The Centurion Company

[viobane]

As he looked toward the orcs charging their way, Kel noticed that Elendel went to grab for arrows that were no longer in the quiver. Kel grumbled, thinking that maybe he should start doing all the elf's shopping if this was what was going to happen.

Elendel pulled out his magical blade, and Kel rushed the orcs. The orcs hesitated at the warrior who had killed their leader, which was a mighty mistake. Kel rushed past them, holding his sword to one side, disembowling one of the shamans.

Elendel followed closely behind, and both of them ran for the main gate. Confused orcs stumbled over each other in an attempt to follow, but the adventurers were to swift, darting through the gate and into the wilderness.

They both stopped running a few thousand feet from the stronghold near the cremated ashes of the tortured human, glowing with a witish sheen from the midnight moon. Both of them were breathing heavily. Kel fell to the ground, exhausted. Elendel came over to him and helped him remove is shield from his left arm.

Kel was beginning to feel his arm again, but wished he could not. Slivers of pain arched up his arm, and he groaned in pain. With his good arm, he pulled a tightly wound batch of bandages, and with Elendel's help, he bound his arm to his chest in a makeshift sling and they rested briefly.

They slowly walked toward Skara Brae down the muddy path. As they passed a small grove of trees, Kel noticed a very large bear looking up into a tree. It turned its head toward the adventurers and roared. A multitude of birds escaped the trees surrounding them, and the bear started trotting toward them. Kel drew his sword and Elednel reached for his bow, but then stopped and drew his sword instead.

The bear came at them with a ferocity only nature can bring. As it reached them, Kel fought favoring his left arm and Elendel stumbled into an awkward fighting stance, glancing toward Kel in an attempt to imitate an effective fighting style.

The bear imediately swiped at Kel's wounded side and the warrior started to rethink his opinion on druids. Kel was sore, but not wounded enough to fall to a large animal. He twisted as the bear's claws raked against the metal of Kel's platemail. As he completed the twist, his sword flashed and cut off a chunk of the bear's hide.

Elendel chopped from the other side, but failed to connect when the bear jumped back from Kel's blow. The bear stood on its hind legs and let out a deep growl. As it did so, Elendel took another swipe. Where Kel's blade was only able to scratch the bear's think hide, Elendel's magical weapon sliced right through the bear's right hind leg, cutting it at a sickening angle.

The bear howled in pain, falling onto its three remaining legs. It started to stumble away toward the trees but Kel stepped after it and buried his sword in the bear's exposed back. The animal whimpered as it fell to its stomach and died.

"I guess that villager was right about the wildlife," Kel stabbed his sword into the damp earth to clean it and resheathed his weapon. "Now let's get back there before my arm is crippled forever and your blade decides to start throwing spells everywhere!"

[viobane]

When they arrived back in the village, Kel realized that Elendel would want to take the portal back to the keep. He was scared of the damned thing, but would never let anyone know about that. "So, I guess we'd probably better just walk through this village," Kel sighed. "I'm not looking forward to fighting all those nauseous undead, but we'd better get started."

"We could always use that portal," As Kel looked over at Elendel, he noticed a small smile of exhiliration on his face. "It's just up on that hill there."

"Are you sure? I don't remember a portal..."

"Yes, remember Malystryx showed it to us, Kel."

"Well, okay, that is probably a good idea then," Kel started sweating. "I'm in no shape to fight, anyway."

They entered the portal and pressed the runestones in the correct order causing flares of light to cascade up toward the sky. As they each activated the portal, they evaporated into the lights and were swept to the keep.

As Kel walked out of the portal, his knees felt wobbly, but he was otherwise okay. Elendel came out a moment later, laughing. "You humans sure know how to travel!"

[viobane]

They walked directly to the wizard's tower. Elendel looked to Kel and saw a slight swagger in his step, but chalked it up to the warrior's confidence instead of his shakiness after the portal travel.

As they walked into the tower, Kel was feeling better, but the overpowering smell of moldy bread assaulted his senses and made his knees weak again. "What the blazes are you cooking up, wizard?" Kel held his nose with his sword hand. "I thought those beetles smelled bad when they exploded. Who knew that they'd smell just as bad when their shells are used for stew?"

The wizard materialized out of thin air and raised his eyebrows. "No, no, no," he clucked his tongue at Kel. "That's not the divining recipe I've been concocting for you. That's a healing poultice for your arm. Got that recipe from a priestly friend at the temple."

