Stories from RhyDin & The Rings

After several hours riding around town on her Púka, shopping for some real estate to fit their needs, Trist managed to narrow the options down to three. She would show each of the locations to Gwen and Kattria and go over their "needs".
She was considering suggesting they open a shop "The Naughty Minx, leather and daggers" or perhaps "the Naughty Minx, rare things". Chuckling to herself, knowing fully that with the market they played in, she'd have to be careful not to draw the attention of the "pure at heart" sort.
It seemed pretty clear the northeast portion of town would be the most fitting. Now for the front.

When Tristanie came to her with the business venture idea it was like setting a kid loose in a candy store.

"YES! I have rare things," she exclaimed, all the while thinking of a few rare things she could acquire. Indeed, she was good at acquiring things she thought were pretty, or unusual or sometimes just because she could get them.

"I'll get to making the business cards so we can hand them out to potential customers," her voice rising slightly as she got more excited by the minute. "AND I'm told that someone named Harris owes me a SHINY" the last coming out side by side with a cackle of joy. Running off before Tristanie could say anything that might be intended to calm her down.

Sitting cross-legged in the clearing upon the dewy grass Gwen felt at home. It was a gift from her parents that both forest and city felt good in her bones, a benefit of being a half-blood.

Drawing in a deep breath she could feel her thoughts crystallize, and calm. It was a state she could rarely attain in the presence of others. Indeed she had begun to suspect it was the influence of others that made her... made her... impulsive. That was a fairly large crock pot full of crap but every now and again she allowed herself a small self deception.

Still, the gentle breeze felt good, she felt a song begin to stir in her soul. It was in the forest that her ballads were normally birthed. The city always brought out something bawdy, not difficult to understand that part of her personality. This one was feeling like an epic ballad of love, battle and loss. It would be good, she could feel it in her bones.

The thought of feeling sent her fingers into one of the small leather pouches she had hidden on her person. Running her fingers over the small, perfect egg she had stashed there the previous evening. It represented trouble that did not have her name, and that was a rare gift indeed.

"How do they have so many pretties?" Gwen spoke aloud to the empty air. Whether she was speaking of the objects she had "discovered" in a few homes as she "checked" out security in the town or the men she had found all in one small room was an answer not even Gwen was completely positive she knew.

"Unavailable pretties," she said with a sigh as soft as her touch when she relieved others of their unnecessary burdens. Owned pretties meant little to her, ownership was mutable. Unavailable meant that it was a line that she would not cross, and they were so few that she held those things close. A heart was not something to procure, it was something to win...

Another sigh escaped her and she began to sing her new song. The sound of her voice floated up and filled the little glen with a sweet, sad sorrow.

Derry and Trist moved back from their handiwork of wedging a boulder up against the door. The sounds of howling could still be heard and the frame of the door shook every few seconds but it would hold while they came up with a plan. This would be easier if the Minxes weren’t just offering up, “Let them in and we’ll kill them,” over and over again.

Derry was giving them “that look” as they mentioned their brilliant plan again and talking with Shale about strategy or something. They had entered the temple looking for two missing boys; considering the temple was dedicated to a god of ill repute they figured it would be OK if they simply slaughtered their way to a resolution.

Unfortunately for them the temple had been stockpiling undead creatures for just such an occasion.

“You would have thought that SOMEONE would have noticed that the graveyard was empty. I mean really, there must be like a zillion of those things out there,” Gwen huffed as she wiped some dead slime from her long sword.

“Seriously, and next time Derry move them a little to the left so I can get their kidneys,” Katt complained. In a dry tone Derry replied, “They are undead, it doesn’t matter if you hit their kidneys or not.” “It’s the principle of the matter!” Katt replied with a dagger pointed at him. “Now let them in and we’ll kill them!”

It was then they realized the thumping had ceased and they all turned toward the door. “Someone finally told them who we were and they fled in terror,” Tristanie said with absolute certainty. “We should go out and shoot them as they run.”

Shale was about to answer that when a voice could be heard from the other side of the door, “We seem to be at an impasse, perhaps we should speak so we can come to a compromise.”

Gwen looked thoughtfully at the door before saying, “Actually we at a temple. That would be accurate. At a door, that would work too. I’m not passing,” saying it kind of like impasse, “through that door until I damn well feel like it.”

Shale sighed, “Impasse, we can’t do anything, they can’t do anything; a kind of stalemate.” Gwen looked at Shale, “Oh why didn’t he just say so?”

“And why did he ask to eat our eyes? I mean, ew.” Kattria scrunched up her face at the thought, a dagger tapping idly on her thigh. “Zombies don’t eat eyes, they eat brains,” Trist provided helpfully, “Besides he said he wanted a side of fries. Which I don’t get, does he think that he has us backed into the kitchen and therefore we should cook for him?”


“He said compromise,” Gwen provided, “You know, he wants to tell us a pack of lies like when Derry asks me to compromise and only do slightly insane things and I tell him sure.”

Derry growled at that but the Minxes ignored it. “OH! OH! I can do that!” Katt cried out even as she shifted and allowed the shadows of the room to swallow her up. “Tell them we’re defenseless and unarmed and they should send their leader in, I’ll compromise his kidneys.”