((Short update!))
A Hero Departs“Let me tell you, it is just wonderful to see some new merchants around here, my friend. All we’ve had is the odd elf or two, and while they’re wonderful if you want a slightly used badger for your dining room, they aren’t much for conversation!” Wilberforce clapped the human merchant on the back, as he tended to do when he was feeling cheerful. “Tell me of the world, my boy. I wish to hear all.”
The human merchant was a bit taken aback by the reception. Dwarfs, her experience told her, were usually not so forcefully friendly. They didn’t call you ‘my boy’. As for the question... “The world still exists? There’s still that army of monsters wandering about the mountains, I hear. We got a good crop of rope weed this spring, I hear, and- Hey! That’s my old yak!”
“
Your yak? Are you sure? That yak, my friend, is Peacespray! Peacespray the Spry Pleats of Attacking! He’s a champion here!”
“No, I’m sure of it. See?” Peacespray himself had been meandering toward the trade depot while the conversation was going on. Now, on seeing the merchant, he lowed quietly and, to Wilberforce’s surprise, gently nuzzled the human. “I raised him from a baby yak myself. I thought he’d been lost forever when we had to leave this place the last time. I thought one of you fellows would have killed and eaten him. They didn't eat you, know did they boy?” The last was directed at Peacespray, something that Wilberforce took a moment to understand.
He began to protest “Nonsense! But...” He then caught a glimpse of Peacespray’s eyes, and knew the argument was lost. He didn’t mind telling the human where to shove her request, but Peacespray was not an animal you would defy, and he clearly wanted to go back home.
..................................
The human merchants left soon after, and Peacespray went with them. It could not be confirmed if he had looked back at the fortress he had defended so well, sadness filling his tremendous black eyes, but he probably didn’t. Yaks don’t think like that.
He had not killed a huge number of enemies; it had been his terrifying hooves and the wounds they caused that drove besieging armies away. But his record was good, nonetheless.
..................................
The day after Peacespray’s departure, it was universally decided that they would build a monument to the mighty creature.
While the exact nature of the design was still being debated (the Scout’s suggestion that the nostrils spew flame and booze being the most problematic), Wilberforce agreed that they could start work on at least the feet imediately. Once they decided whether his left front hoof should be crushing an ape-man, or kicking in a badger’s skull, or... Well, they would start something, soon.
..................................
Next: Tigers and Bears and a Cavy or Three.