Chapter One: Just another Day in the Life of Twyla Overon

“No matter where you go, I’ll find you!” He screamed at me from where he sat, tied securely to a tree. I rolled my eyes sarcastically and continued packing. Derth and I both knew that any threats he made now would be left unfulfilled. He continued to scream until, with an exasperated sigh, I knelt beside him.

“Shut up please,” I said quietly, “thanks to you I haven’t gotten nearly enough sleep.” I rolled one of Derths socks into a ball and stuffed it in Lorgoths mouth.

I didn’t know much about this man, only that he was a bounty hunter, or headhunter, whatever you want to call them, and his name. Picture the cliché headhunter in your minds eye, rough, muscular, unshaven, that was him, except with a funny way of scrunching his nose in anger and making the vein on his forehead leap with each pulse of his stony heart. He had jumped us during the night, the cowardly thing to do if you ask me, but there is a reason Derth and I are considered dangerous and at large, and we over took him easily enough. I got away with only a scratch above my knee, and Derth some minor cuts, nothing too terrible.

I ruffled Lorgoths hair just to annoy him, and sauntered over to where Derth was cleaning his cuts. Gently I took the cloth from him and wrung it out over a basin of water. I dabbed carefully at the cut above his elbow. He flinched, “Oh, don’t be a baby.” I chided softly. Derth was a roughish looking man of about twenty-one years. He had dark brown hair and hard features. His eyes were like rock and his smile was lopsided and dangerous. He had grown up as an orphan, with no family of any kind, and now that he was an adult, he felt an odd sort of pride for surviving what he had as a child. I had met him nearly three years ago, and we had been partners ever since.

“We should leave now.” I suggested. Behind me I could hear Lorgoths muffled cussing, and I smiled slightly.

“We will, as soon as I’ve finished this.”

I nodded, instantly excepting his leadership. After he had finished cleaning his wounds, we packed our things and I checked once more to make sure Lorgoth was still tied securely to the tree and then we left, Derth “politely” tipping his cap to our prisoner.

The plan was to go on to Dartne, a small town on the borders of Arda and Krynn. News generally travels slowly in Arda1, and Dartne was at the bottom of the food chain, so to speak, so we wouldn’t have to worry about wanted posters or soldiers. Dartne was the thief capital of the country, since the market was open and sparsely guarded. Actually, that made is quite likely that we would run into someone we knew.

You see, Derth and I were thieves; in fact we were infamous thieves. We even had bounty hunters after us! We had a routine that never failed; I would work my charm, wear a low-cropped dress, and distract our client while Derth pulled the old lightning fingers and steal away anything he deemed valuable.

We arrived in Dartne during the night, the guards let us in without hesitation, surprisingly enough, they didn’t even ask for our papers. (Which were carefully forged.)

“Securities even more slack then usual.” Derth whispered happily. I nodded, but it irked me somewhat.

We booked into an Inn called “The Kings Own”. Derth strode over to the desk, maneuvering quickly between crowded tables and scantily clad waitresses. “One room, two beds.” He said without hesitation.

“Five silver Trinns2 sir.” The little man at the desk replied, and Derth lay three Trinns down. The man pulled a grubby cloth out of his pocket and dabbed at his receding hairline.

“I’ll give you the rest when we check out.” Derth suggested innocently. I smiled in admiration as the man nodded; both he and I knew that Derth was bound to disappear “mysteriously” before he had a chance to pay the rest of his bill.

The inn keeper handed us a key and pointed up the stairs. “First . . . first door on the left.” He stammered. Derth had that effect on people.

Our room was small and uncomfortable; there was one window and a bed against either wall. The floor was hard and cold, and there was no fireplace.

“We’ve stayed in worse.” I muttered and Derth grinned that infamous crooked grin that was plastered all over the walls of guard towers scattered across the country. That was the grin that had first attracted me to working with him, I had seen a wanted poster with his face on it and I had wondered how a man with such a good-natured grin could be as bad as they made him out to be. Three days later, he had checked into my fathers Inn, and I had helped him escape when the soldiers came for him.

