Suwannee

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Bloody Fingers: Book of Prologues- Chapter Eight

The round halfling shifted uncomfortably on his seat. The constant bumping of the sledded wagon made his lower back ache and the undulating motion of the giant lizards pulling the wagon forward over the sand was just disturbing. He had never been asked to take this trip before, and he hoped he would never be asked to do so again. One bumpy ride through the hellish domain was enough to satisfy his wanderlust and curiosity. Even hiding under an umbrella, the halfling’s hair and his beard were plastered to his face and his round glasses were constantly fouled from his sweat. Even his bushy red eyebrows felt wet. The ends where he had twisted them slightly in a wax were the only part that seemed to be protected from the sweat. He had stripped off his traveler’s cloak as he climbed down from the ship at the coastline and clambered up onto the waiting wagon. He kept his heavy coat on his arm, which earned him a lifted eye crest from his driver who was likely wondering why someone would bring a fancy coat and cane to the desert. 

Suwannee’s fitted jacket had quickly come off as well. Suwannee folded it and placed his jacket in the wagon behind his seat, still keeping his cloak and walking stick next to him. When the damned sun had crept about a third of the way across the sky, Suwannee thought about taking his pants off as well- but was distracted from the idea when his driver finally spoke. The dragonborn had not uttered a word since the cargo was loaded, just nodding when Suwannee had introduced himself. Finally hearing him speak certainly captured Suwannee’s attention.

“Suwannee stinks.” The creature spoke to him in common, but his fanged mouth had a little difficulty with some of the sounds. His ‘s’ and ‘n’ pronunciations were stretched longer than human speech- and his ‘t’ and ‘k’ sounds had a clicking reverb at the end. His speech was easy to understand, but the extra sounds just added to the fat halfling’s discomfort. Dragonborn were a variant that combined dragon ancestry with another species. In this case, the other ancestor was likely human. The dragon blood almost always overpowered the variant, so this dragonborn was a powerful reptile sitting upright with two arms and legs. Since he was only wearing a dirty loincloth, this dragonborn looked like a muscular blue lizard man in a tiny diaper who was driving a nightmare sled across the devil’s landscape. 

“Sssuuwannneeesssss…” The hissing voice came from just behind Suwannee’s head. Speaking of devils, the halfling had one currently sitting just behind and above his shoulder- hanging on the side of the wagon like some type of deranged monkey from hell, the long red tail just making it worse. The mental picture that flashed into his mind made Suwannee chuckle. He’d seen drawings like this; a tiny devil sitting on a man’s shoulder whispering evil secrets into his ear. 

“Do not laugh at it.” The dragon man said very seriously. But there were a few clicks in that sentence, and immediately the little devil girl started mimicking the clicking sounds. Suwannee closed his eyes and pressed his lips closed. This little devil child was trying to get him killed. 

He had seen the red skinned girl on the slave ship. She was kept in a little polished cage that had been adorned with red velvet curtains and she was dressed in a simple black fabric that had been wrapped and tied around her body. The ship’s captain had pulled back the curtains slightly to give Suwannee a glimpse inside before she was loaded into the wagon. The captain didn’t explain how she had been acquired, but did say that he had a buyer waiting. Suwannee knew from his research that tieflings were often in Shardendrian, but he hadn’t read any mention of them being kept as slaves. Seeing the girl caged made him feel uncomfortable, and the halfling had a great dislike of discomfort. Suwannee had released her from the cage just as soon as the wagon had made it away from the beach. 

