[Medieval] Knight Adventures 1: Black Hound of Haflinger
Oct 11, 2014 18:18:22 GMT -5
Tiger, Celestial, and 1 more like this
Post by Omni on Oct 11, 2014 18:18:22 GMT -5
((Collab between Shinko and I due to the interaction involved.))
Orrin hadn't been expecting a reply; his affirmation was meant more to show unity. Still, he listened to as Sieg talked about the lesson that every knight had to learn; you can't save everyone. It was true, but something about what Sieg was saying bothered him. In particular, one thing he noticed was the usage of the word 'monsters.'
The half-elf looked up at Orrin, smiled sadly, and continued to speak. "I'd rather hurt than feel nothing at all. My... My father used to say that numbing your heart to pain is the first step on the road of true evil."
What Sieg expressed gave the Stallion knight pause, memories of his own stirring in his head. "My knight master, Sir Edwin Tarrin, told me that the monsters are the ones who want people hurt, or at least don't care enough to stop them from gettin' hurt. However... I was also told that ya can't let the pain hold ya back, either; better to use it to try harder to help others, if anythin'."
The half-elf looked at the house as they approached it, figuring they might as well ask any residents if they had the right house. "You still okay with taking point on this one?"
Orrin was about to reply when the sound of something dropping to the ground was heard. He turned toward the sound - toward the house - and saw a woman who seemed like she'd been through too much. So startled was she at seeing the knights that she clung to her own house.
"Wh-who are you? What are you?"
Yeah, not the best of starts.
Sieg took the lead and asked if they were at the Reid residence. The woman was hesitant, but nodded affirmatively. "Yessirs. I'm Elise Reid; what can I do for you?"
Sieg gave Orrin a glance, and the half-dwarf gave Elise a friendly smile. "As my friend mentioned, we're knights, miss. His Grace the Grand Duke sent us here to look into the reports of the black hound, and our investigation led us to an odd clue." He paused, glancing at the house. "Is it alright if we speak in private?"
Elise gulped. “I… I suppose, but sirs I know nothing about the hound. No one in my family has fallen to it and I don’t really hear tales from the village much.”
Sieg glanced at Orrin with a frown. If rumors of the black hound had spread as far as Destrier, why would a woman in the very same village not have heard the stories?
The Stallion Knight gave a reassuring smile. “If ya don’t have much to tell us, then we won’t be botherin’ ya for long.” He let the smile fade. “But I assure ya that this is important. May we please speak inside?”
After a moment more of hesitation, Elise nodded. “Alright. Come in.”
She turned towards her cottage, holding the door open for the two knights. Sieg stepped in, glancing around the interior. There wasn’t much of note- it looked like a normal house of someone relatively poor. Elise followed them back inside, and closed the door. She gestured tiredly at the table in the middle of the room, which had three stools at it. “Feel free to sit down, sirs. Should I put a kettle on?”
“That won’t be necessary, ma’am,” Sieg said with a kindly smile. “You needn’t wait on us- we just want to talk.”
Orrin glanced hesitantly at the stools. He chose the one that looked the sturdiest, and carefully sat down. “Is there anyone else who lives here? Someone we can talk to ya with?” the half-dwarf asked.
The woman shifted, her expression uncomfortable. “Well my husband lives here, but he’s at work. I really shouldn’t call him away, we need the money. B-but if you really want...”
Orrin glanced at Sieg. “I wouldn’t want to bother him if we don’t need to.”
Sieg nodded in agreement, “Sounds reasonable to me. I wouldn’t want to cost someone their wages.” he glanced back at Elise, “Though if Mr. Reid has anything else he’d like to tell us later, he can find us at the inn.”
She shrugged, “I’ll let him know, but… what is it you wanted to talk about, exactly?”
Orrin paused, trying to be as calm and non-threatening as possible. He spoke softly. “Did ya know a girl named Kenna?”
The woman jerked in surprise, a look of shock and pain coming into her eyes. “Wh-who told you that name? Was it the villagers? Those cold-hearted…” she shook her head. “Yes. Kenna was my daughter’s name.”