"A poultice? For my arm? How did you know?"

"Well, I can't very well let you go off on my errands without supervision, now can I?"

Elendel wandered over to a corner of the room, partially listening to Kel and the wizard talking. He had seen a glint of something in the room he had not noticed before, and it seemed to be calling to him. "What is this thing?" Elendel was looking at a small table and a globe of glass sitting on a pedestal. Small waves emenated from the device like heat glimmering off of hot stone.

"Just a means of said supervision," The wizard smiled. "Go ahead, elf, touch it."

The wizard took a large ladle hanging from a peg above the cauldron and stirred the brew until a bandage appeared out of the boiling stench. Kel noticed that he wore a heavy leather glove.

As the mage pulled the bandage from the ladle, Kel looked to Elendel, who reached out and touched the orb and instantly vanished. Kel would have been more alarmed, but at this point, his arm hurt too much and the unpleasant smells were causing his head to spin.

During Kel's distraction, the wizard wiggled his fingers ever so slightly. Kel's bloodied sling and bandage disappeared and his arm was held in place by some mystical force. The bandage jumped from the mage's hand and wrapped itself around Kel's wounded arm like a snake. Kel screamed, as much from shock as pain, and fell back against the wall.

He instantly noticed that his arm was bound by a whitish mesh that enveloped his entire arm from wrist to shoulder. Then he quickly was able to determine that he no longer felt the aching pain from the orc's mighty blow. He frowned at the wizard. "What gives you the right to do such a thing?"

"What do you mean, warrior?" The wizard stood with his hands on his hips and frowned back at Kel. "YOU work for ME. I do not ignore those in my employ. Especially for a task that is so important."

Elendel reappeared as suddenly as he had vanished and again had a childlike grin on his face. Kel ignored him.

"So now you control us, do you? You stalk our every move, you..." Kel moved his bound arm like a bird's wing. "turn my arm into a stiff mummy bandage. I'm not sure I like this arrangement."

Elendel walked up to Kel and looked at the bandage, his mouth open in awe. "But Kel, this sounds more like he is protecting us, not controlling us," He tentatively touched Kel's wounded arm. "It's still warm!"

Kel jerked his arm away as much as he could with his limb's limited range of movement. "I don't like the idea of having to owe anything because of some sort of protection over our heads."

The wizard's mouth twitched, his beard twitching along with it. "You owe me nothing but completion of the tasks I send you on," He pulled a wand from a pouch at his waist and touched Kel's bound arm, and the bandage turned to ash, which cascaded to the floor. "Speaking of which, do you have that golden orb?"

Kel flexed his shield arm, but was still frowning. "I do, now what payment do you have for us this time, and you'd BETTER not say the use of my arm!"

[Zacarias]

The wizard tossed a bag of gold to each of the adventurers. Elendel caught the bag of gold with a bit of clumsiness. He was still a little dizzy from his run-in with the crystal ball.

"Now then...." The wizard continued, as he searched a bookshelf for something. "I need you to bring me the spear of a certain ettin, called 'Gorgo'."

"And the payment?" asked Kellion.

Foxmore turned around to look Kellion in the eye. "Continue your progress and the rewards," the wizard pointed to the bads of gold, "will continue to grow."

Kellion nodded with satisfaction. "Very well then. We will be back with the spear soon."

"Good," the wizard replied, and then he went back to his work.

[viobane]

As they left the tower, Kel turned to Elendel. "We have that quest to take care of that ogre leeader, maybe we should take care of that before we go off to find these... 'ettins'?" Kel frowned. "What are 'ettins' anyway?"

"I don't know, Kel," Elendel scratched his head as well. "But since the wizard is sending us off to take their leader's spear, I imagine they're not pleasant."

Kel shrugged. "Is anything around here?" He flexed his newly healed arm. "Well, before we head out, we should resupply. Arrows make me much more comfortable than your swors sptting fire."

Elendel nodded. "I'll be right back, then."

Kel wandered to the pawnshop and browsed the wares, but found nothing to his liking so he walked to the large oak and sat down at a bench. He noticed things running to and fro, many of them humanoid looking with wings and tails. At that moment he bacame a bit homesick for his father's castle where such nonsense was incredibly rare.