The girl was still clicking and had started a little tapping dance that matched the sound. Suwannee half turned in his seat, his back twinging with the movement. “Stop playing, or I will have him place you into that cage.” Her eyes widened as she looked back to the larger cage in the rear of the wagon. It was filthy and overcrowded. It contained four starving orcs. All four sets of crusty eyes were focused on the small red tiefling. She shivered, even in this overwhelming heat. She looked back at Suwannee, her eyes still widened, and then her beautiful face tilted slightly. Her look had changed. The flash of fear was gone, and she now looked as small and innocent as a tiny little devil could possibly look. Her stunning eyes met his own and held them. Her eyes were huge, and the color seemed to shine out from them- a swirling vortex of red, yellow, and orange that was pulling Suwannee into the pool of color… It was deep, and deliciously cold, and it was the only thing he could see… Everything else in his periphery was slowly slipping away…. And then reality came crashing back like a slap to the back of his head!

“Do not look at it.” The dragonborn had just slapped the halfling across the back of his head. The cold pool evaporated, and the heat rolled over him once again. The girl seemed to have lost interest in the halfling, but she had finally stopped mimicking the clicking sounds of the dragonborn’s speech. Suwannee sighed deeply, one hand rubbing his sore and sweaty head.

“That was quite rude.”, the stout halfling said. Suwannee wasn’t sure who he had intended that comment to be about. Evidently, it worked either way as both the dragonborn and the tiefling hissed at him in response. He glanced back at the small devil girl again, surprised that she had been able to ensnare his mind so easily. He had some experience and training, so he shouldn’t have been that easy of a target. Plus, the trick with the eyes- it must be something from her infernal ancestry. The way she had used it to supplement and strengthen her charm spell was absolutely genius. This beautiful young devil was unexpectedly formidable. 

She was currently in a squatting position, looking intently at the caged orcs who stared right back at the strange child. Orcs were relatively new to this part of the world, but they were already known to be cannibals. They would just as easily swallow the raw flesh of a person as they would eat an animal. Most orcs, male and female both, were as tall as a large human but their bodies were far thicker and more muscular. They likely weighed twice as much as a human. Even starved, these four orcs were still very impressive figures. 

The slave markets of Yuk-Rein and the Eternal Darkness brought high prices for orcs, but there was tremendous risk. An orc was always dangerous, and the threat of death carried very little weight in their culture. Slavers had to torture and starve the orcs without killing them, using food and better treatment as the incentives for their forced labor. And if a slaver ever mixed different tribes within a cage, it would always result in death. The stronger tribe would kill and likely eat the other. 

Suwannee turned further and watched the orcs closely. Their eyes were still locked onto the tiefling, but he now noticed that all four had their hands intertwined. One hand was curled down and placed into another’s palm while the second hand was palm up to another orc. Their fingers were constantly moving. It was a language, he realized. The group was having a silent discussion about the girl. Sweat dripped down, stinging the halflings eyes and he turned back towards the dragonborn. “I am melting.”

The reptilian driver took his attention off the pulling lizards and glanced down to the puddle of sweat where the halfling was sitting. “Yes.” His head swung forward again.

The little tiefling girl burst with laughter, the true kind that takes your breath and makes your stomach hurt. Her laugh was just as glorious as you’d expect, and contagious. Suwannee began laughing with her, and soon the blue dragonborn joined in- releasing short emphatic hisses. This only made Suwannee and the girl laugh harder, which in turn caused the fat halfling to fart. A short but loud ass rip. Everyone paused their laughter for one breath, and then it resumed harder than before. Even the tortured orcs started laughing from the back of the cart. Turns out, farts are universally funny.

The moment passed and the oppressive heat quieted everyone back down. The wagon continued to cross the sand… Suwannee continued to wipe sweat from his glasses. The sun continued to creep across the sky… Time passed in agonizing slowness… 

Suwannee spent some of that time inspecting the wagon. It had a unique design that incorporated both wheels and wide sleds at the bottom. The wheels could be raised and lowered with a lever, so the wagon would roll on hard ground and slide on sand as needed. It was fantastic engineering and most likely a gnomish design or possibly something from the Gilded Halls, so Suwannee couldn’t understand why they hadn’t made it with a cover to block the sun. Still, it did at least make good progress crossing the sands.