Sieg was surprised by the nature of the woman’s reaction- the shock and grief he’d been expecting, but not the bitter anger against the other villagers; though in retrospect, he probably should have anticipated something of the sort. The way people had reacted when he asked about Kenna implied a dirty secret of some sort here.
“Mrs Reid,” he said gently, “There’s no rush, alright? You can take as much time as you need to answer our questions. We have no wish to distress you, but we feel that what we have to ask may be very important.”
“And if ya ever feel ya need yer husband, let us know, and we’ll wait,” the half-dwarf said softly.
She only shook her head, not meeting the knights’ eyes, and gestured for them to go on.
“Ya see,” Orrin began. “The strange thing is that we were shown her name by the hound itself.”
Elise looked up at Orrin with a frown. “Shown her name? What do you mean by that?”
Sieg shifted slightly, coughing to catch the woman’s attention. “Last night, we discovered the hound near the edge of the town cemetery. It led us to her grave and pawed at the earth in front of it before vanishing.”
The woman frowned, crossing her arms. “I don’t see why the monster should care. It didn’t kill Kenna- she died before it started rampaging. She froze to death in the forest one night, after those horrible… Nevermind, forget I said anything. The point is that she wasn’t killed by the hound.”
Orrin paused, his brow furrowed. “How long before the attacks was this?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know exactly- two weeks maybe? I wasn’t exactly in a very coherent state of mind at the time. My daughter had just died, you understand.”
Orrin nodded. “Of course. It couldn’t have been easy. He paused again. “We noticed somethin’ strange on the headstone; a necklace of what looked like baby teeth. Can ya tell us anythin’ about that?”
She huffed softly. “Her father put that there. Those teeth were hers. She had a lot of teeth- she was rather well known for it.”
“A lot of teeth? What do you mean?” Sieg asked. Elise laughed hollowly.
“She was born with two sets of teeth. And of course, everyone noticed, and commented on it. Some of the superstitious older villagers even said she was possessed, a monster of some sort. A strzyga, the legends call them. All the villagers ostracized her, and us, for it. But we kept the teeth she lost to show her we didn’t care about it, and that she was special just the way she was. Didn’t do a lot of good.”
She looked out the window, her gaze distant. “When she froze to death, it wasn’t by accident. Not entirely. Some of the village children chased her into the forest, calling her nasty names. Then they left her out there. She… she m-must have gotten lost. We looked, my husband and I, we both l-looked, but…”
Sieg stepped forwards on impulse, putting a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Miss. I’m so, so sorry.” He glanced up at Orrin.
As Elise recalled the treatment of her daughter, Orrin’s expression became reflective. When she talked about how she and her husband had looked in vain, he found himself doing similarly to Sieg, and held the woman’s opposite shoulder. “It’s alright, miss, it’s alright.” Thinking it might be good to talk about something other than her daughter’s death, he decided to turn to a slightly different subject. “Neither of us are from here… Can ya tell us about the legends ya mentioned?”
The woman sniffed, shrugging. “It’s an old legend- the priest said it was just pagan riffraff, but everyone always said that the hound was pagan too and there were plenty of people who’d seen it. Apparently some people are born with two hearts, two souls, and two sets of teeth. When they die, it’s said one soul will move on to the afterlife, while the other will haunt the earth, unable to move on with it’s being split.”
Orrin hadn’t removed his hand from her shoulder, but he found himself listening intently. “Haunt the earth? Doin’ what?”
Elise scowled. “I don’t know. I never asked; I was trying to distance my daughter from those horrible stories people spread about her, not encourage them. Why, do you think they’re true? That my Kenna is a monster and it’s her fault the hound went mad and started killing people?”
Sieg winced at the anger in the woman’s tone. He squeezed her shoulder. “Please Mrs. Reid, Orrin didn’t say that.”
Meanwhile, Orrin shook his head. “No, I don’t think that’s what happened. And Mrs. Reid…” he looked into her eyes, a deep look of sympathy in his own. “I understand how hard her treatment must’ve been. Bein’ born with two sets of arms, I’ve been called my share of things. ‘Monster’ bein’ one of the nicer ones. Like ya, my mama never gave up on me, and I’m grateful to her for that; I’m sure Kenna is, too.”
