CHAPTER FOURPAWPS AND THE BIG MAWMOO

  With the sun starting to set over The Crossroads, and Garrick now having all the supplies he needed, he and Onyx made their way to where they would settle down for the night. After stepping into the Sleepy Kettle and Yard Inn, Garrick grabbed the mb jerky he brought from Shepherds Bend from his pack. The pce was busy, as always.

  Pawps and The Big Mawmoo not only had the respect of the regurs at The Crossroads, their food and service were also renowned to newcomers as well. It may be loud. There might be a wait, but that’s how it was, and the patrons accepted it, and happily.

  Seeing no one at the lodging section of the inn, the mercenary and mystic wolf made their way back to the kitchen, where a loud voice could be heard calling out demands. Garrick pushed open the swinging door and an old man with a simple wooden staff looked up and opened his mouth to say something.

  Garrick flung the mb jerky to the old man and then put a finger to his lips. After catching the package, the old man smiled and nodded. A young blonde haired elf in a dress and apron looked at Garrick, but covered her mouth after almost speaking.

  “We are running out of bread. Go out and grab me some more, Pawps. Melita, tell the dwarves at the corner table that their food is on the way. Ohhh, Elion be with me on this busy day!” excimed the cook.

  Garrick leaned against the wall next to the swinging kitchen door and folded his arms. “Still compining, old woman?”

  A short, old woman who had been looking in a cupboard turned around with a mix of shock and anger on her face. Then she saw the mercenary and grinned widely. “Ohhh, get over here, Garrick!”

  As Garrick walked over to the cook, Onyx trotted over to Pawps, who promptly started to scratch the mystic wolf’s ears and began to look him over.

  “Bend down so The Big Mawmoo can hug you.” After a long, strong embrace the short woman kissed Garrick’s neck. “I have missed you! What brings you to The Crossroads? Another job? Is Onyx fine?”

  “Good to see you, Garrick, but we are behind,” added Melita with a wink, as she lifted a rge pte of venison and potatoes. Then she kissed him on the lips. “I better see you ter tonight.”

  After a step toward the door, Melita stopped and looked back at Garrick. “I am sure it is possible that you see other women elsewhere during your travels…” Then the elven barmaid lightly tapped the mercenary’s cheek with her free hand and grinned. “But here at The Crossroads you are mine.”

  “I am sure a meeting can be arranged as always, Melita,” replied Garrick, returning the barmaid’s smile with a slight bow.

  “Onyx is fine Mawmoo,” said Pawps. Then he opened the door behind him, and the mystic wolf ran out into a rge grassy area, surrounded by about a dozen animal stalls.

  Only a few were empty, while the others were filled with horses, ponies, and hunting dogs. If you wanted a nice room, a fine meal, and your animals looked after when you arrived at The Crossroads, this is where you came.

  “I can see business is good, Pawps,” stated Garrick, looking first in the direction of the yard and then nodding behind him.

  “As good as this mb jerky, assuming it came from Shepherds Bend,” prodded Pawps. Then he hugged Garrick with his free arm, while still holding onto his staff with the other. The staff he would have to use the rest of his life, due to a goblin-poisoned arrow he had acquired in his service to then King Almanor Brock, King Gideon Brock’s father. A cleric had healed him, saving his life, but with many injured in the battle, by the time he had reached Pawps it was too te to heal him fully.

  “Let me get you something to eat, Garrick. We are behind yes, but you come first,” announced The Big Mawmoo, as she patted the mercenary’s cheek.

  “Well, I have been longing for one of your meals since Onyx and I started down the road today,” said Garrick, rubbing his bearded chin. “I am going to pay this time, though, you old folks. I do not want any arguments. But first I have to show you something.”

  The Big Mawmoo rubbed her hands on her apron and shot Garrick a stern look. “The day you pay is the day Pawps and I have sold this pce, and that is not going to happen for a long time. Right, Pawps?”

  “Of course, dear. That sounds about right,” replied Pawps, who was now sitting comfortably in a chair, only half listening, and opening the container of mb jerky.

  “Bah!” excimed Mawmoo, looking over at Pawps. Then she turned back to Garrick and continued, “You know your money is no good here, after all you have done for us. Helping to get rid of the riffraff and street toughs that used to bring us nothing but trouble. Melita and the rest feel the same. Our inn is safer now, because of you and that mystic wolf of yours. Now, what do you have to show us?”

  Both Pawps and Mawmoo watched as Garrick opened his pack and pulled forth the ancient scroll.

  “The legend of the King Priest’s Scepter Sword. Do you believe it?” asked Garrick.

  Pawps and The Big Mawmoo looked at Garrick and then at each other.

  Suddenly Mawmoo yelled, “Melita! You are in charge!” Then she took off her apron, as Pawps stood up and started for the door.

  “Garrick, come to our room. I do not believe this is the pce for the discussion we are about to have,” added the old man.

  After a short walk with the couple, Garrick came to the innkeeper's living quarters. The room was small and quaint, with a shelf full of books, a rustic log bed near a window, a chipped wooden table, and a door that opened up to the grassy area where Pawps looked after the animals.

  “Pce the scroll on the table, Garrick,” said Pawps in an interested voice.

  The mercenary pulled the rolled parchment out and carefully fttened it as best he could against the table’s weathered surface.

  Having traveled in King Almanor’s service as a knight for years, before finally settling down at The Crossroads, Pawps had seen and heard much all over Danaria. As for The Big Mawmoo, her grandfather had been a cleric. He could have been in The Brethren if he had not married her grandmother, she always said proudly. The god of all creation was as big a part of the old woman’s life as her work was. Outside of his mother, no one else Garrick knew revered the name of Elion more than Pawps and The Big Mawmoo.