The creak of the lizards’ leather harnesses, the crunch of their webbed feet pulling through the sand, the rattle of the cage, and the rhythmic thumping as the sleds cut through the top of the sand dunes were the only sounds other than the occasional long sigh from Suwannee. He saw no birds in the sky, and very few bugs other than a handful of wasps that would fly around and above them from time to time. The heat seemed to suck the energy from everything except the lizards and the dragonborn. Suwannee wanted to sleep, except he was afraid he’d slip down into the ever-growing puddle of sweat and drown. That thought made him chuckle again, but there were no answering laughs this time. He looked back over his shoulder and found the red-skinned girl curled into a ball and sleeping on top of his folded jacket. She was just behind him, squeezed into the shadow cast by his umbrella. Looking even further back, he could see two of the orcs had collapsed onto the floor of the cage. He hoped they were sleeping and not dead. The other two were squatting back-to-back in the cramped cage, their eyes scanning the desert in opposite directions.

Suwannee settled back into his seat, careful that his umbrella still shaded the gently snoring tiefling. The trip continued. Suwannee dripped sweat. He wiped his face and cleaned his glasses. And the trip still continued.

Eventually, the blue dragonborn glanced in his direction and then pointed ahead of them. Suwannee followed the gesture with his eyes, but the horizon just looked hazy to him. “If you are waiting for me to die while you drive us around in circles, just tell me.” The halfling grumbled. “I can slice my throat and save you some trouble.”

The dragonborn chuckled, which turned out to be more of a vibration that an actual sound. He pointed ahead again, this time starting a little further to the side and slowly moving his finger in a horizontal line. He moved it along in two gentle up and down waves, and then suddenly moved it more sharply up and down- indicating an angle. Suwannee wiped his spectacles and looked at the horizon again. He could see a spot far in the distance where it looked like the sand sharpened into a point rather than the rounded edges of the dunes. Not too long after that, the heat waves clarified into what appeared to be a low mountain rising behind a darker triangle shape. 

“Shardendrian.” The blue man declared proudly. “Home.”

The halfling merchant felt a small hand grasp his shoulder. The girl had risen and was looking ahead to their destination. Suwannee turned his head slightly and their eyes met again, this time without incident. 

“I am thirsty.” She said. “May I have some water?” It was the first time Suwannee could remember her speaking in a normal voice. 

The dragonborn reached down beneath his seat and took out a big clay jug, closed at the top by a large cork. He handed it to Suwannee, who suddenly realized that he too was parched. Suwannee removed the cork and then handed the jug over to the girl without drinking. The jug looked oversized in her arms, but she managed it with relative ease. Tipping it towards herself to drink. She took a long draw, smacking her lips when she finished. She then turned quickly and moved back in the wagon next to the bars of the cage. The four orcs were all crouched again in the short cage, and Suwannee felt a little sense of relief that the two hadn’t died. But he also felt fear rise that the girl had gotten so very close. 

The tiefling placed one of her tiny red hands through the bars palm up. She was holding the jug closely against her body with her other arm, so she used her knee to push up the bottom of the jug. She leaned her upper body and arm forward so the jug tilted. A small stream of water poured onto her open palm, her hand angling the flow forward into the cage. One by one, the four fearsome orcs drank water from her hand- their eyes always staying locked onto the little red devil. 

She then returned to the front of the wagon and put her hand out in front of Suwannee with her palm up, offering him a chance to drink like the orcs had done. The dragonborn started his hissing laugh again, short bursts escaping his thin lips. If the halfling hadn’t already been flushed from the heat, his embarrassment would have been obvious. He felt a rush of anger overtake the embarrassment and slay it like a hunter taking prey. But he kept the anger inside. Suwannee always controlled his reactions. A lifetime spent among thieves and killers had trained the halfling to always keep his mask in place. He had learned long ago that an underestimated man was far more dangerous than the person who really scared you.

“Thank you for keeping me out of the cage.” She said.

Suwannee felt his anger die. The prey had turned out to be bait in a trap. “It doesn’t look like they would have hurt you.” 

