Book III
Chapter Twenty-Three
KAYE GETS a GLOW
Kaye hobbled, dispondent, through the streets of Ne’jum.
It was twilight, just breaking. The world was gold and orange, and the sky turned all shades of purple and pink.
After a year of night and stormy skies, he found himself cursing the beautiful weather.
He kept his eye to the ground, placing his crutch with each step. He was so furious, he didn’t even notice how much pain he was putting his leg in by rushing the way that he was.
“Eyyyy there, stranger!” croaked a voice.
Kaye stopped to glare, and the croaked voice cackled.
“Kaye’s got a fire in’im today!” Then he cackled some more. “And where is he going, shall we ask him?”
There was no one else there. This was just the way that the old beggar talked.
He was a human, of far advanced years. He once claimed he’d seen seventy winters.
Then he again, he had once claimed that he’d… “once had a bastard, born from a dragon!” Then he gave the same old cackle as always. Kaye didn’t know what to believe with him.
“I’m not in the mood, Zayn,” Kaye grumbled.
“Plain to see that, isn’t it?”
The beggar coughed a few times, a wet tearing cough from smoking or drinking or shouting or something… Most likely, it was all of the above, and more.
“Take a seat, lad, take a seat.” Zayn palmed the barrel to his right, once, then twice, then he coughed some more.
Kaye didn’t sit down right away. He looked back in the direction of the wand shop, but the building was long from view by then.
“Or stand,” laughed Zayn. “But either way, tell us what’s the trouble!”
Kaye shook his head. Even if he wanted to tell it (and he didn’t), how could it be put to words?
“Just…” he tried, neck trembling with tension. “Just… disgusting.”
“Aye, isn’t it so,” said Zayn sagely, as if he knew exactly what Kaye was talking about. “Dark times, they are. Dark days, and worse nights. Orc nights to come lad…”
Zayn nodded, staring down into nothingness.
“Never hoped I’d live to see the Lich fall,” said the beggar.
Kaye gritted his teeth, tight as he could. He almost wished that a tooth would crack. Just to break something.
“Want some?” said Zayn.
Kaye looked up.
The beggar’s hand had come out of his coat, and offered Kaye a bottle. The bottle was clear, with an oval mouth, and a sphere for a body. Half the liquor was gone, but the other have seemed to glimmer in the dying light of dusk.
The colour was yellow. Not gold, but pale yellow. A glow emanated from it.
Kaye shook his head. “Humans can’t drink potions.”
Zayn chuckled. “Shouldn’t,” he corrected. “Shouldn’t drink potions, lad. But in times like these? Everybody needs a little glow. Besides… there are worse drinks. Much worse! All that happens with glow is you feel a little dizzy. So what? You feel a little… You’re clumsy sometimes!”
Zayn cackled again.
Though there were other goblins and some human beggars around, Goblintown was quiet. Everyone was still in the pyramid district, doing who-knows-what to quell or kill the humans and Lich loyalists. Kaye didn’t much care what they were doing, as long as they were away. And as long as they were…
Kaye’s thoughts drifted back to Rowan.
To the kiss he had seen.
He pursed his lips, took the bottle, and drank.
It took until the night was full upon them, but sitting there, beside Zayn, Kaye began to feel woozy.
Dizzy.
Lopsided.
Light.
Then, he began to grin.
It was like the place between sleeping and awake had found him, and kept him in its grasp.
As he grinned, Kaye’s skin began to glow.
“You know,” he mused, as his eyes thickened and squinted up at Zayn, “I think I like potions.”
“Aaaaahahaha!” laughed Zayn and clapped Kaye on the shoulder. “Welcome to our world, lad!”
Then, Zayn pulled a different potion.
A dark potion, as thick as molasses, the colour of rotten vines.
As he pulled the stopper from the long, thin potion bottle, it smelled like rot, too.
Just before he drank it, Zayn said…
“Welcome to our world.”
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Link to Orcish-English Dictionary
Wanna hear the music of NALA SAGA?
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