The Hybrid: Chasing Destiny

Ava still bristled when she stomped back home. Beast trailed silently behind her.

Elf monkey! The nerve of that – orc! I am not some annoying child to be so easily dismissed! She should have thrown one of his smithing hammers at the back of his big, fool head. But at least she still had the bow, Minervin could not find fault with the gift now. At least she thought he could not.

She stopped at the end of the meandering path so that she would not intrude on the conversation Minervin was having with a dwarf. He was stout and reached Minervin’s waist, with coarse honey-blonde hair and a permanent frown on his face. They both looked up from the large parchment the dwarf was holding but went straight back to it without saying a word. After a few minutes of back-and-forth debate, the dwarf nodded, rolled up the parchment and tucked it under his arm.

“You will keep this quiet for as long as possible?” Minervin asked the dwarf.

“Aye, the wrath of a cursed wizard will keep my men silent,” the dwarf responded, his long, thick beard bobbing up and down when he spoke.

“How soon will you start?”

“T’morrow or the day after, no later.”

“Very well then, we have a deal,” Minervin said and extended his hand down to the dwarf. He took it in a firm but quick shake and scurried down the meandering path, nodding to Ava in greeting but not waiting around for her reply. He gave Beast a wary glance before rushing past him at a quicker pace.

“I thought you took the bow back,” Minervin pointed out when she turned back to him.

“I did. He was deeply offended, as you suspected he would be.”

Minervin's snort told her that her assumption was correct. He knew too much of orcish culture to not know what the outcome would be.

“You hoped he would be too offended to want to take me as a wife anymore, did you not you sly, old man?”

“Bah! Ava, the things you think of me,” he told her with mock innocence. Ava laughed at his expression, glad that he was in a better mood.

“Are you going to tell me what that dwarf was doing here?”

“He came to negotiate terms for a deal. He will start building a ship for us.”

“He is the shipwright?” Ava asked incredulously, “Malgorn said he charged a fortune! How did you manage to get him to build us a ship?”

“Coin cannot make a capital offence go away, but magic can Ava. He wants to return to Haalkinguit but cannot under the pain of death. I made him an offer he could not refuse.

“I did not want to tell you this before I had a solution in place, but I scryed the southern forest.” Minervin expression turned dark, and trepidation squeezed at Ava’s chest.

“And what did you see? Did you get passed the barrier?” She had trouble breathing just thinking about the threat she felt in the forest.

“Yes, easily. The barrier was broken, but before I could see what lay beyond, a shadow crossed my vision and turned the seeing waters dark and foul. It is a dark omen, Ava. We must flee this land as soon as we can.”

Another package arrived two weeks after Finklhaan, the dwarven shipwright, started building. The time was spent levelling the western tip of Draugr Forest, north of Crystal Stream, and large planks and poles lay in a growing heap on the coast. Finklhaan oversaw the progress with a booming voice and an iron fist. Among the large group of strong, hulking labourers, he seemed the biggest man around. Ava was gob-smacked at how many curses he could squeeze into one sentence.

Ava was up in a tree surveying the forest depths, Minervin charged her and Beast with the protection of the men as they fell trees when the boy appeared at its base holding the cloth-covered package. When she jumped down before him, the boy cowered, holding the package out for her. She raised a brow.

“F-f-from Malgorn.” He dumped the package in her hands but did not leave as before, shifting his weight restlessly from foot to foot, long enough to draw her questioning gaze.

“W-w-what are you building?” he stammered out. “I want to h-h-help,” he added when she only stared at him.

She squinted at him suspiciously for a while and then sighed. They would get more offers like this when the ship started taking shape and became more difficult to hide. Minervin’s cloaking spell was doing a well enough job for now.

“Go talk with the dwarf, Finklhaan.”

She sat down on an exposed root beneath the tree, leaving the boy to find his way and untied the package.

Her breath caught when she uncovered a sheathed sword and dagger. Both blades were diamond-crust and beautifully crafted. She picked each one up and inspected them carefully. The dagger was serrated and jagged; its hilt curved and had a hooked pommel of ice and snow. For something so tiny it could inflict a large amount of damage, a true Orcish weapon.

But the short sword was different. Straight-edged but no less sharp, it was another of Malgorn’s hybrid weapons, a cross between an orcish scimitar and a human sabre and much smaller than both. The blade was slightly curved and broadened out near the middle before curving up sharply into a double-edged point.

Ideal for poking, but a weapon largely used for hacking and slashing, nonetheless.

Ava smiled, Malgorn had incorporated a swept hilt on it as well, one end of the cross guards curving down beautifully to protect the fingers of its wielder. It was a simple enough design so as not to be too pretty for the hand of a true orc to wield. Ava sheathed the weapons and was already untying her old steel dagger from her belt before Minervin appeared at her side and startled her.