He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, his eyes starting to glisten with moisture as he grew a little choked up. “And ya know what else? A man came along one day and was able to look past my… differences. He became a big part of my life and he taught me somethin’ important: yer only a monster… if ya want to be.”
Elise looked up at Orrin, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. She seemed to want to say something, but when she opened her mouth all that emerged was a soft hiccup. Then, with a harsh sob, she leaned forwards into the half-dwarf’s chest, her shoulders shaking as she wept brokenly. “Sh-she… she was just… m-my baby, just a b-baby… she wasn’t a, a monster, she wasn’t.”
Quietly, Orrin held his arms around the woman in a gentle embrace. He hushed her gently. “It’s alright… I’m sure she wasn’t. I understand.”
Sieg, sensing that this was something better left to his friend, backed away, putting his arms behind his back. Elise just continued to sob, taking comfort from Orrin’s genuine empathy.
“We’re just tryin’ to learn what we can so we can find out what’s goin’ on and stop it. That’s all,” the half-dwarf assured her. “I’m sorry we had to bring this up.”
She shook her head, sniffing, and pulled slowly away. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help. I don’t know why the black hound led you to… to Kenna’s grave. She never talked about seeing it or anything like that, and as far as I know there’s no connection between it and the stupid strzyga stories.”
“That’s alright, Miss,” Sieg put in. “Thank you for speaking with us anyway- I know this must be very hard for you to talk about.”
She looked at Sieg, then back to Orrin. “I think you both know what it’s like to be judged for being different. As superstitious as the villagers are, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were very cold to you. But… you’re trying to help us, even so. Good luck… and I really am sorry I was no help.”
“It’s alright, miss,” Orrin replied, sitting back. “We’ll get to the bottom of this, we promise.” He paused in thought, then reached into his purse and pulled out a few coins, which he gave to the woman. “Farewell. And may ‘Woo be with you.”
Orrin hadn't been expecting a reply; his affirmation was meant more to show unity. Still, he listened to as Sieg talked about the lesson that every knight had to learn; you can't save everyone. It was true, but something about what Sieg was saying bothered him. In particular, one thing he noticed was the usage of the word 'monsters.'
The half-elf looked up at Orrin, smiled sadly, and continued to speak. "I'd rather hurt than feel nothing at all. My... My father used to say that numbing your heart to pain is the first step on the road of true evil."
What Sieg expressed gave the Stallion knight pause, memories of his own stirring in his head. "My knight master, Sir Edwin Tarrin, told me that the monsters are the ones who want people hurt, or at least don't care enough to stop them from gettin' hurt. However... I was also told that ya can't let the pain hold ya back, either; better to use it to try harder to help others, if anythin'."
The half-elf looked at the house as they approached it, figuring they might as well ask any residents if they had the right house. "You still okay with taking point on this one?"
Orrin was about to reply when the sound of something dropping to the ground was heard. He turned toward the sound - toward the house - and saw a woman who seemed like she'd been through too much. So startled was she at seeing the knights that she clung to her own house.
"Wh-who are you? What are you?"
Yeah, not the best of starts.
Sieg took the lead and asked if they were at the Reid residence. The woman was hesitant, but nodded affirmatively. "Yessirs. I'm Elise Reid; what can I do for you?"
Sieg gave Orrin a glance, and the half-dwarf gave Elise a friendly smile. "As my friend mentioned, we're knights, miss. His Grace the Grand Duke sent us here to look into the reports of the black hound, and our investigation led us to an odd clue." He paused, glancing at the house. "Is it alright if we speak in private?"
Elise gulped. “I… I suppose, but sirs I know nothing about the hound. No one in my family has fallen to it and I don’t really hear tales from the village much.”
Sieg glanced at Orrin with a frown. If rumors of the black hound had spread as far as Destrier, why would a woman in the very same village not have heard the stories?