“I seem to recall that your father’s inn didn’t even have a window.” Derth tore the blankets of a bed and laid them on the floor. “We’ll go out at dawn.” He said as he flopped onto the pile of blankets. I smiled, we rarely got to sleep in beds and when we did have the chance, Derth preferred the floor.

“See you in the morning.” I said quietly as I lay down in one of the beds. The warmth from the covers combined with a serious lack of sleep on my part left me asleep so fast I forgot to undress.

The next morning Derth shook me awake and I sleepily sat up. “Come on.” He said, and threw a dress at me. I stuck out my tongue irritably, but got out of bed anyway. I quickly changed out of my riding clothes and into the dress. Derth had bought it for me a couple months ago when it had first occurred to him that a mans universal weakness was a woman with cleavage. The neck line was precariously low, and the bodice so tight that when I wore it I felt like I might explode at any second. I felt like a whore when ever he made me put the thing on. But I did it anyway, because Derth didn’t look nearly as good in it as I did, and I couldn’t pull of the “lightning fingers” as good as he could.

We left the hotel quickly, several men eyeing me greedily, but none made a move once they caught sight of Derth following behind me. Once we got out side I realized it was nearly noon already.

“Thanks for letting me sleep;” I yawned sheepishly, “I know you wanted to get cracking at dawn.” I was shocked to see Derths ears turn pink.

“That’s alright, I like watching you sleep anyway . . .” he trailed off, mumbling the last part so that I could barely hear him. I laughed, than wished I hadn’t. The sheepish look on his face was replaced by the cold hard look that had made him a legend to be feared.

Sighing wearily I followed him down to the market.

Our first stop was a jewelry stand on the street corner, I strutted over to the Merchant, rocking my hips back and forth, than I bent over the wares, examining them carefully, making sure that at least half of my breasts were exposed from beneath my ridiculously low collar. I could feel the mans eyes on me, so I held my stance for a couple more seconds, than I straightened my back, and flicked my long wavy brown hair out of my face.

“I’m looking for a bracelet to match this fabric.” I pointed to my chest, indicating the material stretched over my bodice.

“We . . . we have some purple stones here.” The merchant pointed to a string of purple and blue stones. I bent over them again, I knew for sure the mans eyes were on me as I played with my hair teasingly, and that by the time I straightened up again, Derth will have already finished his work. I waited for a minute than straightened. Sure enough, Derth stood a little to the right of the booth, giving me the thumbs up to indicate that the deed was done.

“Well, these wont do,” I said, “goodbye.”

The merchant watched me until I was around the corner where Derth showed me the string of pearls and a gold and silver bracelet he had taken. I put them into my money purse.

The next stand on the road was a sword shop. We surveyed it from afar until Derth was satisfied that all the merchant was selling was armor and weapons and we had no need for them, nor anyway to transport them with out looking inconspicuous. The next stand was disorganized; it reminded me of my room back home. The merchant sold nothing in particular, the stand was littered with an assortment of odds and ends, bobbles and knickknacks that couldn’t possibly be of any use to anyone, all of the things were pretty if looked at on their own, thrown together though, they seemed to an unpracticed eye an array of tacky shelf ornaments. Derth scanned the wares for only a second before finding exactly what he wanted. A small figure of an Elven Amathal tree, every one of the leaves had a small red stone pressed into it and the base was formed from delicately sculpted tree roots entwined in a circle.

“That would sell for at least nine gold Trinns.” He said, pointing the little tree out to me.

“Gold? Do you think the stones are real?”

“They look like it, so if they aren’t they can be passed of as real to the right buyer”

I nodded in agreement and Derth moved of to stand behind the booth while I sauntered over to stand as far from the Amathal tree figure as possible.

I bent over the wares until I was sure the merchant was looking at me, then I pointed to a round piece of wood with little diamonds pressed into the outside of it. “What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s a sculpture of a spotted mushroom.” He said proudly.

“Are the diamonds real?” I asked skeptically.

