As he stepped between two trees, he heard another twig snap, this time from his right. Kaz immediately turned, holding the axe close in order to avoid snagging it on a branch. The woods were not too thick here, otherwise he would have resorted to his knife. Honor's Face was his weapon of choice, but Kaz was expert with blades long and short, thick and thin, not to mention a variety of other weapons that were all a part of his training.
The source of the noise had to be only a few feet from where he now stood. Kaz readied the axe, gauging the limitations created by the various trees and shrubs he could only vaguely make out in the darkness. It would be close quarters if it came to fighting, but not too close. He had made excellent use of the axe in cramped battle conditions before.
Another branch cracked… from behind him.
Paladine's sword! Is the creature that swift or am I surrounded? Kaz turned cautiously this time, not wanting to make the obvious move and leave himself open to an attack from behind as he shifted in the new direction.
No attack came. Exhaling quietly, Kaz moved again heading back to his campsite. His heart beat faster as he wondered if he had been so naive as to have fallen for a ploy leading him away from the fire so that bandits could plunder his belongings. If so, they were about to learn what the fury of a minotaur was like… for the few seconds that remained of their foul lives.
Throwing caution to the wind, Kaz charged toward the camp, the flickering flames his beacon.
In the light of the fire, he first noted the smaller mount tied not too far from his own. Then his gaze alighted on the short, cloaked figure squatting in the exact location the minotaur had vacated moments earlier. The hood of the other's travel cloak was pulled forward, obscuring any glimpse of the face within.
Positioned as the newcomer was, it was hard to tell the race. An elf, perhaps, albeit a fairly short one. Slim for a dwarf, but not for a gnome, though what a gnome would be doing here was beyond Kaz. A human was a likely bet, Kaz thought as he edged closer, axe gripped tight, but the size was more that of an adolescent, not an adult. That really left only one other race…
No, it couldn't be…
From within the hood came a booming voice. "Greetings, O Great Warrior-" The voice broke off, then became a higher, merrier one unable to control itself. "That was a fun game, wasn't it?"
Slim, tapered fingers fit for a pickpocket reached up and pulled back the hood, revealing a dark-haired, handsome, yet childlike face. The figure stood, revealing that he was no more than an inch or two over four feet-tall for his kind, but unmistakably a member of the most annoying race ordained by the gods on Krynn.
A kender.
A kender named Delbin Knotwillow.
Chapter 3
"What are you doing here, Delbin?"
"I came to see you, Kaz." The kender flashed a smile.
Leaning the axe handle against his shoulder, the minotaur eyed his companion with suspicion. It looked like Delbin, but looks, as he knew from experience, could be deceiving. "You just happen to be here in the middle of nowhere waiting for me?"
The kender laughed. "Actually, I had to catch up with you because when I got to your home Helati said you'd gone off to some place called Nethosak, which I remembered was somewhere in the minotaur lands but a place I'd never been to, so I thought I should tag along because-"
"Take a breath, Delbin." Kaz relaxed some. It was his companion of old, all right. There was no mistaking that voice whenever it ran on about everything under the sun. Delbin was part of a small sect of kender who had the fool notion of writing some history of modern Krynn, which would have been fine if he ever got around to it. Plus, almost every time Delbin reached into his pouch for his supposed book, he managed to pull out something that had once belonged to someone else.
Still, Kaz could not deny that the kender had proven a worthy comrade on occasion, even risking his life to save the minotaur's. He was not willing to admit it to anyone but Helati, but Kaz had grown fond of the small creature. That, of course, did not mean he wanted a kender's company on this journey.
"When morning comes, you'll go back to wherever you came from and stay there. What I have to do, I do alone."
"But, Kaz, I've never seen a whole empire of minotaurs, and Helati seemed so worried, which I couldn't blame her for, what with the dream I had-which is why I knew you'd be traveling in the first place, and since you're traveling, you need someone to go with you, which ought to be me, of course-"
Not for the first time Kaz wondered if the kender followed him because even his own race would not put up with his incessant talk. Then, a part of what Delbin had said caught his attention. "What's that about a dream you say you had?"
"I had a dream and-" Delbin hesitated when he saw the minotaur's expression. Speaking much slower, he continued. "It was about you, Kaz! You were riding toward a big place with a cheering crowd and other minotaurs fighting. Then something big, bigger than a bird, flew over, and-"
"That was it?"
"No, then you were fighting yourself in this place-I guess it was an arena-while a tall, really tall, minotaur in cleric robes looked down. Then he turned into a bird and flew away." Delbin smiled. "Wasn't that an interesting dream? Oh… I forgot about the gray man!"
"What gray man?" Kaz regretted asking the talkative kender to explain his dream. Of what possible use could such information be to the minotaur? Still, he listened.
"He was all gray, Kaz! Even his face and beard. He wore gray robes and carried a gray staff. I never saw a human so very, very, very gray."
The description sparked a vague memory. Someone else had told the minotaur about such a gray man long ago. Much to his regret, however, Kaz could not summon the wraithlike memory. "All gray, then?"
"Yes, and he said you were leaving soon, so I should hurry to find you, and when I woke up I knew I better go, even though it was a dream-I just knew that I hod to go."
Rarely had the minotaur seen the kender so adamant. But to let Delbin come with him into the heart of the minotaur realm was to sign the creature's death warrant. Minotaurs were not tolerant, especially when it came to kender. Delbin's people were considered to be on a par with rats and other vermin.
"No. You can't go, Delbin. It's for your own good. You don't know what the empire, much less Nethosak, is like. They would have you executed simply for being yourself."
Delbin Knotwillow looked down at himself. "What's wrong with me? So I'm a little big for a kender!"
"It's not your height, and you know it, Delbin. Unlike me, most minotaurs aren't very tolerant where kender are concerned. Most minotaurs would just as soon cut a kender up into fish bait…" Kaz despised himself for talking so, but he wanted to frighten his friend into turning back. "Go back."
"The man in gray said I had to come." Delbin crossed his arms, putting together as severe and determined an expression as a kender could muster. "So I am."
"That was a dream."
"A big dream." Delbin cracked a smile. "So what's Nethosak like, Kaz? Are there a lot of minotaurs there? Why are there two kingdoms called Mithas and Kothas, and do they look exactly the same?" Before Kaz could say another word, Delbin reached into a pouch at his side. "I need my book! I should write this all-gee, I wonder where this came from?"
The object in the Render's hand was hard to make out in the fire's flickering light. Kaz stepped closer, forgetting for the moment his anger and frustration. The object was vaguely familiar, a medallion of some sort.