As he reminiced, Elendel walked up to him at the oak and started talking. "So, if we're going to go back to Skara Brae, we should take that portal again and save some time."

Kel's palms became sweaty, but he agreed to the method of travel. Kel stood from his bench and Elendel led the way to the portal, where he swiftly pushed the runes and teleported away.

Kel took a deep breath, walked to the middle of the portal and hesitantly pressed each rune in turn. He took a deep breath before the lights appeared and swept him away.

[viobane]

His legs did not shake as much as their prior trip, but the corner of Kel's mouth twitched, and he was happy he did not have to immediately do battle since his hands were sweating profusely. He wiped them on his cloak and walkeed toward Elendel, who was grinning again.

They both walked toward the center of the village and the large man was leaning against the nearest building, shewing on a piece of field grass.

"Have you taken care of the ogre yet for me, lads?"

"No, we had another errand to attend to first," Kel walked up so he was standing a few feet from the villager. "We're going to stop their threat now, though. Which way are the beasts, again?"

"To your north, friend," the man pointed up the path they stood on. "If you follow the path, you'll eventually reach them."

Kel nodded. "We'll be back soon, then," He reached behind him and pulled his helm from where it hung on his pack and placed it over his head. "Keep that bag of gold warm for us!"

The villager chuckled. "There have been other adventurers to make this attempt, but either they got lost in the woods, were overpowered by the ogres or decided to strike up residence out there in the forest," he looked at Kel and Elendel in turn. "No one has yet been able to fulfil this task, and at the looks of you two, I'm not sure if you'll be able to either."

Kel adjusted his shield and drew his sword. "Oh, we will be coming back soon to get our reward, mark my words," Kel started walking to the north. "No ogre, monster, devil or any such abomination will keep me from attaining my goals."

Elendel noticed the man shrug as Kel walked away, and as he walked to join the warrior his alert elven ears heard the villager make one whispered statement:

"Most of the cocksure become chickens in the end."

[Zacarias]

The change from Skara Brae to the Dark Forest was noticable. When an adventurer enters the Dark Forest he will immediately notice the absence of sunlight. Shadows loom all around the adventurer, and soon the adventurer begins to see things in between the trees, and then the adventurer begins to think the trees are moving!

It wasn't a new feeling to Elendel, however. After the druid was fired, the garden began to feel his absence. A year after he was removed, some of the more rare plants began to die away. It grew worse with time. Though it didn't happen quickly, everyone knew it. The garden was dying. His mother would walk the paths sadly, stopping occassionally to pick up a dead leaf or flower. The night Elendel left, there were only a few flowers left. As he walked the paths to the outter gate, he saw the dead trees, which seemed to point their dead branches at him! As if it was his fault the garden was dead, as if he was their murderer.

He quickened his steps, trying to outpace those piercing glares they seemed to give him, but he could not escape them, they were everywhere, to his right, to his left, behind him, in front of him, all around him! Finally, he reached the gate. He pushed it open and slipped outside. The elven city was made up of trees, but at least they were living trees.

These trees weren't dead -well, not all of them- but they cast shadows about them that gave Elendel a dark feeling. A gust of wind from behind the adventurers scattered leaves about in a dramatic manner, as their cloaks whipped out with the wind.

"So, where is this ogre?" asked Kellion casually.

Elendel lost his interest in the forest and looked around. "I don't know," he said. "Lets continue down the road and see where it leads us."

As Elendel walked down the road he looked in between the gaps in the trees. Whatever had caused his reluctance to enter the forest was now replaced with an at-home feeling. He was an elve, after all, and this was a forest. Suddenly, between some trees, he saw a flash of light.

"Look out!" he cried, and pulled an arrow from his quiver. Two balls of light came flying towards Kellion, which he took with only a few grunts, then he charged through the trees toward whatever was there. But Elendel killed the thing before Kellion had the chance to slay it.

The creature was covered in fur. It stood on two legs, and had the head of some animal. Kellion searched through its remains and managed to find a few coins.

They continued down the road and came to a split. The two adventurers took the eastern path. Oh, what a mistake that was.

[viobane]

The men walked along, Elendel enjoying the cool forest breeze while Kellion closely surveyed the surrounding area, looking for trouble.

He didn't have to be looking too closely to notice the large mishappen beast which rustled noisly out of the bushes.

Elendel, despite his seeming wonderment with the forest, reacted first and shot an arrow at the thing. "What in the blazes IS that thing?"