“Of course! Brought all the way from Krynn where they were mined by my uncles own family!”

I did my best to look awed, even though I could tell that the diamonds were fake. I flipped my hair back, “Have you ever been to Krynn?” I asked curiously. The operates eyes lit up and I knew exactly what was coming.

“Of course!” he sighed for effect, “It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever been! The trees are red and purple and even blue, and the gems there grow like flowers, and rivers are as clear as they sky, and taste like honey on your lips!”

I tried my best to look interested, glancing quickly over his shoulder, watching for Derth to give me the signal so we could move on, but he didn’t appear. Suddenly I realized the merchant had stopped talking, he was squinting past me at something. Then I heard my name.

“Twyla Overon?”

Ever so slowly I turned to look at who ever was speaking, there was a soldier standing behind me. I gulped and shook my head.

“No Sir.” I said, “My names Xylia Yehudit.” The soldier seemed puzzled for a moment but then his face turned somber again.

“Come with me ‘Xylia’” He clamped his hand on my wrist and I made a show of fighting back tears.

“Let me go, why do you want me?”

He didn’t answer, because at that moment three other soldiers came around the corner, holding a struggling man between them. As I watched he tried to escape, but one soldier kneed him in the gut knocking the wind out of him. They threw Derth to the ground and he lay there in a daze.

“Do you know that man?” The soldier asked. The tears were real now.

“No!” I gasped. The soldier pulled me closer to Derth.

“Are you sure you do not know this man?” he asked again.

This time I was silent for a minute. “No.” I finally answered shakily.

“I don’t believe you.” The soldier pushed me to the ground beside Derth and I heard him whispering so that only I could hear.

“Run Twyla, run!” I gaped at him a second before it clicked in my brain, if I was out I could rescue Derth, but if we were both in jail how could I help him? So with a great burst of energy I leapt to my feet and, stopping only to plant my fist on the one guards chin, I ran.

I hadn’t been running for five seconds before I felt a slight prick in my neck. I kept running though, but within seconds a kind of numbness came prickling up my legs and quite abruptly, the ground rushed up to meet me.

I fell into darkness.

I was running again, through a maze of trees and foliage, escaping something unseen, but not unheard. I could hear it coming up behind me, its fowl stench getting closer and closer until it was almost upon me, and then I woke up.

I was lying on the stone floor of a cell, my head was pounding as though there were a thousand dwarves with hammers mining diamonds from my scull, and I shivered violently. The door to my cell was open and there was a woman siluetted from the light of the hall outside. I couldn’t make out much about her at first but then she was handed a torch from someone standing to the right and behind her, and she took a step into the cell and knelt down next to me. The light cast from the torch illuminated just her face, and could not penetrate any deeper into the darkness of my cell. She had long flowing black hair and her ears were slightly pointed downwards, she had the delicate features of an elf, but her ears and the gray shimmering tint to her skin told me that she was a Drow. Her lips were painted red, the only color on her face, and her black eyes pierced me like daggers.

“Twyla isn’t it?” she asked, her voice sounding deceivingly pleasant. There was no point in denying it now, so I nodded.

“My name is Leila, Twyla, and I know everything about you. Do you remember me?”

I shook my head no, backing away a bit. A scream from a near by cell startled me, and I suddenly remembered why I was here.

“What did you do with my friend?” I asked shakily.

“Derth?”

“Yes.”

“He’s being punished.” Leila said her voice steady and cruel. The thought of them torturing Derth flashed across my mind, but I pushed it away.

“Can I see him? Please?”

She smiled at me.

It was horrible; she was mocking me, smiling like she was my friend.

She motioned to a guard standing behind her, and he disappeared for a moment, only to reappear ten minutes later with two soldiers dragging a man between them. They dropped Derth to the ground and I was immediately beside him. He was completely limp in my arms as I rolled him gently onto his back. I breathed a sigh of relief as he moaned loudly.

Blood oozed down his face from a gash across his temple, and a dark purple bruise was forming around his eye so that it was sealed close.

“Derth?” I whispered my lips close to his ear.

