Kinderling 15

 "All right you two, if you have that out of your system, I don't think standing around waiting for the Gorf to forget he promised not to eat us is a good idea."  I said, picking what looked to be the easiest path towards the village.  "This way I think."

As was my habit when walking through the forest, I kept to smaller paths and spent as much time listening as I did walking.  It was difficult with Father's panting and wheezing behind me.  How had I never noticed how loud Father is? 

"Where are we heading Tandy?" came a whisper from Uncle Zon.  "We can't just walk back into the village, there is a surprisingly large tribe of Gorf that, last time I saw, has taken up residence."

"Old Barrel."

"What?  Why there?"

"Mama said."

Uncle Zon looked surprised.  "That's dangerous, the Kinderling Militia doesn't even go there anymore."

Now that was something I didn't know.  Well, I guess there area a lot of things about the Old Barrel that I didn't know.  I had never seen it, and only knew vaguely where it was, and frankly I was a little surprised that Mama knew it even existed.

The Old Barrel was the place where caravan's would stop when coming to trade for Kinderling silver.  It wasn't far from the village.  It came to be named The Old Barrel because of  a rock feature that held water, that looked from the inside like you were inside an old barrel, or so that was what I had heard.  Men would walk in to the trade area from the Barrel in the mornings, spend the day trading, then return in the evenings.  Horses and pack animals were not allowed anywhere near the trade area or village because their size was frightening.  Men are easily three or four times the size of Kinderlings and are scary enough in their own right, their horses were enormous and terrifying.  There was also a strict rule that Men were also not allowed in the village proper, or allowed to stay in the trade area after sunset.  I had never directly heard the reason for that rule, but I had overheard enough disapproving whispers about the "Race of Man" that I got the impression it was a grown-up thing.

"Nonsense Zon, it can't have gotten that bad can it?" Interjected Father.

"This time I AM calling you old, Tadius."  Uncle Zon said without heat,  "It has been fifty years since you were last there when the old gang broke up.  For that matter, it has been nearly twenty years since I was last there and recommended to the council that we pull the militia patrols in closer to the village.  The Gorf have only gotten worse since then."

"You think the hideout is still there Zon?"

"I don't know Tadius, I had a patrol with me when I was there.  I didn't want to give it away, so all I could do was take a quick look from outside.  The way was overgrown, but seemed to be undisturbed.  Rupert did good work, so it is possible I guess."

"Good ol' Rupert."  Father said, sounding sad.

I remember my parents had a friend named Rupert when I was little.  He would show me runes that they weren't teaching in school.  Mama would act all put-out like he shouldn't be showing such powerful and dangerous runes to a small child.  Knowing Mama as I do now, I'm sure it was just an act designed to pique my interest rather than to get Mr. Rupert to stop.  If Mama really wanted him to stop, she would have dragged him out by his ear.  When Mama wants someone to stop something in her house, they stop it.  The no-see-me charm, and so many other things I've created, wouldn't have been possible without those impromptu lessons.

"I think I remember him Father, what ever happened to Mr. Rupert?"

"He died a few years ago Tandy." Father replied.  "One day he was fine, the next day he couldn't keep food down, and died soon after.  Not even your mother could figure out what was wrong with him.  I'm sorry, that was when you were having your problems with the other children.  We didn't tell you because you were fond of him and after The Incident, we didn't want to add to your worries."

The Incident, as Father always called it, was the day Mama caught me, bruised and bleeding from a number of cuts and gashes, leaving the house with my bag of tricks intent on going to war with the bullies.  As far as I was concerned they had drawn first blood when they shoved me into a ravine and pelted me with rocks.  I could have been seriously hurt, or even killed.  They were all a few years older than me, and as small as I am, they were also all much bigger.  That made them valid targets in my book, and I was angry and ready to even the score.

I'm over it now.  Looking back, I now see The Incident as my revolution.  The day I defeated the bullies without even throwing a punch.  After seeing what I had in store for the bullies, Mama pulled me out of school and after the ill-fated attempt at turning me into a healer like her, and Mama suggesting to Father that he take me on as an apprentice - to which Father laughed so hard that Mama suggested he needed to be dosed good and hard with bitter root tea - I officially started schooling from home, and was eventually given freedom to roam the forest. 

Of course, I had to give up on the idea of sweet sweet revenge...  sigh, revenge might be sweet, but freedom was sweeter.

It hit me that Beso was one of the bullies back then.  Not even sure why that occurred to me, I hadn't thought about that bunch of violent miss-fits for years, but I felt a moment of rage at the idea that Beso was even thinking about marrying me.  In what world does he think that could happen?  I had half a mind to...

I was rescued from my dark thoughts by Uncle Zon.  

"Well, now that I know where we are going and have an idea of where we are, I know some shortcuts.  Follow me." With that, Uncle Zon lead us off into a slightly different direction than I had been leading us.  That didn't bother me in the least, after all, I had mostly been guessing.

I couldn't help but think about Uncle Zon and Father's conversation.  The Hideout?  And apparently it was at the Old Barrel?  As far as I knew, the Old Barrel was a few hours walk from the village.  A few hours walk for Man that is, which meant more than that for a Kinderling with our short legs.  Other than a few rare occasions, I never ranged anywhere near that far from the village, and other than me and the militia patrols, Kinderlings, for the most part, never left the safety of the village.  Occasionally the potion brewers or another Kinderling would slip a militia member, or myself, a few coins for us to retrieve something from the forest.  Because I was good at identifying herbs and other ingredients, I made a nice bit of spending money that way.

We made good time, and were lucky to avoid any Gorf settlements, and eventually made it down as far as a good trail through the forest.  I usually avoided such trails when I was in the forest, but Uncle Zon looked relieved to see it.

"This is one of the patrol trails." Uncle Zon explained, "The Gorfs tend to avoid them.  Over the years, we've had quite a few skirmishes with various Gorf tribes, and the Gorfs learned not to bother us.  I hope that will still hold true for the three of us."

I wasn't as hopeful.  In my experience, Gorfs aren't opposed to hiding if they think another group is stronger.  I have seen it often enough from various hiding places.  Whenever a weaker group of Gorfs come across a stronger group, they go to ground.  They aren't half bad at hiding themselves.  I'm sure having green skin in the forest is an advantage.