Chapter 11: Unexpected Allies

This city, Parnesam, was a little bigger than the city of Sweasat, in which Durri had lived throughout most of his life.

As best as he had been able to tell during conversations before the Alchemy Guild's goons had arrested him, Parnesam was located about three hundred miles west of Sweasat. The climate seemed very similar—hot and dry at the end of the summer—and while people spoke in slightly lilting accents, the language was still the same.

The differences between the cities were more apparent in the stone architecture—Sweasat's buildings were mostly wooden—and the much greater diversity of species of people compared to his mostly-human home city.

Yet, the similarities were more present in Durri's mind, and made him feel homesick.

If he decided to trudge along the highway and get back home, he could probably do it in about a week. Granted, he would be trudging all day and night. It didn't sound particularly fun.

"If this body could keep up a jogging pace," he mused aloud, "perhaps I could do it in as little as five days and nights..."

He was not seriously considering returning home, but the thought that, if he wanted to, Durri 'could' visit his mother in only a 'few' days bolstered his spirits. "How wonderful that the wizard happened to be building this golem so close to home! Imagine if I'd come back halfway around the world."

As Durri was muttering these things to himself on his stroll toward Lizard Street, an odd sight caught his eye.

Two figures hobbled down the street, dragging a trail of blood behind them which led all the way to the city gate in the distance!

"I didn't know the human body had so much blood in it," Durri said in disbelief.

They were, in fact, both human. One male and one female.

The man was ridiculously tall, nearly seven feet in height. He wore boots and trousers of what appeared to be bear skin, considering it matched the pelt he wore around his shoulders like a shawl. The bear's furry head, looking thoroughly surprised, was perched on his head.

The man wore no shirt, and his beard was stupidly well-groomed. He dragged a huge sword in one hand that sparked against the ground as it went.

He also seemed to be covered in about a thousand bleeding cuts. Despite his height, his facial features seemed so young that Durri had the impression he was in his early twenties at the oldest.

The fellow was limping along with his arm over the shoulder of the human female. She wore a long gown of green cloth with what appeared to be burrs, pine cones, and twigs stuck all over. She wore a bizarre conical hat that looked to be made of eelskin, and she leaned on a staff with seashells dangling from it.

She seemed to be a bit older than her companion, but was much shorter. She looked exhausted, and only a single cut was visible staining the left arm of her gown. The bits of her hair which stuck out from beneath her eel hat seemed to also be stuck with burrs and pine cones.

A bulbous, bluish creature with eight tentacles drifted in the air around the two of them, making concerned burbling noises.

"I can't believe it!" Durri said in wonder. "All that blood is just coming from that one fellow!"

There were a few other people near them on the street, all of whom turned away in mild disgust as they drew close.

The sight stirred pity in Durri's heart.

He thought about how the god-clerk had helped him for no real reason.

What kind of person would Durri be if he did not extend that same kindness to others?

"Excuse me!" he said, approaching them.

They turned to him.

"Yes?" asked the woman. She sounded as though she expected Durri to tell her to stop dripping blood everywhere.

"I, um, your friend looks like he's really hurt. Nearly dead, actually." Durri glanced at the man. "To be perfectly frank, I have no idea how you're still alive."

The man flashed him a terrifyingly bright grin. "What? I, Hudson the Barbarian, driven to an early grave by a little exsanguination? Surely you jest, sir!"

His eyes rolled back and he fell with a meaty thud to the ground.

"Oh no!" the woman said with a sigh. "Thinking always takes so much out of him when he's injured. Here, will you help me get him to that bench?"

She stepped back in shock as Durri picked up the man, who was considerably larger than Durri's illusory form, as though he were a sleeping baby. He walked over to the city bench in question—scaring away the rat who had been sunbathing upon it—and draped Hudson the Barbarian upon it.

The woman stood there for a moment, staring at Hudson. "Well, thank you—"

"Stay here for a moment," said Durri. "You wouldn't happen to have a few shillings, would you? I need some cherries."