“Twyla,” he whispered back, not opening his eyes. “Why didn’t you run?”

I could have laughed just then, he wanted to know why I hadn’t run at the first sign of trouble. I couldn’t really be sure.

“I couldn’t leave you.”

He tried to grin, but he started to cough, I helped him onto his side as blood started dribbling down his chin. I could have been sick, if I hadn’t been so cold and tired. I took the blanket off my back and wrapped Derth in it.

“I’ll be back tomorrow.” Leila said as she left. I heard the bolt being pushed across the door and then footsteps receding down the hall. I huddled as close to Derth as I could, trying to share our warmth, but he was as cold as death- and all I could do was try.

The next morning I was laying alone on the floor, the blanket spread over me, and fabric of some kind under my head. Derth sat leaning against the far wall, his shirt was off, and black and blue bruises were forming on his firm stomach. I realized that the fabric under my head was his torn and blood stained tunic.

“Derth?” I walked over to him and knelt beside him. The blood from his head wound had dried and caked across his face so that even as he opened his eyes it cracked apart.

“Morning.” He whispered, the blood cracking around his mouth. I frowned and scanned the room. There was a bowl of water that had been pushed under the door and I brought it over. Tearing a little fabric off my dress I soaked it in water and began cleaning his face.

“Aren’t you cold?” I asked, but he didn’t answer. He just sat there with his eyes closed and I doubted whether or not that he heard me. I pressed the back of my hand to his forehead. “You have a fever.” My voice was quiet and filled with concern and he must have heard it because he tried to assume his normal ‘tough as nails’ approach, shrugging of any pain he was in and giving me an encouraging smile. I shook out his tunic and made him put it back on, and then I wrapped him in the blanket.

“Sleep.” I whispered, and lay down beside him.

When I woke I immediately set about trying to find away to escape. I took a pin out of the bosom of my dress and started trying to pick the lock, I kept the thing there incase I ever had to do exactly what I was trying to do. But I was lousy at it, and gave up after only a few minutes. There was a crack under the door that was used to administer food or water to the prisoner inside the cell, and it was tall enough that I could reach outside. I flattened myself down against the icy cold floor appropriately and slid my hand out of the door. Almost immediately I could hear cold laughter and I began to pull my hand away but I was a fraction of a second to slow, something hard, what I imagine to be a foot, came down hard on my hand, nearly crushing the bones in my fingers. I clenched my teeth to avoid screaming and slid my hand back under the door. Derth opened one eye painfully “We’re under constant surveillance.” I told him.

“What about the changing of the guard?” he asked. “There’s always a changing of the guard. We have only to find out when that is.” I nodded and pressed my ear to the door.

The Guard changed around noon. I could only imagine that it was noon actually, I couldn’t really tell without seeing the position of the sun, but judging by the noises that my stomach was making It was at least fairly close to meal time, and since I had not slept for some odd hours I doubted it was breakfast. As soon as I heard the sounds of two pairs of heavy feet leaving their posts my arm shot out from under the door again. My fingers snaked their way up the doorframe as far as they could go. I could roughly assume that my arm made it at least halfway to the bolt, and if I had some kind of stick I was sure I could push the bolt of off the door. The only problem being, I didn’t have a stick. Or anything like it either. I heard footsteps approaching the door and hastened to pull myself back into the cell. Once inside, I resigned myself to the inevitable facts. The bolt keeping us in here was not being moved by anyone but Leila. So I curled up into a ball beside Derth and went to sleep, just incase it was breakfast.

After a couple of hours we were woken by the sound of the bolt sliding off the door. Leila strode in, now wearing a dress of deep green velvet.

“Good morning Derth.” She said, “Twyla.” She nodded to me and I did my best to look disgusted. “I’ve come to offer a proposal.”

“Whatever it is, we don’t want anything to do with it!” I kept my voice steady, but Derth stopped me with a firm hand on my arm.

“Help me stand.” He whispered hoarsely.