The Stallion Knight gave a reassuring smile. “If ya don’t have much to tell us, then we won’t be botherin’ ya for long.” He let the smile fade. “But I assure ya that this is important. May we please speak inside?”
After a moment more of hesitation, Elise nodded. “Alright. Come in.”
She turned towards her cottage, holding the door open for the two knights. Sieg stepped in, glancing around the interior. There wasn’t much of note- it looked like a normal house of someone relatively poor. Elise followed them back inside, and closed the door. She gestured tiredly at the table in the middle of the room, which had three stools at it. “Feel free to sit down, sirs. Should I put a kettle on?”
“That won’t be necessary, ma’am,” Sieg said with a kindly smile. “You needn’t wait on us- we just want to talk.”
Orrin glanced hesitantly at the stools. He chose the one that looked the sturdiest, and carefully sat down. “Is there anyone else who lives here? Someone we can talk to ya with?” the half-dwarf asked.
The woman shifted, her expression uncomfortable. “Well my husband lives here, but he’s at work. I really shouldn’t call him away, we need the money. B-but if you really want...”
Orrin glanced at Sieg. “I wouldn’t want to bother him if we don’t need to.”
Sieg nodded in agreement, “Sounds reasonable to me. I wouldn’t want to cost someone their wages.” he glanced back at Elise, “Though if Mr. Reid has anything else he’d like to tell us later, he can find us at the inn.”
She shrugged, “I’ll let him know, but… what is it you wanted to talk about, exactly?”
Orrin paused, trying to be as calm and non-threatening as possible. He spoke softly. “Did ya know a girl named Kenna?”
The woman jerked in surprise, a look of shock and pain coming into her eyes. “Wh-who told you that name? Was it the villagers? Those cold-hearted…” she shook her head. “Yes. Kenna was my daughter’s name.”
Sieg was surprised by the nature of the woman’s reaction- the shock and grief he’d been expecting, but not the bitter anger against the other villagers; though in retrospect, he probably should have anticipated something of the sort. The way people had reacted when he asked about Kenna implied a dirty secret of some sort here.
“Mrs Reid,” he said gently, “There’s no rush, alright? You can take as much time as you need to answer our questions. We have no wish to distress you, but we feel that what we have to ask may be very important.”
“And if ya ever feel ya need yer husband, let us know, and we’ll wait,” the half-dwarf said softly.
She only shook her head, not meeting the knights’ eyes, and gestured for them to go on.
“Ya see,” Orrin began. “The strange thing is that we were shown her name by the hound itself.”
Elise looked up at Orrin with a frown. “Shown her name? What do you mean by that?”
Sieg shifted slightly, coughing to catch the woman’s attention. “Last night, we discovered the hound near the edge of the town cemetery. It led us to her grave and pawed at the earth in front of it before vanishing.”
The woman frowned, crossing her arms. “I don’t see why the monster should care. It didn’t kill Kenna- she died before it started rampaging. She froze to death in the forest one night, after those horrible… Nevermind, forget I said anything. The point is that she wasn’t killed by the hound.”
Orrin paused, his brow furrowed. “How long before the attacks was this?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know exactly- two weeks maybe? I wasn’t exactly in a very coherent state of mind at the time. My daughter had just died, you understand.”
Orrin nodded. “Of course. It couldn’t have been easy. He paused again. “We noticed somethin’ strange on the headstone; a necklace of what looked like baby teeth. Can ya tell us anythin’ about that?”
She huffed softly. “Her father put that there. Those teeth were hers. She had a lot of teeth- she was rather well known for it.”
“A lot of teeth? What do you mean?” Sieg asked. Elise laughed hollowly.
“She was born with two sets of teeth. And of course, everyone noticed, and commented on it. Some of the superstitious older villagers even said she was possessed, a monster of some sort. A strzyga, the legends call them. All the villagers ostracized her, and us, for it. But we kept the teeth she lost to show her we didn’t care about it, and that she was special just the way she was. Didn’t do a lot of good.”