"I'm not sure," Kellion replied. What met their eyes was a creature standing upright which had the head of a goat, mudcled limbs and torso and a large axe held in one hand. Kel engaged the creature with his sword while Elendel kept the arrows flying. "but you better believe the thing is going down quickly."

He was right enough, as the beast dropped its axe when Elendel sent an arrow through its forarm laeving Kel enough time to decapitate the foul beast.

"What twisted mage would create such beasts?" Kel asked to the forest. "Unless it was a farmer who wanted livestock who could help bring in the firewood?"

[viobane]

Elendel snickered at Kel's wry humor and they continued their walk along the path. Another mismatched beast jumped at them from the side, but again the creature was easily dispatched.

The eventually came to a large casm with a small bridge which closed the gap. As they walked over, Kel noticed a whitish string on one of the railings. He walked over to investigate and touched the substance. As he went to pull his finger away, the viscous fluid pulled with him. He had to tug mightily to free his grasp, and still whitish tendrils hung from his fingers. "Spiders," Kel groaned in frustration as a large arachnid crawled up from the chasm and looked their way. "Man, I hate these things when they're small. These granddaddies are bigger than those goat things!"

As Elendel drew his bowstring back, the spider shot a stringy web towards him. The arrow that had been about ready to fly was caught in the web. It broke free with just enough force to drop straight to the ground beyond. Kel looked over and noticed that his friend was covered in the goop.

Kel ran toward the vermin and let out a whooping warcry. That was when another string of fluid hit him from behind.

The first spider launched itself at the struggling Kel while the other stalked Elendel who was chopping at the webbing with one of his blades. Elendel spotted the movement from the spider and immediately sheather his blade and drew a wooden wand from his belt. He pointed it at the spider and a shower of sparking missles left its end and hurtled toward his stalker.

Kel heard the small explosions as the spider he was facing swiped at him with a large barbed foot. Kel blocked the blow with his shield, but another leg he did not see raked his upper leg in a spot not covered in metal armor. An immediate burning sensation went up Kel's spine and he almost dropped his weapon. He felt dizzy and foggy for a brief instant before steeling himself and swiping at the spider with his blade.

The blade connected with one of the spider's limbs, and severed it. It got caught in the webbing surrounding Kel, however, and did not fall far from where it was originally attached.

The spider made a horrible high-pitched screeching sound that grated down Kel's already burning nerves. It's gaping maw showed a row of jagged teeth and the putrid air that came with the sound was almost too much for Kel to bear.

He hazared a glance at Elendel and saw that the elf's magic had subdued the beast. Elendel was shaking his bow from the webs and was srtinging another arrow to his bow. The elf worked so fast Kel could hardly beleive what he saw happening in such a short glance. The aroow left the bow and went deep into the spider's mouth, silencing the screams and sending the beast flipping onto its back, legs twitching in awkward movements.

[Zacarias]

The two adventurers struggled back across the bridge, to the other side of the chasm. Elendel saw Kellion's face turning pale and he knew that he had been poisoned. He quickly rumaged through his pack and grabbed a healer's kit. He chose a needle, and, moving over to Kellion, struck it into his arm, and emptied the needle of its contents.

When Kellion was back to normal, they tried again. They were met with dozens of spiders, but they never tarried. Eventually, they were able to make it through that part of the forest and cross over another chasm, but they didn't come out of it without a price. Many healing potions had been used, and Elendel had used precious charges from his wand.

// Yes, I know this part of the story was rushed, but I forget much of what happened; I don't feel like writing about more spiders, and I'm sure you don't feel like reading about it. //

Elendel and Kellion saw an inn ahead. Moving closer, they went to investigate....

[Zacarias]

Elendel was about to open the door to the inn when he saw an elderly couple sitting by a fire not too far away. Now, why would they camp out when there was an inn situated so nearby? And then Elendel saw the blood on the steps to the door.

"Do you see that?" Elendel said, pointing to the blood. "Something isn't right here."

Kellion agreed instantly. "Lets talk to that couple over there, and see what they have to say."

As they approached, they saw that the couple was sobbing. Their fire was near what used to be some sort of tower, and Elendel briefly wondered what it had been in the past. Part of some ancient kingdom, perhaps?

"They-They killed him!" sobbed the elderly woman, as the old man comforted her. He watched the two adventurers approach with fear.

