Interlude: A Late Night’s Chat (D&D story)

[mellindor]

Hello, Everyone!

Last time, our heroes spent the night in Bytopia and headed towards Erathos in the morning. However, before falling asleep, Mary used her Book of Shadows to write to her Patron. This is their chat (which was an actual chat between me and our DM – how cool is that??)

I hope you like it as much as I did. It informs many of Mary’s actions and thoughts in the coming episodes.

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Mary watched as her friends slowly fell asleep and rubbed her temples. She’d read the entry about black dragons a thousand times, and the words were beginning to get all jumbled up inside her head. In order to distract herself, she opened her Book of Shadows and reached out to Gillean.

“Hey!” she wrote as cheerfully as possible. We are in Bytopia.
We narrowly escaped after a fight with Nurvureem.
We're safe now, but everyone around us is dead.”

Mary thought for a bit and added, “I mean, they say
they're dead, but they seem alright and they look
so calm and peaceful… It's very bizarre!"

To her relief, she got an answer almost immediately.

"I'm glad that you're ok,” Gillean wrote, ”and I'm sorry
about Nurvureem. I didn’t get to see your fight."

"It's fine,” Mary assured him.

She was no longer angry at him. Having this wondrous world around her had somehow subsided her strong emotions.

“I think we did pretty well this time!
Agatha teleported us all the way here, and I think
with her help we can even travel to the Fey Realm!"

"Don't go there,” Gillean wrote. ”It’s dangerous.”

"You should tell me more about that.
You promised!"

"I will. How did your fight go?"

"Oh, it was pretty tough! We survived
in the end, but I almost died."

"Almost dying? One of your team?
Colour me surprised," Gillean wrote.
Mary could almost feel his chuckle.
"You should give something really
nice to Bruno," he added.

Mary pursed her lips. She looked at the dwarf’s chest rising and falling along with his light snoring, and sighed.

"Bruno is a really great healer,” she wrote.
“But we've been at odds lately. We either fight,
or we don’t talk at all. Or, when we talk, it's only about
our current ‘save-the-world’ situation." She sighed again.
"I miss the times we had in Frinkeltong.
I think we were better friends back then."

"Maybe he's stressed out?” Gillean wrote.
”He's the healer of the group and he
probably worries about it."

Mary hadn’t thought about it that way.

"But he's doing such a great job!
Why would he be worried?” she wrote.
”Plus, Aurum can heal us, too."

"That doesn't make him a healer."

That was true. Aurum was capable of doing so many cool things, but he was far from *‘THE’* healer.

"Bruno probably feels responsible for you lot,”
Gillean added. “Your constant reckless behaviour
must be stressing him out. Have you talked to him?"

"Reckless?! Mary huffed under her breath.
“Aurum is the reckless one, I’m not…”

She hesitated, thinking back to the last several weeks.

"You switched places with Nymphadora,
risking your life," Gillean wrote, and it was like he was
scolding her rather than stating a fact.

Mary felt that she had to defend herself.

"Yes, but that was because she was going
to get hurt! Because of us! Because of me!
Because Nurvureem wants to hurt
the people I care about!”

"I didn't say you're not honorable,” Gillean wrote.
”Only that you're reckless. Which isn't a
bad thing, I don't blame you."

"But Bruno does!” Mary scribbled intensely.
“He doesn't even understand why I did it! And he doesn't
appreciate me as a real part of the group. He behaves as if
I was a child that doesn't know what she's doing!"

"Mary, you are a child."

"I'm almost nineteen!"

"It's not a bad thing to be a child.
Don't be too quick to grow up."

"I might not have that chance," Mary wrote in a sudden fit of grim humour.

"Now, now. Bruno's there."

"Until he decides he's had enough and leaves."

"Talk to him,” Gillean insisted. ”Try to
understand him. He's not led by emotion,
but by logic instead. Try to communicate
with that side of him."

"We might not have the chance to talk,”
Mary wrote, suddenly very aware of what their immediate
future could hold. “We're going back to Pamagos and we'll try to
kill Nurvureem. We can't leave her run amok there anymore,
too many innocent people will get hurt."

"I believe that you'll do great. And I'm proud of you, Mary!"

Mary smiled, a small happiness warming her fearful heart.

"The funny thing it's that this time I also believe
we can do it,” she wrote. ”You should have seen me,
Gillean! Nurvureem had concentrated all her bile at me.
She thought I was going to be terrified like before, but I was brave!
She splashed me with her acid, hit me with her tail, cut me
with her sword! But I survived, and you know what?
I gave it back to her, I managed to wound her!”

Mary beamed, feeling the excitement spread through her body.

”And I threatened her, I told her that the next time
we fight her, we'll win! I even think I saw fear
in her eyes. Can you believe that?"

She waited for a couple of moments before Gillean’s answer appeared on the page.

"It does sound unbelievable," he wrote.

"I was amazed at myself, too!"

"Next time I'll be sure to watch
your fight and I'll root for you!"

"Thank you! Now I really
know that we'll hold our own!"

"And after you win, Bruno will make you an armour
from the dragon’s skin."

Mary chuckled. "Let's not get
over our heads, now."

She was ready to close her book, when a thought occurred to her.

"Gillean?” she wrote, “can you watch over people
other than me? Lilly and Bramble, for example?
I'm worried for them and I was wondering if you
could cast an eye in their direction."

"I’m sorry, Mary,” Gillean wrote.
“I can only see you."

Mary sighed. Somehow she knew that this was going to be the answer but she was hoping she’d be wrong. She bid Gillean ‘Good night’ and closed her book. There were still a couple of hours until dawn. She’d be able to try and sleep a little. Her dreams were full of giant swords and flames, but then, the scent of oranges chased them away and she was left with the whiteness and calm of a dreamless sleep.

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Gillean is so cool! I hope Mary can see his wisdom and act accordingly.
She's been so untrustful lately!

Next time, we'll go back to what our heroes were about to do. Which is, I guess, splattering on the ground falling from hundreds of feet in the air! 😅

See you then!
Take care and be well!

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Episodes of Mary Windfiddle's story come out every Monday and Thursday.
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide, the Glossaries (Part 1 and Part 2)
and the Map for the series. You're welcome!)

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^{An important disclaimer: Mary Windfiddle's story is my notes from a D&D game turned into a narrative. All the worldbuilding and NPC encounters belong to our DM, and all the actions of the other main characters (Aurum, Bruno and Agatha) belong to my co-players. My contribution to the story is only everything Mary-related (actions, reactions, inner thoughts), as well as the writing itself.}