4: SURPRISE!

I set off after writing my last entry. I decided not to swim across the river because of my heavy pack, and jumped up onto a rock to survey my surroundings. I noticed a ford in the river a little ways upstream, and after a quick search of the rest of my surroundings, I lugged my pack that way.

I had not noticed until now how much I was carrying. Apparently I had not looked at the weapons I had collected from the sewers. I had three axes that had rusty blades, rusty grip, and even some of the wood seemed to be rusty. I knew how worthless they were and threw all three of them into the river. I didn’t know if dreughs came this far upstream, but they would make use of them if they did. They would rust away in a year or so anyway. Another part of my treasure trove was a nearly complete set of iron armor. At least, I think it was iron at one point. I had no use for it, and it would certainly not be worth enough to make me carry it around for any longer, so into the river it went. Next I disposed of the rotten food I had found, and wondered if what I had eaten of it would make me sick. I tried not to think about it, and continued to sift through the rest of my junk.

By noon I had cleaned out my pack, washed my clothes and used the goblin’s mortar and pestle to create a few weak potions. The food I had thrown into the river had attracted a small army of mudcrabs and slaughterfish. I hopped up onto a large rock and proceeded to fling spells at the feeding crabs. The smell of crab meat was soon heavy in the air, and I stopped for a moment to drink it in. I never saw the bandits coming…

The arrow pierced my leg about three inches up from my knee cap. The rock I was standing on was about 7 feet high. My leg buckled soon after the arrow hit it and I fell all seven feet to the sand. I tried to scream, but the wind had been knocked out of me, so it came out as a rasping wheeze. I just wanted to lie there and pass out, but I knew I had to get up or the bandits would come to finish the job. I managed to yank the arrow out of my leg and get a healing spell into it before the pain really started. Soon I was on my feet and circling around the rock to punish the bandit who fired the arrow. I heard a crunch and a squeal, someone had just smashed a mudcrab! I whirled around to see a bandit with a bow slung over his shoulder and a shortsword in his hand. He was standing with one foot in an oozing mudcrab shell, and the other was desperately trying to knock off the remains of the irritating creature. I immediately flung a fireball at him and dodged behind a small rock. He screamed and charged at my small shelter, unaware of my little trap for him.

As he rounded the corner of my rock, he stepped into a large tide pool. I was waiting with one hand in the pool, and froze the water just as his foot entered it. He was lying with his sword just out of reach, and his frozen foot was twisted and broken in the ice. I smiled, my trap had worked! Now all I had to do was teach him a lesson he wouldn’t forget. Or remember for that matter.

“It isn’t nice to shoot a defenseless person. It isn't nice to want to steal from a defenseless person. It’s just stupid to shoot a person who can do this," I gestured to his foot, "to you!." These were the last words he heard, except for whispers from his ancestors.

I am not proud of the way I killed him. I was simply angry! Angry at myself for letting my guard down, and angry at him for sneaking around so well. I simply don’t have the strength to attack an Ayleid ruin at the moment, I will go on after I rest.