him out of (Morik said ) that little territory. "You want revenge?" asked the thief. Wulfgar watched him curiously. "Almost wanted to," he replied. "I just want to know how the lady is doing now." "The one who falsely accused you of rape?" Morik asked. Wulfgar shrugged, as if he didn't want to admit it. "She's pregnant," he explained, "and scared." "You believe she cuckolded her husband?" Morik asked. Wulfgar pursed his lips and nodded. "So she's trying to save her name with your life," Morik scoffed. "Typical ladylike behavior." Wulfgar didn't answer, but he didn't think so.Savage knew she never wanted him to be caught, and now he was curious to know how she had solved her personal problems.It would be understandable if she failed to keep her reputation. "She must have been born by now," he muttered. "I wonder what their kids will do when they find out it's clearly not mine." Morik was beginning to understand what Wulfgar wanted. "I would not be glad to know your fate if you go back," said Morik dryly. "There's no way you can get into that town without being recognized." Wulfgar nodded, not denying it, but he kept smiling, looking at Morik. "But you can," he said. It took Morik a long time to understand his friend's words. "If I don't go to Luskan," he replied. "The way is up to us, and we have time," Wulfgar said. "You mean we're going to climb over to the other side of the mountain now that winter isn't quite over? Any snowstorm could bury us." Morik continued to object, but Wulfgar could tell from the rogue's tone. Heard him start to consider his proposal "There's no such thing as a 'blizzard' this far south." Morik's lips moved. "Help me one last time?" Wulfgar asked. "Why do you care so much about her?" Morik argued. "She almost killed you, and in a brutal way that would have nearly cheered the Prisoner's Carnival crowd." Wulfgar shrugged, not knowing what to say, but he wasn't going to give up. "Just for our last friendship." He countered sharply. "We may never see each other again." Morik moved the corner of his mouth again, "For me, the last battle by your side will always be the next one." He said humorously. "You must admit that you are no warrior without me!" Wulfgar almost had to laugh at Morik's words, but he just accepted it with a resigned expression. "Let's go, then," Morik grumbled, admitting that Wulfgar knew he would eventually agree. "I'll be playing Duke Brandberg. I only hope Feringal will take Brandberg's presence and your escape as a coincidence." "If I am caught, I will tell Lord Feringal that you are not my accomplice," Wulfgar said, a sly smile behind his thick beard. "You won't know how to comfort me," whispered Morik as he followed his friend westward. Orkney would be in trouble.