I had never questioned him before, and I wasn’t going to start now. He slipped his arm around my shoulders and I slipped mine across his back. Shakily we stood; he leaned heavily against me and the wall for support.

“What do you propose?" He said, making his voice as steady as he could. Leila stared strait into Derths eyes, her pale face filled with admiration.

“We will let you both go,” She said, “If you promise to carry out a mission for my master.”

“And who would that be?” Derths voice was shaky again; I could tell he was afraid of the answer she might give him. He leaned a little heavier on me.

“Unwyn of course, I’m sure you remember.” Derths eyes went wide and he began to shake.

“Of course.” He whispered.

All of this was news to me; I didn’t have an idea who ‘Unwyn’ was, except that his name made me hungry.

“Derth?” I began, but he looked so weak and defeated, that it scared me for a moment. I could tell he wasn’t about to say anything else, he was burning up and very sick. It came to me suddenly that could quite possibly die if he had internal bleeding, or if his fever didn’t break. I lowered him back down to the ground and turned to face Leila alone.

“You must take us to a different cell.” I demanded, “With a bed and blankets, where he can rest properly, and then we’ll talk.”

At first I thought this woman might hit me, but after a long minute of silence, she nodded, then she turned on her heels and left us there, returning later with a couple guards who roughly shoved me away from Derth and carried him out the door. Leila led me out of the cell and up a flight of stairs. Light spilt in through a window and I shielded my eyes.

“He’s quite a man.” Leila said quietly. I caught something in her eyes then, admiration? Fear? Love? “He’s still the same though, he’ll never change.”

I said nothing, just followed her. The stairs seemed to go on forever, but in the end she led me into a room with a heavy lock on the outside of the door. The room was nice enough; it had one bed with a clean quilt on it, and a fireplace on the far wall. There was even a window, though it had bars on it, and an odd pattern of light stretched across the bed. It was far nicer than any number of Inns we had stayed in before and I couldn’t help but wonder if Leila was letting us stay here for a reason other than I had asked. A hidden reason that I could not fathom.

The guards carrying Derth had come in before us and had laid Derth in the bed, once Leila and I appeared the left without looking back. Leila took one last look at Derth, and then she to left, locking the door behind her.

Derth remained unconscious the remainder of the night, and I slept beside him on the bed with three logs on the fire. It was a fantastic feeling, being warm again. His fever broke around three in the morning and he slept peacefully for hours after that. I watched him sleep for a majority of the day and night, gently pushing his hair off his face.

I must have dozed off; because when I woke he was staring at me, his left eye opening only slightly for the bruise but his right staring intently at me.

“You seem much more peaceful when you sleep.” He whispered, his voice still hoarse, I smiled.

“How are you feeling?” I asked him.

“Better. How did we get here?” I shrugged and rolled onto my back.

“I told her that if she let us have a bed and some blankets we would talk to her. I think though, that the only reason she cared was because she was worried about you.”

He was silent for a moment. “I doubt it.” He said quietly.

“Go back to sleep.” I suggested, “You need more rest.” Before I had finished talking he was asleep again. He was right, when he slept the hard stony expression vanished and all that was left was a twenty-year-old boy, afraid and fragile. For the first time I realized that was all he really was, just a fragile boy, as human as anyone, who needed just as much protection as I did.

I ever so gently pushed his hair off his face. “I’ll never leave you.” I whispered even as I fell back into slumber.

Leila came in a short while later, as usual, tailed by the two guards who remained outside. She sat down in wood chair across from the bed and folded her hands in her lap. She sat there for a long time as I watched her propped up on my elbows in the bed beside Derth.

“Wake him.” She whispered, touching her fingertips together. I hesitated a moment, then leaned over Derths head and whispered in his ear that Leila had come to talk to us. He woke slowly, and Leila and I waited patiently for him to gather himself. He looked around and caught sight of Leila in the corner. He closed his eyes for a moment and then pulled himself into a seating position.

“So, what do you want us to do?” He asked groggily, his face still pale.

“Unwyn remembers that you were once one of the best thieves in the business, now that you have a partner, he believes that you will be able to work more efficiently.”

