Coward

The market was very hard to find. It’s never in the same place twice and only merchants that have the waystones can find it. Those waystones are expensive and passed down from generation to generation. Only the best merchants in the guild are permitted to own a stone to find their way to market.

We have one. How we got that is a whole other tale. Two of us are dead now because of it. That’s all I have to say on the matter.

I am the only human in our pack of travelers. I am scared but that’s not unusual. Ever since I got here, it’s been twice as worse as my real life back in Vancouver. They’ve come here to gather weapons for the coming quest. As a bonus, if we complete our quest, I’ll get sent back to Vancouver and back to the normal world. Or so the wizard promised.

I’m miserable. The other people in my party are a giant green-skinned ogre name Margnus, a four armed fairy princess name Molgothat, sibling trolls named Quartz and Quitz, and an ancient magical dwarf named Shannon. I laughed at his name and lost the top of my left pinky.

As we got closer to the market entrance, traffic slowed. Creatures stopped to look at our party as we entered the market. All eyes were on us. I figured it must have been Margnus’ size or the fact that troll twins were very rare. Maybe they’d not seen fairie royalty before. And Shannon had turned heads before, usually just before cutting them off of their owners.

But it was me they were staring at. This made me very nervous.

“Hold!” said a voice from in front of us.

A figure strode out from the parting crowd. It walked up to Margnus and stopped in front of our party. I couldn’t see its face under the hood. It walked with a staff. It was the only being around us not wearing armour and was all the more threatening for that.

“What are you here for?” the figure asked us. “I am the master of the market. I see you have a waystone. Obviously stolen. Your chances of leaving here alive are slim at best. I don’t know what you hoped to achieve with such trickery.”

“Weapons and defenses for our quest.” Rumbled Margnus.

The people in our party fingers weapon hilts and looked around the surrounding creatures.

“You have something of value.” Said the magistrate.

“Yes, we carry much gold.” Said Molgothat.

“No.” came the answer.

“I have the jeweled egg of Rockton!” said Shannon. We turned our heads to her in surprise.

“No.” again.

“Uncut diamonds free of curses.” Said Quartz and Quitz in unison.

“NO!” bellowed the magistrate. “You misunderstand.” The magistrate raised a white hand and with a finger that possessed too many joints, he pointed right at me. My heart quailed in my chest. I looked down to see if I was wearing anything valuable.

“You have a Coward.” He said.

The entire crowd sighed. My party turned to stare at me, wide-eyed, just like the others.

“Wh-what?” I stammered.

“There are seven true cowards in the world. They will always take the most cowardly decision. That cannot be brave.” Said the magistrate.

“That’s good?” I squeaked.

“Yes. If a warrior wishes to be great, they need only to keep you around and do the opposite of what you do. You are the most valuable thing on this continent.” Said the magistrate.

I didn’t like the way this transaction was heading. I had a feeling Vancouver was getting further and further out of my grasp.

I started to whimper.





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