“Perhaps not.” She looked back at the orcs. Two were still watching her, but the others were back-to-back again, looking for something. “Their kind has respect for the Red, and I don’t think they know what I am.” Her eyes came back to Suwannee. “But they are very hungry, so……” She left the rest unsaid.

“What is your name, child?” Suwannee asked. 

Her lips curled into a beautiful smile, and she reached a hand up to lightly touch the blue dragonborn. “I am called…. Sssoooooooo Sssaaaaaaaannnnnn.” Her ridiculous emphasis made her sound like a child imitating a ghost. The dragonborn’s hissing laugh was so hard this time that spit sprayed out, fouling Suwannee’s spectacles again. Well, Suwannee hoped it was spit and not some type of venom. This little devil child was definitely trying to get him killed. 

“I am as tall as you, yet you call me a child.” Her look was challenging. “Why?”

“Because of age. The term child is not meant to be an insult, just a representation of your years.” He cleaned off his glasses again. It gave him a few breaths to think. To be honest, Suwannee hadn’t realized they were of similar height. He’d been looking down at her simply because his seat was raised above the bed of the wagon. And with her petite build, she just appeared smaller to him. However, Suwannee felt some embarrassment that he had missed that detail. Her beauty and strangeness had distracted him. Missing details can often mean death. He’d have to be more careful around her. She waited until he finished wiping his spectacles before continuing.

“You can call me child for now.” She said, as if she were a princess instead of a slave. “But soon I will grow much taller than you, and it will be a silly name for me then.” She softened her chiding with another of those dazzling smiles. 

“Soo San….” Suwannee felt uncomfortable again. “We will part in Shardendrian.”

The girl’s eyes widened, and she stopped breathing. For the very first time, Suwannee believed he was seeing her true face- and it was filled with fear and pain that almost immediately turned into fury. And then her mask fell into place again. 

“You released me from the cage.” Her voice was level. Just stating a fact. 

“I thought you would be more comfortable.” Suwannee explained even though her tone hadn’t made it a question. 

“You did not release them.” Her head turned to indicate the orcs. 

“I am afraid of them.” Suwannee answered her unasked question again.

“You should be afraid of me.” Her voice was level. Just stating a deadly fact. 

Suwannee kept his face and breathing from reacting, but he shifted a little more in his seat which brought his hand closer to his carved walking stick. She noticed. His walking stick was an oak cane just slightly taller than he was. The headpiece was carved into the shape of an adder that curled around the top half of the stick. She held the tension between them for five breaths without moving. Then she turned her back to Suwannee and proceeded to climb up and sit on top of the cage containing the orcs. Suwannee swiveled back to face forward again, his hand now pulling the walking stick up against his chest and holding it there. 

The blue dragonborn released a long breath. “Almost home.” He hissed to himself. 

The wagon rode in silence for a short time. Nobody had any reason to laugh now. 

Suwannee kept his face mostly forward, but his eyes were turned up and to the left. He was using the reflection in his glasses to keep one eye on the furious tiefling behind him. She sat perfectly still, like a pretty gargoyle perched over the four crouched orcs. Her stillness made Suwannee uncomfortable. And the halfling had a great dislike of discomfort. Soo San was entirely focused on the changing sky. The sun had crossed the sky and had just started to dip below the edge. The thin and wispy clouds that survived in this hot sky were painted deep reds and oranges. The blue sky itself was morphing into a soft purple. Suwannee rotated in his seat to see it fully. It was beautiful. The sky reminded Suwannee of the little devil’s eyes. 

She had heard him turn. Her back stiffened at first, and then slumped a bit. She turned to look at him, and her eyes were wet. The tears that were on her cheeks and lips looked like drops of blood. Suwannee couldn’t decide if they were actually red, or if it was just the sky’s color kissing her tears.

“There are no sunsets in the Eternal Night.” Her voice was level. Just stating a heartbreaking fact.