Derth rolled his eyes, and I sunk back into the soft confines of the bed. What was going on?

“Unwyn was looking for you many months, since he decided that you were the best man for the job.”

“Enough of this! What job?” Derth urged her on.

“He wants you to steal the Dragon Orb from the Elven city in Silmatar3.”

There was dead silence.

“You can’t expect us to steal from the Elves!” I said, sounding as shocked as I felt.

“I not only expect it, I demand it.”

“Derth!” I cried, “We can’t!”

Derths eyes had gone wide and I could almost see the wheels turning wildly in his head, accessing every possible advantage and disadvantage to every option.

“We’ll do it.” He said after a long silence.

I could only gape.

What the hell was he thinking? The Dragon Orb was an artifact sacred to the Elves, said to provide the bearer of The Orb everlasting life, and undeniable power. In fact, it is said that without the Dragon Orb, Elves would die just like a human.

That’s why I couldn’t do it.

Elves were a symbol of hope in Arda to people of all races and species; they represented all that was good, and all that was powerful. They lived full lives, never ceasing, and always kind. They were above all other people; they didn’t lie, cheat, or steal. They were the ones that kept the standards up for everyone. Without them our civilization would crumble. It’s true that some people, who have never seen an elf, or who have never been near the famed forest of Silmatar don’t believe in the Elves, but still they hear the stories, and they want to believe. Many young men and woman of the outlying villages of Krynn would go A Wandering4 to find the Elves and many of them died, or failed. But if you did chance to stray upon their enchanted kingdom in the heart of the forest, you would forever be changed. But the days were harder, and war was upon Arda so that even the Elves wouldn’t let anyone near they’re forest alive. That was another good reason not to go through with this plot to steal The Orb; we probably wouldn’t make it past the first patrol.

But I refused to question Derth, if my heart told me this wasn’t going to work, than at least my head told me Derth must have a plan. So I kept my mouth shut.

Leila nodded and gave us some instructions and a map. She didn’t say another word, and Derth stuffed the papers into his satchel without reading them. We dressed ourselves in a set of loose fitting gray robes that Leila had left us and then, my arm around Derths waist and his draped around my shoulders, we left the little room. First I was afraid that we would be lost in such a vast building, but disturbingly enough, Derth seemed to know exactly where were going and he led us out without hesitation.

What irked me the most was that the entire fortress seemed deserted; we met absolutely no one on our way out. There was no lighting, no candles or torches, only the sunlight filtered through the high windows kept the halls visible, and as the result the halls were particularly dark, and well, creepy. I felt as though there were thousands of eyes staring after us as we walked. I glanced up at Derth but he didn’t seem phased at all, so I buried my face in his shirt and let him lead me.

We only spent about ten minutes walking through the halls, but I was more then grateful to be out in broad daylight again. We walked slowly away from our prison, and peering back I could have sworn I could see a face staring after us, smiling, from one of the high windows.

“He’s watching us.” Derth said quietly.

“Wh . . . who”

“Unwyn.”

---

1The country in which the story takes place, the neighboring country being Krynn

2 A Trinn is what the people of Arda call their currency; there are two types of Trinns, silver, being the least valuable and gold being the most valuable. Occasionally one can find brass Trinns, which are worth even more then the gold ones, but their very rare (since Arda has very few mines of this type) and are usually found forged on the black market. (Trinnian was the name of the king of Arda from the year 1200 to 1267 and the currency is named after him)

3 Silmatar is actually the name of the forest where the Elves built their most famous dwelling (like Lothlorien for those of you who are familure with Tolkien) but the actual name for the dwelling within the forest is a long elfish word that you will not find in this rendition of Twyla Overons manuscript since humans don’t always know the real name or for that matter, how to pronounce it.

4 A Wandering is a human tradition that was practiced for thousands of generations’ throughout Arda and the neighboring Krynn. It is where a young man or woman aged eighteen to twenty-five would go off into the world to find themselves; many of them would spend their year of “wandering” with the elves.

19