"Please, good sirs! Take pity on us and hear our tale!" He cried.

"Of course, good sir," Kellion said.

"Two creatures...I don't know what they were! They looked like ordinary people, but then they showed their fangs! Vampires! They came into our inn, and killed the cook! They would've killed us, too, but dawn has kept them trapped inside!" Elendel looked up at the sky. Through the branches he could see the purple of the sunset.

"We'll slay them for you," Elendel said. Elendel didn't know how Kellion would've answered them, but Elendel felt like he had to help them. Obviously the inn was the only thing the couple had. And those vampires had taken it from them...

"Come, Kellion. Let's go get this couple their inn back."

[viobane]

The adventurers walked back to the bloodstained doorstep and looked at each other. Kel smirked under his helm and drew his sword and adjusted his shield. Elendel withdrew an arrow from its quiver and then nodded at Kel. The brutish warrior immediately kicked in the door and ran inside.

The inside seemed like any other inn, candles blazing with warm cushioned chairs sitting near a large fireplace. Kel hesitated for a moment searching the room as a dark clothed man jumped out of the shadows.

The man had a very pale complexion and his jump at Kellion was accompanied by a large sword swing. Kel took the blow on his shield and twisted his body to a more comfortable fighting position.

Elendel shot an arrow toward the attacker and his keen elven eyes noticed that the man had reddish eyes and had fang like incisors that stood out of his maniacally smiling maw.

As Kel landed a blow on the monster, another beast jumped from the right, this one was woman shaped and attempted to jump onto Kel's back while arching her mouth toward Kel's neck.

Elendel quickly sent a burning arrow at the she-demon and an unnatual scream surfaced intersperced with a cat-like hissing. She turned her attention toward Elendel.

Quicker than even the elf would have thought manageable, the vampiress was at Elendel's throat, attempting to tear it out. The elf dropped his bow and shoved his elbow into the woman's solar plexus. To a normal humanoid, this blow would have knocked the air out of its lungs. For the vampiress, it only stopped her hissing for a moment as she readjusted her grip on Elendel and went for the other side of his neck.

Elendel withdrew his bastard sword from its sheath and made a strangled sound as the vampiress grabbed his neck in an attempt at a death blow. She did not get her wish, however, when the sword burst into flames that cascaded toward her, seeking her out.

She fell back to the wall, screaming a horrible squeal that chilled the elf's blood. Faster than the dries kindling, her body was reduced to ash in a matter of seconds.

When the elf turned back to Kellion, he noticed that the two combatants were evenly matched. He could see drops of blood on the floor at Kel's feet, but noticed none on the side of the vampire. The vampire had numerous cuts, but no blood seeped out of the wounds.

Elendel looked down to his bow and kicked it up to his hand with one deft flip of his foot while his other hand sheathed his still glowing blade. He affixed another flamed arrow to his bow and fired it at the vampire.

The vampire's clothes started to burn, and his red eyes turned Elendel's way. Kel took the opportunity to swing his sword at an opening and gashed the undead's leg. The vampire tripped with just enough of an angle to meet Kel's sword dead on in its chest. As the blade pierced his torso, the vampire's eyes went wide and he looked slightly ashamed and terror stricken before he, too burst into flames followed by a short poof of ash.

[viobane]

Sitting in the ash of the vampire Kel had just dispatched was a bloody still-beating heart. It convulsed a few times then remained silent as Kel withdrew a hankerchief and wrapped the gory item in its folds.

"That was pretty horrific," Kel placed the heart in his pack and looked toward Elendel. "let's see if there are any more survivors and get out of here. Good luck to those peasants in cleaning the spirtis from this place!"

They searched the rest of the inn and found a cellar, but no other residents were in the premesis.

As the exited the inn, the duo both noticed a blur of motion which ended abruptly in front of them as a dark cloaked figure holding two weapons that were evilly dripping a liquid which sent up tufts of smoke as it hit the ground.



"Greetings, traveller," Kel wearily withdrew his sword and a whetstone and attempted to casually sharpen his blade while settling into a subtle defensive stance. "How do you manage to move so quickly?"

The creature turned its head toward them, and Kel thought he could detect a red glow from within the confines of the thick black hood, but he was not sure if it was just his imagination. "My name is Wolf, and you would do well to listen to what I have to say."