Her confusion seemed to dissolve at Durri's request. "Oh. I see. A good deed never goes unrewarded, huh? I don't know what you want from me, but I only have two shillings. Sure, you can have them. Thanks for dragging my brother out of the street, I suppose."

Durri ignored her tone of disappointment. He knew how it must look to her. It would be silly to stand here and explain things, though.

He took the two worn shillings she offered and strode back to the market where had been previously arrested. He made his way to a fruit vendor he had noticed before, and thrust out the coins. "I require your finest cherries, sir."

***

A short time later, Durri returned to find the eel-hatted woman sitting on the bench beside her brother, looking completely dejected. Her tentacled creature had perched on Hudson's head and was gently blowing bubbles into the air with its eyes closed.

"I'm back," said Durri cheerfully, holding a Potion of Minor Healing in each hand.

Without bottles, of course, since he could not afford to lose those. He still didn't understand 'why' it was that drinking a potion inside a bottle destroyed the container, or how it was possible for potions to solidify and somehow still be a drinkable liquid when poured out into an alchemist's hand, but he decided such mysteries of the universe were not worth questioning.

The woman stared blankly at Durri. "I don't have any more money," she said. "Doesn't matter what you're selling."

He walked closer and offered the potions. They were a lighter red than any other potion he had made thus far, and smelled delightfully fruity. "I'm not asking for money. I'm giving you potions, because you clearly need them."

Bewildered, the woman took one potion from his hand. "The wind around you doesn't carry any malice," she whispered in a tone of wonder. "You... you're really giving a couple of perfect strangers a treasure like this?"

Durri laughed. "As it happens, miss, I'm an extraordinary alchemist! For me, making these potions is the simplest thing in the world. I just spent some time in my Codex and found the easiest option."

She turned and poured the potion over Hudson's head.

The barbarian immediately spluttered and then sprang to his feet, emitting a surprisingly high-pitched shriek as his wounds visibly began closing. "Oh, it itches! By Mother Bear and Father Weasel, why does it itch so much!?"

The woman grinned, then snatched Durri's second potion and quaffed it. Her wounded arm trembled, though the healing wound was hidden by her sleeve, and she seemed immediately less fatigued.

Durri grinned. "Glad to see it worked!" he said. "That was my first try at healing potions, you know."

Hudson fell to one knee, pressing a clenched fist to a bare chest beaded with sweat. "Distinguished gentleman, noble sir. You have delivered my sister and I from the jaws of defeat. Our lives are in your hands."

He swept his other arm outward in a dramatic flourish. "Speak, and we will answer. Command, and we will obey. Lead, and we will follow. Such is my code, the warrior code of Hudson the Barbarian."

The tiny creature atop Hudson's head opened one golden eye. "Mlem," it said.

Durri glanced at the woman, who was rolling her eyes.

"My name's Shudon. And as I mentioned, Hudson is my brother. We used to belong to the Naked Porcupine Tribe, until everyone else was wiped out in what we're pretty sure was an unfortunately localized meteor shower."

Hudson shed a single tear and looked up to the clouds. "Such merciless brutality," he said. "Every day I ask the gods 'Why them, why not us?'"

"Because they listened to that wandering meteor priest who said gold would rain upon them from the heavens and bring them wealth!" snapped Shudon. "You're the only one who listened to me when I said that was a bad idea, and only because you have no idea what that old coot was saying!"

Hudson shook his head. "The golden rain," he said. "It will forever haunt my nightmares."

"'You' didn't see it!" his sister retorted. "We caught that old man running away with all the heavenly gold ore stuffed in his pockets." She sighed. "It's really too bad he fell off the waterfall and we were never able to find any of that ore."

Durri was doing his best to avoid falling into complete confusion, but it was quite the effort. "I think I've heard about the barbarian tribes," he said. "That staff—you're one of their druids, is that right, Shudon?"

She nodded. "Yes! And this is Gus, my mountain octopus familiar."

"Mlem," said Gus.

Durri nodded. "Pleased to meet you all. Erm, if you really meant that about being willing to help me, I was just on my way to visit a loan shark. Would you care to join me?"