Suwannee always tried to control his reactions. The key word this time being tried. His eyes told her that he was sorry. His eyes tried to tell her that staying near him might be even worse than what awaited her inside the stone pyramid of Shardendrian, but he looked away. He couldn’t keep her gaze long enough to sell that second lie. They both knew it wasn’t true. This was the last few moments of sunset when vision became incredibly clear and vivid, like a glimpse into the Fey Realms. Lies unraveled in that magical light.

A high-pitched whistle came from the sand to the right of them! Another whistle immediately answered on the left side! The dragonborn shouted and the three tired lizards jumped forward. Suwannee had been twisted towards the back, and the surge tipped him off balance dumping him face first towards the orcs in the cage. Dirty clawed fingers reached out for him! 

But Suwannee was a halfling. He was lucky, and he was very nimble. Instead of pushing his arms out to catch his fall, he pulled them in tight and then tucked his head to go into a controlled tumble. He rolled immediately back to his feet and pushed hard with his legs, leaping over the side of the wagon into the sand. The orcs in the cage screamed in fury that he was now out of their reach. 

Suwannee immediately got to his feet and looked for the girl. She had risen and was now gracefully standing on the bars of the cage. Somehow she didn’t fall, even with the wagon crashing from side to side as the desperate lizards pulled unevenly- bumping and slipping into each other. The caged orcs looked up at the girl, but they did not reach for her. They seemed unsure.

“Stop!” She yelled at the dragonborn driver, but he did not. The wagon kept lurching ahead. The young tiefling looked back towards the fat halfling, and then she did the unthinkable. She leaped from the cage towards the driver. She landed and reached down to grab Suwannee’s cane and heavy cloak in her arms. And then she immediately launched into a perfect front flip off the side of the wagon. It was beautiful. It was amazing. It was the kind of moment that gives birth to a legend. At least until her feet touched the ground and the wagon’s momentum sent her immediately into a forward face plant. Her arms were holding the halfling’s belongings so she couldn’t save herself. She slammed face first into the sand and just stopped moving.

Suwannee ran forward to the girl as a blast of lightning flashed ahead. As he ran, he reached up and yanked at an eyebrow. He reached the girl quickly and placed a hand flat onto her back. He then took his other hand, with the pinch of eyebrow between his fingers, and drew a quick symbol in the air- the script sparking a little with gold flakes. He released his pinched fingers and there was a tiny puff of smoke. He reached down and gently rolled the girl over, taking his cloak and putting it on. He grabbed his cane and slipped it inside of a leather strap on the back of the heavy coat, holding it in place. Suwannee looked up as another blast of lightning flashed just ahead of them and animalistic screams tore the air. He picked the girl up from the ground and laid her across the opposite shoulder from his stick, and then began to quickly shuffle away from the fighting ahead. The tiefling groaned and started to shift as he carried her. 

“Can you stand?” He asked.

“My face hurts.” was her answer.

“You stand on your feet.” He clarified. He was starting to huff and puff from the effort, and talking was just making it worse.

“Put me down.” She said. “You are breathing too loud..” He placed her back on her feet, and then reached over his shoulder to pull his cane free. 

“Did you see what it was?” She asked. He shook his head from side to side. He looked back the way they had come. It was quiet there now. He placed a finger across his lips, still shaking his head.

“The dragonborn?” she moved her lips silently, just mouthing the words, but it had gotten too dark for Suwannee to see her. Soo San was from the Eternal Night. She could see without difficulty, even in the dark. She looked around until she found the wagon in the distance. It had turned onto its side. The cage was behind it in the sand and looked empty. She could see crouched forms, seven perhaps. They were reaching down and pulling out chunks of dripping meat from the three lizards. They were also eating from the body of the dragonborn. She could also see two steaming bodies off to the side. She knew that blue scaled dragonborn could spit lightning, and she could see the driver had died fighting. 

She turned back to Suwannee. He was breathing normally again and was squinting into the darkness- obviously not seeing anything but the dark. She reached over and pulled his head towards her so she could whisper.