Elendel looked nervous, and Kel noticed that he was gripping his bow so tight that his knuckles were white. "We're listening. We just got done destroying some vampires in this inn, if they were your friends, I'm sorry."

A rumbling, coughing laugh echoed from deep inside the cloak. "No, they were not my friends. Pitiful beasts, vampires," A gloved hand emerged from the creature's sleeve and pointed at Kel. "You both, however, look to be seasoned adventurers. I have an offer to make and you will have two choices to consider."

Elendel whispered out of the side of his mouth to Kel. "I don't like the sound of this." Kel nodded slightly.

"Two choices, you say? How overly generous an offer from a complete stranger. What gives you the right to demand anything from us?" Kel had stopped sharpening his blade and was now openly prepared for battle. His sword hung at the ready at his side, and he reached back for his shield and affixed it to his left arm.

"I give myself the right, mortals," there was such confidence in the creature's tone that Kel was taken aback. Perhaps this beast was powerful enough to back up any demands it made? "And here are your choices, and my offer."

"You can choose to join me and lead me on your adeventures, or you can join the vampires you just slayed. Your deaths would be grand, but I doubt your gods would even recognize you after I finished with you."

[viobane]

Kel nodded at the offer and appeared quite calm. "Give me a moment to confer with my companion here," Kel turned his back to the beast and walked closely to Elendel. The elf's eyes were wide and he looked slightly panicked. Kel whispered, hoping the creature would not hear. "If he's offering to accompany us, it doesn't seem like we have anything to lose."

Elendel looked over at Wolf and shook his head slightly. "He seems too powerful for us," the elf nervously lowered his longbow. "I agree. Let's allow him to join then maybe we can escape later."

Kel turned back to Wolf. "It seems we are to be companions," he offered his hand. "I am Kellion Norrington."

Elendel bowed his head as the creature shook Kel's hand. "And I am Elendel."

Wolf laughed deeply from his hood. "And with that your fates are entangled with my own. I must admit I have been looking for men of your ilk for quite some time. Now observe my powers!"

Wolf withdrew a smale stone from his belt and rubbed it and was immediately engulfed by a circle of reddish runes. The runes danced around his frame, and as they ended, he rushed to the east with blinding speed. Kel and Elendel watched as his figure was lost in the darkness of the forest.

Kel and Elendel looked at each other. Kel shrugged, and as he did so, Elendel pointed to where Wolf had been standing. The earth began to churn like butter and a spike of rock slowly rose above the surface. Two others followed along in a triangular formation and as they rose the ground between them all erupted into a fiery pit of lava.

The lava crusted over and as it hardened, another red flash of light spiraled outward as the rock spires withdrew into the earth. As the red light faded, Wolf appeared.

"I can follow you wherever you go," Wolf's gravelly voice grated on Kel's nerves. "You have been cursed by the demonic powers I hold and there shall be no escape!"

"Great," Kel mumbled as he shook his head. "What a time to gain a fan following!"

[viobane]

Kel shrugged. "Well, oh mighty one, where are we off to?"

"That is your decision to make," Wolf shrugged back. "We could go to the ettins north of here, we could go to the shrine nearby or I could even take you to a place with tyranoids."

"Tryan-whats?" Kel went to scratch his head, but since his helm was still on, his fingers just dully clunked against it. "We were off to slay an ogre menace. Any chance you know where that brute is hiding? By the way, what is going on with you and that cloak, anyway?"

Wolf held his hands to the edge of his cloak's cowl. "Are you sure you want to know that, mortal one?"

"Would I have asked if I didn't want to know? Let's see how grotesque you are under there." As Kel said this, Elendel squirmed, looking quite uncomfortable. Kel was sure the elf didn't want to know, but he was curious.

Wolf removed his cowl. Underneath was a normal human face but for glowing red eyes and horns which spiraled up from under his hair.

"Well, that's quite a party favor you have there," Kel wasn't particularly disgusted by the beast, but neither was he completely comforatble. "What the hell are you, anyway?"

"I am, as I have told you, a demon from the outer planes. I have been wandering this land for some time in search of strong mortals such as you and have finally completed this part of my quest," Wolf replaced his cowl. "And do not think you can escape the cowards way and be killed in a random encounter. I have the ability to raise you or to send you to the shadowy bowels of hell itself, whichever amuses me most at the time."

Elendel gulped.