  “Why did you not go to the clerics here at The Crossroads?” asked Mawmoo, as she studied the ancient scroll.

  “Braelind, the Brethren I received this from, told me to only give it to the High Priest,” said Garrick quietly. “The poor old cleric was surprised by bandits. Onyx and I took care of them, but the damage had already been done. Before he died, Braelind pleaded with me to deliver this scroll to the High Priest in The Holy City. I promised him I would. He said he found it in the catacombs...”

  “The catacombs! You mean the catacombs at the Temple Ruins!?” asked Pawps in a loud voice. Then he closed his eyes and breathed, centering himself after being caught off guard by the tale.

  “Yes. That is what I assumed,” said the mercenary as he eyed Pawps. “He was coming from that direction. On a pilgrimage, no doubt.” Then Garrick looked down again at the old scroll on the table and continued. “I am sure he thought he was only going to pay his respects at the holy site and to its dead, but...”

  “Elion had different pns,” whispered Mawmoo. Then the old woman rubbed her hands together and leaned her face closer to the scroll. After squinting her eyes, she started to read aloud.

  “Thanks be to Elion, I had more than a few steps ahead of the invaders. Though they saw me run into the throne room, the foul goblins will know not that I pced the Scepter Sword in the hidden vault below the altar.”

  Mawmoo looked up at Pawps and rubbed her eyes. Pawps nodded, pced both hands on his staff, leaned over and made his eyes as wide as he could to continue reading the final words on the ancient scroll.

  “But as, they must have found the secret passage behind the throne. I can hear them now entering the catacombs. My time is short and I know that you who read this are now charged with reciming our holiest of weapons. I pray to Elion that you will make haste in its recovery and afterwards take back our temple and the nd it sits on!”

  Pawps leaned back up and looked at Mawmoo, whose eyes were already on him. Then they both looked at Garrick.

  “Well, my friends. What do you think?” smiled Garrick uncomfortably, as he ran his right hand over his dark brown hair.

  “The scroll is very old. It is tattered. It is only by the grace of Elion that it has survived this long,” replied Pawps, walking away from the table. Then the old man looked out the window at Onyx, who was ying out in the grass. “What the author says… The fact that he wrote the message in haste goes with the legend I know.”

  “The one we know and believe,” added Mawmoo, nodding at her husband. Then she looked up at Garrick. “The real question is, what do you think?” asked the old woman.

  “What do I think?” asked Garrick in surprise. After Pawps joined his wife in looking at him, the mercenary gazed back down at the scroll and cleared his throat. “There are so many versions of the Scepter Sword legend. The biggest mystery to me is how it was lost to us.”

  Garrick stopped for a moment, remembering all the times his mother had told him the legend’s story when he was a boy. “After there began to be much infighting between the good races of Danaria, Elion, in his wisdom, united us all under one man. The Scepter Sword was given to this just man to rule, the man who Elion would call the King Priest.”

  Seeing Garrick pause, Pawps continued. “The Scepter Sword was not just a sign of rule, however. It had three Holy Stones in its hilt that made it an almost unstoppable weapon. However, someone close to the King Priest betrayed him and took one of the Stones out without him knowing. With the weapon devoid of its unlimited magical power, the King Priest’s betrayer, who had already secretly allied with the goblins, opened the holy fortress gate for the green monsters to invade. An invasion that, if successful, would not just leave the betrayer as the new ruler, but the goblins would no longer be held at bay.”

  After Pawps’ voice trailed off, Mawmoo spoke. “We do not know who betrayed the King Priest, but the legend my grandfather believed to his death was that it was the King Priest’s scribe who was able to hide the Sword, after the King Priest pulled the other two Stones for safe keeping, thus making it harder for the betrayer to succeed."

  Then the old woman rubbed her chin as she thought. "He was with the King Priest almost daily...”

  “Which is why this scroll was written during the surprise attack,” finished Garrick. “But what of the three Holy Stones? The Sword is no better than any other bde without them.”

  “Ah Garrick, you are right. Where are the Stones?” asked Pawps, tapping the table twice. Then he patted his chest and continued, “When I journeyed not just The Human Kingdom nds, but The Dwarven Mountains, and The Elven Forest as well, I found that many clerics, of all three races, believe that in the end, the three Stones that were in the hilt of the Scepter Sword were actually split among the three realms somehow after the invasion.”

  The room was silent for a moment. Garrick looked at the old inn keepers, knowing that even though there was not much proof other than a tattered, old scroll unrolled on the table before them, that both Pawps and The Big Mawmoo believed the legend. And not just some of it, all of it. And would till they were in Elion’s Embrace.

  After Garrick grabbed the ancient scroll and rolled it up, he looked at Mawmoo. The old woman’s face was contemptive and serious as she looked out the window at Onyx, still resting in the grass. It was almost as if she were in another time and pce. When he started to put the scroll back into his pack, Mawmoo turned to him.

  “Garrick, my grandfather told me many things. He taught me many things,” said Mawmoo. “But there were two things he told me on his deathbed that I will never forget. Two things that I will always believe.”

  The old woman paused for a few seconds, then continued. “First was that he loved me deeply.”

  Garrick and Pawps watched as The Big Mawmoo fell silent again.

  “And the second?” prodded the mercenary.

  The old woman looked up at Garrick and the tattered old scroll in his hand. Then she finished, her voice quiet but filled with confidence.

  “That the High Priest has one of the Scepter Stones.”