His name was Meb. He was standing off to the side of the discussion acting as a self appointed sentry. This was habit formed from watching the older warriors. There were two groups to distract his attention. The first group was the leaders of the caravan and the second group was the dwarf maidens. This was the largest caravan he had ever heard about. Large groups didn’t cross the desert easily. They had started out as two groups to cross the desert. Now they had met up and were ready to cross the plains and into the mountains to the civilization on the other side. At one time the land in front of them had been the home of large farms and villages that supported cities built at the edge of the mountains. The cities and villages were now run down and occupied by orc, goblin, trolls and even an occasional ogre. To the north there were caves that now had kobolds in them and it was believed that there was a dragon that had moved into the caves with the Kobolds. Things had not been going well for the forces of good for years.
He hadn’t counted the exact number of warriors that were with them but he new it was over one hundred. He didn’t have to count the others in the caravan, he new the numbers, one man, four elves, one hundred and sixty seven dwarfs maidens and one hundred forty six donkeys.
One of the elves was a female, the first and only female elf he had ever seen. She was with her husband, two sons and the man. Meb knew that in a way she had adopted the man and his family and she looked out for him and his interests. Her name was Merry and her husbands name was Galahad. The sons names were Micah and Zeph. She was a miracle worker. He had seen her heal with a prayer. If she was a dwarf he would think of her as a cleric but since she was an elf she was a healer. What made things good for Meb was the fact that she liked him and had seemed to have adopted him also, probably more because he was friends with the man than the fact that he was an orphan.
The discussion looked to be over and the man left the troop leaders and started walking right to him. Meb had to smile because he felt lucky to be here and lucky to have the man as a friend. The man was his best friend and truth be told probably his only friend. Dwarfs had a strong belief in family and they protected their women at all costs so it was unusual to be an orphan and he made the other dwarfs uncomfortable. Thus he was somewhat of a loner, but when he was young he had never lacked for the basic necessities of life. Dwarfs had a strong belief in religion and they kept all of the commandments including the one about taking care of the widow and the orphans.
The man’s name was Hezekiah Gabriel but Meb had struggled pronouncing Hezekiah so he just called him Zeek. Zeek was an orphan also and that might be why he took pity on Meb and befriended him. They had met three years ago when Zeek had come to the desert to learn from the dwarf masters. Merry had brought Zeek to learn from the best. She had made sure that Zeek had the best teachers for all of his schooling. Zeek had told Meb that he had spent three years learning from the elves before he had come to the desert.
Meb had been going through an unlucky time when they had met. In fact Meb was rather poor and wasn’t sure about his future. It was time to make a life of his own and if he went out into the world were would he live. He new he wanted to be a farmer but there was no land for him with the desert dwarfs. He wasn’t sure about living among others on the other side of the mountains. He didn’t doubt that he could cross the plains and mountains if he knew the way but he had never gone farther than the fringes of the desert before. The only reason the dwarfs left their desert home was to trade and he didn’t have anything to trade. He didn’t know it but he had worried himself sick about what to do and had started to slow down. Merry had noticed the problem and had Zeek give him a strong drink. Dwarfs needed a little alcohol regularly or their blood seemed to get sluggish and their brains slowed down. Meb had really needed the drink and after the drink and a prayer by Merry he got better. One of the few things Meb had was a chess set that had been his father’s that had been carved out of black and white marble by his grandfather. Zeek had learned to play chess from his time with the elves and Meb and Zeek had started a tradition of playing every night just before lights out. They had became fast friends. Zeek treated Meb as a brother and Meb thought that Zeek looked out for him the way he had seen big brothers look out for little brothers. This might seem a little unusual because Zeek was now eighteen and Meb was thirty six but this was the way it was.
Even though Meb was acting as an unofficial sentry his eyes kept going back to one group of dwarfs; the maidens that made more than half of caravan. They had six chaperons to look out for them and the chaperons had their husbands. Three of the chaperons were clerics and wore the brown goatskin cloaks.
Most male dwarfs didn’t start looking for a wife until they were around one hundred. Meb wanted to have a wife in the worst way and he knew he didn’t want to wait another sixty four years. None of the maidens were over seventy five and some were as young as fifty and none of them would want a husband that was not older. The other warriors that were with the caravan were all older over fifty. Both groups were going out into the world to start a new life with the chance of raising a family with land of their own. They had all swore fealty to the family of Gabriel.
When Zeek had first come to the desert he had his older brother Luke with him. Luke had talked to the Lords of the desert about the Gabriel family’s plans to fight the forces of evil. Part of the plan was to take back land that had once been in the hands of man a thousand years ago. Luke had told them that one reason that the side of good was loosing was because it didn’t work together. The three main races of good needed to work together or slowly one by one they would lose this world to evil. They were going to try to have a place were the all of the races of good could live together without acrimony or strife. The lords had agreed to let Luke seek volunteers who would swear to live and fight under the rule of the house of Gabriel. All those warriors who signed up would be given a good steel weapon. Steel was hard to come by and this sweetened the deal. The lords had decreed that only dwarfs that were over fifty could go.
Over the next three years the number of warriors that signed up grew. Then there was a ground swell of maidens once they realized that their best chance for a marriage was going to be leaving the desert. There were too many single dwarfs in the desert and not enough chance for a prosperous future.
Meb was here because Zeek and Merry had seen to it. Where ever Zeek went Meb went and he would not have it any other way.
If one of the maidens would look at him he would die he was sure. There were only three people that new he wanted a wife. He hadn’t told a soul but Merry could read him like a book. She had told Zeek because she didn’t want Zeek hurting Meb’s feelings by accident. Over a game of chess Zeek had told him that he was going to help him get a wife a couple of months ago when he asked Meb to leave the desert and go with him.
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