“Ava!” He was fuming and red in the face, tapping his foot as he towered over her with his hands on his hips.

“You are not going to make me offend him again by returning it, are you? They were gifts.”

“Gifts you are receiving in bad faith! We have our own ship now. If you are adamant about continuing this damnable courtship at least go and renegotiate the terms. We do not need Malgorn causing unnecessary problems for us.”

“Oh, fine.” Ava hated when he made her feel like a child, but she had to admit that he was right.

She called to Beast, and he came lopping out of the foggy forest, a half-eaten rabbit dangling between his jaws. ‘Mother called Beast?’ he asked, stopping before her.

“I am going to the Outpost. Do you want to come?”

‘Beast’s place is always at Mother’s side.’

Ava found the Outpost gates closed to her when she walked up, an oddity for this time of day. After going through the irksome protocol of identifying herself and stating her business to the drunken fools, the guards admitted her. Jaefrey stood in the entryway, adorned in a wolf pelt headdress. He was holding in a laugh, amused by her reaction to his new garb. There was a tale about it he was just itching to tell her.

“Why are you...?”

“Wolves!” the man burst out. “A pack of them entered a few days back in broad daylight! Took us completely off guard. Rampaged through the Outpost for hours, they did, before Malgorn helped us clear them out. Made meself a hat from one of them that near took me head off,” he said, stroking the pelt around his shoulder proudly.

“Yes – er – it is quite lovely. Was there anything odd about the wolves’ behaviour?” The last thing she and Minervin needed now was the strange illness she saw in the forest making the rounds in the Outpost.

“Odd? Nothing odd, just starved. Ripped poor Zenith to pieces. We barely heard her scream when it happened. There was hardly anything left of the girl when we found her. Such a pity, she was me favourite.” He shifted uncomfortably when his gaze dropped to Beast, the dead rabbit still dangling from his mouth. “You keep that creature under control while you’re here, girl. The last thing we need is another animal attack.”

“Beast will not be a problem if he is left alone,” she told the man as she left the gate behind.

At least the illness had not found its way here yet. The animal attacks will increase though, it was bound to happen with the migration into the northern forest and the Outpost was such an easy target for starving creatures. It was also possible that the creatures could bring the disease with them, eventually. Yes, better that they closed the gates. But Ava worried that she, Minervin and the builders were too exposed to attack so close to the woods. She would have to talk to him about adding more protection. Hopefully, that will not drain him overly much.

A crash came from inside Malgorn’s hut, halting her knock at the door, it was followed by a series of loud thuds and thumps. Ava drew her sword and rushed inside, Beast dropped his meal and dipped low, ready to pounce on whatever threat was inside.

Malgorn stood hunched over his anvil. He twisted it into place on its wooden block and grunted from the effort. His fur coat and armour glistened with melting frost.

“What in Holden’s name are you doing?”

He straightened once he was satisfied with the anvil’s position, dusting his hands on his armour.

“Remodeling,” was the only explanation he offered up. Ava snorted at his tone but let the matter drop.

“I hear you are the Outpost’s newest hero.” Her tone dripped with sarcasm.

“Gahg! Glorified dogs! Nowhere near as challenging as the detchien from the Burning Wastes. Only weaklings would take pride in killing such weak things. What did you come here for, elf monkey? Malgorn does not make armour as well as he does weapons.”

“I have armour, and it is still new,” Ava sneered defensively, looking down at her leather breastplate. She tightened it as far as it would go and still, it sat loose and bulky on her frame. There was still the chance that she could grow into it.

“Then you need better armour, or at least armour fit for a woman’s form. That armour will hinder you more than it will help,” he replied, shaking his head. “So then, you have come to offend me again?” he asked, pointing to the sword she still brandished in her hand.

“No.” Ava sheathed the sword, while Beast, sensing the lax nature of his mother, retrieved his abandoned meal and found an area near the wall to finish it off. “But things have changed, and I cannot accept your gifts in good faith.”

“Since your wizard has the dwarf building a ship for you?” He smiled at her expression. “It is not hard to figure out what the dwarf is doing on the coast even when there isn’t anything there to see. But that has changed nothing.”

“I do not understand.”

Malgorn grunted and stared down at his anvil, he was distracted, his attention elsewhere.

“What good is a ship when you have nowhere to sail to? As my wife you will have a place in my stronghold on Blood Rock, and your wizard among the Unnamed; maybe even among the Named if he proves more useful. In the end, it will be better for me that you and the wizard build the ship instead, so keep the sword, though it will be useless in your hand.”

Ava bristled. “I can use it! Minervin taught me how to wield a sword!”

“Eh, I have seen. With magical spectres as opponents that he could strengthen and weaken at will. The spell caster would fare better teaching you how to fling fire from your fingers than how to wield a sword. I will teach you the proper way to fight. The orcish way.”