Noises of Nyasse’s tale

Nyasse’s tale Part I

Editors note Nyasse and her horse had been sent back to the village by Violet at the time the company abandoned their first attempt to enter the goblin caves, she rode back under instruction to take shelter in Violets room under the ruins of the great house in the village and this is where this tale starts.

Nyasse flopped down on Violets bed, she lay there for a while not knowing weather to be furious at the world in general and Violet in particular for treating her like a child when she had rather been the hero of the hour, sad at learning of the death of both Perkal and his father, both of who had been her friends or to give into her bone weary tiredness as she had been awake for more hours and ridden harder than she had ever done before and whilst she found the adventure as exhilarating as any in tales she had read the reality was so much more tiring. Eventually she dosed off any way and slept like a log in all her borrowed clothes.

Nyasse awoke some considerable time latter she was not sure quite how much later but the small oil lamp she had lit had burned out and it was scarily dark in the small room she was rested but her arrow wound ached and she was as hungry as a horse. Which reminded her she had not brushed down Valiant when she had left him in the meadow outside the ruined village she wondered if he was alright if a little belatedly.

So Nyasse made her way out of the pitch dark room, across the equally pitch dark chapel groping her way along the wall till she found the ladder and regained the daylight in the ruin of the great house. It seemed to be around noon though she had no ranger’s sense of time to be certain and her hunger was distracting her. She checked on Valliant who was grazing away happily regardless of her neglect and that he was eating made her even more aware of her own hunger

The horse had it easy she though a bit glumly as while you couldn’t feed a warhorse like Valiant on grass alone, especially if you expected to have him do any work at least he had something to eat for the moment which was more than she had. To clear her head she walked down to the pool at the eastern end of the Dell and drank some of its cold fresh spring water and washed her face and hands she thought about having a swim but soon dismissed it as the water was far to cold this early in the year. She was still hungry indeed even more hungry than she had been on waking. However what to eat she supposed she could hunt, Perkal did Violet did though Violet eating was not something you wanted to think about as the woman could not stomach any thing but freshly killed meat. That was before you realised Violet had a mouth full of teeth quite like a snake. Nyasse wondered if she could hunt it couldn’t be that hard and Perkal had showed her how to last spring before he had gone away for the last time. However that begged two questions hunt what with what she had no weapon and all the game had been up to the north in the forest. Forest which was now doubtless crawling with goblins, goblins with bows more over. Nyasse was no coward but an arrow in the leg does teach one caution. She wandered back to the ruins of the village and went to have a chat with Valliant, who in the manor of horses listened to her woes and enjoyed the back rub she gave him but gave no useful advice.

Nyasse sat a whole watching the horse roll on his back like a foal and gallop up and down the meadow for no reason other than the joy of it. She chewed a spring blade of grass to try and take he mind off food so she could think. Time passed and eventually she remembered the Holdfast all the children in the Hidden Dell had visited it on a dare it was almost a right of passage to the Dell born. She having arrived here when to old for such games and too much the court bred lady any way had not but she remembered that the children had said that it was provided with emergency stores and what was this if not an emergency?

With the thought in mind she began to stroll west up the Dell leaving Valliant to his play. The Holdfast was at far western end of the Dell and had been the abode of the wizard who had become the champion of the free before Violet before he had become the champion and it was latter the first place where he kept his special escapees safe and away from the hunters rife east of the great mountains. After the Village had been built it had returned to being only his home and had been locked when he went on his last trip east and completely unused since. Except as a place for the children of the Dell to play at being bold adventurers and hero’s from the ancient days when the mood took them.

When she arrived at the Holdfast Nyasse quickly found the door even thought it had been deliberately screened by trailing rock ivy and inside the porch she found a lone torch and a bag containing a tinderbox with flint and steel a long decayed apple and a twist of cloth with a little cheese still edible with in.  This last Nyasse wolfed and then laughed and wondered what her etiquette mistress would have said if she had seen this. Slightly less hungry now Nyasse lit the torch at the second attempt and pressed on. Wishing only for a weapon to fight off any monsters which may lair within.