“I see orcs.” she breathed. “They are feeding, but they will come for us.”

“We are invisible.” Suwannee smiled at her. “We are invisible to them.” He explained as she lifted a skeptical eyebrow. 

The little tiefling wrinkled her nose at him. “Suwannee stinks.” she whispered, extending her words to mimic the now dead driver.

“Yes. That is true.” He smiled at her poor joke. “Thank you for the reminder.”

The older halfling pulled himself straight again, one hand reaching up and removing a pearl from a pendant around his neck. He began drawing runes into the air, the air again sparking slightly with a gold flash as his hand moved. As he did so, Soo San noticed a tiny golden outline around their bodies glow for an instant before puffing into smoke and dissipating. She looked back to the orcs. Three of them were now looking directly in their direction. 

“They see us.” She still whispered, even though it likely didn’t matter now. 

Suwannee had turned slightly and was in the process of retracing the sigil in the air on that side. She could hear the orcs growling language and watched as one of the orcs pointed right at her. Perhaps they would leave now that they’d eaten. The growling stopped and nine hulking orcs rose as one unit, silently moving apart into a fan formation and walking slowly in her direction. 

“They are coming.” She now spoke in a louder voice. It was hard to whisper in this situation.

Suwannee had turned further still, his one hand drawing that same sparking picture in the air. He was turned away from her, so she just had to assume he heard her. It looked like he might be glowing.

The orc raiders had moved into a jog. They were snarling again as they ran. 

Suwannee turned once more, again drawing through the air. She could now see his other hand held what must have started as the pearl in its palm. The pearl was emitting a bright golden light. 

“That’s nice.” Soo San said. Her voice was level. Just stating one last fact before she died. “At least you’ll be able to see what happens when they get here.” 

The orcs were at a sprint now, undulating screams coming from what felt like all directions. 

Suwannee finished the last rune and the shining pearl exploded in a silent flash. A translucent golden dome now surrounded the halfling and the tiefling. The first orc to reach them just slammed into the shimmer, his face and head bouncing back violently from the impact. The little tiefling screamed just a little. The halfling laughed. A second orc had just smashed his face as well. The others skidded to a stop, their war cries falling silent. 

“Light, please.” Suwannee said to nobody in particular. The golden shimmer started to emit bright daylight inside the dome. Soo San hissed in surprise as the sudden brightness blinded her. Her eyes couldn’t adjust quickly enough from her dark sight to protect her. 

“Sorry.” Suwannee said. “Dim, please.” The glare retreated to a more comfortable level. “And cool, please.” The interior suddenly chilled. After the scorching day, it was an incredible feeling. 

The tiefling’s eyes slowly adjusted. She could see one of the orcs standing just outside the shimmer, his eyes closed and his fanged mouth open in what appeared to be a silent scream of rage. She moved toward him slowly, stopping as the halfling grabbed her arm. 

“You must be careful.” He warned her. “We can see and pass through the barrier. They cannot. But if you put so much as a hand outside, they would be able to pull you through. 

The little red girl looked at the furious monsters outside and she began to laugh. She sat down in the sand, her arms holding her knees, and she laughed harder than she had at any time today. Suwannee could see that her face was bruised, and her bottom lip was cut and swollen from her fall. But the girl was laughing and smiling, and it was beautiful. 

Suwannee took off his cloak and sat down in the sand as well. He dimmed the light a little further, and just sat for a few moments relishing the comfortable cool air. The halfling had a great liking for comfort. He soon began to yawn. As should be expected, it was contagious, and the little girl yawned in reply. 

Suwannee was very tired. The two spells had required quite a bit from him. And the dome spell had almost failed at the very last. That damned girl had tried to make him laugh while he was casting! 

“You’ll be able to see what happens when they get here.” He mumbled under his breath. As he sank into sleep, his last coherent though was simple: 

This little devil child was trying to get him killed….