Go Back To Camp #74

It takes a while to find your way back to the camp, but Valda, with her rarely-erring sense of direction, leads you true.
The campfire is out…the smoke from the wet leaves billowing into the air. The small bag of supplies are gone…as is the third soldier Valda incapacitated.
“Oh no,” she gasps, then runs to the embankment.
The bodies have been rearranged.
The two human men and the young woman have been stabbed through the chest. Gunther’s body has been laid near theirs, a sword shoved through his belly—so that it protrudes from his tabard.
The last victim, the Kutollum, lays nearby. He is covered in blood, but it’s not his. A sword in his hand. A quick chest reveals the young dwarf is still breathing.
“They’re framing him for the murders,” Dorbane chokes. “The bastards are trying to frame one of my people for their own atrocity!”
You place a hand on his shoulder and spin the dwarf around. “No,” you add, “It’s not over yet.”
Valda looks at you confused. You nod towards the bodies.
“You want to sign up for that? I certainly don’t! Let the smarter men deal with the scum who love to kill…I say we make our fortune elsewhere.”
Swallowing hard, Dorbane chokes back his anger. “And the boy?”
You give him a smile he’s come to rely on. “We take him with us.”
Kneeling down, you take the sword from the unconscious Kutollum and slide it into your belt. “Pull him up. We’ll go to the lake and clean him up, then make for Westgaiden.”
Valda nods at the bodies, “What about them?”
You look between your best friends—the only family you have. If anything happened to them, you honestly don’t know if you could live with yourself. With a heavy sigh, you force a smile.
“Get him to the lake. I’ll be along presently.”

That night, the four of you flee to the East.
It takes you six weeks of heavy march to reach your destination, but you arrive safe and sound.
Winter comes and goes.
Though you’re still looking for steady work when spring rolls around, the docks of Westgaiden have kept you sheltered and fed. Dagan Erdmuth turns out to be a fine young Kutollum and he quickly become family. Two Kutollum, a Human and a Gypsy. An odd group, to be sure…but one that soon becomes famous throughout the greatest seaport of the kingdom.
Fall whispers once more over the mountains, before you get word from the capital. The horrible murders in the kings forest still haunt the countryside.
The magistrate cannot figure out why an Andilain soldier would execute three civilians…and then commit suicide by impaling himself on his own sword.
Maybe they’ll never know.

THE END