She looked out the window, her gaze distant. “When she froze to death, it wasn’t by accident. Not entirely. Some of the village children chased her into the forest, calling her nasty names. Then they left her out there. She… she m-must have gotten lost. We looked, my husband and I, we both l-looked, but…”
Sieg stepped forwards on impulse, putting a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Miss. I’m so, so sorry.” He glanced up at Orrin.
As Elise recalled the treatment of her daughter, Orrin’s expression became reflective. When she talked about how she and her husband had looked in vain, he found himself doing similarly to Sieg, and held the woman’s opposite shoulder. “It’s alright, miss, it’s alright.” Thinking it might be good to talk about something other than her daughter’s death, he decided to turn to a slightly different subject. “Neither of us are from here… Can ya tell us about the legends ya mentioned?”
The woman sniffed, shrugging. “It’s an old legend- the priest said it was just pagan riffraff, but everyone always said that the hound was pagan too and there were plenty of people who’d seen it. Apparently some people are born with two hearts, two souls, and two sets of teeth. When they die, it’s said one soul will move on to the afterlife, while the other will haunt the earth, unable to move on with it’s being split.”
Orrin hadn’t removed his hand from her shoulder, but he found himself listening intently. “Haunt the earth? Doin’ what?”
Elise scowled. “I don’t know. I never asked; I was trying to distance my daughter from those horrible stories people spread about her, not encourage them. Why, do you think they’re true? That my Kenna is a monster and it’s her fault the hound went mad and started killing people?”
Sieg winced at the anger in the woman’s tone. He squeezed her shoulder. “Please Mrs. Reid, Orrin didn’t say that.”
Meanwhile, Orrin shook his head. “No, I don’t think that’s what happened. And Mrs. Reid…” he looked into her eyes, a deep look of sympathy in his own. “I understand how hard her treatment must’ve been. Bein’ born with two sets of arms, I’ve been called my share of things. ‘Monster’ bein’ one of the nicer ones. Like ya, my mama never gave up on me, and I’m grateful to her for that; I’m sure Kenna is, too.”
He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, his eyes starting to glisten with moisture as he grew a little choked up. “And ya know what else? A man came along one day and was able to look past my… differences. He became a big part of my life and he taught me somethin’ important: yer only a monster… if ya want to be.”
Elise looked up at Orrin, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. She seemed to want to say something, but when she opened her mouth all that emerged was a soft hiccup. Then, with a harsh sob, she leaned forwards into the half-dwarf’s chest, her shoulders shaking as she wept brokenly. “Sh-she… she was just… m-my baby, just a b-baby… she wasn’t a, a monster, she wasn’t.”
Quietly, Orrin held his arms around the woman in a gentle embrace. He hushed her gently. “It’s alright… I’m sure she wasn’t. I understand.”
Sieg, sensing that this was something better left to his friend, backed away, putting his arms behind his back. Elise just continued to sob, taking comfort from Orrin’s genuine empathy.
“We’re just tryin’ to learn what we can so we can find out what’s goin’ on and stop it. That’s all,” the half-dwarf assured her. “I’m sorry we had to bring this up.”
She shook her head, sniffing, and pulled slowly away. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help. I don’t know why the black hound led you to… to Kenna’s grave. She never talked about seeing it or anything like that, and as far as I know there’s no connection between it and the stupid strzyga stories.”
“That’s alright, Miss,” Sieg put in. “Thank you for speaking with us anyway- I know this must be very hard for you to talk about.”
She looked at Sieg, then back to Orrin. “I think you both know what it’s like to be judged for being different. As superstitious as the villagers are, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were very cold to you. But… you’re trying to help us, even so. Good luck… and I really am sorry I was no help.”
“It’s alright, miss,” Orrin replied, sitting back. “We’ll get to the bottom of this, we promise.” He paused in thought, then reached into his purse and pulled out a few coins, which he gave to the woman. “Farewell. And may ‘Woo be with you.”
Sieg and Orrin talk to Mrs. Elise Reid, Kenna’s mother. They find out that Kenna was born with two sets of teeth and the villagers considered her a monster. She died about two weeks before the attacks started, after being chased into the woods by some village children and getting lost in the cold. The knights leave with some parting words of comfort, promising to get to the bottom of the situation.